A/N: Hallo! :) I realize this is…mucho late, but…I have mixed reasons. Half being the weather (not being able to get on 'coz of thunder storms), the other half being distracted by the K-Pop group Super Junior and awesome couples from Tamora Pierce books. XDD
On a more…positive note, I welcome the return of Neji in this chapter! Yay! XD
And…this chapter's dedicated to juunigatsu4ame 'coz I lied about Neji coming back last chapter. :gives her cookie as peace offering, puppy dog eyes included:
And thanks for the reviews you guys! I am very happy about the support and how this fic – somehow! – got over 50 reviews in 7 chapters plus prologue! :) Thatsneverhappenedtomebefore. :3
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An Unexpected Night
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Chapter Eight
"…and that's how it is."
Shikamaru stayed quiet as he digested what Sakura had said, his eyes roving over to Neji to see what his reaction was. The other boy was staring down at the floor below him, his hands clenched slightly between his knees. For the most part he looked…okay, but then again, Shikamaru really didn't know him all that well. Just when he thought that no reaction would come from him, aside from the stiffening of his body that had occurred, Neji spoke quietly, his gaze still on the floor.
"Sakura. Can you…bring Hiashi-sama here? I know it's late in the evening, but…" Neji closed his eyes for a moment before he opened them and looked up, his gaze locking with Sakura's. "I really think we need to talk."
Sakura nodded in response, glad to be of use. "I'll go see if he'll be willing to come over, then."
When Sakura left, awkward silence spread out between the two young men, which Shikamaru was quick to rid of with the clearing of his throat. Uncomfortably he rubbed the back of his neck, his gaze straying from Neji's general direction. "Aimi said you visited earlier."
Neji grunted in response. "Everyone was at the exams, so the chances of being seen by someone who recognized me were minimal."
Shikamaru chuckled softly, a small smirk slipping into place. "I knew it." Neji raised an eyebrow in response, which Shikamaru waved away with a small motion of his hand. "It's nothing. She was happy about it. The visit, I mean."
Neji didn't respond; out of the corner of his eye Shikamaru could see a semblance of a smile making its way onto Neji's lips. In hopes of coaxing it out, he said, "She was also one of the three promoted, 'though she wasn't there for it."
The smile grew a little in size, but didn't quite reach the older boy's eyes. "I'm proud of her." When he had spoken his voice was quieter, giving Shikamaru the distinct feeling that Neji wasn't as calm as he seemed. After a couple moments of silence passed by, when Neji's hands clenched together between his knees harder than before, Shikamaru knew for certain something was up. "I…exiled myself for Hinata-sama's happiness."
"You- what?" Shikamaru blinked in surprise, momentarily lost by the sudden subject change.
"I sacrificed my title as a Hyuuga member for Hinata-sama's happiness…with Uzumaki Naruto." A tiny, self-mocking smile covered his lips, his gaze narrowing slightly. A dry laugh slipped out as he added, "When I was younger I couldn't stand the thought of Hinata-sama with the village's biggest loser. When I first saw them together on a…date, I thought it was all a bad joke, a dream." Neji sighed, his hands loosening their grip on one another. "It felt like something was being taken away from me; something that had been mine for so long, something I protected with my life, and lost so easily…"
Shikamaru remained quiet after Neji's "confession", his hand twitching slightly as he held in the urge to do something – in his mind anyway – that was far too strange for their current relationship. But the urge out-bid his uncomfortable-ness with it, making his hand hesitantly reach out to rest on Neji's shoulder, which was made easy from his position at the back of the couch. Almost immediately after doing so Shikamaru looked down in surprise when he felt Neji's hand cover his own, and had to resist the sudden urge – funny how that got him into this situation in the first place – to pull his hand back. With an inward groan his thoughts started to focus on the fact that the hand was warm and soft upon his cooler and more worn one…
Quickly he cut off that train of thought, his eyes glancing down at Neji to see what exactly he had meant by resting his own hand on top of Shikamaru's. To his surprise he could see Neji shaking ever-so-slightly, his left hand clenching into a fist on his thigh. Upon closer inspection he noted the taught skin on the older boy's face, the way he so clearly was trying to not clench his eyes shut…
For all intents and purposes, it looked like Neji was trying his damnedest to not have a mental breakdown (and here he was thinking about the contact that had occurred, when clearly Neji's intention were purely innocent and unintentional!) With a quiet sigh Shikamaru squeezed Neji's shoulder lightly, his mind trying to form the words that would convey the fact that he knew that Neji was fighting the pull to run away from this confrontation he had initiated, and that he knew Neji was confused beyond belief from his past experience before the exiling and from what Sakura had said Hiashi had told Tsunade just an hour before. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a knock came at the door, causing him to jump slightly in surprise (he hadn't, after all, been expecting it).
