"We have to do what… now… exactly…?" Said a voice that, normally devoid of emotion, was filled with multiple feelings the man was feeling. The much older woman behind the desk stared at the two men in front of her and sighed. She shook her head once, sat back and eyed the man that had yet to move, speak or acknowledge that she'd just given him a mission that was more or less out of the ordinary for men to do.
"I said, and do not make me repeat myself again on this one Neji," said man winced at the tone she used when she said his name, his long hair flowing over his shoulder as he did, "that you two will have to go undercover for an undetermined amount of time, as a couple, living together, fake sex, holding hands, even probably goofy love struck looks, the whole nine yards. This isn't something I can send Ino, Sakura, Ten-Ten or Hinata on. Shoot, if I even brought it up to any of those girls except Ino I'd never wake up after my next bottle of sake, or I'd have a fainted Hinata on my hands. This would normally be a mission a female is given, but the leaders of this 'group of 'Rouges'' aren't especially fond of women, just men. They'd kill one of the girls or enslave them if I tried to send one in. This is something only males can do."
"Hai, Tsunade-sama." Was all that she heard in response from the man who'd spoken up, he wouldn't look at her though and she could tell he was fighting off either anger, or embarrassment, or both. She looked at the other stoic man who'd yet to do anything waiting.
"Shikamaru." He sighed, bringing his hands down from behind his head and looking down from the ceiling, his hair sticking up more from the ponytail it was in than usual since he'd had his hands wrapped tightly in the hair while being debriefed.
"Hai." She nodded and picked up a file and passed it over to the men. They both hesitated before Neji reached forward and grabbed the file and opening it wide enough they could both see from it. They quickly read the information together and handed their boss the file back.
"You start this on Monday afternoon, you both have till then to get… acquainted with each other and get your affairs in order. You will come back here Monday morning and get any and all equipment you think you will need and then you leave. I will have a line of credit set up for you so that you can get your own apartment, your own car, anything you need while on this assignment. But I warn you, do not over step your bounds. I had to severely punish Kiba and Naruto when all they bought was ramen, clothes and women for their undercover missions." They both nodded and Shikamaru cocked an eyebrow at the news about his co-workers and their exploits. "Dismissed. Have a good weekend." She winked at them and they left. Once the door was closed behind them they looked at each other and nodded their thoughts on the same track.
This would not be the first time they had worked together, in fact most of the time they worked together. This just happened to be the first time they did this type of mission, let alone with each other. They turned left and moved down the hall going further into headquarters where they would be able to get fake i.d.'s set up for them by Monday. Walking into a room with all types of glass cages along the walls on shelves or as tall as the wall themselves and all full with all kinds of insects, from common to exotic, anything the 'bug-man' could get his hands on they both waited, just on the inside of the door, for said bug-man to notice they arrived, or rather, to acknowledge them.
"If you want something, you have to wait a few minutes. You may also want to move away from the door here in a moment." They both stepped forward and parted sides, Shikamaru stepping left and Neji stepping right as they took the other man's advice. Shino Abarame stood from his chair, leaned over his desk and then turned around to face the door just as a loud shout came from an orange and yellow mass that had appeared where Shikamaru and Neji had just previously stood. "Naruto."
"Shino, You need to come quickly, oh, hi Shikamaru, hey Neji…" They blonde man stopped and greeted them as he took notice and Shino shook his head.
"Nara, Huuyga, what is it you need?" Neji cleared his throat after he'd nodded to Naruto, the blonde hadn't taken notice as he had turned to Shikamaru to talk with him. Naruto was trying to get him to join him for Ramen at the classic hang out place for them all here at this job but he declined politely. Neji took the opportunity to answer for the pair of them.
"Fake i.d.'s that are authentic, background's that go back to birth, with the two of use being a couple for at least one to two years prior to today, records of any kind we'd need if someone looked us up in a background search and new identities, preferably some that do not resemble our persons as we are now, all by Monday, by noon." Shino nodded and got Naruto's attention.
"Naruto, lead the way." The blonde smiled and waved Shino forward and all four of them stepped out of the office so Shino could lock it, he trusted no one with his collection of 'friends'. As Naruto and Shino took off down the hallway going further down the hallway they had originally came down the two brunettes turned and headed back the way they came, continuing past Tsunade's office and out of the building. They stopped and turned to look at each other for a few minutes, neither knowing what to say or how to approach this anymore than the other did.
"My place, 9 tonight. We might as well… make it official. Dress nice, we'll be going to the new restaurant that just opened up on Main." Neji ground out, clearly just as much as Shikamaru was at the moment. The long hair of Neji's was shining a certain way that Shikamaru decided, that if they were to make it official, he should start now and reach out slowly as to not startle the older man; who was only a year older than him, but Shikamaru felt he was still the smarter one; and ran a hand through the smooth hair before tucking it behind Neji's ear and giving him a rare smile while nodding.
Neji was slightly taken aback by this, he'd only seen Shikamaru's smile once before and it was aimed at his best friend Choji, who owned the restaurant they were going to tonight, when Choji had come to pick him up after they'd gotten into an accident on the freeway and Choji had started joking with him. Neji cleared his throat and shuffled his weight to his other foot and tilted his head just looking up at Shikamaru, who was only an inch or two taller, but he still had to look up to see his eyes, otherwise he'd be staring at those pink lips that he'd soon have to get used to kissing. Shikamaru took a step back and turned to walk away, a hand raised in a wave over his shoulder as he walked down the street to head home.
They may be living in a big city but that didn't mean Shikamaru would drive, in fact he nearly refused to. He had a license, had to have one in their line of work, but that didn't mean that the man liked being behind a wheel, it was just too 'troublesome' for him to exert that much energy in a moving vehicle to pay attention to everything he needed to. It was also the reason they'd been in that accident in the first place. They were driving on the freeway on their way back from a routine investigation where they asked the victim a few questions to see how they would approach their mission and it was about one in the morning.
Shikamaru fell asleep at the wheel, or had gotten lost in his thoughts; Neji still wasn't sure which as the Nara still wouldn't say. All Neji knew was he shifted awake just at the moment they headed toward the wall of the freeway and Neji jumped into action trying to steer the car away, but it was too late and they managed not only to hit the wall but also something in the road that caused two of the tires to go flat. Neji sighed as he pulled himself from the past and walked the block to the parking garage and up two flights of stairs to his car. He had a date to prepare for, he needed to get home and shower.
Hey, I have a poll for a Sakura fic, I need nothing more than a vote on who the guy should be, even if you won't read it. Thanks!