Chapter three - Like father like son.

Neji really wanted to face-palm. This girl wasn't kidding when she said she didn't know anything about being a ninja! He's got his work cut out for him. Sigh. Well, it's not like there is anything he could do but help her. Good thing she came this early. She was four and if he trained her the right way she would grow strong.

But he was annoyed, all morning he hadn't been able to do something useful, just a few laps with Sakura, and they stopped before he could break a sweat because Sakura had been exhausted.

However, he felt that he doesn't mind it that much. They had spent the whole day teasing and laughing at each other. He really had fun.

It was around noon and they were making their way to her house. He was a bit wary about this meeting. He sighed. 'Might as well just get it over with, then.'

From a distance, they could smell something cooking. Neji furrowed his brows. The smell couldn't have wafted from inside the house to here.

"Barbecue!", squealed Sakura.

'Ah. That explains it.'

She started running. Funny how just now she was exhausted, and at the prospect of food, she runs faster than when training. He's gonna have to keep that in mind.

Running to keep up with her, they broke through the bushes to find themselves in a small clearing-like backyard. No fence. No protection. No anything.

Neji stopped, but Sakura kept on going till she reached a middle aged, red headed, huge man, and Sakura jumped up. The man put down what he had in his hands when he saw his daughter coming and caught her and swung her around.

After placing his daughter down he listened, amused, to her as she animatedly talked about her training. Until he decided to cut her off.

"That's all well and good, honey. But aren't you forgetting something?"

She stopped and tilted her head to the side in thought. After a few seconds her eyes lit up in realization, and she whirled around to her friend with a cheeky grin on her face, "Ne, Neji-kun! Are you going to stand there all day? Outo-san, this is Neji!" She said as said boy approached.

"Hello, Haruno-san. It's a pleasure to meet you." Neji said while bowing politely.

"No, no. The pleasure is mine to meet a polite young man like yourself." Said Kizashi while smiling gently at him.

Sakura always knew that her dad had a way with talking to people. She knew that if her father had said that Neji was a boy, despite him being only five, said boy would go nuts.

Sensing the boy's wariness, he turned to Sakura, "Princess, do you mind getting some barbecue sauce from inside? Your mother left to do some shopping for dinner."

"Hai, Tou-san!" And just like that she dashed into the house. Knowing that it would take her a while to get it, since the bottle is already outside with him, but his daughter is just too stubborn to not search the whole kitchen for it, he knelt down in front of Neji, and said, "You know, you really look like your father had in that age."

Now, that was NOT what he had expected him to say!

"You knew my father?"

Smiling sadly, he said, "Yes. We went to the academy together."

Neji could see the look of anguish on the older male's face.

Many emotions crossed the young boy's face; confusion, anger, hurt. The kid looked like he was about to cry. Not knowing exactly what to do, Kizashi stayed still. Should he hug him, like he does with Sakura? What if he doesn't take well to it?

He was brought out of his panicking at the sound of Sakura's gasp, "Tou-san! What did you do?!"

She ran past him and hugged Neji. The boy in return hugged her back lightly, but held his tears.

Now Kizashi was a reasonable man. He knew that these kids were still too young, but he couldn't help but feel like this wasn't supposed to happen. Not in front of him at least. She's his daughter, for Gods sake! 'No, wait. Better in front of me than behind me!'

Deciding to cut the disturbing (at least to him, if his wife was here she would be squealing 'kawai~' like a fangirl) scene, he said, "Ouch, Saku-chan! You don't want to hug your old man anymore?!"

Sakura giggled at the pout on her fathers face, but before she could make a move, she found herself with Neji, in her fathers huge arms, and being lifted off the ground for a Kizashi-bear-hug.

...

Aftercookingthe food, and settling down to eat, Neji, decided to ask what he wanted to ask for a while now. "Haruno-san?"

"Call me Kizashi. What is it that you want, son?"

Son? That's too close for someone you just met for less than an hour. Sigh. 'I'll just have to get used to it if I want to stay close to Sakura.'

"Can you tell me about my father?"

Sakura paused in the middle of taking a bite, having her eyes look from Neji to her father and back again. It was actually really funny, how she looked. Her mouth wide open and her eyes darting from one side of the table to the other. Sigh. He would have to start talking so his little girl could continue eating.

"Alright. Your father was my first friend, we met at the academy, he was really talented; had great chakra control. We were put on the same genin team with your mother. And let me tell you a little secret: Even if everybody in your clan says that their marriage was arranged, I guarantee that your parents married after loving each other for eight years and dating for five. Actually, it was me and Hizashi who tricked the elders into asking for it to be arranged. As you know, your clan has a very strict rule about inbreeding and keeping your blood 'pure'. However, your mother was a foreigner. So this is what really happened..."

