"Shikadai... Shikadai..." a calloused hand gripped his shoulder a bit tighter than necessary, shaking him from side to side in an effort to drag him back to consciousness. Slowly, Shikadai blinked his aching teal eyes open, waiting a few seconds for the world to settle before making eye contact with his dad. "Oh, thank Kami..."

"W-What happened?" He tried to sit up, but as a sharp pain flared in his chest he realized it was perhaps better to lay still. He tried to remember what had happened, but after the Hokage had come down to overturn Lee-sensei's decision about the match everything just went dark. "I don't... I can't remember."

"Shh. Don't talk. You're hurt pretty bad. You've been unconscious for close to twenty minutes." That would explain the burning, throbbing sensation in his head, then.

Gently, Shikamaru shifted them so that Shikadai was upright, the pre-teen leaning against his father's chest and enclosed in the older man's strong arms. He told him what he knew, which admittedly wasn't much. There hadn't been time for a full-fledged debriefing, after all.

Shikadai paid about as much attention as could be expected of someone brewing a rather severe concussion. His father began to lightly drag his fingers through Shikadai's hair, partly in an effort to soothe the injured boy and partly as a means for checking his head for additional wounds. He steered clear of the crown of his head, where Shikadai felt the most pain... he could only assume that was where the actual impact had been.

However, as Shikamaru continued to talk, Shikadai couldn't help but feel as though something were... off. It was all well and good to snuggle with his father, and while his father was not a particularly emotional man, he was decidedly better at displaying his emotions through physical actions than words. But his mom was usually the epitome of a mother hen when he was injured. Her absence unsettled him in a way he couldn't quite explain.

"Dad..." Shikamaru stilled, as if sensing where this conversation was going. "W-Where's mom?"

Shikamaru was silent for a moment, and Shikadai feared he wouldn't answer him. Or worse, perhaps he didn't actually know. "Shikadai..."

"D-Did something happen to mom?"

Something dripped onto his head. It took him a minute to realize it was a tear, and that his father was now sobbing. "Y-Your mom is really brave, you k-know that?" Shikamaru squeezed his son a little tighter, sniffling, "S-She's the bravest w-woman I've ever met."

Shikadai felt an unspeakable ache slowly begin to built within his chest, "D-Dad?"

Shikamaru shook his head, "Your mom... she went back in after t-the awning began to collapse, to s-save a group of kids that h-had been separated from their parents. The kids were fine, but..." Shikamaru swallowed hard, "Then Sakura said that you h-hadn't been accounted for, and I... I couldn't l-lose you both."

"Is mom d-dead?"

There was a long, tense silence, then, "She was taken to the hospital. That's all I know."

That, of course, was not true. He'd seen Sakura and Ino begin the tedious and dangerous task of removing her broken body from the rubble, had seen the horrendous bruises that marred her back through the hideous, blood-stained tears in her dress. At least one leg was broken - a compound fracture, blood and bone visible to the naked eye. A gash on her forehead bled leisurely, her dead weight distributed evenly between the two medics as they loaded her onto a stretcher.

Sakura had done her best to assure him that she'd seen worse, but this was his wife. The cruelest kunoichi of her time. The strongest woman he'd ever known, aside from his mother. And in the blink of an eye, her body had been crushed beneath hundreds of pounds of rubble. Her wind-style jutsu was too uncontrollable for such a delicate setting - one blast from her warfan could've brought the entire stadium down. So she'd had to use her hands. And they, too, had failed her.

And Shikamaru, who planned so meticulously for every possible alternative, found himself completely unprepared for the chance that his wife would die before him. Because that wasn't how this was supposed to work.

He was a lazy, arrogant know-it-all... if his wife didn't kill him, his two-plus pack a day habit would.

Temari didn't get to die first, damn it!

"C'mon," shakily, he climbed to his feet, before gently scooping the little boy into his arms, careful not to jostle his wounded body too terribly. "We need to get you to the hospital. Hold on tight and try not to fall asleep, okay?"

