Hyuuga Hiashi was worried and on edge. He'd recovered from a bad bout of the flu, there had been no further attacks on his family that he knew about, the wedding plans for Neji and Yugao were going well, and even Hanabi had been quiet of late. But still, something ate at him.

"You worried about the missing buttercup?"

The Hyuuga leader turned and was unsurprised that Anko had managed to sneak into his study without even a slight sound. "If the buttercup to which you refer is Hinata, then she should have been back by now."

The spiky-haired woman nodded, she'd thought of that too. "In essence, this is still a part of her honeymoon, even if it is combined with family business. Perhaps they're enjoying an extended stay with the old geezer."

Hiashi grunted.

"No, didn't think you'd buy that." Anko sighed and hitched one hip up on the side of his desk, the other leg swinging languidly. "You got a message from them."

"Some message!" He snapped and turned to reach the missive, his arm brushing against her side as he picked up the note. "We're fine, on our way home. Both traitors are now deceased. Will report on arrival."

"Ah." Anko said, watching him carefully. "The buttercup didn't say NOT to worry, so you are taking that liberty now?" She paused meaningfully. "Or it would never occur to her that you would worry."

Whipping around, Hiashi's face was livid. "That's ridiculous, I care for my children!"

"Do they know that?" Anko replied nonchalantly, peering at her fingernails as if they were the only thing of current importance. "Sure you spend time with Neji. Now, that is. Didn't always. Hanabi? Hinata? You trained them, sure."

Hiashi let his breathing settle as he overcame his momentary outburst. "I trained them in the Hyuuga ways, but was not their sole or even primary instructor. I do have a lot of duties, you know. Still. My children know I care."

"Sure, trout. Fine. Whatever you say." Anko buffed her fingernails on her coat.

The Hyuuga leader turned away to stare out the window once more.

"Brooding will in no way help matters. And if the note Hinata sent is true, then both Misyu and his son are dead." Anko paused, then stared at the back of his head. "Unless you don't think she's capable of …."

"She is a Hyuuga." Hiashi stood proud, turning only his head so his eyes could meet hers. "She may not be the strongest, but she is still a Hyuuga."

"Why don't you consider her strong?" Anko asked, truly curious. "I observed her in Suna and on the journey there and back. Shy, certainly, but I wouldn't say weak. Do you consider her strengths in defense to be of small value?"

Hiashi growled low. "She's too soft. Like her mother."

A bit surprised, Anko considered him a moment. "Are you afraid that you'll lose the daughter like you did the wife? Soft does not really equal weakness, not always."

"Very funny, coming from you." Hiashi snapped. "You're so hard that rocks bend to you as you pass."

Anko smiled benignly at him. "I consider that a compliment you know. I may not be soft, but that doesn't mean I'm blind. For all your vaunted bloodline limit, can't you see that your daughter is a highly capable jounin?"

A noise in the hallway had them both turning as Hanabi went by the study, she gave a small bow and continued on her way.

"Hanabi!" Anko yelled, making Hiashi wince. The woman did not know the meaning of decorum apparently.

Surprised, Hanabi looked into the study. "Hai?"

"Come here, blue mushroom." Anko crooned happily, shooting a glance out the side of her eyes that had Hiashi stiffening his spine. Just what was the kunoichi up to now?

Hanabi sighed as she complied, coming to a stop before her father's desk. "I'm no longer blue, it finally wore off."

The spiky-haired jounin laughed. "To me, you will always be blue. Now. Tell me, Hanabi, are you aware that your father cares for you?"

The genin hid her surprise relatively well at the unexpected question. "Hai, of course he does."

Hiashi nodded austerely at his child, grateful to be proven right.

Hanabi continued though. "He has always taken care of all the Hyuuga clan. I am his daughter and he does right by me."

Rather than finding satisfaction in that litany, Hiashi suddenly felt ill at ease. Was this all his daughter thought of him?

Anko smiled almost gently, making Hanabi suddenly feel very nervous. "And do you know your father loves you?"

Shocked, Hanabi dropped her jaw to respond, only she didn't know what to say to that. "Wha…what?"

