Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Neji Hyuuga

Akio was having the time of his life. If his wide grin and butt wiggling as he sat in the grass was any indication. He was loud too. Although that wasn't an unusual occurrence. Whenever Lee would land a hit or Gai would block a punch or kick, Akio would vocalize his amazement. Which was often. So much, that Manami was barely paying attention to the taijutsu demonstration the jonin and chunin duo were putting on for their benefit. Her eyes kept glancing in Akio's direction whenever the boy was unable to obtain his excitement.

A part of Manami understood it. The two green spandex people were exceptional at taijutsu. It was nothing they had ever seen at the academy before. But another part questioned why they were even here in the first place. Yes, Manami had understood what Gai had said about Naruto being deployed. She was still struggling over why Gai was the one asked to watch her. Or rather why she needed to be watched at all. Mother and Father used to leave her alone all the time when they were busy in the market. Though, she had never spent the night alone... except that one time. Frowning, Manami stared down at the blades of grass. What would her father have said about all of this?

The demonstration ended with Lee and Gai bowing to each other respectfully as they sang each other's praises. "Alright", Gai declared as he turned to the two academy students. "Do you two think you can perform as youthfully as Lee?" He asked in the issue of a challenge.

Akio sprang to his feet; breaking Manami from her thoughts. "Ya betcha we can!" Akio accepted; his hands clenched into fists as he particularly vibrated. Sparring with bona fide shinobi was so much cooler than freeze tag. Gai and Lee beamed at the enthusiasm as Akio reached down to grab Manami's hand. "Come on, Manami", Akio encouraged as he pulled the girl to her feet. "It'll be just like when we have sparring at the academy but without Iruka-Sensei telling us when to stop".

A bit apprehensively, Manami allowed the redheaded boy to drag her closer to Lee and Gai. Sparring. She had done it a couple of times at the academy since she started school. It was something Manami enjoyed. Something she could do. Something she was trained to do. Unlike the transformation jutsu.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Tenten asked from where she had been sitting behind the two academy students during Lee and Gai's demonstration. When Gai had been late to their team training session, both she and Neji knew this wasn't going to be good. Gai was not the copycat nin. He was never late without good reason. And when Gai did arrive with two kids trailing behind him, Neji and Tenten knew they had been right.

While Lee eagerly listened to their teacher's explanation why two academy students would be joining them, Neji and Tenten had a quick and silent conversation. One of them would have to supervise the kids and pull them out of the way in case the spandex duo got too… overzealous. When Lee loudly exclaimed that they would be thrilled to "spark the righteousness of youth in the hearts of Konoha's children", Neji and Tenten decided she would have the honor. It wasn't ideal, but it was fine. Tenten always had weapons that needed maintenance after all.

"Of course, it is", Lee assured his female teammate with his hands poised on his hips. In the background, Gai knelt between the two kids as he reviewed the academy rules for sparring with them. No hits to the head. Be mindful of your surroundings. Taijutsu only. Be respectful of your opponent, and when an adult calls the match, you stop.

"We're helping future generations grow and practice their skills", Lee continued his assurance.

"Yeah, okay", Tenten agreed with his logic just because she knew to argue with Lee would do no good. Her eyes darted back to the two children she had been supervising for the past half hour. Gai had finished his instructions and now all three of them were looking at her. As if they required her consent to proceed. Sigh. If only that was true. "But we don't have permission for their parents", Tenten pointed out. However; as soon as she said it, Tenten regretted it.

Manami turned her head away from the weapons master. She stared past Gai; trying her best to not look at anyone. Oops. Of course, Tenten remembered the first time she and her team met Manami. When Kiba had picked up and explained that she was temporarily living with them. And then Gai's explanation early today about how Manami's new guardian had been assigned a mission, so he would be looking after the girl until her guardian's mission was over. But Tenten hadn't been thinking of any of that when she had spoken.

Being young enough, that he was unaffected by the sudden mood change in the atmosphere, Akio hurriedly shook his head. "My parents won't care. I spar all the time".

Gai placed a hand on Manami's shoulder. He meant the contact to offer comfort, but all the girl did was eye his hand with gloomy curiosity. Like she didn't quite understand what the point of the contact was. "While in loco parentis, I give Manami-chan my permission". Gai smiled encouragingly at the two; hoping to reignite the youthful energy they had before Tenten's social blunder.

"Yay!", Akio cheered as he jogged a few steps away to create space between him and his friend. He fell into an offensive stance and waited impatiently.

Tenten sighed but nodded her assent to Gai and Lee. She couldn't bring herself to refuse now. Pleased, Gai nodded, retracted his hand, and stepped away from the girl. "Opponents ready!" Gai called; taking up the role of referee.

