An Unexpected Night Chapter 3, a naruto fanfic

A/N: Okay, so this was a day late. But it wasn't my fault! It sucks sometimes being the child of an apartment manager, since we "children" are always being employed to clean the places. Xx;

Thanks to yaoiad-ikt, ichigo ando-hime, reaper118, Hanai-kun, Winterblazewolf, Hawkwing, Dark-Princess-Hikari, and shinidanie for the reviews! Much love to you guys! :)

Annnd…this chapter is the longest chapter I've ever written, and coincidentally is the most important! Enjoy!

An Unexpected Night

Chapter Three

The ground below him was cold and rocky; very much an uncomfortable thing to kneel upon. But he wasn't going to complain; to do so would be a stupid move, especially in the situation he was currently in.

He hadn't even an inkling of an idea as to why he was there in the middle of the street; head bowed, body unwillingly relaxed.

No; that was a lie. He knew perfectly well why he was there, and what was to come. He had made that choice those years ago that led him here, and now couldn't even say if it had been worth it; if someone else's happiness was worth his death.

Slowly he raised his head and set blank eyes on the figure of his uncle, and just beyond him the two elders that he had brought with him as witnesses to what would come. They all knew what that would be; they all were waiting for the release from the burden that was he.

"I have forgiven you time and time again for the events the past couple of years that defied clan policy." – his uncle started, eyes locked onto his own – "I have even written them off, time and time again, as you simply growing up and wanting to assert your opinion among a group of individuals who are superior to yourself. But that leniency I have shown toward you must come to an end, and you must accept the punishment that is most fitting for you. Do you have anything to say, nephew?"

Neji weakly shook his head, knowing full well that whatever he said in his defense probably would just be used against him; if not by his uncle, then by the two elders that accompanied him. So instead he settled for hanging his head once more, his body radiating the shame he felt.

"So you have nothing to say, eh? A wise choice among all of the foolish decisions you have made to land you here."

Neji simply nodded in agreement, not entirely sure if he truly agreed with that statement or his previous thoughts about someone else's happiness not being worth his death. It was her happiness; and above all else, that is what mattered the most.

Next he heard the raspy voice of one of the elders, but refused to look up to see which one was speaking; they probably would've scolded him – again – if he had done so. "You, Hyuuga Neji, directly related to our clan's leader, are a disgrace to this family! I still can't believe that you, who had shown much promise, had turned right around and betrayed the very clan that allowed you to live within the family as a protector of your cousin and the current heir, Hinata!"

The woman had hardly begun to get through what she had been trying to say before the other elder interjected with, "I can hardly believe that on this night we will have to do such a thing to you of all people! Under normal circumstances we would eliminate you for your betrayal, but seeing as you are still a vital part of the village's ninja system, we can hardly do that; that would be punishment for far more than just yourself. So instead we shall do the next best thing; you, Hyuuga Neji, are hereby exiled from the Hyuuga clan!"

Neji's eyes widened in shock before a shearing pain spread from his head to the rest of his body. Quickly he bit his lip, all the while trying to fight off the scream of pain that was tearing at his throat. He would not give them the satisfaction of hearing him scream from the pain; he would show them that he was still strong, regardless of what they decided to do with him!

A pained gasp found its way through his lips as he fell to the ground, his body limp from trying to battle the pain which he knew would overcome him; if the torture hadn't stopped immediately after, he knew that his valiant fight at not giving them the satisfaction of seeing him hurt would have crumbled and the urge to scream would have taken over.

Black spots began to take over his vision as a sandaled foot came into view, before a bent knee replaced it. He could barely hear the words that were being said to him, and if he had been in better shape he probably would've scoffed. But no; scoffing at that moment was too cumbersome, and in all actuality would've probably caused the torture to resume.

How was he supposed to honor those words that his uncle had spoken? How did Hiashi honesty expect him to never have contact with his cousin – or any other member of the clan, for that matter – and still remain in the village? Or…was that it? Did they expect for him to die, and if on the off-chance he lived he was to not have any contact with the clan he had been exiled away from?

