As always, Naruto belongs to Kishimoto.

Neji felt Tenten stop running and turned to see what stalled her. It wasn't enemies to fight or comrades in need of help. She just stood there, watching the sky. Fearing the ten tails had done something new, he followed her gaze and found the moon. Beautiful, bright, and bathing the world in red light.

Neji jerked around, his heart pounding. Where was he? It was one of his team's more remote training fields, but how did he get here? Where was he before this? Nothing made sense.

"Earth to Neji," Tenten's called in her birdsong voice. She waved a hand in front of his eyes. "Are you with me?"

"Tenten." Neji felt his heart slow with the ebbing adrenaline. "I was just with you . . ." Where had they been? He couldn't remember. It felt like something important.

Tenten turned his face to look at her. "You've been with me all day. What's going on with you?"

His thoughts remained muddled in memories he couldn't quite grasp. He had been with Tenten. They'd been . . .

Neji took Tenten's appearance in more carefully. Her skin was flushed, the buttons on her shirt were undone, and her untamed hair had a leaf stuck in it. Now he remembered what they'd been up before the confusion took him. They'd started with some training, but the hand to hand combat had quickly become less combative and more hands on. She would not be happy if he told her he'd forgotten all their fun, even if only for a moment.

Neji covered the hand still on his cheek with his own and smiled. "Just had a really strange feeling, but I'm completely yours again."

"If only that were true," Tenten said. She pulled away from him and began fixing her hair back into her trademark buns. "Don't you have somewhere to be, Hyuuga-sama?"

He groaned but not with any serious dejection. "Yes, Dad and Grandpa want me to start focusing more on the clan."

"It must be so hard to be the heir to the Hyuuga clan. All those servants and fine food and fancy clothes—"

"And the meetings and the responsibilities and training," he finished for her and pulled her flush against his body. "But don't worry, one day you'll get all those servants and fine food and fancy clothes, too. All you have to do is take the Hyuuga name for yourself."

She raked her nails along the back of his neck. "Is that a proposal?"

"It's an open invitation."

Tenten scrunched up her face like she was thinking, but both of them already knew the answer. "Maybe in a few years, when I'm ready to take on the meetings and responsibilities that come along with that name."

Neji rested his bare forehead against hers. "I'll be waiting."

An approaching presence broke up any more delays on their part. Not that they didn't need to get moving anyway. Neji grabbed his forehead protector from where it'd fallen during their "training" and made himself a little more presentable.

"Neji, Tenten." Lee called out when he was close enough to not need to scream to get their attention. "Gai-sensei and I have been looking for you."

"Hey, Lee, what's up?" Neji said, and for a moment that same strange feeling from earlier nagged at the back of his mind. Lee felt different, though Neji couldn't figure out what had changed.

"We got a mission tomorrow. Escort." Lee explained calmly, handing them both the details of the mission. "We're to leave in the morning—too early in the morning."

"Is there anything too early for you?" Neji joked, and the question felt wrong. Lee didn't like mornings any more than he or Tenten did. Why did Neji think he was energetic in the morning?

Lee shook his head. "I'm all for a challenge from my rival, but let's wait until the sun rises first."

"Good idea," Tenten said.

"By the way, Gai-sensei and I are heading to the barbeque for dinner if you want to join. Unless you two already have plans tonight." Lee smirked and gave them both a knowing wink. Why did Neji expect Lee's teeth to "Ping" when he smiled? That made no sense. Lee couldn't do genjutsu.

"I'm always up for barbeque," Tenten chirped. "But Hyuuga-sama here has to go back to the clan."

Neji rolled his eyes before giving Tenten a kiss on the cheek. "I'll try not to be jealous you're all having fun without me."

His teammates waved goodbye, and Neji headed home. The normally calm main house was alive with squeals and laughter thanks to three teenagers, one toddler, and an oversized dog. Shou clung to the thick fur on Akamaru's back, shrieking in delight each time the great hound jumped and twisted. Hinata, Kiba, and Shino encircled the boy and dog in what looked like a game of "Try to Steal the Hyuuga." Akamaru was doing a decent job of protecting his charge, though no one made a serious attempt that might cause Shou to lose his grip.

When Shou caught sight of Neji, he called out through his laughter, "Oniisama! Save me! Save me!"

"Hey!" Kiba said. "That's cheating!"

Despite his master's protest, Akamaru decided it was not cheating and leapt through the empty space between Kiba and Shino to sit wagging his tail behind Neji. Shou climbed up Akamaru's back until his head popped over the dog's white shoulder to watch the action.

"Traitor," Kiba muttered.

"It seems we'll need to get serious if we want our target," Shino said in that bland tone of his that never revealed if he was joking or not.

Hinata stepped up to take her place between the boys. "We'll need to work together to get by Oniisama."

If this turned into more than a game spar, the three of them together could give Neji a run for his money. Maybe even in a game spar—if he was feeling generous. And damn if he wasn't a sucker for the smile Hinata showed whenever she was with her team. It was filled with joy for their friendship. There were few things that made her happier than being with her team.

Shino attacked first with standard taijutsu. The lack of bugs meant he had been joking before, and this fight would stay a game spar. But, a game spar with shinobi of their level wasn't an easy fight by any means. When Neji found a good opening to attack Shino, Kiba moved in to replace his teammate, which forced Neji back onto the defensive. They traded on and off like this for a while. Hinata was the one tasked with stealing Shou. Besides the fact he saw her looking for an opening to get past him, Shou would enjoy it most if his big sister was the one to get him. Neji needed to watch Hinata if he was going to protect Shou.

