Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

This story was originally posted in ao3, and decided to post it here too since I had an account ^^. Had to change the title a bit, though, as it was too long for this website.

Enjoy! 3 And feel free to leave any comments or constructive criticism ^^.

1)

Sakura ran.

She passed through the trees like a cat, fast and silent, and climbed the one where her teammates, Neji and Shikamaru, were waiting for her. It was an unusual combination. Normally shinobi from the Leaf continued to work with the ones that had formed their genin team. Nevertheless, this task had come up at a moment where most chūnin had been separated due to special missions that only allowed two people (like the one Lee and Tenten had taken) while others were training away from the village (like Choji.) The nature of the mission, where a lot of quick scheming and discretion had been necessary, had also been decisive in the choice of shinobi (Naruto and Ino couldn't be discreet if their life depended on it.)

Now, however, the kunoichi wished her hyperactive teammate had come with them. They weren't supposed to engage with the enemy, but that had been in theory. And the other party didn't seem to agree with that.

"Shikamaru, I laid down the traps, but that'll only buy us some time. They've got two nin-ken with them and they've caught our trail."

The shadow-nin cursed. "We're still too far from Konoha."

"And they outnumber us, we can't face against them directly," Neji said. "Nara, I saw a clearing a couple of minutes north from here, we could-"

"No." Shikamaru's short answer made the jōnin frown.

"You haven't even listened to my idea."

"Because I know what you're thinking, Hyūga, and it's stupid and dangerous."

"Maybe slightly risky, but far from stupid. It's the best strategy and you know it."

"No."

Sakura sighed at the Nara's stubbornness. "What's your plan, Neji?"

"An ambush. I'll pretend to be injured and left behind in that clearing. When they enter it to kill me, you two can attack them from vantage points in the tallest trees. They are a big number but from what we've seen they are not very intelligent. They won't see it coming."

"I don't like plans where someone has to be used as bait."

"It's not the first time I've done this, Nara."

"Yeah, I know. I was there the first time we left you as bait... And I remember what happened," Shikamaru said darkly, his eyes dropping from the Hyūga's to his chest, a few centimetres higher than his heart.

Sakura inhaled sharply, recalling the almost fatal injury that Neji had gotten during their first mission to retrieve Sasuke. She felt her throat tighten. Shikamaru wasn't the only one who still felt guilty about what had happened.

The kunoichi then saw as Neji's features softened for a second while regarding Shikamaru before going back to his stoic expression.

"This isn't three years ago, Shikamaru. And you're not really leaving me behind. I trust you... both of you," he finished, turning to direct his words at Sakura too.

"I could be the one to do it, though," she intervened. "I could be the bait. They won't think I'm much since I'm a girl-"

"No, Neji's right," Shikamaru interrupted. "You can't be bait, you're the one that memorized those maps we came for in the first place, we can't risk losing that information. And Neji's got the best defence technique out of the three of us... It's not ideal, but it can work. Let's do it." Then he noticed the Hyūga's millimetre smile and added with a scowl, "I still don't like it."

The other one just rolled his white eyes. "No one asked you to."

…...

Neji lied by the tree line of the clearing, while Sakura and Shikamaru were up in the trees, one on either side of him; the leafy branches hiding them from view.

They didn't have to wait long for their pursuers to arrive. Like the jōnin had predicted, the group entered the clearing without a second thought, following their nin-ken. Obviously, none of the masterminds of the organisation were there, these must have been simple mercenaries. Nevertheless, they still had the advantage of number, so Sakura told herself not to underestimate them.

The enemy walked right into the trap with triumphant laughter and cruel smiles while the Hyūga pretended to groan from pain on the ground.

One of the mercenaries moved to the front of the group. The kunoichi didn't catch what exactly he was saying to Neji, but it didn't matter. It was probably the same boasting she'd heard time and again from insecure men, who were too busy trying to look tough by running their mouths to realise they were about to die.

Said dead-man-walking barked something that sounded like an order and three of the others threw their weapons at the prostrated shinobi.

They were in for a surprise.

In a second, Neji came to his feet and executed the Kaiten in the same breath, scattering their weapons in the air.

That was the signal.

