By the time Iruka was released from the hospital, Neji had worked out the details. Naruto had served a working apprenticeship under the village's best academy teacher; Hyuuga children could see whether or not his demonic chakra was leaking and could warn officials appropriately; Hyuuga children were often more advanced than classmates without bloodline limits, would benefit from special tutoring from a talented and strong teacher, and no one other than that last mad Uchiha had ever suggested that Naruto wasn't strong. Neji had even managed to convince Hiashi of the value of it, which meant that at that point it had become a fait accompli.
The Council muttered and gasped and were generally horrified at the mere suggestion that the next generation of Hyuuga might be trained by a demon. Neji didn't have to care what the Council thought, since it was a purely Hyuuga arrangement that didn't involve their children in the slightest. Hiashi, who did have to care what the closed-minded old fools thought, expounded on the theory and suggested that it would train them to be particularly alert to any potentially insidious influences and more conscious of the differences between different types of chakra. Neji let Hiashi deal with the village politics of it, and spent his time finding Branch House members who wouldn't die of apoplexy at the suggestion that a demon could tutor their children and take them on 'special training' missions virtually unsupervised.
When Naruto realized that Neji was effectively treating him like a special jounin given the same teaching rank as Kakashi or Asuma or Gai, he was actually stunned to the point of incoherence for a full fifteen minutes. Not silence -- Neji silently doubted that anything would ever stun Naruto into fifteen minutes of silence -- just incoherence, mostly filled with "guh" and "wha" and "buh" and "er" sounds. It was somehow both annoying and endearing. Partially annoying because it was endearing, because Neji expected himself to not be susceptible to such things.
Besides, it was for Hinata's sake. Hinata smiled for Naruto the way she never smiled for him. Neji felt obscurely as though he owed her something because of it, because he could never make her smile that way, and didn't know how to try. And Neji himself was about to be sent on some fairly ludicrously dangerous missions without sufficient preparation or backup, since the Council didn't take kindly to being thwarted, and so the two of them needed to look out for each other in his absence, because they would both need it.
It annoyed Neji to have to explain that to them, before he left. Hinata's waistline was still as trim as it had ever been, but her condition showed in her face -- she was simply and inexplicably radiant, and the concern in her eyes when she touched his shoulder tore at him far more than he should have allowed it to. He took her hand between his and explained it bluntly to them both.
"If Hinata-sama loses the child, or herself, then Hanabi-sama becomes the only Hyuuga heir capable of bearing a child who will not be sealed. Too many people know that. Far too many people know that. The two best protections we have are that Hinata-sama's condition isn't public knowledge yet, and that the Hyuuga are known to be supervising a 'semi-tame demon' who is devoted to the clan heir. So I'm trusting her safety to you, Naruto. And, Hinata-sama, I'm trusting his safety to you as well. We all know the council has been clutching at more and more desperate excuses to try to find a permanent solution to their baseless fears concerning him. As the heir of the Hyuuga house, your word has force -- and you must not hesitate to use that force to protect him, so that he in turn can protect you. His teachers have no authority to protect him. Godaime-sama does, but she cannot see everything -- and the Hyuuga are notorious for seeing everything; we may as well gain some value from the reputation. You can tell them that his seal has not weakened and be listened to; very few others can. Use that, Hinata-sama. Do you both understand me?"
They traded a long, silent look; and then Naruto laced his fingers behind his head with one of his more irrepressible grins, and said, "Yeah, we get it. You're just worried about Hinata-chan and me, that's all. It'll be fine -- Uzumaki Naruto's on the job, after all!"
Hyuuga Neji did not splutter, or blush, or squirm; in the lack of those options, the best he could do was glare. Naruto was completely unfazed by the glare. He ought to have objected, but somehow he couldn't find enough indignation to bother.
The mission itself took three weeks; Neji took another several days to return to Konoha, unable to make his usual speed with a gash in his thigh and cracked ribs. Before even the hospital, though, his first stop was the roof of the Hyuuga house, scanning the grounds for the telltale flare of Naruto's chakra, bright as a bonfire amid rows of candles. He followed the nearly-too-bright blaze through the grounds and found both of them resting in the garden, Hinata's head pillowed against his rolled-up orange jacket, Naruto leaning against a tree with drowsy blue eyes barely slitted open, just enough to keep watch over her.
In his absence, she'd begun to fill out, no longer wearing her old shorts; she wore a softer pair now, rounding just a bit in front. The way that Hinata's belly gently curved up to meet the waistline of that old jacket made him angry, and it took him a long moment to realize why. He'd wanted to be there for her -- he'd wanted to be able to be the one who was there for her -- the day she first left the top button unfastened, the day she discovered that her clothes were growing snug; as she found her body rounding with his child, he'd wanted to be there, not out risking his life as a punishment for having dared to help the demon's host and strengthen his clan at the same time.
He didn't blame Naruto; he couldn't. If Naruto had been the Hokage, he would never have been sent away for so long, for such a senseless reason. If Naruto had been the Hokage, so many things would be different. Neji had never spoken aloud the cold, unalterable truth that Naruto would likely never be allowed to become the Hokage, regardless of Tsunade's wishes or his own; the villagers would revolt in terror, and the other ninja villages would panic at the thought of Konoha being led by a man with the strength of a demon to draw upon. But Naruto didn't know that. He still spoke as though being kept in a near-prison the size of the village walls was just a way to become more familiar with his future constituents…
Sometimes, Neji thought it would be nice to have been born an imbecile. Naruto seemed to enjoy his idiotic optimism far more than Neji enjoyed his intelligence.
When the pair of them realized that Neji had come back wounded, Naruto carried Neji to the hospital himself, largely so that Hinata wouldn't. At first, Neji had tried to protest, but when he realized that Hinata was serious about wanting to support his weight and make herself his crutch during the trip, surrendering to Naruto was easier on his pride. Not much easier, but a little. In order to try to ignore what the medic-nins were doing to his leg, Neji watched his wife instead -- the way the sunlight caught in her hair, the way she rubbed her fingertips together in concern, the way the little pout of her belly rose and fell with each breath. When she realized where his gaze rested, she yelped and tried to hide herself behind a blanket, stammering incoherently about having intended to dress more concealingly for his return; he shook his head, impatient, and pulled the blanket away from her, and held out a hand.
She glanced at Naruto for reassurance, and that stung more than he liked to consider; Naruto made a little shooing gesture toward the bed, and so Hinata stepped closer to Neji's bedside, obedient and still frightened. He cupped a battle-calloused hand against the soft curve of her belly, to feel the warmth of her, the solid reality of her body. After a breathless moment, blushing like a midsummer rose, she folded her hands over his.
The yearning in Naruto's eyes hurt too. Everything hurt too much just then. Neji closed his eyes and let the medic-nins have their way with his unprotesting body.
She told him that evening, around many blushing apologies for how she'd let herself gain, that the medics said that she was carrying twins… it did run in the family, after all, and it often skipped a generation, and so that was why she was showing her condition a bit earlier than might be expected, and both she and Hanabi were likely to--
He cut the rest of it off with a kiss, and drew her down to lie beside him, and was silently glad that Naruto lacked the Hyuuga gift of seeing through walls, because the ache in those brilliant eyes still lingered in his mind.