As Manami took a deep breath and tensed and relaxed her muscles to shake off the uncomfortableness she was feeling, Lee joined Tenten on the sidelines. But he didn't sit down beside her; choosing to stay on his feet to cheer on and encourage the academy students.

Without being prompted, but taking her time, Manami fell into a defensive stance. Gai attempted to build anticipation by looking first at Akio and then at Manami. They couldn't start until he said so as Gai was well aware. Tenten used that time to glance over her shoulder in the direction where Neji was training his byakugan alone. Honestly, the jonin probably appreciated the time to train without the distraction of Lee and Gai. Even if that meant he didn't have a partner to practice techniques on. However, Neji must have overheard Lee's and Gai's excitement. Because when Tenten's eye sought him out, he was standing still with his arms crossed and his eyes deactivated. She didn't know if Neji stopped out of interest or a sense of obligation. But Tenten knew him well enough to know that he'd never tell her if she asked.

"Begin!", Gai shouted, releasing the two academy students.

Tenten faced forward just in time to watch Akio charge in; dashing for Manami's right side with a broad confident grin on his face. Manami's lips twitched into a smirk, advertising her own confidence as she waited for Akio to get within range.

As Akio aimed a blow to Manami's side, the girl swiftly pivoted; blocking his left arm with her right. Without hesitation, Akio withdrew. Only to sprint for an opening; targeting Manami's back. In the early stages of their shinobi training, it was hard to predict how Manami and Akio would grow. However, just in these first few seconds of the fight, Lee could already make inferences about the children's fighting styles. Akio's strength was speed. By academy standards, it was hard to follow him. His weakness was subtleness; going for obvious openings.

Manami bent one knee and hurriedly dropped low before she swung an extended leg around in a circle, hoping to catch her classmate off-guard. It didn't work. Akio jumped over Manami's leg as if they were playing jump rope before creating distance between them by cartwheeling away. "Woo! Good job! Keep it up", Lee cheered from the sidelines without calling out either of the kids. It was important to inspire both of their efforts, after all.

There was a pause in the sparring match as Manami and Akio sized each other up. Still, as a relatively new student, Iruka-sensei hadn't been pairing with Manami with the stronger fighters in the class. And Manami never bothered to give those matched against her best effort; seeing it more as a chance to let off some steam rather than training. So, Akio didn't really know the full extent of Manami's ability.

Manami took a long breath before she moved to close the distance between them; flipping instead of running in the hopes to keep Akio off balance. Manami landed in a round-off before doing a backward summersault to dodge a kick. It confirmed what Manami thought about Akio. If he saw an opening, he was going to take it. Even if it was a bluff.

"Nice intuition", Lee complimented as Manami extended her leg again in another leg sweep. Just like before Akio jumped to avoid it. However; this time, Manami doesn't complete the sweep. Using her already extended leg as a point of balance, Manami placed both of her hands flat on the ground and kicked up her other leg.

It made contact, catching Akio in the abdomen. But instead of knocking Akio to the ground, he used Manami's leg like it was a gym bar and flipped over; landing safely on his feet.

The sparring match went on and on with Lee and Gai cheering them on. Occasionally, one of the academy students would land a blow. But none that made the fight come to an end. At some point, Neji wandered over from his training to take a closer looked; standing behind Tenten with his arms crossed. Not that either Manami or Akio noticed; too caught up in their activity.

Both of the kids were breathing heavily; their shoulders rising and falling with each breath of air. This match Gai was supervising was longer than any match either one of them had done at the academy. There was a nice-sized bruise on one of Manami's shins from a poorly blocked kick. While Akio was sporting scraped knees and elbows from when he had lost his control as he skidded away from one of Manami's attacks. Despite their age-appropriate injuries sustained during the match, Akio and Manami couldn't stop smiling. Which was a refreshing break for Manami; having momentarily forgotten about the transformation jutsu and other… hardships.

If this had taken place in school, Iruka-Sensei would have called the match several minutes prior. But this wasn't school, and Iruka-Sensei wasn't here. Gai was happy to let the two academy students push themselves to their limits. Akio rushed forward at the same time as Manami. The two kids met in the middle. Akio lunched forward with a punch while Manami slid; trying to knock him off his feet. The effect of both of their strategies had the two forming a tangled heap in the grass.

Laughing, Akio tried to pin Manami using his weight. But, being close in height, it was ineffective. An elbow to his gut forced Akio to momentarily silence his laughter as he rolled to the side. Landing on his back he stared up at the sky as he worked on catching his breath. To his right, Manami was doing the same; assuring herself that she would have run if she had been allowed to use ninjutsu. Not that she really cared. Even though she was sweaty and out of breath, Manami felt ten times better than she did before sparring. Though, in the back of her mind, she knew her father would have very much cared.

