The Weight of Shadows

Chapter Six: he said I never left your side

Life #5000

"Nearly there!" Naruto proclaimed, all but skipping along at her side as they ventured onwards. The weather was growing colder with what felt like every step northward they took. "I'm gonna be part of the advance party," he said, smiling no doubt at the thought of possibly encountering their third team member from their previous life. Well, Naruto's previous life. Sakura had no idea which cycle that was for her, if she had indeed even been present. There were far too many spent as Naruto's teammate, and her dear blonde friend was too similar for most of those lives.

"I will be following up after you then," Sakura remarked, wondering what sort of frozen hell awaited them as the chilly winds nipped at her nose and fingertips yet again. Sometimes she really wished she could use her chakra without speeding up her demise. Cursed mortal bodies, and her cursed strength of soul which always wore out the forms in that world which she wore after Life Three-Thousand and its tragic ending. "Do not let your guard down though, Naruto," she warned, feeling a terrible sense of foreboding and, alarmingly enough, familiarity the further north they ventured.

Because the northernmost lands were under dragon rule, infested with descendants of those who had lived in the duration of both Life Two-Thousand and Three-Thousand. She had defied time and space there, by being born in her three-thousandth cycle before she had died in her two-thousandth. Though she hadn't dared to find her other self, knowing already that her past self would only care about death and killing. Sakura wasn't delusional enough to have believed she would have been capable of listening to such a tale as her own in Life Two-Thousand. It was odd what hindsight was capable of. And all the regrets it brought to the table.

"I'll be fine, Sakura!" he said, and she could only sigh at the name she had borne for so many lifetimes other than the one she was in. There she was Lothien, though Lothien wasn't all that she outwardly seemed. "You know what I'm capable of now – I was Hokage!"

"Indeed you were," she murmured, thinking back on those many lifetimes where Naruto had achieved his lifelong dream. And then promptly realised that paperwork was the bane of his existence. A fond smile curved at her lips, the ghosts of a chuckle escaping her then, and she could only turn to the sun, not wanting Naruto to see as tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. She was so very tired, and so very old. Truly, she was weary of the world, tired of gaining everything only to lose it when the cycle came to an end. Naruto was but a child compared to her, and she reminded herself to be careful of sounding too condescending when trying to rein her dear friend in. He didn't know that world like she did.

She had seen that world at its worst, when blood had been spilt, and she had been on the side of the enemy in her reckless hate which had long since subsided. Naruto had arrived in that world in a relatively tame time compared to the First Age, when dragons and balrogs had been the chief threats. That battle was long passed though, on lands sunk under waves, not to be seen again until the alleged final days were upon them.

Knowing her luck, and how her lives had gone so far, she would likely exist beyond that time, when everyone she had come to love was lost. She thought of golden hair, she thought of her sister and her father. Both the father of Telpeniel and the father of Moriel. Her heart panged at the thought, and Sakura rubbed at the spot, pausing there for a few moments before she continued walking.

"What's the matter?" Naruto peered over at her, concern marring his expression, and she shook her head then.

"Nothing to worry over," she said, sighing softly as she wondered just what she was heading towards. Was there really anything but pain on the path she was travelling down? Was there even an ending to the road laid out before her? Sakura could only hope, but her hope, as proven over numerous lifetimes, was a precious, fragile, little thing. It was a wonder it had survived so long, but Sakura knew what it was like to be without hope. And so she wholeheartedly preferred to cling to that fragile blossom of hope.