It was only then that Shikadai realized he couldn't move his right arm. A quick glance down revealed that the flesh had been horribly burned, probably a result of the fire-style jutsu Boruto had released that had come back at them one-hundred times stronger. "D-Dad... I'm scared."

"I know." Shikamaru wished that he could reassure him... but all he could manage to say was, "So am I."

When Shikadai awoke, his dad was gone. The ache in his chest transformed into a suffocating pressure when the reality that he very well could've lost both his parents in the last few hours dawned upon him. It was dulled by the sudden presence of arms around him, crushing him to a very female, very developed chest. He recognized the faint scent of sugar and cherries that seemed to cling to his teammate and friend and immediately relaxed into the embrace. ChouChou gave killer hugs.

And right then, he really needed one.

"Kami, we were so worried!" ChouChou exclaimed, and he could see from the blotchiness of her cheeks and the redness of her eyes that she'd just recently stopped crying. "When Auntie Ino said that they hadn't pulled you out of the stadium -,"

Inojin nodded, "We'd thought that Lee-sensei had gotten you out. When we realized... they wouldn't let us back in to come find you. They said it was too dangerous."

"How is the pain? Is it bad?" ChouChou asked, "Because if it is, we can have Auntie Ino come in and give you more medicine. She wanted us to let her know as soon as you woke up, but... I just... I-I need a minute, just to s-see for myself that y-you're okay."

Shikadai gave her a weak smile, "It'll be troublesome if you start crying." He tried to shift to make himself more comfortable on the bed, but the slightest movement caused him to wince. "What the... What the hell did they do to me?"

"Your left leg and right arm are suspended - you have a broken ankle and a nasty second-degree burn that covers eighty percent of your arm." Inojin said. "It's best if you don't try to move for awhile."

"W-Where's my dad?" Shikadai asked weakly.

ChouChou and Inojin exchanged a glance, before Inojin offered, "He's with Auntie Temari. We can... go get him, if you want."

"No!" Shikadai said, a little too quickly. He wasn't horribly keen on the idea of being left totally alone after... well, everything. "It's fine. I'm sure as soon as Auntie Ino checks me over, she'll let him know that I'm awake." He was quick to change the subject. "How are you two? You don't look too badly injured."

He was right. Thankfully, both of his teammates had escaped without as much as a scratch. There was emotional scarring, of course. How could there not be, after everything that had transpired that afternoon? He could see it in the way Inojin wobbled on his feet, looking like he hadn't slept in about a week, and in the lack of comfort food in ChouChou's vicinity, the poor girl too upset to even consider eating. That was how he knew it was really bad.

ChouChou explained that everyone had been brought to the hospital after the stadium had been obliterated. There was a remarkably low casualty rate considering all that had happened, but one death was still one too many. Even though they weren't injured, Ino felt safer keeping them where she could keep an eye on them and insisted they stay at the hospital until the danger passed. Keeping vigil over their fallen teammate had seemed like the ideal distraction.

There was a knock on the door - Shikadai had been brought to one of the few private rooms available, seeing as he'd almost immediately been rushed into surgery - and Ino poked her head in, smiling brightly at Shikadai. Shikadai struggled to return it. "Ah, I'm so glad to see that you're awake. May I come in?"

Shikadai would've made a smart remark about how he couldn't really stop her - she was his physician, after all. And he was underage. He couldn't refuse treatment. Instead, he just nodded, "Yeah, whatever."

Ino gave him a basic check-up and concluded that he was recovering well. He had a mild concussion, as well as several contusions on his scalp. In addition, he had nerve damage in his right arm from the burns, and a broken ankle that appeared to be the result of having been trapped beneath a layer of rubble for an indeterminate period of time. When she asked if he had any questions, he nodded - there was one question that had been plaguing him since this whole mess began.

"Can I see my mom?" He asked softly. Kami, he hated how weak his voice sounded!

