Author's Note: it's incredible to see so many familiar readers. To think, a lot of us grew up together. Many of you know that I've been on here since I was a kid. Well, this wasn't my 1st account, but it certainly my longest running. Thank you for all the love and support over all these years. It's kind of crazy, isn't it?

So maybe he had changed. Hinata hadn't been savagely assaulted, and he hadn't stood by helplessly listening. He had been fifteen. It had been traumatizing. She was Hinata, the girl who would become his wife.

He had carried the weight of that guilt around for the past decade, even if it felt like three times as much time that the memory plagued him, oscillating with all the other demented things that lapped around in his mind.

Both of them were different now. At a subtle, but fundamental, level. In place of Hinata's own trauma, many of her old vulnerabilities had reappeared, and Sasuke could admit that they were becoming moreso...charming, than unnerving as he got used to them. Her barriers were down, and he couldn't help wanting to explore everything that had been lying beyond them.

A lot to get used to, Mirai Sasuke noted, as he walked into the Academy and started up the stairs.

He had Kasai by her upper arm and took to dragging her along behind him. He had found her lying around on a training ground, of all places. Mirai Sasuke ignored her complaints, which seemed mostly related to ice cream. "You know you're not supposed to eat sweets." She was hyperactive. Then again, everyone was hyper-something these days. Sasuke released the struggling child—kid, really—as they exited onto the roof.

Here, two other preteens were waiting, looking dehydrated and irritated, probably because they had been sitting there for the past two hours in the sun. They looked up at Sasuke in surprise.

"Sorry I'm late," said Mirai Sasuke insincerely. "I was-" he paused. "Never mind."

"I thought we were getting Neji," said Hanabi, offended.

Seated beside her was an ill-looking boy who was furiously wiping his running nose on his sleeve. Having granted Sasuke two female subordinates despite the protests of the other jounin, Tsunade had decided to balance things out by giving him the lowest ranking student.

Sasuke couldn't remember his name.

"Have a seat," Sasuke told Kasai. She dragged her feet, and kind of veered off in the opposite direction for a minute, but eventually plopped down with the others. Sasuke eyed her. "I'm your new jounin sensei," he deadpanned.

"You're not a jounin!" declared Kasai, pointing an accusative finger at him.

Sasuke wasn't a sociable person. He generally tried to keep his daily word-count to the bare minimum. He stared at Kasai and realized things were changing. "I am now," he said.

"But tousan-!"

"Call me sensei."

"T-tousan?"

"Sensei."

Her eyes got suspiciously watery.

Sasuke ignored her. "I appreciate all of you coming to this preliminary meeting. I'd like to introduce myself and get to know the three of you." Even he wasn't buying it. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. As you probably know, I am from the future. While here, I'd like to keep myself occupied, and hopefully forge some new alliances."

"Aren't you Orochimaru's bitch? Aren't you trying to destroy Konoha and kill us all?" said Hanabi.

Mirai Sasuke peered at her, noting the irony of her remark. So he hadn't been the sanest at fifteen. He became momentarily distracted as the boy beside her blubbered into a handkerchief, but then brushed it off and refocused. "Hana," force of habit. "-Bi." Sasuke missed her like this. Young. Sardonic. "You go first. Tell us about yourself."

"What's the point? Don't you already know everything? Tell us about our futures," Hanabi challenged.

Sasuke gave her a cold stare. He was used to people just doing what he said, but preteens were a different species.

Hanabi sighed. Even in the wake of her father's death, her composure was unshakable. "I'm Hyuuga Hanabi. I like riceballs with jelly-"

Except when he burned them...

"-and...ano...strawberry pocky. I hate boys, and weaklings, and – weakling boys! I want to be in the ANBU Interrogation Force."

Sasuke blinked. "Right." He turned away. "You-" He pointed at the boy seated beside her, racking his mind. "Udon?"

Udon was covered in tears and mucus. His entire being seemed unhygienic. Sasuke unconsciously took a step back.

"I'm sorry. Th-this is really hard for me." Udon forced out words between his sobs. "Moegi's upset that w-we're not on the same team. She won't even talk to me! What do I do?" Udon looked up at Sasuke with desperate, tear-filled eyes.

Sasuke's cheek twitched. "Okay, we'll come back to you..."

He noticed that Hanabi never looked at Udon even though she was seated right beside him. It was a conscious effort, and it was...curious. Sasuke glanced at Kasai, wondering if she was still crying, but she wasn't even paying attention. She was staring off the roof and at something in the distance, her cheeks flushed. Sasuke followed her gaze to a flailing, orange blob by the bridge.

Genzai Naruto.

Sasuke blanched. "Kasai."

She jumped. "Otousan-sensei!"

Mirai Sasuke didn't realize how heavily he was breathing, nor did he notice that his subordinates thought he was having a heart attack. He turned from Hanabi's hopeful gaze, to Udon's worried one, and finally, Kasai's skeptic look.

Being a jounin was more difficult than he had anticipated. "Meeting adjourned."

Mirai Hinata peered into her bathroom mirror that evening. Had she really changed that much? She glared at her reflection.

She had developed an attitude. Maybe it had rubbed off on her from Sasuke, Hanabi, Neji, or another of her model influences. Maybe it was just another side-effect of her newfound emotional capacity.