Sighing once more, Shikamaru pulled his hand away – his mind puzzling over the fact that he missed the warmth and was relieved at the loss of contact all at the same time – and headed around the side of the couch to open the door only to be stopped by the sudden realization that Neji hadn't let go of Shikamaru's hand when he had pulled it away from the young man's shoulder. Unconsciously his eyes travelled from the locked hands to peer at Neji's eyes in confusion, before his own widened in surprise to see Neji looking at him, an uncharacteristically fearful look being visible in their pale depths.
Shikamaru gently squeezed Neji's fingers before he released them with the whispered words "it'll be alright, I'll be here" and continued on his way to the door. Slowly he opened the door to reveal Sakura and Hiashi waiting patiently, who he was quick to usher inside before closing the door behind them.
Hiashi continued on closer to the couch, where Neji looked like he was trying his best to not curl into a ball and hide from his uncle, while Sakura stayed beside Shikamaru, her back leaning slightly against the cold wood of the door. Quietly they watched as Hiashi stopped and stared down at Neji before whispering, "Neji, my nephew…"
As if coming to terms with something, Sakura quickly grabbed Shikamaru's arm and dragged him out of the living room, while happily – or rather, fake-happily – saying, "We'll go make tea while you two talk!"
Shikamaru glanced back and found himself locking gazes with the ex-Hyuuga, who was staring at him out the corner of his eye, the fear from before and now what seemed to be a feeling of loss still visible in the pale orbs. When he was pulled around the corner leading to the kitchen, the gaze was broken leaving Shikamaru mightily confused and quietly groaning to himself at this strange, new development of Neji's sudden out of character reactions.
From their position in the kitchen they couldn't hear the conversation going on very well, and ended up resigning themselves to focusing on tea-making like Sakura had said they'd do. The process had actually ended up taking longer than it normally would, in evident hopes of giving Neji and Hiashi more alone time to talk, until the point that dragging it on any longer would make it suspicious. So after getting cups out, putting them on a tray along with the tea pot, the two jounin made their way back into the living room, their movements automatically being controlled so they remained as quiet as possible so as not to disturb the "guests". As Sakura poured everyone some of the tea, Shikamaru took advantage of the moment to survey the current and ex-Hyuugas.
Hiashi looked as he always did, calm but stern with an air of superiority around him that misleads people into thinking he was a "bad guy" when he truly wasn't. Neji, on the other hand, was far from calm, but, to Shikamaru's immense relief, seemed less tense than before and had stopped clenching his hands between his knees.
Almost carelessly Shikamaru motioned toward the open seat next to Neji and said, "You can sit down, if you'd like."
"I'll be leaving soon, so no thank you." Hiashi declined Shikamaru's offer to sit, just as he was accepting a cup of tea from Sakura with a slight nod- somehow Shikamaru couldn't help but find that funny, and a little more than ironic. After receiving a cup of his own, Shikamaru noticed the subtle movements Neji made motioning for Shikamaru to sit, which the boy did with slight reluctance, his lips shaping into an 'o' shape to blow on his tea.
"So you have been staying here since that night?"
Neji nodded, the cup lowering from his lips as he spoke. "The Nara's let me stay with him."
Shikamaru stiffened suddenly as Hiashi turned his gaze toward him, his head tilting slightly in thanks. "I thank you for taking care of my nephew…Nara-san, was it?"
"Ah, it's Shikamaru." Shikamaru smiled awkwardly as he resisted the urge to break the eye contact. "And it's alright, Neji's not a bother." (Out of the corner of his eye he couldn't help but notice Sakura looking up at him in surprise, since it probably was the first time she had heard him say such a thing. Good thing he wasn't going to look at her questioning gaze, huh?)
"Have any side-effects of the seal's activation been found?" Hiashi's attention returned to Neji, his eyes giving away his curiosity.