Ino smiled at him sympathetically, "I really wish that I could say yes, honey. But you're still in pretty bad shape and your mom isn't much better." She patted his head gently, "Maybe in a couple of days, you'll be up to -,"

"What if she hasn't got a couple of days?" Shikadai snapped, then winced. His voice bounced around in his head like a rubber ball, echoing over and over till his ears seemed to ring with the sound.

"Your mom is one of the strongest kunoichi that I know." Ino offered reassuringly, "I know it's difficult, but you have to have a little faith that she's fighting just as hard to see you as you are to see her."

Shikadai sighed, "Can you go now?"

Normally, she would've cut him down to size for his rudeness. But now, she merely smiled sadly and nodded, "I'll be back in a few hours to check in on you again."

Once Ino had left the room, softly closing the door behind her, ChouChou had Shikadai in her arms once again. He didn't even realize he'd started crying until ChouChou began to sob as well, and one glance at Inojin showed he was near the brink as well. A second later and Inojin had managed to wind himself into the arms of his teammates, careful to avoid Shikadai's injury. And they all cried together.

Sakura had had to sedate Shikamaru.

Ultimately, she'd known that it would be a mistake to let him see her so soon after what happened. And yet, she'd still allowed him to break her down systematically, to convince her that letting him into that room was the best course of action.

He'd broken down when he realized Temari wasn't breathing on her own.

Sakura had advised him not to worry, that a collapsed lung after such a trauma was perfectly normal. Until she was stable enough for Sakura to correct it surgically, the ventilator would help her to breathe. Nothing to worry about. Except that it was. After all, Temari was not used to close-range impact wounds. Normally, she was able to deflect them with ease with a wave of her warfan. It would be harder, therefore, for her body to acclimate accordingly and ultimately heal.

He'd been awake for almost forty-eight hours, his senses dulled and his reaction time considerably slowed, when Sakura slipped the needle into his neck and gently set him down on the bed just next to his wife's. She couldn't begin to comprehend the pain he must be experiencing right now. If both Sasuke and Sarada had been incapacitated back there, she didn't know what she'd do. She wouldn't be functioning at one-hundred percent, to say the least.

"How is he doing?" Ino asked, watching as Sakura pulled a blanket over her former teammate. Sakura turned, and Ino handed her a cup of lukewarm coffee.

She took a grateful sip before replying, "About as well as could be expected, given the circumstances. I just administered a mild sedative to help him relax."

Ino nodded, coming up to stand at his bedside and brushing a stray lock of hair from his clammy forehead. "Any news on Boruto?"

"No, I'm afraid not. He still hasn't woken up." Sakura sighed, "Hinata isn't doing much better. I'm sure that she'll survive, but she was touch and go for a long while and is stubbornly refusing to just sit back and let us care for her. I understand she wants to save Naruto... but what will happen to Boruto and Himawari if she dies?"

"You said so yourself - she's going to live." Ino reminded her.

Sakura took another sip of her coffee, "I know." She turned to Temari, watching her heart monitor for a moment. "If she dies, I'm worried that Shikamaru might never forgive himself."

"Why?"

"Because he could only save one of them, and he chose to save his son."

Ino raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that what Temari wanted him to do?"

Sakura sighed, "It doesn't matter. Sasuke and Shikamaru... they're a lot alike, you know?" She turned back to Shikamaru. "Both let guilt fester and control them. For Sasuke, it was not being strong enough to defend his clan. For Shikamaru, it was not being strong enough to protect Asuma-sensei... his father... now his wife."

Ino was silent for a moment, considering. Then, she offered, "It wouldn't matter who he saved, really. He'll blame himself for not being smart enough to devise a plan that would save them both."

"Exactly."

They sat in companionable silence for a moment, both at a loss for what to say in the face of such tragedy. There were no words that seemed to appropriately capture the scope of exactly what was happening here. Ino had been there when Shikamaru had brought in his son, desperately trying to wake the boy that had slipped into unconsciousness during the short trip over. The last time she'd seen Shikamaru cry was on his wedding day...

And yet he'd sobbed over that little boy, whose breathing was becoming increasingly more laboured and was completely unresponsive.

