edit, Feb 2, 2021: how the hell did you guys choke past this train wreck of a story good lord-

Sarada tossed and turned in her bed, eventually turning to face Boruto's back. They were on separate beds, because no, Karen, this isn't a basic, cringey Wattpad story (except it is until I finish editing it). Without her glasses, the world was blurry, which was why in the hazy moonlight that drifted through the window, Sarada felt almost weightless, and had the sensation of being underwater. Boruto was passed out, snoring beside her, to Sarada's infinite disgust. In all their months of being teammates, and going on out-of-the-village missions, she'd never gotten used to it.

Kakashi had suggested Boruto and Sarada share a room because they were friends, and as there was a bleeding massive amount of people hanging around the dead Uchiha's home base, there was a striking lack of rooms for all of them. Therefore Kakashi, understanding that this was inciting drama, had made this comment out of pure necessity. And yet was still unpleasantly surprised when all four of his companions shook their heads violently.

"No way am I going to subject my own future daughter to that." Sasuke had said. "If Little Dobe is anything like the Bigger Dobe..." His eyes flashed red with warning. 

"Chill out," Boruto laughed. "It's not like I'm going to try anything. I'm not my dad, as I've been trying to establish." 

"Hey! I resent that!" Naruto protested, crossing his arms over his chest angrily. "Little brat!"

Sasuke and Itachi had sent the younger blonde evil glares. "I will personally dismember you and dump your remains in the river with the piranhas if you even dare."

Boruto had gulped in fear, but kept his voice steady, because he was the son of the 7th Hokage, unwilling reincarnate of that one Otsutsuki dude, ferfuckssake, and hell if he was about to be intimidated into an early grave by two emo lords. "Yes sir." 

The glare Itachi sent him was enough to make Boruto rethink his former confidence.

So Sarada, unfortunately, had ended up sharing a room with Boruto, who barely talked to her out of fear. Even though it made MORE SENSE for her to bunk with her mom, but somehow she'd been talked out of that. She'd almost punched her dad when he'd said that. Boruto was her teammate and best friend. They'd been on missions and have obviously had to do this before, but noooo. Stupid past people.

"Sarada?" Sarada was jolted out of her thoughts by a very vulnerable sounding Boruto.

"Hn." She asked, pretending she was almost asleep to avoid a prolonged conversation with her idiotic teammate.

"Do you think we'll ever make it back home? Since I lost the scroll and all?" Boruto asked, turning to look at her, working up the guts to talk to her about his fears. 

Sarada propped herself up on her elbow and looked over at him seriously. "Boruto..." She sighed. "I don't know."

"Sorry, I'm just home-sick, ya know?" Boruto rested his elbow over his eyes, heaving a deep sigh. "Great, I probably sound like a 3 year old."

"No," Sarada smiled a little at him, turning her face up to the ceiling. "I'm home-sick too." It was a little nice to hear the great, all-powerful, ever arrogant Boruto Uzumaki sound scared. As much of a jackass as Boruto was, the kid exuded confidence and self assurance almost all the time. He had power in droves. Little lapses in self confidence were rare. So sue Sarada for taking glee in seeing his wimp side every once in a while.

"Now we both sound like 3 year olds."

"Well, can you blame us? This is our first night so far away from home. And we're actually fairly close to our houses." Sarada reasoned. They'd been out of the country before, obviously, but they hadn't been in the past. They were so unbelievably far away from everything they knew. 

"But it's not really home because kaa-san and Hima aren't there. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually miss my old dad. At least he was more mature." Boruto opened his eyes and met Sarada's dark ones.

"I miss my parents too." Sarada sighed. "Even though I rarely see Papa, he's better than his scary younger self. No offense. And this Mama has less self confidence and it's getting really annoying."

"But you get to see your uncle." Boruto shrugged. "My dad said my uncle Neji died during the war. Uncle Neji was saving kaa-san and tou-san. I don't think he would be dead now- it would be absolutely wicked to get to see him."

"Yes, we learned about him in history. Your uncle was super awesome." Sarada nodded in agreement. "Mine's dead in the real world, though, too. And I think we messed up something important by keeping him alive."

"Messed up, or fixed?" Boruto asked. "Think about it, your uncle is so powerful, he could help either stop the war in some way strategy-wise, or win help win it, at least. Hell, I dunno, we might've just saved a lot of people on accident."

"Yeah." Sarada smiled proudly.. "Thats true. You remember Uncle Itachi's story from school, right?"

