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Sarada stared numbly at Boruto. His breathing was becoming shallow, and he was getting paler by the second. He had collapsed on the floor, but Sakura had quickly moved him to a room. They were currently trying to stop the bleeding. Sakura tied a strip of cloth over the boy's abdomen, using her medical ninjutsu to stabilize him, mending his skin and internal bleeding.

"Boruto." Sarada whispered, laying down on the bed beside her friend. Sakura had healed the wound as best as she could, but now it was up to Boruto to wake up from the coma by himself.

It wasn't looking good.

Hinata was in the room 24/7, feeling responsible for him. She was, technically, the child's biological mother. Naruto had just now picked up the now sleeping Hinata and taken her to his room to nap, then he said he was going to discuss strategy with Itachi and Kakashi.

When Naruto goes to work by himself, you know something is wrong. Sarada knew Naruto wasn't taking Boruto's situation well, he'd become quiet, and more worried.

Sakura seemed guilty, as if somehow this was her fault. Sakura does that a lot, blame herself for something she didn't do... It made Sarada sick.

Itachi was quieter too, and he wasn't talkative in the first place. It was like Boruto died and the sun was destroyed. Frankly, Sarada wasn't enjoying it.

"Hey, ursuratonkachi," She glared at the sleeping Boruto, "You're being an attention hog. Wake up already, āsshōle. You got both your mom and my mom worried over you. Now I can't even talk to them." She went her usual route, using sass to cover up her worry. It was sad, like she was talking to a corpse. Sarada shuddered, removing her head from that kind of thinking.

Boruto remained silent. Sarada suspected he would be like that for awhile, and that wasn't a comforting thought.

"And, I kind of miss you too." Sarada sighed. "It's too quiet over here. Don't tell anyone I said that, dobe, or I will kill you."

He was still quiet.

"Dammit, Boruto!" Sarada scowled at her friend. She was getting impatient, even though she knew there wasn't anything she could do. "Wake up! You're not allowed to just give up like that. You still have to do things! We have to get home, and you have to help me when I'm Hokage! You can't die yet."

Boruto seemed to be determined to annoy her. He still didn't reply.

"If you die, I'll kill you," Sarada threatened, desperately trying to keep her mood up. Boruto wouldn't want her to be all depressed like that. All of logic was against that statement, but it was true. She'd track him down and murder him a second time for leaving her alone here.

He'd say, "Oi, Sarada-chan! Stop moping! Hang out with your family! I'll be fine, believe it!"

Sarada groaned and stood up. "I hate you, you know what? Whatever, I'm coming back to check on you in 20 minutes. Be ready, I'm not gonna go easy on you if you still aren't awake. You really don't want hot ramen poured on you as you sleep, remember I know you hate it."

Sarada left the room. She was going to have a chat with her parents and Uncle Naruto, and they were going to tell her everything about the Akatsuki. Weaknesses, weapon types, chakra styles. If they sneezed a certain way, Sarada wanted to know about it.

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Meanwhile, in the present:

"Chōchō, honey, have you seen Sarada or Boruto?" Sakura wandered over to her daughter's friend. Chōchō was talking to their other friend Shikadai and Inojin, munching on some snacks. The other guests were entertaining themselves, and the majority of the men were outside. "We need Sarada for the presents."

Chōchō Akimichi looked at her best friend's mom, and shrugged, chewing her chips thoughtfully. "Last I checked, Boruto and Sarada were on Hokage mountain. Well, Sarada was and Boruto went to find her. He had a gift for her."

Sakura sighed. Sarada always did love the view from there. It was no surprise she'd go up there. "Okay, I guess I'll go check there then."

She sprinted away from Chōchō, out the door, and toward the mountain, infusing chakra into her pounding feet. She had to get the kids and hurry, so she wouldn't have to keep the guests waiting.

Reaching the mountain, she went to Lady Tsunade's head, where Sarada often sat. Not only was Tsunade her 'Grandmother', but she was also the first female Hokage, which was a big deal for Sarada. She loved it. It also had an excellent view, she could see her house from there.

It was empty. Neither Sarada nor Boruto were there. Sakura frowned. She was no sensor, but she was good enough to track her daughter, and she couldn't sense Sarada's chakra anywhere in the village. Sakura was now worried. She searched all over the mountain, and then on the grass above it. She did find one clue; a music box, discarded and open, laying on the floor on Tsunade's head.

