"Saradaaa, are we almost there?" Boruto complained as Sarada dragged him through the woods. They had been traveling for three hours now, and Boruto was convinced that they were hopelessly lost.

"I think so..." Sarada muttered, mostly to herself. "Do I turn here, or here...?" She asked, looking at a fork in the faded path. It was getting dark, and the forest was getting freaky, and they were alone, and far away from Konoha now.

"So you have no idea where we're going, do you?" Boruto asked, getting an anime tick mark on his head. She had dragged him out into the middle of nowhere for a place she didn't even know.

"Nope." Sarada looked back at her friend and smiled sheepishly. "Well, a very small idea. Papa told me there used to be a hideout that the Uchiha could go to just in case something happened." She said, recalling his pained voice as he mentioned the base. She hadn't asked, because she suspected he didn't want to be reminded of it. Sarada had found the ruins of the place on a map, and memorized it with her Sharingan. She had always been good with maps.

"Uh, hello? Used to be???" Boruto groaned, collapsing on the floor, waiting for Sarada to make a decision. He played around with the grass.

"If we really went back in time..." Sarada said, looking around. "It should still be here."

"Did he ever tell you when it was destroyed?" Boruto asked, looking around for any signs of a building with Sarada from the floor. He didn't see anything but trees. And dirt. And bugs. He jumped up from his laying position and shook his jacket off quite quickly.

"I'm going to assume it was when he was a teenager." Sarada shrugged, jumping over a branch that was hanging low. "And," She lowered her voice to a whisper. "I think he did it."

"You think your father, an Uchiha, destroyed an old Uchiha hideout?" Boruto asked, a look of disbelief entering his thoughtful baby blues. He couldn't understand why Sasuke would destroy his own family's base.

"Yes," Sarada replied, then a shout was heard to the left of the two. "We're out in the middle of nowhere. I wonder who that is?"

The kids went to head toward the shouting and began to hear the clashing of metal as well. Then a mountain broke into sight. It looked like a pyramid, with two towers coming out the sides, and the Uchiha crest visible almost everywhere.

"How did we get here?" Boruto breathed heavily, looking around at the devastation. The place was nearly destroyed. The smell of smoke and electricity had charged the air, and the two children somehow knew they'd stepped into something they never should've seen.

Then, the two noticed that there were two other figures on top of the mountain, fighting viciously.

"Oh my God," Boruto said, seeing the place light up in black flames. "Amaterasu..."

"That's my dad's thing." Sarada nodded, not taking her eyes off the battling shadows. "Whoever those two are... they're Uchiha." She couldn't see who they were, they were too far away still. Her and Boruto were crouched behind the cover of the trees, masking their chakra to not draw attention to themselves.

"Sarada..." Boruto's eyes widened. "They could be the last two. There were 5 Hokage faces in the mountain, and I vaguely remember Old Man mentioning that the Uchiha clan was slaughtered when Uncle Sasuke was...." He contemplated it.

"Eight years old." Sarada finished. "So the Third was still Hokage then. In this time, it's Tsunade-baa-chan."

"Which means the Massacre already happened..." Boruto continued, connecting the dots in his head.

"And the Uchiha are already dead. The ONLY people who know about this place are Uchiha, and the ones to use Amaterasu are usually Uchiha too." Sarada added. "So the only ones left would be... Uncle Itachi--"

"FIRE STYLE: FIRE BALL JUTSU!!!" The two men shouted at the same time, causing two balls of fire to appear and begin pushing against each other.

"And Uncle Sasuke." Boruto finished, watching the two fight. "And damn is he powerful."

"Wait for me here, I have to do something." Sarada said, then started running up the mountain. She didn't know why, she just... had a feeling that she was needed on the mountain, not cowering behind a tree.

Boruto followed, shouting Sarada's name and telling her that they needed to leave. "Sarada, what are you doing!? You could get killed!!"

"No, I won't. Just trust me." She shouted back. "I have to do this, it's a thing. Boruto, go back to safety!"

