Hanabi: ) OOH!!! I never thought of that. Wanna kiss Neji? makes kissy faces

Neji: You had to say something. Didn't you.

Hinata: …

Hiashi: If you don't mind. Can you please stop embarrassing our prestigious clan?

Ariados: Heheh… If you excuse me, I'll get writing.

---

"Alright," said Hiashi Hyuuga hesitantly to the man who had been waiting for his response, "I'll be right there, tell them I'll be half an hour,"

The man turned on his heels and left. Hiashi sighed, sometimes it was a pain being the head of quite a prestigious clan. Hiashi had to admit that the respect was great, but these meetings with officials were getting ridiculous. It was the second time this week that he had been summoned to meet with a group of these bigger men, and this time, it was at night. Despite the fact that he was a busy man, Hiashi hated leaving his two daughters Hinata and Hanabi at the house alone at night, especially after the incident which had happened a few years ago, before Hanabi was born. The incident where Hinata had been kidnapped, stirring up a total ruckus for which Hiashi's brother had paid a price. The thing was, that had happened while Hiashi had been at home. The whole clan had been home and she had still been kidnapped. Hiashi didn't really want to think about what would happen if he left the pair of them at home alone. To make matters worse, a bunch of shinobi had suffered from some severe injuries as the result of a war quite recently, and the head of the Konoha Hospital had paid Hiashi to borrow his maidservants for some time to help sort out the injuries, so Hiashi couldn't just leave the girls with them.

Hiashi really didn't have the time to take his daughters somewhere out of the estate, which was quite a problem. The hospital had bought off most of the maidservants, except for those staying at one of the particular residencies.

Hiashi sighed again, and heart heartedly walked to the room where Hanabi and Hinata were playing building blocks. Well, not quite. Hanabi was playing with the blocks, Hinata was just sitting down and watching, and you could see the boredom in her eyes, even though she was trying to hide it.

"Listen up girls," said Hiashi. Hinata looked up at her father, maybe with a little bit of fear in her eyes. You couldn't really blame her though, Hiashi was always telling her off for something or another. Hanabi actually stood up and ran to her father, knocking over her tower of blocks on the way. She hugged Hiashi's leg tightly. . Not that there was any reason for her doing this, Hiashi hadn't gone anywhere yet. Hiashi cleared his throat, "It seems I need to attend another one of these silly conferences. I shouldn't be gone long, maybe just one or two hours,"

Hinata just nodded, she gave her father one last weak smile and started to pack up Hanabi's blocks. Hanabi just hugged her father's leg tighter.

"Aww… don't go anywhere daddy. This is stupid, I don't want you to go," she said, looking up into his eyes. Hiashi felt a little upset about leaving her.

"I'm going to have to have to leave you at Neji's residence…"

These words had a very powerful effect. Hinata dropped the building block she was holding. Hiashi knew that she didn't get along very well with Neji. He watched as the elder of his two daughters showed her obvious signs of disappointment. Hanabi however, did the exact opposite. She instantly released her painful grip on her father's leg, and her eyes filled with excitement. You could see the eagerness in her eyes.

"Alright! When are we going daddy!" she piped up, going from a sad little daddy's girl to a crazy little hyper bunny.

--

Meanwhile, Neji sat on the floor of his home, his back against the wall, sheets of paper held on his knees. His hand danced across the topmost piece of paper, writing down the answer to the equation written on the paper, his neat handwriting clearly showing that he was putting so much extra work in to it, extending his answers as much as possible. He finished writing the answer to the seventh question, and sat their for a few seconds, considering if his answer was long enough or not. Neji was top of his class after all, and he did have to maintain that reputation. After a while, he decided that the answer was long enough after all, and he moved on to the next question.

What are the names of the 8 chakra gates?

Well, the question asked just for the names. Neji could extend it by writing down the functions and the positions of all eight of them. He was an expert when it came to the chakra network after all. He began to write down the answer to question, making sure he didn't make any silly little mistakes.

Kaimon (Gate of Opening) – Allows full usage of muscles. Located in head.

Don't you hate it when the lines they give you to write the answers on are only big enough to fit one word?

Neji cut down the size of his writing, and began to write down the names of the remaining chakra gates.

