Chapter Text
It was a normal but extremely sunny day.
No, scratch that, it was an extremely sunny day in the past.
The day was so hot that people's skin melted sweat like melting ice cream, you could see a lot of people searching for refuge in their houses, to stay in front of a fan instead outside where the hot weather menaced their health.
However, a group of young shinobi didn't let it stop them from training their abilities with a little dueling on one of the training grounds.
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kiba, Tenten and Hinata were on the sidelines of the training ground, watching carefully the demonstration Kakashi-sensei and future Neji of the workings of the byakugan versus the copying ability of the sharingan.
All of them wore more hot weather appropriate garments, even Naruto had changed his usual long sleeved orange jumpsuit for a simple t-shirt and shorts and Sasuke changed into a short-sleeved shirt and his usual wristbands were nowhere to be found.
They all watched attentively as Neji was about to strike an exhausted Kakashi that - as had Sasuke grumbled the explanation to them - was running out of chakra for the continuous use of the sharingan, although it didn't happen because at the last moment Kakashi was obliged to stop his punch to Neji's stomach mid-way and the pearly eyed dive his hand in the space between them to catch his son's arm and pull him out of the way, leaving all the young gennin stunned at their speed and self restraint.
"Boruto!" Neji chastised, still holding the boy's arms.
"I was the surprise element!" The kid shot back immediately, not getting intimidated by the stern look of his father.
"Who were you trying to surprise?" The silver-haired asked in a monotonous voice, lowering his hitai ate to cover his eye again. "Because if we hadn't stopped I would most likely have won for killing a child and leaving your father in a bad emotional state."
"Huh!?" The kid turned once his father let his arm go. "What are you rambling about Hatake-jiji!? My father would never lose to you! If I died it would only give him more strength to fight! And you have to deal with okaasan and Sas-tousan and-"
The silver-haired only observed amusedly at the gennin's heated speech, a rambling about how his parents were powerful and he wouldn't stand a chance at fighting them. Kakashi couldn't shake off a twist of his lips as he watched the other students approaching, Naruto coming into focus right from behind Boruto and he knew that somehow Konoha had produced two Minato and Kushina's copies with only slight differences but the same hair and spirit.
After a rather long conversation with the Sandaime when Boruto and "adult" Neji arrived - he already had suspicions of Boruto's parentage - any vestiges of doubts on who his okaasan was ended the minute Neji had to physically restrain his son from jumping at Naruto when his student entered the Hokage's office.
'Yep.' He thought as Naruto started to argue with the kid of how he would beat Neji any time enthusiastically. 'Definitely Kushina's grandson.'
Shoving his hands in his pocket, Kakashi turned his head, analyzing the people around the small discussion. Most of them suspected about Boruto's parentage too, sure it was a little confusing at points like Boruto mentioning "Sas-tousan" and, much to the Sandaime Hokage's shock, "Shisui-otousan" but the main character in all his stories were his okaasan, to which Neji always laughed or at least looked amused when he - in multiple occasions - ended such tales with "it wasn't my fault after all! 'tebasa!" in what seems to be a variation of Naruto's dattebayo and Kushina's dattebane.
Boruto was, by all meanings, Naruto's cusped image, from the trademark blond hair to the catchphrase and even his energy to always help someone, but there were rare moments, mostly when no one was looking or he was alone with Neji, where he would present other familiar responses or reflexes that certainly left the sensei wondering where he had seen them before for most nights of those last two weeks since their arrival.
He wasn't the only one who had been suspicious; younger Neji observed the two blond's spat with narrowed eyes that quickly exchanged to his older self before going back to the blond's. They knew Neji to be his father. It would be rather hard to not know it after Boruto had shown up with his byakugan activated as he tried to protect his unconscious father. It could have been Hinata's son, but he was extremely emphatic on screaming "'tousan" loudly enough for the whole village to hear when Kakashi tried to pick the older Hyūga up.
Just like younger Neji and Tenten, Kakashi's only unanswered question towards the boy's mother was how. If his mother was really who they thought him to be then just how Boruto came to be? Adoption wasn't really on the equation since genetic traits were displayed at his face for everyone to see, so how exactly was Naruto Boruto's mother?
"Wanna set this then!? You and Kyu-"
"Enough Boruto." Neji interrupted him with a kind hand on his shoulder. "You know you shouldn't have entered in the middle of a jonin practice, don't you? Remember the last time when you interrupted my training with Kazekage-san?"
Oh hell he did. Of course he remembered, Gaara- ojisan had to put a sand wall between him and Neji's Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms or else he would be done for life. He had never seen his father using the Hyūga technique before and it took a long walk and lots of ice cream to make him calm down. He was only seven back then.
"Tsk." He turned his head very Uchiha-like and crossed his arms, making Neji smile at his son's cuteness but sigh at his stubbornness.
"Alright, I think we all could use some rest before the next round. Now I believe all of you saw from our demonstration where you made mistakes last time, so ponder a little on it." Kakashi turned to read his book but felt the kids look at him. "You all waiting what? Meet all of you here in half an hour."
Disappearing to a close tree's brunch he left older Neji alone with the trouble crew. Fact the man only realized when he felt everyone staring at him. Should he say something? They all certainly expected him to say something, future related preferentially.
Fortunately Boruto decided to save him from having any conversation whatsoever with his friends - and himself - past versions.
