Prompt: NejiTen, beautiful/perfect/intelligent Neji vs baby... feeding time? ;)
Same AU as 'The Mission.' Cute. Largely fluffy.

Thanks, Aquarius Galuxy. So fun I wrote two. Here is the first:

Kaiten

"You're sure about this?" Tenten asked for probably the hundredth time.

"I don't know what you are so worried about," Neji leaned back against the counter, with a steaming mug of green tea in hand. "It isn't as though I haven't fed our daughter before."

"I know, I know," Tenten peered past him where their child was happily swinging her chubby legs in her high chair, and playing with the handful of cheerios that she had been given. "It's just that she isn't feeling great-"

"Which is why you can't take her to the childcare center at the gym," he interrupted. "I know."

"And you haven't had to feed her in a while," she continued, "and she is teething, and she's gotten to be much pickier about what she'll eat, and-"

"Tenten," he sighed. "Aren't you the one that keeps bragging that I am a genius? I am sure we will be fine. Look," he held out his arms and glanced down to his clothes. "I'm even dressed appropriately."

"You're gonna thank me for that," she muttered, filling her water bottle. "I keep telling you to wear less-nice things around the kids."

"I even have the extra hairties," he held up his wrist, smirking. "Go workout."

"Well…" she hesitated, surveying their home one more time. "I guess it couldn't hurt. I mean, it's not like I'll be gone that long," she trailed off.

Neji watched her with amusement, sipping his tea. "Front pocket. Left."

"I'm sorry?" she looked up.

"Your keys," he answered. "That is where you put them. Right after you put your phone in the microwave."

Tenten quickly ran to get her phone out of the microwave – she must have put it in there when she transferred the scrambled eggs so they'd keep warm.

"Cut up banana," she pointed to one bowl. "Eggs. Fruit. Yogurt. One of my pop tarts. Some small cubes of cheese. Dry cheerios. Goldfishy crackers. Sippy cup of milk. Sippy cup of water. Extra paci. Keep the bowl of fruit in the fridge until the last minute. I think it being cold helps with her teething."

"You are just going to the gym one block from here and not to Suna, correct?" he arched an eyebrow. "Precisely how much do you think she'll eat, Tenten?"

"There is no telling what she'll eat this morning," Tenten reached for her coffee and chucked the last bit. "Two weeks ago it was 2 bananas and three eggs, every morning. A week later, it was all apples and fruit and maybe some egg. Yesterday it was a little bit of everything," she motioned to the lineup on the counter.

"Tenten," Neji started.

"Oh! And remember to keep things out of her reach, and her reach is farther than you think it is." Neji slid a glance over to his daughter while Tenten continued to rattle off instructions. "I made sure that this is all finger food, you don't want to deal with her and utensils right now. If she will only eat the yogurt, throw down some cheerios and she will eat those and let you feed her-"

"Ten,-"

"And she has this new thing where she likes to take the cup and mash it onto the highchair tray, and that makes the milk leak out, and then she drags her fingers through it and, actually, yesterday, she did this really funny thing with-"

Neji put down his mug, and crossed in two strides to put his hands on his wife's shoulders.

"Tenten. Enough. Go."

"Hai," she sighed and wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you for covering for me." She reached up and kissed him gently, a gesture which he instantly and fervently returned.

"Tire her out," she murmured against his lips, "and we will make good use of her naptime."

"Ah," he managed to compile a whole range of emotions into that monosyllabic utterance, and after the kiss that followed, it was his wife who left smirking.

Neji chuckled to himself, and shook his head before turning to take in his toddler chatting happily to herself as she kicked her legs out and banged them against the footrest of her highchair. His daughter looked up to smile at him, and he reached out to ruffle her hair affectionately.

"Your mother worries too much," he informed her. His daughter watched him carefully with those large gray eyes before he dropped a kiss to her head. She raised chubby hands to his cheeks with a happy squeal, and patted his face enthusiastically, babbling nonsensically. He kissed her nose before taking the small suction cup bowl of eggs, and placing it in front of her. She eagerly reached in, filled her small fist with a fluff of yellow egg, and shoved it into her mouth.

"I see no reason you can't use your fork," he reasoned, and speared another bite of egg before handing the utensil to her. She grabbed it and jammed the food in her mouth, chewing with an alacrity that would have rivaled any Akimichi. Neji smirked again. "There's a good girl," he stated proudly. "Might as well have the spoon, too."