"Yes, a couple." Neji replied, clearly with full intention to not elaborate on what they were. After a few moments of silence slid by, Neji ventured to ask, "Will you tell Hinata-sama about this…or am I still not allowed to meet with her?"
"I realize that was a foolish request to ask of you, Neji. I will tell her the truth when I return to the manor."
Shikamaru couldn't rein in his curiosity, the question eating at him too much. "What did you tell her Neji was doing, anyway? Before the chuunin exams when the hokage said he was doing clan things she didn't look like she believed it."
"Ah, that." The corner of Hiashi's mouth tilted up ever-so-slightly, and wouldn't have been caught had they not all been trained ninjas and was supposed to catch such changes. "I told her that in Neji's search to become stronger, he left the village to find what pieces of him were missing and to better himself with the information."
At that, Shikamaru and Sakura both shared a glance, trying hard not to reveal their amusement.
When a couple more seconds passed by in silence, Hiashi said, "I realize this is sudden, but would you like to meet with Hinata?"
Neji's eyes widened in surprise as he very nearly dropped the now empty cup he held. "Is that possible?"
Hiashi nodded as he set his own cup down on the tray. "Tomorrow, then. At noon she'll come here. Does that sound agreeable?" Neji nodded, which seemed enough to satisfy Hiashi since he turned away and headed for the door. "I must return, then. It was…good to see you again, nephew."
Neji nodded, his continued wide eyes belying his surprise at the sudden meeting with his cousin and the way his uncle had so easily talked to him in a friendly manner. As Sakura walked Hiashi out the door, while saying "I'll walk you home, since I should probably be leaving as well", Shikamaru turned toward the other boy, the half-full pot of tea in one hand. Silently he motioned for Neji to give him his cup, which he did, then handed it back with the dark liquid hanging around just below the lip of the cup.
"Your uncle's a good guy, Neji."
Neji quietly nodded as he took a sip of the tea, his gaze locked onto the spot Hiashi had been standing on just moments before. Silently they both sat and drank the tea Sakura had brewed, their minds on the same thing: the meeting with Hinata the following day.
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"I-I won't be able to stay long, n-nii-san, since I have a mission to go to in half-an-hour."
Neji nodded, his gaze off to the side a bit of where Hinata was standing and playing with the strap to her bag. He had spent the entire night thinking of this moment, and now that it was here…he had no idea what to say. Clearing his throat awkwardly, he locked gazes with Hinata and started, "Hinata-sama, I–"
"Father said he'd give Naruto-kun a chance." Hinata quickly interrupted with a smile, a small pale red sprinkling over her cheeks. "It made me very happy to hear that from him, when before he didn't like Naruto-kun much. A-and…he said that I don't have to go through o-miais anymore if Naruto-kun is interested…"
Despite his nervousness and previous dislike of the two of them together, Neji couldn't resist the urge to smile a little at Hinata's evident joy. "I hope it works out for you, Hinata-sama." Quiet, then: "Hinata-sama, I–"
"It…it's alright, nii-san." Hinata interrupted again, this time her voice a mere whisper. Her eyes were shining with happiness as she leaned over the small distance on the couch to pull Neji into a hug, before she added quietly, "You don't need to s-say anything, nii-san. I'm just…glad that you're alright."
In the background Shikamaru glanced away awkwardly, his eyes crossing over Sakura's quietly gleeful form. Silently he rolled his eyes at her reaction to the reunion in front of them, and then glanced at the clock hanging on his wall. It currently was 12:10, and Hinata had actually came late, leaving them very little time left to catch up, since she had to be at the village gates by 12:30. And since it took about five minutes to walk there from his house, the two had about 10 more minutes to catch up with one another.
"Does Naruto know what Hiashi-san said?"
Hinata pulled back from her cousin, her body turning so she could address Sakura, the blush from before returning with a vengeance. "N-no…b-but father said that he'd talk to him later today while I'm gone."
"You sure he's not going to have a heart attack?" Shikamaru asked as he tried to keep the amusement out of his voice, and then added as Hinata turned to him in curiosity: "It'd be annoying celebrate it then have Naruto die from happiness and shock."
"H-he won't–!"
"I'm joking, Hinata. Joking." Shikamaru said, this time the amusement clearly evident. "I'm happy for you, Hinata. Now maybe Naruto'll finally grow up and stop being a pain in the ass."
