Chiaki moaned as his finger tips dug into her lower spine, applying pressure to some of the problem areas. She was currently on all fours while Neji massaged her back. Currently the kids were with Nanao for a kido lesson, after that they had a swordsmanship lesson with Yumichika, followed by a hakuda lesson with Rukia.

It was now early February, the idea behind the various lessons in the day was to keep the children occupied so that Neji and Chiaki had a chance to connect with only each other for a day before the baby arrived. Tomorrow, he was going to watch both of the children while she got in some time with the girls and the following day it was his turn to have some time with the boys before the baby arrived. The last day, she'd be the one watching the kids on her own. He had to admit he was a bit nervous at the prospect of leaving her with Suzume and Tetsuya, but he quickly reminded himself that Tetsuya was a trained Shinigami if something should happen. That awarded the boy some additional knowledge that other children his age didn't have, sort of like how being a Shinobi had given him the training to handle life and death situations on numerous occasions.

Neji had a few things planned: He'd started the day off by made her favourite egg rice for breakfast, then she had insisted on meditating together. Now it was her turn to have something done for her, and he figured the massage was a good idea, considering she was carrying the extra weight associated with pregnancy.

After a while she straightened up onto her knees, he smiled as he gave her a chaste kiss and inquired, "Does your back feel better?"

"It definitely does," she agreed as she glanced to him. He smiled at her expression and nodded, she then shifted so she was behind him, her fingers working to unknot the muscles in his neck and shoulders. A soft moan escaped his lips, eyes closed as he savored the exquisitely placed pressure .

"I do carry a lot of tension in my back these days—you've always carried yours in your shoulders," she commented.

"Yeah, I do," he agreed as he took a few deep breaths.

"I had a talk with Tetsuya," he began. Chiaki almost wanted to groan. He wanted to talk about the kids now? Well, such would be the price of co-parenting with someone.

"How did that go?"

"It was interesting to say the least. He doesn't object to me being here, but he feels weird about Suzume living with us," Neji revealed.

"Well—he is around that age," she hinted.

"That is true, we discussed that as well but I will spare you the details," he added the last part jokingly. She already knew he wouldn't reveal any details about what they discussed.

"My ears and my dreams thank you. I get little sleep as it is with this little guy pressing on my bladder as much as he is—last thing I need is nightmares of my nephew entering manhood and the things he gets up to as a result," Chiaki jested.

His shoulders shook with boisterous laughter at her choice of words, he then became serious and asked her, "why do you call the baby a 'little guy'? What makes you so sure it's HIzashi and not Hinagiku?"

"Call it a intuition," she replied as she moved down to his biceps. He let out a loud groan as she squeezed and released his muscles. A question had been nagging at her and she bit her lip as she hesitantly asked, "Neji—you're not with me just because of the baby, are you?"

Neji's eyes flew open and his jaw dropped. He knew that pregnancy could do a lot to a woman, even cause her to have vivid dreams, so vivid that they seem real. He glanced to her and replied, "No. I was heading to the Seireitei before I even knew about the baby—because I wanted to be near you. If I've done something that has caused you to think otherwise, please tell me."

"Just one of those crazy fears, I guess. It's weird—you feel so much more proud, beautiful, and strong and at the same time, so—insecure. I just needed to hear it. I didn't mean to scare you," Chiaki apologized.

"You didn't, I'm glad you can talk to me about this but please speak of it when it first weighs on you. The hesitation in your voice, you've been feeling this way for a while," he countered.

She gave a chuckle and rubbed the back of her neck while admitting, "Yeah—I—I sort of have a bad habit of that. I'll work on it."

"That's all any of us can do," Neji agreed. She smiled as she ran her hand over her stomach and suggested, "You know if this one isn't Hinagiku, we could always use that name for the next one."

He smirked, nearing the end of one pregnancy and she's already thinking of a second. He shook his head and answered, "let's wait and see. We may end up surprised. Who knows? We could get a Hizashi and a Hinagiku."

Her eyes widened as she glared at him, almost as if silently compelling him to spontaneously combust. He shrugged as he defended himself, "You're the one with fraternal twins in your family."

"Oh god I just thought of something even worse," Chiaki admitted as she scrunched up her nose. Whatever it was she really had to hate the idea.

"Triplets. What if we did conceive fraternal twins and one of them split?"

Suddenly Neji was ready for another massage… with hot stones this time. Chiaki seemed to share his distress at the idea of multiples. He realized whether it was Hizashi or Hinagiku he'd love them just the same but he'd be lying if he didn't hope for a little girl who had her warm heart reflecting in her eyes.

"Obviously I'm hoping they're healthy, regardless of anything else—but I'd love a little boy with your kind smile," Chiaki advised him.

"I was thinking a little girl, who has as warm a heart as her mother, that reflects in her eyes when she's around others," Neji admitted.

Chiaki giggled happily and suggested, "We'll just have to wait and see."

Elsewhere Nanao, Suzume and Tetsuya were heading back towards the first squad barracks. They had been at the academy kido training grounds. Nanao and Tetsuya had been teaching Suzume how to cast Shakkaho, a basic level kido spell used for combat, but with proper tweaking once her skill grew could be used for practical purposes as well.

The last thing Tetsuya remembered seeing was a blur of yellow and grey before everything went dark. Nanao quickly shielded Suzume with her body but felt her body go limp as she fell.