"'Otousan! Let's keep training from where oyaji and I stopped!? He was teaching me to hide my chakra!" Boruto jumped and shook his arm.
"A good shinobi always takes all the rest they can." He advised, knowing his son could be too Naruto-like when it came to training. "A weary shinobi is a weak shinobi and a weak shinobi is no good at protecting the village."
Making an adorable pout, the blond conceded, shoving his hands at his pockets and looking away.
'Uchiha coexistence is leaving its mark.' Neji thought funnily, taking a hand to his chin and smiling.
"Neji-nii-san." Hinata finally managed to whisper, all the attention focusing on her making her blush into a deep red.
Anything she intended on asking left her mind as she felt the eyes on her, her confidence fading as she tried to find a way to hide herself.
Taking pity on the girl, the man bowed slightly to get on her level. "Yes, Hinata-chan?"
"Eh?" Naruto approached the girl. "Sakura-chan I think there's something wrong with Hina-chan!" Naruto, delicate as always, approached her, oblivious that his movements just made the raven haired further embarrassed. "I think she isn't breathing!"
Younger Neji and Tenten couldn't help but facepalm at that, was the blond really that dumb? Was he the only one not to notice the Hyūga princess had a huge, immense crush on him or did he just play dumb?
"Are you serious?" Kiba said, exasperated by Tenten's side.
"Shannaro!" Sakura yelled, hitting him in the head as Sasuke shook his head.
"What was that for!?" Naruto, now on the ground holding his head, looked scared at Sakura.
"How can you be so stupid!?"
Neji laughed, which made all eyes go to him but he couldn't help himself, he had forgotten how handful Naruto used to be. In the future it wasn't that different, however he had some sense and sensibility nowadays, still there were some moments Neji had to facepalm himself and ask how on Earth he had a son with that stupid? More so, how was he the Hokage?
It was good news that Sasuke, Itachi and Madara "co-kaged" Konoha with him or else the village would have been a chaos during his first year as Hokage. He barely made it to his "pass the hat" ceremony if it wasn't for - shocker - Obito to force him to get out of bed! Of course it was just some months after Yumi's birth but still, how could you sleep in when your biggest dream was coming true?
"Huh? What are all of you looking at?" Boruto accompanied their looks towards his father.
Not minding the stares, Neji got his wallet and gave Hinata and Kiba fifteen ryō each and pointed to the village, he had to find them something to do before they became… What would Shikamaru say? Oh, yeah, troublesome.
"Why don't you two go and buy everyone ice cream?"
Kiba bared his teeth as Hinata smiled shyly, both nodding and looking to the others for approval.
"I want a blueberry one!" Naruto was the first one to yell thoughtlessly.
"Oh! I want chocolate flavor!" Tenten chimed in.
"In this case I think I will accept a strawberry one." Sakura said thoughtfully.
"Oi! Teme! What do you want!?" Naruto yelled at the quiet kid on the tree behind the group.
Rolling his eyes he said indifferently: "Orange is just fine."
Hinata nodded and turned to go but Kiba stopped.
"Hey, blond! What will you have?"
"Blueberry." Boruto kept his indifferent facade, which was slowly cracking.
"Uh? Neji you won't want anything?" Tenten peeked over young Neji's shoulder, he in turn only kept his eyes fixated on his older self who was doing everything but notice him.
"Otousan likes gooseberry ice pop!" Boruto exclaimed proudly for knowing his father so well.
They waited for Neji to say something but he only nodded and they took the gesture as a positive and started to walk towards the village.
"Can we train now?"
"Boruto…" Neji shook his head tiredly. "It's too hot, why don't we go under the trees for a while?"
After giving it some thought he looked to the tree where Sasuke was leaning on and agreed, marching it way as the others followed.
The weather persisted in sending massive waves of sunlight their way, making them sweat even with short open clothes. Neji - not accustomed with such hot weather as it was winter before they were thrown into the past - took off his hitai ate and put his long hair in a high tight bun, sitting by his son's side as the kid attempted to use his byakugan.
"Dad?" Boruto turned to his father, his bad mood forgotten as he got a chance to use his kekkei genkai and possibly receive advice from his father on it. "Why is this cool? I mean, I get it, it's a family thing and all that tradition talk oyaji gives to otouto about sharingan. The same speech Hiashi-jiji gave to itoko Himawari and I last time we visited him." He stopped to pout as he thought. "But 'Sui can make a huge big armor like an overpowered soldier with his sharingan and Inojin can change mind with people! What ours does?"
The man took a look at his son, ignoring the questioning looks being thrown at him; at some point these kids would have to get over it and stop trying to try gaining answers from the future. Did they think he would talk? Boruto was saying enough for both of them and they still couldn't piece things together, so what was the point?
"Oh? You don't think byakugan is cool?" Neji smirked and crossed his arms.
"Well, I do but-" Boruto tried to explain but a loud noise of plastic bag falling turned their attention away from their conversation.
Looking around, his father's younger self looked absolutely dismayed as if he was about to disappear into thin air and Hinata, who dropped the plastic bag she carried, just kept staring at his father, completely terrified.
"Oi! Neji! What's up with the forehead tattoo?" Young Naruto dropped his head to the side, peeking curiously at the man.
'Tattoo?' Boruto gave it a thought before meeting his father's unreadable face. 'Otousan doesn't have any tattoos! Only-'