It was taking every modicum of willpower Neji possessed to keep walking in the opposite direction from the shack on the other side of town that Sasuke would be walking towards this very minute. Gritting his teeth, Neji forced his head low and kept walking, one hands curling into a shaking fist at his side and the other coming up grip the strap of the extra bag Sasuke had leant him.

"You need to relax. Sasuke has everything under control," a voice said next to Neji's ear, and he hunched his shoulders against the chill the words left.

"What are you doing here?" He snapped at the ghost who was floating lazily alongside him.

"I'm keeping you from doing something you'll regret," Shikamaru said languidly, placing his hands behind his head and glancing sideways at Neji.

Suddenly, the aura around the shack thickened so much that Neji could feel it all the way across the town, and he came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Like this," Shikamaru continued as if he had never stopped talking. "Keep going, Neji, or people will stare."

"What am I doing?" Neji whispered, the magnitude of the situation suddenly hitting him. He stumbled into the first alleyway he found, away from prying eyes, and gripped his head in both hands. "I let him go there all alone; he's in there with them all alone, without any weapons… Oh, God, I let him go! I went against everything ever taught to me, everything my family stands for, and abandoned him to those… Those monsters! What have I done? Oh, God, what have I-"

A hand suddenly slapped across Neji's face, shocked him into silence. Shikamaru grabbed Neji by his shoulders and shook him gently, gazing into his stunned eyes.

"You can't help him now," he said, enunciating every word as clearly as possible. "Sasuke made the plan and you agreed to it; it's too late to back out now. If you try to interfere, you'll only make whatever situation he's in worse. All you can do is trust that he can handle himself and do your part. Okay?"

When Neji remained slightly catatonic and didn't answer, Shikamaru shook him a little harder.

"Okay?"

"Okay," Neji whispered. "Thank you. I… I don't know what was wrong with me."

"Don't mention it," Shikamaru said, the creases around his eyes becoming a little softer. "I was an army boy, after all. I know how to snap someone back to reality when they need it."

"Right…"

With a start, Neji realized that Shikamaru's hands were still gripping onto his shoulders like a steady anchor, and he tried to pull back, embarrassed by the pressure. "You can let go of me now. I'm fine."

Neji thought he heard Shikamaru mutter, "That you are," under his breath as he pulled away, but it might have been his imagination.

Turning to the entrance of the alleyway, Neji peered out in the street to see if there had been anyone privy to his almost mental breakdown, but luckily the the street was more or less deserted. He was far outside the "tourist" part of the town, after all, so it wasn't surprising that the only people he saw were a few runners with headphones in far down the street and an old fisherman ghost leaning against the wall of a building a few hundred feet to his left. Taking a deep breath and smoothing his hair back to give the appearance of being put together, Neji made his way out of the alley and once again started to walk down the street.

As if to mock him, the sick aura backed off in intensity, then swelled in power again. Neji gritted his teeth at the feeling of powerlessness that swamped over him, but a gentle hand in the small of his back provided just enough pressure to keep him from stopping dead in the middle of the street again.

"Keep going, Neji."

That hand, that voice, provided enough strength for Neji to keep walking away from the dangers he knew Sasuke was facing. He had a job a to do, one that Neji couldn't help him with, so he had to keep moving. With a conscious effort, he closed his mind off from the sick aura coming from the other side of town.

"Good job. Just keep walking."

Neji flashed a scathing look at the ghost behind him. "I said I'm fine, Shikamaru. I don't need your input."

"Do you want me to leave?" Shikamaru asked pointedly, the challenge clear in his eyes.

Neji was about to retort that, yes, he did want the stuck up ghost to get out of his space, when he realized that he really didn't want Shikamaru to leave. Sniffing a little and sticking his nose in the air, Neji continued without so much as a glance behind him, even when he heard the low chuckle that signified Shikamaru's amusement at winning a round of whatever game Neji hadn't known they were playing.

It wasn't long before their destination came into sight. It was a small church, the picturesque kind often found in quaint towns like Konoha, and just big enough for the congregation of a mid sized town, like Konoha had been back when it had been built. The whole building looked old, from the trimming around the windows to the wrought iron gate, and not just materially; the very style and design of the church gave it a soft feel, like one might get when gazing at an elderly family member.

Nimbly, Neji vaulted over the gate, which was chained shut, and made his way up the gravel path to the door of the church building. When he tried the knob of the door, however, he found, to his dismay, that it was locked.

"It's locked," he remarked almost nonsensically, him mind already going on damage control. Where else, other than a church, would he be able to get a fresh supply of holy water?

"Of course it's locked," Shikamaru replied tersely from behind him. "What were you expecting? This is the twenty-first century; people don't leave doors unlocked anymore, not even church doors, and even the minister only comes in on Sundays."

"Why didn't you mention this earlier?" Neji hissed, turning around to glare at the ghost, who was regarding him nonchalantly. "Now we have to go somewhere else to get holy water, and we just lost half an hour or more walking out to this godforsaken spot!"

