Parallel Worlds

As the feeling of weightlessness faded, Sasuke Uchiha landed on his backside.

He snapped his eyes open, breathing hard, and found himself lying once again on that familiar patch of grass by the river.

It was the very spot where the Rabbit Talisman had first brought him back.

Sunshine filled the sky, and a gentle breeze blew. Everything that had happened before felt like a dream.

But in the next instant, a cold chill shot up his spine. He instinctively reached into his pocket. It was empty!

The Rabbit Talisman, which could carry him through time and which he had come to see as both his last hope and his curse, was gone!

"How is that possible?!" Sasuke frantically searched every pocket he had, then tore through the grass around him. He found nothing.

The Rabbit Talisman had vanished without a trace, as though it had never existed.

Panic engulfed him like an icy tide. Losing the Rabbit Talisman meant more than losing his means of changing the past. It pointed to a cruel truth.

He might be trapped at this point in time forever, unable to return! He could never go back to the "future" where Naruto, Sakura, Teacher Kakashi, and even the living brother he had sworn to surpass were waiting!

Was this what Izumi meant by sacrificing everything?

Overwhelming helplessness and despair seized him again.

He slumped onto the grass and stared blankly at the flowing river.

Change the fate of the Uchiha? The idea seemed laughably hollow now.

He had already lived through it once. He knew full well that, with this weak body, anything he did would be futile.

All he could do was watch everything follow its bloody, predetermined course again. His interference might even make things worse.

He was tired, and he was