"Oh yeah. That was the most interesting thing we'd studied yet, aside from the stuff about my grandparents on my dad's side and my uncle." Boruto remarked. "I don't think I fell asleep once while old man Shino was teaching us about that." He had a habit of sleeping in the academy, but it wasn't his fault they were all so boring.

"Sasuke doesn't know the real story." Sarada realized aloud, groaning. "He doesn't know what happened with his brother and everything else."

Boruto's eyebrows went up. "Huh? I thought Uncle Sasuke was one of the people that heard it from Madara. I know my dad and Grandpa Kakashi and Grandpa Yamato did."

"He did." Sarada frowned. "Apparently not yet, though." We were too early... at least we're early enough to give them the chance to talk it out. 

"Crap." Boruto muttered. "That really messes things up."

"I think he'd take any chance he could to kill--" She interrupted herself and her eyes widened in horror at the disturbing, intrusive thought she'd just had. "Oh no."

"Oh no? What's oh no about?" Boruto asked, confused, a little bit of dread entering his voice. Sarada was almost never that terrified.

"Sasuke!" Sarada hissed, jumping out from under the covers. She was wearing one of the Uchiha nightgowns that Shisui had put in the closet. Sarada threw a sweatshirt on over it, grabbing her kunai pouch.

Boruto jumped out too, running after her.

Sarada swung the heavy door open and the two genin ran along the hallways until finally they saw a shadow sneaking around with a blade in hand, heading in the direction of Itachi's room. Sarada's intuition had been spot on, in this miraculous case.

Uncle Sasuke. Boruto thought, sighing deeply. "He's really going after Itachi-jii, huh?" Stupid uncle Sasuke won't quit...

"Yeah." Sarada hissed, sneaking after the teenager. Sasuke hadn't heard their arriving because they were paces away from him, and walking silently. Sasuke was headed for the room at the end of the hall, Itachi's room. Shisui's old room was next to it, but no one had gone in it yet out of respect for him.

"Well then we need to stop him, dattebasa!" Boruto whispered back, holding out his hand. The Rasengan was begining to form there, but Sarada smacked his hand away. The jutsu dissipated pathetically.

"Not now. We're not going to hurt my dad's younger self." Sarada whispered, looking terrified. What do I do, what do I do, what do I do? She had to stop Sasuke from making the worst mistake of his life, and she had to do it now. Quick thinking was everything, or Itachi Uchiha would be a faded memory just like he had been for most of Sarada's life. 

Sasuke reached for the handle, but the small 'thunk' of a kunai that had embedded itself on the door beside his hand stopped him in his tracks. He hissed a little in surprise, backing away from the door. Sarada had nicked him. It was NOT a big cut. At all. But she'd done it on purpose. Hopefully Sasuke wouldn't hate her forever.

"What happened to not hurting him?" Boruto hissed, but Sarada just shook her head. Some injuries are necessary. Plus, Sasuke's a little baby if he can't handle a tiny fucking nick- good Kami, that would be pathetic. Sasuke cursed and turned toward Sarada, having realized who the person was just by the shape of her kunai, and the sheer skill of the throw. When he finally saw her, his eyes narrowed threateningly.

"Sarada, what are you doing?" He asked, more of a warning than a question.

"What are you doing?" Sarada shot back, stepping closer, since she and Boruto were still a ways down the hallway.. "You can't just impulsively kill Uncle Itachi!"

"I can and will." Sasuke scowled, reaching for the doorknob again. Sarada threw another kunai, and this one cut him a little deeper. "Sarada!" He sounded more irritated than in pain, and young or not, Sarada recognized that voice as the one her father used when she was in trouble. 

"You're not just going to kill my uncle, Sasuke," Sarada frowned and walked toward her younger father. She held out her hand. "If you're sneaking around at night, impulsively killing people like this, we probably need to get you therapy."

"I'm not going to explain my reasoning to a thirteen year old girl." Sasuke spat viciously. He realized by now that the two small thumps on the door had probably woken Itachi up, and his window was closing. His hand reached for the door again.

"What about to your future daughter, who knows more than you do?" Sarada's eyes narrowed. Sasuke sighed loudly and took his hand off the door.

"Why do you care so much about him, Sarada?" Sasuke's hard, determined look melted away, but he was still wary of his future self's daughter. "If it weren't for him, you would have grandparents. A clan. An uncle."

