A/N: Yay! :) Thank you for the reviews, the favorites, and alerts! The chapters are going to be fairly long from here on out (at least, fairly long for me), so be ready to sit and read for a while! XD

--

An Unexpected Night

--

Chapter One

Shikamaru groaned softly as he pushed open the door to his apartment, his arms straining slightly against the dead weight that was the Hyuuga's limp body. (Although the boy was very effeminate in appearance, he by no means was light and delicate like a "normal" girl was; to be blunt, the Hyuuga was heavy). When they were a fair distance within the apartment, Shikamaru set down – well, okay, so it was more like dropped – the Hyuuga and shut the door behind them; as an after-thought he turned the lock then faced the body that was now lying in the middle of his living room entrance.

Now what was he supposed to do?

Shikamaru sighed as he carelessly threw his bag on a chair, and walked up to the Hyuuga's body. He couldn't very well leave the boy on the floor, a thought that made Shikamaru groan once more and mutter "troublesome" under his breath. Gently he lifted the boy off the ground and carried him bridal-style to the couch, where he carefully deposited the Hyuuga. Now that he was off the floor – therefore out of the way – Shikamaru could take a shower without having to have left the evidently injured guy in the middle of his hard-wood floor.

Yawning widely to himself, Shikamaru walked the short distance to his room and slipped off his shoes and vest, before turning toward his closet to grab a spare change of clothes for the night (times like these he was glad he had moved out; if he hadn't took off his shoes the instant he had walked into the house before, his mother would've killed him. Repeatedly). Glancing once at the still unconscious jounin on his couch, he pushed open the door to his bathroom – which, conveniently, was connected to his room – and quietly closed it behind him, although he couldn't figure out why since the Hyuuga wasn't exactly conscious enough to wake up from the sound.

Once he was in the bathroom, he set his clean clothes down on the table and begun to methodically peel off his sweat-soaked ones, his face contorting into a grimace of disgust during the process (sometimes – well, okay, lots of times – he hated being jounin, since they had missions that involved much more than any chuunin or genin got during theirs, which meant the disgusting sweaty feeling also was amplified). When done with that, he turned to face his shower and turned on the water, adjusted it to the proper temperature, and stepped in; all the while trying to figure out just what he was going to do with the unconscious Hyuuga on his couch.

A little more than half an hour later – which was actually a long shower for him, since being promoted to jounin – Shikamaru stepped out of the bathroom, clean clothes on and a towel in hand to dry his hair. For practically the whole time he had been in the water his thoughts had been on the Hyuuga, and what exactly had happened to him to get him exiled and put in such a state. But for the life of him he couldn't understand what the young genius could've done to have been betrayed by his clan, and then left in the middle of the street to rot for all they cared.

Sighing to himself, Shikamaru walked over to the spare chair he had, knocked his bag off the seat, and then sat; his hands working the towel through his damp hair, his eyes focused on the boy on his couch. Maybe there was something he missed earlier when he did a quick scan for injuries and saw nothing. Slowly his eyes roamed over the boy's body, taking in all the rips and tears in the white shirt and black, baggy hakama pants, and noting the lack of scraps on the exposed parts of his arms. So far nothing really seemed out of place…

When Shikamaru's eyes locked onto the Hyuuga's face, a sudden chill down his back made him stiffen. The mark on his forehead, normally covered by the hitai-ate which now was lying face down on the floor by his front door, was a dark brown, almost black, instead of the green that it normally was (he had only seen the mark once, and it hadn't even been on this particular Hyuuga member. It had been on a branch member's forehead that he had run into on his way to the hokage's office; even then he hadn't wanted to see it). But…what did that mean?

He didn't know too much about the Hyuuga family, except that they were split into two groups – the main family and branch family – and that branch members were branded with that mark across their forehead. Other than that, he really didn't know anything. Now, if only he could remember what the Hyuuga had said during his fight with Hinata those years ago during the chuunin exams…

Gah. This took more thought than Shikamaru wanted to put into it, especially at this time of night (which, now, was probably really early morning). Yawning widely, he stood and slung the damp towel over the back of the chair and begun walking toward his room, his eyes lingering on the unwelcome, very much unconscious guest on his couch. Now that he had stepped into the Hyuuga's world by simply picking him up, Shikamaru wanted out. He had no idea what to do now with him, and found that to be the most troublesome thing of all.