Kyuumon (Gate of Rest) – Assists in recovery. Located in head.

Seimon (Gate of Life) – Makes the body turn a red color. Located in Spine

Shoumon (Gate of Wounds) - Increases Speed and Power. Located in Spine

Tomon (Gate of Limit) – Further increases Speed and Power. Located in Spine

Keimon (Gate of View) – Allows body to perform Asakujaku. Located in Spine

Kyoumon (Gate of Wonder) – Increases speed and power. Located in the Spine.

Shimon (Gate of Death) – Allows for Hokage standard power. Results in death. Located in the –

"NEJI!"

"What the-?" Neji looked up, hardly daring to believe it. There stood Hanabi, Neji's obsessive and somewhat annoying cousin. She was wearing a wooly scarf and had a small bag, as though she was planning to stay at his house for a while. Neji barely had time to put his homework aside and go greet her before Hanabi had run over and almost knocked him over with a massive hug. Well, you wouldn't really call it a hug, you'd call it a squish.

"Ha-na-bi," said Neji, gasping for breath, "What are you doing here?"

"We're staying here for two hours or something Neji! You can play with me now, my daddy is going to a conference!" she gave a big smile and hugged him even tighter.

Neji looked up at his uncle who stood in the doorway, praying that it wasn't true. He inwardly hoped that Hanabi had that bag because she was going somewhere very, very, far away. Unfortunately, Hiashi nodded at him.

"I'm just leaving them here for some time," he said, walking into the house, and walking past Neji, "If you'll excuse me… I'll just go have a word with your maidservant,"

"Yeah…" said Neji, still unable to breathe properly, "She's in the kitchen,"

"H-Hey N-Neji kun…" said another voice, this one being Hinata's. The heiress to the main branch entered the house as well, giving Neji a little bow, her way of saying hello. While Neji liked using any possible opportunity to taunt her, he found that this wasn't the time for it.

"Can you get off me Hanabi?" he said, his little cousin just hugged him even tighter. Neji had half a mind to use hurt her, but he knew it wouldn't be a good idea to go and injure the prized child of the main branch. At that moment, Hiashi came back. He looked very hurried.

"Well, I've really got to go," he said, putting his coat back on, "Bye Hinata, Hanabi… and you too Neji,"

Only then did Hanabi let go of Neji, to give her father a big hug. Neji used this moment to take what seemed like the breath of life. This time when Hanabi hugged Hiashi though, it was rather dismissively, as though she wanted him to hurry up and go.

"Now don't you give your cousin any trouble, okay," he said, returning Hanabi's hug. Hanabi let go of him very quickly, and feigned a look of total sadness, while Hiashi turned and left. The moment the door shut behind him however, Hanabi's face broke into a very cheeky smile.

Neji turned around and sat back down. He knew that there was a very low chance that he was actually going to finish this piece of homework that night. Well, it wasn't possible with Hanabi around, but he had to try. He sat back down, and started finishing the answer to the question he had been previously answering.

"Wh-what's that Neji-kun?" asked Hinata, leaning over and peering at Neji's sheet.

"My homework," said Neji, not looking up. He was a serious guy when it came to homework.

"This is boring," said Hanabi, a very stern expression on her face, her little hands on her hips. Maybe she wanted to look intimidating, or maybe she wanted to look angry, "Neji come and play with me,"

"I'm nearly done," said Neji irritably, he really wanted to bash her up now, but he couldn't do it, Uncle Hiashi would kill him, "Go and play with my toys in the other room,"

"Boring boring boring," said Hanabi, repeating that same word over again, "This is so boring, boring, boring, boring… BORING!!!" she said, now raising her voice.

"U-um… Hanabi… maybe you should calm down, Neji's so serious about these things," said Hinata, giving a weak smile.

"BORING BORING BORING!!!" said Hanabi.

"Shut up Hanabi," said Neji, losing it altogether. He had just read that same sentence three times straight, but still couldn't get a grip on what it meant. Hanabi was so distracting!

"I'm not going to stop until you play with me Neji," said Hanabi, now sucking in air so that she could shout again, much louder than before, "BORING, BORING, BORING, BORING…"

And on and on she went. After trying for long enough, Neji slammed his homework on the floor.

