NejiShika

Chicken Pox

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

--

Oh, the joys of the morning after. Sticky, smelly, and painful…oh so very painful. Though, it's not as bad as everyone says it is. I bet I've been asleep a good while though, about…ten hours? I still need a shower. Though, if I get sex with Neji, I'll live with the pain.

Sitting up, I run a hand through my messy hair, hair tie obviously fallen out at some point, or Neji took it out. I walk over to the mirror, getting greeted by myself looking rather naked, generally messy and hair all over the place. I'm so glad gravity pulls it down…though it's surprising that it isn't still up, the amount of hair cement I have to use every morning.

I shuffle into the bathroom and start the shower, rinsing my hair as best as I can and getting off the sticky substance and sweat. I'll have to wait until I get home to actually have a proper shower, seeing as there's no soap or shampoo in the place yet. I cringe as I hear my stomach grumble: no food either I bet.

It's not long before I'm walking down the hall as naked as the day I was born, looking for anything that resembled what I was wearing yesterday. Oh, yesterday; a mark in my life I will always look back on and think: that hurt. But that's not the point at hand here; the point is to find my clothes.

I hear a knocking on the door, making me quickly pull on my boxers and trousers before running to the door. Opening it, I see Sakura at the door, Ino beside her, each with a little box in hand. They grinned at me and held them up.

"We brought gifts for Neji, is he there?" Ino asked, forcing the purple box into my chest. I take it and walk into the kitchen, dumping it onto the counter.

"No, I think he had to go on a mission. Thanks anyway," I replied. The two walked into the room, Sakura passing me the white box she held and looked around.

"It's nice, right?" Sakura asked, looking into the living room. "Can we go in?"

"Sure, I don't see why not…" I say. Ino walks further into the kitchen.

She pointed at the peeling tiles. "What about that?"

"I don't know; that's Neji's problem, not mine," I replied, grabbing my jumper off the table top before Ino could pick it up and pulling it over my head, and then following Sakura into the living room with Ino just behind me.

"So, do you live here too, Shikamaru?" the pink haired kunoichi asked. I shook my head.

"No, I live at home," I stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, you obviously stayed here last night…" Ino said, picking something up off the table.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, your hair's down, you were only half dressed when we got here, you wouldn't leave the house before ten normally in the morning."

"What time is it?"

"Nine thirty."

"So why are you here so early?"

Sakura piped up: "Because we wanted to catch Neji before he went to train, and we thought you'd be here." Well, I am here, and Neji's not here, so go away.

"He's not here and I am, about to leave and go home and have a shower, so we should all leave."

Ino held the candle up. "Why do you have candles on the table?" she asked.

"Err…because we have candles on the table."

Sakura went over and started to poke around too. "And a set of matches…" she paused before pointing a finger at me. "You were here last night, right?"

"I slept here, what do you think?"

"Which means you were here when I came round?"

"Yes…" she blushed furiously and cleared her throat.

"You should go have a shower, it's bad to … leave sweat and … other things on your body too long," she advised, grabbing Ino's hand. "Come on, let's go."

"Wait- what was that?"

I listened closely to Sakura's next words. "Last night they did more than sleep!"

Zzz

I turned back to see Ten-ten just behind me. I looked to my front to see Lee and Gai marching in front of me. I held the scroll tightly in my hand. Ten-ten noticed this and sped up a little so we were in line.

"What's wrong?" she asked, brown eyes blinking curiously.

"Nothing really…" I said. "Shikamaru might be mad at me for leaving without saying much though…"

She giggled and nodded. "I get you. You two really have something going, huh?" I tried to stifle the blush on my cheeks.

"Never really thought about it…"

"Neji, trust me, when you're constantly thinking about what the other person's thinking about, you're in love. I bet he's thinking about you right now…" I shrugged and dropped the conversation. All Shikamaru ever thinks about is clouds and sleep, nothing that would make the brain have to work.

Zzz

"Mum, I'm home!" I called, opening the door and wiping my feet on the brown mat. I walked into the living room and dropped a set of keys on the table; I'm sure Neji will come get them.

I turned to see my dad standing in the door. "Does that mean you're moving out?" he asked.

"No, it means Neji's moving out of his house, but had to go on a mission while I was asleep. He's not going to lock me in a tiny apartment while he's off in some random country," I corrected.

"So that's where you were last night…I see," he has this awful, perverted look on his face. I can't do much though, whatever he's thinking I did last night, I probably did do. Oh, I love sex…Neji's just the plus. Eh, I'd die if he ever knew I thought that, though I don't really.

