The first thing that they had done was to redo their timeline seriously. Well that was the first thing they’d tried to do, but when they came across the first six months of scrolls, they had to put it on hold. They were so embarrassingly illegible that Ino had tried to hide them all from Sakura until she could transcribe them into actual sentences. Going through them turned out to be a useful endeavor anyways, as many of Sakura’s most important dreams had come in the first few months.
There’d been one of a masked man. Not an ANBU mask either. It was strange and had an abstract pattern over it.
Another had been of Naruto, cloaked in a strange bubbling aura that imitated the form of some sort of canine.
Many involved giving Sasuke second, third and fourth chances, all of which he took advantage of in the worst ways possible.
A civilian boy drowning during a flash flood.
The village being invaded.
The Hokage’s funeral.
Altogether it was a sobering few days, and they really hadn’t needed much sobering after ‘the Uchiha massacre’, as it was coming to be called. They slowly transitioned scroll-HQ to Sakura’s room, hoping they would attract less suspicion there. It seemed like the magnitude of the information doubled every day, and the weight of responsibility was starting to feel suffocating.
A part of Ino wished that someone would just discover the treasure trove of information and confront them. Then it would be in the adults’ hands and she could go back to her life. But Ino knew it was a selfish wish. Sakura’s life would be ruined. If they could prove that Sakura’s dreams truly were prophetic, they would place her in what would amount to a fancy prison cell and treat her like livestock; milking every bit of information they could from her brain till she couldn’t give anymore.
But maybe that is what’s best. A heartless, twisted thought echoed in the back of her mind; argued that that was the right choice, that the fate of thousands rested on their shoulders, and that by not bringing this to the attention of adults she was risking all of their lives.
She shook her head, disgusted for entertaining the idea of betraying her best friend. She turned back to the pile of scrolls in front of her, picked one up, and scanned it lifelessly before labelling it. Age 12. Escort Mission. Kiri. Missing Nin. She scanned the timeline and found where the memory would slot in. Numbers 120, 121, and 122 had already been taken, and this one looked like it would fit somewhere in the middle.
They’d decided to give each memory a ten-number range. The old man escort mission had gotten assigned 120-129. They would skip every other set of 10 to make room for the possibility of new memories, so numbers 0-9, 20-29, 40-49, etc. were used and 10-19, 30-39, etc. were left open.
In this case rather than going back and trying to change all the numbers she wrote #121.5 as the final label, this time on the end of the scroll so that it would be visible from above, and then searched through the boxes to find the correct section. Then she turned to the timeline and added the same number. In an area above the numbers there was a short description of the event.
She gazed at the gargantuan scroll they had acquired. Over a decade of memories, as far as they could tell. And those memories culminated in a massive war that they lost. And the only people who knew were her and Sakura. So that meant that the fate of the world rested on their shoulders didn’t it?
Silently, the two girls made eye contact. Ino could see the same heaviness she felt reflected in Sakura’s eyes. The longer they stared at each other the stronger their determination became, until almost simultaneously they nodded at each other.
We've got this shit.
Ino gave her small smile and picked up another scroll.
You are reading story Princess of the Night at novel35.com