"Good!"
Breathing hard, Hinata smiled timidly at her cousin, laying on the ground at her feet. He got up and brushed himself off, resettling the loose grey pants and blue shirt he wore for training. Self-consciously, she did the same, adjusting the straps of the sports bra she wore. Between her thirteenth and fourteenth year, her figure had suddenly filled out, and where she hadn't needed one of these before, she did now, a curvy seventeen.
"Did you think so, Neji-nii-san?" she asked. He nodded, and gave her a tight smile to show he meant it. Hyuuga Neji was always so serious.
"Remember to keep your weight in your center. Hyperextend, and you'll loose balance right along with me. But otherwise, you've improved greatly. Let's run it side-by-side one last time, and then I have to go."
Hinata nodded, setting herself where she could see her cousin's movements, and together they ran the fluid sequence. Ninjutsu was a relaxing art, she thought blissfully. And Neji made it look so easy.
Of course, that was why he was in the employ of the main family, she thought. Not only as a tutor for herself and her younger sister Hanabi, but because he was so skilled at what he did. Not only was he proficient in several forms of martial art, he was an excellent marksman and a skilled bargainer. Being in the affiliates, he wasn't subject to the same strict rules of association that Hinata, as a main family member and daughter of the Don, was. He had contacts all throughout the underworld and in many, many other places. And then there was that other thing…
"Good work today," Neji said finally, when they finished the set. "Shall I see you tomorrow at the same time?"
"Of course," Hinata said, and bowed. She really was lucky to have a cousin like Neji.
--
After he'd seen Hinata off safely with her bodyguard and watched on the screen as she was safely escorted to the waiting limousine to take her to the private high school she attended, Neji went to take a shower in the bathroom on this floor. It took ten minutes to wash his long hair; he'd considered cutting it so many times, but it was his trademark and often, how people knew him.
Wicking the water from his hair, Neji dried off with a fluffy towel and dressed. In this outfit, he could have been anyone; a young intern at a stock exchange, a businessman, a clergyman, just someone sitting at an outdoor café with a laptop and a cell phone, on his lunch break. He liked how it looked; the crisp black suit and tie, the white shirt. Neji took very good care of his clothes and took great care with his appearance. It was essential to his job that he do so, in any case.
The one thing he was always, always careful with was to tie the black cloth that went around his forehead into place. It hid the tattoo that marked him as an affiliate, a secondary member. He was not proud of it, and had obtained special permission from Hiashi to cover it when he was outside of the Hyuuga tower.
Tying the gleaming black dress shoes, he slid wallet, car keys, and cell phone into their appropriate pockets and strode out of the bathroom, stepping into the elevator and pressing the button for the top floor. The little screen prompted him to slide his card and press his thumb against the pad, and he did so. It beeped, and the elevator began to rise.
Turning, Neji looked out through the glass wall over the city. It was beautiful at this time of morning, not yet awake, the sun gleaming through the smog layer over the city. A few blocks down from the Hyuuga tower, the rival Uchiha skyscraper rose up out of the cluster of buildings at its base.
When he was younger, Neji had hated the Uchihas with a passion that was admirable among the main family. Feeding this, they told him that his father had been killed in a skirmish with Uchiha hired guns, rather than family infighting. When he'd finally found out the truth, he hadn't really been angry. Numb, perhaps, but not angry. And now, his passionate hate for the house of Uchiha had faded into a sort of detachment.
Amazing how pliable Uchiha men are when presented with a pretty face and a nice ass, he thought with a smirk. His face reflected back at him, imposed over the glowing uchiwa the opposing family called their own. Neji was eighteen; if he'd been a normal teenager, he would have been finishing high school, going to the college he wanted, getting a higher education. But he belonged to another world—ironic that many of the men and women he'd slept with had told him he was otherworldly. To them, he should have been perfectly normal. After all, he lived as they did.
The elevator reached the top floor, seventy stories up. Turning, Neji walked past the secretary's desk, through the frosted-glass doors, and into the huge top-floor office occupied by the head of the Hyuuga family, Hiashi.
Walking up the appropriate distance, Neji made a formal bow. His still-damp hair hung down partway to the floor. "You called for me, uncle?" he asked.
