A/N: This chapter beat me up. It's mostly Yoshino-centric but I felt compelled to add the viewpoints of a couple of others in writing it. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. I make no money from the writing of this story.

Warning: unbeta'd; implied lemon; language; yaoi

Yoshino remembered walking toward the two men as they stood in the lab speaking to each other.

She observed the man standing in front of her husband. He was shorter than Shikaku, but broader. A single layer of long, rich brown hair hung loosely around his shoulders, gleaming under the overhead lighting and partially obscuring his face from her eyes.

The man wore a grey suit that, Yoshino surmised, had to have been tailored to his physique. And what a nice one it was, from what she could tell: his waist tapered in from his shoulders to top lean hips and long legs.

Though his body language was casual--he gestured with one hand while the other remained in the pocket of his trousers—he exuded an unmistakably take-charge aura. Here was a leader, a man who called the shots, an animal at the top of his food chain.

Very much like Shikaku.

Hmph.

His skin was pale, she noted; like her own, and a contrast to her husband's tanned complexion.

She arched a brow, consciously imagining how their naked long-legged bodies would look intertwined on a bed.

And smirked.

Shikaku chose that moment to extend his arm to his side, not once faltering in discussion or taking his eyes from his guest. Yoshino's smirk grew into a smile and her earlier thought was shoved aside. After more than two decades of marriage her husband was still doing things like that, making little, unexplained, out-of-the-blue gestures. It was his way of communicating his need to have her by his side, even when his attention was diverted elsewhere.

She walked up next to him proudly, confidently, slipping an arm around his waist. Just as Shikaku's arm found its home around her slender waist, the long-haired man in the grey suit turned to look at her.

Eyes like nothing she'd ever known in the world peered at her from a face that simply robbed her of breath, freezing her in place as her husband spoke.

"Hyuuga, meet my wife. Love, say hello to Hiashi Hyuuga, our new lawyer."

There was something in the look she was given, something her mind couldn't quite place, though it was quickly erased in favor of something she could. He smiled, a sort of affected smile, and then looked at her as though he might have been imagining her naked himself.

"Love, is it?" he asked in a proper voice then.

Yoshino couldn't stop her body's shudder or the way the hand wrapped casually around her husband's waist tightened in reaction to it. The timbre and intonation of the lawyer's voice were mesmerizing; so much so, in fact, that she failed to realize he was gently holding her hand in his own until he was raising it to his lips.

"She's only Love to me", her husband announced in his raspy voice; changing the spell she was under, rather than breaking it.

There was an unequivocal pissing on of territory in the tone of the statement that stopped Hiashi where he stood. Yoshino watched the lawyer holding her hand turn to look at her husband with another indefinable expression a heartbeat before she felt Shikaku's grip on her waist tighten.

And in that moment, a tension was born.

Hiashi Hyuuga.

Who was he?

Yoshino didn't know. What she already knew, though, was that simple words like gorgeous and stunning and sexy didn't even come close to doing him justice. He was someone's wish granted, someone's promise kept. He was a dream you had that made you wake up smiling.

And the dream had agreed to take their case, to become their champion.

Nara Labs was being sued. A patron of one of their popular hair, skin and nail treatments was claiming that there were unreported side effects associated with its use, side effects that Nara Labs was refuting. It was a first for the modest company, and was garnering a fair share of media attention.

Hiashi seemed to be with the Naras all the time, navigating them through the legal chaos and coaching them on ways to deal with everything.

Everything, that is, except him.

Hiashi's aura was overwhelming. Nearly everything about him screamed 'too good to be true', from his healthy, full head of straight, dark, shiny hair, to his handmade Italian leather shoes. He bore a polite grace, a kind of by-product of a privileged upbringing, and an endearing kindness you wouldn't expect from a man so beautiful that made it even harder for the mind to accept him.

If you weren't stunned into silence by his polished presence, then you had to pay attention when he opened his mouth. Hiashi didn't speak, he articulated in a very proper baritone. It shook you to the core the first time you heard it, and titillated you each time after; dancing into your ears to seep into your brain, and spawning a glut of stimulating messages to be transmitted all throughout your body in response to it.

Intentional or otherwise, it was nothing short of foreplay.