Hiashi growled. "Oh come now, stop acting so surprised. I have shown my feelings to you in many ways."

Hanabi nodded absently. "Yes, of course father. I know that. It's just …it's just …"

"What?" Anko spurred the young girl on.

The young Hyuuga shrugged. "Knowing love and speaking about it are very different. Please don't give my father a heart attack by making him say that word to me. He just got over being sick, the shock alone could kill him."

Appalled, Hiashi just shook his head. "I never taught you to think like that."

"You didn't teach her otherwise though." Anko pointed out. "Your children and your clan follow your actions. You don't show your love to your children …"

"I do so!" Barked Hiashi, mortified beyond belief to be having this conversation at all, much less in front of Hanabi.

"Oh?" Anko purred, licking her lips. "How so then, trout?"

The Hyuuga leader suddenly grinned and relaxed, making Hanabi take a step backwards before she stilled. "By not taking my child to task for all the nasty things she's been doing to Morino Ibiki, or even the Kazekage of Suna."

"B….bu…but h…how di…did …." Hanabi sputtered. "You n...never m...mentioned ..."

Hiashi grinned at both women, suddenly feeling much better. "I've got eyes and a brain you know. And being a Hyuuga, both work extremely well." He paused and looked straight at Hanabi. "Blue? It's not your best color. But it did go strikingly well with Gaara's red hair."

o.O.o.O.o.O

Kankuro had tried to tell Hinata of his affections several times, but the moment had never been just right.

That first night since he'd come to terms with his feelings, the two had been alone in their tent. She'd shyly turned to him and he'd enthusiastically met and exceeded all her needs. Afterwards, sweaty and replete, the two had snuggled. As she'd drifted off to sleep Hinata had told him plainly, "I love you."

He'd held her and gathered his courage to return the words to her, but she'd fallen asleep before he could manage to clear his throat. Kankuro had thought about waking her up but then he mentally kicked himself. After having sex was not a good time to tell a woman that she was loved, she'd think it was only because of the sex! Or worse, that he pitied her because she'd revealed her own love for him.

Satisfied with that train of logic, he'd gone to sleep while assuring himself he'd tell her the following day.

Only that hadn't worked out so well as the old hermit had fallen and badly sprained his ankle. After the attacks on them, and unsure of their safety, it was decided that both Shino and Kiba needed to be free in order to react more swiftly. Kankuro, as the civilian on this trip, was elected to carry Juroken. As Hinata had explained to him, the old man was his uncle now too, if only through marriage. Family saw to family she'd informed him with Temari grinning at him behind his wife's back.

Hot, irritated, and sweaty at the end of the day Kankuro had not been in the best of moods. Happily, it had been decided to stay at a local inn that night, one that boasted a hot tub.

While soaking, he'd been both surprised and not a little pleased when Hinata bribed the attendant into letting her into the men's private bath. The puppeteer had watched in awe as his beautiful, hot little wife had stripped for him.

Well, to be precise, she'd turned her back and tried to modestly cover as much of herself with a large towel as possible while disrobing. It had been arousing nonetheless.

His body at full attention, he'd snagged her towel with a lone chakra string as she'd tested the bath water with her toes. The covering had flown off and the look of shock and utter horror on her face would live in a special place in his heart for the rest of their lives.

She'd leapt into the water, arms crossed over her nudity as her face burned beet red. It had taken more than a few kisses to get her to forgive him. And by the time he had, the kisses had grown lengthy, erotic, and hotter than the water. By the time his mind cleared, they'd already made love twice and she was wrapped around him tighter than a spring in one of his puppets.

Sneaking back into their room had been a fun adventure, and even before they'd crawled into bed laughing, she'd told him of her love. Smiling, though a bit crest-fallen, Kankuro had put off his confession yet another day as he didn't want her to think he was copying her.

The following week had passed in much the same way. One night he couldn't tell her because she'd been worn out from teaching Katashi all day. The twosome had been going over more about chakra building and control. His sweet little wife had fallen asleep before he'd even managed to climb into the sleeping bag.

