The night was calm, almost deafening in the sleeping village. The few sounds that challenged the silence were the spring frogs chirping in a nearby marsh and the wind whistling through the trees, blowing in an open window and tickling the toes of the room's restless occupant. Tenten lay on her back with the heels of her hands pressed against her eye sockets, trying to distract herself.
Maybe tomorrow night, thought the brunette, shifting to a sitting position. Glancing at the clock, she groaned internally at the flashing red lights. Three-oh-four in the morning. She had never been so torn in her life.
Listening for a few more moments, she decided against getting up and instead flopped back down on the bed, throwing one arm over her eyes.
As she savoured the silence, Tenten felt herself beginning to drift off. Instinctively, however, she glanced at the clock.
Three-oh-eight.
The kunoichi bolt up from the bed just as an ear shattering wail tore through the silence of the morning. Moving towards the door, Tenten found she couldn't.
Glancing back, her eyes locked on the ivory hand gripping her wrist.
The wailing increased its volume. Normally Tenten might have laughed and joked about something so small make so much noise. But that was when the baby wasn't hers.
"Neji…" The woman said in a broken voice. Then suddenly she was in his embrace desperately trying to reach for the door, "I-"
"Remember what Sakura said," His voice rumbled against her back and in her ear as she continued to fight his iron-tight grip. "She has to learn to sleep on her own."
The weapon mistress went limp in her husband's arms, trembling with sobs. Neji turned her to face him and she buried her face in his hair, pressing against him for solace.
Neji soothed his wife as they sat for what seemed like hours as their daughter cried to the high heavens. Eventually, the cries dampened, turning into whimpers and then to sweet silence.
The Hyuuga man sighed and laid the now slumbering Tenten down next to him and glanced at the clock.
Three twenty-six.
Neji smirked, less than twenty minutes, before laying down and burying his face in his wife's scented hair, knowing that it would all repeat in twenty-four hours.
Edited by Sister Dear.