Please see first chapter for disclaimer, etc.

Prompt: Surreal

Sequel To: Choices (chapter 9), and Joy (chapter 16)

Special Thanks: goes out to naash, DarkAnonymous324, Franoncrack, kenzinator, BlackRose723, Kratos Wilder, SeiraXD, and Kaori Takaguchi for all the amazing reviews! Thank you so much for helping me break 100, you all are awesome!

Author's Note: I had an idea for two more pieces taking place in the Choices/Joy storyline, and this is the first of these. I had a great deal of fun writing it, and it's basically just a lot of fluff. Thank you so much again for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and alerting my fic, and I hope you enjoy!

*~Surreal~*

Tenten lifted her exhausted head from her pillow at a sound foreign to the night - silence. She listened intently, rewarded for her patience when at last she heard a soft, rhythmic humming she had never heard before.

Though utter fatigue tried to keep her heavy limbs glued to the mattress, her curiosity won out over her exhaustion. Sliding out from beneath the comforting warmth of her blankets, she wrapped her robe around herself and tiptoed across the room to the door.

The main house of the Hyuuga estate had two levels: the first being designated for Hiashi, head of the family, and his daughters and heirs, Hinata and Hanabi. The rest of it was made up of meeting rooms, offices, dining halls, and the like. The second level was reserved for the branch members of the family, lone rooms for the unmarried and suites of sorts for those who had been married (with or without the approval of the Elders).

It was the main room of one such suite that Tenten crossed, her bare feet silent on the floors. The combination of knowledge of the location of each piece of furniture, her kunoichi senses, and the wisps of moonlight coming in the windows helped her navigate the room without bumping into anything.

When at last she reached the door across the room, she quietly slid it open, peering through the narrow opening she made into the room.

For a moment, panic flared hot and constricting in her chest when she realized that the ornate crib in the corner was empty. She swallowed back her instinctive cry, forcing herself to calm down, listen, and look.

A shadow appeared in front of the window, and Tenten relaxed immediately. She recognized that beloved, familiar profile. Neji.

And in his arms, a little blanket-wrapped bundle, the miracle that Tenten was thankful for every day, the child that she would willingly give her life for in a heartbeat.

"My little Hizashi," Neji murmured. "How like your mother you look. I think you got all your best features from her."

Even after all this time, Tenten still felt her cheeks flush at a compliment from Neji. Perhaps it was because praise from him was so rarely given, only offered when it was truly deserved. (Even if she did think their son looked more like Neji, and was happy when she'd seen Neji's features in miniature, particularly those striking solid white eyes.)

As Neji had foretold a few months before hand, their son was not lacking doting aunts and uncles in the least. People squabbled often over who got to hold Hizashi, take care of Hizashi when Neji and Tenten had to go on missions, and who generally loved Hizashi the most. (His parents, naturally, were the correct answer, but all their friends - and even Hinata - argued that they were the one who loved him most.)

Hizashi let out a soft coo, incredibly tiny hand reaching out of his blanket to latch on to a lock of his father's loose hair. Chuckling softly, Neji replaced his hair with a finger, which was promptly pulled into the baby Hyuuga's mouth. "You can't be hungry again," Neji admonished softly, fondness fairly oozing from his tone. "Your mother just fed you forty minutes ago."

Had it been that little time? Tenten was amazed. Apparently her body had learned to snatch as much deep sleep as it could whenever it could - and make it last.

During her husband's next pass by the window, Tenten saw her son's luminous eyes beginning to droop. Then they shifted slightly, saw her peering at him around the door, and he reached out with his little hands, kicked slightly, and let out a sound that, in baby language, probably meant mama!

Neji's head turned, and he looked surprised to see her standing there. That small expression made Tenten's heart glow with happiness, since she knew he hadn't realized she was there because he had been so completely wrapped up in his son. "Tenten! I'm sorry, I'd hoped we wouldn't wake you."

Since she'd been spotted, Tenten fully entered the room and went to join Neji and Hizashi at the window. She pressed a light kiss on her son's cheek, then shared a more lingering one with her husband. Letting out a gurgling laugh, their child reached up his tiny hands and simultaneously tugged his mother's and father's loose hair.

"He definitely takes after your side of the family," Tenten said ruefully after she stopped laughing. "Babies aren't supposed to be that coordinated yet."

"I disagree," Neji replied. "You are the expert with weapons. He learned how to use his hands as such from you, I think."

Carefully gathering Hizashi into her arms, she smiled as he snuggled into her warmth. His finger slipped into his mouth as his eyes drooped sleepily, content now that he had both his parents with him. Leaning down, she pressed a kiss to his unmarked brow before looking up at her husband's curse mark.

"Hizashi will never have it," Neji said. He sounded more certain than he had at any other time when they'd had this same discussion. His own hard-fought-for freedom had not erased his own curse mark, but it had opened the door for his and Tenten's son to live free of the curse that bound his father unbreakably to the Hyuuga clan. Though Hizashi had been born to a member of a branch clan, with the Byakugan, he would be the first since the long-distant past of the clan to remain free of the seal throughout his life. For now there were other restrictions in place, but Neji and Tenten felt those could easily be dealt with at a later time. As long as their son remained free of the curse seal, they could handle everything else.

Stepping forward, Tenten leaned her head against Neji's chest, smiling drowsily as he gently wrapped his arms around both her and Hizashi. She had never pictured herself in this situation when she was younger - she was too busy aiming to be the best kunoichi in Konoha, to find a way to beat Neji in sparring, to master every weapon she could get her hands on. Those had been her plans. But now that she was standing with her baby in her arms and her husband's warm, strong arms around her, she honestly couldn't picture herself anywhere else, doing anything else, in the world.

She was still a kunoichi, and Neji was still a shinobi. That would not change, at least not anytime soon. But now they were husband and wife, father and mother, and most of all, free.

And five years later, as she reclined in a bed in the hospital with Neji on one side of her, Hizashi (still free of the curse seal) on her other, her newborn daughter Kasumi in her arms, and their new home away from the Hyuuga main house waiting when she and 'Sumi were released, Tenten realized that somehow, she and Neji had gotten everything they'd never even realized they'd wanted.

There wasn't a single thing in her life up to that point that she would trade, because now, everything was truly perfect.

*~The End~*

Author's Ending Notes: I'm not sure how I feel about this sequel to Choices and Joy … when I sat down to start writing, I had a very different plan for how things would turn out. But as I was writing, this seemed to flow naturally from my fingers onto the page, so I decided to leave well enough alone. I hope it turned out all right. There will probably be one more prompt fic tied in with this mini-series, which I should have out hopefully within the next five updates or so. I've always pictured Neji and Tenten as having a boy, then a girl, so this gave me a chance to play around a bit with that idea. Thank you so much for reading this, and I hope you enjoyed!