Another night, Katashi had not been feeling well and had seemed to want to snuggle up to Hinata for most of the night. She'd berated him when Kankuro had wanted to have the boy moved back to his own tent. Miffed, he decided it would be a grand time to express his love. She was mad at him, it was perfect! Hinata could not possibly think he was copying her own declaration and they'd not had sex, so she wouldn't confuse his feelings for post coital bliss.

Then he'd frowned. What if she thought he was trying to placate her anger? No, he couldn't tell her while she was mad at him, now could he? If he did she might think he was trying to manipulate her feelings! This was proving harder than he'd ever thought possible.

What he needed was a plain ordinary moment. Only, while traveling, they were never alone enough for that to happen. And the last thing he wanted was a witness to his confession. It was one thing to tell her, it was another thing entirely to let anyone else know of his feelings. Kankuro growled as the group neared the end of their journey. At last he'd get his wife back and they'd be left to themselves.

o.O.o.O.o.O

From the cover of some of the trees along the outer gates of Konoha, Naruto snuck in a few more kisses. Sakura grinned meltingly at him. Other than the times Kakashi was over at her house making goo-goo eyes with her mother, her life was near about perfect. Naruto had lost her once and was doing everything right in order to make her happy. Although, in all fairness, she too was putting in a lot of effort in keeping him happy.

Maybe this time they could actually make a go of it.

It took her a second to realize that Naruto was no longer nuzzling her neck, even though his arms were still wrapped tightly around her. He didn't appear to be alarmed, just distracted. Curious and lazy, Sakura turned to look behind her and grinned.

"Feels like the prodigal daughter has returned." The medical kunoichi murmured. "From their chakra signatures, they're about two miles away."

Naruto grinned and squeezed her tighter, running his hands possessively down her back to cup her backside. "Plenty of time."

Sakura bused his lips with hers. "If we can feel them, then likely they can feel our signatures too. I'm not dampening mine at the moment."

Naruto scowled as he too was not hiding his presence. "Damn it!"

The pink-haired kunoichi laughed at him and kissed him one more time. She danced away from him as he made an effort to keep her at his side. Laughing, Sakura pulled him toward the main gates. "Come on, let's alert everyone that they're back."

o.O.o.O.o.O

Katashi's steps slowed down considerably the closer they came to Konoha. Finally, the boy stopped, his pale eyes wide.

"There's nothing to be nervous about." Hinata knelt down and tried to reassure him.

The boy's bottom lip trembled, then his chin firmed. "I'm not scared."

Kankuro grinned. The kid was terrified actually, not scared, so technically it wasn't a lie. "Of course not. Like we'd let anything happen to you. You're family."

Hinata looked up a bit startled. She looked into her husband's face and realized that she'd stopped seeing the face-paint and hood when she looked at him. While he had his habitual sneer in place, somewhere along the way, she'd learned to read him even through all the Bunraku gear. "We?"

The puppeteer shook his head sadly. "Hoshi, you're not ditching me on this one. He's your father, we go in this together to face him."

Stunned, Hinata stood up and stared into his laughing dark eyes. "You're teasing me."

Grinning, he deliberately reached up and smeared one of his fingers with his Bunraku markings. She stared at him as he ran his finger down her nose.

Sputtering, she dug in her pack for something to clean herself off with as Katashi howled with laughter, pointing at the purple smear along her nose. "Have you gone insane?" She yelped.

Kankuro whooped with mirth as he picked Hinata up around her waist and twirled her in a circle, making her efforts to wipe the face paint off of her smudge even further.

Shino nudged Temari and the two shared a knowing look as they watched Katashi's unease fade in the face of all the horsing around. Kiba was just grinning and keeping an eye on their prisoner. Juroken was smiling as he watched his neice, reminded strongly of his sister. Hinata might look like her father, but her sweetness was all Kioshi. He wondered where the shyness came from though, his sister had been softspoken, but never shy

Hinata slapped her hands vainly against Kankuro's chest to get him to put her down. "You're embarrassing me!" She choked out.

