Thank you everybody for the reviews. Took me long enough to get to the next chapter. I had an idea on how to get Shikamaru and Neji together in the beginning of this...but now I don't like it as much so I'm going with another idea. Hope it isn't bad. Those two are harder to get together than I thought. By the way, Neji is the seme at this point. I don't think I could have Shikamaru dominating Neji ever...well maybe...but not now.
Shikamaru was laying in bed staring absently out of the window. He had a perfect view from his window. A river, a forest, the sky….he could see it all from his position in the bed and the lazy ninja seemed to enjoy it. He tore his eyes away briefly to see who was at the door. Neji.
"Hey." He responded, pushing himself up. As he moved up, his bandages came into view and Neji winced.
The Hyuuga stood in silence for a moment.
"Are you going to sit down?"
Neji blinked before he nodded at took a seat and fell into another awkward silence. He just didn't know what to say to Shikamaru. He was the cause of his injuries…his pain. What could he really say to atone for his foolishness? "How are you feeling?" he finally managed to say, looking up at Shikamaru.
"Could be worse. A little sore, that's all. I'll be out of here tomorrow." The lazy ninja muttered, yawning a bit. He didn't seem angry with Neji at all.
Neji looked at Shikamaru for a moment, he couldn't believe that Shikamaru held no animosity toward him. "Are you not angry for what happened?" the Hyuuga finally asked, his mind whirling from Shikamaru's odd attitude. It didn't make sense to him.
"Eh? Angry? Too troublesome. It probably won't happen again…unless you still want to treat me like your rival." The younger ninja said with yet another yawn.
Those words silenced Neji. He looked down for a moment, thinking. "Fine." He said after a bit of silence. He didn't need to compete with Shikamaru.
The Hyuuga studied the other ninja's face briefly as he thought of what he could say next.
"Hey. Asuma said we have another mission once we both are 100. We have to do it successfully or he may never leave me alone." Shikamaru muttered as he saw Neji had no idea what to say. They were both terrible conversationalists.
Just then, Shikamaru's door burst open and a blonde, orange wearing teen ran into the room. "Shikamaru! Baka! I heard you got beat up on your mission! Chouji and I came to cheer you up." The larger ninja came in with a basket of fruit for Shikamaru. "Here you go, Shikamaru. All that vitamin C should make you feel better." He said drawing out himself a bag of chips to munch on.
"I'll be going…" Neji suddenly said, walking out of the room before Naruto could question him.
The next day, Shikamaru slept in the hospital as much as possible, thankful that rest was all he had to do.
Later on that day, Neji finished his solo training and felt the need to visit his partner, chalking the feeling up to guilt. He walked to Shikamaru's door and was about to knock when he heard voices. He opened the door a bit to peek in and saw a girl with long blonde hair sitting beside Shikamaru's bed. Neji watched them for a moment before closing the door again. He didn't leave however. He leaned against the door, eavesdropping on the conversation.
"Geez, Shikamaru. You really let your laziness catch up with you…getting put in the hospital and all."
"Whatever…"
"Seriously, I'm afraid you're going to really get yourself hurt if you don't put in some effort every now and then."
"Too troublesome."
"…How are you feeling?"
"Just a little sore. Nothing to be concerned about."
"I have to get back home. I'll see you soon."
With that, Ino stood up and headed to the door. She opened it to see Neji looking back at her. She jumped a bit and he frowned. He wordlessly moved past her and into Shikamaru's room.
Shikamaru had a vase of flowers at his bed but he didn't look too happy. In fact, he looked just like he usually did. Bored and Sleepy.
"She was on my team with Chouji from before." Shikamaru said before Neji had a chance to ask.
"Aren't you supposed to be checking out of this place?" Neji said, figuring that Shikamaru would most likely wait to the very last possible moment before he decided to check out. He was a very lazy kid.
"Eh? I am. I'm just not going to yet."
"Oh. I came to see if you had gone yet." Neji said before standing up once again. "I'll go ahead then."
Shikamaru would have said that he didn't have to leave. He thought about saying it but…if Neji stayed…what would they talk about? They barely talked at all.
With that, the Hyuuga left the room.
Neji waited patiently at the designated training area. He knew Shikamaru would show up…he would show up at the last possible moment and still want to do nothing.
When Shikamaru showed up, Neji immediately noticed something about Shikamaru's form. His face was a little redder than before…almost like a bruise. Neji chalked it up to not being his business.
"Let's start then."
Instead really fighting each other, they mostly tried to understand the other's style of fighting among other things. They had to know the other person to be able to be effective partners, after all.
Neji stopped fighting and gawked at Shikamaru.
The Hyuuga had hit Shikamaru and his jacket came off, leaving him in just his mesh shirt.
"What happened to you!" Neji asked questioningly. There were bruises…bruises on his back….on his chest…on his arms.
"Nothing." Shikamaru responded back, putting on his jacket.
Though he was a little concerned, Neji dropped the subject. "Training is over."
"Asuma sent me the details of our next mission. I'll let you read it. It's at my house."
Shikamaru led the young Hyuuga back to his place and brought him inside. He walked upstairs to his room and Neji waited patiently. It took Shikamaru longer than Neji expected. Once the lazy ninja came back down the stairs, Neji's eyes widened and he grabbed Shikamaru's wrist. "You are coming with me." He said tugging the teen out of the house towards his own home. "You will be staying at my house."
That's it. I'll get to my next chapter as soon as I can. I won't wait as long as I did for this one.