Their next words confirmed his suspicions; the quiet, haunted way they were spoken would be kept with him forever.

"Live, if you will Neji. But I assure you: every moment you are alive you will regret, and wish for death more than you could ever wish for anything."

As consciousness began to leave him, he fervently wished that he could respond to the highly blasé comment and cursed his luck as he knew that he could not. The foot left his view, opening up the area to what he could see beyond him. Expecting to be alone in his last moments – as he did not expect to regain consciousness after this – the figure off in the distance surprised him; but nothing could be done as his vision darkened, and his mind emptied.

Shikamaru yawned as he sat up, his eyes automatically seeking out the three genin he was temporarily in charge of. They, for once, were off in the distance training instead of watching him sleep from behind, which had really started to get annoying. Just above them he could see the sun, which was barely starting to reach about eleven in the morning.

Shikamaru sighed as he stood, figuring those two hours of training were good enough; if they felt like training any more, they could do that on their own. Carelessly he waved the group over, and waited a few seconds while they took their time – at least to him – in seeing his hand and coming over to him. When they stopped in front of him, in exact replication of the first time he had called them over, he yawned again and turned away from them slightly so his body was facing the village. "We're done here, so do what you want."

The "Hai, Shika-sensei!" that immediately followed after wasn't as enthusiastic as it normally was, and Shikamaru sent the trio a slightly suspicious look before he shrugged and began walking away, not caring that the three genin weren't following him like they normally did.

When Shikamaru was a far enough distance away so he couldn't hear them, Aimi turned toward her teammates and grinned mischievously. Motioning that they should huddle, she whispered, "I think Shika-sensei has a girlfriend! That's why he always cuts the training short!"

Keiichi scoffed, and looked away. "A guy like that? I doubt it."

"What?" Aimi looked at Keiichi curiously, before a smirk slowly made its way onto her face. "Wanna bet?"

Hiroshi, upon hearing the word 'bet', perked up, eyes sparkling. "How much?"

"How about unlimited barbeque for a whole week?"

"A week, eh? I'm in." Hiroshi grinned, a smirk of his own tugging at the corner of his lips. "Since you're betting that he's got a girlfriend, and Kei here's probably betting he doesn't, I bet he has a boyfriend."

A choked laugh slipped out of Aimi's mouth, as her smirk widened. Quickly she held out her hand and waited for the other to do the same before saying, "Alright! It's settled then! Whoever loses has to buy the other two unlimited barbeque for a week!"

"Wait. One of us could always lie, or see something that wasn't necessarily the truth. I think another rule should be added." Keiichi said, and paused a moment as the other two in the group turned curious eyes to him. "For it to count, I think that we all should be together when watching him and need to see more than just sitting and talking, since friends do that sort of thing all the time."

"So they need to do what, kiss?" Hiroshi blinked as Keiichi nodded slightly, before his smirk turned into a grin. "I'll agree to that!"

"So we gonna follow Shika-sensei now? It's the perfect time to start!" Aimi suggested as she turned to watch Shikamaru's rapidly disappearing back. "If we are, we'd better hurry before he gets out of sight!" When the other two nodded, she added, "Yosh, ikuzo!"

Shikamaru groaned softly as he paused in front of the door to his apartment. Something didn't feel quite right, and he couldn't put his finger on it. Slowly he turned his head around; not taking note of the three heads that quickly ducked behind the corner, and sighed when he saw nothing out of the ordinary. So if that wasn't it, what was?

Shrugging slightly he inserted the key into his door and gently pushed it open, a yawn slipping out as his foot hit the tile floor. Seeing as his gaze was on the ground rather than facing forward, he didn't notice the 'thing' that was out of the ordinary until he had closed the door behind him and looked up.