Laughing into her mortified face, Kankuro put her feet on the ground and leaned forward to whisper in her ear. "Katashi's not looking so afraid anymore. Hoshi? Forgive me?"

Stilling, Hinata activated her Byakugan quietly and 'looked' behind her without actually turning her head. She relaxed subtly in her husband's arms. He was right. Kankuro's actions had lightened her little brother's trepidation at the coming meeting with Hiashi. "Thank you." She whispered.

Kankuro grinned down at her and kissed her purple-smudged nose. "Anytime. Besides, I'm pretty sure that that's Naruto's chakra signature up ahead. And I just want to make sure he knows you're taken. Don't want to have to bruise his liver again."

Now irritated, Hinata drew herself up and slapped his hands away as she tried to right her appearance. "Naruto knows we're married. And you came out of that fight worse than he did!"

"Just marking my territory." Was his infuriating response as he ignored her jibe.

With a shriek she tried to hit him, but he dodged. Kankuro backed away, making a vain attempt to fend her off as she stalked him with fury in her eyes.

Katashi was now laughing too hard to fear anything. And so was the rest of the group. Well, their prisoner wasn't laughing. But no one really cared about him anyway.

o.O.o.O.o.O

Hiashi straightened his robes in the mirror, smiling with relief.

Anko looked at his reflection in the mirror and clucked her tongue at him. "Your kid doesn't care if your robe isn't straight. In fact, you look less like a trout and more like a kingfisher with just a little bit of a rumple on you." So saying, she tugged on one side of his robe and offset the perfect lines just the tiniest of bits.

"Stop that." He chided her, not really upset. Although he did re-straighten his robes. Turning he looked at her, both happy and saddened at the same time.

Reading his look right, Anko sighed. "I guess this is it."

"I guess it is." He agreed, albeit reluctantly, though he tried not to let that show.

The kunoichi grinned up at him, though she didn't like the way her stomach was flip-flopping. Everyone else was getting over the flu, even Gai was back on his feet now. She kept feeling like she was coming down with it, but the flu never quite materialized. Well, not for her. "Feeling alright?"

Hiashi nodded. "Much better, thank you. You didn't have to tend to me while I was sick though. I have a very well paid staff for that." He would never admit that it was her face he'd looked for when he'd been feeling his worst.

Anko pursed her lips, nodding. "Well, they were well and I was already getting sick. Thought it would save one of them from being as miserable as you were. You're staff loves me for it. All week long I've been drowning in dango." She smacked her lips at the tasty dessert she loved so much. Lately though, it had started tasting …off. Probably the flu finally catching up to her at long last.

Hiashi coughed to regain her attention. Anko frowned, had she just spaced out in the midst of a conversation?

"The mission may technically end, but there's no reason you need to move out today. If you're sick, especially after taking care of me, then I insist on inviting you to stay on until you're feeling better." The Hyuuga told her, his body language haughty, but with something soft shining out of his pale gaze.

Anko shook her head. "There's every reason I need to go." She said, meaning it. She was becoming far to attached to this man, and his family. Even Neji was starting to open up to her a bit, after she thanked him so sweetly for thinking her 'scary'.

Hiashi nodded and sighed. "I suppose so, it's your choice of course. Still, I and my clan owe you much. You don't have to see me if you don't want, but I would like it if you stayed long enough to get over your illness. I don't like to think of you going through what I did, but all alone."

He had a point. Anko grimaced, remembering how weak Hiashi had been at the height of his bout with the nasty flu bug. He'd been so feverish and unsteady, she'd had to feed him like a child or he'd have ended up wearing the broth the kitchen had sent up. At home by herself, who would make the broth much less feed her? "Fine. But just until the flu goes away."

Relieved beyond measure, Hiashi grinned and fought the urge to kiss her.

"They're coming!" Hanabi shouted from the hallway.

The Hyuuga clan leader frowned down at the spiky-haired woman. "She never yelled like that before you moved in."

Anko smiled sweetly at that. "Then I did do SOMETHING right around here." With that, she tweaked his robe off center once more.

o.O.o.O.o.O

Having been forewarned, Tsunade had sent a message to the guards at the gate to have the returning travelers head for the Hyuuga compound rather than her office. She knew how on edge and worried Hiashi had been, no matter how well the man had tried to hide his feelings.