A rain of shuriken fell over the confused ninjas from the trees. Shikamaru and Sakura took out the first six mercenaries in a blink while Neji scared the nin-ken away with a couple of flares and defended himself from the ones who were not trying to locate the two chūnin that were attacking them.

They soon found her hiding spot, however, and she jumped from her branch while deflecting their flying weapons with hers. Sakura dropped down to the ground with a fierce cry as she prepared her chakra-filled fist and cracked the earth, sending a couple of enemies on their back before punching the lights out of them.

When she looked up, there were still five of them. Three fighting the Hyūga. Then she heard Shikamaru.

"Sakura, get to the trees!"

She did without hesitation just as a smoke bomb exploded, the fumes swallowing up the people on the clearing. Next thing she heard were cries from confusion and pain. When the smoke cleared a few seconds later, there was only one mercenary left standing. Not for much longer, though, as Shikamaru's shadows were wrapped around his neck.

The kunoichi followed the dark tendril to its origin and saw Neji, panting hard but unharmed, standing directly behind Shikamaru. The Nara had a terrible expression of calm fury as he concentrated on their last opponent. She thought she heard the shadow-nin say something like "you won't touch him," but it was too low and she couldn't hear it well over the panicked grunts of the struggling man.

Finally, the guy fell to the ground, unconscious or dead, and Shikamaru turned sharply to Neji, his eyes checking for injuries. When he found nothing, his chest expanded in a relieved sigh, his face losing its dark edge, and Sakura would've sworn that she saw something more complicated than relief passing through the Nara's eyes. Then, however...

"I swear to god, Hyūga, if you don't wipe that smug smile off your face I'm going to shadow possess your ass into a tree."

The sudden threat amid the silence pushed a giggle out of Sakura's lips. They turned to face her as she walked to them.

"Sakura, you okay?"

"Perfect."

"Everything went according to plan," the Hyūga said with satisfaction, earning himself a glare from Shikamaru.

"Shut up. I still don't like it. And right now I don't even like you." He turned and began to walk as he talked. "Let's just get home so I can catch a nap."

Sakura shared with Neji a mildly amused glance at their grumpy teammate, but didn't notice the knowing, fond smile that formed on the Hyūga's lips when she turned away. Later she would dismiss that strange, soft look that had passed through the shadow-nin's eyes while checking on Neji as a weird play of the light.

2)

"C'mon, man, you gotta help me!"

"Actually, I don't. You got yourself into this situation, Kiba, you can get yourself out."

"You don't think I've tried!?"

Shikamaru snorted and continued walking along the street, probably to one of the nearby cafes to get his caffeine fix. Kiba didn't really care about where he was going, he and Akamaru were going to follow the Nara until he gave him some kind of clue about how to solve his current problem.

"It's been a whole week and Ino keeps ignoring me. And I wasn't actually flirting with that girl. I've known her for ages, she's like family, that's just how we take the piss out of each other..."

"Kiba, I know. You've told me five times already."

"Then why won't you help me!?"

"Because I don't know how and I refuse to lose sleep over your stupid problem."

"What do you mean you don't know? Aren't you supposed to be a genius or something?"

"At strategy, Inuzuka. I can tell you how to fight against 50 enemies and come out on top. How to face a scorned Yamanaka Ino and survive, however..."

"But this is bullshit! I wouldn't cheat on her. I... we... She knows I'm serious about her!"

"How?"

"What?"

"How does she know? Have you actually told her?" He took Kiba's spluttering as a negative. "Then how are you so sure that she knows?"

"Shit, man, I don't know. She just has to."

"Troublesome... Kiba, I know this might be a new concept for you, but... people in a relationship sometimes have to talk about this thing called feelings..."

"I think I'll skip the sarcastic asshole routine, thanks," the dog-nin replied with a growl. "Since when are you an expert on relationships? You got yourself a girlfriend or something?"

Shikamaru sighed wearily. "I'm not an expert on relationships, but I know Ino... even if I don't always understand her."

"So I should just... go tell her?"

"Yeah, you should go. Away from me."

"Asshole."

In that moment, Akamaru yipped softly and Kiba looked ahead and saw Hyūga Neji and that chick from Cryptology- Shiho- crossing the street a few meters away from them. They were both carrying small towers of yellow folders and seemed to be talking amiably. Apart from seeing the Hyūga being sociable, which was already weird enough, he also had his hair up in a ponytail. The confusion of seeing the jōnin so out of character, however, had nothing on Kiba's surprise when he felt the surge of hormones Shikamaru's body started to produce.