"Yes dad, that's where I was last night. No dad, I don't need another talk. Yes dad, telling mum isn't an option," he grinned. "Now, anything else?"

"Did you have fun in Neji's new apartment?"

I should've seen that one coming. "Yes, lots of fun."

"Good, I'm glad to hear it," my mum came in the room a few moments later and saw the keys on the table.

"Oh, Shikamaru, are you moving out?"

I groaned. "No, I'm not moving out! It's Neji who is moving out of his home!"

"I see, so you've gotten a set of his keys? That's cute!" she exclaimed, ready to go out the room.

"They're his, he's out on a mission," I slumped onto the sofa. "At least, I think he's on a mission…he randomly disappeared while I was sleeping…asshole."

"Aw, that's a shame! You should go to Tsunade-sama and ask when he's coming back," she suggested before walking out the room. My dad looked at me incredulously.

"You're not going to actually go down to Tsunade-sama and ask about Neji, are you?"

"Why not? He's randomly left so I'm going to go make her life hell. Sounds like fun," I stood and grabbed the keys, walking past my dad and out the door. "Good-bye."

Zzz

A simple mission and it needs all four of us to go on it? You could send a squad of genins, I'm sure everything would run smoothly, they're just over reacting, the little fuck-tards.

"Neji, are you ok, you look…angry," Lee asked. I forced a smile.

"I'm fine, peachy, never been better, leave me the hell alone."

"Ok," he walked off to Ten-ten, looking a little scared. Can't blame him though, I don't normally say much on missions, let alone smile. I go back to looking down at the grass. Gai-sensei said it would be a good idea for us to have a lunch break.

"Neji, you didn't need to snap at Lee like that!" Ten-ten said, now next to me with a frown on his face. "You may miss Shikamaru, but don't take it out on others!"

"I don't miss anyone," I snapped, standing from my rock and waving her off. "There's nothing wrong."

"Sure, you're not normally friendly to us, but you're never this bad anymore!" she said. Gees woman, shut up.

"I'm fine Ten-ten, nothing's wrong!" I insisted. "Now, can we go back yet?"

"We'll have to go find Gai-sensei, he's not come back from the woods yet…" she said. I nodded and started to the trees.

"Let's go find him then," she nodded at my words and motioned for Lee to follow us, and the three of us walked into the woods, calling out for our teacher. We got quite far in before we heard the clashing over blades. I activated my byakugan and searched the woods for anything close. I stiffened at what I saw.

"What's wrong?" Lee asked.

"There's a four man squad with him, trying to attack him," I jumped forward; Lee and Ten-ten close behind. This was not my day. I hid myself up in a tall tree and looked down on the fight. They looked a bit too much for Gai-sensei. I motioned for Ten-ten to start her attack, seeing as she was the only one with a far-ranged technique. She undid some scrolls and started.

The men attacking Gai-sensei started to panic as many weapons attacked from different places. They tried to deflect them, but one had a gash in his stomach from a random kunai. I signalled Lee to join, and he sprang in, bringing his foot over the top of a man's leg. I smirked as Gai-sensei and Lee took two of the men. I then noticed something wrong: what happened to the third and fourth?

My eyes widened as I heard a high scream from a female, sounding a lot like Ten-ten. Wincing, I jumped down to where she was and saw two men holding her arms, maniac grins on their faces as they looked down at her. She looked petrified and her strings were snapped, making her weapons useless. I saw one man start to fondle with her shirt and growled so they could hear me.

One turned to me, frowning somewhat. I got into position, one hand back and one up, palm facing him. He didn't look pleased at all. Ten-ten took the moment to swing her legs round and kick one man in the face, making the other let go. Before he could do anything I stormed at him, ready for a good go.

I looked around as he jumped up, trying to find him. This was strange: I couldn't see him. Cringing, I pulled something out of my blind spot, a needle with a purple top in my hand. Damn it, poison darts?

"Oh, I've fought a Hyuuga before; let's say I learn from my mistakes."

"Well then, I'll have the grace of being your last."

Zzz

I strode into the Hokage's office and crossed my hands, keys dangling on my middle finger. The blonde woman looked up, her assistant pausing from taking paper to different places. A fine blonde brow rose and looked at me curiously.

"Can I help you, Shikamaru?" she asked, putting a paper down. She then noticed the keys. "Ah, did you decide to move out?"

"No, they're Neji's," realization sprung into her eyes and she shifted her position. Shizune quickly went back to her work.

"So, I'm guessing you're here about Neji?" I nodded. "Well, he was sent on a night mission."

"So, where is he now? It's what…after lunch? No longer night I don't think," I know, I must've sounded really, really crabby, but I can't help it!