"Alright. Fine. I'll play with you," he said, standing up sharply, "What game?"

Don't you hate it when the little kids always get their way?

"Let's play…. Hide and Seek," she said. Neji knew it. Little kids ALWAYS wanted to play Hide and Seek, or some other game like "Doctor" where you had to pretend to be doctors or something else. To be honest, Neji preferred Hide and Seek. Well, maybe playing teachers wouldn't be that bad, it would give him an excuse to do his homework. Before Neji could say anything however, Hanabi was running away.

"I'm hiding!" she called, "Close your eyes, no peeking!". Once she had gone, Neji went back into the other room and began to do his homework again. He managed to answer another three questions or so, when Hinata, who he had totally forgotten about, piped up something.

"U-um… Neji-kun… you've been counting for more than thirty seconds now…" she said, quietly. Neji sighed.

"Let me finish this question,"

"She- She'll tell my father, and you won't be allowed to play with her again…"

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Oh… and she'll cry, and she'll make you play with her even more until my father picks us up, Neji-kun,"

"Alright fine," said Neji getting on his feet. "Byakugan," he muttered, veins popping up around his eyes. Hinata gave a little laugh.

"I'll be back soon," he said, leaving his homework with Hinata, "Don't ruin my work, and if that little annoyance comes back before I find her, make sure she doesn't wreck it either,"

It didn't take Neji even a minute to find Hanabi. Even if he wasn't using Byakugan, it wouldn't have taken long to find her. Hanabi had chosen to hide behind a mere pillar. Neji merely gave her a little nod and started to head back to do his homework, it wasn't long before he felt little arms around him though, and before he knew it, he was trapped in another monster hug.

"No… now you're the hider. I'm the seeker now!" she said, trying to drag the stronger boy back with no luck.

"But, I already played wi-," now it was Neji's turn to smile, "Alright," he said, a trace of evil laughter in his voice, "You count now,"

As Neji walked off on his little cousin, he heard her start to count.

"4…8…16…32…64…" she was saying, Neji turned back and raised his eyebrows,

"That's not how you count Hanabi," he said. He knew how to count to one thousand when he was four.

"What? I don't know any other numbers," she said, "These are the ones you always say. So this means you don't know how to count either… nyah nyah nah nyah nyah," she said, adding the actions to her little taunt. Neji rolled his eyes and walked off, darting into the other room and picking up his homework.

"Hanabi can't use Byakugan yet, can she?" he shot at Hinata, who he now really envied for once. If only he was Hanabi's brother, then Hanabi would be sick of him, not obsessed with him.

"No…" said Hinata, taken by surprise.

"Good," said Neji, smiling and walking to his hiding place. It was a small cupboard room just off the hall, the door didn't look any different to the wall though, so Hanabi would never be able to find him. He walked into the room, using his Byakugan to see through the slight darkness, and began to complete his homework.

Neji really wanted to laugh as he heard Hanabi storming past the place he was hiding countless times. He heard her ask Hinata if she knew where he was, but as she hadn't seen Neji go into hiding, she couldn't say anything. After at least twenty minutes, Neji had gotten a lot done on his homework. He only had a little bit to go, only that was when Hanabi started throwing a tantrum.

"I give up Neji!" she shouted, running down the hall, "Come out now! This is too hard! You found me too quickly, and now I can't find you! Neji, please let me find you," Neji noticed that she sounded close to tears and actually laughed out loud. Gee Hanabi was stupid. Neji could use Byakugan when he was four, but even so he wouldn't have needed it. His hiding place wasn't that spectacular after all. Neji roared with laughter as he heard Hanabi stomping around the house. He could stay there all night if he wanted to, and she would never find him.

"Neji-kun…" came another voice, this one belonging to Hinata, "Your maidservant says dinner's ready… she wants you to c-come eat now,"

Neji hesitated, wondering if he should come out or not. Was Hinata just trying to get Neji to come out because Hanabi had asked her too? He looked up, using Byakugan to see outside the room. He saw Hinata standing there, calling, not exactly sure where he was. Hanabi was no where in sight though, maybe it was safe to come out. "Safe to come out… Why does this whole thing seem like a WAR?" Neji thought to himself. Well, one thing was for certain. Hanabi was pure evil.

