Author's Note: I know I'm very slow with how I'm progressing into the story, but bare with me here. We'll probably have a fic featuring Shinichi and Tsunade next, explaining his origin and whatnot. And then, maybe, we'll see a chapter with Sakura in it.

Forgetting Tomorrow
Chapter 2

Asuma blinks helplessly at the man who's sitting by his bedside.

He looks to be sleeping—the man, not Asuma, of course—hands crossed over the front of his chest while he leans back into the plastic chair, chin toppled over his collarbones, silver hairs tipping down past his forehead protector. Maybe he should be afraid, Asuma thinks. He knows wherever he is, it's not his home. He doesn't see his brother or sister anywhere. The place he's been put in looks like a hospital. Gosh, Asuma likes the hospital. He remembers following Mom to work nearly everyday.

He knows it's pretty weird since hospital has very weird people in them, but it doesn't matter, he thinks. He likes them. The nurses are always nice to him. And the patients, while some are icky, are mostly interesting. And Asuma likes following Mom. He always tries his very best to not cause any trouble so Mom wouldn't be upset too with him. Just so Mom would wake him up the next morning and help him bathe, and then she'd always help him tie his shoes, because he can never seem to be good at that, and she'd peck his nose and he'd stand up and they'd walk hand-in-hand to the hospitals and he'll be a good boy, and try his best to not stray away from his mother too much (Mom doesn't like that. Dad doesn't like it either.) unless it's very serious and Mom has to put him in a room but that's okay too, because then Asuma could talk with all of the nice nurses there and they'd always let him do the Sudoku quizzes that they could never manage to figure out, and then, when the day is nearly over, Mom would be over her desk, doing some last-minute paperworks and Asuma would look out the window.

And suddenly, he realises he misses Dad. And he misses Shinichi. And he misses Shikamai. And he'd call out, slowly, so Mom wouldn't be startled, "Mom?" and Mom would look over, blinks, looks out the window too and probably realises the same thing he does. And she'd nod, says something like, "It's time to go, isn't it?" and she'd put away her files and close all of her books and then she will come to him, and she will bend her knees a little and she will tell him that he's been a good boy, and that she loves him, and that it's time to go home.

And it will feel great.

But this is not the hospital. Or, at least, it doesn't feel like it's a hospital to him. It feels—isolated. More guards. Lots of people who are uncertain, worried. Some are even scared. It makes him feel—well. He really doesn't know what to feel. Not when he could feel that his brother might be in the next room.

So Asuma wiggles himself out of the huge blanket they drop over his small frame, trying to climb his way down when the man—the "sleeping" man—suddenly voices out. "Going somewhere?"

Asuma doesn't turn to the man, not that he was surprised, struggling to land himself correctly on the floor. Ugh, he thinks absently, did they make the bed higher so he can't reach the ground? They never do this whenever he goes to the hospitals before with mom!

The man, seeing his struggle, shifts, but make no further attempt to move. "You're going to fall, you know."

"My legs—" Asuma bites on his little tongue, dangling one leg from the bed. He doesn't want to fall. He'd made a promise to Dad not to hurt himself while Dad's away. And Dad's a good man—Asuma really likes Dad very much too—he'd hate to break a promise to a good man. "—are too small."

Asuma sniffs a little. That's what Chocho always tells him. That's why she's always bigger, she'd say.

"Your legs are the appropriate size, I assure you." The man chuckles softly, and Asuma finally turns to him.

"Why won't you let me go, Kakashi-Sensei?"

The man stops chuckling, his eyes turning a shade darker in shock, but not too obviously because this man has never been good with those. Being obvious. Asuma doesn't necessarily need to see this reaction of course, not when he can always sense it. Asuma tries again, pouting: "Did I do something wrong?"

"You know me," Kakashi points out, like he's affirming it again, then regains a composure to suggest he's digesting this whole conversation. Slowly. "Little boy," Kakashi proceeds, tone a tad gentler, suggesting that he's practising friendly caution. And Asuma thinks about how strange the adult is acting, but knows that it's not his fault, that he isn't doing it on purpose. "What is your name?"

"Asuma." Asuma answers distractedly, "Kakashi-sensei, can I please see my brother now?"

"Your bro—" Kakashi pauses for a bit, but leans back against his plastic chair. "Your brother's pretty occupied, I'm afraid. The Hokage is speaking to him."

"Oh." His lips form an 'O' shape while he tries to scour around the room, finding any ways at all for him to slide off the bed without hitting his face against the floor. He is sure Shikamai would cry again if he starts bleeding some more. The cuts from where he'd fallen yesterday on his knees are yet to heal completely. He'd hate to worry her. "Is he in trouble?"

"He might be."

"Oh." He finds himself saying it again, then tips his chin back, feeling it funny all of a sudden now that his sharp hair is tickling the back of his neck. He turns to the silver-haired man, asks: "Am I in trouble?"

Kakashi-sensei chuckles lowly—the kind of chuckle that Asuma is always fond of— his shoulders shaking a bit as he does so, but he shakes his head. Or perhaps he's shrugging. Asuma's still trying to figure out which is which. "I hope not. You seem like a good kid." Is all Kakashi-sensei says, letting his one eye fall on Asuma, while the five year old could only blink back expectantly, already anticipating a question—or at least a thought—to be shared from the older man to him. "Say, Asuma. How old are you again? Four?"