She pierced her lips and I knew something was wrong. "You have to understand Shikamaru, they're only three or four hours late at the moment-"

"What?! That's about five hours too many for me!"

"Shikamaru, please, calm down…" the blonde woman said, rubbing her temples.

"Calm down?! Excuse me for worrying, my fucking lover is out somewhere, and fuck knows where he is!"

"Shikamaru, please, we're trying to find him!"

"Well try faster! I'm tried, I'm stressed, I'm worried, and I want sex."

"…Err, Shikamaru…" I turned to Shizune and flustered.

"Crap, forget I ever said anything."

"Gladly," the black haired woman went back to her work.

"No, I like this topic!"

"Tsunade-sama!" we both exclaimed. The old woman shrugged.

"Well, we need something to pass the time, right?"

Shizune fumed slightly. "You're work?"

"Work can be saved for later, please Shikamaru, let's go into your relationship with Neji: is he treating you well?" I saw no escape rout.

"I…guess," I rubbed the back of my neck.

"Your hair's down, I've never seen it like that before," Shizune pointed out.

"Err, I got home and went back out…I forgot to put it up."

"You got home? As in, you weren't already at home?"

"Well, I spent the night…elsewhere," Tsunade smirked.

"Oh? Not at Neji's by any chance?" evil woman.

"Yeah…at Neji's," her smirk widened.

"I see. Well now Shikamaru, don't you worry, we'll find Neji and I'll inform him that you feel lonely and need gay sex from him, ok?"

"What!" I gaped at her. "Hell no!"

"But you even said yourself 'I want sex' when you were saying how much you missed Neji."

"I don't miss anyone. I just want to know where he is."

"Because you want sex," I glared at her.

"Old hag…" I mumbled, getting a sake bottle in the head.

"Quiet you! You've been hanging around with Naruto too much!" she snapped. "Now, unless you want to go out and wait at the gate, get on with whatever it is you do in your spare time!"

Now there's an idea.

Zzz

I picked myself up from the floor and winced. I had a large wound in my left leg and upper stomach, and I think I broke something. Turning to Ten-ten who was beside me, she didn't look in good shape herself. Her hair was messy and one of her ties had broken, leaving it half down. Gai-sensei and Lee came into the scene a few moments later, cuts and bruises all over them. The only girl grinned sheepishly.

"Well, aren't we all a right bunch, hum?" she asked. The other two gave her classic grins while I just smirked. Wobbling slightly, she stumbled over to me, holding my arm.

"You ok?" I asked, holding her shoulder.

"Yeah…just a little tired," I nodded and let her lean on me as we started to walk out of the woods. Lee and Gai-sensei weren't too badly hurt, though Lee was limping a little, but so was I. Ten-ten was trying her best not to let all her weight fall onto me, though she didn't look like she could go on too much further.

I eventually convinced her to go on my back, telling her she'd be a lot less troublesome if she was out the way and on my back. She laughed at that and told me I'd been hanging around Shikamaru too much. Shaking my head we set off again, making out way towards the village slowly. The brunette was soon fast asleep, making it harder for me to walk. Gai-sensei took her, and Lee and I eventually had to use each other as crutches.

When we got to the gate, I felt like I was about to faint. My knees were like jelly and I could barely keep my eyes open, let alone stand. Lee was supporting me a bit more than I was him, which made me feel somewhat guilty. He pointed someone out to me, who was running over to us, but I couldn't make out who it was. Everything was getting fuzzy and my head span round. I heard my name being called out and felt myself get closer and closer to the floor before everything went black, poison becoming too much.

Zzz

I paced up and down the white halls, biting my lip and twiddling my fingers. Every now and then Chouji or Naruto would manage to get me to sit down, but I'd just stand back up again. Sakura was standing, looking at the door with anticipation, while Ino, Chouji, Sasuke and Naruto were all sat in the chairs.

"Shikamaru, it's fine," Chouji said, grabbing my wrist. "He's in good hands!"

"No, it's not fine! Did you see him?" I snapped. "He was covered in bruises and cuts and had blood all over himself! He's completely beaten up and lost a lot of blood!"

Sakura turned to me. "You don't think they'll…" she looked down and shook her head before sitting next to Ino. "It'll be ok, right?"

"Right," the blonde said, rubbing her friend's back. "It'll be fine! You see, all three of them will walk through that door as good as new! Promise!"

I wasn't convinced. "Shikamaru, come and sit down!" Naruto pleaded. I agreed and sat next to him, elbows on my knees and my chin on my hands and my thumb spinning round each other.

"Do you really need to twiddle your thumbs?" Ino asked.

