Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

001 Introduction

Neji Hyuuga had always thought his life to be quite uneventful.

He had a job he knew he would get the moment he was old enough to understand what working was. What else was to be expected? His uncle was the owner of their family law firm Hyuuga Incorporated after all.

He had a good-sized apartment he bought with his own money in a good neighbourhood.

He had good friends. Good friends that didn't get him into trouble. Sasuke Uchiha was too much like himself to do anything out of the ordinary and Shikamaru Nara was too lazy. He'd known Sasuke for as long as he could remember, their families closely intertwined through their companies. He'd met Shikamaru when he moved into his apartment a few months. He was the complete opposite of Neji himself with his lazy attitude so he hadn't expected they would get along. But they did. Shikamaru turned out to be great at calling for take-out when Neji came home from work late in the evening again and then there was the fact that the other was almost unbeatable at shogi and most other games.

It all came down to the only conclusion one could draw from Neji's life, really. It was average, uneventful and to some perhaps even boring.

Little did he know, that was all about to change.

With a frown Neji watched the contents of his 'fridge. He [i]really[/i] had to go and do some groceries today. True, he'd thought the same last week but his 'fridge hadn't been so glaringly empty back then so he hadn't deemed a visit to the grocery store completely vital. Now it was.

With a sigh he closed the refrigerator and turned to his cupboards. He needed to eat something before going out. Maybe he had some cereal lying around that he'd forgotten about, he thought.

Then suddenly someone knocked his front-door. He glanced at the clock on the wall – 11.15 – and wondered who it could be. He'd arranged to meet Sasuke later today, would go to dinner at his uncle's house tomorrow so the only person he imagined it could be was Shikamaru. Although on a Saturday the other was bound to be still asleep.

He quickly made his way to the front door but after he opened the door he froze when he saw who was on the other side.

"Keiko? What are you doing here?" He asked the black-haired woman in front of him. She still looked as attractive as she had about a year ago when he'd shortly dated her. Her black hair was slightly curly and cut into a short coup and her brown eyes still had that twinkle in them. Her personality, though, didn't match her looks at all and Neji had quickly decided a relationship wouldn't be worth his time. She'd been fine with it back then so he wondered what she was doing here a year later.

Keiko huffed and bend down to the ground to pick something up.

"What the hell..." Neji mumbled and he could only stare.

"This," she said, holding the baby-car-seat complete with baby out to Neji. "Is yours."

Neji stared at the baby held out to him, wondering if Keiko had gone insane. He'd know if he had a child, right? "Keiko, I'm sure this is a misunderstanding." He said.

Before Keiko could reply, the baby made a soft noise and opened its eyes to curiously peek at the new person.

Neji's eyes widened and he took a step back, reaching out a hand to hold the doorpost when he was met with opalescent and lavender-tinted eyes. "Fuck,"

"So, you named her Ami." Neji said.

After his revelation that this baby – Ami-chan – was most definitely his he had ushered Keiko inside. He didn't want to make a spectacle in the middle of the hallway of his apartment building. And now, here he was. Sitting on the couch with Ami in her carrier next to him and Keiko silently watching them from her spot in the comfortable chair left of the couch.

"Don't complain and tell me you don't like it." Keiko said with a shrug and then added: "Besides, it's just a name."

Neji blinked and watched Keiko, a bit shocked at the woman's indifference towards the whole situation. He felt like pointing out to her that a name was rather important but refrained from doing so. There were more important things to discuss.

"Why are you here?" He asked her, voice a bit on the cold side but he thought she deserved it.

A small smirk quirked Keiko's lips and she brushed a few strands of stray hairs out of her face. "To drop Ami off, of course." She easily explained.

"To drop her off? She's not some borrowed piece of material that you can just drop off, Keiko." Neji said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"See, that makes you a better parent than I am." Keiko shrugged with a sly smile. "You'd take better care of her. I'm not a receptionist anymore, Neji. I'm a hostess now. You don't want your daughter growing up in the kind of environment I'll create for her, now do you?"

Neji pinched the bridge of his nose. "And you thought you could just hand her over to me and be done with it?"

"Well, of course. I mean, you're her father." Keiko easily said with a wave of her hand.

With a sigh Neji turned to watch Ami, who was now sleeping peacefully. He was this baby's father, he thought. How utterly strange. He didn't feel like he was a father at all. Which of course was probably due to the fact that Keiko hadn't involved him in anything. Not the pregnancy, not the birth, nothing. She merely saw him as a way to get rid of something she didn't need. He couldn't help but feel angry because of that. Because of her lack of affection.

"Then why didn't you tell me before? Why do I need to find out that I have a child now that [i]you[/i] are bored of her instead of when you found out you were pregnant?" Neji demanded. He would take Ami in if Keiko decided to get up and leave. Of course he would. Whether he wanted to or not was not a question to be asked, wasn't it? She was his child and if her mother didn't want her... well, then she would need a father.

Keiko blanched slightly at the question and then huffed, almost haughtily so. "How was I supposed to know that she was yours?"

Neji frowned. He had always guessed she was an unfaithful woman unable to stay with one man. But to hear it being said so openly took him back slightly. He didn't comment on the fact that while they'd been dating Keiko had obviously slept around. Instead, he said: "But the moment she opened her eyes you knew she was mine."

Keiko had the decency to look at least slightly guilty for that, but of course that could be fake as well. "I wanted to raise her on my own first." She said and then shrugged. "But she was with one of my friends more often than she was with me so they told me to hand her over to you." She then stood up and looked at Neji with a smirk. "And it's not like you can't take her. She's your daughter."

When Keiko walked towards the front door Neji stood up and turned to watch the woman angrily. "You can't just leave her here like this." He said and rounded the couch to stand in front of the mother of his child. "She's your daughter, don't you have any sense of responsibility at all?"

"No," Keiko shook her head and then sighed. "I thought I could handle a kid so I didn't do an abortion. I regret it now, though. So in the end, she'll be better off with you, rather than be with a mother who wished she'd never had a daughter."

Then she smirked and patted Neji on the shoulder. "Well, good luck." Then she turned around and dashed for the front door.

"I'm a lawyer, Keiko. You can bet all your money on it, I'm going legal with this." Neji warned the woman about to leave her child. With him.

Opening the front-door, Keiko turned around in the doorway and rolled her eyes at Neji. "Sure, Neji. Go ahead. Good luck with that." She said and then turned around, loudly pulling the front door close behind her.

Neji sighed and then startled. Apparently, the loud bang of the door closing had awoken Ami-chan and she was now bawling for attention. Loudly.

"Fuck."