pes·ter

(pĕs′tər)

tr.v. pes·tered, pes·ter·ing, pes·ters

To annoy persistently, as with repeated demands or questions.

Neji glanced into his teammates' wide, round, pleading eyes – well, Lee's eyes were always round, so there wasn't much difference there, but he almost found himself recoiling in horror at Tenten's blown out pupils. What had gotten into her?

He hastily averted his own eyes. This was getting creepy.

"No," he finally said.

"I am MOST displeased with your UNYOUTHFUL attitude, Neji!" Lee retorted in uncharacteristic anger.

"Yeah, that's right! How could you, Neji?" Tenten snapped.

Tenten was taking sides with Lee. Tenten never took sides with Lee. She was always Neji's partner in suffering, Guy-sensei and Lee's youthful antics having induced numerous migraines in her for years, now going on decades. What was the cause of this seismic shift in behavior?

The sky would fall down. But still, Neji would always remain steadfast and firm.

"No," he repeated. "Boruto eats too many hamburgers and throws up when he gets on those rollercoaster rides. And Himawari is scared of heights."

"What are you, their personal assistant?" Tenten shot back. "I checked with Naruto and Hinata, and they said that it was fine."

"Well, did you check with me? Clearly not, because – "

"Neji oji-san, I wanna go on the ride," Himawari butted in, gazing at him as soulfully as his teammates. "I'm not scared of heights anymore."

The little imp. Neji recalled merely three days ago her queasy green face, her watery eyes, and her exclamation that she would "never ever get on a rollercoaster ride for the festival ever again," complete with a stomp of her foot and a glare at her older brother for insisting that they try it out.

"That's right, oji-san!" Boruto also turned towards him with that same soulful look. "Um...I'll be good and I won't eat too many spicy hamburgers...ya know!" he added defensively upon noticing Neji's skeptical look.

Then together, the two siblings proceeded to gang up on Neji. Himawari's eyes fixed on him in a gaze of iron, Boruto's a gaze of steel.

Several painful, stifling minutes fled by, with only the chirping of birds to be heard.

Neji blinked. The children did not.

"Fine," he said reluctantly. "But...but you have to come back by lunchtime, you hear me?"

His niece and nephew dropped the tough kid act immediately and swarmed him with the intensity of a locust storm.

"YEAH!"

"YOU'RE THE BEST, NEJI OJI-SAN!"

"That's the spirit of YOUTH, children!"

"Great, we can go try the kunai throwing contest and get some prizes!"

...He was played for a fool, wasn't he? Once again...

Boruto and Himawari came back far too early for their liking and far too late for Neji's liking.

"You're late," he said quietly, upon taking in their arms laden with plush toys, kunai, green jumpsuits (he would have words with Lee), and...some mysterious gift-wrapped package. "It's now 2 pm, which is – "

"Yeah, yeah, sorry, but we wanted to get some surprise presents for you, oji-san," Boruto said. "That's why we're late."

"You...did?" Neji blinked. "Is that why you didn't want me to come along?"

"It was all Tenten's oba-san's idea," Himawari said. "She told us to keep it top-secret from you until we got the presents because you're 'an extremely recalcitrant person and wouldn't let us get anything for you.' Oji-san, what does recalcitrant mean?"

He would be having words with Tenten too. He was not recalcitrant. He was just...stubborn.

"There was no need to get me any such presents," he said.

"Yeah, Tenten oba-san said you would say something like that," said Boruto.

Great, not just Naruto and Lee, but Tenten too? Was Hinata-sama his only ally in this world?

"Anyway, open the present, oji-san!" they both urged.

He acquiesced, delicately removing the exquisite glossy red gift wrap. Hmmm. Whoever had wrapped this had clearly put in a large amount of time and energy into doing so. It was folded almost like origami.

Inside the wrapping was another exquisite present. A photo album? Why a photo album?

And then he stopped breathing.

Where did Lee and Tenten get all of these photos from?

The oldest one, a time-worn photo of himself and a young Hinata-sama, back when they were toddlers. He was wearing a serene, happy smile on his face, at ease in the company of his best friend in the world at that time.

He'd forgotten all about that time.

Another one, the genin team photograph of Team Guy.

He looked so grumpy in the photo. Did he always scowl like that? He hoped not.

He continued to thumb through the album.

Him scowling again, he was disappointed to see, at one of those karaoke places that Team 7 and Team 10 (in other words, Sakura and Ino) had dragged him off to after they were promoted to chuunin. He knew he wasn't sad, upset, or annoyed in that photo. In fact, he remembered feeling quite pleased at being promoted, not just to chuunin, but jounin. Was this what Tenten meant when she said he was recalcitrant?

He'd have to work on his default facial expression.

Hinata-sama and Naruto's wedding. Oh good. At least in this photo, he was smiling. He wasn't grinning mischievously like Hanabi-sama and flashing a V sign at the camera, but he was still smiling.

That was a relief.

And then...

A lump formed in his throat.

Him and baby Boruto. He was coaxing his newborn nephew to sleep, his face as serene as in the oldest photo in the album, the one with himself and Hinata-sama.

Another with baby Himawari, with him wearing an identical expression as in the photo with her brother.

Him running helter-skelter in panic as the two turned the Hyuuga compound upside down.

Hanabi-sama took that one, didn't she? He'd need to have words with her too.

Maybe...

Maybe scowling wasn't his default facial expression, after all.

Was it because of Boruto and Himawari?

He got to the end. And then his face turned a beautiful hue that was the sum total red of all the cherries, strawberries, and tomatoes in the world combined.

To the best oji-san in the world! ❤️❤️❤️

Tenten

Heart signs. She'd drawn heart signs.

"Huh? Neji oji-san? What's wrong? You don't like Tenten oba-san's present?"

"Neji oji-san? Are you okay? Oji-san? Oji-san?"

"Wow, he's passing out! It's just like that time when we made him eat the curry of life, right, Himawari?"

A/N: For thekombuchagirl, who requested NejiTen. :)

RudraRasengan, you mean that you want me to write a one-shot in which Naruto has long hair like he did in Shippuden or like Minato?

panjangya - okay, I'll see what I can do about that request.

Iwik - I'll be sure to deliver the Neji vs. Hiashi doting relative war! :)