An Inch of Gold

28

Author's Note: GO BACK! REREAD THIS STORY FROM THE BEGINNING! FORMATTING HAS BEEN CHANGED, SCENES HAVE BEEN ADDED OR MOVED AROUND, MINOR PLOT ISSUES HAVE BEEN FIXED! Otherwise this chapter will be a bit weird for you to read because it goes in a completely different direction than it was going to before :P

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Sarada and her teammates watch in horror as the past members of Team 7 split up, each taking on a different insurmountable task. Sasuke nudges Naruto to get behind him, eyes on Jikken and Sakura drags Kakashi as far out of the range as fighting as possible.

"Don't go near the barrier!" Sarada warns when her mother almost staggers into it. "If you go through it, time will stop for you the same as for my dad and Uncle Naruto!"

Sakura offers a sharp not to show that she has heard but doesn't pause in moving Kakashi.

"We have to get in there," Boruto declares, taking a step back and focussing his gaze on the forcefield of time, instead of on the melee occurring within.

Sarada swallows nervously, eyes flitting from the immobile, adult versions of her parents, to the ones fighting for their lives beyond them. "There's no way. It goes all the way around, maybe even underground if it's an actual pocket."

"There's got to be a way to disrupt it! I mean, at the end of the day, it's just chakra! Some old lady's creepy, time-stopping chakra, but still chakra!"

"No barrier is completely uniform," Mistuki suggests. "If we can find a point in the forcefield that is thinnest, perhaps overloading raw chakra through that would short out the rest of the barrier."

"Maybe..." Sarada says with a frown, but she doesn't think that would be very safe for the people within it. Something nags at her, something obvious that she ought to be thinking of. "Ugh, we have to get in there..."

"Or at least get Dad and Uncle Sasuke out of the barrier," Boruto agrees. "If anyone's going to stop these creeps, it's them."

Mitsuki takes a few steps backward and lobs several kunai through the churning gold wall, aiming toward Teisoko. Almost the moment the weapons cross through, they freeze in the air.

"It's not good," he sighs, "even inanimate objects are affected. Boruto, can you see if there are any chakra gathering points we might attack?"

"It's not exactly something I can perform on demand," Boruto hisses, glancing nervously at Sarada.

She ignores them. They don't have time to waste on things that can't help right now, especially not since that switch Jikken flipped is still in a downward position, sending untold amounts of time ripples out. It doesn't look like the past Team 7 is anywhere close to turning it off—

Wait.

"It's a machine," she says, turning to Boruto and Mitsuki with excitement.

Boruto gives her an unimpressed look. "Yeah, we know that already."

"No, it's a machine! Machines need power sources!" she reminds them breathlessly. "And the one for this one must be huge—not something that could be in the room with Teisoko, or we'd see it right now!"

"It is big enough to generate a phenomenon reaching for days from its origin," Mitsuki muses.

"And it would be stupid to put everything in the one room, anyway," Boruto concludes, catching on. He pumps his fist. "Alright! Let's get out of here, find the power source and destroy it! That'll stop all this time stuff, right?"