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Break to Breathe	By : Okami-Rayne Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Shikamaru/Neji Views: 1958 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: NARUTO and its respective characters were created and are owned by Masashi Kishimoto. No copyright infringement intended. I make no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 34
- 35
- 36
BREAK TO BREATHE

by Okami Rayne

Chapter Thirty Five

"Shikamaru, are you serious?"
"Yeah."
No one spoke.
A long, awkward pause held around the circle of seated shinobi, exaggerated by various stares and expressions of disbelief.
All directed at him.
How troublesome…
Shikamaru said nothing. He retained a half-hooded gaze, his elbow set on the table as he braced his jaw on his thumb, rubbing his temple with two fingers. Only Neji and Hibari regarded him without doubt; doubt that Naruto expressed with a snort, blue eyes crinkling as he grimaced in an uncertain kind of amusement.
"You're seriously serious?" the Uzumaki said.
Shikamaru slid him a sidelong glance, rubbing oh-so-slowly at his temple. His flat expression was his answer. Apparently, this still wasn't enough to deter the others from sharing and amplifying Naruto's doubt.
Sakura looked at him as if he'd slipped a mental disk
I probably have.
"Shikamaru," Sakura drew out his name uncertainly. "So you want us to just—"
"—roll over and do nothing," Kiba finished, his nose wrinkled against the idea.
Shikamaru blinked slowly. "Prevention beats damage control."
"Yeah, and not getting our asses handed to us beats that," Kiba returned, snorting as he looked around the table for support.
The dog-nin got the majority vote, all exchanged in wary glances. Except Neji, who remained staring at the centre of the table, eyes calm but glazed. Shikamaru forced himself to stay focused. He released a slow breath through his nose and leaned further into the press of his fingers – as if he could impale his temple on them.
"Look, armed with their shinobi and that jutsu, the odds are in their favour," he said, screening the team's faces. "But they're operating from a fearful mindset."
"Which is a major disadvantage to them," Neji added tonelessly and quietly. "They're unstable."
Sakura frowned. "But they seem well disciplined as a military force."
Hibari glanced across. "They are well disciplined, but that discipline comes from fear, rather than earned respect or comradeship. They do as they're told to protect the community, but they don't think for themselves."
Shikamaru hummed. "From what Hibari tells me, they're gonna operate in their 'flock' mentality. That jutsu is their trump card. So the aim is to stop it before they can use it."
"Hence the 'prevention' part," Hibari pointed out.
"That leaves us dealing with their ninja." Shikamaru nodded to Hibari, watching the Tsubasa man roll out a map of Hanegakure across the wide circular table. "The key is to divide and—"
"Conquer!" Naruto grinned.
"Stall," Shikamaru corrected. "Or distract. It's about causing enough disruption without engaging with them directly. Their weapon is outright violence. Something we wanna avoid if we can."
"You want us to go easy on them when we already know they're not gonna return the favour?" Naruto cocked his head. "How the heck does that get us anywhere but dead?"
"This isn't a normal fight," Shikamaru sighed, as if he'd explained it before. "We're not in a win or lose situation with these people. We need to be in a win-win situation."
"Win-win?"
Shikamaru nodded, his dark gaze straying over the map Hibari had spread out. "Our objective is to secure peace. These are the Hokage's orders. We're not gonna be able to do that by getting into an outright battle. That will only make them see us as a threat."
"But we are a threat," Sakura said. "They know we're their enemy, Shikamaru."
"That's exactly my point. We need to make the village people, not Ozuku's ninja, understand that we're not a threat."
Kiba snorted, shaking his head. "Yeah and how likely is that? With this Ozuku guy in charge, they're not gonna sit us down for tea and hold a peace conference."
Shikamaru arched a brow. "I didn't say we're not going to be prepared for a fight. Knowing we can handle the violence gives us the power to negotiate."
"Not with that Ozuku freak," Naruto growled.
"No, but with the village people afterwards," Neji explained before Shikamaru could, his eyes still fixed on the centre of the table. "They must not be harmed."
"That's right." Shikamaru glanced across, but couldn't draw the pale gaze. "Ozuku's manipulating them through fear. He's a megalomaniac – but he's a smart megalomaniac."
Neji hummed and slid his left palm across the tabletop, as if to wipe away something that wasn't there. "He's used twisted ideas of faith and fate as a means to secure himself as a figurehead. Even the children believe that what he does is special rather than immoral."
Hibari nodded gravely. "That's the grim truth. Ozuku has convinced the people that their sacrifices to maintain the forbidden jutsu are for the protection and greater good of all." He paused here, breathing a quiet sigh. "Ozuku makes it seem like those who oppose him also oppose the people."
"Yeah, but they don't realise that their 'greater good' is being dictated by a freak with a God-complex," Kiba muttered, rubbing Akamaru's head when the dog set his muzzle on the tabletop, golden eyes watching Neji as the Hyūga sat back a little and rolled his left shoulder.
Shikamaru didn't miss the small movement.
Neji leaned back a little, his voice falling quietly. "Either way, they truly believe that obeying this man is the only way to stay safe. They want to protect the village and each other."
Hibari hummed, a sad smile twisting his lips. "This used to be our greatest strength, but now he's turned it into a weakness by redefining what protecting each other means."
"Yeah, sacrificing each other to protect each other," Naruto stated gruffly, a growl rolling low in his throat. "Man, that's so wrong. And with kids too?" Naruto's fist came down in a dull thud. "How the hell could they justaccept living that way, Hibari!"
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed at the snarled words.
He braced himself for the inevitable backlash as anger exploded in Hibari's grey orbs. But it was nothing compared to the icy look that Neji shot the Uzumaki. It frosted straight over anything Hibari might have said and it was twice as effective.
The Uzumaki frowned, drawing back with a scowl.
"They accepted it because no one ever offered them a choice, Naruto," the Hyūga defended, his eyes narrowing a fraction. "When the rebels tried to afford them that choice, they were sold out as traitors. The people don't believe they have any other choice but to follow this bastard. Lucky for you that freedom doesn't warrant the same penalty these people suffer just for considering it."
A glacial silence slammed across the table.
Akamaru ducked his head, setting it on Kiba's lap with a whine.
Great.