"First off, it's not godforsaken; it's a church. Secondly, I'd didn't think it would be a problem." Shikamaru stared at the doorknob intently for a moment or two, then looked away again. "There. It should be open now."

Neji's mouth fell open. "Did you just unlock the door using telekinesis?"

"Of course I did. Why else would I be here?"

A scarlet blush started to creep over Neji's cheeks, and he chose to ignore the question in favor of pursuing the moral aspect of the situation. "You can't just do that! It's trespassing!"

With a sigh, Shikamaru flicked his wrist toward the door, and there was a click and it swung inwards. "It's not like we're doing anything wrong. We're just going to grab some holy water and leave."

"Yes, we are doing something wrong! We are breaking and entering, and into a church, no less! That is prosecutable under law!"

"So are a lot of other stupid things, like leaving up Christmas decorations up after February. And if you don't believe me, look it up. It is an actual law in Maine that nobody follows." Shikamaru floated a few feet inside the church, then turned around and raised a single eyebrow at Neji. "Are you coming or not?"

Grumbling, Neji stepped inside the church. "It doesn't matter to you. You're dead; you can't get in trouble with the law."

"This is turning out to be more troublesome than it's worth," Shikamaru said with a sigh. "Look, I can just go if you don't want me here."

"No!" Without thinking, Neji reached out and grabbed for Shikamaru's wrist, half thinking that his hand would pass right through, but to his surprise, he found a perfectly solid limb. Shikamaru gave Neji's grip an unhurried glance before looking back up at him and raising a single eyebrow, a motion at which Neji flushed, but did not let go.

"I mean, you can stay," he said with difficulty. "I want you to stay."

A smirk broke out across Shikamaru's face and then disappeared as quickly as it had come, leaving Neji to wonder if he really had seen it or just imagined it. Again, he was left with the strange sensation that he had just lost a round of a game that he hadn't remembered agreeing to play or knew all the rules to.

"You should've just said so in the first place," Shikamaru drawled, becoming incorporeal so that Neji's hand dropped through his wrist and placing both hands behind his head as he started floating towards the pulpit. Flashing a piercing look over his shoulder, he quipped, "You gonna stand there all day?"

Muttering about stupid genius ghosts and their insufferable attitudes, Neji followed Shikamaru up the aisles of the church to the front. Here, there was a small table covered with a silken tablecloth sporting two unlit candles and a plate set up in preparation for communion, an old-looking wooden pulpit, and a small electronic keyboard plugged into an outlet on the far side of the church by way of an orange extension cord. The bright orange spot or color looked very out of place in the aura of quaint backwoods religion, giving the church a modern, lived-in feel. Squinting a little in the dim light let in by the slightly grimy windows, Neji cast his gaze about the front part of the church and the first few pews.

"You have any idea where they would keep the holy water?"

"Not a clue," Shikamaru drawled, peaking behind the pulpit. "Hey, look: I found the communion wine."

"Most churches use grape juice now," Neji corrected automatically. "What do you mean, you don't know? Why are you here then?"

"Grape juice? Really? Well, that just goes to show how long it's been since I've been in a church. Being dead kinda takes the buzz outa that for ya." Shikamaru gave a lazy shrug. "And I was just here to make sure you got here and to unlock the door for you. I did offer to leave."

"Son of a-" Neji started to swear before he caught himself. "Well, now that you're here, the least you can do is help me look."

"Meh." Shikamaru made an annoyed face. "Troublesome."

But he assisted Neji in his search, flicking open the doors to some locked cabinets they found along the back wall of the church and even peering into a few of them while Neji was sifting through the contents of another. There wasn't much in the cabinets, mostly old family bibles and church records, and Neji started to shove them back when one old book fell from his grasp and landed open on the floor. It was a handwritten book of important dates and records for the church starting in the 1920s, and he was about to snap it shut and put it back where he found it when a name halfway down the page jumped out at him.

Nara, Shikamaru, son of Shikaku and Yoshino Nara, born April 12, 1922, baptized April 16, 1922. -Minister Senju

So this had been the church Shikamaru had attended back when he was alive. It made sense; after all, this was the only church in the area, and people back then had been expected to regularly attend church services. All of a sudden, the words Shikamaru had spoken earlier floated back into Neji's mind: Well, that just goes to show how long it's been since I've been in a church. Being dead kinda takes the buzz outa that for ya. It had been years - decades even, maybe - since Shikamaru had been in here.

"Whatcha lookin' at?"

The voice, coming from directly behind Neji, jumped him, and he guiltily slammed the book shut and shoved it back on the shelf. "Nothing!"

Even without looking at his face, Neji could tell that Shikamaru would be raising a single eyebrow at him. "You were staring at it an awful long time for it to be nothing."

"I said it was nothing!" Neji snapped, spinning around to glare at the ghost who had no reason to be looking as smug as he was. "Did you find the holy water or not?"