The fuck?

The shadow-nin was also watching the pair, and although his face expressed lazy indifference, his hormones sure didn't.

"Well, well."

"What."

"I got you this time, Nara."

"What?"

"So that's the secret girlfriend, huh?"

"... What?"

Kiba barked out a laugh. "Man, you sound so dumb. Shiho."

Shikamaru looked back at the girl with a confused frown. Then, as he understood what Kiba was saying, he turned back to face him. "We're not going out."

"Why? Haven't worked up the guts to ask her? She likes you, you know? She wouldn't say no."

"Kiba, I don't like Shiho. Where did you get that idea?"

"You can lie with your tongue all you want, but your hormones tell a different story."

Comprehension dawned on Shikamaru's face.

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Nope. So unless you tell me that you've got a thing for Hyūga's nape, you better admit already your huge, horny crush on Shiho."

Kiba watched with cruel satisfaction as his friend's cheeks flushed red.

"God, you're so annoying. Don't you have a Yamanaka to beg forgiveness to?"

The Inuzuka didn't even acknowledge the jab, he just walked away with a shit-eating grin on his face, sadistically pleased of having one-upped the Nara genius.

Shikamaru could deny it all he wanted, but the dog-nin knew what he had smelled. He didn't get why his friend was so embarrassed, Shiho was a cute girl... when she took off her super-thick glasses. They'd make a nice couple... although, now that he thought about it, maybe it would be weird, cause Shiho kinda looked a bit like Ino... But what was the explanation for what he'd smelt then? There hadn't been another friend or acquaintance of theirs other than Neji...

Kiba stopped walking abruptly.

Shikamaru and... Neji?

…

Naah.

Can you imagine a workaholic like Hyūga with a lazy ass like Shikamaru?

Kiba almost laughed thinking about it.

But that was enough thinking about that matter. Now he had to focus on his blonde problem.

He had a Yamanaka to hunt down.

3)

The sounds of people fighting got louder as Naruto approached the training ground.

When he arrived, he saw Neji and Shikamaru sparring, and... Shikamaru had his hands tied behind his back? What the hell?

Looking around, he located the person he was searching for, perched up on a tree branch, alternating between looking over the sparring shinobi and reading one of his infamous books. The Uzumaki climbed the tree to talk to him.

"Kakashi-sensei! I was looking for you!"

"What a coincidence," the Hatake said with his trademark cringy-eyed smile," I was hiding from you."

"What? Why?" the student asked, indignant and confused.

Kakashi sighed. "You're going to ask me to help you train, aren't you?"

"Well... yeah."

The copy-nin gave him a pained look. "Naruto, it's my day off."

"Day off?" he repeated, like it was a foreign word to him. Then he gestured to his friends below. "But you're helping them!"

"Actually, this is only training for Shikamaru. And I'm only supervising. See how I got Hyūga Neji to act as teacher?"

Naruto didn't ask why the hell he was getting involved in the Nara's training at all. Sakura had told him that Kakashi had been keeping an eye on Team 10 ever since Asuma-sensei's passing. Apparently, they had been very good friends, and the Hatake had taken the responsibility of watching over his late friend's students.

The Uzumaki turned to look at Shikamaru throwing kick after kick at Neji. Some of them were quite impressive... when he didn't lose his balance because of his bound hands.

"What's up with that?"

"Mmmh?" Kakashi hummed distractedly, attention back to the book. "Well, Shikamaru needed an expert on taijutsu. I'd have asked Lee, but he's still convalescing from that thing on his leg. So the best next thing was Neji."

"No, I meant, what's the deal with the hands?"

"Ah. Remember I went on a mission with team 10 a few days ago, near Suna? Well, the enemy captured Shikamaru and tied his hands like that. I noticed then that he didn't have a very good technique when it came to using just his legs. Thus, this training. They've been at it for a while now, he's getting much better."

"And what about my training? I want to get better too!"

Kakashi sighed again. "Can't you ask Yamato?"

"I looked for him too, but I couldn't find him anywhere."