Shikamaru worked his jaw, seeking a quick way to thaw the tension. Without removing his left hand from his face, he swayed his right in a lazy wave across the map, drawing Naruto's scowl and everyone else's shocked stares onto him and away from Neji's tight-lipped glare.
"And that's all the more reason to play this non-violently," the Nara said. "Right?" he directed the question to Hibari, drawing the Tsubasa out from the brooding silence Naruto's words had dropped him into.
Hibari nodded, frowning. "Right. The people might react like caged animals suddenly given freedom. When they're taken out of a life of captivity, they don't always know what to do with that freedom or how to survive, so they'll need someone they trust to step in."
"And that someone's you, huh?" Kiba asked, only half-sarcastic.
Shikamaru's eye twitched at the barb.
Ugh. Is everyone deliberately trying to piss this guy off?
Hibari's frown indicated that he didn't appreciate Kiba's insinuation, but to Shikamaru's immense relief, he let it slide. "That someone is whoever they choose," the Tsubasa corrected. "I'll offer them a choice to take up responsibility for restoring Hanegakure – with or without me and my rebels. I don't care what happens to me, I care about the people and the kids. I refuse to see more children grow up to be caster fodder. This village is more precious to me than any position of power in it or over it."
"Precious to you, huh?" Naruto murmured, mulling over the words. Shikamaru didn't miss the pained look in the downcast blue eyes. "That's worth fightin' for."
"Yes," Hibari said calmly. "I want to give the people a chance to do things differently."
"And you will," Neji assured, his eyes back on the centre of the table. "But once we remove Ozuku it leaves the people leaderless and afraid. Before anyone can step in to give them these choices, they need to know that they're safe."
"How?" Sakura's expression wavered with the same doubt as her voice. "I find it hard to see them just accepting you Hibari."
"You'll be surprised what happens when you take away people's fear and let them have the right to choose for themselves." Hibari smiled slightly and Shikamaru detected warmth in the grey eyes – it carried in the Tsubasa's voice. "I know these people, I know how they think and I know how they've suffered. It's time for that suffering to end."
"So let's get to makin' it happen already!" Naruto roared, his fist coming down with conviction this time. He swung his bright gaze onto Shikamaru like a spotlight. "Lay it on us, Shikamaru!"
The Nara hesitated as all eyes turned to him. But the pause this time wasn't one of disbelief. It was one of expectancy and anticipation. Everyone lining up like Shogi pawns waiting to be used for the probable outcome; funny how Asuma had made this comparison not long ago. For Shikamaru, it was almost an automatic process when he strategised. To reduce people to playing pieces. It had bothered him ever since his first Chūnin mission, how quickly his thoughts assimilated themselves into this detached assessment.
Keeps my head clear…
Shikamaru felt a self-derisive stab in the back of his mind.
Hn. Let the games begin…win-win…
Thrust back under the limelight, he drew a slow breath and blinked from his shuttered gaze as if surfacing from a trance. Eyeing the plan, he tilted his head away from his hand and set the tips of his fingers to the map, tapping lightly.
Here we go.
His eyes sharpened as he scanned the village atlas.
"First step is to disarm Ozuku and delay his shinobi. As discussed, we need to do this without threatening the people." He paused, glancing up. "Strategically, there are three things Ozuku and his supporters need to succeed."
He held up a hand, straightening out three fingers as he relayed each point. "Means. Intent. And opportunity. These are the three things they need. That's the structure for their rule of violence. Take any one of these away and they won't have a leg to stand on."
"Nice," Naruto said, frowning straight after. "Uh, so how are we gonna do it?"
Shikamaru smirked and reached across for a set of discarded crayons placed to his side of the table. Without expending more energy than was necessary, he flicked out a finger to roll one crayon across the table towards Naruto and another towards Lee, seated opposite the blond. In response to their quizzical glances, Shikamaru looked pointedly at the waxy markers.
Naruto blinked owlishly as he took up the crayon. "Uh, ooo-kay?"
Shikamaru sensed Neji glance in his direction. Judging by the faint raise of the Hyūga's eyebrow, he was vaguely amused by the classroom tactic. Shikamaru looked over and shrugged, wordlessly reasoning that it saved him having to reach across the damned table himself.
Neji looked away, but his lips curved a little.
The faint smile drew Shikamaru's gaze to the Hyūga's mouth.
Focus.
"Right," Shikamaru nodded to Naruto. "Circle the Temple on the map." He waited until Naruto did so. "That's their means of attacking us. That's their weapon, the casters and scrolls."
The Nara turned his gaze to Lee. "Circle the aviary." Lee did so, and it was one hell of a big circle, taking up most of that side of the map. "That is their opportunity. They know we're going to go for the aviary. The birds are the only shot they have of hitting us hard."
Shikamaru spun another crayon in his fingers and tapped the table, making no move to circle anything as he glanced over the map. "Lastly is their intent, or the mentality they are using, which we've already discussed. Fear."
"Okay, so which one of these three things are we gonna disable?" Naruto asked as he doodled in the corner of the map something that looked suspiciously like a sheep or cow.
Akamaru grumbled across the table, prompting Kiba to scowl at the scribble.
"Changing their mentality or intent is going to be difficult with Ozuku still alive," Neji reasoned. "They still perceive us as a threat, which means we need to remove their means and their opportunity."
Shikamaru nodded, gesturing to each circle with a tip of his head. "That comes down to the Temple and the aviary. These are our targets. The two vital components for their attack."
"So we have to get rid of a shit load of birds?" Kiba posed grimly as he snatched the crayon away from Naruto before the Uzumaki could offend his mutt any further.
Hibari frowned. "We need to destroy the aviary without harming the birds. It's when the birds enter that aviary that they become like one mind, or one mass consciousness. We need to get them out the aviary and then—"
"Blow it up?" Naruto muttered, scowling at Kiba as the Inuzuka rolled the crayon back towards Shikamaru.
"Blow. It. Up?" Sakura enunciated in disbelief, before she whacked Naruto solidly upside the back of the head. "How's that not violent? The aviary is larger than the village!"
"Yeesh! It was just a suggestion," Naruto pouted, dodging her glare.