Since he couldn't follow Shikadai into the operating theatre, he'd tracked down his wife and almost had a complete breakdown at the sight of her. He'd asked for the truth and Sakura gave it to him: Temari would likely be paralyzed from the waist down due to damage to her spinal column during the implosion. The damage may or may not be reversible, but right then it was imperative that they stabilize her and repair her damaged lungs.

"Shikadai is awake," Ino said, wanting to inject some positive news into their rather macabre conversation. "He wanted to come see his mother, but I didn't think it was a good idea - I can see now that I was right."

"Is there someone with him?" Sakura immediately regretted sedating Shikamaru - he would want to, and deserved to, know that his son was conscious.

"Yeah, ChouChou and Inojin are in with him now. I figured that they could all benefit from some low-stress time together after everything that happened."

"I thought the same for Boruto. Sarada and Mitsuki are standing vigil over his bedside. It's actually kind of adorable."

Ino sipped her own coffee, before asking, "Are you planning on spending the night again, or are you going to go home and try to get some shut-eye?" There was a pause as Sakura seemed to consider, when Ino inclined her head toward Shikamaru, "'Cause if you keep pushing yourself, I might have to sedate you, too."

Sakura sighed, "I just want to make sure that Hinata is stable and isn't going to try anything rash, and then I'll head home. Okay, Ino-pig?"

"Sounds like a deal, billboard-brow"

Two nights later, Shikamaru was forced to see off Boruto, Sasuke, and the four Kage as they went off in search of Naruto. His cool, collected appearance belied the swirling storm of nerves that pooled inside his belly. Temari had been stable for twenty-four hours and so it was safe to take her into surgery to repair her collapsed lung. She'd gone under about fifteen minutes before he'd been forced to leave to administer to his advisorial duties.

Once they'd all safely traveled through the portal (as well as a few unwelcome annoyances), Shikamaru rushed back to the hospital to be with his son. He hadn't seen the boy since he'd brought him in almost three days earlier, and his heart fluttered painfully in his chest as he took in the combination of fiberglass, gauze bandages, splints, and tape that held his son together. He looked like a mummy.

Shikamaru sat down in the chair beside his son and, carefully, took hold of his uninjured hand. Teal eyes fluttered open and lazily focused on his face, "And here I thought you didn't want to visit me." He croaked, his voice hoarse from disuse.

Shikamaru smiled sadly, "How are you feeling?"

"Like hell." Shikadai answered immediately. "Auntie Ino won't give me anything stronger because of my concussion, and this burn hurts like a bitch."

Shikamaru looked down at his hands, "I'm sorry, little fawn." Shikadai flushed - he was getting too old to be called 'little fawn'. "You never should've been in the line of fire, I never should've let you out of my sight -,"

Shikadai frowned, "Dad, I'm twelve-years-old. And I'm a chunin now." Shikamaru squeezed his hand, and gave him a small, yet distinctly proud smile. "I don't expect you to protect me all the time. This wasn't your fault."

Shikamaru didn't comment, instead offering, "How're ChouChou and Inojin?" Ino had told him that Shikadai's teammates had stood vigil over his bedside for the first day and a half.

"They're fine, I guess." Shikadai said, "More worried than anything."

They fell into a companionable silence. Shikadai took a moment to really look at his father. The older man looked like hell. There were purplish bags underneath his swollen eyes, and dried tear tracts on his face. He'd only seen his father cry a small handful of times - it probably had something to do with the way his mother always made fun of him for it - and he decided that he didn't like the pinched, pained look on his father's face.

Shikadai knew what had happened to his grandfather, had witnessed the pain of such a loss first-hand through his father and grandmother. It had been over fifteen years since his passing, and sometimes it seemed like the wound was still fresh - like someone had just ripped off the scab and it was bleeding anew. He'd had just a taste of that wretched heartache when he'd found out that his mother had been hurt, knowing, deep down, that she could die.

