Only Time Can Tell

MANGEKYOU

CHAPTER 38

MANGEKYOU

SARADA UCHIHA

I remember the day that my dad came home. My mother told me that he had been there when I was little, but it had been too long ago for me to remember. We didn't know that we was coming. It was impossible to keep track of him enough to send letters. Up until the time I was five my mom had encouraged me to write to him, but I stopped when I realized that my letters weren't being sent anywhere. They were all kept in a drawer inside my mom's room.

The day wasn't very significant. I went to the Academy passed a test on ninja history. Back then all of the subjects boringly easy for me. When I complained to my mother about it she just laughed and compared me to my father. I didn't get that, though I suppose since I had never actually met him I could never understand.

I would ask about him fairly frequently. Mom would tell me as much as she could as a time before her eyes would glaze over and she'd be stuck somewhere else in time. It wasn't until I was older that I understand that she really just missed him that much.

Anyway, with the help of Naruto-sama, I was able to finally meet my papa. He didn't recognize me at first, in fact he treated me like the enemy. But once he realized that I was his daughter...his dark scary appearance turned into a beacon of light for me. He wasn't a scary man at all, he was my papa, and a strong dependable ninja. And he loved me. He did his best to make up for the time that he had missed with me. When he left...after talking to mama, I swear I saw him cry...

I found out that the drawer that once held all my letters was empty.

"Papa." There was silence, then the sound of a crash, and a muffled shriek.

"Please no!" I heard Orochimaru cry, the sound of blood following. "Stop!!!"

"The hell I will." There was a cracking sound and then more silence. I felt the breeze from his cloak as he approached me and I didn't flinch when he gently touched my head. "I'll only leave you alive because I need you for my future. But remember these words: Don't screw with Sarada Uchiha." There was the sound of a body making contact with the floor and then more silence. "Tch."

"Papa." I said my voice cracking.

"Sarada..." I felt his fingers gently touch my cheeks. "What...did he do to you?" He didn't sound like himself. He sounded...sad.

"Please...is Boruto?" I heard the sound of his cloak moving as he stood and walked over to him. I heard the sound of my father's chakra.

"He'll be out for quite a while." My father sighed. "But he should be fine." I felt him take my hand and I had never felt so safe. I heard the sound of Boruto's restraints being destroyed. Then his arms wrapped gently yet tightly around me and then I heard the ceiling crack wide open. I held tightly to him, my fingers wrapping around the fabric of his cloak, pressing my head into his chest. Happy to finally hear another heartbeat besides my own.

We were outside, back at the temple and papa put Boruto down next to the unconscious form of Neji. The sun had risen to midday. I didn't let go of my papa. I wouldn't let go. And he didn't seem to mind.

I felt him kneel, checking Neji's pulse. "This isn't good." He shook his head. "We need to dress his wounds immediately, or he'll bleed out. A lot of his wounds haven't even clotted yet. Hours later. My guess is that he lost consciousness because of the blood loss."

"Yes." I said kneeling next to him to quickly bandage up his wounds. I watched in horror as the wound on his neck bled through several layers of bandages. I wrapped the bandages around his torso and then up around his shoulder, holding the gauze from my pack to the wound. He seemed to almost immediately bleed through it.

"He'll run out of blood soon."

"I know that." I packed more gauze over the wound, and closed my eyes maximizing my chakra, I carefully began to use my chakra to bind the wound on his neck closed.

"Sarada..."

"Yeah?" I said turning to my papa.

"How...can you see?"

"Huh?"

"What you're doing...how can you see?!"

I looked down at my hands, covered in the redness of Neji's blood. I felt up to my eyes and flinched at the immediately tenderness of them being missing. No. My eyes are still gone. How? I looked all around. I could see the sun. I watched closer and was amazed to see that looking at the sun didn't hurt my "eyes" I could stare at it all day long and my eyes wouldn't burn.

"I...don't know."

"That's....amazing."

I thought back. I hadn't been able to see for very long now that I think about it. I had been in the lab with Boruto. And I hadn't been able to see when papa was beating up Orochimaru. It must have been when he took me out of the lab? Somehow...my body...it adapted to being blind...and somehow....It found a way to see again.

"Sarada." I turned to look at my dad. I could see every detail of him. How splatters of blood had become smudged on his left cheekbone, how his cloak was torn on the edges. How windswept his hair was from running to get here in time. He reached out and touched my cheek gently. "How are you doing this?"

"My sharingan." I felt my cheeks, trying to avoid touching the tender part again. "It's like they've never left me. Before, after the battle you said something about my eyes?"

"The Mangekyou. You know that." Sasuke said sighing. "It must have happened when you saw Sai die. Every sharingan is different-" He stopped suddenly. "Are you saying..."

"My sharingan allows me to see in the darkest of dark. And somehow, though it was taken from me...I can still see. It's forever. Even in the night...it was like I had the vision of an owl, I could see every detail for hundreds of yards, each leaf, each drop of moisture, each grain of sand. And now...it's back."

"Sarada..." Papa said his face lightening just a bit. "You're-" He stopped suddenly grabbing his chest. "Sarada..." His eyes went wide and he stared me in the eyes. "Sarada!"

"Papa?!" I rushed to him, and he collapsed backward, his entire body shaking. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and I pressed my head into his chest desperately searching for a heartbeat. It was like a drumroll. Unbelievably fast. "PAPA!!!" I felt his hand grab mine before going limp. "PAPA!!!"

It was the same as what happened to mom. It was happening again. The condition held no exceptions. Even to my papa. He was my way out. We were all going to be okay. And now...

"PAPA!!!" I said pressing my head into his chest listening to his heartbeat going faster and faster. It kept going faster until the infinite number of beats merged together as one and then his heart stopped. "PAPAAA!!!"

I felt like crying before I realized that it was physically impossible for me anymore. I felt something trickle down my face though. I reached up to touch it. I looked down at my hands, my vision beginning to blur and pulsate. Blood. Red. Blood...dripping, dripping, dripping. Down. Down. Down. Dark. It's dark now.