She was having difficulty controlling all the new emotions. Everyone could read her like a book now. She couldn't look at her husband without blushing. She looked away from her mirror, blushing more.

She could also attribute it to what their counterparts had walked in on. Her and Sasuke's relationship had been revealed. How had their young counterparts been affected? And most importantly, how would it all affect the timeline?

She couldn't shake the sight of their shocked, traumatized faces. She just hoped Kasai didn't disappear again.

Hinata looked up when she heard people walking along the corridor outside the room. She exited the bathroom and made her way to the bedroom door, opening it and peeking out.

She had been wondering if Mirai Naruto and Sakura had finally returned, but was met with the sight of Mirai Sasuke and Kasai. She opened the door wider, stepping out of the room as they approached.

Sasuke seemed appreciative for that afternoon. Touching her waist, he leaned in as though to kiss her, but paused. Kasai was oogling them in morbid fascination. They were used to their five-year-old, not this older child with an acute level of awareness. After the day's events, they were weary of spectators.

Hinata felt Sasuke's lips connect with her temple.

"Ewww," mentioned Kasai.

There were a lot of new dynamics to their relationship. It would take some getting used to.

Sasuke patted Kasai's head. "Stay with your mother," he said, fatigued.

Kasai opened and closed her mouth as if to protest, but her father walked off. She glared up at her mother. "Kaasan," she said grimly.

Hinata blinked as Kasai stomped past her into the room.

"Sasuke," Hinata called, just before Sasuke could enter his own room across the hall. She quickly closed their distance, glancing back to make sure Kasai was out of sight. "Sasuke, I-"

He pulled her against him and kissed her properly. She melted in his arms, but feebly tried to escape. "No – I mean, I wanted to ask-"

"She doesn't like you," Sasuke said, kissing her neck.

"Why?" said Hinata, her blush building as she felt his hands slip into her pants and slide down her hips.

"You're in charge."

She blinked. It never struck her that she played the role of the disciplinarian, but it made sense, reserved and impatient as Sasuke was. "But what if she tries to kill me?"

"Mmm," was his non-answer, as he seemed otherwise distracted.

"Sasu…mgh...someone will see us."

"Everyone already knows."

"Ano…we can't just…" She escaped his grasp, and found herself holding him at arms-length. He was leaned back on the wall, hair hanging in his face as he lazily drank her in, gaze dark and amorous. He didn't have the byakugan but she felt like he could see through her clothes.

Hinata's lips twisted. "Will you wait up for me?" she asked him. "Leave the door unlocked?"

"Yes," he said in a breath, reaching out to grip her shirt.

Hinata untangled his fingers from the fabric. "Later then," she promised, leaning up for one more kiss. "After midnight."

When Hinata returned to her room, Kasai was already asleep somehow. She must have been tired. Hinata sat on the edge of the bed. Kasai slept as she had as a 5-year-old: messily, limbs akimbo.

Hinata didn't know Kasai as a nine-year-old, and wasn't sure how to deal with her. Hinata was supposed to command respect, but had yet to test it. And she was beginning to suspect Kasai was taking advantage of the situation.

Figure it out, Sasuke had mentioned, petulant about her departure.

Sighing, Hinata climbed into the bed beside Kasai, and lay back as she stared at the ceiling. Minutes passed, maybe hours. Sometimes it was comforting just to be beside her daughter. Occasionally she could hear feet padding along the corridors, the sounds mitigating as the night grew later, and her eyelids grew heavier. Then there was something distinct. The sound of crying.

Mirai Hinata glanced at the clock on the nightstand. It was just after midnight.

Midnight.

Hinata sat up and turned on the lamp on her nightstand. Beside her on the bed, Kasai had disappeared, to be replaced with a small, crying heap in the sheets. She lifted a corner and peered into it.

"Oh."

"Shhhh," Mirai Hinata murmured, pacing the hallway with the baby in her arms.

It was alarming to realize how volatile the timeline was. Every action they made seemed to have drastic effects on the future. Hinata continued to pace, and the crying finally began to subside.

She looked up as she heard a new pair of feet enter the guest wing. She turned around, her face lighting up. "Naruto," she whispered, relieved to see him after such a while.

The blonde approached. "Woah, whose baby is this?"

She held the infant at arms-length where she gurgled and drooled excessively.

"Kasai," Mirai Naruto grinned. "Why's she's tiny again?" he laughed, taking her and lifting her high.

Hinata was still trying to figure that out herself. At least this was a version of Kasai she was familiar with. "We have to figure out a way to stabilize her age," she said, troubled. Then she shifted her attention back to Naruto. "Where have you been these past few days?"

His fox grin was in full force, but it didn't extend to his eyes. She saw the lines beneath them; the weariness. "Why does it matter? Did Sasuke miss me?"

Hinata was surprised by the evasiveness. Naruto handed the baby back to her.

"I'm getting some sleep," Naruto mentioned, throwing her a wave as he walked towards his room.

"Naruto-kun. Where's Sakura?" Hinata asked.

His hand on his doorknob, Naruto paused. "Oh," he said, as though he'd forgotten something. He glanced back at her, his grin becoming pained.

And so he admitted it.

"She's dead."