"Builds character. Shut up," I replied. Chouji patted her knee and smiled somewhat, getting her to nod about something. I hope they'll leave me alone…

I stood, pacing back and forth, up and down the hall. I'm surprised there isn't a hole in the floor; I must've been pacing for a good hour.

Everyone's head snapped towards the double doors to see them open: Lee walking through with bandages all over, grinning. I started to pace again. Sakura sprung up and hugged the man, sobbing a little, exclaiming how happy she was that he was ok. Where the hell was Neji?

"Don't worry, Shikamaru! Neji's doing very well; they have to extract some poison, that's all!"

I stopped and faced him feeling colour drain from my face. "Poison? I never got told about any poison, all I got told about was something broken and chakara loss!" I snapped. The black haired male laughed sheepishly.

"Oh, sorry…it's best you know though, right?" Sakura asked. I glared at her somewhat and sat back down next to Naruto, resuming the same position as before. The blond male next to me smiled reassuringly and rubbed my back. I turned to him, and then to Chouji, seeing the same look on his face. I ran a hand through my hair, which was still down, framing my face.

Lee noticed this. "Shikamaru, your hair…it's down," he said, pointing at the dark brown locks.

"I didn't have time this morning. I was running round and…it was a bit frantic," I explained. I heard Ino giggle from the other side of the room and I glared at her, though Sakura was trying to hide her amusement.

"So, did you ever get that shower?" she asked. I fumed slightly and turned away, resting back on the chair. "I'm sorry Shika that was uncalled for…"

"It was," I agreed. She came over to me and hugged me, beckoning Chouji over. "What are you doing?" I asked. Chouji grinned and walked over, coming round the other side. The two of them gave me a massive hug, which I thought would choke me.

"Chou…Ino…" I whined.

"If only Asuma-sensei was here, then it would be a real team ten hug," Ino said with a toothy smile on her face. I growled a little, but didn't do anything.

The door opened again and Ten-ten emerged, hopping along on crutches. There was tears streaming down her face and she was shaking slightly. Ino let go of me and rushed over to her, but as soon as she touched the girl, the brunette flinched away.

"Ten-ten…are you…ok?" she asked. Brown hair was down and all over the place, brown eyes frightfully wide. The middle Hyuuga came into the room and ran up to Ten-ten, her team just behind her.

"Ten-ten!" she exclaimed. Hinata didn't go to hug the girl, but held her hands out. Ten-ten's hands found the pale ones and sobbed.

"H-Hinata?" she asked. The white eyed girl nodded. "I'm so…sc-scared," she said. Hinata opened her arms and Ten-ten fell into them, sniffling on Hinata's shoulder.

I wonder what happened to make her so unstable. Kiba and Shino sat down next to me, Chouji and Ino going back to their seats, Sakura guiding Lee to a chair and Hinata doing the same for Ten-ten. I stood and started to pace, getting the other five that had been here all the time to groan in annoyance. The new five winced; obviously taking in the fact I'd be pacing a lot.

There was soon a door opening again. Everyone tensed and I stopped pacing, at the end of the hall. A nurse held the door opened, Tsunade-sama coming in the room with a clip board, and no sign of Neji. I felt tears prickle at my eyes and I clenched my fists.

"Lee, I have a medicine for you to take to help your shoulder wound get better. Ten-ten, I'd recommend you find someone you can handle being close to and have them take you around until you're comfortable again, maybe go and see one of the counselling doctors to help you a little, and give your leg a few weeks to heal," the tall blonde woman said, scribbling some things down.

I snapped. "Where's Neji? Where the fuck is Neji!" she smiled sympathetically at me. My breathing hitched and I felt wet crystals trail down my face.

"Shikamaru…" she started voice soft like she was talking to a small child. "He was quite unfortunate in choosing an opponent, the person obviously had faced a Hyuuga before, and he knew Neji's weak points and attacked them," I almost choked as I tried to stifle a sob. I felt arms wrap around me and felt Chouji's large hand run up and down my back, Ino's voice as soft as Tsunade-sama's whispering words of comfort to me.

"Don't Tsunade-sama, I'll end up getting the blame if he cries too much," said a deep, strained voice. I snapped my head up to see someone sat there, being pushed in a wheel chair by a nurse. Blue cursed seal shown, long dark hair falling in his opaque, cloud-like eyes, small smirk on his face that one would wear if they'd won something

"Miss me, Shika-chan?" I couldn't help it. I broke down in hysterics. I felt myself charge up to him, half wanting to hug him, half wanting to break his neck.