"Excellent display of youth!" Gai said as he clapped his hands; serving as a signal that the match was over but also to applaud the two for their efforts. "Now, how about Neji and Tenten show you some cool moves while Lee and I train?"

Tenten groaned as she slapped a hand over her face. Though she didn't complain and neither did Neji. They had thought their babysitting days had ended when they made chunin, but here they were.

Allowing Tenten a respite to do some training of her own, Neji took charge of both children. A safe distance away from the exuberant taijutsu beasts and the weapons master, Neji paused as he studied the academy students standing before him. What to do with them? The boy, despite having been lying in the grass as he tried to catch his breath a few moments ago, was eagerly staring up at him like Neji was a magician who was about to perform his next trick. While the girl was back to the apathetic demeanor she had when Gai had first brought the students to the training field.

As a branch member of his clan with many younger cousins, Neji was knowledgeable about suitable after-school activities for budding ninja. However, his charges had already undergone strenuous exercise thanks to Gai. What was left that he could have them do? "Do you have homework?" Neji asked.

Manami nodded her answer. Iruka had assigned some bookwork on Konoha's history to be turned in tomorrow morning. It wouldn't hurt to get it done now. Especially since Manami didn't know what her night was going to look like after this 'training session' was over.

But Akio wasn't having it. "That's not fun", he complained as he lost some of his eagerness with the slumping of his shoulders. "Can't we work on ninjutsu or something else?" Akio requested.

Manami didn't speak up, but she did become more alert at the mention of ninjutsu. Something that wasn't lost under Neji's keen observations. It wasn't assigned work, but maybe Manami could practice that stupid transformation jutsu. And then she could go back to class and wipe that dumb gleeful smirk off Izumi's face.

Neji raised an eyebrow, but he didn't deny the request. Still in the single digits, Manami and Akio didn't possess large chakra reserves. At most, they would be able to run jutsu for a half-hour. Then Neji could redirect them to homework, or they would be too tired to get underfoot. Either way, Neji felt that giving in would take less time than putting his foot down. "Very well", Neji allowed. Akio perked up. He opened his mouth; ready to sprout out a bunch of ideas about what jutsu they could practice. Before he could, however; Neji was ready with an academy-approved chakra exercise that was perfect for keeping young ones safe from chakra depletion. "Find some leaves". He ordered.

Akio's jaw dropped as he comprehended that what he thought was a golden opportunity to use chakra for fun, was actually more work. Though a sense of self-preservation kept Akio from arguing with a jonin. So, once he was able to close his mouth, Akio walked off to go find the requested leaves; grumbling to himself.

Masking his amusement in an impeccably blank face, Neji watched the boy going before turning a questioning eye to Manami. Who hadn't moved. Did she not hear his instructions?

Neji wasn't one to repeat himself. Fortunately, Manami had heard what he had told them to do. She just had other things on her mind. "My chakra control is fine", Manami informed the long-haired jonin before glancing down with a slight blush on her cheeks. Neji very much doubted that statement. No academy student's chakra control was fine. That was why they were academy students. But he didn't call Manami out about that claim; wanting to see where this would go. "Would you help me with the transformation jutsu?" The request was modest. Which Neji appreciated over having a child demand something of him. If any of his younger cousins had tried that, they would have found themselves cleaning tatami mats until sunset.

What Neji didn't know was how hard it was for Manami to ask for help. Until recently, Manami's only contacts had been her family. And her father was a big supporter in struggling and figuring things out for yourself. Self-sufficiency, he called it. Until now, Manami had never asked for help. It wasn't a skill she had been taught.

Accepting the request with a nod, Neji directed Manami to, "Transform into your friend".

At the same moment, Akio returned with a handful of leaves. "Aw, that's not fair", Akio whined when he heard that Manami had got out of the leaf exercise. But a sharp look from Neji had him taking a leaf and sticking it to his forehead without any more fuss. Akio was cognizant of Manami's struggle with the jutsu. He didn't mind that she was going to get some pointer on it. Akio just wanted to know why he couldn't practice the jutsu too.

Exhaling through her nose, Manami took a moment to study Akio. With a clear vision in her mind, Manami closed her eyes and formed the ram sign. The first step was to build up chakra. Which Manami didn't without difficulty. Then she focused on the mental image of Akio she constructed; starting with the toes and finishing with the hair that grows on top of his head. Every detail Manami could think of, she included. After a mental of intense visual concentration, Manami muttered, "transform". She waited until the feeling of a second skin being applied past before opening her eyes.