Chōchō mentioned something about a present... This must be it... Sakura thought, looking for more clues. The grass was flattened where she'd picked up the box as if it was thrown there, as gently as possible.

Sakura closed the little white box and examined it closely. It was like a pearl, perfect and white. She opened it and resisted the urge to sway to the beautiful melody. She didn't have time.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she dialed Sasuke's number.

"Hello?"

"Sasuke-kun." Sakura sighed in relief that he answered. He doesn't answer his phone a lot, mostly because he always has it on silent. He probably was showing Naruto something on it.

"Sakura? I thought you went to get Sarada? Where are you?"

"I'm on Hokage mountain. Sarada is gone. And it appears Boruto is too."

"What? She was just here. I saw Boruto not 15 minutes ago."

"Well they're not here now. I can't sense her anywhere either. Wanna help me find them?"

"I'll get Naruto and Hinata, we'll be there in 5 minutes."

"Okay. Thanks, Sasuke-kun."

"No problem, Sa-ku-ra." Sasuke said, before hanging up.

Sakura smiled, then put her phone in her pocket again, scanning her surroundings.

There-- was that a piece of paper on the floor?

A scroll. Sakura picked it up, took one look at it and dropped it again. "No way..."

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, appearing out of nowhere with Sasuke and Hinata not far behind them. "What's up?"

"Try sensing for Boruto and Sarada." Naruto was the best sensor... ever. really. Naruto closed his eyes and activated Sage mode, then opened his eyes again. The blues widened, and he looked at Sakura urgency. Sakura picked up the scroll and threw it to her husband. "Our kids just time traveled. To when we were teens."

Hinata gasped, then took the paper.

"This is not good..." Naruto examined the paper closely over Hinata's shoulder. "I should've known to put that away when Boruto came into my office earlier. I wasn't paying attention to the scroll, I was so busy. Sasuke-teme, you're the most experienced with time/space things... What does this mean?"

Sasuke studied it with a look that was a cross between worry and pensiveness. "This is a temporary scroll, it can only be used once and allows the user to go back in time. I'm guessing that you are allowed to change things, there are strong seals on it that prevent the time-space continuum from collapsing entirely."

"It can only be used once?" Hinata asked, worried. "How are we going to get Boruto and Sarada?"

"I have the Rinnegan." Sasuke said, bringing his arm up to put on his opposite shoulder. "I'll open up a portal to where they are. I just hope we can get to them before they see too much."

"I think it's too late..." Sakura sighed, pointing at the scroll. "Depending how long they stay there... well, things could get bad. Sasuke might accidentally try to kill them, Tsunade could accuse them of treason, they could blab things about the future to the wrong people, and that isn't even half of the things that could go wrong. What if they accidentally find Orochimaru or something?"

"Don't go there..." Sasuke winced at the thought of his daughter meeting that creepy snake bastard. "Okay, let's get our kids out of there."

He activated his Rinnegan and summoned a portal. "We may have to jump a bunch to find the exact spot in time the kids are in, but other than that it shouldn't take more than a half an hour to get there."

"Okay, great." Sakura blinked. "Hina-chan, give me your hand, Naruto you take Hinata's other hand and I'll take Sasuke's. Hopefully no one is dead yet."

"No kidding..." Naruto muttered.

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Back to the past:

Sarada stopped in the middle of the stairway and rubbed her head, confusing her past parents. It was as if something was disrupting her brain waves. She felt like that when the scroll teleported her here.

"What's wrong, Sarada-chan?" Naruto asked, looking wary. If something happened to her too, he wasn't sure how he'd take it. He liked Sarada. Not to mention she was Sasuke and Sakura's daughter. Nothing should happen to her.

"Nothing," Sarada choked out, opening her eyes and putting her hands back at her sides. "Just a little headache."

Then the headache was gone, and Sarada finished coming down the stairs, wincing slightly at the memory of the sharp, agonizing pain coursing through her mind. She stood next to the group for a second, then went into the kitchen-bar thing to get water.

"Are you sure?" Sakura asked, frowning. It seemed like Sarada was lying about something, and she figured it had something to do with the headache.

Itachi narrowed his eyes at his niece. He'd felt the jolt too... It felt almost like it had right before Sarada and Boruto showed up, during his and Sasuke's fight. Like someone had been probing through his mind... poking him. He despised being poked.

