"Pokoli sestro moja kona
Pokoli meni dita boja
Jalina pitsu marusinja
Kolosali krokodili

O julissi na jalyni,
O julissi na dytini
O bulo diti non slukati
Sestrone dina katsu"

- Ishtar "O Julissi"

Their path home from missions was the same every time, in fact Tenten was surprised there wasn't a rut in the road they walked. She and Neji were on missions often, quality shinobi were always in high demand, and more often than not they were paired together on missions. So little Hizashi would be left home alone.

Of course Tenten's lack of maternal instinct found nothing wrong with that idea. The kid was nearly four; he could certainly take care of himself for a couple days at least! If not, she had failed as a surrogate mother. However, Neji had decided that he did not want to risk having his miniature clone all alone, and he was sent over to the Uchiha household.

It's not that Hizashi didn't like it there, and neither Sasuke, the resident babysitter for the rookie twelve's children, nor Sakura was anything but kind to the child. It's just that Hizashi seemed to pick up strange… habits there.

For example, a few months ago Hizashi had observed Yoshi's chakra control training, something that he had instantly attempted to copy. Once he realized that he was a natural at chakra control, he went through a phase where he believed it was below him to walk on the floor like regular people. Instead he tracked mud and dirt onto every vertical surface of his home, making his father almost glow with pride. Sadly, his mother had not enjoyed the phase nearly as much, since the cleaning up was left to her.

But Hizashi had been acting normally for a while now, so she hoped that it would stay for the better.

Turning the final corner unto the Uchiha's central residence, the pair heard the titanic quantity of noise that comes from a sizable grouping of children. Or an Uzumaki, both make about the same amount of clamor.

"Daichi must be here." Muttered Tenten recognizing the high-pitched squeal and rapid pounding of tiny feet on wooden floorboards.

"Hi!" screamed the tiny blonde-haired, white-eyed creature as the door opened.

"Let them in and get back here!" Screamed an immensely frustrated Uchiha from the dining room.

"FINE!" bellowed the small creature, surprising everyone with its lung capacity before turning back to its guests and forcibly dragging them inside. "Guess what! Guess what! Guess whaaatt!" Daichi continued, dragging the pair by their fingertips through the complex.

"What?" Tenten asked softly, still walking bent forward due to the child holding her fingers at knee level.

Daichi turned his head around to let the adults see his giant grin. "I dunno! You were supposed to GUESS!" declared, laughing at his 'joke.'

Finally arriving at the dining room, the trop was presented with a view of what looked like a normal family. Sasuke sat at the head of the table, calmly eating his rice. Yoshi and Keiko, his two eldest, sat on his left while a heavily pregnant Sakura was spoon-feeding the one-year-old Hitoshi on his right. At the other end of the table sat Hizashi, calmly analyzing the single grain of rice he held in his chopsticks from very angle before eating it.

As soon as they had entered the room Daichi had dashed to the empty chair next to Hizashi and started blabbering incessantly, between swallows, of the epic adventures he had gone through that day.

Sasuke and Neji nodded to each other in acknowledgment, making Sakura frown. "Sasuke! This family is already quiet enough, at least talk to guests!" she exclaimed, placing the bowl of baby food down on the table and turning to her guests. "Do you want to eat anything? I accidentally made a little too much food."

"No, but thank you. For our mission we had to sit through a four-course meal where everything was fried. I really can't eat anything for a while." Tenten answered with a wrinkle of her nose.

"Some people are just weird." Sakura replied in turn. Apparently neither of them particularly liked dipping perfectly edible food into hot oil.

"So, what did we miss here?" Tenten asked and the girls talked a little about the daily happenings of the village.

After a while Hizashi decided he had eaten enough and slipped out of his chair.

"Koko." He murmured to his father, tugging on his hand. "Ima nu vaah nee."

Immediately all the adults turned to the child.

"Um… what happened his time?" Tenten asked hesitantly, not really sure she wanted to know what Hizashi had decided to do.

"He seems to have invented his own language. Sasuke told me that he first started using it three days ago." Sakura answered.

"Seriously Neji, what is wrong with the Hyuuga gene pool?" Tenten said, glaring at Neji before turning to Sasuke. "Has he spoke anything in a regular language since then?"

"No." Sasuke said after a small pause.

"It seems that he really has invented his own language though. So far I've figured out that 'kihney' refers to the cat he always trails after, and 'loftoh' has something to do with him wanting food. And every time he wants to see my stomach he says 'gussah tif,' though I don't quite know what it means." Sakura explained, throwing a confused look at the pale-eyed boy.

"Gohbli aah li" Hizashi said softly, tiredly pressing his face into Neji's pantleg. Neji slowly bent down and picked the kid up, letting him sleep against his shoulder.

"At least I know that has something to do with sleep." Tenten said, long since accustomed to her adoptive son's antics. "I guess we're going home then. Thank you for taking care of him."

"You're welcome." Sakura responded automatically as Sasuke merely nodded, too occupied with calming down Daichi. Apparently the kid went into hysterics when there was no ramen available.

When back out in the cool evening air, Tenten said, "sometimes I wonder if he should see a psychologist."

"He's a Hyuuga, he was not meant to be normal. Plus the clan would never accept the fact that one of theirs needs that kind of help." Neji said softly, as to not wake the child.

"He's your child too, that pretty much insures mental instability." She said with a grin.

Not to be outdone, Neji added with a smirk, "Well, we're lucky you don't have a child then."

"You are in the hospital tomorrow." She retorted with a sickeningly sweet smile.

AN--

Okay, since no one is reviewing except my lackeys… it's poll time!!

I need to know if you'd like to see more of the kids, or I should revert to the parents. If you really like them I can start another story focusing specifically on the Uchiha Babysitting Service ™ and their charges.

Also I was considering writing a story about how Hizashi came around to be… since you've probably noticed that Tenten isn't his real mommy.

SO REVIEW AND VOTE PEOPLE!! (And telling me if I need to work in some areas of my writing won't hurt either.)