Asuma shrieks suddenly, personally insulted. "You're a funny man, Kakashi-sensei! I'm five! Don't you remember?" He wails, "You took me to catch fireflies in Granddad Nara's forest on the weekend of my birthday! You captured one that was so huge—" Asuma starts to laugh, too distracted now to think of a way to escape the room as his young mind flashes back to the memory, "—and you called it fat and it tried to attack you and Shikamai was screaming for you to not kill it and we named it Hajime and even though it attacked you, you still set it free because you said it's not fair to put it in a jar for too long or else he'll die."

Kakashi finds himself smiling, looking down at the enthusiastic face of the five-year-old, and recognising the boy's chakra to be calm and true. The boy, so far, had been honest. Either that, or somebody has done an excellent job to hijack the boy's poor memory strips. Kakashi considers this. And Asuma can see that the man is thinking, conflicted.

Asuma suddenly realises back again where he is. And he's afraid. But he closes his eyes and imagine Dad's face. Or Shinichi's. And he imagines what they would say. How Dad would tug on his hair and tells him that it's okay. And he'll think about how brave Shikamai would be if she's ever in this situation, and how smart Mom would handle it. And he thinks about Grandfather Haruno's laughter that's roughen due to his habit of smoking tobacco, or how Grandma Haruno is proud of her little garden. And he thinks about Grandma Nara who serves the best of teas. And about the old lady who sell candies and have a son with a scar twice bigger than her hand. About a crazy old man who lives in the hospital waiting for his dead wife to visit him because he never seems to remember being the one who buried her. And his Uncle and Aunts and Chocho who slips him chocolates when her mom's not watching.

And somehow Asuma is not so afraid anymore.

"You don't remember, do you?" He murmurs, because that's the truth—because Asuma senses the uncertainty, the doubt—and chews on his lips. "I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei." Maybe he feels sorry for Kakashi-sensei, maybe that's why he apologises. It must be sad to not remember the people that you love. Asuma likes to think that Kakashi-sensei has loved Asuma very much before.

"Asuma. You knew I wasn't sleeping, didn't you?"

He nods his head silently, because sometimes people would ask him these questions—about how he know stuff when he does. Grandfather Nara says he's a naturally strong sensor type, which, he thinks, must be a good thing because Grandfather would look like he's almost proud even though Asuma could never tell. Still though, Grandma would say that no, it's more than that and they would argue, and none would win and Dad will say it's "troublesome" (Those are dad's favourite words.) and Mom would chuckle, sneaking a kiss to Dad's jaw and Asuma would be very confused. And these type of questions will never help, because honestly, Asuma is clueless. Sometimes he just happens to know stuff. He can't help it.

But how do you explain that to people who likes complicated answers?

"Do you want to see your brother?" Kakashi-sensei asks suddenly and Asuma blinks, before nodding his head vigorously.

"May I?"

"What would you do then," He asks some more, "Your brother and you. Once you've united?"

Asuma thinks about this, chewing continuously on his lips before blowing away the fallen lengthening rosewood-coloured hair from his face. "I'm pretty hungry," he answers honestly, patting his stomach, silently thinking about how if Chocho were here, he'd ask her if she has any snacks with her. Or candies. Chocho like candies very much. "So, I'm sure Shinichi is hungry too. Maybe we'd search for Shikamai first. Then we'll go eat. Have you eaten anything, Kakashi-sensei?"

"I have, thank you." Kakashi responds back politely, taking his time to stand up. Asuma follows his stance. "I will talk to the Hokage, but you have to promise to not cause any trouble when I'm gone, or else it will be more difficult for you to see either your brother or sister."

Asuma contemplates this, then asks: "We're in a big trouble, aren't we, Kakashi-sensei? That is very troublesome, because I don't remember doing anything bad."

"Honestly, Asuma, I don't know."

"Alright then, I'll be good. Thank you, Kakashi-sensei." Asuma tries to smile, "Take care."

End Note: We finally had a chance to be introduced to Asuma Nara, whom of which I'm still trying to develop extremely slowly. So, we'll see where that'll end up at. Also, in this chapter, I've included some characters like Chocho, who is the daughter of Choji, and is expectantly to be around seven years old. That's the only thing I'm taking as canon, to be honest. Oh, and, I don't know if it shows but she's also Asuma's best friend. Other characters (all of which are OCs) that will be mentioned are: Inodai and Inoko, who are fraternal twins (one male and one female), children to Ino. They're fifteen years old. The father to Ino's children can be whoever you wish it to be—Kiba, Sasuke, Sai etc. I don't mind really, go crazy with it. Choji also has an older son named Chojun Akimichi, who is more or less fifteen years old.

And there's a reason why Asuma calls Kakashi with Kakashi-sensei. And, well, I'll guess we'll unravel that in the next chapter or whenever. Thank you for those who have reviewed, favorited and followed this story. It means the whole world to me :)