A/N: I apologize for the long delays. I'm actually sitting on a number of short stories but they're all at different levels of completeness. I must confess inspiration is hard to find so stay with me. I haven't abandoned this series. Reviews are welcome!

Isunova Pi

The rank of jounin allows one access to files and reports denied to lower ranks. It was this perk that kept Neji motivated when the jounin trials were particularly difficult. And when he had finally earned the hard won rank, he immediately requested every single available field report and file concerning his father.

It took a while before he was able to devote the necessary time to the task of reading them because with the rank of jounin one's mission load triples. The first few months of the grueling pace left him exhausted and his time off was spent catching up on sleep. But he eventually adjusted and was soon taking advantage of learning more about his father.

Hyuga Hizashi was a fascinating man.

His mission success rate was off the charts and he worked at an extraordinary pace. There was one year—the year of Neji's birth—where his mission load dropped significantly but the following years saw a gradual increase in missions accepted. Reports from teammates described a man that was coldly efficient yet loyal to the team, methodical, selectively patient but overall with a short fuse—deadly.

But there were still files that were closed to him; S-rank missions that only the Hokage and members of the village council had exclusive access to. From what he could gather, Hizashi took on quite a number of off-the-record missions.

Was his father…ANBU?

Hyugas, as a rule, were forbidden from joining the ANBU ranks, the Byakugan being too much of an asset to risk capture, but his father was reputed for being defiant, especially when it came to the decisions of the clan. Hizashi would join ANBU—unofficially, of course—just to spite them.

But his father was also known for not always thinking things through, acting on instinct rather than tactical logic. His mission success rate clearly indicated that he was rarely steered wrong with this approach but-Neji's very existence was proof enough that things did not always go as planned.

He was always kind to him, yet even at a young age, Neji could sense a weighted burden about his father. Hizashi, despite all his other talents, was never good at hiding his emotions. Hinata favored his father more in this way than he did. Hizashi was so transparent that his own child could read him easily and Neji saw the guilt, anxiety and anger that surrounded his father daily.

Of course he didn't understand what they meant at the time and naively thought his father felt that way because he had disappointed him in some way.

So Neji did all he could to be the perfect son.

And it hurt all the more when his father left him behind.

~ TBC ~