"Not yet," Shikamaru drawled, an amused look in his eyes.

As if on cue, another book from the shelf Neji had been looking at fell to the ground.

"You should probably pick that up," Shikamaru said in a toneless voice, turning away from Neji.

Scowling, Neji turned back around and bent over to pick up the book as Shikamaru floated away, but his hand froze a hair's breadth away from touching it when he was struck with the sudden realization that this book should not have fallen from the shelf. He recognized it: it was one that had been tucked safely away between two other books, both of which were still sitting securely on the shelf, so why had it fallen? Physics simply didn't work like that.

As his eyes flicked restlessly over the page it had fallen open to, Neji felt his body go cold.

Today we prayed for the safe return of a son of this congregation, Shikamaru Nara, who was drafted for the war in Europe. -Minister Senju, August 16, 1942

Physics was not that convenient, either.

Neji snuck a sly glance behind him at Shikamaru, who was facing the other direction and looking through another cabinet, all the while exuding an aura of innocence. With a sigh, he looked back at the book on the floor and pick it up by the cover. A section of pages flopped over, revealing another entry.

Today, we grieved the loss of one of the best and brightest young men of our congregation, Shikamaru Nara, who was killed in action in Alsace, France in the battle against German forces. -Minister Senju, January 7, 1945

Physics was definitely not that convenient.

From across the room, Shikamaru said in a quiet voice, "I found the holy water."

Quickly shoving the book back on the shelf and slamming the cabinet door closed, Neji made his way over to where Shikamaru was floating in front of an open cabinet, wondering how he was supposed to feel after learning something like that. It wasn't as if he didn't know that Shikamaru was dead - he was, quite obviously, a ghost - and the phantom had already told Neji that he had fought in World War 2, so what was tearing him up inside?

Perhaps it was the fact that Shikamaru had died overseas, and it was the strength of his love for his home that brought him back to Konoha after his death. Or perhaps it was the way the numbers added up: Shikamaru had been only twenty when he had been shipped off to Europe to fight, and had survived two and a half years of the hardships of war only to die a few short months before his twenty third birthday, and a mere six months before the war ended for good. Or perhaps it was the echoes of the words that haunted him from last night, when Neji had learned more about the ghost than he ever thought he'd care to.

You know nothing of how I was promoted to an officer's position after I proved my worth, of how I lead my squadron to victory after bloody victory, or of the blood that rests on my hands.

Shikamaru stepped back from the cabinet and gestured to a vial within. "Go for it."

"But that's stealing!" Neji hissed.

"What do you think we've been doing this whole time?" Shikamaru gave an unconcerned shrug. "Besides, we need it more, right?"

"Hmph." Neji pulled the mason jar out of the bag Sasuke had pressed on him after he had reluctantly agreed to the plan. "I still have serious ethical reservations about this."

"Try not to think about it," Shikamaru advised. "Would you leave without it after coming this far? What would Sasuke say?"

Neji gave the vial one last long look before letting out a sigh of resignation. "I suppose. But I'm not happy about it."

"You don't have to be happy. You just have to do it." Shikamaru turned away and leaned against the cabinet, folding his arms and closing his eyes with a sigh.

Weighing his morals against his need one last time, Neji gave in at last and reached out and grabbed the vial of holy water, noticing as he did so the gleam that entered the slit in Shikamaru's closed eyelids that he was slyly watching him from. With a frown, wondering, not for the first time, exactly what game Shikamaru was playing, Neji unscrewed the top of the mason jar and the cap of the vial, and poured about two-thirds of the holy water from the vial into the jar, which filled the jar up about halfway.

"You're not going to take all of it?" Shikamaru drawled in a bored tone, more an observation than a question. "Why?"

Neji's fist tightened around the vial of holy water as he replaced it in the cabinet. "Some will be more likely to notice. If I only take some of it, the person in charge of this may not notice, but if I take all of it, they will definitely notice."

"Bullshit."

"Excuse me?!"

Neji spun around to stare, slightly horrified, at Shikamaru. He had never heard the phantom swear like that before, and it was jarring.

"Bullshit," Shikamaru repeated, taking a step towards Neji with a hard glint in his eyes. "Don't lie to me. They wouldn't be able to track you down for this, and you know it. The real reason, now: why aren't you taking all of it?"

Neji bowed his head slightly to put the jar back in the bag Sasuke had leant him, and a section of his hair came free from the loose ponytail he had tied it back in that morning and fell in front of his face, hiding his expression. "I just thought… What if someone else uses that holy water for protection, like people like Sasuke and me do? Taking it all could potentially put someone at a disadvantage that could cost them something. I couldn't do that."

Clap.

The sharp sound made Neji jerk his head up abruptly just in time to see Shikamaru bring his hands together again in a slow clap.

