"Huh, who is it? Shikamaru? Why are you at the office so late? What's wrong?"
"It's Boruto and Shikadai. They're missing."
"Boruto?!"
"Shikadai?!"
Boruto ran with urgency towards Shikadai and wrapped his arms around him in a bear hug, squeezing hard enough to prompt Shikadai to grunt in irritation. "You're alive!"
"Shouldn't I be?" Shikadai questioned as he distanced his hands away from his sides to loosen Boruto's hold on him, enough to regulate his breathing again and to better vocalize his response.
Boruto released his grip and rested both palms onto Shikadai's shoulders. "I thought you died back then when you went through that green spinning thing at the train!"
"Oi, you went through it and survived, why wouldn't I survive too?"
"Oh," Boruto said, rubbing the back of his head, "I didn't think about it like that."
"Oh man, Boruto, I'm so relieved to see you right now that just this once I'll let it slide, idiot." Now it was Shikadai's turn to squeeze Boruto in a hold. "You're dead if you tell Inojin and the others about this."
"Got it," Boruto said, returning the embrace.
"Boruto, we have to find that guy again and get out of here," Shikadai said, letting go. "We can't stay here for too long, it's too risky. We might acciden—"
"Oh my goodness, that boy looks exactly like Shikamaru! He's adorable! Shikamaru, is that your son?"
Shikadai's heart skipped a beat. Or two. Or three. Or several. His chest tightened in an uncomfortable way the moment he noticed the large, familiar group at the door.
Is that… Aunt Ino? And… Uncle Chōji? Aunt Sakura, as well? Shikadai continued to scrutinize each and every person huddled by the door, as they all did the same to him. L-Lord Seventh's here, too? Why's Boruto's mom sleeping on a dog?! Shikadai then gave Boruto a pained, distraught look, the extent of the situation gradually dawning on him. Boruto… please… don't tell me you…
"What on earth are you talking about now, Ino?" Shikamaru groaned with an impassive expression, surprisingly oblivious to the situation.
"Hey Shikadai," Boruto said, turning to face Shikamaru, "you found your pops already!"
"B-Boruto! What the hell are you doing?!"
Shikadai snuck a brief, hesitant glance at his dad. He was being studied by him once more, but this time Shikadai was sure that he had sufficient enough information necessary to piece it all together now.
"Huh? What's it look like?" Boruto put a hand to his chin and maneuvered an eyebrow upwards. "Y'know, I think he looks better with the beard."
Shikadai gripped Boruto's arm tight and dragged him closer. "You t-told them?" he asked, a whisper clinging to hope.
"Of course I told them! Why do you ask? Hey, why are you looking at me like th—"
The noise of fist-to-mouth contact plus the thud of the uncomfortable landing were both effective in drowning out the gasps that circulated around the room.
"Oi! Wh… what the hell was that for?!" Boruto said, baffled and with a hand cupped around his mouth.
"Now this kid I like," Kiba said, amused at how non-threatening Boruto's death glare appeared with a swollen lip. "Give him another one!"
"You… you complete goddamn idiot! Don't you understand what you've done?!" questioned Shikadai, ignoring Kiba's request. For now.
"No, I don't, so maybe run it down with me first instead of socking me in the mouth, ass!"
"Don't you get it, Boruto?! Telling them will have negative consequences on the future! We might end up not even being born! How do you expect us to return to the future if our future isn't there anymore?!"
"Oh," Boruto croaked, visibly gulping, "I-I didn't think about it like that…"
Forget cheating in the Chūnin Exams, this was the most livid Shikadai had ever been at Boruto. Fury clouded his thoughts and blinded him. How could he be so careless! Costing him his opportunity of being promoted to chūnin he could get over. But costing him his opportunity of ever seeing his parents again? His friends again? He couldn't fathom how he could be so relieved to see someone to then be sick to the stomach at the sight of in such a short window of time. A swollen lip? Hah, try swollen eyelids. Or cheeks. Or face.