The Hyuuga quickly proved himself to be a quasar of intellectual and sexual energy, not unlike Shikaku. The two men even shared the same bawdy sense of humor. Unlike the Nara's raw, uncivilized one, however, the Hyuuga's sex appeal was refined, the type that made you ache to get the man behind closed doors, to tear away that majestic veneer one layer at a time, until he was moaning obscenities to the gods in that remarkable voice.

At times, such as when he was discussing the law, Hiashi could be very intense. You only had to engage him on the topic once to know that his reputation for winning bore merit, and was not the result of his fascinating appearance.

Then there were moments when he seemed to become a person quite at odds with the image he projected. There was a boy-like presence housed in the beautiful body of that forty-something-year-old man who revealed himself during arbitrary moments, a child-like wonder that was sure to disarm anyone who happened to see it. The Naras were thrown off-kilter by the manifestation the first time they witnessed it, but seeing no genuine cause for alarm, began to shrug it off as an eccentricity owing to a combination of Hiashi's genius and his pampered lifestyle.

Inasmuch as it all blew the mind, it made Yoshino even more curious. She wanted to know everything about Hiashi. Was he single? What did he prefer in a partner? Who was his stylist? Were there others like him? She found herself constantly torn between a want to be near him, to bask in the radiance of everything she knew the man to be--and to see him entangled with her husband in the throes of a passionate encounter.

Yoshino knew her husband well, and would readily bet their timeshare in Hawaii that Shikaku was just as affected by the stunning man as she was. They hadn't discussed it, of course—topics of that nature had long since become taboo in their lives. But the tension was already there, and already evolving.

For Nara Labs, and for Shikaku and Yoshino Nara, there was no way to be coached on the proper method for dealing with Hiashi Hyuuga.

And Yoshino loved it.

Hiashi Hyuuga had been the lawyer for Nara Labs for seventeen days, which was as likely a cause for the spike in media attention as anything else. In response to it he called a meeting there, to address the employees on the protocol to be used both on and off-duty when working for a company that is the subject of a lawsuit.

The meeting would also give the employees a chance to get to know the man their bosses had employed to defend them. The lab was a small business, a family affair. While everyone there knew Hiashi had been hired, some of them had never seen him and none of them had had an opportunity to speak with him.

The Hyuuga strode into the meeting room that morning with his trademark confident air, a vision in the workspace standard lab coat he wore over his pristine navy blue suit. His long dark hair spilled down over the stark white backdrop of the coat, changing that standard into something uniquely his.

The eyes of every man and woman in the room were on him. Each sat silently, waiting for him to speak.

Some with their mouths open.

Hiashi was all business. "If some character approaches you out of the blue and asks you about your employment with Nara Labs, how should you respond?" he began.

The lawyer paced back and forth across the front of the room as he addressed the group, gesturing with manicured hands while providing keen strategic guidance. A no-nonsense speech was followed by a question-and-answer session.

Only a few people still had the presence of mind to ask any questions. Most just sat and stared in some mixture of shock and awe.

When the meeting ended, a queue of thunderstruck employees filed out of the room.

It was later that day, long after Hiashi had gone, when the Naras were approached in the lab by one of their long-time employees, Jibachi Kamizuru.

Jibachi was a learned man, an entomologist who split his time between his work at Nara Labs and his duties teaching classes at the local university.

He didn't seem happy as he marched toward them, stopping a few feet shy of where the couple stood working.

"Something the matter, Jibachi?" Shikaku asked.

Yoshino observed their employee silently.

Jibachi looked back and forth between the two before folding his arms across his chest. "What's going on with you two?" he asked.

"Why do you ask?" Shikaku responded.

"Because I work for Nara Labs, Nara Labs is being sued, and a Ken Doll has been hired to represent us in court", Jibachi answered, not missing a beat.

Yoshino pondered the comment silently, thinking it wasn't the worst characterization for their lawyer that anyone could have come up with.

Shikaku snorted. "Jibachi, if you think you've got what it takes to handle the job you should have said something before I put him on retainer", he teased.

But the bespectacled blond was not amused. "Well, if I thought for one second you weren't going to take this seriously, I would have."

At hearing those words, Shikaku's face morphed into an expression that caused both Jibachi and Yoshino to frown.

"Are you seriously questioning my judgment?" the Nara asked.

