Author's Note: A quick update before life pulls me back again and tries to drown me with its misery. Next, we may see Sakura.

Forgetting Tomorrow
Chapter 3

When Shinichi was younger, they told him he suffered a terrible asthmatic condition—he doesn't remember much of it. He remembers the pain, sure, how he's cursed his lungs for failing to do the one thing it should, how worried his parents had looked. He remembers feeling like dying, yet his body twisted and turned to fight for his existence to last—a burning war constantly being ignited within the spaces under his ribcages, before his mother finds a way to fix it, to ensure the safety of her own son and Shinichi begins learning to get comfortable with forgetting.

When he wakes up, it feels like all of his mother's effort has washed itself down the drain; his lungs set afire, his throat sore from emitting a soundless scream.

"Calm down, calm down." A voice interrupts his raging thoughts—a female, he recognises—before he closes his eyes, tries to sort his mind carefully. It is bright, he assess. And it's warm. And he feels sticky. Shinichi concentrates on breathing normally again. "That's it," the voice says again, soothingly, and Shinichi finally takes in on the hands that are poking his body. "You're okay. You're alive."

Alive.

That's right.

There was a moment just seconds ago, he thinks, where he'd turned over and saw Asuma being drifted away—until he's gone—and Shinichi was certain that they'd die. What happened? His head starts to hurt just thinking, and he winces. Where's Asuma? Shikamai? Where are they?

"Asuma—"

"Calm down." The voice tells him again, leaning over sideways to check on something. "He's stabilising himself. His blood pressure is slowly returning to normal."

"So, he can talk, right?" Another voice—female too, yet with a stronger edge to it—snaps, but doesn't seem on bothering to wait for the answer. "Right. Good. Let's get this over with. Prop him up."

Shinichi decides he won't say another word, focusing instead on his surroundings while trying to ease the pain from his lungs using whatever's left of his chakra. It's a small ward that he's been put in, and, based on what he can see, he'd like to say that he's in a hospital, but it doesn't look quite right. And these people were angry with him. Or, at least, the lady who's currently glaring him down is.

"Do you know where you are?"

Shinichi doesn't, not really. But he doesn't think that answer would suffice. The glaring lady looks a bit more agitated when she realises that he's choosing to keep his mouth shut and immediately proceeded to ask her next question.

"Do you know who I am?"

And it is then Shinichi finally notices the Strength of a Hundred Seal embed on the woman's forehead—the same seal his mother manages to obtain—and is suddenly washed by a mixed feelings of confusion and shock. He doesn't mind letting his emotion slip, doesn't mind when the woman's eyebrow crooked in interest at his reaction. As far as he knows, he hasn't done anything wrong. And he'll stand by that.

"Where am I?" He croaks, but the woman ignores him completely, dumping instead some of the few belongings of his on the bed near his toes.

"You were spotting this—" She holds out his flak jacket, pointing towards the forehead protector, or what's left of it (which is basically the symbol of the village) with a roughness that make Shinichi twitches, "—stitched to your flak jacket when we found you. Do you know what this means?"

"Yes," he begins curiously. "I am a shinobi from the Leaf Village."

The woman looks more unhappy, if that's possible. "And do you know where you are now?"

He decides on not answering again at the repetitive question, but then reconsiders his situation; for a second even wondering if he'll be able to bring down all of the seven—no, eight—people in the room but immediately tears down the idea when he weighs back all of the variables. He'll play this out to see where it ends up, then he'll probe for anything that might give him an information to where his siblings might be at. "No."

"You're in Konohagure's safe custody, boy. And let me tell you something—" The woman nearly growls, "You are not one of us."

He frowns then, hard, and spots something reeling in the woman's eyes before it's masked down, and she turns away, picking up on something from, what he assumes, is the evidence box. He wonders if his rubber band is in there. "Normally, we'd just label you as an impostor—which, well, we actually did—until we manage to identify your chakra."

And then Shinichi realises she's holding out the pendant Mom gave him, and instinctively, he holds out to his collarbone as though to truly feel its absence, staring at the dangling thing.

"You're of Nara clan."

This time, Shinichi hears a low growl being let out, until he realises that it's his doing, and he tries calming the on going rage. Control. He won't get anywhere if he allow his emotions to judge for him. And suddenly, Shinichi hears Dad, like they're back on the open field, and the old man's training him, and he's just thirteen and Dad doesn't have that burn that begins at his nape which disappears down his back yet, and everything's normal. Everything's okay.

The woman glowers, yanking him simply out of his trance, and Shinichi takes a deep breath down his still-burning chest. Control. He reminds himself, and continues to stare.

