A/N: Surprise! This is a oneshot birthday giftfic for the best fan artist in the fandom, Kyuubi1010, who wanted to know what would happen if Shikamaru and Neji were suddenly reunited with Shikamaru's old flames, Temari and Sakura. It follows Constructive Possession in the timeline, preceding Inevitabile Resveglio. And there's YURI! It's just a tad, but it's there.
For those of you fiending for new Kindred AU fanfiction, I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. I make no money from the writing of this story.
Warning: unbeta'd; AU; angst; drama; humor; language; yaoi; yuri
"Neji, you know, I feel like I've gained another son."
It had been five days since the fateful Saturday that changed everything. Five days since the infamous dinner party, since Neji's adorably awkward confession of his love for Shikamaru, since the bizarre, sexually-charged showdown between Hiashi and the scheming Tenten.
Five days since Neji first lay on his back for Shikamaru during an amazing night of passion.
"Shikamaru, I'm so happy it didn't take you seven years to get a clue the way it took your father. Men like Neji here and his uncle don't just fall out of the sky."
Five days since the reunion of the threesome made up of Shikamaru's parents and Neji's uncle.
"You two make quite a vision sitting there together. You can just imagine how I felt on Saturday, what with the four of you in the same room. It was a dream come true!"
Neji and Shikamaru quickly learned that their lives would not return to normal. Indeed, normal had been redefined, as evidenced by Neji's convalescence on Sunday; the same-day delivery of a video, recorded in the garage of his building, of Shikamaru's parents allegedly doing it like bunnies in the back seat of their luxury sedan…
"If only we'd all met a couple of decades ago… of course, the two of you would have been children then."
…and Yoshino's surprise visit to the police station, where she was greeted personally by a thoroughly amused Captain Hatake. Not one to miss an opportunity, he flirted recklessly with her in front of the gods, the entire department and her son, who was none too pleased with the situation. Neji observed the rather put-out special investigator's hand slipping closer and closer to his holstered firearm before the Hyuuga stayed it. Instinct warned him their freaky-eyed shift commander was probably a faster draw, and Neji didn't need to have it confirmed in front of the gods, the entire department, and Shikamaru's mother.
Afterward, with the captain's blessing, Yoshino dragged them to a sidewalk café for lunch, where they now sat and listened as she blathered in giddiness to them.
"This week has just been so amazing!" she declared, staring at the two men with a gigantic smile. She wore large, dark designer sunglasses that shielded her eyes from view.
They stared back silently from behind polished Ray-Bans, the bright sunlight glinting off the metal frames.
"Well, my goodness, you two have hardly said a word! Come on, I didn't interrupt anything too important when I showed up at the station, did I?" Yoshino asked.
"No, but Captain Hatake is never, ever going to let me live down the fact that I received a visit from my mother at work", Shikamaru responded.
"And as a consequence", Neji added, "Neither will anyone else at the station."
Yoshino waved a hand in a gesture of dismissal. "Honestly, you two, is it really going to be that hard to live down?"
"Yes, it will", the officers responded in unison.
An oblivious Yoshino could only giggle at their response, delighted at how in tune they were with each other.
"So, Neji", she continued in a lower voice, leaning forward as if conspiring, "was it your idea to bring my son to your home the night you seduced him, or was it Shikamaru's? I'm just dying to know."
Shikamaru was grateful for his mother's attempt at discretion. He was also glad neither he nor Neji had been eating or drinking anything, or someone would have choked for certain. "Mom", he cautioned.
"Relax, dear, I'm only making conversation", she defended.
Shikamaru leaned forward then, lowering his voice as well. "We can talk about something else. Neji and I are on duty."
"Well, I've been trying. Shikamaru, why are you always denying me the pleasure of the intimate details? When did you become so…stodgy?" Yoshino pouted in the cutest way. "You certainly don't get that from your parents."
Gods, are you pouting? "Mom, we are not going to have this discussion with you, and if we were it would certainly not be here…"
Neji watched in silent amusement as his partner defended the privacy of their intimate relations to his mother--who seemed to have very little shame regarding her own intimacies--and allowed himself to smile a little.
Yes, normal as they knew it had ceased to exist.
