"You are sitting in my spot," Shikamaru announces.

He- Neji- doesn't move.

Shikamaru starts to get mad. Sure, if he had unintentionally led to this guy's death as failure to lead the team, well, that would be different. But if he actually wanted to cause the death?

Well, that was a different story entirely.

Neji still hasn't moved in the millisecond it took him to go through his options, which were: a.) Kill him. b.) Yell louder. c.) Find a new spot. He hasn't moved by the time that Shikamaru eliminates c for being too troublesome, or by the time he eliminates a for the same reason.

Of course, yelling is troublesome too, but entropy dictates that Shikamaru choose the action which expended the least amount of energy and is therefore the least troublesome. And who was Shikamaru to go against a basic law of the universe?

That would certainly be the most troublesome thing of all.

"Hey, you're sitting in my spot," he repeats, a little bit louder and with a little more menace.

Neji still doesn't move.

Shikamaru starts to suspect something is up, and so he peers over Neji's head past his long bangs at his eyes and notices for the first time the deep, slow breathing and faint snore. Aha.

He's asleep.

Shikamaru decides that waking up a Hyuuga genius who can kill him by poking him merely once is definitely too troublesome to attempt while tired and chakra-exhausted after a mission.

So he does the only logical thing: sits down next to Neji. Venturing too far would be troublesome, and besides. This is his spot. Just because the Hyuuga is arrogant and thinks everything is his (or that if it isn't, he deserves it) doesn't mean it is.

Shikamaru is finally comfortable and, like Neji, beginning to doze off (but this is allowable since it is after all his spot), when Neji rolls over.

Onto Shikamaru's arm.

Shikamaru now has several options, and quickly thinks through them. He can: a.) Kill him (hey, why didn't he do this before?). b.) Yell at him. c.) Move away quietly.

C, he decides, is most definitely the least dangerous. He moves slowly, sitting up straight-

Or attempting to.

Neji is heavy for someone so skinny. And he's pretty much latched onto Shikamaru's arm. Shikamaru tries to pull his arm away (that's his arm, not the Hyuuga's!).

"Mmffm," Neji murmurs.

Shikamaru's brain is spinning with strategies for if Neji wakes up, if Neji decides to kill him which could be for several different reasons... The list goes on.

Neji doesn't wake up though, and Shikamaru realizes that he only has strategies for that course of events. What does he do if Neji stays asleep?

His tired body informs him that in that case, he can deal with it later.

So, feeling that there isn't anything else to do, Shikamaru listens and falls asleep, automatically using Neji as a pillow. The sky slowly darkens around the two as they lie snoring on the field.


The end! Is this yaoi or shonen ai? Or is it Shikamaru and Neji having a bonding moment?

YOU BE THE JUDGE.

Seriously, though... I'd rather if, from that up above, you couldn't tell. Let me know if it's too much one way or the other. I've never written yaoi/shonen ai before, and I promised I never would... but such an idea... and such a pairing... I love these guys together.

I do, however, have an alternate ending which makes it painfully clear which team someone from up there is batting for...


When the sky is fully dark and the stars that aren't hidden behind clouds are shining brightly, one boy wakes up.

He raises his head, confused and slightly disoriented. It's awfully cold and dark. And his bed is much harder than usual. And... grassier. His vision and head clear and he remembers where he is and that he can see nearly 360 degrees again, if he wants to. But he doesn't. He just wants to figure out whose warm body he is sleeping against. He looks at the head currently resting on him.

A crazy ponytail sticks out like a sign- or a pineapple top- and it tells Neji that This Person is Nara Shikamaru.

Neji giggles, quietly and very un-Neji-ishly, and promptly squeezes up closer, vowing to himself to never wash that arm again.