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Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me, otherwise the NejiTen would be canon.

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Enjoy.

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Chapter 23. Home

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They got married when she was 7 months old, to prevent a premature birth that would preserve that hateful last name she wanted to get rid of at once. As she requested, only the two of them stood in front of a judge to sign the marriage certificate. No, she hadn't wanted a big celebration. She had already had that and 2 times when she had been forced to get married, she didn't want to repeat that. Part of her felt selfish for depriving him of a ceremony, but he hadn't complained.

The next afternoon she was at home when the doorbell began to ring insistently.

"You're a bad friend!" was Ino's greeting when she opened the door, "You're not really good at telling us you're getting married."

"Hello, Ino," she greeted ironically, letting them pass, "Sakura, come in."

"Hinata was engaged for more than a year and you get married twice in the same time without telling us," Ino sat on the sofa crossing her arms and pouting, "please notify us in time if you decide to get married a third time."

"I'm sorry, Tenten," apologized Sakura handing her a small gift, "congratulations for your wedding," the woman hugged her and then went to sit next to Ino.

"Thank you," she uncovered the box, inside there was a small porcelain of a couple with a baby, "it's beautiful."

After serving tea and some cookies she sat down to talk with her friends, the rumor of her wedding had spread quickly, few could understand at what time it had happened, others apparently believed that they had flirted before she was sent to the village of Lightning and upon returning they had finally decided to have a relationship. What definitely no one managed to believe was that she had been able to catch the Hyūga, as his reluctance to start a family was well known.

Ino didn't understand how she was able to put up with her husband's schedule, the woman had tried to date Shikamaru because of her family's previous insistence, but the truth was that she hadn't been able to stand the long working hours that the ANBU had and the very little time he could dedicate to her, and thanks to what had happened, since the planning of the attack on the Yoshida family began, they had given up trying to commit her to someone without her consent. Also, against all odds, the blonde had reconciled with her ex, Sai.

She said goodbye to them as the evening began, satisfied that she had survived that evening and incidentally found out what people were saying in the village about her marriage. To her friends she told the story of the surname to justify the haste of a marriage, they suspected they had done much more than flirt before she left, yes, but not of the long relationship they had hidden, and she hoped it would stay that way. Of course the news had spread fast, though it didn't bother her at all.

What kept echoing in her head was how easily Ino had referred to Neji as her husband, and how normal that sounded, her husband. She looked down at her hand, happily contemplating the wedding ring that adorned her ring finger. She was Tenten Hyūga just as she had dreamed long ago.

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He loved being a married man, though unfortunately he couldn't wear his wedding ring since as ANBU they couldn't wear any personal items. Tenten Hyūga, loved the sound of those words. He had started to figure out his retirement from the forces to return only to jōnin missions but it was a delayed process, apparently the bylaws stated that the minimum time of service was one year and he had barely made it past 6 months. Yamato didn't want him to leave, few recruits managed to rise to captain in less than 3 months and lead in such a majestic way a mission of that magnitude, but there was nothing the man could do.

On the other hand, from the 8th month of her gestation he would be allowed to adjust his schedule and leave at 6 p.m. and he would have 2 days off after delivery, and then he wouldn't be asked to be available during his free time. It was still an extensive schedule and it was the best they could offer him given the proximity of everything, there were few ANBU's who finally decided to have a family and nonexistent those who suddenly married a woman who was 7 months pregnant He couldn't complain.

In the to-do list he was missing 2 things, one of them was for him to finish moving to Tenten's house, because he still had some belongings in his apartment that he hadn't had time to vacate, and the second was to finally choose the name for the little one.

"What do you think of Tatsuki?" he asked in the evening.

"No," she denied automatically, "nothing starting with 'T'."

"Very well, what about Nyoko?"

"I don't like it," he sighed.

"Masako?"

"No, I don't like the meaning."

"Natsu?"

"Maybe... but I'm not sure... I want something I don't know, luminous..." she said waving her hands, "I know! How about Hikari?"

"Hikari?" literally, a name that meant light, the light that they had now in their lives, "Hikari Hyūga, I like it."

"Little one," she spoke to her belly as she ran a finger over it drawing pictures, "your name will be Hikari," she took his hand and put it on, the baby was moving.

The nursery was ready, most of the essentials had already been procured, and in the end he was the one who assembled the cradle in an early morning while she said it was impossible to understand those evil instructions, although it was more than a month away, the suitcase for the day of delivery was also already ready.

