An Inch of Gold

14

Something hard hits Sarada on the head, filling her with a dizzying confusion. She's only dimly aware that she too is being thrown toward the dark drop of the now rushing waterfall.

Instinct more than awareness forces her to grab outward with her less-injured hand; luck rather than skill result in her catching hold of anything. Frantically, she tries to summon up even the smallest modicum of chakra to keep her grasp on the slippery ledge of the drop.

Nothing.

Her fingers scrabble uselessly against the slick rock, and her body sinks inevitably backward.

A hand snatches out and fastens around Sarada's wrist.

"Sha...na...ro!"

Sakura looms above her, face flushed with exertion, one hand adhering herself to the ledge with her chakra, the other keeps a tight hold of Sarada. The magnetic sensation around her wrist tells Sarada that her mother is using her chakra to keep them connected to each other.

"I've...got...you!" Sakura pants. "Swing yourself up!"

But chakra grip aside, Sarada's palm is slick. It's hard to keep hold with the spray covering them both. She grits her teeth in effort as her much-abused arms burn in protest. She wants to follow the directive, to get enough momentum for Sakura to swing her back to the top of the ledge, but she literally has no strength left.

"I'm slipping!" she cries, and it's as if those words are a curse because her fingers begin to glide from the ring of Sakura's.

"Hold on!" Sakura orders then cranes her neck around, maybe to ask for help. Where are the others?!

"I can't!"

"You have to!" Sakura tries to regain her grip. She leans farther over the ledge to the point where chakra won't hold her up if she keeps at this much longer. "If you don't, you'll..."

Sarada knows whatever is down below will be too much for her. Without strength or chakra, she'll either be swept up in the brutal current of the spillway, or dashed to pieces against the distant terrain.

And if Sakura isn't careful, she'll join her.

That isn't something that can happen, or all of her past and her parent's future will be destroyed.

There's only one thing to do.

Tears gather in her eyes as the very real fear of death hits her for the first time today.

"Let go!" Sarada orders, speaking around the growing lump in her throat.

"What?! No!"

"You'll fall, too, if you don't!"

"No! Keep holding on!" Sakura insists, trying to tighten her grasp. "Someone will be here in a second to help, you just have to—"

Sarada's fingers slide, and she flies backward into the darkness.

Her stomach swoops, and she's hit by the realisation that this is it. She'll never see her parents again or get to say goodbye. It's enough to rip the primal, plaintive shriek from her throat as she heads for the inevitable end.

"MAMA!"

Sarada's scream echoes above the roaring water, but that barely registers. As she falls backward, caught up in the rushing water, she sees Sakura tumble forward as well, eyes wide and hand still reaching out for her.

Sarada is falling backward, falling away—

And then, abruptly, water is bearing down on her from all sides. There's a sense of impact—jarring and sudden and bewildering in its intensity. She's twisted painfully this way and that, shoved against the rocky floor of the falls. Her skin scrapes as the current whips her across slippery stone like a rag-doll, tearing with every rush of the current.