Neji stood up hastily, opened the door and came out. There stood Hinata. Neji knew that Hinata was perfectly capable of using her Byakugan, but she hadn't done that, she was taken by complete surprise when Neji emerged from the "wall".

"Aiiee," squealed Hinata in shock, "Y-you scared me there Neji… y-your maidservant says to go to th-the kitchen,"

"Thanks," said Neji. Usually, he hated Hinata just as much as he hated the whole damn main branch of the family, but compared to Hanabi, she wasn't so annoying. Her shy and laid back ways actually did seem ideal every once in a while. Neji began to follow Hinata when he heard the very fast pitter patter of foot steps coming from behind him. He dodged Hanabi, who couldn't really stop running and crashed into the wall.

"Watch where you're going Hanabi. Don't knock things," said Neji, as Hanabi rubbed her nose, "Your dad probably tells you that too, right?"

"Yeah he does, but you don't have a dad Neji, nobody's going to tell me off if I run around here," said Hanabi innocently. Hinata gave Neji an apologetic look.

"I'll tell you off if you knock things in my house," said Neji, "I'm the man of the house here,"

"Oh, you're such a goody two shoes Neji," said Hanabi, "But you're just a kid, you can't tell me off,"

"I'll tell your dad," said Neji, smirking.

"Dibba dobba dibba dobba, one, two, three, only babies dob on me," sang Hanabi. Neji laughed.

"What does "dob" mean? Dob isn't a word Hanabi," he said. Hinata giggled.

"You think you know everything Neji, but you don't. You're stupid," said Hanabi.

They had arrived in the kitchen. Hanabi's eyes lit up at the sight of the dining table, covered in metal cutlery, porcelain bowls, and other things that weren't made of plastic. Things that Hanabi wasn't old enough to use.

"Ooh, ooh…" said Hanabi, "I want to sit next to Neji!" she ran up to the table and sat down, trying to pull Neji to sit next to her. Neji didn't real want her to cry again, so he hastily took the seat. Hinata sat opposite the both of them. She was giving a little smile, but Neji knew that if she wasn't so shy, she'd be laughing her head off.

"Somebody feed me," said Hanabi, picking up her spoon and looking at the bowl of ramen in front of her. She held the spoon out to Neji.

"Feed me Neji," she said pleadingly. Neji didn't get a chance to reply before Hinata spoke.

"H-Hanabi… I'll feed you… let Neji eat," she reached to take the spoon off Hanabi. Hanabi jerked it away.

"No Hinata. You make the food taste stupid if you feed me. Neji, you feed me!" she held the spoon out to Neji again. Neji, who had ramen in his mouth, shook his head.

"J-just eat it yourself Hanabi…" said Hinata, "Th-this is Neji's house… we shouldn't really boss him around,"

"Yes we should. He's from the Space Cadet branch. We can boss him around if we want," said Hanabi sternly. Hinata gave her a serious look.

Neji choked on his ramen. Space Cadet. God, this girl had issues.

"Hanabi…" she said pleadingly, "Father said not to give him trouble…"

"Fine," said Hanabi, "You're a dummy bum Hinata,"

Hanabi picked up her chopsticks, which were both still stuck together, and didn't bother separating them. She just tried to pick up the ramen using the attached chopsticks.

"You're supposed to break them apart Hanabi," said Neji, after he had come out of his choking fit, "You don't eat it like that,"

Hanabi struggled to break the chopsticks apart. They were stuck together too tightly for her low strength. Hanabi gave up, and chucked the sticks behind her, where they hit a rather special photo of a younger Neji and his father. The glass on the photo frame was dinted.

"Hanabi," said Neji, after swallowing his latest mouthful of ramen, "I told you not to knock things,". Hanabi wasn't listening, she had picked up her spoon and started to drink the soup. Well, she wasn't really drinking it, as most of it wasn't going in her mouth. Her really sloppy grip on the spoon sent the soup flying everywhere. Lots of it got on her clothes, some got on the table, and some of it caught Neji's hair.

"Hanabi," shouted Neji again, this time he was angry, "I spent all of this morning washing my hair, don't get your soup in it,"

Once again Hanabi wasn't listening. Neji wrenched the spoon off her.