Shikadai grabbed the collar of Boruto's shirt and lifted him back to his feet, drilling cloth-wrapped nails hard into his palm to ensure no escape. With the other hand, Shikadai balled it up into a fist and dialed it back. Before he could proceed to make contact however, a hand shackled around his wrist, keeping the fist positioned mid-air.
"Alright, that's enough. Beating him senseless isn't going to solve anything," Shikamaru said, releasing his grip on the wrist as Shikadai reluctantly did his on Boruto's shirt. His gaze then drifted from Shikadai to the group surrounding the entrance. "Now, will somebody explain to me already what the hell's going on?"
"Yes, as nice as it is to see you all, I too would like to know why you're gathered at my office so early in the morning," Tsunade said. "Also, who on earth are those two?"
Boruto took a step forward, but a gentle tug on his sleeve prevented him from continuing any further. "B-Boruto," Shikadai whispered, voice wrought with concern.
"Hey, I've blurted the truth out to everyone already and nothing's happened us yet," Boruto said. "I mean, that has to meaning something… right? What's one more person? She could help us."
Now that Shikadai put some thought to it, why had nothing happened to them yet? If their futures were to no longer exist, then surely they would cease to exist, too? Furthermore, how exactly would two genin go about solving this intricate puzzle all by themselves? Where would they even begin to start? With limited experience, resources and even knowledge on the situation, perhaps it'd be unwise to deny any form of support right now.
Shikadai took a step back and gave a slow, dubious nod. Boruto responded with a nod of his own, albeit one with more certainty. He then proceeded to take a few more steps forward, positioning himself closer to the powerful woman seated before him.
"Lady, this might be a little difficult for you to believe, but me and him… we're from the future." The two maintained locked in a silent stare. Boruto had the upmost confidence that Tsunade, fifth Hokage and current most dominant ninja in the village, would be more tolerant and accepting of this disclosure than a bunch of clueless chūnin.
"Did this boy fall on his head or something?"
Boruto was sure he heard Kiba sniggering to himself.
"No, he's telling the truth," Naruto said, now distancing himself from the crowd.
"Oh? Care to explain why that is, Naruto?" The amusement was very telling on Tsunade's face.
"Because he's my son."
Boruto wondered why everyone kept getting so red at that.
"Wh-wha, y-your son?!"
"Yes."
"Th-that's ridiculous," she said with a scoff. "You? Your son? Do you not hear yourself right now?!"
"He told me himself."
"What, and you believe him?! The boy's clearly having a laugh! They both are!"
"I know it's the truth."
"What on earth makes you so confident?"
Naruto slid his hand into his pocket and extracted an item from it, then placed it gently onto her desk.
"What's this?" Tsunade asked, picking it up and examining it closer.
"It's Sasuke's headband. He said Sasuke gave it to him in the future."
"S-Sasuke's?" She now recognized the severity of the situation if Naruto was willing to speak his name. "And how are you so sure it's his? It looks like any old regular headband with a cut across it to me."
"I've stared at his headband long enough to recognize every tear on the cloth and every dent on the plate. It's identical to the one I have."
"Then perhaps these two have been snooping around on your property," she suggested.
"No. It's locked away and hidden in some place only I know the location to."
"Then maybe the location isn't nearly as secure as you think it is."
"Nobody knows of the headband but me," he said. "It's just too outlandish to be a coincidence."
"And what, these kids being from the future isn't?"
"It's the truth. I know it is. It has to be."
"Naruto, this is absurd, even for you. You can't just drop a faulty headband down onto my desk and expect me to be convinced of your little make-believe." Tsunade heaved an unwinding sigh. "You should be better than this. You should all be better than this. Now, I don't know what you two are trying to pull bu—"
"Lady, stop being so difficult," Boruto growled, cutting her off. "I'm telling you the truth, Uncle Sasuke gave it to me personally himself!"
He took a step back at her narrowed eyes and piercing gaze, regretful for forgetting how utterly terrifying she was.