Instinct prodded Neji again, causing him to look away from his tablemates. He scanned their immediate area from behind his sunglasses, his eyes stopping to rest just over Yoshino's shoulder, on two women standing a short distance away on the sidewalk.
The women, a curvy, leggy blonde with curly hair bound into four sections, and a slighter, shorter one who looked like she was wearing a pink wig, stood shoulder-to-shoulder as they openly watched Neji and his companions from behind dark sunglasses with what seemed to be considerable interest.
They turned to look at each other at the same time, before turning back to stare once more. The blonde wore an irritating smirk on her face.
Trouble, Neji's instinct warned. He didn't say anything—Shikamaru and his mother were still disagreeing—but he refused to take his eyes off the pair.
"I mean, how is it that the two of you get any work done? You must spend all day fighting off people making passes at you", Yoshino wondered aloud.
"We're both armed", Neji offered, his eyes still on the two women. "It's an excellent deterrent."
"Especially when Hyuuga here has his gun drawn", Shikamaru finished.
From behind his shades he cut a glance at his partner. He knew that trick well; they'd been practicing it together for years.
Shikamaru had only been scanning the area for a couple of seconds when he, too, spotted them. He stiffened visibly, forcing breath from his lungs.
Recognition caused Shikamaru's heartbeat to upshift. He could hardly believe his own eyes. In the nearly six years since he'd seen Temari and Sakura, they hadn't changed much—a bit heavier, perhaps, but they were still the same two sexy, beautiful women he would make love to into the wee hours when they were a threesome.
It wasn't good to see them per se. The sight of them together represented a kind of pain the Nara never wanted to experience again. Besides, he didn't miss them anymore. If anything, Shikamaru was happy to know they were still together. He'd long since decided that the two women deserved each other.
Shikamaru felt the ghost of the wound left by their abrupt departure from his life throb in his chest. A myriad of memories from their time together invaded his brain. But the throb in his chest was a phantom, linked to memories that were more like images conjured in his mind by a story relayed to him from someone else.
That's when he knew he had Neji to thank for a vigorous heart full of fresh memories. So much had happened between them. In such a short time, Neji had gone from just being his partner on the job and secret crush to becoming his real love, his flesh-and-blood present and future.
Neji was his strength.
"You know them?" the Hyuuga asked in a low voice. He'd heard, rather than seen, his partner's reaction.
Shikamaru nodded almost imperceptibly.
Yoshino stared at the two men, whose demeanor seemed to have changed in an instant. "What is it?" she asked calmly.
"Gods", Shikamaru spoke, "not today." Not ever.
The nature of his job demanded he be ready for anything, but this…
Yoshino cocked her head in confusion.
Shikamaru removed his sunglasses then, training anxious eyes on his mother. They shifted for only a moment, enough for her to get the hint, before he replaced the sunglasses on his face.
"Wha—" she began and looked around, turning her body to see two women approaching behind her.
She instantly frowned in recognition.
It was them.
Their approach was slow, casual. They stopped far enough away from Yoshino's chair not to block her from pushing herself away from the table, and quietly took in the scene. A sexy new button-down Shikamaru they'd never seen before sat at the bistro table next to a pretty long-haired man in a suit. Shikamaru's mother, a woman they both remembered well, rounded out the trio.
They were all wearing sunglasses in the mid-day sun, so no one's eyes were visible--not that either of the two women needed to see anyone's eyes to know they were being scrutinized by them.
"Shikamaru Nara", Temari announced in a mocking voice, standing with one hand on a cocked hip. "I heard you had become a cop. I wondered where the police department would find logic in adding someone as lazy as you are to the force, but I suppose stranger things have happened."
She shifted her head toward Shikamaru's companion. "They even assigned you a baby-sitter", she added, quirking a blonde brow. "Nice hair."
"Temari!" Sakura scolded, wide-eyed behind her shades, but the blonde did not even look at her.
So...this must be the "B" team, Neji thought to himself as he sat and watched them. The infamous duo dumb enough to throw Shikamaru away.
I'm going to make sure I enjoy this.
Shikamaru eyed the blonde casually. Yes, that was the Temari he remembered. She'd always been a spitfire, so different from the blushing Sakura. Temari was always challenging him in that way of hers that, as troublesome as he'd always claimed it was, once ignited his passion for her.