--

"Shi-ka-ma-ru! Open up! I know you're in there!"

Shikamaru groaned and pulled his pillow over his head to block out Ino's shrill voice, which was followed immediately by violent pounding on his door. It was way too early to be dealing with something like this…

"The hokage needs your report, Shikamaru! Hurry up or I'll break down your door and drag you to her office!"

…She'd do it, too.

Sighing to himself in annoyance, Shikamaru threw his pillow to the side and habitually grabbed the tie for his hair before unwillingly slipping out of bed. A quickly cursory glance out the window told him that it was still fairly early in the morning, since what he could see of the sun wasn't very high above the horizon. It, to put it simply, was too early for Ino to be at his door, regardless of the reason.

Muttering to himself about how, if he had wanted troublesome women waking him up early in the morning he would've stayed at home, he made his way out of his room to the living room, and paused in surprise before recalling what had happened just hours before (he had actually been hoping it had all just been a crazy dream, but alas…). The Hyuuga was still in the position he had been put in, testifying to the fact that he was probably still unconscious. So that meant that he's been under for what…? Five, six hours?

"Damn it, Shikamaru! I know you're up!"

"I'm coming, you troublesome woman!" Shikamaru shouted back, his hands putting the tie to use before heading toward the door. Carelessly he kicked the hitai-ate lying on his floor under a desk, and opened the door just far enough for Ino to see him and not much else. "I need to get my shoes. Wait here."

Quickly, before his ex-teammate could respond, he shut the door; as an afterthought he locked it, knowing full well that if he hadn't, she'd barge in and see the seemingly lifeless Hyuuga on his couch: which was something he really didn't want to have to explain (never mind the fact that it was something he couldn't explain). Ino's threat from minutes ago still fresh in his mind made him fetch his sandals quickly and returned to the door in such a short amount of time that it probably would've given his mother a heart attack to see him do something that was not ninja-related so fast; which was funny, since he was only practicing self-preservation techniques like he did when training as a shinobi. Opening the door once more, and being mindful of the "guest" he was housing, Shikamaru slipped out before Ino could see the inside. "Might as well as get this over with."

Just under ten minutes later, his ears ringing from the high-pitched sound that was Ino's non-stop chattering voice, he stepped into the hokage's office, a highly miffed Ino trailing behind. His steps faltered for a second when he saw all the members of rookie 9 – plus Lee, TenTen, and Sai, and minus one Uchiha – already in the office, before he groaned loudly and ran a hand through his hair. "A meeting? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

From behind him he heard a distinct growl and a "because you wouldn't come, and you'd just write it off as troublesome, then later ask for Chouji to tell you what happened!" from Ino, who was closing the door since everyone that was needed was already in the room. Fleetingly he wondered if the Hyuuga he was…hiding…was supposed to be there, but quickly dismissed that thought.

"We'll start, since Neji's not going to be here" – funny how he can call these sorts of things – "Something about clan duties he had to be present for."

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the cover-up, his eyes turning to fall on the Hyuuga heiress. From the way she was wringing her hands and darting her gaze from wall to wall, and she wasn't anywhere near Naruto, she evidently knew that it was a lie as well. But did she know what had actually happened to her cousin? Probably not, since she'd probably had done her best to keep it from happening, and she looked no different than she had the last time he'd seen her a couple of weeks ago. So what story were they feeding her, since she clearly knew this was a lie too…?

"Nara Shikamaru! Are you even listening?"

Shikamaru "hmmm"ed and faked a yawn as he moved his gaze from Hinata to Tsunade, who was glaring quite dangerously at him from the other side of her desk. "If you hadn't called this meeting so early, it wouldn't have been so troublesome to pay attention."

The hokage glared at him for a few more seconds, evidently wanting to say something, before Sakura practically leapt at her to calm her down. "Shishou! It's how Shikamaru is, you know that! Can we just continue with the meeting?"

Tsunade clearly was struggling with the idea – apparently she really wanted to do something to him – before she sighed and spoke again, annoyance still blaringly obvious in her tone. "I asked if you were going to supervise the chuunin exams this year, since they're coming up and you don't have any scheduled missions during that time."

