𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘 || sasusaku

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Interlude-Sakura's Determination

It turns out, the moment a person succumbed to the illusion in the cave, the time would flow differently for them. Sometimes the longer the person remained in the cave, the stronger his desire is, no matter how short of an interval the illusion was.

Sasuke felt annoyed, to say the least when Taisho told him he's been in the cave for a week when it felt like he's been there for just an hour. But nonetheless Sasuke took the scroll and walked out of the cave unharmed to which Chief Ginko praised the young Uchiha. Sasuke, on the other hand, just shrugged off the Chief's words and told him retrieving the scroll was not that difficult.

"What does it say?" Sasuke asked, out of politeness, he let the Chief to read the scroll first. They were inside the tent, the scroll on the Chief's hand.

But the Chief just shook his head and sighed, putting the scroll on the table, Sasuke took a glance at it.

Instead of words, what Sasuke saw was something else.

"A map?" Sasuke asked, a frown grazing his forehead.

"I'm afraid so. However, that is an unusual map. One that is not located anywhere in this world. But somewhere in a different dimension."

Chief Ginko looked up at Sasuke pointedly and Sasuke knew what the old Chief was thinking. A map containing the location of the scroll. But the location cannot be found anywhere in this world. Sasuke is the only person in this world who can bend space and time and warp to another location or dimension using his rinnegan.

Sasuke took the scroll and rolled it close before putting it inside.

"I'm going on ahead, then," Sasuke announced as he put on his poncho.

"What? Now? Aren't you exhausted, Sasuke?"

"No. If anything, I wanted to locate the scroll as soon as possible."

And go back home as soon as possible, Sasuke thought. Chief Ginko knew the young man couldn't be stopped so he let Sasuke walk out of the tent, following him outside. The people are way busy to notice Sasuke and Chief Ginko by the lakeside.

"You be careful now, Sasuke." Chief Ginko handed Sasuke a box wrapped in a brown cloth. Food, he guess. The Chief also handed him something wrapped in a handkerchief.

"Those are herbal food pills. Hope that'll help."

Chief Ginko was too kind that Sasuke felt a bit awkward. He's never been good to anyone to be shown such kindness in the past and Sasuke had never had a grandfather like Chief Ginko. So perhaps, this was what it felt to have one.

Sasuke bowed slightly, if that was even considered a bow. He activated his visual prowess and open a portal towards the location listed on the map. He didn't bother saying farewell to Taisho, Sasuke doesn't find the need to.

Before stepping inside the portal, Sasuke had one thought in mind. It lingers even after he was floating in time and space.

Sakura, I wonder what she's doing right now, Sasuke thought.

_____

The dreams Sakura had been having these past few days are oddly enough, prickles of memories she had when she was little. It's also weird how when every time she wakes up, only a fraction of those dreams are left in her mind while most of the dreams have wandered her thoughts but she couldn't stitch them together to make some sense out of it.