There was a slight shift in the moonlight, just the briefest flutter of difference that had Ino waking up and cracking her eyelids open. She carefully scanned the room with her eyes, being careful not to move anything else, before sitting up when her eyes fell on Neji standing by her window as he patiently waited for her to conclude he wasn't a threat. Once he was deemed safe Ino flopped back onto the bed with a groan and he began to make his way over to her.

"Neji," Ino grumbled, "It's 2am. What are you doing here?"

Rather than answering, Neji sat on the bed and leaned over, placing a sweet kiss on her lips. Ino returned the kiss, all the while blinking up at him in confusion.

"Neji?" she questioned when he pulled back, "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah," he answered, sliding his hand over her cheek, "I just have to leave on a mission and wanted to let you know."

"You're leaving in the middle of the night?" she queried, hoping he wasn't getting back into Anbu work, "Can you tell me why?"

"Just a protection detail," he smiled softly, "With a particularly jumpy client. We're taking him to a safe house and staying for a few days until his regular body guards come to stay with him."

"Hmm," came Ino's reply as she slid her hands up his arms to pull forward from his triceps, "How long before you leave?"

"Not long enough," he smirked down at her, following the pull of her arms before placing a chaste kiss on her forehead, knowing it was all he could afford if he wanted to be on time, "I'm meeting my team at the gates in five minutes."

Ino let out a small huff of air and pouted for just a moment before arching up to place a kiss on the underside of his jaw.

"Be safe." she commanded gently, taking one of his cheeks in her hand and tipping his head so that she could meet his eyes.

"Always," he smiled back at her, placing one last kiss on her nose before slipping out of her arms and going to pick up the pack he had left sitting on the floor under her window, "I should be back in just over a week, assuming the lazy body guards manage to make it on schedule."

Ino smiled and nodded, knowing he was giving her an excuse to use in case he was late so that she wouldn't have to worry to badly, and watched him slip silently out of the window and into the night.

~*~

AN: I said I wanted to post one of my multi-chapter fics for my 25th story and so I have. A very short introduction, the chapters will get longer though, I promise. I've broken my own rule on this one and started posting it without being done, or anywhere close to it. So expect random updates, especially with finals coming up. I'm going to try for a chapter once every two weeks. But do feel free to encourage me to hurry and let me know what you think ^_^