So the meeting had been about the chuunin exams? Man, what a pain. "Sure." He drawled, this time fighting a real yawn. "If that's all…"

"It's not, so stop whining." Tsunade glared at him again, and this time turned to address everyone in the room. "Since Neji's going to be out for a while for the clan business, is there anyone interested in taking up his duties? You guys already know what he does, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem, right?"

Shikamaru unconsciously stiffened at the mention of the dead-to-the-world Hyuuga on his couch, and sighed when no one – except Lee who had tried to, but was stopped by TenTen saying that he had his own group to take care of – raised their hand to volunteer. Hesitantly he raised his hand, before he could figure out what he was doing. But by then it was too late to put it down; everyone had seen it.

"You want to do it, Shikamaru?" Tsunade laughed softly, and added, "But I thought that working with a bunch of genin was "too troublesome". At least that's what you said when we were scouting for teachers!"

Shikamaru sighed, mentally wincing at the job he had just taken for the sake of…what? Why did he choose to volunteer? She probably would've asked some of the other jounin around to do it…was it because he felt guilty for having done nothing to stop what he had been watching, and was trying to redeem himself in the eyes of someone who currently couldn't even see him doing it? He scrunched his brow in thought, before it hit him that she probably wanted a response from him. "It's better than just doing supervising things."

Tsunade laughed again, before trailing off to another person and asking about their participation in the chuunin exams. Unconsciously he blocked out her voice, trying to figure out why he had just accepted a "mission" that he, on normal circumstances, would have been the first to refuse.

Could that have been it, then? Could he have felt guilty for not stopping something he probably couldn't have stopped anyway? But…that made no sense! Ugh, all this thinking was starting to hurt his head; it was way too early for this…

--

About an hour later, after finishing up with the meeting and giving Tsunade his report, Shikamaru ambled out of the building, then paused in surprise when his eyes landed on Hinata, who was standing off to the side, seemingly waiting for someone. His mind going to the obvious, he said, "Waiting for Naruto?"

Hinata jumped slightly at his voice, and turned to him. "Shikamaru-kun! You startled me!"

The corner of Shikamaru's mouth lifted up a little in a half-smile, before repeating himself. "Waiting for Naruto?"

"N-no! I was actually…umm…" Hinata suddenly darted her gaze to the ground, cheeks coloring very slightly. "I was actually waiting for y-you…"

"…What?" Shikamaru blinked, at a complete loss at how he was supposed to respond. How…did she mean?

"I w-wanted to thank you for t-taking Neji-nii-san's t-team to teach, t-this close to the chuunin exams. He w-was going to enter them, s-so they really n-need to practice since i-it's really close to that time…" Hinata was stuttering, he noted. She normally didn't do that unless she was going to say something that was embarrassing; at least in her mind it was. "U-umm…n-nii-san's not…going to be around for a w-while, so w-what you did is very helpful. I'm s-sure it's because you d-don't want your friends to get into trouble t-that you couldn't prevent, r-right?"

Shikamaru stared at her, the reason dawning on him. Hinata was probably right; he clearly remembered what had happened on his first mission as a chuunin, and didn't want anything like that repeated if he could help it. "You're…probably right."

Hinata smiled in response, something he didn't see very often. "I'm sure that nii-san would thank you to, if he could!"

He jerked in surprise, momentarily thinking that she knew the truth, before mentally laughing at himself for such a reaction. Of course she meant that he was "too busy" to thank him, so she was doing it for him. "Yeah, I'm sure he would too."

For more than one thing.

--

A/N: 2,510 words. I'm proud of myself. XP

A few things you should know!

1. Although no one's pointed it out yet (since it's only been like, the prologue then this), I know someone will. The "the Hyuuga" stuff and not actually Neji's name. If you pay careful attention, it'll change to "Neji" in the future. There's a reason for it….:winks:

2. This fic'll be updated – hopefully – every week, give or take a couple days (like today, since I was actually supposed to post this on like, Thursday). So they'll be coming fast, and I hope I don't overload in the process. XD

3. For those who are curious, Neji's going to be waking up soon, but not next chapter.

Umm…I think that's all. If there's any questions, ask! I'll answer them to the best of my ability, unless that'd be spoiling for later events, which I can't have happen. :)

Read and review!