"Because he is the only thing we have left." Sarada answered honestly. "I mean, we have Mama, and Uncle Naruto, but in the future... every time someone says the name 'Itachi', you look like you are dying inside. And I know that you have unresolved regret about what happened with him, whether or not you tell me." She said, pointing to Sasuke's sword. "You can't just kill off your own brother without at least listening to his side of the story. It kills yourself a little bit inside."

"It's true," Boruto raised his hand. "I've asked you about it 8 million times and you just give me harder training."

The Uchiha teenager and girl glared at the interrupting blonde heatedly.

"Oh, yeah. I'm supposed to be quiet. Family matters. Nevermind, please continue." Boruto smiled sheepishly, clearly ready to shut up and butt out.

They did just that. Sasuke looked at Sarada. "Why on earth would I care about what I did to Itachi? That man killed my mother and my father. I no longer have a single living relative, aside from that monster."

"Because you shouldn't have killed him and you know it. Not everything is as it seems." Sarada said, unsure of what all she should tell her father's past self. What if hearing this made him turn against the village again? Sarada had heard that that happened for a bit. "That's a lesson you need to learn to be a Shinobi, and you didn't trust it."

"What do you mean, 'Not everything is as it seems'?" Sasuke frowned, looking at the door again.

"I don't think it's my place to tell you." Sarada told him, bracing for impact.

Sasuke scowled, but before he could press on, another person spoke.

"She's right. It's not her place. It's mine." Itachi opened his door, closing it and pulling the knives out of the wood carefully, before dodging around Sasuke and handing them back to his niece.

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"You both seem to know everything, or think you do, and I'm tired of being in the dark. What the hell is going on?" Sasuke asked, more than a little pissed off that they took his sword from him.

The five of them, (Boruto stayed, and Kakashi joined when he heard the noise) were seated on Shisui's couches glaring at each other. Kakashi was watching Sarada and Itachi intently. Itachi sat on an armchair, looking extremely uncomfortable. Sarada was seated beside her young father, and Boruto was on Sasuke's other side. Kakashi had sprawled himself over the loveseat.

Itachi was rubbing his hands over his head and through his hair as if he was trying to get rid of a headache. No one wanted to wake up Sakura because 1) she was exhausted. And 2) no one felt like getting punched in the face with her super strength. Naruto wouldn't be awoken even if the village had been decimated. The blonde ninja would only come around when he smelled breakfast, and considering it was an obscene time of night, there wouldn't be breakfast for a while.

"So why are we here again?" Kakashi asked, wanting to push along the conversation so he could go back to sleep. He had only joined them because SOMEONE responsible had better mediate, or things could get ugly fast.

"We're here because I need to tell the truth. Finally." Itachi sighed, removing his head from his hands.

Sarada thought he looked pained, so she stood behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders. She let her medical chakra pulse into her uncle, replenishing his strength and healing what she could in his lungs, but she was getting weaker because of all the chakra she'd used today. Plus, it was the middle of the night. Luckily, her chakra would be back to normal by tomorrow, but healing her uncle was taking a lot out of her. She didn't like healing, wasn't good at it, and had only been able to learn some of it because her mother was a famous medical ninja. 

"Thank you, Sarada," Itachi heaved a breath, seemingly relaxing a little bit.

"It's nothing, Itachi-jii." Sarada nodded, then continued to soften the blow of the sickness. She hadn't seen anything like it- but then again, Sarada was no doctor. From her limited studies, it appeared to be a respiratory illness, which was why Sarada tried her hardest to keep her uncle's airways clear so he wouldn't start coughing up blood, and tried to fix his bronchial tubes as much as she could, but as she was not Sakura Uchiha, Sarada had no idea what to do about this illness.

Sasuke watched, entranced, in Sarada and Itachi's simple exchange. They almost looked like a family, even though they hadn't known each other for long. Whether it was Sarada's natural affinity for wanting to take care of people, or Itachi's immediate attachment to her simply because she was his brother's daughter, the two of them had forged a small, fledgeling bond that could soon harden to be as tough as diamond.

"So what were you talking about, truth?" Sasuke asked, coming back to the original topic. "I'm running out of patience for your games and subject changes."

"I..." Itachi started, threading his fingers through his hair, a habit he got whenever he was upset or nervous. Which wasn't really often. "It's a long story, but in short, I'm not the bad guy."

"Who is, then?" Sasuke scowled. "You're not giving me much to work with here, Itachi."