Sarada raced up the side of the mountain, watching as Sasuke's Chidori stream came dangerously close to Itachi. She didn't know anything, she didn't feel anything except for the strange urge to protect Itachi from her father. Probably because he was family. Even though she didn't know him. She didn't know anything about him. She didn't know anything anymore.

"Sarada, wait up!" She sprinted faster, leaving Boruto in the dust. Boruto trudged weakly behind, ducking constantly to avoid flying debris that Sarada easily avoided thanks to her Sharingan that was tugging at her subconscious, making her reflexes faster and more accurate.

"Why won't you just die?!" Sasuke shouted, tossing a shuriken at Itachi, and Sarada knew it wasn't going to miss. Itachi could probably dodge it, but Sarada wasn't concerned about that in that moment.

Closing her eyes, she activated her Sharingan fully and deflected the giant demon wind shuriken easily by kicking it off course, taking a defensive stance in front of her surprised and confused Uncle. Not that Itachi showed it besides a subtle raise to the eyebrow- but after living with her father, she was beginning to understand how the art of communicating silently worked.

Sasuke looked at the girl with fire in his eyes, and only then noticed the Sharingan and the Uchiha crest on the back of the girl's dark pink outfit. She turned to face him, and he scowled. Why was a supposed Uchiha wearing pink anyway?

"Get out of my way, girl." He walked over to her and said. How did she get there? And why the hell wasn't she moving? He tampered down those questions, drawing his sword and placing it over her neck.

"No can do," She replied, a spark of defiance in her eyes. Sasuke frowned, his sword moving closer to slicing her neck. One of those stubborn people. I hate that kind of person.

"If you're truly an Uchiha, you'll move. This man assassinated our clan." Sasuke said, expecting the girl to join him or move. He'd ask questions about her existence later- right now, he just wanted his brother dead and gone. She just stood there, staring at him.

"I know. The Uchiha had that coming." She said, resisting the urge to glance back at her uncle. She could feel his heavy eyes on her back, wondering who she was, why she wasn't letting Sasuke to kill him. He never said a word. Sasuke wasn't paying good enough attention, and soon, the girl punched him in the stomach. Sasuke backed away.

"If you won't move, I guess you'll die with him." Sasuke spat, trying not to care too much. The girl meant something to him, which made no sense considering the fact that he has no idea who she is. Pathetic.

He backed away a bit when Sarada punched him, and now drew his sword tighter into his hand. Blue lightning began sparking on it. "Chidori!" He shouted, and charged at the two. Itachi hadn't moved, and neither had the girl, so Sasuke planned to impale them both.

Then, Itachi did move. He grabbed the girl and dragged her out of the way, trying to throw her out of the line of fire, but she caught his shoulder, dragging him with her.

Then she twisted around him and kicked out, expecting to hit the sword that her Sharingan said would be right behind her, but was seconds too early and got nicked by the sharp blade. Not to mention the Chidori stream on the blade. Sarada groaned, but kicked off with her other foot, hitting the sword and launching it and Sasuke far away from her.

As Itachi recovered and Sasuke retrieved his sword, Sarada grunted and dismissed the pain as a scratch, landing not too far away from Itachi and Sasuke. She could heal it later with the mild medical knowledge her mother had taught her. She'd been getting better at general healing the more she practiced. Of course, she was still basically terrible at it.

"Well look at that, Sasuke." Itachi said. Sarada wasn't facing him, but she thought she heard some amusement in his voice. "The kid can't be more than 13 and is already better than you were at that age." Sarada knew it was purely to provoke Sasuke, but still blushed at the compliment.

Sasuke glared at his brother heatedly. "Look at her leg. I wouldn't have kicked too early."

"Perhaps not, but on the flip side, you wouldn't have thought of the idea of kicking the sword away. Intelligent child." Itachi said, standing up. Their bantering back and forth kind of reminded Sarada of her father's conversations with Lord Seventh- conversations that usually ended up in one of them throwing punches.

"Hn." Sasuke glared at the newcomer. He takes every opportunity to insult me, even when I'm going to kill him.