"It's true, as difficult as it may be to believe," said Shikadai, stepping forward and making himself more discernible to her. "Believe me, as much as I wish this were a ruse, it isn't. We are from the future. We had an altercation with someone in our time period, and he used some sort of scroll to somehow manipulate time and send us back around twenty-ish or so years into the past. Neither of us know who the person is or what his intentions are or even why we went sent to the past.
"The only thing I can really say with certainty is that Boruto over here is the future son of Naruto Uzumaki, and that I'm the future son of…"
Shikadai inhaled as hard as he could, then exhaled slow, having already made up his mind into fully committing to what he was about to do.
"...Shikamaru Nara."
An uncharacteristic, deep, hoarse sound escaped Shikamaru's mouth. "Wha…?"
"H-hey, Dad," Shikadai said, turning to face him. "I'm… I'm a little surprised you couldn't get it in the end." He nervously shrugged his shoulders.
Shikamaru couldn't formulate a single response. Even if he could, the words would've simply refused to escape his throat and out his mouth, anyway. All he could do was stare into teal eyes, mouth agape and lost in thought.
"I caaaaaaalled it!" Ino said gleefully, skipping towards Shikamaru and springing from the ground to cuddle him from behind. "He looks just like you! I can't believe our Shikamaru actually grows up and accepts some damn responsibility! Hey, what's your name?"
He stroked the back of his neck. "Uh, Shikadai… Shikadai Nara."
"Y'know," Chōji said as he approached Shikamaru, who startled at the sudden contact on his shoulder, "I remember you telling me about how you'd want to have a wife eventually, but the way you'd always ramble on and on about how difficult women were, I was beginning to think it would never happen! I really didn't think you had it in ya, buddy."
"I… didn't either," Shikamaru managed to respond with eventually.
"So, who is it? Who's the lucky lady that stole Shikamaru's heart?" cooed Ino. Her eyes then widened in disbelief as a graceless shriek fled her lips. "Wait, it's not me, is it?! I should've seen it coming! In all the time we've spent together, how could he not end up falling for me?!"
Shikadai shook his head. "Um, no, it isn't you, Aunt Ino."
"Oh… thank goodness," she said with a hand on her chest and relief on her face.
"Gee, thanks a lot, Ino. You do wonders for my ego," Shikamaru said, unamused.
"I mean, you're not all that bad, Shikamaru, but you're certainly not my type," she cleared up, waving him aside. "Besides, you're too much like a brother to me. Now then, if it isn't me, then who is it? Do we know her yet?"
"Doubt it, Shikamaru's always said he only ever wanted to marry an average woman. Probably just some random villager we haven't met yet," Chōji contributed. The expression on Shikamaru's face made him appear somewhat content with this, though, perhaps maybe even a little… underwhelmed?
"Ugh, that sounds so much like him it isn't even funny. How boring," Ino said as she crossed her arms and pouted.
"Actually… she's a kunoichi. I think you might know her, too. Dad already does, anyway," Shikadai said, peaking his father's interest. "She's… actually in this room, right now."
Once he'd eventually processed Shikadai's intimation, Shikamaru consciously listed every woman occupying the room in his thoughts and began narrowing down his choices of suitable partners. Ino? Confirmed not. Sakura? Troublesome. Lady Tsunade? Too old, too troublesome. Hinata? Not so troublesome, but unlikely; her heart's somewhere else. But before Shikamaru could evaluate the final female in the room, Shikadai had already begun advancing towards her.
"I… I know you told me not to call you Mom again… but now's a good as time as any, I guess... right?"
The tessen-wielding kunoichi stood still. Incredibly still. Though there was an obvious hint of disbelief in her, her demeanor, for the most part, was… calm. Almost as if she'd been expecting it, as if she'd already accepted it long ago. Shikamaru was convinced that his jaw had dislocated due to how his mouth refused to move from the gape it was in.