"Rise, Neji. I did." Hiashi turned from where he was looking out over the city in the opposite direction, north instead of south. "I have a task for you."
Neji kept his gaze impassive, even though he knew what these tasks usually entailed him doing. "Please tell me, uncle."
"I need a man killed." Hiashi handed Neji a manila folder that, upon his perusal, contained all relevant about someone who appeared to be a middle-aged businessman. Notes on his profile indicated that he was closely affiliated with the Uchiha family and their corporation, after previously being close to Hiashi. The Hyuuga leader was likely worried that secrets would leak out, and wanted this man to disappear; it was an easy enough task.
Neji must have let his mask slip and looked relieved, because Hiashi held up a finger. "This job cannot show that it has the hand of the Hyuuga in it." His look was so pointed that Neji realized what he intended immediately.
"You want me to go to him again?" Neji asked, unable to keep a bit of a grimace off his face.
"Is there a problem with his techniques of making people disappear?"
"Not at all." Neji was actually in awe of this man's ability, but…"It's his method of payment that I find…distasteful."
"Neji, to each their own…"
"He has a fetish for underage boys."
"You've nothing to worry about anymore then."
"And schoolgirls."
"…I see. Well, you are excellent at making deals, Neji. Perhaps the two of you can work something out."
Neji schooled his face back into impassivity and bowed again. "I understand the task, uncle. Thank you for this opportunity."
Hiashi tilted his head forward. "Go. Please have it taken care of by Thursday."
Neji nodded and left the room, walked past the secretary as calmly as he'd gone in, went into the elevator and pressed the button for the floor his apartment was on, watched the doors closed, and screamed.
--
Neji had many contacts through the world that he had been born into. It was part of being raised the way he was; he was still one of them, so he went to their schools and learned their names and faces. He had gone through the grades at an accelerated pace; his teachers had called him a genius, encouraged him in the areas in which he was most talented; math and the sciences. They had told Hiashi, his guardian, that he should go into a university. Neji had been fifteen at the time.
Instead, when Neji had graduated at sixteen, Hiashi had had Neji schooled in the art of being a bodyguard, a hitman, an innocuous person despite his obvious good looks. Within a year, Neji had learned enough to be anyone he wanted.
There had been another part to his training though—courtesan was the nice term for it, whore the dirty truth. He preferred the latter sometimes, when he thought too much about his job. At seventeen he'd been the best at it amongst others being trained alongside him, and had been sent out on his first such job shortly after.
For people like him, men and women who traded their bodies for favors to the family, there was no silly nervousness or first time. They were taught these techniques as a means of getting what they wanted; people had loose lips when they were basking in afterglow. And given the wide range of clients that required payment or bribery in the form of supple flesh, there were bound to be unsavories, and this one that Neji had to go convince to kill some man that had crossed Hiashi was easily the worst.
Rubbing his face, Neji glared at his reflection in the glass. Hopefully he can be talked out of the schoolgirl fetish, he thought.
Striding into his room, Neji changed his shirt and tie; a dark blue, almost violet shirt and a white tie. He slid the manila folder into a thin briefcase and ran a brush through his hair, droplets shaking out of it still. Tying it back, Neji picked up the case and left, thumbing the button to bring a limo to the front on the way down.
"Good afternoon, Neji," Kiba said. Kiba was the security guard, a good-looking man himself. He hadn't been able to cut it in the same program Neji was in, so he'd taken the position of watching the monitors instead. He wasn't in the family, but he was a trusted employee.
"Hello, Kiba," he replied, smiling tightly. The youth's black eyes sparkled.
"It's another one of those," he said. "Thought you looked sour on the monitors."
"One of the worst," Neji muttered, handing his keycard to the young man. Kiba slid it through the reader, recording the time Neji left the building.
"Oh, it's him, isn't it? Good luck, Nej."
"Thanks, I'll need it." Neji took his card back and walked out the doors, sliding into the waiting limo.
"Hebi Corporate Headquarters," he snapped. The driver pulled away from the curb and darted through morning traffic.
This city with its many districts was more or less ruled by the Hyuugas and the Uchihas, and the two powers had been scrabbling for the top position for decades, long before Hyuuga Hiashi had become don of the Hyuuga family after the death of Hyuuga Hiroshi, and before Uchiha Fugaku had taken over for his father, Uchiha Daiki.