"Bravo, Neji," he said, and it was impossible for Neji to tell whether he was being sarcastic or not. "Such a moral compass. You must be proud of yourself. You see, an army man like me learns to take what he needs to survive and damn all the rest, but you just potentially gave up your life for someone else's."

A cold shiver went down Neji spine as if he had just swallowed an uncomfortably large chunk of ice. He hadn't thought of it that way when he had done it, but having holy water on hand could sometimes shift the balance between life and death in a fight with a dangerous ghost. Leaving some for someone else could mean that he might run out somewhere crucial, and that could have disastrous consequences. Almost subconsciously, Neji's grip tightened around the strap of the bag, and his gaze flickered back towards the cabinet. Should he take the rest of it? It wasn't that much, and the chances of there being someone who actually used it against ghosts was very low…

All on a sudden, Neji noticed the way Shikamaru was regarding him, with eyes too bright for casual observation, and his blood heated. That damned ghost was testing him, to see if he really would leave the rest of the holy water once he knew the potential ramifications of his actions. Well, Neji had lost to the arrogant phantom several times now, and maybe more without even knowing it, so he was damn well sure that he wasn't going to lose this time!

The only question was, which was the right course of action?

Shikamaru could be daring Neji to stay with his morals, and his little speech might be a way of seeing how far he would stick to them. But then again, he could be goading him into taking the rest of the holy water in order to see if his logical brain would overcome his sense of morals. There was no clear winning option that Neji could see. If he took the holy water, Shikamaru might think him someone who goes back on their word, but if he didn't take it, he might think him illogical. Neji's eyes narrowed into slits as he regarded Shikamaru in tight silence for a few seconds, trying to glean what the right course of action was, but the phantom kept his expression as tightly closed off as an undiscovered island is to the outside world.

Finally, Neji accepted that he wasn't going to be able to figure out what to do just by studying Shikamaru, so he turned his gaze to the still open cabinet and the mostly empty vial of holy water within. It seemed to mock him in it it's stillness, begging him to grasp it again and pushing him away at the same time.

The only way to 'win' this, Neji realized, was to forget all about Shikamaru and try to decide on his own what to do. All of a sudden, the whole thing seemed ridiculous, like one of those dumb moral questions people asked: If there were three people standing on a train track and a train was coming towards them, and you had the option to pull a lever that turned the train onto another set of tracks, would you do it? If there was one person standing on that other track, would you still do it? What if that one person was the most important person in the world to you?

Neji hated those types of questions, mostly because they tried to force situations into black and white and shades of grey, when they really were made up of so many more colors. The first time that particular question had been posed to Neji, he had answered with: only idiots stand on a train track they know is in use, and if they are stupid enough that they don't notice a train coming at them, they deserve to be taken out of the gene pool. That's why the Darwin Award was invented.

This question, too, was not black and white and grey, but a myriad of colors. There was a chance that the holy water was only ever used during sermons, or that Neji would never need even as much as he'd taken. The only thing he could do was guess and hope whatever he did came out alright in the end.

Firmly, Neji closed the cabinet door on the vial of holy water and straightened his shoulders. "Then I'll just have to make sure not to run out of it, then," he said with a confidence he didn't really feel, then turned and started walking back out of the church without waiting for Shikamaru to react.

He was almost out the door when he felt a spectral hand ghost over his shoulder blades and a ghostly breath stir the hairs at the nape of his neck.

"I respect your selflessness," Shikamaru whispered quickly into Neji's ear, then floated through him, causing a swooping sensation in his gut, and stood waiting at the door.

Meaning, Neji had won that round.

Not wanting to show the phantom how much that had meant to him, Neji hid the smile threatening to sneak through his cool exterior and walked through the open door, closing it firmly behind him. He heard a click as he stepped away from it, which he assumed was Shikamaru relocking the door, and he inclined his head slightly in thanks.

After first checking around him to make sure there was no one who had witnessed his illegal act of breaking and entering into a church - which he probably would never be able to forgive himself for - Neji walked calmly down the gravel path to the front gate and vaulted over it again. Trying to look like he had a right to be there, he started walking with purpose in his steps, then slow led down as he realized he wasn't sure where he should go.

"You lost?" Shikamaru chuckled from behind him, and Neji hunched his shoulders as the only indication that he'd heard him.

"I'm not lost," he hissed from between clenched teeth. "I know the way back to the Hokage, I just can't go there right now. The way back passes too close to the shack, and Sasuke's still in there."

"Is he alright?" Though Shikamaru tried to hide it, there was still some concern evident in his voice.

"He's fine - I hope," Neji said grimly. "He's still in there, but there hasn't been any big changes in the aura, so as far as I can tell, they're just talking."

Shikamaru cocked his head to one side, a thoughtful expression gracing his features. "How much longer do you think they'll talk?"

Shrugging, Neji answered, "It's impossible to tell, but I think it will take some time yet. The auras of the Akatsuki aren't belligerent, but they aren't exactly peaceful either."

"Can you sense Sasuke's aura? How's he doing?"

