Alone
Akira woke up feeling well rested. That was her first clue something was off. She hadn't had more than an hour's sleep at a time in what felt like decades. Then she saw the glowing seals. Snapping herself out of her daze Akira sat up. They were everywhere going onto the ceiling of the cave and onto her arms.
‘This is bad. Very very bad. Think, think, think, you didn’t learn sealing from Naruto just to panic!’ She thought. Taking a deep breath she attempted to step out of the seals.
“STOP!”
Akira froze, turning her head to see Naruto at the back of the cave crouched over, with a brush in his hand.
“Naruto what the hell? Are these your seals?” She questioned, thinking back to her last memory. She was on a supply run with Naruto,her waiting outside for Naruto while he ran in and dropped off supplies. When he came out he looked like he had been crying and he just walked up and put his hand on her shoulder and she must have passed out.
“What happened at the dropoff? What the hell is going on? We need to finish our patrol!” Akira cried out.
“It’s no use. There’s no one left.” Naruto responded quietly.
“What!? W-what about the Kiri survivors? Or the ones from Iwa? Anyone, anyone at all?!” Her voice was as shaky as a homemade tower. They couldn’t be dead. She had promised Kurotsuchi she would help the Iwa survivors! They couldn’t be!
Noticing her panic at his words Naruto responded. “It’ll be ok. You're gonna fix it.”
“What are you talking about! Me? What about you!” What was Naruto on about? They had to go look for survivors! She stared down at the seal matrix, trying to decipher what it meant. This was clearly a transportation seal of some kind. Her
gaze followed the maze of lines and swirls up the wall onto the ceiling. Location, location, location. All teleportation seals had to have the destination somewhere. But there just… wasn’t? ‘That's not possible.’ She thought, shaking her head.
Examining the center closer she noticed there was a time. What the hell was Naruto up to? Pieces slowly started coming together in her head.
“Oh Kami Naruto! Time travel! You can’t be serious!”
Naruto shrugged sheepishly “If you go back this all” he gestured around him in what Akira now realized was not a cave but the crushed ruins of the survivors base. “Will be fixed.”
“Kami! You're serious?!” Akira yelled, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Naruto took a deep breath before talking. “Sorry `Kira. It’s the best option. Now listen, I set the seal to active once I seal Kurama’s chakra in you in case I die before you can be sent back. You can only take what you're wearing and one or two items in your storage tattoos.” Composing herself Akira looked down to find her matching swords-they in quite a state, no longer having their colorful gleam due to the war- as well as a pair of gloves with metal plates. Quickly picking them up and looking at them she frowned.
“Naruto are these….. Sakura’s gloves?” Sakura had been at the survivors camp in charge, managing the few people left. She hadn’t been the same since Ino had died. Then again not many people were. Choji had died holding off an entire platoon soon after. Leaving only Shikamaru. After Temari’s death he really broke. He stayed quiet for months until he died on a supply run.
“She would have wanted you to have them no.” He said getting choked up as he finished.
Akira looked down, tired down to her bones, a sharp contrast to how she felt earlier. She looked back up, shooting out rapid fire questions. .“Let’s do this then. When will I be sent back? Have you accounted for other dimensions? Wait, forget that. How’s the seal coming? Do you need help?”
“I finished while you slept. All that’s left to do is transfer part of Kurama to you.”He responded. “Are you good to start?” Just as Naruto finished speaking, the rubble above us shifted.
“Shit!” Naruto hissed softly. “My seal to keep them out won’t last much longer.We need to start .”
POV SHIFT AKIRA
After Naruto slammed his hand onto the seal matrix and it glowed blue and red, I collapsed to my knees in anguish, crying out.
“AAAHHHHH”
Then everything went black.