"T-T-Te-Te-Tem-her?!" Shikamaru's ears and the tip of his nose progressively clouded with a crimson color. Scratch that, his entire face was now equally a shade of red. "Okay guys, Ino, ha ha, very funny. I get it now. This is another one of your lousy attempts at playing match-maker, right? Well cut it out already. Because it's not funny, at all."
Everyone stared at him in incredulity, particularly Shikadai. "I... I don't get it… what's wrong? I mean, you guys are dating, so it—"
"Eh?!" Shikamaru and Temari yelled in unison. Now both their faces were burning so bright that they practically illuminated the poorly-lit room.
"I knew it!" Naruto proudly extended his hand out to Sakura, who then begrudgingly placed a sum of money onto it.
"W-we are not d-dating!" Shikamaru insisted. "Wh-wh-what the hell makes you th-think that?! We, I-I mean, our relationship i-is purely platonic an—"
"Oh please, Shikamaru, your son is standing right in front of you," Ino said. "At some point or another, you both had a little bit of fun with each other... maybe in that small little office you both always confine yourselves in, and right there on that round table near the windo—"
"I-Ino!" Temari yelped. Shikadai had never her seen skin don such a shade of red before.
"Oi, Ino, w-what the hell?! Shut up!" Shikamaru screeched. "My son's listening!"
A smug grin developed on Ino's face.
"Shut up," he repeated.
"Oh my, I can't believe I didn't notice it sooner. Look," she said, jabbing a finger at Shikadai, "his eyes are exactly like Temari's! He's got his mother's eyes! There's no way you can deny it now!"
She was right; there was no way he could deny it, and Shikamaru both recognized and accepted that. Saying they were near-identical wouldn't do it justice; they were a mirror image of her eyes. From the unique shade of her pupils, to the novel, almond-shaped outline that surrounded them. In the same way Naruto could recognize Sasuke's headband anywhere, Shikamaru could recognize those distinct, teal eyes anywhere. He'd always found himself observing them whenever the opportunity presented itself. One time, when preparing for the Chūnin Exams, he'd accidentally gotten lost in them and hadn't heard near five minutes of conversation. He always admired her eyes. Not that he'd ever tell her.
"Wait a minute, speaking of mothers, Naruto, who's the mother of your child?" Sakura asked.
"I told you already, didn't I, Sakura?" Naruto placed a hand on her cheek and began gently caressing it with his thumb. "You and I, we were meant to be together." His lips expected to meet hers, but were instead introduced to another chakra-infused fist, hauling his body across the room.
"You idiot, he's already called me Aunt Sakura, so it obviously isn't me. Thankfully."
"Well, then… who is it?"
Hinata's dreams all usually followed the same formula—her close by Naruto's side, and they're mostly just talking for the entirety of it. It had never strayed far from that. But this one was slightly different. They had both aged considerably. Naruto's hair was shorter; a symbol of his growth in maturity, and the Hokage's cloak was draped around his shoulders. Running towards them were two young kids, their kids, she presumed. One was a boy, and though he adopted his father's more pronounced features, his face still resembled hers more. Beside him was her daughter, who had her violet hair but his blue eyes. She looked much more like her father.
Her dream faded to black eventually, much to her disappointment. Hinata slowly separated her eyelids and raised her head off of the white fur. Her vision corrected itself from the blur, the color palette increasing as it did so.
"So you're my wife, Hinata?"
Two pairs of blue eyes were now staring at her. One were from the person that had dominated her dreams so often that she was now struggling to differentiate which of her interactions with him were real and which of them weren't. His face was so close to hers that she could feel his breath gently stroking her lips. The other pair of eyes however were from someone she was sure was just a figment of her imagination. She was sure of it. Yet, there he stood, completely materialized and staring at her with the same look of confusion on his face as he had before. Hinata wasn't sure what was going on, but she could feel the blood rushing to her face.
She could also feel the blood rushing away from her brain.
Her head dropped to Akamaru's back so fast it'd seemed as though her neck could simply no longer support it.
"Argh, damn it, not again! That's it, I've had it," Kiba growled, storming towards the door.