But Neji shook his head. "I can't sense humans like I can sense the aura of spirits. I know he's there and alive, but everything else is too fuzzy to make out."

"So…" Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets. "You have some time before you have to go back?"

"I guess you could say that…" Neji frowned a little, scratching his chin. "I was just planning on staying around here until I felt him move, then go back to the Hokage."

"I have a better idea."

Without warning, a very corporeal hand grabbed Neji's wrist and started pulling him along the sidewalk, and Neji had no choice but to stumble along after the insistent ghost. To any passerby, it would have looked strange, a teenage boy stumbling down the street, pulled along by an unseen force.

"Where are you taking me?"

"It's a secret," Shikamaru called over his shoulder, an uncharacteristic grin spreading across his face.

The phantom's energy was infectious, and Neji couldn't keep a matching grin from spreading across his own face. "It's too troublesome to tell me, you mean."

A sudden, crystalline laugh exploded out of Shikamaru, shocking Neji. "That, too."

They moved in silence for a while, until the houses and buildings faded from sight and trees took their place, becoming thicker and thicker until they blocked the town from view. Here they slowed their pace a little, but Shikamaru still didn't let go of Neji's wrist, as if he was afraid Neji would turn back if he wasn't pulling him forward.

Shikamaru changed direction abruptly and pulled Neji along a dirt road that came off the main asphalt road and was barely wide enough for two cars to drive side by side on. As the minutes progressed and they got further and further from civilization, the road narrowed until it was barely big enough for one car, but there were still multiple pairs of ruts in the dirt.

"Locals use it for 4-wheeling and Snowmobiling in the winter," Shikamaru said by way of explanation to Neji's questioning look.

As they went around a corner, the area widened into a circle of crushed rock with picnic benches off to the side. At the opposite end of the area from where Neji and Shikamaru had entered was a large sign that proclaimed: Welcome to the Konoha Nature Trail Network!

Neji's eyebrows rose in incredulity. "A nature trail? You think we should take a hike?"

"Not quite." Shikamaru dropped Neji's wrist and floated ahead of him, heading toward a portion of woods that definitely did not have a trail. "This way."

"What way? There's nothing there!"

But Shikamaru faded through the outermost trees and woodland debris, disappearing like a phantom in the mist - pun intended - and leaving Neji to gape almost senselessly after him.

Seriously, what was with this ghost? He aids Neji in breaking and entering into a church, provokes him into stealing something from the same church, then brings him here and expects him to follow through the woods on some kind of pointless jaunt. Well, Neji wasn't going to do it. He was not a nature person, and there wasn't anyone who could convince him otherwise. Besides, he wasn't dressed for it, with his meticulously clean suit jacket and his footwear that would be more at home squeaking across a linoleum floor than traipsing about the woods.

"Shikamaru, I'm not going in there! There are bugs and ticks and dirt in the woods, and I'm not going to take part in any of it."

A chuckle emanated from the shadows of the woods, the only indication that Shikamaru had heard him. The artificial dark from between the trees began to grow, trying to entice Neji with its dappled pools of light and unlight.

Suddenly a little nervous to be alone, Neji took a step backwards, towards the nearest picnic table. "Shikamaru?"

"Follow me."

"But I don't want to," Neji said petulantly, stubbornly folding his arms across his chest.

"Follow me, Neji."

"Why? What's so special about this place?" Neji argued, gesturing to the woods at large. "Why do you want me to go with you?"

"Just follow me, Neji. Or I'll go without you." The voice trailed off, as if the speaker was moving further into the woods.

Neji felt a cold thrill go up his spine, though he tried to deny it. Shikamaru wouldn't really leave him here, would he?

As the seconds ticked by and there were no more sounds from the shadows, Neji started to get worried. "Shikamaru?" He called out uncertainly, moving unconsciously towards the forest edge. "Are you still there?"

When there was no reply, Neji realized that Shikamaru had, indeed, left him, and the knowledge started a fire roaring inside him. "You left me, you sonofa-"

Realizing that he had been about to swear, Neji clapped a hand over his mouth just in time to stop the word from coming out. He had never sworn all his life, not at anyone or anything, and he wouldn't let Shikamaru have the pleasure of being the person to break that streak. Glaring at the shadows beneath the trees, Neji moved closer to the treeline, wondering if Shikamaru really had left him, or if he was just pretending.

He really had left, Neji finally decided. Shikamaru was far too lazy to play that particular game when he knew Neji would just follow him if he left. Curse that ghost and his powers of psychological perception! If there was one thing Neji hated above all others, it was being manipulated, and he had the feeling Shikamaru had already done it to him several times today without him noticing.