The one other power was Hebi Corp., a meticulously run cover for a gateway into their world. Ostensibly, it was data and information systems; ten floors of hardworking men and women, and sixty-one floors of the real business. The information Hebi Corporation really dealt in was not published anywhere but its own private servers, locked tighter than a Vegas casino's vault. And its best employees supposedly the best that money could buy.
The limo took him to the tower in the Otogakure district of town. It wasn't as nice as the Konoha district that the Uchiha and Hyuuga towers were in, but it wasn't all that run down. All the businesses here probably paid some kind of tribute to the boss of this area, and all watched out for him and his own, and all were fiercely loyal.
Getting out of the limo, Neji keyed the driver's number into his cell phone and said he'd call when he was done. Climbing the stairs, he walked across the marble lobby to the front desk.
"I am here to see your boss," he said without prelude. "My name is Hyuuga Neji."
"He's expecting you," the girl with long dark hair said, handing him a keycard. Her earrings were little bells. "Go on up."
Neji walked over to the bank of elevators and chose one, pressing the button for the elevator that went directly to the business floors and sliding his keycard. It took a few minutes to come down—it must have been at the higher floors already. The doors opened, and Neji walked in. This elevator was mirrored on the walls and ceiling, and carpeted in a plush dark purple. Pressing the button for the floor he wanted, Neji slid his card again and turned to look at the camera in the corner.
"State your name and business," a gruff voice said over the intercom. Neji smirked; this was new.
"Hyuuga Neji," he said, "From Hyuuga Enterprises. I'm on an errand from my uncle. I was told I was expected."
"That you are. Cleared."
He mulled over the business during the long ride up to the top floor. Why must all these men see the need to make these damn towers so tall? He thought sourly. I know for a fact this one isn't compensating for anything at all, except maybe his lack of a heart and morals.
The doors opened again at last, onto the seventieth floor. This was as high as the elevator would go; the seventy-first was reached by a marble staircase arching up, across the room. Another security checkpoint stopped him before the white stairs; Neji handed them his keycard and checked to make sure one of the boss' pets wasn't sneaking around somewhere. Last time, he'd been standing here, and one had crawled up his leg. He didn't appreciate things sliding up places they had no right being, and had cut the thing's head off. His ass had paid for that one.
"You're clear," the ponytailed man said, and handed his keycard back—a large tarantula crawling across it. "Oops," the man—a teen, really—said sheepishly, nudging the tarantula up his arm. "He doesn't like to be in the carrier all day."
"Hn." Neji walked over to the metal detector, removed his gun and the throwing needles he had in a holster on his arm. They knew this disarming was only for show with him anyway; Neji's entire body was a weapon. He walked through, his case went through the machine, and he was off up the stairs. Here he did have to step around snakes, walking delicately up the stairs as they slithered and watched him go. Neji had always gotten the strange feeling that they could communicate with their keeper, and had always taken care whenever he'd seen one.
The head of Hebi Corporation was a pale man in his fifties, surprisingly young-looking. His face needed no Botox or plastic surgery to stay young; his inky hair needed no dye to hide gray, for there was none to hide, and his light hazel-gold eyes had no film of senility over them. Hebi Orochimaru was a mysterious man, in many ways.
"Neji," he purred, stroking another one of the pets that called his tower home. "So good to see you again."
"Likewise, Hebi-san." Neji replied, bowing. "You look in fine health."
"Well-preserved, rather. Rise, and have a seat." The man chuckled at his own joke, and Neji forced a smile as he sat in a overstuffed chair with a small table in front of it. "Modern medicine can do wonders in the hands of right people, wouldn't you agree?"
"Of course. It can also kill millions if handled improperly—with or without intention."
"Touché. Of course, most of the time in this town the one mishandling it has a roll of bills in their pocket for a motive, hm?"
"That's true, Hebi-san."
"It's a pity," Orochimaru turned his attention to the large snake slithering around his shoulders and onto his desk. "This medicine that I'm using will probably never see the public's eye."