"Yet we find no evidence that you've existed." At this, Shinichi genuinely frowns in utter confusion, and the woman actually sighs, like she's done being intimidating—her body leaking nothing but nerves and frustration—curling the pendant and ensuring the disappearance of the proud Nara insignia within her palm. "Care to explain?"

"I don't understand." Shinichi replies honestly, never giving up on the frown. "What do you mean there is no evidence of my existence?" There is a moment he nearly recites back of his basic profile—where he was born, when he was born—but he holds his tongue, wanting to be explained.

"It means that there are no records, no sightings, no documents to suggest you were alive for the past two decades." She seethes, "As a Hokage, it's my job to keep track of every clan in the village, or well, most of it, especially those with a long history of raising shinobis in them—or have, at least contributed to it either financially, medically or otherwise. The Nara being one of them. And yet, we find absolutely nothing about you. Nothing. Nobody have ever seen you, or have heard of you, and frankly kid, the only thing that's keeping me from jabbing a knife down your throat is that your chakra has been constant. You are a Nara."

"Wait," Shinichi interjects, brows furrowing together in deep concentration, recalling back on what she'd say: "You mention you're the Hokage. That... that can't be. You can't be the Hokage."

"Why the fuck not?" The so called Hokage remarks frustratedly, pushing her chest forward while crossing her arms under it, showing her annoyance with a certain flawlessness Shinichi rarely sees.

"Because the Hokage is supposed to be Uncle Naruto." He tells her boldly, meaning it. "Naruto Uzumaki. And you're not—shit."

The annoyance doubles. "Excuse me?"

"Did he just say Naruto Uzumaki?" A voice murmured from the sidelines while watching the exchange and Shinichi feels like an earth has just collapsed on his back.

"Is he serious?" Another foreign voice chirps in.

He plasters his palm against the side of his temple, feeling the moisture beginning to form while his mind does the thing where it does whenever everything is falling into pieces, but drastically—like trying to match puzzle pieces in a reckless fashion since you know how it's supposed to look like. He begins to list one thing after the other, "If you're the Hokage... the only female in history... the seal... the one who trained... it can't be... impossible..." And then, clutching his temples, "Dammit. What happened?"

"Calm down," the first female voice droops in. "Your blood pressure is picking up again."

Right. He forgot to do the thing where he has to breathe.

Shinichi lets out a deep breath, then, summoning all of the strength he has, props his chin up, asking: "If you don't mind me asking, could you... Would it be possible that you are Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village?"

"So you do know who I am," Tsunade says it in a 'tch'-like tone, before raising a brow. "Boy?"

"I-I apologise." He tries to bow down as much as his body permits him to do with his condition on the bed, his skull pounding a bit while his mind goes through his theory again, wondering secretly if it could be true. Or perhaps it's a dream. A weird, sickening dream. "I didn't... I wasn't aware of who exactly I was faced against. I didn't mean—" Shinichi swallows, feeling the heat rising to his cheek, absently thinking of how embarrassed his mother would be if she'd ever learnt how disrespectful he'd just been to her mentor. "I'm sorry."

He sits a bit straighter, but now refuses to make eye-contact, his green eyes instead travels down to his twitching fingers and he expands it, just a bit, to check if it's real. If he's real. "If... if you don't mind me overstepping my boundaries, I'd like to share a theory."

"What theory?"

"Of why I'm here." He's still looking at his hands. "Of who I am."

Tsunade hums. "Proceed."

"Before that," a new voice comes in, and Shinichi could've sworn it was his heart that's jumped at the familiarity of it. And then he spots the silver hair, and Shinichi has to hold himself from crying. Kakashi looks on steadily, "I think it'd be best if the rest of this... uh, conversation is to be shared within the three of us. Or perhaps four? If you so wish to include Shizune, that is, milady."

"Kakashi," Tsunade clicks her tongue. "How long have you been eavesdropping in our interesting exchange?"

"Just long enough." The masked shinobi smoothly responds, and Shinichi thinks the man might've just winked at him. The Fifth then gives a signal, and the rest of the people in the room begin to filter out—until it's left to only Shinichi, Kakashi, Lady Tsunade and Shizune, whom of which Lady Tsunade stops when she had try to follow the crowd.

"You know me, don't you?" Kakashi comes forward once it's confirmed that there is nobody else but the four of them in the room, and Shinichi ignores the heat of the Fifth's calculating stare when his mind ponders over the silver-haired man's question.

"I—" Shinichi nods solemnly. Where he had grew up, Kakashi was his mentor. And in an extent to that, a mentor towards Shikamai and young Asuma too. Just like the guy had been towards Mom, Uncle Naruto and Mr. Uchiha once upon a time ago. Except Kakashi-sensei has shared a deeper bond with Asuma, being the godfather and all. "I do."