Shikamaru sighed, setting his chin in his palm. "Blowing it up is way down the list of options and we're gonna avoid it as best we can, got it?" Shikamaru dropped his gaze to the circled Temple. "The idea is to hit the Temple first and disable the jutsu. After we destroy those scrolls and the casting chamber, then the mind-transference jutsu holding in the aviary will be ineffective. The birds will go back to being—"
"Not possessed," Naruto muttered, rubbing at the back of his head and wincing at Sakura's warning glare. "Heh…"
"Yeah," Hibari said. "They'll be free. And maybe one day they'll trust us enough to allow us to commune with them as we did years ago. One bird to a human." He looked to Kiba. "Kind of like you with your mutt here."
Kiba bristled, scratching behind Akamaru's ear. "Who the hell are you calling a mutt?"
Shikamaru groaned into his palm. "Settle down. Listen, we need to move fast. We don't have much time. Right now we need to infiltrate that Temple so we can shut down that aviary."
"I can get you whatever information you need on the aviary," Hibari assured, looking across. "Isuka has direct and unlimited access to it as a vet."
Shikamaru nodded his thanks. "So we've got a way in there. Which means we just need to know more about that Temple and how the hell to infiltrate it."
"We need someone on the inside again," Lee guessed.
Before Shikamaru could address the statement, Neji's voice cut across the table, plunging them back into the disbelieving silence they'd started with.
"We need Kitori."

Beneath his fingertips it felt like a lie; mostly because he couldn't trace it by touch.
There was no scar tissue, no furrows following the design and no shift in skin texture.
Beneath his fingers, the curse mark didn't exist.
But in the mirror and in his memory and in every waking moment since two months ago, it was a phantom pain he couldn't escape. For all it meant and all it could never have meant.
It never had to be this way…
It haunted him beneath the headband like a wound unable to heal, festering raw and open. But he wasn't bleeding on the outside.
Is this the price of Hyūga pride?
Neji studied the curse seal, his pale eyes tracing its crude reflection in the cracked mirror nailed into the wall. The team were mobilising, the strategy in place; plans solidifying to secure and fix the broken fate of a broken people.
Neji stared at the fractures in the smeared mirror.
I will not lose.
He raised his hands, lifting the hitai-ate to his brow to cover the branded mark.
And I will never forget why…
The soft scrape of the door drew his gaze to the left side of the mirror, untouched by cracks. It reflected the figure that came to stand in the doorway. Shikamaru braced his shoulder against the frame.
Dark eyes met moonstone in the glass.
They stared at each other for a moment as Neji secured the headband and lowered his hands, his bangs falling back into place. He turned slowly, offering a weak twist at his lips that felt so forced it must have looked pathetic.
Shikamaru cocked his head, frowned and swayed over.
Neji met him half-way.
The Nara cupped the back of his head, cinching their brows.
Neji hummed, dragging his hands up along Shikamaru's sides. He rolled his thumbs across the black material, following the contours of the Nara's body beneath the fabric. He felt the flex of lean muscles reacting to his touch.
Shikamaru sighed. "Better get going…"
Neji grazed their mouths, dropping his hands to the Nara's hips. "Do not fall into any stake pits."
Shikamaru shrugged. "I'll make an effort not to die."
Neji didn't miss the cutting edge in that drawl.
He squeezed Shikamaru's hips; harder than he meant to. "I mean it, Nara."
"Yeah, I'll bet you do."
Neji's eyes narrowed. He made to snap back coldly, but Shikamaru drew his tongue to a different war. The Nara's mouth swooped down across his, seizing dominance without the usual duel that battled out between them.
There was no negotiation in this kiss.
Neji prepared to rip back control. But then that indefinable hint of smoke danced on his tongue. Shikamaru's taste. Diffusing into his blood and his breath and every fibre of his being. His body shuddered once as if hit with a dose of some vein-scorching drug.
Need…
Ravenous, destructive, impulsive need.
It had never felt like this before.
This…unstable.
Neji's breath rattled in his throat, rolling out in a growl that Shikamaru swallowed down and breathed back in a reverberating purr. It shook through Neji like a seismic wave, dislodging something deep in his core.
It might have hurt, but he couldn't feel it.
Instead, he felt the shadow-nin shift and shove, driving him up against the wall until the curved surface smacked hard and rough against his back. Shikamaru's palms slammed into the stone beside his head, caging him in. Their lips crashed again, hips locking together, skin breaking into a fever.
Neji pushed forward.
Shikamaru slammed him back hard enough to knock the air from his lungs.
The mirror dislodged, fell and shattered.
The loud crash and spray of glass startled them from the kiss.
It left Neji burning and breathing hard.
Shikamaru shook; a fierce shiver that wracked his body once before he controlled it.
Lantern light glinted off the shards on the floor. They shimmered in slivers on the walls, a reflective glow like scattered mosaic pieces.
It made the murky room look like it was breaking.
Neji released a shaking breath, thudding his head back against the stone. A whisper of cold air seeped into the scant space between their lips, moist and bruised from the savage kiss.
Gods…what was that…?
It wasn't the same kind of heat they'd felt before.
Neji felt cool fingers frame his jaw, tracing the firm edge up to the hinge, skimming across and over the bridge of his nose. Soothing, slow – trying to tame the fire. He felt Shikamaru's mouth settle at his throat, softly kissing the pulse point. Neji tilted his head down, breathing raggedly against the crown of Shikamaru's head.
His chest ached as if he'd fractured his ribs.
On the floor, the broken glass shimmered.

Their formation had changed.
Neji read it effortlessly, tracking the movement of Kitori's shinobi from behind the safety of the barrier jutsu Hibari's people held up. Kitori had the ranks less compact and spread wide and sharp enough to avoid the ambush the Konoha ninja had caged them in with the last time.
The Hyūga's eyes narrowed, Byakugan veins tightening.
Neji expected no less from Kitori, but reserved no praise for her efforts. Just like the last time, her tactics wouldn't save her or her shinobi. There existed only one difference this time. If he pressed a blade to her throat, there would be no mistaking that they were enemies.
And yet, that need to know and understand her deception remained.
He watched Kitori hold out her arm, allowing a large grey bird to take its perch.
You will give me the truth, Tsubasa.
He felt Shikamaru's fingers brush his shoulder, squeezing lightly. "How close?"
"Closing within the next five minutes," Neji murmured, not addressing Shikamaru directly, though he leaned back a little.