With a sigh and a great feeling of trepidation, Neji took another step towards the edge of the woods. That distinct line between clearing and forest was like the border between two worlds for him, and just as nerve wracking and uncertain as a rabbit hole or a looking glass. A feeling he refused to acknowledge as fear filled him as the shadows seemed to reach toward him, seeking to pull him into the darkness. He didn't want to lose control and be pulled somewhere he didn't belong, but if he went of his own volition, he wasn't losing control. Gritting his teeth and taking one final deep breath, Neji fisted his hands to stop the trembling he wouldn't admit was affecting him and plunged into the woods.

The first thing Neji noticed was that the woods were not as dark as they appeared from the outside. It was dim, and there were shadows, but they took the form of dappled patterns of light and dark rather than pools of pure blackness. The low hanging branches of small trees and ground debris sought him and caught at his clothing, doing their best to keep him in place as he tried his best to fight his way forward.

"Shikamaru!" He snapped, pulling his pant leg free from a raspberry plant that decided to get too attached. "Don't you dare just go off and leave me behind!"

"Are you coming?" The voice echoed teasingly from up ahead.

"Wait up! I can't just float through things like you!" Neji angrily batted a small, whippy branch out of his way, and it snapped back and hit him in the face. "Mother-!" He started to swear again, but cut himself off just in time. "Shikamaru! Where are you taking me?"

"Just keep walking towards the sound of my voice," Shikamaru called from just out of sight.

"How much further?" Neji tried to bat another small branch out of his way, and it, too, sprung back and smacked him in the face.

"Not much. You're almost there."

Muttering a few choice words under his breath, Neji pushed aside one last branch, and abruptly found himself at the edge of a small clearing.

The first word that entered Neji's mind as he gazed around the clearing was beautiful. He was a city boy born and bred, and had always preferred the bustling metropolis to the calming effects of nature, but there was something about the clearing that captured his attention and refused to let it go.

The ground was dappled in patches of shade and light, patterned in the shapes of the canopy far above, and carpeted with a thick layer of soft moss. All around the border of the clearing, large, drooping ferns glistening with crystalline dew drops brushed their dainty curling tips against the velvet green carpet as if bowing to a noble lord.

Slowly, almost afraid to marr the glorious emerald carpet with the dents of his footsteps, Neji walked to the center of the clearing, where Shikamaru was floating peacefully, his face turned upwards towards the sky and his toes barely brushing against the moss.

"For some reason, the sky always looks a little bit brighter from in here," he said a little dreamily, reaching one hand up towards the sky. "The blue reflects off the clouds and filters down through the leaves like a rain of sapphires. It's truly beautiful here."

The light danced across the arm Shikamaru had proffered to the heavens, and something glinted in the vibrant sapphire rain, drawing Neji's eye. It was a silver bracelet, like the one he had noticed Naruto Wearing the day before, but hadn't thought to comment on.

"What's the bracelet for?"

The words seemed to shake Shikamaru out of whatever trance the sky had put him in, and his gaze refocused on the slim silver chain adorning his wrist.

"Oh, this," he said as if suddenly remembering it was there. "I'd almost forgot I had it on, I'm so used to it now. It's a bracelet made out of a special kind of silver alloy that interacts with spirits but doesn't burn us. Sasuke gave them to all of us when he revealed our presence to Kakashi and the others."

"He gave away the secrets of his family to people like that?! Is he crazy!?" Neji stood agast, and the beauty of the clearing began to dim in his eyes.

"They had him backed into a corner," Shikamaru said shortly. "They thought we were demons and tried to get him to exorcise us. He didn't have a choice if he wanted to protect us. Also, kindly refrain from shouting when you're in this place. Raised voices do it more harm than good."

Quieter, Neji apologized, "Sorry." Around him, the clearing retook its former beauty, though it felt slightly strained, as if the very air was waiting in fear to another outburst.

"That's better." Shikamaru allowed his body to tilt back until he was almost horizontal, parallel to the ground and hovering about a foot away from it. "Come here."

"Why?" Neji asked, but moved toward him all the same.

Shikamaru's eyes were closed, but when Neji stood next to his head, his shadow covered the ghost's face and he cracked one eye open to gaze irritably up at the human blocking his light. "Because the sky looks better from down here. Sit, and get out of my view."

"But I'll get my pants dirty-"

"Do you see any dirt here?" Shikamaru snapped irritably. "It's just moss, and that's just about as clean as it gets here. Just sit your ass down and stop complaining."

Biting his tongue against a retort, Neji sat down on the grass next to the phantom and tilted his head back, savoring the feeling of the sun on his face. To his surprise, the moss was quite a comfortable seat and didn't feel at all like he had expected sitting on a forest floor to feel like.

"Lay down," Shikamaru urged, settling his spectral body against the moss. "You can see the sky better that way."

"Why are we looking at the sky?" Neji asked as he did what he was bid, laying flat against the moss next to Shikamaru. The ghost, though he must have been at least twenty two or twenty three when he had died, looked about the same age as the other phantoms - in his late teens - and Neji's tall-for-his-age body stretched several inches past him on both ends.

"We're going to look at the clouds."

"Look at the clouds? Why?"