"Don't worry." Kakashi tells him, "Explain your theory. I'm sure you have a good one."

Shinichi stares, unsure.

"When you're done, you will be able to see your siblings."

"They're—" He suddenly finds his voice. "They're here?"

"Kakashi, what the hell?" The Fifth barks.

"I apologise, milady. But I think—" The masked shinobi gestures lamely, "—once the boy explained, it will be clear. Please, Tsunade-sama. Trust me."

Despite the sudden revelation of the heavy tension in the air, Shinichi has to admit that those words do encourage him, even if it's not a lot. Yes. Right. He just has to remember how to breathe. And then, he'll see Shikamai and Asuma. Kami, he hopes they're okay. "I'm—" he starts, finding the courage his parents have proudly inherited to him, and finds it in himself to stop trembling, staring up ahead. "I'm Shinichi Nara, the firstborn son of Shikamaru and Sakura Nara. And, though it is still unclear to me of what happened, I think my siblings and I were brought back to the past from the future. And based by the Hokage who's reigning right now, I think we've just travelled at least 20 years worth of time. Maybe more. We don't come here on purpose. That, at least, I'm very certain of. And no, before you ask, there isn't anybody that I know of who can manipulate time—so it may be a trap, or time flux. Whichever. And we—" Shinichi bows his head, "My siblings and I have no intention to harm. We will give you our full corporation if that's what you'll need. I know it's not much to work by, but I have no reason to lie. I hope you can trust us. Or trust me."

Tsunade is quiet for a long time, before—"And why should I trust you?"

"Because you can feel it, don't you?" Shinichi raises his head to smile sadly, feeling sad and guilty all of a sudden. "Shikamai looks just like Mom."

There is a long, long pause followed by an exasperated rage of breathing and the Fifth pinches the bridge of her nose, like she can't believe she's about to say what she's going to say, "Shizune. Get Sakura off the damn blood samples. Call in Shikaku and get Inoichi's last medical report by my desk in exactly twenty minutes. We might need him. This is no longer an investigation. I'm declaring it an A-rank mission, thus no words of what's happened here can come out of this room once I walk out of here unless I exclusively gave you the permission to do so, and Kakashi? Congratulations, you're leading it."

Lady Tsunade briefs some more while Shizune retreats him back his rubber band that's accustomed for every Nara male in particular to fashion with, alongside with the pendant that's been with him ever since he could remember. The Fifth fully expects to have every medical and basic reports of Shinichi and his other two siblings by the end of the day, which, she points out rather repetitively, is something Kakashi severely needs to make sure of happening.

"Your brother has already woken up, but I think he's fallen asleep since Kakashi left him about an hour ago." Tsunade informs him pointedly, signing something on a clipboard. "Your sister is expected to wake up in two-three hours, give or take. Shizune will inform you when that happened."

"Thank you," Shinichi smiles gladly, silently thankful that his siblings hasn't suffered worse fates. "May I... see them?"

Tsunade makes another disgruntled noise, stabbing the pain against the clipboard again. "Maybe," she says, "We'll see."

Well, Shinichi tries to stay optimistic, at least it's not a no.

"Fifth, wait," he calls when he sees the Hokage already turning to walk out of the ward, "My parents... They're...?"

Tsunade hesitates, and Shinichi feels something flips in his stomach. "Your mother's in the hospital, working. For now, she doesn't know that any of you are here. And if it can be helped, she won't ever. Your father—Shikamaru—is currently on a mission. He should be back by the end of the week."

"I'm glad." Shinichi releases, nodding his head slowly. "And are they—you know—?"

In a relationship?

"No," It was Kakashi who answers, all the while reading into his favourite perverted series. "I don't think so. I think Shikamaru might even be seeing someone else right now."

Yes, Shinichi thinks, already predicting such answer. He expects much so. Based on the stories Mom and Aunt Ino likes to retell again and again, both Dad and Mom take their time at falling for one another. It was supposed to be sweet, he guess. Though considering Shinichi and his siblings' situation right now—it certainly won't help.

"Shikamaru and Sakura." Kakashi whistles. "Who would've thought, huh?"

"Yes," The Fifth surprisingly retorts. "Who would've thought."

She left, and Kakashi quickly pulls out some rice balls. "Hungry?" He asks when he meets Shinichi's wide gaze, "I thought so."

Author's Note: If you'd like to see how I see Shinichi, Shikamai and Asuma, I've put up a link of a drawing my friend helped me with. I don't know if it works since FFNET hates me or something, but if it isn't just tell me so and I'll try to fix it. Thank you for the read, and as always, a review would be highly appreciated *wink* :)