He could only guess what Neji must have been thinking at that moment.
Shikamaru stood up slowly, moving around the table to stand between in front of the two women, his stance that of the person in charge of the situation.
Temari's face morphed once again into the smirk that Neji found so annoying. She folded her arms across her chest and stiffened her spine, preparing for the verbal duel that hallmarked their time together.
Before she could utter a word, however, Shikamaru's mother got up from her seat at the table and moved to stand beside her son, mimicking Temari's stance.
A standoff at high noon, Neji observed silently. This gets better and better.
Hmph. Subtly, or perhaps not, Temari scanned the lovely woman from her head to her feet and back again, blatantly undressing her with her eyes from behind dark glasses.
She always was a fox.
Shikamaru, of course, missed nothing.
"What do you two want?" Yoshino asked in a deceptively calm voice. "You have no business here."
"I think Shikamaru would disagree with you", Temari parried smugly.
"You always did have a tendency to overanalyze me", Shikamaru told her.
Sakura was stunned by Shikamaru's comment. Of course the breakup hadn't been pleasant, but he wasn't still hurting after all this time, was he? He was only defending his mother, right?
"You two had my son caught up in your drama for two years. You seemed to take great pleasure in ripping out his heart, stomping it into road kill and then squat-pissing on the remains. Now he may have forgiven you--we both have--but I am his mother, and I won't ever forget the mess you made of him."
Yoshino stepped forward, directly in front of Temari then. "And if I were you right now, I would turn around and go back the way I came."
Temari was offended by the unmistakable warning in her tone. Of all the nerve!
She looked at Yoshino, then at Shikamaru, and shook her head.
"You haven't changed", she assessed. "You're still the unrepentant mama's boy who got cut from the team."
Sakura watched her lover warily. She hadn't expected Temari to be so…bitter.
Yoshino snorted then, a sort of sassy gesture that Temari found irritating.
"Take a good look, little girl", Yoshino told her, her shaded eyes narrowed. "Despite what you think, this isn't the little boy you 'cut from the team', as you so eloquently put it. He doesn't need me to take care of him any more than he needs you to. He does a fine job of taking care of himself, and he's got someone in his life now who adores him—"
"Mom", Shikamaru interjected, cutting her off. He didn't need her to go down that trail right now. In the current situation, it would too easily lead to the man still sitting at the table, and no one would benefit from that.
Given the current situation, Shikamaru found the wave of contempt coming from his mother troubling—and unexpected. Never before had she conveyed any ill feelings toward the girls—but then he supposed it made sense. In the aftermath, Shikamaru had gone to his mother for comfort; revealing her true feelings for them would have been anything but comforting at the time. After all, he was still in love with them and living under the illusion that they could have had a future together.
"Well if that's the case, then I'm happy for you, Shikamaru", Sakura blurted, causing everyone to look at her. Anxious green eyes shifted between Yoshino and Shikamaru and pointedly ignored her lover's scowl.
Was that regret he heard in her voice? Shikamaru wasn't sure. He didn't know Sakura anymore. He never really knew her, he realized. She managed with consummate skill to pull the wool over his eyes and keep it there, right up until the day they threw him out. He honestly never saw it coming.
He couldn't see her eyes today. He wondered if they were still the translucent green he remembered.
Then she made a face of something that looked like hope, and Shikamaru found himself helpless to respond.
"I appreciate that Sakura, thank you", he told her with a smirk.
She responded with a wide, closed-lipped grin.
"Hmph", Temari sounded, disrupting their moment. "Whoever she is, I'm sure she has her work cut out for her, especially if Mrs. Nara is watch-dogging this new development."
Neji continued to listen quietly from his seat at the table.
Shikamaru didn't rise to the bait. "It's hardly anything you need to concern yourself with", he told her quietly.
"Hmph", she sounded again, annoyed with the repartee. Shikamaru didn't seem to want to argue with her anymore. She used to find perverse pleasure in pointing out his relationship faults during their many verbal spars. On that playing field, she and Sakura always had the tactical advantage.
Temari turned her attention to the striking young man still sitting at the table. She decided he was too pretty to be a male cop. He hadn't moved or spoken since they'd arrived. He reminded her of Shikamaru, the way he calmly observed everything from the background, collecting information like some sort of investigator.