"Because it's a quiet and peaceful activity, and God know you could use some peace right now."

Neji let out a little laugh. "True. What exactly does this activity entail?"

A delicate snort echoed from beside him. "We look at the clouds."

"And?" Neji asked with a frown.

"There's no and about it. We just look at the clouds. We can make them into shapes if you want."

"Make them into shapes? How?"

"Like this." Shikamaru raised one hand up to point at a small cloud peeking through the branches of the trees. "I think that one looks like a fishhook."

Neji stared at the cloud for a few second before giving up. "I don't see it."

"It's almost sideways. Tilt your head a little."

Feeling a little foolish, Neji tilted his head to the side, almost knocking his temple into the spectral one beside him. "Oh, there it is!" he exclaimed, surprised that the cloud was suddenly no longer a cloud. "I see it!"

"Good," Shikamaru said next to him with a laugh. "Now try to find one yourself."

"Find one myself?" Neji repeated a little dubiously. "I don't know…"

"Just try," Shikamaru encouraged, and Neji swallowed nervously and pointed up to the sky.

"Well, I think that one looks like… like… like... sheep wool."

"Sheep wool? Is that the best you can do?" Shikamaru scoffed.

"Fine," Neji snapped, refocusing his attention on the offending sheep-like cloud. "It looks like a saxophone."

"A saxophone?"

"Yes, a saxophone! A tenor!" Neji sat up and folded his arms across his chest, sending a glare to the ghost next to him. "You know, you didn't have to ask me! You could just play your little game by yourself!"

Shikamaru didn't look at him, but Neji suddenly felt an invisible hand pushing him firmly back on the ground. "I can see it now," he said quietly, tilting his head gently to the side. "It does look like a saxophone. How'd you come up with that?"

"I actually… play the saxophone," Neji admitted.

"Really?"

Folding his arms over his chest, Neji muttered, "Well, you don't have to act so surprised about it."

"Are you any good?"

"Of course I'm good!" Neji snapped, affronted. "I'm a Hyuuga! We are never not good at anything we do!"

"Of course," Shikamaru chuckled gently from beside him. "How foolish of me to ask."

Though the words were kind in definition, Neji got the feeling that he was being mocked a little. "Now what?"

"Well, I pointed out a cloud, then you did, so it's my turn again." Shikamaru pointed to another cloud half hidden behind an overhanging branch. "I think that one looks like a rook."

"The giant bird?" Neji asked with a frown.

"No, the chess piece. The castle."

Neji tilted his head to the side again, and the cloud shape came into focus. "It does look like a chess piece. Hey, that reminds me. Why do you like to play chess so much? I've been meaning to ask you for a while."

Shikamaru didn't respond at first, and the silence that stretched between them was so long that Neji thought the ghost might have slipped away when he wasn't looking, but when he turned his head to look over at the phantom, he was still there, his face overtaken in an expression of concentration.

"That one looks like a tank," he finally replied, gesturing to a different cloud.

Propping himself up on his elbow, Neji sent an unamused glare at the ghost laying next to him. "I asked you a question, Shikamaru."

"And I'm answering it," he snapped halfheartedly, and Neji felt himself getting pushed down by an invisible force again. "Just pay attention, will you? Do you see it?"

"Yes, I see it," Neji answered testily, still not seeing the point.

"And that one's an AK47, and that one's a gas mask, and that one's a grenade." Shikamaru swung his arm up, pointing to one cloud after another. "If I look harder, I can see other things - a cat, a bear, and an oni mask - but that's what I first see. These are the bloody instruments of war, the tools I was most accustomed to in my life immediately before I died. I suppose that's why I can't really let go of them. Chess represents the art of war, but it's just a game. In a game, no one ever gets hurt."

The sunlight filtering through canopy was warm against Neji's face, but Shikamaru's words made him feel cold. "People can be hurt by games, too."

"Not if you're the one who writes the rules."

Neji turned his head to the side to look at Shikamaru watching the sky, and was unexpectedly confronted with his dark gaze boring into his own. It seemed to be trying to communicate something, but what he was trying to say, Neji couldn't tell. Eventually, Shikamaru looked back up at the sky, but Neji kept watching him.

"That one looks like a big mustache, don't you think?"

"Mmm-hmm," Neji answered, but didn't turn his gaze up to the clouds.

"And that one… perhaps a tree? No it look more like a spade. What do you think?"

"Yes," Neji breathed out, his eyes still locked on Shikamaru. The light was drifting over the ghost's face, shining on him and through him in equal measure, and the translucent quality it have his skin was more eye-catching than the sapphire rain or emerald carpet or the crystalline dew.

