Only Time Can Tell

BE BRAVE

CHAPTER 24

BE BRAVE

SAI YAMANAKA

I remember everything before that, mostly because I had to force my mind to go a million miles an hour, just so I had enough time to process everything that was about to happen.

"There's no hope. No matter the time period. We are all doomed. Happiness is a temporality. Pain is forever. No matter where you go, no matter how many lives you live, there is always, always, pain. No matter where you hide." The clouds thundered. "Can you do it? Sai, can you watch your friends die again? Can you tolerate the pain that you know is ahead of you?" I opened the scroll, and tried to activate it. I knew it worked when it started pulsing with light. I knew exactly where we were going even before I opened it. There was only one place where we could go. The place where everything changes.

It wasn't me who chose the place, but there was really only one place he would take us that made sense. Even when we left with the scroll, he was still there with me, inside of my head. I could hear his voice.

"You'll just sit there and watch." It said. "You'll watch the genius die because the coward is too afraid to die." It laughed. "It's the same thing every time."

I recognized that grey sky, I had heard those same screams before. And before, there was nothing I could do to save any of them. Me, supposedly a member of Team 7, did nothing to help like the others. I could see myself, standing among the wreckage, totally unsure of what I should and shouldn't do. My hands would shake as the screaming came and faded over and over again.

Naruto and Sakura were doing what they could. Naruto was bravely fighting to the best of his ability to fight the Ten Tails, and Sakura was doing her best to save the wounded. Once again I watched as the Ten Tails reared up for another round of spear attacks.

"You'll just stand paralyzed as it all unfolds before you." The voice woke me up. I whipped out my scroll, I had to find Boruto, Sarada and Neji. I quickly draw a hawk and as it takes form I climb onto it's back.

"I won't." I say to myself. I fly towards the Ten Tails, looking down at the scene, any moment now it will happen, I can feel it. How tense the air is. Any moment now will be his last. The air is stale with the screams of the wounded.

I remember how hard it was at the start to rally them together, the villages have never sacrificed this much for each other before. We have grown together, in coming together to fight a enemy unified, we've become more than we were before.

From up here I can see everything, hear everything, including the person that makes this so hard. My love, Ino Yamanaka. The mother of my son. My light in the darkness. She has filled my life with so many beautiful memories, more beautiful than anything I could create, and has given me the most valuable thing on the planet. Her heart. And now I am about to break it.

Her blonde hair is tossed to the side as she fights through the crowds, trying to protect everyone at once, Choji and Shikamaru at her side. Can I trust them to keep her happy? Tears are still on her face from when she heard about her father's death. Even he isn't there for her anymore. Will this grief change her?

The echos of a memory overwhelm me, when everything was good, when I woke up every morning to the most beautiful smiles.

"Papa!" Inojin smiled, lifting a paper for me to see. "Look what I made! I tried to draw it like you!"

I smiled resting my hand on his head. "Would you look at that," I said taking the paper so I could see. "It's beautiful, Inojin." He was young, he didn't know better, but to me, it was beautiful all the same. He had drawn the scenery from outside our kitchen window, with the sun just peeking out from the horizon, and in all of it, I could see the potential inside him. With some work, he'll be a fine artist. "You've really improved. I'm proud of you!"