She awkwardly speared the next bit of egg and examined it several times before prying it off of the fork and stuffing it into her mouth with her hand.

"That isn't how we do that," he corrected, stepping forward and taking the fork from her. "Like this." He speared another bite and held it up to her. She eyed him and opened her mouth, warily, watching him suspiciously as she ate the offering.

"Now, you," he said, and turned the fork and handed it to her. When she still eyed him up, he pressed the utensil into her hand and tried to walk her through the motion. "Like this," he explained.

She clenched her baby fist around the fork and began to yank at it insistently, trying to take it from his grasp, scrunching her face into the picture of frustration and discontent.

She was surprisingly strong, and she yanked away the fork only to throw it wildly ahead of her, and to pound small, angry palms on the tray.

Neji was not amused.

He bent for the fork and went to the sink to wash it, only to find she had stuffed two or three more bites of egg into her mouth and was glaring at him with a chunk of egg clutched in each fist.

He stepped forward and she crammed the other two into her pretty-much-full mouth, cheeks bulging, and eyes narrowed in defiance. She then pried up and overturned the bowl, corralling the remaining three egg chunks, chewing as fast as she could.

"Now, is that necessary?" he asked, reaching for the bowl. She backhanded it, and it flew off of the tray and thunked off of his chest. Neji instinctively jumped back, but it was too late; he had crumbly bits of egg and the liquid that had drained off of the eggs speckled down the front of his shirt.

"What was that for?" he frowned, putting the bowl and fork back on her tray, just out of her reach and turning to get a wet paper towel. "It isn't as if I was going to take the eggs away from you." He heard a clatter, and saw the bowl roll across the floor to then wobble before plunking over. He didn't see the fork, but he didn't think it prudent to take time to look.

He took the cold fruit from the refrigerator, placed it in a fresh suction cup bowl, and stuck it to the tray. His daughter eyed him warily as she extended a small hand for the fruit – never taking her eyes off of him. She cautiously picked up a strawberry, tentatively bringing it to her mouth. She held his gaze in that true Hyūga fashion, and chewed slowly – waiting for interference.

After the third piece of fruit, she was apparently satisfied, and grudgingly returned her attention to the food. Neji put the milk in the depression of the tray reserved for a sippy cup and then started stirring the waiting cup of yogurt with a spoon.

His phone buzzed in his pocket.

"Hyūga."

"Uchiha," Neji returned, turning and taking a step away from his humming daughter.

"I need to speak to you about the Iwa case. Fifteen minutes."

Neji flicked a glance to his happily occupied daughter, calculated what was left of her fruit, added some cheerios, and said "Go."

Neither Neji nor Sasuke wasted time in anything. 14 minues and 49 seconds later, their call ended. Neji took another 45 seconds to shoot a quick text to Shino about the case. He was absently noting that his daughter had been largely quiet through the entire conversation. He was grateful.

Grateful when he should have been suspicious.

He felt something brush against his hair, and he swiped at it impatiently. He didn't expect to encounter something mushy.

He jerked his hand back and stared at the piece of banana covered in what he was guessing was yogurt.

Neji looked sharply at his daughter. She, in turn, clapped gleefully, sending a spray of vanilla yogurt spurting off of her tiny palms. He felt something splat into the center of his forehead and slide down his face and on to the floor.

He was too busy taking in the carnage to move. She had somehow reached all of the food Tenten had left out, all while his back was turned. She had dumped and smeared the yogurt all over the tray table, and had mixed in cheerios, goldfish crackers, bananas, mixed fruit, a couple chunks of cheese, and crumbs of a poptart. She was flicking the pliable plastic spout of her milk cup and giggling wildly when droplets of milk went sailing. She turned the cup upside-down and pressed the spout to the tray, forcing milk to puddle in the negative space of the Jackson Pollock interpretation of her breakfast. Neji reached for her, and the handful of cheerios came showering down on him. He instinctively held up an arm to block, and they, of course, bounced off harmlessly (ignoring the three or four that stuck to his sleeves because, yogurt.)

Feeling rather stupid at having just judo-blocked a painless yet heart healthy barrage, Neji dropped his arm, and looked at his daughter.