"You had me worried for fucking much, stupid asshole!" I cried, burying my head into his chest. My hands clutched at the hospital gown on his shoulders and my knees were on the floor and my body was lying against his, his legs open and my stomach pushing into the fabric of the chair seat. His gown started to get wet as I wailed into it.

"Calm down, I'm fine now, right? It's all ok…you're getting snot on me."

"No, it's not ok!" I argued.

"How is it not ok?"

I shrugged and nuzzled into his chest more. "I don't know, it just isn't."

He laughed and wrapped his pale arms around me, leaning his head down to my ear so he could whisper. "You know, Tsunade-sama said you were extremely lonely and wanted sex while I was gone."

"Fuck her then." I heard a slight growl from the blonde woman: our teams never really seemed to respect her as much as everyone else. Sure, we respected her a lot; we were just really bad at showing it.

Neji laughed. "Good thing it's not true, because I don't think I'm going to be getting much action for a while, and I have to stay in bed."

"I can work with that," I looked up at him, seeing mirth in his eyes through my cloudy ones.

"Good, now, how about you repay me for those two weeks that I just spent looking after you?"

I scoffed. "Don't think I'll be dressing up as a maid and giving you hand-jobs," I replied. Neji inclined his head behind me and I turned to see everyone else still there, some of them laughing a little and some of them looking a bit distressed.

"Fuck them."

"You really do want to fuck someone, don't you?"

Zzz

Shikamaru winced as a bright light shone through the window, lighting up the room. They'd forgotten to close the curtains…again. Swinging his legs over the bed, he trotted to the kitchen and smirked at what he saw: Neji clad in an apron, what a nice way to start the day!

He wrapped his arms around the Hyuuga's waist, nuzzling into his neck. "What you got cooking?" he asked.

"Fish, because I like fish, so shut up," he found his boyfriend had this habit of eating fish a pumpkin every morning. He slipped his hands into the apron and got the taller boy to moan.

"Shika-chan, I'm trying to cook!" he whined.

"Yeah, and I'm trying to get my boyfriend in bed again."

"So, you can still walk after yesterday?" the Nara boy scoffed.

"Yes, I can still walk after yesterday- barely, no thanks to you."

"And yet you want to go again? I'll make sure you're in bed all day."

"I can live with that…" the two broke from what would've been a very 'passionate' kiss as the door bell rang. Neji sighed and went to the door, opening it a little and poking his head around the corner. He chatted for a moment before shutting it and walking back over to the pan. The oven pinged and Shikamaru got out half a pumpkin, taking it to the chopping board and starting to slice it.

"You know, although it seems I'm generally the girl in bed, when we're outside the bed you're the one who acts like a girl," Shikamaru noted.

"Ch, yeah right," the Hyuuga started to get out two plates.

They sat down at the table and started to eat in silence. Shikamaru looked at his lover and saw the far off look. It had been about three or four weeks since the wheel chair had come in, and now Neji didn't need it.

"Neji, something's bugging you," Shikamaru stated. The white eyes male smirked.

"You've been hanging around me too much if I can't hide things from you anymore," Neji countered. The hard look he was getting made him sigh. "I was just thinking: you're basically here all the time, right?"

"Yeah…"

"And none of your stuff is here, it's troublesome to go back and forth between your house and my apartment, right?" the Nara smirked; partly at the fact Neji was using his favourite word, party at where this was going.

"Yeah, very troublesome," Neji flustered a little.

"So…wouldn't it be easier if you…I don't know…moved in?" he asked slowly, but quickened when he continued. "I mean, you don't have to right? I'm sure it's not too much of a problem, it was just a suggestion and-"

"Neji."

"Yes?"

"You're acting like a girl," leaning across the table, he crushed his lips onto the others to shut him up. They broke apart after a while, a long trail of saliva connecting them.

"Huh?" Neji asked.

Shikamaru shook his head a little. "That was a yes, by the way."

--

Kitty: random thought: would Shikamaru look like Shino when his hair is out Oo?

Rouge: well, I doubt they use hair cement, so probably…

-imagines Shikamaru with Shino's hair-

Rouge: X.x that's just weird.

Kitty: yesh, it is. AND the story is over XD sorry if anyone thought Neji was going to die, but someone told me not to kill him, so I decided I'd pretend to. Rouge's idea really.

Rouge: oh yes, blame me ;

Kitty: so, so long, until I get another idea…which I already have…-grin-

Rouge: O.o come on; let's go get breakfast before I starve.

Kitty: okai! Baibai peoples! Thank you to everyone that's anyone who reviewed! Especially those who left inspiring reviews, or reviewed all the way through D yay you peoples!

Rouge: foooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood…

Kitty: -.-

Ja ne

Kitty

CIAO!