A/N: Eheh…I shouldn't have written this right now. XD But…the urge to write a ShikaNeji fic was way too strong and I couldn't ignore it. :sweatdrop: Since, you know, they're my favorite Yaoi couple in Naruto…:cheeky grin:
I hope they're IC as much as they possibly can be with this plot, but I know that they – Neji, especially – will be OOC for some of the story…which sucks 'coz I don't like making them OOC, but it had to be done to set…"stuff"…up. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Kishimoto-sama does.
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An Unexpected Night
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Prologue
The night was cold, but not overly so. A light breeze blew by, causing goose bumps to claim their spot along his bare arms. The vest, thankfully, retained heat rather well, so the chill didn't bother him…too much.
For now, at least, he was glad to be back in Konoha; the mission he had been on had taken far too long to complete and had him wanting to come home on the way there. Nodding towards Kotetsu and Izumo, who waved in response, he yawned widely and begun the trek towards the apartment he had gotten for himself right before being promoted to jounin those few years ago. (He had only entered the jounin exams to get Temari off his back, but there was no way he'd tell the troublesome woman that; he didn't have a death wish after all.)
Silently he walked down the familiar roads that led to his apartment, his body running on autopilot from all those times he had arrived back during the night. Knowing full well that he was supposed to report back the instant he arrived in Konoha, Shikamaru sighed and figured that being chewed out – again – by Tsunade was preferable to waking the crazed woman in the middle of the night. (A horrible decision, he could assure you. The last time he had woken the hokage from her slumber he couldn't sleep for the next couple of weeks for fear of her coming and murdering him in his sleep.)
Quietly Shikamaru shifted his bag, his hand automatically reaching up to hold onto one of the straps that hung off the nylon sack. When he got home he'd take a quick shower, change into the clothes his mother washed (how she ever got into his locked apartment when she didn't have a key, he had no idea), then go to bed for some much deserved shut eye. Maybe a quick snack before bed, but that was highly unlike–
A sound to his left, much like shouting that was trying to be kept quiet.
Shikamaru paused in his steps and quickly moved to the nearest wall to conceal his presence before he poked his head out to see what was going on. He could see four people in the distance, three of which were standing facing away from him, the fourth kneeling on the ground in front of the three, facing towards Shikamaru. At the distance he was at he couldn't quite decipher what it was the group was saying, but whatever it was it must've been pretty bad, if the continual sagging of the kneeling person's shoulders wasn't enough of an indication of that.
Silently he watched, suddenly apprehensive about what was going on in front of his eyes although he couldn't rightly justify the reason for such a feeling. His body tensed as the natural fight-or-flight reaction overcame him, which he forcefully beat down, his eyes unwavering from the goings on mere meters in front of him. Aside from not being able to really understand what the group was saying, he couldn't even figure out just who the people were and why they were doing whatever it was that they were doing in the middle of the open street in the middle of the night. Unless…they didn't want people to know what they were doing. (Later he would attribute it to the fact that it had been dark and the moon had been in the "wrong" phase, but at the time he couldn't really think straight.)
Narrowing his eyes a little, Shikamaru quietly scurried to hide behind a large wooden pole that was a couple feet closer to the group, but was still at a far enough distance that he could watch without being spotted. Now at the distance he was at he could understand a word here and there, but otherwise he couldn't really figure out what they were saying.
"…disgrace…"
"...can't believe…"
"…you of all people…"
"…exiled…"
Shikamaru jerked back in surprise at the last word, before a strangled gasp came out of the kneeling person. He craned his neck for a better look, all the while the words "what am I doing? This is too damn troublesome…I can be at home sleeping instead of this…" ran through his racing mind. Before he knew it, it was over and the three people who were standing were walking away, leaving the person on the ground to lay there, his body twitching every so often, probably from the pain that had been inflicted upon him.
For a few moments Shikamaru watched the person on the ground in a strange sort of morbid fascination, then the thought of "are they really going to just leave him lying there? He could freeze to death" found him. It took a couple seconds for the implications to hit, before he sighed and took a hesitant step toward the person. Of course they knew; and they had no reason to care, if they exiled him (which is what Shikamaru believed is what happened, if he had heard correctly).
Narrowing his eyes further, he thought about that. It didn't seem like the person was exiled from Konoha, since he was still in the village and the exile probably would've been publicly announced during the day; not done at night without anyone but themselves knowing. So that probably meant that it was a clan thing, but he had never heard of a clan member being kicked out. (Killed, sure. But kicked out? That was a little different). Whatever it was the person did, it must've been pretty bad; or their clan was that strict and powerful, and didn't tolerate anything done against them from anyone, especially their own members.
And it would make sense, too, if the clan member was still a vital part of the village for him to just be exiled and not killed…
With a start Shikamaru found himself just a couple feet away from the person, who now as just lying there in resigned defeat. His eyes quickly roved over the body, assessing the damage that might've been done. His brow creased in confusion as he could see no visible wounds on the person's body, and quickly went to flip the body over in case there were some on the person's chest that he couldn't see from the back. Gently, almost hesitantly, he brushed the long, dark hair away from the person's face as he lifted the body and immediately froze.
This…couldn't be. It had to be someone else. He was one of the most loyal people Shikamaru knew, and would never do anything that would put him in a bad position with his clan. It was a mistake; he wasn't out there, half-laying on the ground, his upper half being propped up by Shikamaru's slack arms. He wasn't laying there, blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth from a wound that Shikamaru couldn't see.
His hand shaking slightly, Shikamaru slowly reached down to grab the battered hitai-ate that lay on the ground next to the body. Unconsciously he ran this thumb over the symbol that marked him as a shinobi of Konoha before Shikamaru clenched his hand around the metal. He had no idea what had happened to have put the young man in this situation, and didn't have an inkling of an idea what the guy could've done to get him exiled from the clan he was so devoted to. All he knew was that he had to do something with the unconscious body of Hyuuga Neji, and that his life just got infinitely more troublesome that it would've been had he just ignored the sounds of shouting in the first place.
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A/N: So…whatcha think? It's an alright length for a prologue…and I'm not even sure if I should continue it. XD Should I? I suppose this would be a teaser of sorts to see if anyone would be interested in more…or if I should just drop it and continue on with the thing I'm supposed to be writing. XP
So…yeah. More? No more? Up to you!
Read and review!