Softly, Shikamaru continued his analysis of the clouds, but Neji stopped listening to the words he was saying and focused instead on his tone of voice and the way it washed over him like the light was washing over Shikamaru: brightly, and just as warm. The lull of Shikamaru's voice was like the soft drone of honey bees mixed with the roughness of a footstep on a gravel path and the deep, rich tones of a cello. It was a drug, the sound of that voice, and Neji suddenly found himself thinking that he could listen to it forever. The moss underneath him was softly inviting, the sun above was warm and comforting, and his own personal symphony was playing him a lullaby. What greater pleasure in life could a man ask for?

Almost without meaning to, Neji allowed his eyelids to softly close and his mind to, finally, find some peace in dreaming of nothing.

When Neji was curled up asleep on the grass, Shikamaru couldn't help but compare him to the fey-children and Druids of legend. His hair, longer than modern society's norm, his slim build that gave him an air of youth he didn't really possess, his pale white eyes, covered as they were with dark, fluttering lashes - these features all added to the illusion, and Shikamaru was loath to break it. When Neji woke, this Druid, this fairy-boy, would be gone, and he would return to his world of suit jackets and stilted English, a world where Shikamaru had very little right to belong.

Gently, so as not to wake his sleeping fairy, Shikamaru used his telekinesis to pick up the jacket Neji had discarded and fold it into a pillow-like shape, then slip it under Neji's head. He stirred for a second when the rough material slid past his cheek, and Shikamaru froze in his actions, but he settled down again without waking, fingers automatically clutching the fabric of the jack next to his cheek like a small child clutching a stuffed animal or favorite blanket for a nap.

There was something about the way Neji's hair, escaping from his ponytail as it was, was drifting over his face and stirring with every breath he took that hooked Shikamaru and refused to let him look away. That breath was life, pushing the delicate strands around like ropes of seaweed in an ocean current, or fronds of a willow tree swaying in the wind.

What was it about this fairy-boy that drew him in? Paradoxically, every piece of information Shikamaru revealed about himself helped him better understand Neji. Almost unthinkingly, Shikamaru reached out his hand to brush the backs of his fingers against Neji's cheek, only to have them ghost through his skin, as insubstantial as mist.

Right. Shikamaru was dead. Had been for fifty years.

The abrupt return of reality was like a harsh slap to his face. Shikamaru had met some ghosts who had forgotten their deaths in his time, but never before had he let it take him over. He was just glad that none of his friends had been there to witness his embarrassing slip.

What was he doing? Sharing his special place, and with a human, no less. What had come over him? This wasn't him; this wasn't the man he had carefully crafted himself to be. Where had that mind he had always prided himself on gone?

Far away, Shikamaru sensed the stirring of evil auras, then one clean spark, still untainted, expunging itself from their viscous grip. So Sasuke was finished with his stunt meeting. It was a miracle that boy was still alive, but he was a very good actor, and he had said that he had an ace in dealing with them, but had refused to tell anyone other than Neji. Naruto had been livid at that - that boy needed everything given to him at once; no sense of self-control at all, honestly - but Sasuke had insisted. Well, Shikamaru could probably find out if he wanted to badly enough, but he was just too lazy. And there was something else occupying him at the moment.

Glancing over at the peacefully sleeping Druid next to him, Shikamaru briefly considered waking him, then decided against it. The other phantoms had already arrived back at the Hokage; let them deal with Sasuke. His fairy-boy was tired, and he deserved to sleep.

Carefully, so as not to wake the sleeping fairy beside him, Shikamaru settled down next to Neji and gently brought their faces closer together, close enough that their noses were almost touching. The hair that was drifting across Neji's face was stirred by a gentle breeze, and Shikamaru was suddenly and unexpectedly swamped with a feeling of jealousy that such a timid personified breath of air had the right to touch his fairy when he himself did not possess that right. Unthinkingly, his hand trailed up to brush the hair away from Neji's brow, and he shivered at the touch.

Suddenly, Shikamaru remembered a conversation between the two of them, when he had dared Neji into playing strip chess with him, and a question that had never really been answered.

"You're not used to any kind of physical contact, are you?"

At the time, he had assumed the silence that followed to be an affirmation, and he didn't doubt his deductions now, but it was only now that he started wondering why. Neji was an attractive man - there was no denying that - and yet he seemed completely out of touch with himself and how others viewed him. He was overly formal, socially inept, and condescending of the contact of other people. What had happened to force him into this persona?

Shikamaru gently traced his hand from Neji's brow down the side of his cheek and across his shoulder, then trailed his fingers down his arm. Neji shivered at the contact, but didn't flinch away, so Shikamaru decided to push his luck and curled his hand over Neji's. To his surprise, Neji caught his hand and laced their fingers together, all without waking up.

Well. That was a surprise. So Neji spurned physical contact outwardly, but inwardly craved it. He was probably starved for the contact of another person, any other person. But Shikamaru wouldn't let anyone else put their hands on his fairy.

With a contented smile that bordered on self satisfied, Shikamaru tapped his forehead against the sleeping Neji's and closed his eyes. He had been doing nothing in Konoha for the past fifty-odd years; a few more hours doing the same wouldn't hurt him.