She didn't like that.
"So tell me", she began, moving away from Sakura, Shikamaru and Yoshino to stand closer to him, "what do you think of Shikamaru's new squeeze? Is she all Mrs. Nara claims, or is the lady full of hot air?"
Neji had observed the way Temari approached them, challenged Shikamaru, and reacted to Yoshino's challenge. Now she was clearly after him. Addressing her question to him was her not-so-sly way of conducting her reconnaissance—Neji guessed she thought she might have found an ally against Shikamaru.
If only she knew.
"What could Mrs. Nara legitimately hope to gain by lying to the two of you?" he asked calmly, standing up from his seat to tower over the blonde, who was shorter than Shikamaru.
Neji knew all eyes were on him. He had the floor, and intended to indulge himself. He kept his focus on Temari, clearly the cynic of the two women.
"I know the new squeeze, quite well, in fact", he began in that proper voice. "There is no one better suited to Shikamaru. There is no one more patient, more intelligent, more nurturing, or more loyal." Neji paused, observing her response.
"And I am confident there never has been", he concluded.
You left out kinder, more beautiful and more sexually compatible, Shikamaru thought to himself, feeling smug but trying not to let on.
Temari quirked a brow behind her sunglasses. "How nice for Shikamaru, then. Too bad for you, though, I suppose."
"Oh, indeed", Neji responded, not missing a beat. "It is my feeling that a clone of the new squeeze would simply find another Nara mate. That is how amazing their relationship is."
It wasn't the response Temari was after, and Neji knew it. But the faster she realized she had no ally in him, the sooner they would be rid of her.
"Hmph", Temari sounded, indicating her trademark annoyance. "You're quite a cheerleader for Shikamaru and his new squeeze", she assessed. "You don't feel like his personal relationship gets in the way of your work?"
"I might if there were less civilized people involved", Neji responded. You're wasting your time, lady.
Yoshino was smugly delighted. That's telling her, Neji.
Shikamaru was shocked at how well he managed to conceal his amusement. I might have to blow you in the car for this.
Sakura was stunned. Wow. Shikamaru is surrounded by people who love him.
Temari, however, smelled a rat.
"Well then, it seems you owe Sakura and me a thank you, Shikamaru", Temari declared, turning away from Neji. "By all accounts, we did you a tremendous favor."
"That your exit from my son's life was a favor has never been in question, Temari", Yoshino responded smugly. "It was your methods we found fault with."
Temari looked at Yoshino then. "Your son couldn't take a hint, Mrs. Nara. We had to be cruel to be kind."
"Is that what you told yourselves so you could sleep at night?" Yoshino responded.
"If anyone lost any sleep, it was Shikamaru", Temari announced. "There were three people involved in that relationship, Mrs. Nara. Your son was not without fault."
"He still didn't deserve to be cast aside like recycled plastic. Shikamaru cared for the two of you; he would never have treated you that way."
Temari smirked. "Now it's your turn to take a good look. He's a big boy, Mrs. Nara. He seems to have recovered. Now why don't you do the honorable thing and pull your tit out of his mouth?"
Loud gasping was heard.
"Temari!" Sakura exclaimed, mouth agape. What was wrong with her?
"That's enough!" Shikamaru barked in that authoritative, law enforcement voice.
"Shikamaru, Mrs. Nara, I'm sorry", Sakura pleaded in response. She walked over to where Temari stood, her head cocked as she watched her.
"Don't apologize for me, Sakura", Temari scolded. "Shikamaru hasn't changed, look! He traded one set of wet nurses for another one", she said, gesturing with her arm. "Except this time, he got one with a penis."
"What are you talking about?" Sakura questioned.
"I guess since he couldn't be with us, then he tried to be us", Temari responded, turning to look at Neji then. "Isn't that right, Pocahontas?"
Neji suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Women were so predictable, it was just plain boring. "Honestly, Temari," he responded casually, emphasizing her name, "what's the difference? Either way, it's not you anymore."
"Temari, are you suggesting that Shikamaru is involved with his partner?" Sakura asked in disbelief.
A/N: this is part one of two. Please proceed to the next chapter.