And so Kizashi spent most of their time telling Neji about both his parents, and since his mother died in childbirth. Neji was really interested in knowing everything about both of his parents. He honestly hadn't expected that Kizashi-san knew about both his parents. Knowing about his father was a plus, but knowing about his mother, too?! The man was practically an angel to him!

Kizashi observed as the kid drank in every word that left his mouth. He felt sorry for him. But his mind was concerned by the look of mischief that was on his daughter's face when he was talking about all the pranks that they used to play on people around the village as genin, without getting caught, no less! But his suspicions were confirmed when she had a feral grin on her face as he began telling them about the pranks on the Hyuuga elders, and clan head (clan heir at their time). And his worry increased when he saw the glint in Neji's eyes.

He knew that they were doomed though, when they turned simultaneously to look at each other, and Neji smirked at Sakura.

Groaning, he said, "You kids better not get in trouble!"

"So, it's okay to do as we want, as long as we don't get in trouble, Tou-san?" Sakura asked with an innocent look, with Neji nodding at her side.

Kizashi scowled, then sighed, "I'm getting too old for this."

Sakura giggled and Neji's smirk widened. 'Oh, God! Please help me!'

"Okay, kiddies, enough mischief 'cause my old heart can't take it." He joked. "Now, let's get you two to training!"

They got up and cleaned their eating area as quickly as possible. Then Kizashi had them sitting on the ground in the middle of their backyard. He gave each of them a leaf, and took his own.

"Now I want you to try to make the leaf spin clockwise on your foreheads using chakra." And he demonstrated how.

After trying for half an hour, Sakura turned to her father, who was leaning on a tree reading a book, "Tou-san?"

"Hm?"

"What good is this exercise for?"

"Well, cupcake, it's good for chakra control."

Neji frowned. "What good is that?"

"You, especially, Neji have to master this exercise. Your clans fighting style relies heavily on chakra control to be able to block the Tenketsu. If you master these chakra control exercises, you shouldn't have any problems in learning your clans techniques."

Sakura frowned. Neji told her yesterday that she can't learn his clans techniques. "What about me, Tou-san?"

"Well, you could become a Genjutsu specialist or a medical ninja with perfect chakra control. Or you could use it in Ninjutsu, really. Using the exact amount required for a Ninjutsu and not more, makes your chakra reserves last longer. Okay princess?"

"Yeah."

They kept training with their eyes closed for two minutes, before Sakura cracked an eye open, and it had a glint of mischief in it. He shivered. But what she said had Kizashi chocking on his spit, and Neji's leaf split in half.

"Tou-san? If I'm a princess, can Neji-kun be a prince?"

"Eh?"

...

Dinner time rolled by soon enough. The kids rushed inside when Kizashi called them. They hadn't even noticed that he'd left!

Going inside they were greeted by an already set table, courtesy of Kizashi, since Mebuki is still 'mad' at him.

Mebuki was just coming out of the kitchen carrying the chopsticks, "Kizashi, I don't care even if you were training them - which I don't believe because you were sitting under a tree reading -, you're still doing the dishes! And no ..."

When she saw Neji she dropped the chopsticks, "Oh my God!" She said softly.

She rushed to him and knelt in front of him, much like she'd done with Sakura that morning. She caressed his face tenderly, like she was afraid he'd break. She had tears in her eyes. "Kizashi."

Her voice was tender and soft. "Is this Hizashi and Hana's baby?"

"Yes, Mebuki. This is Neji."

Then Mebuki hugged him tightly and started crying. Kizashi lifted Sakura who clung to his neck. After a few minutes he decided to break the sad mood. Honestly, his wife was giving the boy a trauma if the look of shock on his face had anything to say about it. "Mebuki, If you keep that up, the food's going to get cold."

"Oh, yes. Of course!" She wiped her tears, got up, picked the chopsticks and went to get new ones.

A few minutes later saw them having dinner while smiling and laughing- mostly at Kizashi with him pouting.

'So this is what a real family feels like.' Thought Neji.

...

A/N: Special thanks TheProdigy'sWife14, your last review had me really excited, so I finished the third chapter :P

And to all of you who reviewed, thank you so much, it really means a lot to me, and I really hope that you would tell me your suggestions so you would not get bored. I have a lot of ideas running in my head, but I would love to put your ideas in there , too :)

I'll try to get the fourth chapter up soon.

Sayonara!

Zee :)