Shikamaru lit another cigarette and thought of the problems tonight. He made a nice little list of them. It went something like this: out of cigarettes, horny, at a real low. Number two on the list seemed the most pressing at the moment and he finally decided to call a friend to take care of the problem, but decided against it last minute. What a drag. He also thought about calling up Ino for a fling but lately she thought the idea of sleeping with a man other than her boyfriend was bad, not that it had bothered her before and anyway Choji owed him one. She didn't answer. "Shit." Finally pissed off he got his coat to head to the red light district for a nice rave party. Strobes and loud music weren't exactly his thing but the women were loose and the drugs were free and with things like that how can you complain?
Three hours later Shikamaru found himself in the back of his car with a nice girl. And using the term nice girl was not actually very appropriate at all, she was actually quite aggressive. Not that Shikamaru minded though. Lately his status was starting to get him recognized in joints like this. This is not always a good thing though. Just imagine you enjoying yourself and someone comes up behind you and stabs you in the side. Not very fun at all and this very thing had happened just two months ago. It comes with the territory when your leader dies and you have to take up the head honcho role. He didn't really have a choice if he wanted to keep Asuma's wife and child fed and kept safe because there's not really a safe place in the gang world.
After finishing up he drops off the high girl at a safe place to spend the night in case the drugs make her come down hard. He heads off to go back to his place and decides that his apartment isn't the place he'd like to spend the night. He grabs a book and heads out to the suburbs.
Not wanting to wake Kurenai, Shikamaru climbs in the upstairs window she left unlocked especially for him. When you grow up in a gang you learn a whole array of strange talents. He went silently down the hallway and headed to his godchild's room.
Neji took one last look at the papers on the desk. He heaved a sigh and stuck them in his case. He was getting tired of all the things he had to do to get the looks of appreciation he so desperately wanted. The long weekend had kind of gotten him out of the lack of sleep mode. It took so much just to be treated like a human being in the law firm that his father had owned half of that he usually suffered from mild insomnia.
Becoming partner after his father's death had been infinitely hard. His uncle had even tried to prevent him from taking over his father's position. His father's will was the even harder part. All of the family had been fighting over reading it. The greedy ones trying to get their hands on whatever they could. As the funeral business was finally finishing his father's personal lawyer announced that it had a two-year waiting period. That news hadn't gone well at all.
Well at least I'm here now, Neji thought as he was leaving the building. He finally had something to show for his six-month fight to make partner. Really for all the fight to get here it was actually quite boring. It took all of his social life away, not that he had ever really had one, gave him long hours, and put him in a place of extreme family prejudice, but he was used to that already.
As he got into his car he decided that he really didn't want to go home right away but he really had nowhere else to go. He gave a bitter laugh that turned to smoke on the cold February air. He hopped in his BMW and headed towards his high-rise apartment a little too fast with depressing thoughts on his heels.
Shikamaru had left Kurenai's a little earlier than usual, but he hated getting out in the cold more than he had to and the sooner he got home the better. He zoned out as he was driving to his apartment thinking about Asuma. Of course death shouldn't surprise him, having been around the mob and underground gangs all of his life, but he still couldn't get over the shock of Asuma's sudden death. It still ground at him and even now he still couldn't cry even though he still felt so raw inside.
As he pulled in the parking garage he notice a nice BMW pull up right beside him. He figured it was just one of the yuppie types that lived in one of the downstairs apartments and that nobody would try anything here, but he checked the safety off on the small Glock nine millimeter tucked into his pants just in case.
It was odd that anyone pulled into the apartments at the same time as he got home from the office. He looked at the car closer as they parked close by each other. He was not highly shocked to see that it was a Lamborghini. He was highly shocked though to see the man get out of it. He had one baggy pants, tight black shirt, long hair pulled back, and quite the look of disdain about him. He let a puff of his cigarette out when the man noticed him looking.
They both slid their cards through their meters and headed towards the elevator that would take them to their respective floors. Neji figured for sure that if he really did live here it would have to be in the cheaper lower levels. He was going to watch when he hit his floor number but missed his chance. As the floors clicked off their ascent the only conclusion that he could think of for the long haired man's profession could be was drug dealer, but if that was true he wouldn't be going past six.
Neji himself lived on the nineteenth floor with only one floor above him. He had actually wanted the penthouse for himself though but someone had come in mere hours before and paid the first six months up front in cash. The greedy building owner could not say no to that even with one of the highest paid lawyers in the city wanting it.
Neji looked up when he felt a puff of smoke come his way. The other man had lit up another cigarette and was blowing it in his general direction.
"Could you put that disgusting thing out." Neji hadn't phrased it like a question since he was not used to people saying no to him. The man looked up seemingly noticing him for the first time since he hopped on the elevator. He planted a smart-ass smirk on his face as he blew the puff in Neji's face.
"Sorry I didn't know I was sharing the elevator with the surgeon general." He crushed the last bit in his hand without flinching.
As the elevator clicked nineteen at last Neji furiously wondered why the man hadn't already got out, and the question popped out before he could stop it, "Well where do you think you're going?" He got a funny look until he realized that Neji was looking at him with the prejudice of his looks, as being someone who couldn't possibly make more money than him. He gave a short laugh that Neji had heard so many times before, usually issued from his own mouth.
Shikamaru gave the close cut, Armani suit wearing lawyer the scathing look he was so good at giving before answering. "Don't worry I didn't kill anyone to get this apartment." He had actually been in it plenty before he started paying the high rent for it. Asuma had stayed in it before he had started seeing Kurenai. After he had died this was one of places that reminded him of Asuma, seeing as he didn't like to keep much to close to him. He turned away from him and didn't turn away from the window until he was sure that the man had left. He couldn't take one more judgemental look till he decided to drag himself out of bed to repeat the cycle over again.