For a moment his breath lodged in his throat, his eyes widening in shock. The lifeless eyes that greeted him definitely wasn't something he had been expecting, and could only stare right back as his hand slid off the doorknob and bumped lightly against his side. When the initial shock wore off, Shikamaru hesitantly walked farther into his apartment, and noticed with interest that the Hyuuga hadn't actually been staring at him, since the guy's eyes were still focused on that point off in the distance that couldn't be seen.

Sighing to himself, he willed his heart to stop beating so fast before he swiftly made his way to the kitchen, if only to think about the current situation he had on his hands. He knew that eventually this day would come, but now that it had, he had no idea what to do! He wasn't exactly skilled in dealing with patients who had just woken up from unconsciousness and now was sitting there in a stupor!

Shikamaru groaned as he leaned against the wall, his mind racing. He could always go find a book about it and learn what to do on his own, but that would be a pain and would probably end up taking a lot more time to learn than it would to just get someone into his apartment to do a check for him. But whom could he ask, who wouldn't tell others about it and would do it without any questions asked?

When it hit him, he turned the corner to the living room and allowed his eyes to linger on the seemingly frozen form of the Hyuuga. He didn't really want to leave the guy there alone, since he didn't know what he would do when he got out of his daze, and didn't really want to deal with the repercussions should the Hyuuga make an unwise decision. But…

"I'll be back. Just…keep doing what you're doing." Shikamaru muttered as he made his way to the door, glanced back once and saw that what he had said hadn't earned him a reaction of any sort from the Hyuuga, and sighed as he stepped out and closed the door behind him. He had to get to the hospital as quickly as was possible and return before the paranoia that the guy might do something to himself or to the apartment ate at him too much.

Off a little ways from where Shikamaru was walking faster than he had ever walked before, whispered voices could be heard.

"Where's Shika-sensei going now?"

"I dunno. Maybe to meet his boy?"

"His girl, you mean."

"Or he's just going out shopping. People can do that without having any other motive, you know."

"Oh, shut up Kei. You're just saying that 'coz you wanna win, too."

When Shikamaru stepped into the hospital lobby, he was lucky enough to see the disappearing back of the person he had gone there for. Quickly speeding up so he could catch up to her, he thought of a way to explain himself to her so she would follow him and had barely managed to come up with one as he came to a stop behind her. "Sakura, wait!"

Sakura turned to face him, a clipboard held loosely against her chest, her eyes widening slightly in surprise. "Shikamaru? What is it? And…why do you look like you ran all the way here?"

"I need you to come with me." When Sakura raised an eyebrow, Shikamaru groaned and realized how strange that sounded coming from him. So instead he said, "There's someone that I…need help with. I would've done it on my own, but it was too troublesome to teach myself…"

…And now, she was looking at him strangely. Great.

"Sakura…can you just come with me without looking at me like that?"

Sakura smiled wryly, before she sighed. "I'll come on my break, since it's in about five minutes anyway. Can you wait?"

Shikamaru nodded. "It's a pain, but sure. I can wait, but I'm not sure if he can…"

Sakura merely raised an eyebrow again, before she shrugged and continued on her way again, a hand brought up in a half wave as she said, "I'm not really sure what you're talking about, but I'll see you in a few!"

Shikamaru smiled tightly as he watched her walk off, before he turned to go back to the entrance to the hospital. He could spare five minutes…right? It's not like the Hyuuga'd do anything too damaging in the short time he'd been gone (assuming he did anything at all), right?

When Shikamaru got outside, he made himself comfortable against a wall and folded his arms across his chest, his head tilting back so he could follow the few visible clouds with unusually anxious eyes. Five minutes. It was only five minutes. Nothing to angst over.

Quietly he let out a shaky sigh, oddly finding his reaction to the current situation funny; normally he wouldn't be like this.

It was only because it was Neji that he was acting like this…

Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly at the thought, and shook his head slowly to rid himself of it. Okay, so the voice might've been half right, since he admittedly didn't want to see his friends, and not-so-friends like the Hyuuga, in the same kind of situation from his chuunin days, like Hinata had suggested. No underlying reason was there! (He couldn't believe he was actually having this strange not-conversation with himself! Underlying meaning? Of course not! He didn't even know the guy well enough for that!)