Shikamaru's thumb arced to brush his nape, tracing the edge of the slim gauze taped there. The movement was hidden beneath the fall of his hair. No one noticed.
Neji adjusted his radio transmitter. "Hibari? How are your shinobi?"
Hibari's voice crackled through. "We can't keep this up for long."
Neji hummed. "Understood. I'll move within the next minute. Are Kiba and Akamaru alright?"
"We'd know if they weren't," Shikamaru assured.
"Hey, thanks for the concern, Shikamaru," the dog-nin's grumble carried through the transmitter. "I need to get new friends…"
Akamaru's bark followed straight after, loud enough to cause anyone tuned-in to wince.
"Chill, crap-magnet. Your part's done!"
"Tell that to the fat-ass nosebleed I've got goin' on, lovebird."
"Naruto," Neji straightened up from his crouch, feeling Shikamaru move in sync. "Are you ready?"
"Heck yeah."
"On Shikamaru's count, be prepared to follow us."
"Got it!"
Neji turned to Sakura. The kunoichi nodded, tugging the ends of her glove and flexing out her fingers with a smile.
"Ready," she said.
Neji flicked his gaze back to the surface, scanning quickly. The bird at Kitori's arm stretched it wings, head turning sharply this way and that. Watching the animal, Neji adjusted the cinch of a carrier-cuff closed around his wrist, similar to the kind they used on messenger birds; only this one was used for shinobi envoys between outposts.
He looked at last to the Nara, fastening his gaze on the shadow-nin.
"Run fast, Hyūga."
"Make sure you keep up, Nara."
The corner of Shikamaru's mouth curled up in a weak, sardonic smile. "Kinda used to chasing you down."
Neji hesitated at those words; but only for a moment.
A heartbeat later the barrier jutsu shimmered away into nothingness.
Shikamaru drew back, slipping away into the shadows as Sakura's fist careened skyward, smashing up through the roof of the tunnel.
"Go!" she shouted.
Neji sprung, surfacing in a plume of grit. He hit the ground running with the pink-haired kunoichi hot on his heels, both of them sluicing through the dust in sharp, scything angles.
Across the short distance, the bird perched on Kitori's arm screeched.
Neji's eyes narrowed.
Let's see how fast you fly.

Faster!
Shikamaru ran, speeding along the tunnels in line with Neji's path above the surface. Having mapped the route in his mind, he knew exactly when to veer right, tearing down another passageway.
He passed a point in the channel he'd marked earlier and ripped the kunai from the wall, reaching for his transmitter. "Naruto, go!"
"RASENGAN!"
Somewhere above, Shikamaru felt the tremors of an explosion as the Uzumaki broke to the surface, followed by the stampede of his clones. Shikamaru searched along the dimly lit walls, looking for the next marked spot.
There.
He ripped another kunai free, running on and veering left. Up ahead he saw Kiba slouched on the ground, a concerned Akamaru nuzzling at his neck. Sensing his approach, the Inuzuka slipped open his eyes and raised a hand in exhausted greeting, his nose bloody.
"Right on time."

Kitori flew past her shinobi, springing above them to take the trees, her pace swift and sure, following the path of the bird as her ninja hacked through the sea of Naruto's clones below.
Neji's Byakugan vision tracked her movements effortlessly.
She kept routed to her tracker-bird's path, trusting the animal explicitly to lead her to the tagged prey. Behind and below, Sakura's fist broke up the ground in a mighty crash. The earth caved beneath Kitori's shinobi, dropping them into a dead-end tunnel hollowed out by Kiba's jutsu. Naruto's clones dropped down behind them, herding them into the cylindrical prison and plugging up the exit.
"Sakura, now!" they chorused.
"CHAAAA!" Sakura spun on her heel, twirling in a discus-throwing motion that ended with her fist in the earth.
The ground collapsed beneath the hit, blocking up the exit as Naruto's clones puffed away beneath the rubble. Kitori glanced over her shoulder, frowning. But not once did she stray from her path, following the bird – straight past Neji.
The Hyūga watched her retreating back.
He reached into his ninja pouch, extracting an explosive-tagged kunai and a flash bomb.
Then he followed behind.

"Didn't break a leg then, Shikamaru?"
Shikamaru arched a brow. "Have you seen your face?"
Kiba chuckled, then winced. "Ow…"
Akamaru whined in concern, dragging his tongue across Kiba's face, his great white tail whacking across Shikamaru's legs repeatedly.
The Nara frowned, swaying out the way.
"Don't bite me," Shikamaru warned, crouching down beside Kiba. "You gonna be okay?"
Kiba nodded, slinging his arm over his dog in an affectionate squeeze. "Yeah, just got a headache…that's a lot of rock to get through."
Shikamaru quirked his lip grimly, nodding. "Can you walk?"
Kiba grinned lopsidedly, crawling onto Akamaru's back.
Shikamaru snorted and pushed to his feet with an amused shake of his head. "Letting the dog take you for a walk? Guess it's only fair."
Akamaru nipped his thumb – hard. Shikamaru yelped. Kiba laughed. Further along the tunnel, an explosion shook the ground. Both ninja looked down the passageway as the blast reverberated along the walls in a judder, causing a fine film of dust to float in the air.
"That's our cue."
Shikamaru turned, jogging along beside Akamaru. Kiba held onto the dog with practiced ease. They closed distance fast, moving down another tunnel the Inuzuka had hollowed out. It brought them to the entrance of a caved pit. Naruto was crouched in the centre, two of his clones puffing away. He straightened up, shaking dirt from his hair and dusting himself off as a baffled Kitori dropped down beside him. The woman rolled, came to her feet and wheeled in a small circle, confused.
"You're not Hyūga," she accused, glaring at Naruto. "How?"
The Uzumaki grinned, complimenting the cocky glint in his eyes. He raised his wrist, showing off the cuff that Neji had been wearing. He tapped the small carrier slot containing the parasitic tag that Isuka had removed from Neji's nape.
Naruto bobbed his eyebrows. "Gotcha."
Not a second later a flash bomb struck. Kitori's look of disgusted fury washed out into a blinding sea of light, shadows and white thrown in all directions.
Kitori gasped, hissed and made to reach for her weapon.
Her limbs wouldn't obey her.