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She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, she was 8 and a half months old and had already given up trying to understand her body. She only knew that she was a giant planet in motion and as such, she generated gravity around her. Everyone she passed approached her and, of course, always touched her belly, it was partly annoying and partly she liked it, everyone professed affection for the little creature in her belly.

The prenatal checkups were weekly and Tsunade had already warned her that at any moment she could go into labor, so she had to be very vigilant and careful. She liked the feeling of the baby when she moved, but she felt that this pregnancy had lasted a long time, she had started it as a totally different person. The countdown had begun but she didn't know when day 0 would be. And to all that she had to add the pregnancy hormones that had her on a merry-go-round of emotions.

A week later the pain of a twinge woke her up, some nights she had had a couple of false contractions and she had already learned to identify them, but that wasn't it. She just tried to stifle her moan because she didn't want to alert Neji, but it was impossible, he slept with one eye open.

"Are you alright?" she nodded, feeling again the sting in her ribs, a tear escaped from her eyes, "I'm going to take you to the hospital right away."

"No, it's not necessary," she tried to take a deep breath but she could feel the movements, possibly the baby would do it again, "it was only a light kick," two, two very painful kicks, "she is restless, I think she already wants to go out," at least she could make sure her daughter hadn't turned around and continued in the right position for the big day.

"Hikari," he started caressing her belly, "please little one," he was talking next to her belly button, "you are hurting your mommy."

And as if it were a balm, the baby stayed still. Until 2 days later, although the pain this time was when they were about to sit down to dinner and made her bend for a moment, her water breaking. He put everything aside and without waiting had picked her up to take her to the emergency room. She felt like she weighed a ton and he carried her like a feather.

She inhaled deeply and tried to exhale slowly, but the contractions were getting closer and she had to focus on not screaming.

The birth wasn't as complicated as she had been told, but it was quite painful, it had made her curse all the ancestors of the two villages and it was certainly an experience she didn't want to repeat, or well, at least not soon. But it had been worth every second of suffering of both her and Neji who donated his hand for her to squeeze it while she was pushing. She watched that little being suckling from her breast knowing that she would give her life for her no matter the circumstances in which it was conceived, his gaze also reflected love and disbelief at the perfection of that little baby.

As soon as her baby was born, she underwent tests, taking into account the medical history in her family and the ones in Toshio's profile, everything was in order. The only thing that was missing was for her eyes to swell up before they could be checked. It was 3 days after her birth that the swelling finally went down enough, although she didn't get to see them open, a nurse took her away. Almost 1 hour later she was desperate in bed, they were still not back and she was beginning to fear the worst. And in that moment Neji entered the room in his uniform.

"What happened?" he asked looking around, "What happened to Hikari?"

"They took her to an exam and they haven't returned her," he sat next to her on the bed and hugged her, "What are you doing here?"

"I was called in," then the door burst open, hitting the wall.

"I SHOULD EXPEL THE TWO OF YOU FROM THE VILLAGE THIS VERY INSTANT!"

Tsunade came shouting into the room with the baby in her arms, strangely calm despite the sudden sound. Neji immediately tensed up looking for a way to protect them, and she only feared for the life of the little bundle in the hands of that extremely strong woman. She held out her arms asking to give her daughter to her, the Hokage handed her to her gently before continuing to shout.

"ARE YOU AWARE OF WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF THE MARRIAGE WASN'T ANNULLED AND SHE WAS STILL MARRIED?" the woman said pointing at her, she still didn't understand the reason for the shouting. "MAY I KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED?!" the blonde paused, pressing the bridge of her nose. "No, no, don't answer me, forget it, I'M SICK OF BOTH OF YOU!" she left the room slamming the door again.

They looked at each other blankly. Now what had they done? Hikari cradled in her arms yawned drawing a tiny 'o' with her mouth and starting to blink. Impossible! Neji leaned over to the baby to be sure of what he was seeing and then gave her a soft kiss. They both started laughing as they broke that kiss.

Yeah, that would be hard to explain.

Her eyes were white.

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Thanks for reading!

I think I said it before, but I'll say it again. This story was put on hiatus in 2011 and that was the reason I went back to writing, trying to keep my sanity during the quarantine by finally trying to give this beautiful project an ending... And I'm here still writing.

There is a sequel, it's called "Hiyori" and I'll start publishing it next Saturday.

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All corrections and comments are always well received, they help me improve a lot.

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Regards, Sally K