Besides, anything to get out of her office and the piles of paperwork Shizune set out for her on a daily basis.

She and her assistant headed for the Hyuuga compound. She'd already ordered some of her ninja guards to meet them there. With the notice of arrival, the gate guards had also informed her that there was a prisoner with the group. A man they'd not wanted to turn over at the main gate. Tsuande wondered why.

The guard had then added that there were 'newcomers' with the returning ninja. Tsunade wondered at the wording. Newcomer hinted at more than a simple visitor or guest. Newcomer suggested someone moving here, someone who would belong here. She'd have to see about that.

Shizune was wondering along much the same lines as her Hokage. Still, when the two passed a bakery, she couldn't help but stop and look at the wonderous display.

Tsunade had turned to ask her assistant a question to find the kunoichi gone. Looking back she saw Shizune ogling a store window. Scowling, the Hokage stopped and stalked back to her recalcitrant assistant.

"Hungry?" The blond asked snidely, looking at the display of artistically decorated cakes.

Shizune shook her head, then realized what she'd done in stopping and blushed from her head to her toes. "Oh, Tsunade-sama, I'm terribly sorry. We'll get going."

Tsunade grabbed her assistant's arm to stop her, turning she looked into the window of the shop and back at Shizune's face. "If you're not hungry…. OH! Wedding stuff!" She cackled with delight to have solved the minor mystery.

Shizune couldn't help herself. "Would you prefer chocolate with white icing? Or perhaps white on white, or chocolate on white. Or I've been thinking about some …."

The Hokage held up a hand to stop the flow of questions. "All I want at your wedding is enough sake to forestall any visuals my drunken guards will try to instill in my mind of you and Ibiki …together."

Blushing furiously, Shizune refrained from asking any more bakery related questions.

Tsunade looked back into the window a moment. "They all look good. Too bad we don't have time to order one for Anko's wedding to Hiashi."

Shizune smiled a bit at that. "The Lord Hyuuga explained Hanabi's 'invitation' as a prank."

"I know, I know." Tsunade grinned. "But if I have trouble picturing you with my torture expert, then a visual of Anko with that stuck-up Hyuuga is just too extreme even for me."

The Hokage's assistant thought it over a moment before shrugging. "The Lady Hanabi seems bound and determined to marry her father off. And Anko seems to be her main target right now."

Tsunade cackled a bit at that. "Hanabi versus her father with a wedding for him on the line? My money is on him."

Shizune grinned and replied without thinking. "Mine's on her." The kunoichi said, then realized she meant it. She stood there remembering all the small wounds and embarrassing things she'd had to heal for Ibiki. Though the stubborn man would still not admit aloud to being bested by a genin. Shizune had figured it out though as Ibiki had talked about wanting to draft young Hanabi into ANBU when she was ready. The young Hyuuga was just sneaky enough to pull something like that off.

The Hokage hooted with laughter. "Really? Alright. Here's the deal. I win the bet and you have to let me play hooky from the office once a week for a month. And if you win, by some freak miracle, I'll buy you the biggest wedding cake they make."

Shizune thought it over carefully. She wasn't a gambler, not in the slightest. But the more she thought it out, the more she liked it. Ibiki had mentioned that Anko and Hiashi had been having a fling. He'd even mentioned that Anko had been tending the Hyuuga clan leader while he'd been really sick with the flu. It was a gamble, but …

"You have a bet."

Tsunade looked startled a moment before sticking out her hand to shake on it. "Sucker." She sneered.

Shizune just shrugged. "Better get to the Hyuuga compound." Was all she said.

o.O.o.O.o.O

Well, the introductions of father and son are coming up fast! Hope you liked this chapter. I'm going to be away for a few days, sorry. I'll update probably on Tuesday or Wednesday. I hope this installment tides you over until then! LOL

By the way, my addiction to REVIEWS is not getting any better. Please indulge me ...even if you don't like something, I'd like to hear why and what you do and don't like.