Shikamaru groaned to himself and brought a hand up to cradle his forehead in. He had just implied, to himself, that there may be an underlying meaning when he knew the Hyuuga well enough. Clearly, he needed to stop having not-conversations with himself. Sighing, he muttered "troublesome" and almost jerked in surprise when he saw that Sakura was standing next to him, a curious expression on her face.

"Hey, Shikamaru? You okay?"

Her voice was more amusement than concern, making him turn away from her and motion for her to follow. Silently she did, her eyebrow still raised in curiosity, especially at his lack of response.

Again, not too far away from Shikamaru, and now Sakura, a group of voices could be heard.

"I told you it's a girl! I'm gonna win!"

"You have no proof of that! They still have to do something besides walk together, like Kei said!"

"…I think that's Haruno-san. I doubt that she'd date Nara-sensei."

"Nara-sensei? Kei, aren't you being to, y'know, formal? Why not call 'im Shika-sensei? Or is it 'coz Neji-sensei said that– ow! What was that for?!"

"…You talk too much."

When they reached his apartment, Shikamaru paused in front of the door and turned to face Sakura, who hadn't lessened her look of curiosity. He knew that he would have to explain at least a little of what she was going to come across, so she wouldn't ask too many questions later. Taking in a deep breath, he started, "So, Sakura. This is too much of a pain to explain fully, so I'll give you the short version. The Hyuu– Neji's in my house, and I need you to check him over to see if he's alright."

"You– what?" Sakura blinked, her face going slack at the sudden information she had been given. "Isn't Neji at the Hyuuga compound doing clan things? So…why's he in your apartment, and why does he need my help?"

"Damn…" Shikamaru muttered to himself, before he sighed. "I found him a couple days ago unconscious in the middle of the street and I didn't want to send him back to the compound since it would look suspicious." (Okay, so not exactly the truth, but not exactly a complete lie either. The truth was much more troublesome, after all.)

"Do you know what happened?"

"…No. I was just walking by after I returned from a mission." (That had more truth to it than his previous statement had…)

Sakura stared at him a few more seconds before she sighed. "…Fine. I can see that there're some things you don't want to say, so I won't ask you about it. For now."

Shikamaru ignored her words as he slowly unlocked the door and eased it open, before he stepped inside; Sakura doing the same immediately after. His paranoia had been unfounded, since the Hyuuga was still on his couch, eyes locked onto the same something-but-nothing as before. Sighing, he turned to face Sakura and said, "He's been like this since I came back from being with his troublesome genin. I don't know how long before then he 'woke up'."

"I see…" Sakura responded, slightly distracted as her medic side took over. "First we should probably move him somewhere more comfortable, so the transition from being catatonic to regular functioning won't be too much of a shock for him."

Shikamaru nodded and helped her move the limp Hyuuga to his room, where they gently set him down on the edge of the bed. After that Sakura went to work; he watched as she checked his pulse and body temperature, then the reactivity of his eyes, which, expectedly, weren't really all that reactive to her stimulation.

When a little over ten minutes passed by, and Shikamaru was fighting the urge to yawn, Sakura stood away from the boy and sighed. "Physically he looks fine, except the…" – she paused and glanced at Neji's forehead, before continuing on – "mark on his head, which resembles a burn mark; like someone seared another mark over the one he had, in the same was as it was before. I'm not really sure what that means, but…whatever had been done to him to make him like this was probably caused by that."

Sakura begun heading out of the room, like she really knew where she was going, and paused in the middle of the doorway. "If you're keeping him here until he gets well enough, there are some things you're going to have to do to ensure that his recovery is stable and full." She turned her gaze to him, and locked her eyes with his; expression completely serious. "Are you sure you want to do this? It's not something that can be done half-heartedly you know."

Shikamaru had to think for only a moment before he nodded. "I owe it to Hinata. She clearly cares about her troublesome cousin and she's already put her faith in me anyway with the Hyuuga's genin."