"Not happening, Kitori," Shikamaru's voice carried from the adjacent tunnel, his fingers locked in a familiar hand sign.
The woman blinked and flicked her eyes across, the only part of her body she could move. But it wasn't Shikamaru's dark orbs she looked into when her vision cleared. The white flare from the flash bomb receded, melting into eyes of glowing opal; far more consuming in their impact than the illumination had been.
"Hyūga…"

"Seriously, what's her creepy obsession with Neji?"
"Maybe she likes his hair," Kiba teased, holding a cloth to his nose, head tipped back.
"Eh? Hinata's is nicer," Naruto said as he ambled over.
Hinata flushed to the roots of her 'nicer' hair with a stutter, fidgeting awkwardly in her seat, much to Kiba's amusement. Naruto sprawled into one of the rickety chairs pulled up to an equally rickety table. Five of the Konoha ninja circled it, balancing out the see-sawing surface with their elbows or palms. The table dominated the room, which branched out beside the rebels' interrogation den. It felt more like a dungeon, the lantern light struggling against the soupy black.
"Shikamaru, you gonna sit?"
Rather sleep…
Shikamaru leaned casually against the solid curve of the wall, arms folded and dark eyes on the ground. He hid his agitation well, simply shaking his head. Every minute crammed his skull with a fresh flood of data. Priorities, precautions and possibilities. His conscious mind processed this surplus spew by design; something that most people had the luxury of allowing their subconscious to handle.
But it wasn't the mental overload that taxed his nerves; he was able to compartmentalize and cope with the influx of information. What he wasn't able to do, however, was use that rational ability to diagnose treatment for the concern eating away inside him.
Dammit.
The game plan for Hanegakure he could handle. The only commitment it required was his logic and intelligence. But every step towards the mission's completion pushed his luck with Neji one step closer to the edge. He couldn't shake the feeling that Neji was already teetering – and not just his body.
I need to figure this out. Fast.
He could feel the hole in his understanding like an abyss in his mind; the vital pieces he was missing all cast somewhere out of reach. Lost in the void or locked behind walls he couldn't push through without Neji cutting off and shutting down.
I can't lose here…I can't lose when I'm so damn close to finding you…
The sharp slide of the door drew his gaze up.
Isuka stepped out of the interrogation den, setting down a small jar on the table.
"Is that another tag?" Sakura asked the vet, leaning forward in her chair when the woman nodded.
Shikamaru cocked his head, watching the tiny parasite scuttle in the glass container.
So Ozuku tags his own people too…nice…
The soft fall of footsteps drew the team's gaze across to the entrance. Neji walked in with Hibari, both of their faces grave and set in hard lines. Shikamaru watched the Tsubasa turn to Neji, nod to whatever the Hyūga said and then gesture to the interrogation den.
Neji simply looked across to Shikamaru.
Here we go.
The Nara nodded, rolled away from the wall and gave Chōji a weary smile as he moved over, following Neji towards the den Kitori had been detained in. He patted the Akimichi's shoulder as he passed.
"Hold the fort, yeah?"
Chōji chuckled, nodding. "Will do."
"Sakura," Shikamaru said, gesturing her over with a tip of his head. He heard her scrape her chair back, following behind. No harm to have another woman present.
Neji slid the door shut behind them, a fatal thud that drew Kitori's gaze away from the lantern she'd been staring at. The Tsubasa woman sat in the centre of the cold, dank room; her arms fastened behind her back and her ankles bound to the legs of her chair. She kept her spine taut, her chin raised. Defiant and determined.
Troublesome.
Shikamaru returned her piercing gaze with an utterly unaffected expression. The same couldn't be said for Sakura, who regarded Kitori with a twisting around her lips that suggested she was struggling to know how to feel about the situation. Neji, however, had settled for that cold, cut-off mask that almost looked serene; if it wasn't for the hardness around his eyes.
The air seemed to chill as the Jōnin passed through it, moving across towards Kitori, stopping just out of reach. Not that she was free enough to make any move towards him. Even if she had been, Shikamaru doubted she'd have got close before Neji cut her down.
To her credit though, Kitori had the gall to hold the Hyūga's gaze.
Shikamaru opted for shadow over spotlight. He slid along the wall to brace his shoulder against the darkest corner, removing himself from the arena Neji set up. Sakura hovered half-way, quiet and tense as she waited. They'd agreed on a structure for the interrogation, but apparently Neji had some kind of leverage. It didn't take a genius to know it had nothing to do with his hair.
Kitori raised her chin as Neji took a step closer, tracing her eyes over him in a way that prompted Shikamaru's brow to sketch upward.
"You must be disappointed," Kitori said softly. "I can see it in your eyes."
Shikamaru severely doubted that. If anything, Neji's eyes had become about as transparent as the stone beneath his feet. The Nara kept his silence, observing the woman watching Neji. She'd narrowed in solely on the Hyūga, ignoring Shikamaru and Sakura altogether.
She stared at Neji with an intriguing and intimate intensity.
Shikamaru frowned, more disturbed by it than Neji seemed to be.
"You wanted two problems taken care of through simultaneous annihilation," Neji began; his voice held nothing but calm, cold fact. "You had no intention of securing peace and no intention of allowing us to leave Hanegakure."
"That's true."
"Not only that, but you also managed to gain a powerful opportunity earlier that you didn't exploit. You had half our team with you, ignorant to your intentions."
Kitori blinked slowly. "I did."
"Which begs the question, why did you allow Shikamaru and the others to live?"
Kitori inclined her head towards Shikamaru without looking at him. "Because he's important to you."
Fuck.
Shikamaru's jaw twitched. He glimpsed Sakura's reaction out the corner of his eye. The kunoichi looked more confused than surprised, not picking up on a context that was probably about as far from her mind as Shikamaru wanted to be from this situation.
Neji offered no reaction at all. "Why should it matter to you, what is important to me?"
Kitori tilted her head, as if trying to peek up under the cold mask Neji had pulled across his face. Her eyes softened. "Are you going to kill me as well, Hyūga? I'd understand if you need to. I think you should."
Neji stared down at her and Shikamaru watched the Hyūga's eyes pinch in conflict for a split second before he controlled himself. It was a slip that threatened to begin a digression they couldn't afford. Shikamaru took advantage of Neji's silence.