"You ask me that after that the meeting we had this morning?" Jibachi responded. "I can't believe the display I witnessed in there. Some flaky fashion model is going to defend us in court and I'm supposed to sleep easier?"

"You don't think his advice was sound?" Shikaku asked his employee. He could understand where Jibachi was coming from. Hiashi Hyuuga was culture shock on two legs; the Nara was himself still adjusting to him.

Nevertheless, the Hyuuga's behavior and his capacity to practice law were two different things.

"Sure it was sound", Jibachi responded, "and it might have provided me with some level of comfort if it hadn't come from a man with the emotional maturity of a teenager."

Shikaku was affronted. "Hiashi Hyuuga's law firm has an impeccable track record", he informed the entomologist. "You should have looked it up before you came to insult us."

Jibachi had looked it up.

Three named partners—Hyuuga, Sannin and Yamanaka--and a couple of associates comprised Hiashi Hyuuga's law firm, which had existed nearly fifteen years.

Tsunade Sannin was the only female lawyer associated with the firm. She was a pretty woman with hypnotic amber eyes and physical dimensions commonly found on comic-book super-heroines. She wore her blonde hair in low pigtails and just happened to be the wife of Konoha's Police Commissioner.

Inoichi Yamanaka completed the trio of partners. He too was blond, and wore his hair in a Rapunzel-style ponytail that extended to his thighs. More than one editorial had been written about the man, and not just because of his unusually long hair. The Yamanaka, it seemed, had an uncanny reputation for getting people to either confess all or turn the other cheek, often before a case ever saw the inside of a courtroom.

Upon discovering this, Jibachi had likened the trio to a league of sorcerers, which made Hiashi Hyuuga the head sorcerer in charge.

Jibachi couldn't trust Hiashi. He was too suave, too smooth. Too rehearsed. And far too beguiling for the entomologist's taste, with those frosty lavender eyes, that pale, nearly-symmetrical face and that deep, proper speaking voice.

The lawyer had moved quickly. Not three full weeks since his arrival and he was calling his own meetings with the employees.

Hiashi Hyuuga had ingratiated himself with Shikaku and Yoshino Nara, good people in genuine need. And that worried Jibachi for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that this lawyer, in being the intended instrument of the lab's salvation, might prove to be the instrument of its destruction instead.

The blond shook his head, blinking slowly. "It's nothing personal, Shikaku. It's just that…"

Jibachi took a deep breath then. He knew this part would be hard.

"The guy waltzes in here promising to save the day, proceeds to hermetically attach himself to the two of you and you eat it up. I've never seen you two fall for anyone's schmooze, not in all the time I've known you."

Yoshino made a face, taken aback. She was vaguely cognizant of her husband's mood changing.

"What are you saying, Jibachi?" she asked before her husband could react.

There was a plea in the eyes that fell on her. "How can you not see the way he leers at you? How do you not know what a spectacle the three of you make when you are walking around here together, laughing out loud at private jokes?"

Yoshino's mouth fell open in stunned silence. Of course she was conscious of the sexual tension between the three of them. And quite frankly, a man being attracted to her husband was hardly new to her. But she was doing her part to keep everything in perspective. Nara Labs was being sued; their livelihood was at stake. It was the reason Hiashi Hyuuga had become part of their reality at all, even if deep down in a place long buried, the bond developing between them all felt like the most natural thing in the world.

What hadn't occurred to her was that their growing relationship might be so obvious to others, or that it would be interpreted as a threat.

"What do you want from us, Kamizuru?"

It was Yoshino's sentiment, spoken from her husband's mouth.

Jibachi looked back and forth between the two brilliant people standing in front of him, frowning. He didn't want to be having this discussion. He admired the Naras, who weren't just chemists in his eyes, but also builders who had created something special. He felt a need to protect the place where the work served a vital purpose and colleagues were a kind of family.

"I want you to open your eyes", the blond responded. "This guy has everyone brainwashed. But he's a wild card, one with nothing to lose.

I know I speak for all of us, when I say that we stand to lose everything if we don't get a textbook defense on our day in court. Are you going to let that happen?"

Yoshino looked away then, unsure.

"You're wasting your time, you know", she announced, approaching him slowly.

