Only Time Can Tell

JUST A DREAM

CHAPTER 46

JUST A DREAM

SARADA UCHIHA

A cold pit filled my stomach. Itachi Uchiha. My uncle. Instantly I knew what he had done. I knew why he had to do it. I knew why my grandparents had to die. How all of my family members had to die. It was the tremendous sacrifice of one person. He suffered. He was hated, the only person that he had saved hated him for it. He couldn't let anyone know the truth about what he had done. He had gone through so much. No one had been there for him.

"Forgive me."

My grandmother stood before me, I could see her, on the day I went to the Academy, smiling as she straightens my headband, waving with my mother as I set off to school. I can see my father and my grandfather walking downtown, myself smiling as I hold both of their hands. I can see Itachi in the backyard teaching me how to improve my shuriken jutsu. I can see him sharing meals with us. I can see him laughing with my brother. I can see his future as it should have been. But instead he gave everything so that my father and I could have the future that we have now. He sacrificed his future to save mine.

Suddenly it felt like my lungs were filled with sand. I felt like my entire body had been electrocuted. "Why..." I croaked, my hands fluttering to my chest, trying to force my lungs to take in air. I felt my legs give out, and suddenly I was kneeling. "Oh God..." Tears that someone else had shed flowed from my eyes. My eyes....

"It's okay. I'll never be apart from you. I am always here."

"Itachi..." My voice struggled to say.

"Now...it's time to wake up. You're ready now."

I felt my throat fill with cold sand and suddenly I was coughing. I choked my way out of the dream. I suddenly could feel the weight of my body again, my body was contorted, curled in on itself, my lungs gasping for air.

"Sarada!"

I couldn't stop coughing. "Sarada!" I heard Neji yell. His hand touched my shoulder, and I realized that I was holding something in my hand. It was my father's hand. He had woken me up. I stopped coughing. I'm not alone anymore. I entire body collapsed in relief. The cold of the dream began to fade from my body. I could still hear Itachi's voice in my mind. He'll never leave me.

"Neji..." I said softly calming him. "I'm okay... give me air." I tried to blink but then I realized. This is the real world. I don't have eyes. And I realized that I didn't have my Mangekyou vision anymore. They're completely gone now. The ghost of my eyes had been replaced by the ghost of my uncle. I felt Neji back off.

"Are you really alright?"

"I'm fine." Nothing hurt anymore. It's strange. As soon as Itachi touched my forehead, all the pain in my body melted away, it left my fingertips tingling. "Is everyone still okay?"

"She's awake?" I heard someone say.

I began to decode the voice but I was even more confused once I knew who it was. "Naruto?"

"Yeah."

"How did you get here?"

"Well..I was following you from the beginning, but you all run really, really fast. Before I realized it...I was lost. It took me a while to find you. I'm so sorry about what happened to you."

"It's okay. It's not your fault." My pain seemed small compared to the pain that my uncle went though. From that endless world of tears. I pushed my hands up under me and sat up, my body no longer aching. "Papa..." I leaned over to him, my side brushing up against him. His breathing was still shallow. I heard a voice come from inside of me.

"It's time to wake up, brother." I followed the urge, and let my two fingers brush up his face until I found his forehead. His grip tightened around mine. "He'll wake now."

"Itachi..."

"Huh?" Neji said.

"Nothing." I said realizing that no one else could hear him but me. "Is he waking up?" I said unable to see if he was. I heard the sound of Neji shifting closer.

"Oh my God...he is. Sasuke!" Neji said sharply to him.

"Shh..." I said shushing him. "Let him wake up on his own. He's...seen a lot." I said my voice sounding hollow. I didn't realize all that my father had to deal with until now. I have now seen what he has seen. The heart of the Uchiha is both an incredibly strong thing and yet an incredibly breakable thing.

I sighed, content to be back in the real world. I suddenly felt like my heart was filling with lead, and that my body was beginning to heat up to inhuman levels. I felt like I was burning, and it took more and more effort to breath. I felt more blood fall from my eyes. I could feel it pooling in my hands as I reached up to stop the flow. Everything felt like I was spinning. Everything was spinning. I'm on fire.

"Sarada!" Naruto and Neji screamed. "What's happening to her?!" Naruto screamed. I felt someone reach out to me but just my arm. Everything is moving so slowly now. Dots of color fly over my vision, red, black, yellow.

Then I felt something break. Kind of like when you feel a bone inside of you snap, or you lose something incredibly valuable, I knew that something was immediately wrong. Suddenly I was falling backwards again, and I felt my head connect hard with the floor my body unable to stop the collision.

"Sarada! Sarada!" I heard Neji call far away. I felt like my soul had become unstuck in time. And I was falling again. Something is broken. And maybe it will never be fixed again. Maybe I'll be stuck here forever. Maybe that was just a dream.

Something is wrong.