Neji remained silent on that one. It was no secret to him that Orochimaru had five floors dedicated to medical research, and one of the floors was likely working on prolonging his life. The man had an irrational fear of death and old age that had driven him into many decisions that Neji (and others) thought suspect and immoral even for one of their own.
"But you didn't come here just to shoot the breeze with me, did you, Neji?" Orochimaru's smirk turned deviant. "What is it you need?"
Neji flicked open his case and pulled out the file, getting up to hand it to Orochimaru. "Hyuuga respectfully requests that you make this man disappear."
"Ah, another one of these." Orochimaru took the file and flipped through it. His fingernails were painted black today, Neji saw. It only emphasized his deathly pallor. "Your uncle has many enemies, Neji."
"Enemies, or people he just doesn't want talking."
"This one will be difficult to remove," the older man said. "He is far in with the Uchihas now, very far. It will require a special operative of mine to eliminate him." His eyes flicked over to Neji. "The usual payment, plus an extra six million."
Neji ground his teeth. Orochimaru had opened with what he was really after, which meant that was out of the question for removal. But the six million…
"Hyuuga recognizes Hebi-san's phenomenal abilities in this area," he said, "But all we require is that it not appear that the House of Hyuuga has had anything to do with this. For this task we could have gone to any number of other agencies. Perhaps Hyuuga will take its business to one of those places, unless…" Neji stared right back, grey eyes thoughtful. "Three million. And I dictate the terms of the usual payment."
"Is that what's got you so tense?" Orochimaru smiled, but it was only a function of the facial muscles. "Four and a half million. My operative has to see a cut of it too. And the payment on my terms."
"Four million, and at least no pigtails this time."
"But you look so sweet in them."
"Uncle has given me permission to bargain as I please. Four million, no pigtails."
The boss sat back, considering Neji for a long moment. "I accept your terms," he said, extending a hand out. Neji rose and shook it; clammy as always. Luckily it was only his hands that were cold. If his entire body was like that Neji would feel too much like he was being fucked by a corpse.
"When do you wish to be paid?"
"The four million can be transferred to a bank number I will give you to take to your uncle. And as for your payment…I'd prefer to take it right now."
Neji was suddenly yanked around the desk and pulled into the other's lap. There was a moment of confusion, hands slipping under clothes and over skin, before he dropped fully into the mindset he used for his jobs. It helped that he knew what Orochimaru liked; he arched into the other's chilly touches as though they were the warmest he'd ever felt, half-closed his eyes and moaned as the older man bit his neck. He wasn't forcing very much, it did feel good, but something had to remain sacred to him. With his clients, he never, ever spoke in the voice he reserved for lovers that he took on his own terms. None of them, not even Orochimaru whom the Hyuugas did business with on regular enough occasion.
It had been more than a year since he'd had the chance to let someone truly hear him.
Orochimaru's hand was inside Neji's pants, working him through the fabric of his underwear. Looking down, the older man smirked. "Interesting choice of undergarments, Neji."
"It's comfortable," the Hyuuga growled back. Stripping his shirt and tie completely off, Neji slid out of Orochimaru's lap and pushed his legs apart, kneeling between them. He could feel the other's breathing change as his hands pressed to his belly, sliding down slowly to part the folds of the loose yukata the boss wore. Thank whatever god there was that Orochimaru liked this strange traditional wear; it meant less chance for a mess, at least on Orochimaru. Or getting things caught on zippers, something Neji had had unreasonable amounts of trouble with at the start.
Working the other man out of his underwear, Neji simply stroked the fully hard length for a moment, admiring it like it was the best and biggest he'd ever seen. It may well have been; if it had belonged to any other man, Neji would have happily never looked at another woman the rest of his working life in favor of doing whatever it took to keep that one his. Men like Orochimaru liked to think that they were the best in everything, and Neji's job was to make him think that through his own actions, perpetuating the goddamn dick-waving fight that was their existence on this planet. Still, Orochimaru's cock wasn't bad, at least he was clean. Licking his lips and pulling them back to cover his teeth, Neji slid his lips around the head, working with that for now.