But what would have happened to his father, if he'd lost both his wife and son in that one horrific moment? What would he have done?

Observing his father now, he realized that he truly didn't want to know the answer. Instead, he let the older man continue to clutch his hand, and pushed the thought to the back of his mind.

Even if getting caught holding hands with his father at his age was uncool, it was better than the alternative.

"They've taken your mom into surgery." Shikamaru said finally. He was relieved to finally have some news to report to his son, even if it wasn't that his mother had recovered one-hundred percent. "They are confident the operation will be successful."

Shikadai nodded, "Will I be able to see her then?"

Shikamaru eyed the contraption holding his son in place, "As much as I want to say yes, you're still pretty banged up. I'm worried about you pushing yourself to hard and -,"

Shikadai cut him off. "I'm not fragile, dad. I'm not gonna break." Teal eyes scanned over his body. "Yeah, I look like shit right now - but I'm not gonna let you worry about mom all by yourself."

"You shouldn't have to worry about it." Shikamaru said firmly... but his voice was very soft.

"Neither should you." Shikadai said, "None of this is your fault."

They sat and talked for awhile longer about everything and nothing. Shikadai was finally awarded the chance to tell Shikadai just how proud he was of his performance at the Chunin Exams - and how he would've been proud regardless of whether he won or lost. And Shikadai, who had been concerned about his parents thinking less of him because he'd forfeited the match, had smiled for the first time since the whole debacle started. And if there were tears in the corners of his eyes, well...

And just like that, it was decided. "Alright." He leaned in and kissed Shikadai's forehead, "As soon as your mom is stable, you can see her."

She was breathing on her own, but she still hadn't regained consciousness.

It was rather cramped in the hospital room - Ino had had Shikadai's bed wheeled down from the pediatric ward and had settled it as close to his mother's bedside as possible. Shikamaru was squeezed into a chair directly between them, as Ino felt this would be the best way for him to establish contact with both his wife and son and reassure himself that both were alive and well. Shikamaru, in a quiet voice, was relaying a watered-down version of what had happened to Temari to Shikadai.

Shikadai listened attentively, as he always did when his father spoke. He couldn't describe the sudden fear that gripped him, seeing his mother reduced to an unmoving form in a stark white hospital bed, surrounded by wires and machines that were barely succeeding in keeping her alive. His dad said that his mother was likely paralyzed. She'd no longer be able to train with him in the afternoons, or chase after him when his laziness had once again gotten under her skin...

"Mom..." he whimpered weakly, not even realizing that he'd made a sound until his father stopped speaking and looked at him, startled.

"If this is too much, I can call Ino and have her take you back up to the room." Shikamaru said softly, but Shikadai shook his head almost immediately.

"I was just shocked, that's all." Shikadai said. "She looks so... different. I don't like it."

Shikamaru nodded, "Yeah, neither do I."

"How long will she be like that? Unconscious, I mean?"

"Until she wants to wake up, I assume."

Knowing his mother, that could be anywhere from that precise moment to ten long years in the future. Temari always liked dramatic entrances, to swoop in when it was least expected of her. As long as she was stable and recovering, as far as Shikamaru was concerned, she could take as long as she wanted. But Shikadai was impatient. He wanted his mom back, and he wanted her now.

"Dad?" Shikamaru turned to acknowledge his son, "Can you wheel me a little closer to mom? I wanna try something."

Shikamaru was able to get him a little closer, but not much. "That's the best I can do. Not a lot of room to work with, I'm afraid."

"That's okay." With his uninjured hand, he reached out and took Temari's. "You take her other one, dad." After a moment of hesitation, Shikamaru did just that.

They fell asleep like that, both holding one of Temari's hands. It was amazing how sleep deprived someone that had done nothing but rest for the last several days, or had been forcibly sedated for close to twenty-four hours. It was a welcome respite for the three to be in each other's company, and for the first time, they rested relatively easily.

Temari's eyes fluttered, bleary teal eyes flickering between her two loves... She smiled softly, squeezed their hands gently, and went back to sleep.