Yoshino stopped in front of Hiashi, her head cocked to one side. The sea breeze blew her loose dark hair wildly around her bare shoulders. Her lean, lithe body was practically poured into a strapless evening dress that was as provocative as it was elegant.

Hiashi, whose hair was pulled back smoothly into a low ponytail that extended to the middle of his back, couldn't take his eyes off her. She was a beautiful, alluring woman. In red, she was outright sin.

"What do you mean?" he asked evenly, feeling the wind blow through the strands of his own hair against his back.

They stood on the deck of Hiashi's yacht under a starry night sky. The Hyuuga was himself a mirage in a black tuxedo.

Yoshino smirked. "You know what I mean. An invitation to a black-tie dinner on your yacht—prepared by you, no less, and complete with strategically-inserted innuendo." She shook her head. "It won't work."

Hiashi kept a casual, if appreciative, expression trained on the woman in front of him. "Why not?" he asked. "We do well together, the three of us. Have you never imagined us being—more?"

Yoshino had, in fact; more times than either he--or her husband, for that matter--could possibly guess. But she wasn't about to admit that to Hiashi.

She eyed the handsome brunet while silently melting at the sound of those words in that sexy baritone. "Is this what you say to all the girls and boys?" she countered instead.

Hiashi smirked. "You are the first", he responded.

Yoshino was silently melting again. "Well, that's flattering, Hiashi", she admitted, "but my husband and I are married to each other in every way. No third parties permitted."

Something changed in Hiashi's eyes, and it made Yoshino shudder. "Your rule, or his?" he asked her.

"Why should that make a difference?" she responded.

"I just wondered, since it is you alone out here with me, and he is…not", Hiashi replied.

Yoshino laughed then, a girlish, tension-erasing sound that was music to Hiashi's ears.

"Is that what you think this is about? Me, marking my territory? I don't have testes, Hiashi." She turned her back to him, needing a respite from the pull of that powerful gaze. "Don't confuse me with Shikaku."

"I would never confuse you with anyone, Yoshino", Hiashi told her, slightly surprised by the sincerity of his words. He stepped forward a tiny bit more, drawn by her aura and the sight of the pale flesh of her shoulders. Any closer and he would be touching Shikaku Nara's wife in an intimate way.

The line between propriety, and impropriety that could get him fired and possibly assassinated, was a hair's breadth. The thought fascinated him.

Aroused him.

Yoshino. He liked her name, thought it was beautiful, that it suited her. Had he known any other Yoshinos in his life? He couldn't recall.

Yoshino could feel him in her hair, against her back, even though they weren't actually touching. She blinked slowly, lifting her hand to swipe the strands away from her eyes and silently replaying the sound of her name spoken by his voice.

"You've never been denied anything, have you?" she asked him.

His response was somewhat disarming. "I suppose it would depend on your understanding of the concept."

She turned back to face him, only to find herself practically nose-to-chin with the man. She backed away a little, intimidated by their proximity.

Hiashi, to his credit, stayed put.

"Interesting", Yoshino assessed. "I would never have pegged you for a bird in a gilded cage."

Hiashi did not respond. Instead he focused on the way her hair blew around her beautiful face and pale shoulders like a flag in the wind.

"Why us?" Yoshino asked.

Hiashi remained quiet, and she wondered if he'd heard her question. She formed her mouth to repeat it when he spoke.

"Why not?"

Why not? Yoshino blinked twice in rapid succession, her mind processing his unexpected response.

"Well, we're not exactly the wealthy glamour mavens you're probably used to", she reasoned.

"Who said you needed to be?" he responded easily. "Besides, if anything, it enhances your appeal."

Yoshino couldn't stop the smirk that formed. "What made you think we'd go for an offer like yours?"

Hiashi didn't miss a beat. "Maybe I was just counting on my sex appeal."

Yoshino laughed again, her reaction a combination of amusement and anxiety. If only they'd all known each other twenty-two years ago…

"You're very sure of yourself, aren't you?" she asked while swiping her hair away from her face.

"If I wasn't, we might not be celebrating today's victory in court."

There was an irrefutable fact if she'd ever heard one.

Yoshino made a serious face. "Thank you for that", she told him, and meant it.

Hiashi smiled then. "That's why you hired me."

Yoshino bit her lip. Hiashi's eyes seemed to caress the movement. "Still, this was big", she told him. "And you saved us."

