"He'll be alright. Sore from the surgery, obviously, but he'll be back to training within two weeks if he takes it easy." Itachi's consciousness emerged to the murky surface at the voice, and he once again found himself immediately fatigued from climbing the mental penrose stairs in search of his location. "You have to keep him from training or the recovery time will be longer- We all know how Naruto was when he was supposed to rest and heal, so we have to keep a tight watch on him."

"Thank you, Sakura," a soft voice whispered. Mom, his inner voice piped in. Mom. Itachi's eyes burst open, but instead of finding Mikoto Uchiha at the foot of his bed, he was met with blinding sunlight and the outlines of two unfamiliar women. As his eyes adjusted to the sun, their images solidified: a pink haired woman in a white coat- the doctor- and a short black haired woman wringing her hands nervously. Mom, a faint inner voice monologued.

But the woman with the black hair was definitely not Mikoto Uchiha...however, an intangible ache in Itachi's core told him she was his mother; he couldn't say how he knew, it was just a fact that could be categorized under "one of those things." He noted two identical yet conflicting thoughts running parallel to each other: his memory flashed the tight embrace of his mother, an Uchiha, the day he graduated from the academy. Yet...yet he also remembered this woman hugging him outside the school as he proudly stared at his shiny new headband. Her byakugan (his mother was not a Hyuga) stared back at him, tears pouring over, proud yet heartbroken at this new milestone.

Somehow Itachi was having the same exact memories- the last day of school- from two differing perspectives. How was that possible? It was definitely not a genjutsu; they were both full, fleshed out, breathing memories. They were alive and true. They had their own hearts, pumping blood through Itachi, delivering the emotions his body had stored when they occured. These weren't dreams. He experienced both. He remembered both. Somehow.

A knock erupted from the door on the other side of the curtain. "Knock, knock…" a raspy voice called out.

The women's heads snapped toward the voice. "Oh my gosh, thank you for coming too," his mother whispered and moved out of sight to greet whoever had just entered. "That will mean so much to Boruto to know you were here."

"Of course I had to visit my student," another voice growled lowly, keeping his voice down in a way the first one didn't. "What's his prognosis?"

That deep voice...where did he know it? It was familiar but off. He knew it, yet...

At that moment two tall men stepped onto his side of the curtain. Both looked down at him, but his eyes locked like magnets onto only one pair of eyes. They were eyes that he knew. The same eyes he himself had. Black eyes that he spent his entire childhood staring down at. But now here he was, staring up into them, and this time they were set into the face of a grown man...not the face of his baby brother.

While Itachi felt his blood freeze, the other man made no indication that he realized the person in the bed was his older brother. "Oh good," he said nonchalantly. "You're awake. You're definitely looking a lot better than you did yesterday… What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Sasuke," he breathed. "You're here!"

"Oh wow, you're happy to see Sasuke but completely ignore me?" The other man stuck his neck in front of Sasuke's, cutting off eye contact, and waved his hands at Itachi's face.

Itachi's eyes settled on the blonde hair and whiskers belonging to the waving man. "Naruto!" Naruto was here too! So he did it! He saved his baby brother and brought him home… But he didn't just save him though, he noted. They clearly were friends! All his hard work and dreams for Sasuke had come true and were manifesting in front of him in a second floor hospital room.

The blonde's eyes bulged now as Sasuke smirked beside him. "Naruto?!" he cried. The women laughed. "Sakura, I thought you said you could fix him, but he doesn't even know me! How about dad, Boruto? You can call me dad!"

"Dad?" Just then the whole scene paused for Itachi. The people in front of him melted to black as the thought that had been worming around in his brain finally burrowed. It was why he could remember two similar memories from different vantage points with different people; it was why he was referred to as Boruto and why Sasuke didn't even react to seeing Itachi's face. It was because he wasn't Itachi… Well, he was Itachi; he still had Itachi's memories after all. In mind he was Itachi, yes, in spirit. But he was another person in body. He was a child. He was Naruto's son. He was Sasuke's student. He was Boruto Uzumaki.