"The Uchiha." Itachi spat finally.

Everyone went silent. 

"What exactly are you talking about, Itachi?" Kakashi asked warily, sensing that Sasuke was too angry to ask the question himself. "The Uchiha were the Konoha Police, tasked with protecting the village. Everyone knows that."

"That's not entirely true. The Uchiha were the police force, yes, but they were also planning a coup d'état that would've caused a civil war that had the potential to wipe out both Konoha and the Uchiha." Itachi added, his face becoming vacant, as if he were revisiting old memories. "Our father, Fugaku was the clan leader, and was therefore complicit in their plans. Shisui and I were the only ones that saw reason, and the Elders and the Third wanted to use us to save Konohagakure.

"Shisui was planning on using his Sharingan to put the clan under a Genjutsu that would've stopped the war and made sure everything was peaceful, but Councilman Danzo Shimura stole one of his eyes before Shisui could put that plan into effect. Shisui entrusted the other one to me, then commuted suicide, leaving me to deal with this by myself. He trusted me to do what was best for the village and the clan.

"So when Danzo suggested that I kill the clan... well, that seemed like the only way. Shisui was gone, and I needed both of his eyes for a plan of that magnitude. I couldn't, however, kill you." Itachi looked at Sasuke with a pained expression. "You and I had a bond that kept me from harming you... so Danzo used that to his advantage, telling me that the Uchiha would be slaughtered, along with you, if I didn't do this. The only way to keep you safe was to kill them all.

"So I went to find Tobi, who I knew was very, very powerful, and together we took out the Uchiha, sparing only Sasuke. It wasn't only me. I killed the clan members, and Tobi murdered the Police Force." Itachi concluded. "That's the true story. I think now that there must've been some way I could've convinced Father, or saved everyone... but I was thirteen, and I thought those were my only options. I'm truly sorry for the heartache I caused you, Sasuke, but it was for the greater good."

Everyone remained silent. Sarada and Boruto, who already knew the story, were quiet, watching the expressions of their family from the past. 

Kakashi was surprised, but didn't seem to be upset at Itachi. His rage was turned inward. He was my subordinate. He had thought this a million times since Itachi massacred the clan, but now he was really thinking it. He was my subordinate and I didn't notice that my own village had put such a burden on him.

Sasuke was silent, but the raw emotion that flashed across his face... well, it was totally new. He'd never showed so much emotion in public. First sadness, then hatred, then horror, then shock, then hatred again. It stayed at hatred for a long while.

Sarada left her uncle's side and went to her father. He was sitting still, completely frozen. Sarada sighed, taking a seat beside her father on the couch. She knew hugging him while he was in a volatile position was a risk she shouldn't take, so she settled by putting her hand on his shoulder supportively. Sasuke flinched then Sarada's hand rested squarely on the fabric of his shirt, but didn't lash out and kill her, which was a plus.

Sasuke sat completely still, not acknowledging anything in his surroundings, and staring off blankly into space. The hatred had vanished from his face, and he had sunk into the mask that shielded his real opinions. He was grateful for Sarada's grounding hand on his shoulder, but he was quite angry right now. He picked anxiously at the skin around his fingernails. He did that a lot. It was a nervous trait he'd picked up from his mother without realizing it. Sometimes he picked them enough to make them bleed.

Now that he thought about it, his mother was doing that a lot during the last days of her life. His father had been staying out later, and so had Itachi. When Itachi came home, he always went straight to bed and avoided human interaction with his family. 

He had been removing himself, Sasuke realized, to make it easier when he had to do the deed. And he barely talked to Sasuke either.How had he not seen it?

Sasuke settled into the couch and put his hand on Sarada's, squeezing it, before lowering the hand from his shoulder and onto the couch. He was fine now. Or, as fine as he was able to be, considering the news he'd just gotten.

"Well." He said, once he was able to form words. "That is not at all what I expected. And that was probably a lot for a thirteen year old to handle."

Sarada snorted, beside him. "I would know. I am one."

Itachi smiled a little. He was happy. Sasuke seemed to understand now. But Itachi knew that Sasuke was angry- he could almost feel the anger writhing around in his brother's veins, and he knew that before the night was over, he would be taking out that anger and shock on something.

"So what are you going to do now?" Kakashi asked, yawning.

"There's still the issue of our little time travelers, right?" Itachi chuckled, eyeing Sarada and Boruto, who both now sat silently on the couch. "I won't be bored."