"I'll help you track him down in a few moments. I wanted to discuss something with him anyway." Then he sat up and raised his voice to talk to the other two teenagers. "Neji, I think that's enough of that. Shikamaru has learned those moves quite well. Now, there's one more thing that I think should be useful. Can you teach him the scissor kick takedown?"

The Hyūga answered with a short nod and positioned Shikamaru and himself side by side. Both of them were panting had, their clothes sticking to their bodies because of perspiration. Neji seemed to think of something and untied his comrade's hands only to bind them again in front of him, which earned him a raised Nara eyebrow.

"Not that I'm complaining, because this is more comfortable, but why did you do that?"

"We'll be falling on our back, which means you'd fall with your whole body's weight on your arms. In a real fight situation, the adrenaline would anaesthetize the pain, but right now there's no need to hurt your arms like that."

"Oh, good. Thanks."

"This is a useful move if you want to put your opponent on the floor. I will demonstrate first."

In a not-too-aggressive but quick move, Neji wrapped the leg closer to Shikamaru around the ninja's waist, and the other one behind his knees, effectively folding Shikamaru's legs and making him fall backwards to the floor. The Hyūga fell down too, perpendicular to the shadow-nin and with their legs tangled. Unlike Shikamaru, however, he could cushion his fall with his arms.

Shikamaru let out a harassed grunt. "Yeah. Ok. I got it."

Neji got up and helped the other off the ground.

"Alright. Do you want to try?"

The Nara nodded.

However, his first try didn't go too well. He folded the jōnin's legs, but not fast enough, and while Shikamaru did fall, the Hyūga caught himself with his arms.

"You did it wrong."

"No shit, Hyūga. Ugh, what a pain in the ass... literally," Shikamaru growled, standing up. He looked tired, irritated and aching from the whole training session.

Neji's face softened marginally and spoke in a calm, gentler voice.

"Give me your right leg." The chūnin looked at him warily at the instruction and hesitated for a second before lifting said leg in front of the Hyūga, who took it and placed it a bit lower than his waist.

"It didn't work because your leg wasn't high enough," he explained before moving the leg up his body. "Here is where it's supposed to go." He underlined this information by sliding his hand up the Nara's inner thigh slowly and pressing it against him. He also placed his other hand at the other's hip when it seemed like he was going to lose his balance.

For some reason, the shadow-nin didn't seen angry anymore and was focusing on Neji with an intensity that surprised the Uzumaki.

"You also lacked strength. If you do want me on the ground, Nara, you must wrap your legs around me much tighter..." the jōnin said in a deep, challenging voice while gripping the other's thigh, "and push me down."

Shikamaru's tired, heavy breathing had stopped. In fact, he didn't seem to be breathing at all. Naruto heard Kakashi let out a low chuckle. He turned, expecting to see him lost in his book, but the jinchūriki found his sensei's gaze, engaged and amused, on the ninja below. What was so funny?

He turned back to observe his friend's second attempt.

This time, he did it. Both shinobi fell to the ground.

"Good job, Shikamaru," Neji congratulated, although he seemed to be more pleased with himself. He sat up a little, putting his elbows under himself. "Moving from here might be a bit difficult for you since your hands are still tied up. But see? Your right leg is still over your opponent's stomach, you can use it to kick him," he explained, touching his leg again with one hand. "It will buy you time to escape while the other is winded... This leg is quite useful, don't you agree, Nara?" he added with a smirk and a couple of pats to said limb.

Shikamaru snorted, but with good humour. "Whatever. Just untie me already."

Kakashi shook head with an amused smirk.

"Well, Shikamaru's got it. Can we go look for Yamato-sensei now?" Naruto whined impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah." the copy-nin said standing up. "Ok, kids, training's over. See you around."

As sensei and student were walking away, the Uzumaki could still make out a couple of sentences from the pair.

"We can practice your abilities with you hands bound some more later, Shikamaru."

"You wish."

"I most certainly do."

The fading conversation made the Hatake laugh good-naturedly again. Naruto still didn't get what the joke was. Geniuses were weird.

4)

When Ino entered with Choji one early morning into the cafe where they were supposed to meet Shikamaru before leaving for their mission, they walked up to a very unexpected sight.

Neji was with their teammate- which wasn't so strange in on itself. Ino didn't know if the two geniuses considered themselves friends, but she knew they got along... No, the weird thing was that one of them was asleep... and it wasn't Shikamaru.