Sarada felt like crying. Her father had actually tried to kill her. Sure, Sasuke didn't know she was his child, but he was so willing to kill an innocent kid... it was terrifying to think about. One thing Sarada did know for sure; this wasn't the Papa she knew. At least, he wasn't yet. This was a monster.

"Who are you?" Itachi asked her, eyes narrowing out of instinct.

"I'm Sarada Uchiha." She said, deciding it was safe. No use trying to hide it when she was wearing the crest and using the Sharingan. They would just find her stupid for trying to lie.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, Sasuke tossed his sword and just started using his normal Chidori, charging at Sarada and Itachi again.

"CHAAAA!" Boruto yelled, just as Sarada thought she was dead.

He appeared out of nowhere and countered Sasuke's Chidori with his own Rasengan. Sasuke looked stunned for a moment, thinking it was Naruto. But as he backed away, it became really obvious that whoever this boy was, he wasn't the teammate Sasuke used to have.

"Gah!" Sasuke yelled in frustration, pushing Boruto back toward Itachi and Sarada. Just when he had a clean shot, the stupid annoying blonde had to go mess everything up, which was oddly reminiscent of Naruto.

Boruto coughed dust but turned around to smile at Sarada and her uncle. "Totally saved your butt, Sarada. You'll need to pick up your own slack, soon." Sarada scowled at him, giving him the middle finger that he wisely ignored in favor of talking to the older Uchiha he'd heard so much about. "Hello, Itachi-san. Nice to meet you."

"Who is this child?" Itachi asked Sarada, even though technically, he didn't really know her either. "He looks like Naruto-kun," he commented quietly, almost offhandedly, but Boruto heard it anyway. He bristled, turning to Itachi with a scowl on his face.

"Why does everyone say that?" Boruto complained. "I know I do, dammìt!"

Sasuke looked at Boruto closely, and his eyes widened. Sarada saw this but was still kind of shaken up by the fact that her father just tried to kill her. Twice.

"My name is Boruto Uzumaki." He shrugged in response to Itachi's question. "Whoa, Sarada is that Uncle Sas--" Sarada covered his mouth and dragged him away.

"Boruto, we can't tell them anything besides our names." Sarada hissed. "They could... well, you know." Mess up the time space continuum, is what she wanted to say, but out loud? Where two dangerous ninja stood? Sarada wasn't going to take the chance. She hoped to God that Boruto would be smart enough to figure this out alone.

Sasuke glared at the children that were talking quietly. There was something familiar about the girl... and the boy was like a miniature version of the dobe Naruto. Even his attitude, and gait were reminiscent. It was like a clone of the blonde Sasuke had left behind had gotten distorted a bit. Like ripples in a pond.

"Well, so what if they know? I mean, it's not like Uncle Sasuke is gonna kill you or anything. I think there's more of a chance that he kills you without knowing who you really are that when he knows." Boruto reasoned, hoping they wouldn't have to keep things a secret. He'd never been really good at that, and figured that wouldn't be changing any time soon.

"Not helpful, Bolt." Sarada looked over at the two men who were locked in a staring contest, seemingly ready to continue- and finish- their fight. "We need to keep Papa away from Itachi-ojii-san."

"Okay," Boruto said, looking at the two with her, trying to see what she saw. "But how? They're both stronger than us. By a lot." He commented. "Uncle Sasuke might not be as badass as he is in the future, and his hair's hella weird, but he's probably still strong enough to give us a hard time at least." He told his teammate.

Sarada nodded, eyes also scanning the situation, looking for any kind of advantage they would have. "Clearly. But if we could knock one of them out... maybe Papa, when he wakes up we could convince Uncle Itachi to talk some sense into him." Sarada thought aloud, her brain working to figure out how she could do that.

"But how would we do that?"

"Chakra cuffs." Sarada snapped her fingers. "Do you know the hand signs for them?"

"Mm. I think so. Why?" Boruto asked, then his eyes widened. "No. No no no no no no. Not Uncle Sasuke."