Neji was still standing in front of her; having not moved in the slightest. Although there was something different about his eyes. There were visible veins displayed on the far side of both his eyes. Well… that was different.

"I don't look like that!" Akio informed her from where he was sitting to the left. His outburst had the leaf he was practicing with floating off his forehead and to the grassy floor. "Dang it", Akio said when he realized that he had broken his concentration.

Akio had been right too. This time around, Manami hadn't properly transformed the size, and Akio's hands, feet, and head were slightly out of proportion. She released her chakra to return to her own appearance; scuffing the grass with the toe of her shoe. Why was this jutsu hard?

"Your chakra is too evenly distributed to properly execute that jutsu", Neji informed Manami in a clinical voice; seemingly unreactive to Akio's feedback or Manami's disheartened behavior.

Manami blinked up at the jonin as Akio stuck another leaf to his forehead. "How can you tell?" She asked, sounding sullen but she meant it in genuine curiosity.

Neji tapped a finger to the side of one of his eyes; on top of the visible veins. Oh, Manami thought. Did he mean that he can see chakra? "Every part of the human body uses a different amount of chakra", Neji started to explain; aware that the boy was listening to him as well. "For a successful transformation jutsu, chakra needs to meet the required amount for each body part".

Manami pondered his words before paraphrasing in a question, "So when I distribute my chakra evenly not everything can transform?"

Neji nodded his head with more patience than most would accredit to him. "While chakra control is important and is needed to avoid overuse of it, this specific jutsu is better executed if chakra is allowed to flow freely in one's body. If it flows freely, it will naturally go where it is needed". Neji spoke with conviction It was a sign to Akio and Manami that Neji obviously knows what he's talking about. "Try again", he told Manami.

Under Neji's supervision, Manami formed the ram sign again and Akio continued with the leaf exercise. It takes four tries before Neji declared that Manami was properly allowing her chakra to flow through her body. Once he said that the very visible veins vanished. It took another five attempts before Manami's transformations became passable by academy standards. In that time, Akio had moved on to sticking three leaves on his person. While, on the other side of the training field, Lee and Gai started their lengthy cool-down routine; pulling Tenten in to join them.

But Neji kept running Manami through the jutsu. With Neji's guidance, Manami learned how to spend only one second to build up the required chakra, and another two seconds to focus on a transformation target. The sky had darkened into twilight by the time Neji was satisfied with Manami's ability to perform the jutsu. "That's enough", he said. It was good timing too as the others had finished their cool-down routine. Manami canceled the jutsu and let out a big breath. It felt good to do things correctly. Like balance being restored and not having to worry about her father being angry with her. Even if he was dead.

"Good work, everybody!" Gai said as he approached Neji and the children with Lee and Tenten at his side. "You're dismissed, and onward to healthy and nutritious dinners!"

The next day found team Gai being deployed to aid Team Kakashi. It was a grueling mad dash to get to their comrades in time. But they made it. Even with the encounter they had with the enemy. Although, when they caught up with team Kakashi, Gai didn't receive the welcoming he was expecting. Instead of the hip and cool attitude of his eternal rival, Gai was confronted with an anxious blond.

Driven by his emotions, Naruto intruded on Gai's personal space (something generally not recommended with a seasoned shinobi, even if it was Gai). "If you're the reinforcements, who's watching Manami?" Naruto asked in exclamation. After much prodded from both him and Sakura, they had managed to get Kakashi to reveal who he had asked to check up on the girl.

It warmed Gai's heart. What youth! How wonderful it was to see a young man rise to the challenge of caring for another life and going through all the growing pains caring for another entailed. In an attempt to assure the genin, Gai gave him the thumbs up and a beaming smile. "Don't worry, Naruto-Kun. I got it taken care of". It didn't make Naruto feel better.

Meanwhile, in Konoha, Manami and Akio were in Naruto's apartment. Manami didn't have a key, as Naruto had suspected. But she did know how to pick locks. It was a favored activity her father often assigned on rainy days. Both Akio and Manami were laying on their stomachs with their heads prompted up in their hands. Gai and his team had been deployed the day after they had included the two academy students in their training. Just as Kakashi had done, Gai made quick arrangements for someone to offer the girl company and some sort of supervision. Though what Manami didn't understand was why this was a better option than simply sending her back to Tsume.

In front of the two kids was Gai's beloved friend and summons Ningame the tortoise. He had a bed of lettuce in front of him that he was slowly munching on as he talked to hatchlings Gai had stuck him with. As if watching the boy with the large eyebrows grow up wasn't enough. "Let me tell you about the good old days", Ningame said in between bites.

Manami and Akio exchanged looks before they shrugged. It wasn't taijutsu practice. But a talking tortoise was still better than homework.