"Wh-what?! I thought she was finally waking up! What the hell happened?! Uncle Kiba? Uncle Kiba?! Hey, where ya going?!" Boruto asked.
"Stop calling me that, kid. It's weird. I'm not having Akamaru carry her around any longer. I'm gonna go look for Neji and hand her over to him. C'mon, Shino."
"Alright, now that you've addressed your future partners, could we please now focus back to the matter at hand? You," Tsunade said, pointing to Boruto, "a man had involuntarily sent you two to the past using some sort of scroll, correct?"
"Yeah, that's right," he responded.
"If what you're saying is true, then this person must have some sort of motive, and I have a bad feeling he isn't doing this with good intentions."
"Our thoughts exactly."
"I'll send a couple of ANBU to collect the two of you later today to further answer some questions, and after that, we'll launch a full investigation. I'm inclined to believe what the two of you are saying is in fact the truth, seeing as you've somehow managed to convince everybody else. But, just know, if this is some little stunt, there will be severe consequences for your actions. Understood?"
Both Boruto and Shikadai nodded in agreement.
"Then you're free to go. Naruto, your... son, will be in your care, and Shikamaru, the same for yours."
Naruto beamed. "Alright!"
Shikamaru blinked a number of times, dumbfounded. "W-wait, wh—"
"Perfect," Ino interrupted. "That means we can go get that barbecue now! Chōji, go get Asuma Sensei. Tell him it's urgent and that he'll need to join us a little earlier. Explain the situation to him so that we won't have to during the meal. I'd like to cover some... other topics with Shikadai. Now get him sooner so we can start eating sooner! Go!"
"I'm on it," Chōji said, running out through the door with an unusual burst of speed.
Shikamaru vigorously shook his head. "I thought that was later!"
"Yeah, well, I've rescheduled it," Ino quickly responded. "Oh, and uh, Mama Temari's coming, too."
"W-what did you c-call me?!"
Shikadai took it back. This was the reddest he'd even seen her.
"I-I can't," Temari said. "I have a meeting with Lady Tsunade right now s—"
"Actually, I'm afraid that I'll also have to reschedule myself; the meeting will take place tomorrow now," Tsunade said. "I apologize, Temari, I understand you've traveled all the way here solely for this, but I'm afraid this entire revelation has thrown a wrench in the plans. In the meantime, you're free to do what you wish with your time here in Konoha. Perhaps a meal with your friends after a long journey would be good for you."
Shikadai was sure he saw the corners of the Hokage's lips quirk up slightly. He certainly knew that there was a complacent smirk on Ino's face, and that Mom probably wanted to wipe it off. With her tessen.
Temari looked at Shikamaru, hoping that he'd interject somehow, but he appeared mused in his own thoughts, his gaze fixed to his feet and refusing to meet hers. She sighed and ran a hand across her face, wiping away a layer of sweat she hadn't known was there, certain that she wasn't going to wriggle herself out of this one.
"Hey, I'm hungry too," Naruto said abruptly, running a hand over his stomach. "Boruto, let's go get some Ichiraku Ramen! You like ramen, don't you?"
"Uh, not exactl—"
"Of course you do! Who doesn't like ramen?"
"R-right…"
"Hey, I'm tagging along, too," Sakura said, jumping towards the two. "I wanna know what's in store for my future, cha!"
"Heck yeah, the more the better! C'mon, Boruto!"
"Uh, before that, don't you think we should maybe check up on Mom—"
"Nah, Neji'll take care of her, she'll be fine!"
"Who's Nej—"
"Aaaaaalright, let's gooooooooo!"
A/N: Good lord. I hope you guys like long chapters, hah. Once again, thank you to everybody who reviewed, favorite'd, etc., always brings a smile to my face. c;
To answer some questions that I saw:
• For original cast, it's set before the Kakuzu and Hidan arc, so they're all around 15 (according to Wiki/databooks).
• For Boruto's cast, it's shortly after the Chūnin Exams arc, however old they are there, lol.