They were sitting on the same bench of a booth in the far corner of the almost empty establishment. As Ino and Choji came closer, she could see that the Hyūga had his arms crossed and his head tilted over his chest. His long, brown hair obscured a bit his face, but the kunoichi could see that it was dirty and that he had a scratch along his cheek.

Choji raised his hand in a silent greeting and Shikamaru put down the cup of coffee he was drinking to return the gesture. That's when the Yamanaka noticed that Neji was tilting slightly towards Shikamaru, so their arms were pressing against each other. The Nara probably hadn't moved so the poor sleeping guy didn't fall to the floor.

"Hey," Choji said lowly as he slid into the opposite bench, "is Hyūga coming with us?"

"Nah, he just got in from a mission. Apparently hasn't slept in a couple of days."

"Then how come he hasn't gone home to rest yet?" Ino asked in the same low tone as her friends, taking a seat next to the Akimichi.

"I found him on my way here from the Hokage tower. He told me he hadn't eaten much during the mission either, so I convinced him to have something before sleeping for 14 hours straight..." he explained as he pointed to their empty plates on the table. "I didn't expect him to do that right after eating, though."

Choji snorted. "So, should we wake him up?"

"Let's wait until we're about to leave. You haven't had breakfast yet, right? Eat first and then we'll see what we do with him."

Ino couldn't contain a giggle. "He's so cute. This is the first time I've seen him asleep. I wish I had a camera with me."

"I'm glad you don't," the Nara said, a corner of his lips lifting up. "His fangirls would go crazy if they saw that photo, and with my luck, he'd somehow end up blaming me. Don't wanna be on this guy's black list."

"Yeah, having your tenketsu points shut down must not be a pleasant sensation," the Akimichi chuckled.

A waitress came and Ino and Choji ordered their food. Then they ate while discussing things about their imminent mission, all the while accompanied by the soft sound of Neji's breathing.

"Gosh, I really don't want to wake him," Ino said when they finished. "Look at him! Waking up someone who looks so peaceful seems like a crime, like kicking puppies."

"You never have reservations about waking me up."

"That's because you sleep way too much, slacker!"

"Well, it's not like we can just leave him here..." Choji reasoned, but he didn't look too eager to disturb the jōnin's sleep either.

With a resigned sigh, Shikamaru put his hand on the sleeping shinobi's arm and called with a surprisingly gentle voice, "Hyūga?" Nothing. "Hyūga, time to wake up." Still no reaction. He tried again."Neji, you gotta go home."

That got an answering sound out of him, but nothing intelligible.

"What?" Shikamaru asked, drawing his head closer to Neji's in order to hear better.

"I'm home," Neji repeated, this time a bit louder, but not opening his eyes yet.

"No, you're at the Fire Cafe, remember? Gotta leave for that mission I told you of. You can't stay here."

That finally got him to lift his head and squint directly at the shadow-nin with slightly red, glazed eyes. Ino wasn't sure Neji was actually seeing him.

"Mission?" the Hyūga slurred.

"Yeah," Shikamaru said, still not moving away. "But that's just me. You gotta get home and sleep, ok?"

"Ok," the other answered uncharacteristically docile.

Then, he did something that had Ino's and Choji's jaw dropping to the floor. He closed the few centimetres that separated his face from Shikamaru's and planted a kiss on the corner of the Nara's lips.

"Take care."

The three of them watched paralysed as the Hyūga stood on unsteady legs and made his way out of the building.

The sound of the door closing behind him seemed to be the signal for Choji and Ino to explode in raucous, belly-aching laughter, while Shikamaru could only blush and shoot killer glares at his friends.

"I'll pay for your breakfasts if we don't talk about this ever," he said when they calmed themselves at bit.

"Wow, ok, then let me order something else for the way," Choji agreed, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes.

"Don't be troublesome, I don't have that much money with me. I have to cover Hyūga's bill, too, the bastard left without paying."

"Oh my god!" Ino laughed again. "You pay for his food and he gives you a kiss. You totally just went out on a date!"

"You're right! But I don't think it was a very good one, Hyūga spent half of it asleep!" Choji added.

"I'm sorry, Shikamaru, maybe you're not meant to be... but don't worry, there're lots of fish in the sea!"