"Why not?" Sarada asked. Then they heard clashing noises and Itachi and Sasuke were back at it again. Sarada knew they hadn't put Boruto and herself completely out of mind, they just wanted to finish their business before dealing with the two of them. "Crap. We're running out of time."

"Well no duh." Boruto groaned, looking at the situation with panic. "Fine. Chakra cuffs. Then we knock him out." He didn't like the idea, especially if Sasuke remembered in the future and made him do laps around the village the next time during training.

"I'm not doing it since he's my dad, and I have a feeling my real dad would figure it out somehow..." Sarada shuddered, voicing Boruto's fears. "It would be hell on earth for me." Chakra cuffs are pretty strong... although Papa could probably break them if he concentrated enough chakra. Uncle Itachi too. I'll just have to mix in a chakra binding formula. That should hold him for a couple hours. By then, hopefully Itachi-jii has talked to Papa, and they've figured things out.

"Same here. If Mom or my shitty old man figured out that I knocked out Uncle Sasuke," Boruto shrugged, "my life would be over." He'd be grounded for all of eternity. But it wasn't like Naruto cared about Boruto knocking Sasuke out- in fact, he'd probably be high fived for it. Uncle Sasuke and Boruto's father never really got along, although it was no secret they were best friends.

"And what would mama do to me..." Sarada winced, making Boruto wince as well. His mother was scary, but nowhere NEAR as scary as Aunt Sakura. "Okay, we'll have Uncle Itachi do it. I mean, it's not like Papa could hate him any more, right?"

"I seriously doubt that," Boruto said, glancing back at the two men.

Sasuke was cursing Itachi out violently.

"I take back my words," Sarada said. "Okay, are you ready for that jutsu?"

"Yeah, let's go." Boruto cracked his knuckles.

《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》

The kids managed to get Sasuke with help from Itachi, but somehow Boruto messed up the jutsu, (surprise surprise) and Itachi ended up with his hands bound as well. Which was nice, so now neither of them could escape. Sarada assumed since her father didn't have the Rinnegan right now, he didn't know much about manipulating the space-time continuum to get them back home, which was making her nervous. They were pretty far back, and Sarada wasn't even sure their parents had noticed them missing yet.

Unless time passed differently while they were here. That thought was mildly disconcerting.

Sarada just shrugged when Boruto asked if they should untie him. It would make Sasuke happier if he stayed bound too, and Sarada did not need her crazy Papa going on a rampage and killing everyone. So Itachi remained bound as well.

The kids, however, decided to gag Sasuke because he was saying some pretty horrible stuff about Itachi.

"Do we take them back to Konoha, or..." Boruto asked Sarada.

Sasuke shook his head quickly, and Itachi had to explain.

"We are both S-rank criminals." Itachi said, "They'd put us in jail, and maybe execute us, and then I couldn't..." he sounded hesitant, like there was something he wanted to say, but also didn't, "... kill Madara."

Sasuke glared at Itachi again. Sarada could almost hear his retort. You think you're gonna kill Madara? I'm gonna kill him after I'm done with these kids and you.

"Okay, then no Konoha." Sarada groaned, sitting down. She still had no idea what all was happening in this timeline, and also had no idea how to deal with this situation. The group of four, well, the two that were untied, made a fire and were laying down beside it.

You could practically feel the hate radiating off of Sasuke, and Itachi had no emotion, just stared up at the stars.

Soon the two time travelers fell asleep. After a bit, even Sasuke did too. Chakra exhaustion was a killer. Not that he'd ever admit it. He hated being with his brother but was too worn out from the battle from earlier. He had drained far too much chakra to be comfortable.

"Sarada-chan?" Boruto asked Sarada before they fell asleep.

"Hn." She muttered, closing her eyes.

"Can we go see my mom and dad as kids, too?" Boruto asked quietly.

"I don't know, we'd have to go to Konoha." Sarada opened her eyes, watching her friend carefully.

"Please?" Boruto begged.

"Fine."

《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》

"OI, WHAT THE HELL ARE THE FOUR OF YOU DOING HERE, 'TTEBAYO???"