"The Temple," the shadow-nin interrupted. "You know how to access it." It wasn't a question.
Kitori kept her eyes on Neji, ducking her head a little more to hold his attention and his gaze, though she answered Shikamaru. "Yes. I know how to access it. You cannot stop the jutsu, if that's what you're planning."
"Why's that?" Shikamaru prompted, searching her face for any information.
Unfortunately, she seemed completely fixated on Neji. Gone was the militant kunoichi he'd exchanged clipped and strategic words with hours before. In her place sat a woman who looked smaller, frailer and lacking the condescending air she'd commanded before.
Here sat a woman who looked troublesomely unhinged.
Great…
To his surprise, she responded to his question again.
"Because it is our calling. Therefore it is inevitable," Kitori intoned, flat and faithless, but firmly resigned. "It is our way."
"A way you could have changed," Neji said, pulling back from his silence with a chill in his eyes. "You could have stopped this. You had the chance."
Kitori bluffed a bitter smile. "No. We don't have chances, Hyūga. We Tsubasa have consequences. Consequences for even thinking that way. Not that your shinobi could understand that about our people."
Shikamaru resisted the urge to announce his disinterest through a yawn. At this stage, her excuses didn't interest him. But they seemed to impact on Neji; because the armour holding hard and hostile around Neji's face took a nasty fracture.
It happened so fast it surprised Shikamaru.
Neji's brow furrowed, his voice dropping low. "But unlike the people of this village, you had a choice. You had the opportunity to support a cause greater than the twisted beliefs of your husband and his brother. You had the chance to make things right."
Kitori recoiled at his words, as if having expected support and sympathy. Her lips tightened. "You don't understand."
"I understand that your children gave you the very chance you say you never had." Neji leaned in, pale eyes flashing. "I understand that you did nothing when you could have done something."
"We have a system and a foundation that we uphold," Kitori argued, falling back on verbatim she'd probably been force-fed all her life. "This is and always has been the way of our people."
"And the children of those people?" Sakura asked, her fingers curling tightly into the fabric of her pink elbow-protectors. "What about them?"
"It is our way," Kitori answered, her eyes locked on Neji, searching his face for something Shikamaru sensed the Hyūga wasn't going to give.
Why the hell does she need his approval so much?
Neji's eyes narrowed. "And your way is to have children branded and kept in cages of ignorance until they are old enough to be used and controlled; all under the guise of 'protecting' the flock," the Hyūga bit out.
Shikamaru frowned and his eyes flicked to Neji's headband.
Like what Hiashi-sama and the Hyūga elders did to you…
So much for not making things personal.
Shikamaru frowned, taking a silent inventory of all the ways this conversation was starting to head in the wrong direction. He should have stepped in. He should have steered things back on track. But he found his jaw clamping instead, his attention riveted on the hairline cracks breaking up Neji's controlled walls.
Maybe, just maybe, some missing pieces might slip through.
"It is our way, Hyūga," Kitori repeated, tonelessly.
"What about your daughter? What about your son?"
Kitori's chin shook. She looked stung for a moment. "They defied the people."
"No," Neji uttered. "They defied the men who have enslaved your people."
Kitori clenched her eyes shut, her fingers curling into fists. "It was not their place."
"It has to start somewhere, Kitori," Sakura said, her voice softer than Neji's; more likely to offer support.
From the reaction it provoked, Shikamaru guessed the only support Kitori wanted was from Neji. The Tsubasa woman turned on Sakura with a wildcat hiss.
"If that was true it would have started generations ago!" Kitori spat, spearing Sakura with a venomous look. "It can't be true! It's a lie!"
Unaffected by her outburst, Neji shook his head, staring down through his lashes. "So you just toe the line and allow this cycle of destruction to continue?"
"It is our way," she insisted, looking back to Neji. "Don't you see? It's our way."
"Your tradition," Neji corrected.
In an instant, his tone and his stance changed.
The visible shift raised the hair at back of Shikamaru's nape.
Shikamaru sensed the change not because he knew what to look for rationally but because he felt it instinctively. The air around Neji charged. It felt way too volatile to allow it to build. Especially here, in front of Sakura and in front of the woman who was having too much of an affect on Neji for anything good to come of it.
Better redirect this fast…
Shikamaru raised his voice. "Neji, stick to the interrogation or le—"
"—they were your children," Neji overruled, the mallet of his accusation crushing Shikamaru's voice.
"Gods, why can't you see?" Kitori whispered fiercely, her grey eyes starting to redden and water. "Do you think I wanted to abandon them!"
Neji snorted heartlessly, unmoved by her pain. "What does it matter what you wanted? It comes down to what you did. Or in your case, what you didn't do."
"Neji, hold on a moment," Sakura said firmly, stepping forward.
Neji shot her a dagger glare that stopped her on the spot. He looked back to Kitori, immune to her shaking. Shikamaru, however, could read the signs of an impending break down. The rapid shifting of Kitori's eyes, looking for an exit she didn't have. Her shallow breathing, her temples beaded with sweat.
Neji ignored the signs completely. "You would rather escape like a coward through those birds, than remain to support your children, your people and everything that this village once stood for."
Kitori's face crumpled, too many emotions to quantify flooding into her eyes, spilling past her lashes. She shook her head violently, beseeching him, needing his understanding for her actions in a way Shikamaru couldn't quite grasp.
"You don't understand!" she shouted, her voice shaking. "You don't understand!"
Dammit. She's no use to us like this.
"Neji," Shikamaru warned, shifting away from the wall.
"You could never understand what it's like to live in fear!" Kitori wailed suddenly, throwing down her defences at Neji's feet. "You are free in Konoha! But here we have always been slaves to a destiny that we cannot escape!"
Fuck.
Shikamaru froze.
His eyes widened as Neji's narrowed to dangerous slivers.
Ah shit…
Of all the troublesome and disastrous things she could have possibly said.
And she didn't stop there.
"You could never understand what that's like!" Kitori yelled through the clog of bitter tears, staring into the ghost-white glare of Neji's eyes. "To be bound to a tradition that forms a fate you can never change! And must therefore accept! You cannot understand that!"
The walls echoed with the scream of her words, bouncing the bitterness around and throwing it back until the tension thickened to the point where Shikamaru wondered if time had stopped altogether.