Hinata, face burning, simply nodded in thanks, and then turned her attention back to her cousin. For a few moments she stared at him, and then opened her mouth to speak after apparently coming to terms with something. "Neji-nii-san…stay s-strong for me, okay? A-and…if you need anyone, I'm sure Shikamaru-kun will be there for you at any time, s-since you live together now."
Shikamaru eyes widened in slight surprise, before his gaze locked onto Neji's own surprise one. Beside him Sakura laughed, a grin quickly making its way onto her lips. "You make it sound like they're married, Hinata!"
"A-ano! Th-that's not what I–!" Hinata's face turned an even brighter shade of red as she wildly turned to face Shikamaru, who had a slight red tinge on his face from the sheer embarrassment the situation was bringing. "I-I'm so sorry f-for saying that!"
"Hinata-sama, it's okay. We…know what you meant." Neji said as he gently touched Hinata's shoulder, his eyes locked onto the floor in front of them.
After that Hinata remained silent, too embarrassed by what she had – unintentionally – implied about her cousin's and Shikamaru's relationship to really say anything else. Before long the clock read 12:20, giving Hinata a good five minutes left to say anything else that she may have wanted to say, if the embarrassment passed enough.
"Ne, Hinata, when you come back from your mission, do you want to all go eat somewhere?"
Hinata blinked in surprise after the minutes' silence gap, then nodded slightly. "I- hai. That…would be very nice, Sakura-chan."
"So when will that be?"
"Umm…I th-think Tsunade-sama said it should take maybe a w-week at most…" Hinata narrowed her brow in thought, before she nodded in agreement with herself. "I'm sure she said a week at m-most and four days at mi-minimum."
Sakura grinned widely, as she glanced at both Neji and Shikamaru. "It's settled, then! All four of us will go eat out" – much emphasis on "out" – "when Hinata get back!"
After Hinata left with the promise of going out to eat when she returned, the three left behind sat on silence, unsure of what to say to one another after all that's happened. Shikamaru and Sakura mostly didn't know what to say to Neji – who had stayed mostly quiet during Hinata's visit – to gauge his mood, since both visits could've pushed him one way or the other. When Neji looked up at them, eyes unreadable as they had been before the exiling, mouth curved up slightly in a hesitant smile, they knew he'd be alright and that they had fretted for nothing.
"So…now what do you guys wanna do? It's only 12:30; I don't need to be at the hospital until 3." Sakura said, mainly to break the silence that came after Hinata's departure minutes before.
"Did you tell Tsunade-sama of this…situation?" Neji questioned, his expression neutral so as to not give away his thoughts.
Sakura shook her head. "As far as I know, she only knows about you being exiled." She paused, then added, "Do you think she should know?"
"It'd probably be best," Neji replied dryly, "we don't want her sending ANBU forces out to do a search for me."
Sakura chuckled nervously, knowing full well that her shishou would do it too, if it came down to it. Her gaze flitted over to the yawning Shikamaru and said, "You should probably tell her, Shikamaru, since Neji's living in your house."
Shikamaru sighed as he bit back his original response of "let her send ANBU; either way it'd be a damn pain" and reluctantly agreed to tell their hokage of Neji's whereabouts.
A few hours later a disgruntled Shikamaru stepped out of the hokage's building, his left hand reaching up to massage his throbbing ear. The hokage had taken his confession just about the way he had expected for her to, but it didn't change the fact any that he didn't appreciate his ears being yelled off. And it didn't help matters any that Neji had chosen to stay home rather than accompany him to her office…
Home. Funny how he so easily came to say that it was also Neji's, although the guy was more of a freeloader than anything else. Eating his food, sleeping in his bed, heck, even wearing his clothes! If that wasn't the definition of a freeloader, he didn't know what was.
But…he really couldn't think of Neji like that, could he? Sure, the guy was doing all that without returning anything or paying for anything, but was that really his fault? It's not like he had asked to be exiled…
Shikamaru groaned, his body running on autopilot to lead him home. Thinking in those terms he couldn't justly say that Neji was troublesome, since it was his fault in the first place that Neji now lived with him. All because he couldn't keep his hands out of things
that had nothing to do with him (sometimes – well, okay, most of the time – he missed the way he acted a couple years ago. All this caring business was just way too much at times).