"Uh, Boruto?"

Itachi snapped out of his thoughts to see the four adults' eyes narrowed at him at the foot of his bed; Naruto had just chastised him for not calling him dad and here he was just silently staring at them with tears suddenly dripping down his face.

"I-I was just joking, you know," Naruto said. "You don't have to cry."

Itachi hurriedly swiped his hand across his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm not crying. I just…" He could feel his heart welling up again at the sight of his brother's eyebrows knitted together. Though Sasuke was staring at him less concerned and more with a What the hell is wrong with this kid kind of glare, he knew the significance of just looking at his brother again. "I'm just really happy you're all here. ...And I'm here."

Naruto's mouth spread into a smile and he sat down at the edge of the bed. "We're so happy too!" he said. "It was really touch-and-go for a while. You really scared us. Sarada filled a lot of the holes of what happened, but you're lucky Sasuke and I were there."

"Sarada…?" Itachi asked, confused.

"You don't remember Sarada?" Naruto and Sasuke asked simultaneously.

"Uh…" Shit. He needed to stop asking questions if he didn't know something or else people were going to be concerned; he needed to just let others take the lead until more memories rose to the surface.

"He had a rough surgery," Sakura piped in. "He definitely still has a concussion too, so it may take him a while to return to normal. Sooooo…" She pointed to Naruto and Sasuke. "Visitors. Out. Let the boy rest."

Itachi was pleased to see both men frown, with Naruto grabbing Itachi's ankle as though touching his son could keep him there. "I just wanted to ask him some things about the mission," Sasuke offered.

"You can ask him when he is feeling better," Sakura sighed and shooed them with their hands. "Come back tomorrow."

Naruto squeezed Itachi's ankle before leaning closer to him. "Don't worry, kid. We'll bust you out of here. We're good at that." He winked at him and Itachi's heart skipped a beat in response.

"No! Out!" Sakura cried, and busted Naruto on his head with her fist. The blonde jumped from the bed and hurried after Sasuke, who was already safely out of the room.

"Okay, okay! But this is my son too remember!" Naruto spewed.

"You won't have a son if you don't let him rest properly!"

Itachi had never seen Sasuke interact with his teammates, but he knew that he made the right choice in leaving Sasuke to Naruto. Even with the chastising, Itachi could feel the love emanating from all three toward each other; Sasuke had definitely changed, clearly loving his disciple enough to visit him when the last Sasuke he met was cold and self-centered, and he respected this woman enough to follow her orders.

"Are you going to let her stay but not me?!" Naruto's voice was outside the room now and sounded muffled, as though he was holding something in front of his face, perhaps to shield himself from this woman's wrath.

"Mothers get priority, and she isn't so loud like you!" Sakura yelled. Yeah. So much quieter.

His mother giggled. "Well, I'll be going then too," she said and turned to her son. "I'll be back tomorrow, but do you want me to bring anything now?"

Itachi's mind instantly went into overdrive; this was his chance to eat what he had been missing!

"Dango!"

"Dango?" she laughed. "I figured you'd want Thunder Burger!" Shit. Does he not like dango? "But if that's what you want… I'll be back in a bit."

She slipped out the door, leaving Sakura and Itachi alone. Sakura turned to grab her files from the bedside table. "We're just going to run a few more tests first then-"

As she turned her back to him, Itachi caught a gleam of the Uchiha crest on the back of her coat.

"You're an Uchiha," he blurted.

Sakura slowly turned back to him, eyeing him curiously. "Y-yes…" she said. "Boruto, do you know who I am?"

Itachi stared silently at her; she was someone's mom, right? Sarada's name was just under the surface but his brain couldn't catch it.

Sakura just nodded her head as if she understood. "It's okay, you may just have to stay for a little longer while we monitor you, okay? We'll talk more later. Just rest right now."

She collected the rest of her items and smiled warily at him before walking out of the room. Itachi was now alone with his thoughts, a whole infinity to explore.