Outside, he heard chairs scraping back from the table.
Inside, the silence held – painfully long.
Then Neji's voice drifted out in a tone so serene and controlled it was far more disturbing than Kitori's screaming had been.
"You're wrong," the Hyūga murmured, so soft it scarcely carried. "And even if I didn't understand as well as I do, it would never make you right."
"Then kill me…" Kitori whispered, swallowing a sob, straining in her chair as if she could touch him with her words. "Kill me too…"
Neji looked away slowly. Something changed in his eyes.
"Clearly your daughter and her unborn child weren't enough," he said flatly, without emotion or inflection.
Sakura's eyes widened at the callousness. "Neji…"
Shikamaru studied the Hyūga critically, growing increasingly uneasy, but fighting the feeling as he searched for something more. Some sign, some missing piece that went beyond Neji just reacting to Kitori's sense of fatalism and clan struggle that he'd once shared.
It's here. I know it's here. What the hell am I not seeing?
"The kindest thing you did for my daughter was to kill her," Kitori whispered, looking up at Neji like a sinner beseeching the statue of a carved saint. "You are the mercy I've prayed for. You set her free. You came to set us free."
Neji drew his head back and Shikamaru didn't miss the twist of gutted pain his face.
There.
It was gone in an instant, the proud jaw tightening. "Death isn't freedom."
"It's not slavery either. I see you, Hyūga."
Neji stared at her. "You are blind. Blind and weak."
"You were brought to me," Kitori whispered, the almost sing-song quality to her voice telling Shikamaru she'd slipped back into her bubble of delusion. "You were sent to my girl. You were chosen by fate to be the one to set them free."
"So you lied about your son so I could extend the same 'freedom' to him?" Neji murmured, gazing just to the side of Kitori now. "Hn. What a unique case of monster you are."
"But you're not a monster, are you, Hyūga?" Kitori wheedled, desperate. "You gave me your word. I saw it in your eyes. And I know that you see it in mine. Look at me!"
Neji's lashes flickered shut. Kitori frowned and craned her neck, trying to catch his gaze even though he'd closed his eyes and probably his ears to her broken pleas.
"You know what our escape is, don't you, Hyūga? Look at me. Look into my eyes and tell me you don't see it! Open your eyes and look at me! Tell me what you see!"
Shikamaru made to step in, but paused when Neji opened his eyes.
Only he wasn't looking at Kitori, or anyone.
His eyes had glazed over into that faraway stare.
Shikamaru's throat tightened.
No…
"What I see," Neji uttered, low and even, "is a creature not worth my pity, much less my mercy."
The words were like a death knell.
Shikamaru saw the panic push fresh tears into Kitori's eyes.
"No…don't you dare…you look at me!" she gasped, struggling against her bonds. "I chose you for your mercy! I chose you!"
"And may you rot for it," Neji uttered, his face set with chilling indifference.
Sakura's eyes widened. "Neji…"
Neji turned calmly on his heel. "I'm done here."
Kitori let out a long, keening scream.
Shikamaru was deaf to it, his eyes on Neji.
Outside, Akamaru started barking.
Kitori shook her head, tears dripping from her chin as she rocked in her chair. "Don't walk away from me, Hyūga!"
Shikamaru watched Neji do just that. And a slow sense of dread turned the Nara's blood colder with every step the Hyūga took. Kitori wailed, curling up on herself.
Shit.
Shikamaru stabbed a finger toward the weeping woman. "Sakura, stay with her."
Sakura's eyes rounded. "But—!"
"Do it!" Shikamaru was already moving, lengthening his strides as Neji passed from the room; a ghost slipping between the cracks.
Not this time. I won't lose you.
Kitori's scream shook the tunnels. "I chose you for your mercy!"

The door slid shut behind Shikamaru in a bang. But it proved a weak barrier against Kitori's wailing. It filtered through in a horrible keen. It tugged at Shikamaru's conscience like desperate fingers, filling his ears with her tormented cries.
Dammit!
Shaking off the horrible sounds, he turned sharply, almost tripping over Akamaru in the process. The dog barked, sniffing at the door and scratching. Shikamaru stepped past the canine and watched Neji stride across the room, completely ignoring Kiba and Hinata's startled looks.
Shikamaru scowled, moving after him.
He did a quick scan, assuming Chōji, Naruto and Lee were with Hibari.
Hinata pushed her chair back, nervously glancing between them. "Neji-niisan?"
Neji paid her no heed, reaching over Kiba's propped-up feet to snatch the jar Isuka had set down. Shikamaru paused at the other end of the table, slamming his palms onto the unstable surface.
Hinata flinched.
Kiba stopped rocking his chair.
Neji didn't even look up.
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. "Neji, what the hell was that? That wasn't an interrogation and it sure as hell wasn't the plan."
The Hyūga checked the jar in his hand, shaking it once until the parasite moved.
"She knowingly sold out her children," was his clipped response.
"Hibari told you she did," Shikamaru growled, leaning into the press of his hands. "What the hell were you expecting? Some noble excuse as to why she did it?"
Neji levelled him with a long, hard stare.
Shikamaru drew his head back, surprise arching his brows.
Shit…you were…
Kiba leaned back in his teetering chair, jerking his thumb towards the door. "What the hell's going on? Why's she screaming like that?"
Shikamaru and Neji ignored him, locked solely onto each other.
Neji leaned across the other end of the table, glaring. "And now she allows it to continue."
"Yeah," Shikamaru frowned. "Fear makes people do crazy, stupid shit."
"Tch," Neji scoffed, his eyes flickering, his fingers flexing; subtle movements sending dangerous signals. "Crazy or not, it's no mitigation of her crime."
"Well she sure sounds crazy!" Naruto piped up, happening into the room as if someone had given him an ill-timed cue-card.
Shikamaru's fingertips dug into the table and he shot a glare over his shoulder.
Not now, dammit!
"Why's she freaked out like that?" Naruto paused, staring at the door in concern and confusion.
Shikamaru opened his mouth to respond but snapped it shut when the door drew back behind him.
"She's terrified," Sakura answered, slipping out of the interrogation den just as Shikamaru turned his head. "That's why."