…He really need to stop thinking about things that he really couldn't do anything about and start thinking about things that ma- well. Okay. He couldn't say "mattered", since that would imply that Neji didn't "matter" which he most certainly didn't mean. Maybe saying he should be thinking of things that were pertinent to his future would be better?
Things like missions, which he hadn't been on since a couple weeks before the chuunin exams preparations had begun nearly a month and a half ago. So to put it simply, he hadn't gone on a mission for nearly two months; he was fairly certain that Tsunade would get back at him for keeping Neji a secret from her and end up sending him on – what he would consider – the more troublesome missions that were available.
Ah well, that was something – again – that he had no control over, leaving him to sigh and run a hand through his hair as his apartment building came into view. Ever since "acquiring" Neji, he had been needlessly worrying about so many things, that for a brief second he wondered if saving Neji had truly been the best choice after all.
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"I want us to go out."
Shikamaru looked up in surprise. From the moment he had returned hours ago until now he and Neji had been sitting in companionable silence on his couch, each doing their own thing; Neji had been reading a novel that Shikamaru had picked up for him from the store a couple days ago, while he had been looking over some files that Tsunade had wanted him to check for validity. So used to the silence he had been, Neji's voice came loud and highly unexpected. For a couple seconds he ran Neji's sentence in his mind, before he raised an eyebrow in Neji's direction, curious about what Neji meant. "What?"
"Tonight. I want us to go out." Neji carelessly motioned toward the door, his gaze sliding over to Shikamaru's form on the other side of the couch. "Not for anything like eating, but for a walk around the village. It's plenty dark right now so no one would recognize us wandering around."
Shikamaru inwardly smirked at catching Neji silently admitting that he was afraid – although Neji wouldn't use that word – of running into his friends and having to explain what had happened and why he was out with Shikamaru – who he never even really talked to before, let alone hung out with – at (Shikamaru glanced at the clock out of the corner of his eye) nine 'o' clock at night. (Of course he couldn't really think of a reason why the others would even be outside at nine at night either, but he wisely chose to ignore that train of thought). Inwardly he sighed; eventually Neji would have to get over the fact that he would have to tell the others about his exiling and come out during the day, no matter how much he didn't want to, and that he couldn't stayed holed up in Shikamaru's apartment forever. They were his friends: they weren't likely to judge him for the things he had done to get him where he was right now.
"You sure you want to? I don't want to put these folders away only to have you be a pain in the ass and change your mind, Neji." A half-smile tugged at the corner of Shikamaru's lips as Neji shot him a dirty look, to which he replied with a grandiose yawn and stretching. "Alright, then. We better not be going too far, though. I don't want to have to carry you back if you get tired after not being used to walking around so much."
Neji didn't lessen his glare after Shikamaru's joke, and silently checked his place in the book before closing it and setting it on the cushion next to him. He stood then, Shikamaru's curious gaze burning a hole in his back, and walked toward Shikamaru's room before turning into the bathroom. Hesitating slightly he grabbed the vile Sakura had given him before taking the top off and taking a quick sip then recapped it and entered the living room again. Shikamaru was already standing by the door, rolling his neck in an effort to rid of the kinks that had found their place there, a slightly bored look in place. "We'll make it a quick one, if it bothers you so much." Neji commented dryly as he followed Shikamaru out the door, a very small amused smirk slipping into place.
Before he had thought living – could he really call it that, since he wasn't really living there? – with Shikamaru would've been boring and on some level annoying, since he had been so sure that Shikamaru would just end up whining over having his place "taken over" by someone he didn't really know. But now, after having watched the younger boy the past couple of weeks since they didn't really have much time to just sit and talk what with the chuunin exams and all, he detected a distinct difference in him that Neji couldn't help but find intriguing, leading up to the thought that just maybe staying with Shikamaru would be more interesting than he originally had thought.
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A/N: Okay, so…I doing think that this fic's going to be 12-ish chapters anymore, especially since I had to split up the chuunin exams into two chapters and because of the next chapter, which I never really intended to write. XP But yeah, so this fic's going to be more like 15…maybe 17-ish chapters long. That's cool, right? :Grins:
And the ShikaNeji stuff's gonna come way quick-like, at least on one side, and slightly less quick on the other. We'll have more Sakura involvement (of the good kind, heh heh) and more Neji's genin involvement (again, of the good kind) in the next few chapters, so stay tuned!
Read and review!