"That's it," he said, "I'll feed you,"

Hanabi's face lit up again.

"Considering it's really hard to feed somebody with chopsticks, and you've already lost yours, I'll go get you a fork. Don't touch my dinner,"

Neji stood up and walked past Hinata, who had peacefully finished her own ramen, ignored by both Neji and Hanabi who had taken no notice of her whatsoever. The second Neji disappeared, Hanabi spat in his bowl.

"H-Hanabi… he'll get very mad at you for that," said Hinata, looking at her sister worriedly, "He said not to touch his dinner…"

"I'm not touching it," said Hanabi, spitting into it again. Hinata was about to speak when Neji came back. Hanabi sank back down into her own chair.

"Alright," said Neji, sitting down and sticking a fork in Hanabi's bowl, "Open up,"

Hanabi opened her mouth wide, Neji stuck the fork in Hanabi's mouth, and watched as she sucked all of the noodles in with a very loud noise. He put the fork back in the bowl.

"Youra doind ib wong," said Hanabi, her mouth loaded with ramen. Neji looked away quickly.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, that's disgusting," he said, not wanting to look at her, "What did you say anyway?"

Hanabi swallowed. "You're doing it wrong. You don't just pick up the noodles, you have to twist them around your fork,"

It took a very long time to get Hanabi to finish eating her ramen. She talked after every forkful, often before swallowing. There were certain vegetables in the ramen which she didn't like and made sure Neji didn't feed her, she wouldn't eat it Neji forgot to do the twisting thing, and every now and then she'd say the curry was too spicy and ask for a drink. Another half an hour had passed before the bowl was empty (Apart from a few vegetables), only then did Neji get back to his own dinner. Hanabi started giggling as Neji put the spoon to his mouth, and Hinata gave him a look of warning. Neji had no idea what they were on about. He drank a spoonful of soup, and wanted to spit it out right away.

Neji looked back into his bowl. A little white section of floating white froth was in his soup. Neji knew very well what that was. Spit. He looked at Hinata, who was giving a little apologetic smile and Hanabi who was laughing her head off.

Little kids were really bad at keeping secrets.

"Oh my god, did you just spit in my soup…!?" asked Neji. Hanabi gave a little nod. Neji felt like he was going to vomit.

"Sorry…" muttered Hinata. Neji pushed his bowl away. He had lost his appetite. At that moment his maid servant came into the room.

"Master Neji?" she said, looking at Neji, she gave smiles to both Hanabi and Hinata, "Ah, Lord Hiashi just rang me, apparently he's going to be running very late, he's gotten caught up in something. He says he wants Hanabi and Hinata to go to sleep here, and he'll come and get them later in the night…"

Neji sighed and nodded. So it wasn't over yet.

"YAY!," said Hanabi, "We get to have a slumber party at Neji's house. YAY!"

The maidservant turned and left. Neji swore.

"Oooh… Neji said a naughty word," said Hanabi, "Naught naughty,"

"Come on," said Neji, standing up, his cousins followed, "I'll show you to the living room, you can sleep on the couches,"

Hanabi came from behind and gave Neji yet another killer hug. "No Neji, I want to sleep with you!" she squealed. Neji had seen this coming.

"Fine," he said, "You can sleep on my bed, I'll sleep on the couch,"

"Then I'll sleep on the couch too,"

"Okay, then I'll sleep in the bed with you. Can you get any less annoying?"

"YAY!"

It took a long time to get Hanabi ready for bed. She was hyper excited about getting to sleep on Neji's bed. Hinata was trying to tell her to calm down, but Hanabi never listened to her. At long last, the three of them were ready for bed. As both Hanabi and Hinata hadn't brought any night clothes, they both had to wear some of Neji's older clothes (Much to Hanabi's delight).

"Alright," said Neji, "Let's get into bed," he pulled the sheet back. He planned to get the other two into bed, and then sit there and complete his homework.

"I'm in the middle," said Hanabi, climbing in.

"No. You'll get really annoying if you're in the middle," said Neji, this time it was Hinata who answered.

"N-Neji-kun… Hanabi has to sleep in the middle, otherwise, she'll fall off, she rolls around you see…"

"That's exactly why I don't want her to sleep in the middle,"

Too late though. Hanabi had already climbed into bed and showed no prospect of wanting to move. Neji half-heartedly climbed into the bed on one side of Hanabi while Hinata got in the other side.