"It was my pleasure."

But now it's over. The words lingered unspoken in Yoshino's mind. She didn't want to think about it, but she didn't have a choice. Nara Labs had been vindicated in court.

She wasn't ready to imagine life without Hiashi. Some indefinable bond had been created between the threesome over the past six months, something Yoshino craved. She was sure her husband craved it, too.

Could this be the reason Hiashi had begun dropping hints tonight? With their legal business concluded, was his goal to extend their business relationship to something personal?

Did he have similar need of them in his own life?

"Is this where we say goodbye and part ways?"

Yoshino was surprised to hear the question, tinged with anxiety, come from her own mouth.

"Is that what you want, Yoshino?"

No. The answer came easily.

The brunette blinked slowly. "No", she responded. "But it's not up to me alone."

Hiashi suppressed an urge to lean in. "I'm sure you can successfully convince your husband to retain me."

He wasn't going down without a fight.

Retain me. It sounded too much like restrain me, and Yoshino shuddered again. "You really think so?"

Hiashi nodded. "I do."

I do. The words echoed in Yoshino's mind. She imagined that someone somewhere would probably give their right arm and someone else's for the chance to hear Hiashi speak those words.

"Do you understand that we cannot accept what you are offering?" she pressed.

Hiashi sighed. "I suppose I'll just have to content myself with being your lawyer and your friend."

Hiashi's words brought a smile to Yoshino's face. Though she liked what she heard, she already knew it was probably just lip service. You don't tell a man like Hiashi Hyuuga he can't have something he wants and expect the subject to just go away.

Somehow, though, she didn't think it would be that bad. And for all she knew, her husband might decide to take Hiashi up on his offer.

Yoshino could only hope.

"Congratulations on your victory, counselor", she told the lawyer, swiping her hair once more.

They stayed that way for a few moments, two people facing each other on the deck of a yacht in twilight, the wind whipping sharply around them, content to bask in each other's presences.

Both aware that they were being watched from inside the yacht by a man with a nearly-empty bottle of very expensive sake in one of his hands.

"Hey mom, it's me", Yoshino heard on the other end of the line. She was delighted to be hearing from her son again so soon.

"How are you, dear? Is everything all right? How's Neji?" she asked.

Shikamaru sighed. "Mostly", was all he said.

Yoshino's brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Neji received a delivery this evening."

"What kind of delivery?"

Shikamaru cleared his throat. "A video delivery. Apparently some improper conduct in one of the garages was caught on camera over the weekend. The perpetrators were signed in as guests of this penthouse."

Shikamaru paused. "Do I need to continue?"

Yoshino sighed. Oh, well. It wasn't their first time being caught flagrante delicto on film.

Heavy breathing. Throaty moans. Sexual whispers. Nipples pinched to hardness. Icy lavender eyes glazed with lust. Thick fingers threaded through long tresses. Tongues tangled in urgent kisses. The intoxicating scent of mutual arousal in the air. Unequivocal submission. Slow, sweet invasion of the body. The decadent sound of naked skin sliding against naked skin. Unrestrained grunts of nearly intolerable pleasure. Mattress springs squeaking in vain protest. Nails digging desperately into heated flesh. A bloodless grip on lean hips. Bruises marking pale skin.

Hiashi…

Flaring desire. Abject begging. Passionate pleading. Gods please. Steadystroking. Brutal thrusting. Teeth clenching. Yes. More. Heat. Harder. . Yes. Pleasure. Grinding. Squeezing. Faster. Sucking. Deeper. Gods. . More. Faster. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Gods.

Fuck.

Eyes rolling back in blinding release. Fingers being sucked into a hot mouth. Sweaty hair matted to a pale throat. Cooling cum slicking chest hair…

Yoshino sat in her seat on the train, half-lidded eyes aimed at the blur of scenery outside the window that she really wasn't seeing. She squirmed unconsciously, rubbing sweaty palms against thighs she repeatedly squeezed together in a vain attempt to alleviate a throbbing that had only just begun. Tiny whimpers escaped her throat that drew attention from other passengers, but she didn't notice.

She needed the train to go faster.

A/N: We are very close to the end of this story.

In the next chapter there will be het action, so be ready.

Reviews?