He was just in time to see her holding her spoon with a challenging and knowing smirk that was a carbon copy of her mother's. The spoonful of yogurt was flung with uncanny precision, as were several others, before the entire spoon, bowl, and fistfuls of food went flying toward Neji.

With a gleeful laugh that bordered on maniacal, she flung every bit of food she could get her hands on before chucking her cup of milk. Apparently he hadn't quite secured the lid, because when the cup hit, the lid flew off and he was drenched in the wholesomeness of vitamin D. The cup rolled comically near his foot as the lid bounced off to parts unknown.

Soaked with milk and splattered with all of his child's essential vitamins and minerals, Neji was, to put it mildly, gobsmacked.

His eyes wandered over the mess and drifted up to see his daughter fishing out the fork that had clearly fallen between the tray and her lap.

Well, that at least he could avoid.

Assuming there was nothing left to lose, he held out his hand for the fork and stepped forward.

His daughter chucked it at him.

He tried to dodge, but stepped on the cup, and in trying to regain his balance on the slick floor, he spun wildly around in a drunken rotation.

"Kai-Ten-!" he bit out, before finally falling on the floor and into the mess. Insult to injury was the water cup she chucked at him, which bonked off of his head before rolling to the kitchen doorway, only to be stopped by Tenten's foot.

Neji looked up to see his wife leaning in the doorway, arms crossed.

Neji cleared his throat. "And just how long have you been there?" he asked, calmly.

"Oh, just about since you fished the first banana out of your hair," she said casually.

"Some help you are," he muttered.

"I was leaving it to the genius," she grinned.

"Why are you back so soon?"

"They cancelled the first class; not enough people showed – probably because of the snow. I'll go back around two o'clock and do that session. So," she looked him over. "What's a 'Kaiten?' Some fancy ninja move you made up?"

"Funny," he narrowed his eyes.

"C'mon," she picked her way across the mess of the floor and held out her hand to him. "I'll help you up. I don't mind if you are sticky."

Neji sighed and let her pull him up. "Go get a shower," she laughed. "I'll take care of Kaiyo in the sink." Their daughter yawned impressively, and Tenten laughed, freeing her from the chair, and hugging her to herself, bananas and all. "Looks like your aim is getting better, little one," she cooed, unphased by the loving hands planted on her cheeks.

By the time Neji had a quick shower and de-fruited his hair, their daughter was playing quietly in the playpen, and Tenten had almost finished cleaning up the kitchen. Neji took over while she took a quick shower and threw all of their clothes in the washer.

Tenten sank on the couch next to Neji and handed him another mug of green tea, snuggling into his side. He draped an arm around her and kissed her forehead, still keeping a watchful eye on their daughter who now had the run of the den.

"Kaiten!"

Both Neji and Tenten looked at each other, and then to their daughter.

She clapped her hands and spun around before falling on her bottom and calling out "Kaiten!"

Tenten snickered. "Looks like Kaiyo has a new game," she eyed Neji.

"KAITEN!" Their daughter squealed, resuming the game before landing with another grin. She toddled over to her father with arms stretched up, clenching and unclenching little fists.

"Up!" She demanded.

Neji placed his tea on the side table and stood, scooping her up. She giggled and gave him a sloppy kiss.

"Does this mean I am forgiven?" he asked, amused.

"Spin!" she urged him and he spun her around, her riotous giggle spilling forth like a shower of sunshine. "Kaiten!" she cried, and, being the genius he was, he promptly collapsed them both onto the couch.

"Again!" she cried between giggles.

Neji obliged, and then Tenten obliged, and then Neji, and then she scrambled down and did it herself, and then Neji… inside of 30 minutes, her eyes were growing heavy and she was yawning.

"I'll give you credit," Tenten said, scooping up their daughter who instantly nuzzled into her shoulder. "You wore her out." She pressed a light kiss to his lips. "I'll put her down for her nap."

She was sure he meant to wait up for her, but she found her husband on their bed, asleep. Tenten curled up next to him, loving the warmth and feel of him in their shared space. She kissed his forehead gently, before snuggling into his side, and allowing herself the rare luxury of a quiet, napping household.

Happy birthday, Tenten! Wonder If I can get Sakura's story done by her birthday...? Sigh. Back to editing!