Itachi couldn't figure out why Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura didn't feel it. Kakashi didn't seem to notice the jolt in the universe either. Suigetsu and Juugo were asleep, and Karin was in the shower, so he couldn't tell if they had felt it.

And Boruto... well, Itachi wasn't up there with the kid to tell if something changed in his facial expression or something.

It was depressing, really, but Boruto and Naruto were the lights of the makeshift team. It was in their personality, a given character trait that made them the way they were. When one goes out, so does the other, and that affected everyone else. Itachi had nicknamed it the Domino Effect.

"So, Sarada," Kakashi asked, clearing his throat and looking at the younger girl. "What did you need to ask us?"

Sarada looked at the people gathered around her. Her mama would probably skin her alive if she asked them where she came from, so she kept it simple. "Tell me about the Akatsuki. What do they want?"

Apparently, they were just as cryptic as they were in the future. They all exchanged glances, except for Itachi, who looked at her in curiosity. "Why do you want to know?" He asked, seeming to be genuinely wanting to know her response. Itachi-jii is weird.

"I need to know what we're up against. Learning about my enemy. It's something my--" Sarada looked at Sasuke wistfully, as if she was remembering something. "Something my dad taught me about awhile ago."

"I see," said Itachi thoughtfully. "Sarada, you realize you are only thirteen years old, right?"

"Duh." Sarada sighed at her uncle. She knew exactly how old she was, kay thanks. "Yesterday was my birthday."

"Then you must realize that a thirteen year old like you doesn't need to concern herself with business like that." Kakashi said slowly, trying not to offend her for his own sake. If Sakura punched hard, her Uchiha daughter would know how to as well.

Sarada's sharp gaze turned to a glare. "Kakashi-jii," Sarada smirked. "How old was Papa when he first got the curse mark?"

"Twe--" He realized his mistake immediately. "Twelve..."

"Kakashi-jii," Sarada continued, "How old was Papa when he left the village?"

"Twelve." He replied.

"Kakashi-jii," Sasuke had to smirk as Sarada kept going. "How old was Mama when she started training under Granny Tsunade?"

"Thirteen." Kakashi scowled. "Okay, I get it. Pre-teens can be--"

"Important." Sarada interrupted. "Now, since my parents are two of the legendary Sannin, I am an overachiever, therefore I am not like any normal 13 year old. Besides, we're training to be shinobi. What were you expecting?"

Kakashi chuckled, shaking his head at the younger girl. She never failed to impress. "You're a crazy mix of your parents, you know that?"

"I've heard it on more than one occasion. Now, Kakashi-ojji-san, explanations please." Sarada glared at him impatiently. It's amazing how people tend to procrastinate when they don't want to explain something. Too bad compliments don't work on me.

"Fine." Kakashi groaned.

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Sarada sat back and processed the new information. Surprisingly, everyone had been quick to give it up once they got over the original pain in the ass-ness. She guessed it was because she'd made Kakashi-jii look like a fool in front of his students, and no one wanted that to happen to them. Too bad these people didn't know why she wanted information on the Akatsuki. Doing drastic things is basically in her bloodline.

"Okay, Sarada-chan, bedtime!" Naruto yawned and picked her up. She giggled, and waved at her parents and uncles.

"Goodnight, Mama, Papa, Kakashi-jii and Itachi-jii!" She called, trying to be quiet so she wouldn't wake up Hinata-oba-san. Faking happiness was so easy for her. It's kinda sad.

Naruto tucked her in next to a sleeping Boruto, and she shut her eyes, wishing Naruto a goodnight as well.

"Goodnight, Sarada-chan." He said, then shut the door quietly. Sarada turned over on her pillow to look at Boruto. I'll avenge you, I swear.

Sarada was finally asleep a few hours later when a hand fixed itself on her mouth, forcing her to wake up. Her first instinct was to scream, but then she was who it was.

"Ahh, so you're the young Uchiha, un?" The blonde snickered, using his other hand to force her to stand up. She obeyed, because she really didn't have any other choice. "Pretty little thing, aren't you. Too bad we have to take you."

Then Sarada decided it would be a good idea to scream. She tossed her head away from his hand, and shrieked. His hand was over her mouth again in an instant. Surprisingly, he used the back of his hands to clamp her mouth shut, and it worked. Sarada then remembered why he did that, and shivered in relief.

"Lets go, un." Deidara smirked. "Ah, Leader-sama will be happy."

Then everything went black.