Sakura smiled softly, before saying "alright" and going to the couch to sit down, and motioned for Shikamaru to do the same. "So I guess I'll tell you what you need to do for the next couple of days, maybe next couple of weeks depending on how long it takes him to recover."

Keiichi sighed to himself as he resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. His teammates were currently crowded at their temporary sensei's window, spying on him and his guest, who were sitting on the couch having an important conversation; at least it looked that way to him. He, personally, didn't really care to know if their sensei had a girlfriend, or a boyfriend, and didn't really see the need – or importance – of such information. All he wanted to know was why Neji-sensei said that–

"Hey, Kei! Don't you wanna look too?"

Keiichi glanced at Hiroshi, before sighing again and shaking his head. He was perfectly fine on his rock where he was, thank-you-very-much. His interests in Nara-sensei were only in the part that Neji-sensei had spoken of, and he had yet to see any proof that what his normal sensei had said about "Shika-sensei" was true; all he's seen so far was that the guy was lazy beyond belief and seemed to genuinely not really care about anything at all. But, if what Neji-sensei had said was true, then "Shika-sensei" was far more interesting than the guy let on…

"So let me get this straight. You expect me to give the Hyuu– Neji a shower, cook for him, and just overall be at his beck and call." Shikamaru's mood was borderline annoyed, which was a new one. "Can't you do that? With the chuunin exams, it'd be too much of a pain to keep a watch on him, watch his genin, and supervise the groups of incoming genin and teachers from different countries all at the same time."

Sakura shrugged, and stood. "Hey, you're the one who brought him into your house and didn't just take him back to the Hyuugas. He's your responsibility now, Shikamaru. I'll stop by once a week to see how he's doing though, if you want."

Shikamaru groaned, and conceded to her conditions with a barely noticeable nod of his head. He did bring the Hyuuga into his house when he could've just left him there for someone else to find…well, okay, he couldn't have done that; his pride wouldn't have let him. But still, it was fun to fantasize about being free of the "freeloader" he now was housing…

"Well, if that's all, I should be getting back to the hospital. My shift's gonna start in about fifteen minutes, and I don't want to get any of the other residents mad at me for being late." Sakura turned toward the window, and barely missed the two heads that ducked down out of her view. For a few moments she just stood there and stared, before sighing. "I guess I'll be seeing you around, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru nodded, and watched as she walked over to the door and opened it. Instead of stepping out like he had expected her to, he blinked in confusion when she bent down and apparently picked something up, before turning to him. In her hands was a messenger bird with a scroll tied around its leg.

"This looks like shishou's bird." Sakura lifted the scroll to see who it was addressed to, then held the bird out to him. "It's for you."

Shikamaru took the bird and gently took the scroll from the tie on its leg. Carelessly he unwound it and begun to read out loud. " 'Nara Shikamaru: I need you to come to my office immediately. There are some things I need to discuss with you about the chuunin exams. Tsunade.' " Shikamaru raised an eyebrow in curiosity before he finished with, " 'P.S. Sakura, forget about going back to the hospital. I need to talk to you as well.' That troublesome woman knew you were here?"

"I guess so." Sakura shrugged again, as the bird flew from Shikamaru's arm to land on her shoulder. "We'd better get going, then. You know how shishou is when people make her wait."

The meeting with Tsunade had gone roughly as he had expected, with him being assigned to be at the beck and call of the Suna instructors while some poor, unsuspecting chuunin was in charge of the Suna genin. He was supposed to meet them at the village gates so he could take the instructors – and incidentally the kazekage as well – to their temporary residents then bring them to her so they could get their genin registered and in the books. But before all that, Shikamaru was supposed to finish up some paperwork on the Suna genin that had been left undone (he suspected that Tsunade had just pushed them aside like she did with everything else, and now was making him do it since he had denied all missions while "training" the Hyuuga's genin and supervising the chuunin exams) about their teams, strengths, weaknesses, and instructors.

