UNDERSTAND ME

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CHAPTER 3

UNDERSTAND ME

SARADA UCHIHA

Boruto's an idiot. He just left Inojin, Shikadai, and I with this whole mess to clean up, just like always. I could punch him. Actually, rethinking that, I will punch him next time I see him. Right now, I'm regretting my decision to tell Sasuke about me, or even allow Boruto to tell Naruto, I have a sinking feeling that the future might not be the same when we do get back.

"Am I really that bad?" Naruto said quietly. His entire personality had changed in time it took for Boruto to screw everything up.

"No. Not really." I said. "You don't show up a lot, and it hurts your family life. Boruto is taking it especially hard."

"Did I really just send shadow clones?" Naruto shook his head. "I just can't imagine myself doing that."

"You change a lot." I nod. "You're more like Boruto when you're younger, but now that you're in your 40s. You're...different."

Suddenly Sasuke decided to stop avoiding me and start speaking. "So what about me? Who do I marry?"

"My mom, Sakura Uchiha."

"SAKURA?!" Sasuke's eyes went wide. "I marry my stalker?! What the hell is wrong with me?!"

"No, no, no! Mama is amazing, you love her, she's not your stalker!" I quickly tried to explain. If he didn't marry her, then I wouldn't exist.

"I just can't imagine..." Sasuke crossed his arms. "Sakura? He asked again.

'Yeah."

"How did you even get here?"

"Let me explain..."

It took a while to explain, Naruto was constantly interjecting his thoughts and opinions, and Sasuke would make him shut up. Once I had told the whole thing though, both of them were silent.

"You wouldn't have any ideas???" I asked hoping for a second that they might.

"No idea." Sasuke said thinking hard. It's funny, his face looks almost the same as mine when I think. This is my papa.

"You guys are so screwed." Naruto confirmed.

"My guess is that you would have to find the scroll again but in this time period." Sasuke said after a while.

"That was my idea too. But this world has changed so much from the future. We just don't know where to start."

"Well, I know my way around." Sasuke offered. "I could help you find places to look. But your most ultimate thing to fear is that anything you do now might change the futures of anyone. Anything you say now could impact the future drastically."

"Exactly!" I was so relieved that Sasuke and I are on the same page. Meanwhile, Naruto wouldn't stop staring at Shikadai, who was avoiding eye contact and had shoved his hands in his pockets.

"So? Now that you're all chummy, what happens? It doesn't change the fact that we still don't know what to do about being stuck here." Shikadai said.

"I know. But I've got one question." Naruto said. "What's an email?"

By the time I had finished trying to explain what emails were, they were more confused than they had started out. I just gave up trying to explain it to Naruto, almost completely certain that his brain was literally the size of a tennis ball.

"So, Papa, do you know any places that would be worth looking for this scroll?" Right as he was about to answer there was a huge banging sound from a house a few hundred meters away. Dust and dirt were rising, and swirling into the sky. Almost like something had exploded but not quite.

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"What the hell?" Sasuke said. Simultaneously, we all ran towards the disturbance. At first it seemed like nothing had happened. Thankfully no one was home in the house, otherwise they would have freaked out. But once I reached the far side of the house, I realized what had happened.

A huge pile of slowly moving bodies were covered in dirt, with broken parts of the roof laid askew among them. Some of them were moaning. But then I noticed who they were.

"Lord Seventh!" Naruto Uzumaki was laying on his back, his robe flung across the other bodies. "Lady Hinata!" She was sprawling across Naruto's chest, her breathing quiet. "Sai-kun!" His scrolls were everywhere, one of them was actually half hanging from the gutter of the house. And, "Mama!" I ran to her, wrapping my arms around her.

Mama groaned, shifting her weight to sit up, blinking a couple times. "Oh, Sarada!" She said happily. "Where are we?" Before I could answer, Naruto interrupted again.

"Wait...are you Sakura?" His eyes were wide, staring at the bodies, and more specifically at my mom.

"Oh my God...Naruto..." She looked from the Seventh to young Naruto and back again. "Tsunade said this is probably what might happen, but wow...we really are back here again." She looked around. "It's exactly the same."

"Whoa..." Sasuke said leaning closer, staring at her.

"Hi." My mama smiled, waving at him. "You're still a heartbreaker, I see."

"She's pretty..." I heard Sasuke murmur under his breath. I couldn't help but smirk. I resisted the I-told-you-so.

"And that's..." Naruto said breathlessly staring at himself. "Is that really me?" He knelt and poked older Naruto. Naruto groaned loudly. After all, everyone had landed on top of him. "Whoa..." Naruto said backing up as his older self woke.

"Hey." Hokage-sama said smiling at his younger self. "What's up?"

"What the hell happened to my hair?!" Naruto said, running his hands through his spiky hair. The Hokage frowned feeling his own scalp. "I really am old."

"The spikiness disappears with age..." Hokage-sama said sadly.

"Aw man, are you serious!" Naruto groaned.

Hinata-sama woke slowly, pushing herself off Naruto's lap awkwardly. "Oh..." She said quietly looking around. "Wow."

Young Naruto blushed bright red. "That....that can't be..."

I filled in his sentence. "Hinata Uzumaki."

Hinata blushed along with him. "Hi Naruto. It's good to see you again." Naruto clutched his skull like it was about to explode.

Inojin smiled at his dad, Sai, and helped him to his feet. "I was so worried about you, Inojin." Sai said, swinging him around in a hug.

My mom turned towards me. "No kidding young lady. What were you thinking?!"

"I'm sorry. It was all Boruto's fault." Falling back on my most common excuse.

"Where...is Boruto?" Hokage-sama said looking around. "He did come through with you guys right?" His eyes looked panicked. It was rare that I ever saw the Hokage that uncomposed before.

"Hokage-sama, are you really not a shadow clone?" I said doubtfully.

"No. It's really me. I left a clone in charge. They'll take care of Himawari, but right now I need to know, where is Boruto?" He looked from me to Naruto, with the same panicked look. When Hokage-sama met eyes with young Naruto-kun, Naruto ran at him, tackling him back to the ground.

They fell back with a thud. "What the hell, man?! Do you seriously only send clones to spend time with your family? Do you really just abandon them? Are you really just a shitty father?!" Naruto shook him, taking fistfuls of his robes. "What kind of man are you if you can't even care for your family?!" Naruto didn't stop. "If your son is missing...why didn't you get here sooner?! Shouldn't your family mean something? How could I grow up to become...you!"

The Seventh didn't fight it. He let Naruto bang his head on the ground, and waited for him to blow off his steam. Boruto's words had really struck Naruto earlier, and I guess it left him with anger for himself...

"I....I don't understand..." Naruto said getting quieter. He let go of the Hokage's robe and stood up, wiping of the dirt on his face. "I can't believe you."

Hokage-sama pushed himself off the ground slowly. "Boruto is missing?"

"He left. After he explained to me just what a horrible father you are. He ran. He had every right to. How could I screw up this bad."

"Naruto!" Hinata said loudly. Both of them looked at her. "I mean...young Naruto." She revised. "He's not a bad father. He's just busy. He's busy running the village, and he really-"

"Hinata." The Lord Seventh stopped her. "He's still right. I have just made an excuse for myself. Even though I do have to care for the village before everything else, I should at least know my family. After these past few weeks, I've realized just how much I've screwed up. I'm trying to understand him, I am. I will know my son."

"Well then go find him." Naruto said cooly.

So the Hokage stood, looking back only once, to see his friends, all with their children in their arms. And Lady Hinata watching expectantly, he was the only one of them who had failed as a parent. And now he had to walk a mile in his son's shoes. 

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