In the chair above him, Orochimaru sighed, shifting his legs as far apart as they would go. Every sweep of Neji's velvety tongue brought his hips forward a little, probably just an instinctual muscle movement, designed when sex was called mating. Sliding back, Neji took a slow, deep breath, and let it out, sliding all the way down until his nose brushed the tightly curled hair at the base. That brought the older man's hips up off the chair, pushing into Neji's mouth.
Normally, Neji would have just let the snake-lover fuck him in the mouth, but today he was feeling bold. Sliding off, flicking his tongue against the head as he did, Neji smirked up at the older man above him, hand moving in a lazy motion. "Hold still, Hebi-san. I can't do this if you keep fidgeting around."
Orochimaru groaned and stilled his motion gradually, hands clenching and unclenching, relaxing at last. Smirking that he'd gotten the control he wanted, Neji took the man's cock back into his mouth, massaging his tongue against the frenulum before moving it to trace the engorged veins around the shaft. Shifting a bit closer, he drew back a bit, then snaked his arms around the older man's thighs and slid all the way down again, working hard to suppress his gag reflex. The size of the tower was most certainly not a compensation for something.
"Afraid to use your teeth?" Orochimaru asked. There had been a slight hitch in his voice, and Neji hummed around the cock in his mouth before sliding off again. The vibration from his larynx rippled through his mouth, and the Hyuuga smirked to feel the boss jump. Having the ability to reduce great people to this brought him a rush of power. As asked, Neji gently grazed his teeth around the head, featherweight. The first bitter taste filled his mouth, and with another moan (another vibration) Neji licked the precum as it leaked out, knowing the little sucking sounds were just as arousing as the sensations.
It seemed like ages before Orochimaru's stomach and thighs tensed and tightened, and Neji steeled himself to swallow out of necessity. Keeping his motions going, not speeding up or slowing down or anything the inexperienced ones did, he drank it down, three long swallows to milk him completely. He slid back only when Orochimaru started softening in his mouth, turning his head away to wipe the corner of his mouth. He would need a drink of water after this. There was a toothbrush and toothpaste in his case.
Relaxing back against the chair, Orochimaru ran his long fingers through Neji's hair. He mussed it from the ponytail it had been in, but to his eye, Neji was still beautiful. "Join me," he asked, eyes glittering. "Leave that oppressive family of yours. Join Hebi. Your talents will be put to good use here, more than your uncle is giving you."
"I am afraid that offer was not part of our bargain." Neji stood slowly, closing his pants again and watching as Orochimaru tucked himself back into his underwear and adjusted his robe to cover his legs again. Save for the sheen of sweat on his pale forehead, it looked as though he'd been sitting here calmly doing paperwork the entire time. Such was the nature of encounters like this; a quick, furtive joining of bodies and lusts, and gone like an explosion in the sky.
Nothing was allowed to last; it couldn't. Even marriages were more like a business agreement. Hiashi had married the woman who was now Hyuuga Aimi because of her wealthy family and status in the pseudo-government that kept the appearance of civility. Hiashi had her father's ear; her father was top aide to the governor of the province they lived in. It had benefited the Hyuuga family greatly to have such a position in their palm.
"I trust you will adhere to our bargain?" Neji asked, straightening his tie. Orochimaru laughed.
"My dear boy," he said, smirk back in place on his face. "It is already underway. I expect the requisite funds transferred to this account by midnight tonight." He handed Neji a piece of paper with an account number on it. Neji tucked it into an inside pocket of his suit jacket.
"The Hyuuga family thanks you for your gracious support," he said, turned on his heel, and left. In the elevator, he called the limo driver, assured him they were done and there would be a profit if he could get Neji back to the Hyuuga tower in less than ten minutes. He wanted to take another shower.
The elevator doors opened on to the lobby, and Neji strode across the floor, handed his keycard for the building in, and left. As he was walking down the blindingly white stairs down to street level, he saw another limo pull up. The flag on the antenna bore the Uchiha symbol. As he watched, a teenager got out, slinging his book bag over his shoulder. It was the younger son, he thought. What was his name…Sasuke.
The teen looked neither left nor right, hands shoved in his pockets as he walked up the stairs. He looked sullen.
Neji shrugged and got into the limo. He would make his report to Hiashi after the shower, he decided. His uncle wouldn't mind, as long as the job was taken care of.