Before Neji could do anything to stop her, Hanabi had seen Neji's teddy bear, Squishy. She reached out and pulled the teddy toward her. Neji snatched the bear from her.

"Oi, you can stop me from doing my homework, you can get soup in my hair, you can smash my favorite photo, but you are not sleeping with my teddy," he said rudely and loudly. Nobody other than him was allowed to sleep with Squishy. Hanabi looked sad. Hinata was giggling. Neji felt rather stupid, these two didn't know he slept with a teddy bear.

"Fine Neji. I understand, I know that girls and girly boys like you are really overprotective of their teddies," Hanabi sighed, "But you can still tell me a bedtime story,"

"I'm no good at thinking up stories Hanabi, and I'm tired," said Neji, putting his head down on the pillow, hugging his teddy bear, "I really can't be bothered,"

"Come on, I can't get to sleep with a story though," said Hanabi. Neji looked around at Hinata hopefully. She had already fallen asleep. Well, if Neji told Hanabi a story, she'd go to sleep too, and then he could do his homework in peace.

"Alright fine," said Neji, he thought up a story really quickly, "Let's go,"

"It needs to have a happy ending though, stories without happy endings are dumb," Hanabi added as an afterthought.

"Okay. Once there was a boy, and he was really, really smart. He was at the top of the class and all the girls loved him and the teachers thought he was the best student to ever go through the academy," said Neji really quickly, making it up as he went, "He always did his homework well and got good marks. One day however, his really hyper little cousin came to his house and he couldn't finish his homework. The next day he went to school and the teacher told him that because he didn't do his homework he failed and she kicked him out of the academy, and he thought he could never graduate… but the next day the boy bashed up his little cousin and the teacher thought that the way he fought was like a real Ninja should and the boy was made a genin and he lived happily ever after,"

Neji looked around at Hanabi, she had fallen into a deep sleep. Neji reached over and picked up his homework. Hinata slept so peacefully, Hanabi talked through her sleep and took breaths through her mouth.

"I'll have the pink ice-cream with cream and strawberries and sprinkles too…" she was saying. Neji tried to ignore her, and after some time, he finally finished his homework, and moved on to double checking it. He was just correcting one answer when he felt a sharp kick from Hanabi's side. His pen flew across the page, creating a big ugly line through his homework. Neji went to go and fix this line when Hanabi gave him another kick, creating another ugly line on the page. Neji slammed his homework down on his side table, well, there was no point doing this now. He would only end up making it look messier.

Neji switched off the light, cuddled his teddy harder, and closed his eyes, trying to sleep. Hanabi's kicks wouldn't stop, and her loud breathing was so distracting. It went on and on and on. Neji tried to get out of her reach, and almost fell off the bed once. He was about to give up, get out of bed and go sleep on the floor when he heard a knock on the door. Uncle Hiashi was back.

Neji shut his eyes and pretended to sleep as he heard the muffled greeting his maidservant was giving his uncle. He heard the footsteps they were taking towards the room and smiled. The door opened, flooding some light into the room. He heard the pair of them speaking.

"They seem so attached to him…" he heard his uncle say.

"Yes," said the maidservant, "They seemed to be having so much fun, especially Hanabi and Neji, they're like two peas in a pod,"

Neji snorted, and at the same moment Hanabi gave him a kick. The noise turned into some funny cross between a snort and an "ow!". Luckily Uncle Hiashi didn't notice anything.

"That's good," Hiashi was saying, "It doesn't look like they'll want to move. Why don't I leave them here for tonight, and then I'll come and talk to them in the morning. See, at that conference, the Hokage was there, and he's sent me and a few others on a mission, and I'll be gone for about a week… so if it's not problem, I can leave them here for the week,"

"Yes Lord Hiashi," said the maidservant, "That's absolutely fine, I'm sure Neji will enjoy their company too…"

The door shut, and the both of them had gone. Neji swore out loud. Hanabi gave him another kick. It was going to be a very long week for the two of them.

OCC

Words: 5030 / 2 = 2515

Neji gain: +1258
Hanabi gain: +1258