Shikamaru just stood up ignoring his friends' cackles and went to pay at the counter, grumbling about troublesome people and needing new friends.

+1)

The apartment door closed as soon as the two shinobi were inside. The dark hallway echoing the sound.

With the privacy of closed doors, Shikamaru did what he'd been dying to do all the way to his new house, he pushed Neji against the entry wall and attacked his mouth with a passionate kiss. Neji must have been thinking along the same lines, because he showed no sign of surprise at all and kissed back without a second of hesitation.

The Hyūga hummed into Shikamaru's mouth. "Living alone sure has its advantages."

"The only good thing about a promotion I didn't want: can afford to have my own place," the other answered with a wicked smirk.

"I can't believe I wasn't here to see your face when they made you jōnin."

"Well, if you hadn't taken that long ass mission you'd have been here to laugh at me with all the others." Shikamaru said as he wrapped his arms around the Hyūga's waist in an easy embrace.

Neji groaned and rested his forehead against the Nara's shoulder. "Gods, never again. Especially alone with Gai-sensei. This last day I wasn't sure I would make it. Thank god you found us at the Gate."

Shikamaru chuckled. "Tenten started a betting pool on whether you'd lose your patience and kill Gai before coming back."

"What did you bet on?"

"That you wouldn't, of course. You're too much of a softie inside to do that," he teased.

Neji lifted his head and send Shikamaru a threatening look. "You better take that back right now, Nara."

Shikamaru's smirk stretched and his voice lowered, knowing fully well what he was doing when he challenged, "make me."

Neji took Shikamaru's legs from under him in a swift move and pushed him to the ground, holding the Nara's nape so that he would hurt his head, before pressing his own body against him. Neji kissed the shadow-nin hard, his tongue slipping between the other's lips just as the Hyūga introduced a leg between the Nara's. The older nin ground down his hips against Shikamaru's, who couldn't contain a low moan at feeling his lover's hard length against him.

"Okay, definitely not a softie," he conceded, even if in his voice there was not a hint of yielding.

Neji just smiled and settled their mouths together once again in a deep, slow kiss.

The Nara broke the kiss with a gasp. "Shit, Neji. Let's go to the bedroom."

"I need a shower first."

"No, you don't."

"Nara, I've been on a month-long mission. I really do."

"Okay, I'll go with you. You shouldn't shower alone, you're injured."

"That's ridiculous, it was only a bump in the head."

"Head injuries are tricky. What if you suddenly lose consciousness in the shower? It's a matter of safety, Neji."

The Hyūga bit back a laugh and shook his head in mock exasperation. Shikamaru took advantage of his distraction and rolled them, changing their positions and putting himself above the white-eyed jōnin before lowering his mouth to Neji's neck. Shikamaru's lips caressed the sensitive skin there with expert, open-mouthed kisses and the occasional scrape of teeth.

When he heard a sound full of want escape the Hyūga's lips, he lifted his head and murmured against the other's lips, "do you really want me to leave you alone?"

The only answer Shikamaru got was a push as Neji got from under him and stood up, and a yank as he was helped to his feet and Neji pulled him through the dark apartment, not bothering to turn on the lights.

"Not that way, that's the living-room. It's that door on the left."

Once they crossed the threshold, Neji began tearing the Nara's clothes off his body, and Shikamaru's heart started to beat to a rhythm he'd missed during Neji's absence. He remembered to close the bathroom door in the last moment, before the room started to fill with the steam of hot water, and their minds with the fog of lust.

…...

The bathroom door slamming shut left behind absolute silence apart from the water running in the shower.

That was, until the figures hiding in the living-room finally dared to move. Three people appeared from behind the sofa, two were hiding in some boxes Shikamaru had left lying around after moving his stuff, another one was behind the door... all the rest of the members of the called Konoha 11 came out from their hiding place, with party hats on their heads and a couple of banners congratulating Shikamaru of his promotion. They all shared shocked looks with each other before exiting the apartment in silence, waiting to be alone to finally explode with exclamations of surprise or joy or incredulity...

And later, when they were alone, an abrupt memory of Shikamaru and Neji behaving strangely would jump at the front of their minds and it'd suddenly make sense.

"Wait. So that time... Huh. We really should have seen it coming."