Shikamaru groaned as he pushed open the door to his apartment with his back, his arms full of folders with loose papers hanging out of it. How as he supposed to do all of this, with the Hyuuga to watch as well? It was more work that he had to do than all the work he's had to do since being promoted to jounin combined!

Carelessly he dropped the folders on the couch before heading toward the kitchen to make dinner for Neji, since he had long since lost his appetite. He had no idea what the Hyuuga liked and didn't like, so he just shrugged and figured that there was plenty of time for him to figure that out. Sighing, he grabbed the quickest thing he could make – instant ramen that Naruto had given him in bulk a couple weeks ago – and put it on the counter to read the instructions. Quickly he put up the pot of water so it could boil, and made his way to his room to check up on the Hyuuga.

When he got there, he noticed that the Hyuuga wasn't – or seemed like he wasn't – catatonic anymore, and was propped up against the wall, his back resting against Shikamaru's off-white pillows. His eyes had been closed until Shikamaru had stepped into the room, and now were trained on him, no sign of surprise anywhere. Sighing, Shikamaru awkwardly rubbed the back of his head and said, "Dinner's going to be ready in a few; I hope ramen's good enough, since it was the first thing I grabbed."

Neji merely nodded in response, and closed his eyes once more, a sigh easing its way past his lips.

Shikamaru stood there a few moments more before he made his way back to the kitchen, the shear strangeness of the situation eating away at him. It wasn't…bad. He could handle the Hyuuga if he stayed like this and didn't do anything.

When he got back into the kitchen he opened the ramen package, grabbed the pot of water, and poured it into the small container to the mark then set the pot back down on the stove. He then closed the paper lid on the ramen container and set a small book on top to keep it from opening, and leaned his back against the counter to collect his thoughts.

For the next week he was going to be unbelievably busy with the Suna crowd, the chuunin exams, the Hyuuga's genin, and the Hyuuga himself. When the chuunin exams were over, that would be killing three birds with one stone, but he'd still have the Hyuuga to watch, which by then wouldn't be too hard since all Shikamaru'd have to do would be the occasional mission that he was assigned on; so that part of the problem he wouldn't have to focus much energy on. But how he was supposed to juggle the Hyuuga's genin and taking the Suna crowd around town at the same time was a bigger mystery than he had to find a solution to by tomorrow, which was a pain.

When his internal clock told him that the ramen was done, he took the book off the container and grabbed a pair of chopsticks for the Hyuuga to eat with. Languidly he strolled back into his room and walked up to the bed, and held out the eating utensil and the food for Neji to take. "Here. I'm going to set out some clothes for you, so you can take a shower when you're done." He didn't wait for an answer as he walked over to his closet and carelessly pulled out the blue, civilian shirt that he had for casual times and a pair of baggy, dark green pants which he had completely forgotten he had. Carelessly he threw them on the edge of the bed and pointed toward the door leading to the bathroom. "Shower's that way. If there's anything you need, Hyuuga, I'll be in the living room."

For a few seconds Neji didn't say anything, and just stared down at the ramen in his hands. Just as Shikamaru was walking out of the room, he looked up and said, "Don't call me that."

Shikamaru paused and blinked in surprise, before he turned to face Neji. "Call you what?"

"I'm not…a Hyuuga anymore. It's Neji."

Oh, right. How could he forget that?

Sighing, Shikamaru nodded and continued on his way out of the room. Okay, so, maybe he had been wrong about something. Just maybe Neji would be more troublesome to watch over than the others, since he did live with him for now…

Slowly he made his way to the couch and gathered the folders, before opening one of them and taking the papers out. He might as well as get some work done, since Neji "stole" his room and he had nothing better to do anyway.

A/N: 5,052 words. That's like, twice as long as the other chapters. xD

A lot did happen in this chapter, so it went kinda quickly with information and such. It'll slow a bit now, but it's still gonna go fast pace to get past the chuunin exams. :Winks:

Read and review!