Only Time Can Tell

GRIEF

CHAPTER 31

GRIEF

BORUTO UZUMAKI

Apparently when everyone else landed on their feet my teacher dropped me on my head. Sarada landed without a problem, tucked safely under her father's cloak, but no. Me? Hell naw, I get dropped on my head. I woke up hours later, with no idea as to what happened. I expected to still be somewhere on the battlefield, to be woken up by the screams, but there wasn't a scream to be heard. Just quiet crying.

"What?" I groaned sitting up, brushing my hands on my pants. It was dark, I must have been out for a really long time. My hand drifted up to my head, and I felt a pang as I touched my hairline. Thankfully, Sarada had wrapped it up with bandages, but I winced in pain. I squinted to see in the dim light, the only source being from a small campfire. I blinked, Neji and Sarada were huddled together next to the flame. But no Sasuke. "What happened?"

"You're up." Neji said turning. "Sasuke left to go and find Sai's body. We-"

"There aren't any screams." I said listening closely.

"I was just going to say that." Neji sighed. "We used to scroll to go back to the past to get the others, but Sasuke had to go back using the scroll to get Sai's body that was still stuck in that period with the war..." Neji winced on the word 'body'.

"So he's not here? Where is here?"

"It's just outside the temple, can't you see?" I squinted in the direction that he pointed. Sure enough the shadow of the building began to take shape.

"Oh."

Njei sighed at my stupidity. "Are you hungry?"

"Well yeah." I said scooting over to him. "What do we got?"

"Sorry Boruto, but we kind of started eating your candy bars."

"What?!" I yelled.

"Shh!" Neji silenced me. He gestured with his eyes to Sarada, who was lying on her side facing away from us. "She's sleeping."

"Oh." I said quieting down.

"Here." Neji said handing me the last of my candy bars. I took it, sending him a vengeful glare. My point was made. I opened the crinkly wrapper as quietly as I could, seeing Sarada sleeping. But I continued to hear the quiet crying noises.

"Is she crying?"

"I think so." Neji whispered. "Leave her alone, she needs time to process it. We all do." For some reason, Neji seemed a lot more put together than all of us. He had somehow come to terms with his death, while Sarada was still grieving. I found myself in a state of denial. It seemed like any moment now, Sai would step out of the temple and steal half of my candy bar. But I knew that not to be true.

I curled my legs up towards myself, pulling my knees to my chest. "Yeah." I said quietly. Neji looked over at me, his lavender eyes surveying my expression.

"You need to let it out, get it through your head. You can talk to me if you need to." There was silence. Only the crackling of the fire, and Sarada's quiet crying noises. When I closed my eyes I could still see our captain's face.

"He's not dead." I whispered quietly. Neji still heard me.

"He's gone. But he's still here in spirit." The words: 'he's gone', echoed in my head. I would never see Sai walk out of that temple with that smirk on his face. I would never truly see him again.

I thought back to the moment he died. I remembered struggling down that hill, my leg burning with pain. I blinked looking down at my leg now, it's pain had dulled, to the point of where I barely noticed it anymore. I was fighting my way down that hill, despite my injuries. If I hadn't gotten caught, if I hadn't injured my leg, if I weren't so stupid... I might have had the chance to save him...both of them. If I had just gone a little bit faster. "Idiot." I muttered.