A game spar wasn't one that lasted long when the prize was a distractible kid, so Hinata took the first opportunity she saw. Neji expected that, so he'd given it to her. He tucked down further than necessary to avoid Kiba's kick, but not too much as to be an obvious trap. Hinata ran forward, ready to vault them all while Neji was too far away to reach her.

Neji grinned and pushed forward in his crouch. The effort easily moved him out of immediate attack range of her teammates, leaving his little sister undefended. He shifted to strike her in the upper chest so she was forced to the ground rather than merely pushed back. She saw his attack coming but couldn't stop his hand heading straight for her heart.

Neji stopped short, a terrible feeling overtaking him at the last moment. Hinata, still in the game, used his semi-crouched body as a step. It slammed him face first into the ground and went her for her prize. He heard giggling as she no doubt won Shou from Akamaru, but Neji didn't move to join them.

That feeling . . . he didn't know where it came from and the memory of it quickly faded. But when his hand was about to hit her, Neji felt a terror that sunk into his bones. Fear deep and burned into his mind. The feeling that if he hadn't stopped, he'd have hurt her more than a play spar ever would. It wasn't a memory, Hinata had never been seriously hurt, but it felt like a memory . . . one that was just out of reach.

"Oniisama, are you alright?" Hinata asked. She handed Shou to Kiba and hurried to where Neji still lay.

He sat up and ran a shaking hand through his hair. He'd never felt fear like that before, but even as he tried to grasp onto the feeling and find where it came from, it slipped through his fingers.

Hinata bent over with her head turned so her long hair fell like a curtain that kept the other's prying eyes from seeing him. Concern colored her eyes. "Oniisama?"

"I'm alright." Neji took a deep breath to settle himself. The fear was gone and all that remained was a lingering sensation saying he never wanted to feel that again. "Sorry. I don't know what that was about. Things have felt a little off today. Probably just didn't get enough sleep."

Hinata puckered her mouth in a skeptical expression that said quite clearly, "Yeah, like I'll believe that."

"I mean it," Neji insisted, laughing at the all too familiar banter with his sister. "I'm fine now. And I promise to get to bed early tonight."

She rolled her eyes, but relented and helped him to his feet. "As punishment for failing to protect our little brother," Hinata said in a dramatic fashion she'd learned from their cousins, "you can take him to get washed up for dinner. We should head out anyway to meet up with Kurenai-sensei."

Kiba tossed Shou in an easy arc for Neji to catch, which elicited a new bout of laughter from the boy. Shou climbed up to sit on Neji's shoulders and held onto his hair to stay upright. Not the most comfortable position for Neji, but he was too much of a pushover for his siblings to complain.

Considering Neji was dirtier than Shou after Hinata planted him face first in the dirt, he waved off the servants coming to collect his brother and took Shou to the bath himself. That strange off feeling surfaced again as he watched the servants leave. There was something about her forehead that looked wrong, even though there was nothing there to see. Neji shook his head out to get rid of the feeling. Maybe he did need to get more sleep.

The hot bath felt wonderful, as did the Shou's even breathing when the boy fell asleep in Neji's lap. All the excitement with Hinata's team must have worn him out. Neji kept an arm around Shou's chest to make sure he didn't topple into the water and let him sleep until they had to get out or be late to dinner.

The brothers were the last to enter the dining hall since Hinata wouldn't be joining them. Neji sat a groggy Shou next to his mother and took a seat opposite the table next to his grandfather. The sudden tension in Neji's shoulders as he sat down didn't make sense. After the bath he was relaxed and happy, but just like when he tried to attack Hinata, an emotion Neji couldn't understand surfaced when he looked at Hyobe.

Anger.

The feeling came and passed within a few seconds and Neji relaxed again. Why would he be angry with his grandfather? Neji couldn't remember anything they'd argued about recently. Hyobe rarely argued with anyone in the family. Neji must really need sleep.

"I have an escort mission tomorrow," he informed his father once the meal began. "I'll probably be gone a week or so."

"It worries me anytime you're on a mission. Hinata, too, of course," Hizashi clarified, "but especially you. It's always hard on the clan when we lose an heir." Hizashi sighed. "I suppose this must be how you felt every time I was away, isn't it, Father."

"Quite," Hyobe said. "At least this time there are spares if anything should happen. Every time you were gone, I regretted never having a second child."

"Speaking of children," Naomi said with a sly smirk on her face. "When are you going to propose to Tenten and give us grandchildren?"

"Mom!" Neji drew the single word out to emphasize his exasperation, which made all the adults laugh. It didn't help that if he and Tenten weren't careful, those events might happen in reverse order.

Hizashi calmed his laughter enough to speak, but kept a hand covering his wide grin. "Like Father said, it's always good to have spares."

Neji glared at all of them, cleared his throat, and went back to his meal, pointedly not looking at any of them. Time to take back control of this conversation. "We don't need any spares, since I'll always come home. I have to."

Hizashi kept his grin, but allowed the shift in topic. "What do you mean you have to?"

"If I were to die on a mission, Hinata would be made heir. So, I have to come back."

Hyobe gave Neji a sideways glance as the old man returned to his meal. "Hinata would do fine as heir."

Neji nodded. "I know. But she'd never be completely happy tied to the clan like that. Hinata is much more suited to a life out there with her team. And it's my job as her big brother to make sure she stays happy. That means I have to stay heir, and to do that I have to come home every time."

Naomi shook her head in amusement. "You really do have a massive sister complex. You know that, right?"

"And a brother complex, so everyone tells me." Neji sighed, but couldn't bring himself to be annoyed. He loved taking care of his siblings, no matter what anyone said. Nothing made him happier than knowing everyone around him was also happy thanks to him.

He couldn't imagine a better life than this.