Shikamaru rolled his eyes, jerking his hands away from the table fiercely enough to rock it. The sudden movement knocked Kiba's feet and the Inuzuka's chair almost crashed back. Hinata caught it.
"Dammit! Is anyone gonna follow orders here?" the Nara ground out, rounding on Sakura. "I told you to stay with Kitori."
Sakura's sea-green eyes turned stormy. "She's in no condition to cooperate, Shikamaru. She's close to a panic attack. Isuka will probably have to sedate her."
Shikamaru passed a hand across his face, cursing. That would drop them into a delay they couldn't afford.
"No," Shikamaru shook his head. "Don't sedate her. Hinata? See if you can calm her down."
Neji snorted, turning away from the table and the conversation. "Let her suffer for it."
"Neji!" Naruto frowned, his brows drawing into a fierce V. "What the hell?"
"She's still human, Neji," Sakura snapped, holding the door aside for Hinata to slip into the den. "And right now, she's terrified."
"Pathetic," Neji spat out. "She's weak."
"She isn't in her right mind," Shikamaru reminded, hating that he even needed to defend this woman. Hating more that he didn't understand what the hell was happening here.
Neji kept drawing up his callous shield and then dropping it. Repeating the process hard enough to crush anything or anyone trying to appeal to his reason; what was worse was that Shikamaru could see it happening in a way the others couldn't.
Neji's defence wasn't thawing, it was corroding.
It wasn't just anger burning behind the ice in his face; it was something far more acidic, far more poisonous. Dangerously bubbling up beneath the surface – not quite strong enough to show in his eyes, but it was eating into his voice.
Shit…
Shikamaru darted a glance towards the exit.
I need to get him away from here.
Sakura was suddenly standing beside him, her disapproving glower directed firmly at Neji. "The brainwashing fear that Fukurō and Ozuku cast over these people is unbelievably strong."
"Yet believably stronger than whatever that woman feels for her children," Neji bit back derisively.
"Yeah but she's pretty brainwashed, right?" Naruto frowned, piecing together what he could from the exchanges. "You're thinkin' like a rational person compared to her."
Neji turned on Naruto. "What the hell do you want me to think like? An emotional one?"
Kiba whistled lowly. "Kinda looks like you've got that covered."
"Shut up, Inuzuka."
"Man, what's your problem?" Kiba snapped. "You should be happy we're finally sorting this shit out."
"Happy?" Neji echoed, incredulous.
"Cool your jets, Hyūga," Kiba scowled, bristling. "What the fuck's your problem this time?"
"This time?" Neji posed with a condescending snort. "Your stupidity."
"Bastard." Kiba surged to his feet, sending his chair crashing back. "I've had it with your high-handed shit!"
Shikamaru knifed out his hand, the edge of his palm smacking Kiba's chest to knock the dog-nin back a step. "Back off, Kiba. We still don't have time for this."
Kiba shoved his arm aside, taking an aggressive step around the table, jutting his chin towards Neji. "Tell it to this jerk!"
Shikamaru clenched his jaw, pleading for patience. Some God must have had his back because Chōji appeared, obviously alerted by the raised voices.
"Hey, hey. Come on guys, calm down."
"I'm not the one acting like an asshole!" Kiba roared, his feral gaze pinned on Neji's granite expression.
Akamaru barked, cocking his head and turning an anxious circle on the ground, whining at the mounting aggression.
"Why the hell are we fightin' each other? This isn't helping!" Naruto shouted, looking this way and that as if unsure who to direct the words to.
They obviously passed straight over Kiba's head.
"What's your malfunction, Hyūga?" Kiba goaded, every bit like a dog sinking its teeth in, gnashing hotly. "Did makin' Jōnin go to your head or what?"
Shikamaru came between them again, ominously calm. "Kiba. Use your head."
Kiba looked ready to use his fist.
Akamaru bounded over, barking loudly enough to distract the Inuzuka.
It bought Shikamaru enough time to shoot Neji a glare.
Neji's lip curled in a scathing twist that could have been a sneer. But not a second later his expression fell flat and cold and he turned sharply, cutting past Lee as the green-clad ninja paused at the threshold to the room.
"Neji-kun?" Lee turned to watch the Hyūga vanish down the tunnel.
"Shit," Shikamaru hissed beneath his breath. "Sakura, stay here and keep things on track with Hibari – get whatever information you can from Kitori."
"But—"
Shikamaru shot her an uncompromising glare; the kind reserved for situations he made an effort to avoid, simply to avoid the effort of getting out of said situation.
"Do whatever is necessary." He turned to his best ally, his eyes soliciting support as much as his voice. "Chōji…?"
"I've got it." Chōji nodded, patting Kiba's shoulder even when the dog-nin shrugged him off, grumbling.
Shikamaru offered his friend a strained smile, then turned, almost bumping shoulders with Naruto as the Uzumaki swayed aside just in time, spinning with the movement to shout after Shikamaru's retreating back.
"Shikamaru! Where the heck are you goin'?"
To find Neji before he loses himself…

The labyrinth of the tunnels left him like a rat in a maze.
Shit!
Shikamaru jerked to a halt, slamming the side of his fist into the wall, letting the judder carry up his arm to rattle some focus into him. He hissed a breath through his teeth.
Breathe. Calm down. Think.
Drawing a deep, slow breath through his nose, he nodded a mental countdown then slipped open his eyes. Slowly, direction came back to him, his mind projecting the underground layout on a mental screen. He'd studied the tunnel plans. He knew where to go. He picked up speed, his feet following the instructions drilling out in sharp, short bursts of 'left', 'right', 'next', 'right'.
He jerked to a halt. "Neji!"
The Hyūga didn't stop, slow down or speed up. He ignored Shikamaru and the echo of the Nara's voice completely.
Great.
"Ugh. Troublesome bastard," Shikamaru muttered, pushing off his palm to catch up as Neji cut a path straight to the room the team had been allocated earlier.
Shikamaru came up behind him just as the Hyūga passed through the door. His fingers brushed Neji's arm. He had no chance to get a grip. His back hit the wall so hard and fast it took him a moment to realise he'd been pitched sideways and slammed.
Neji's breath fired hotly against his ear.
"Do not touch me, Nara."
The threat in that too-calm tone alarmed Shikamaru less that the complete calm in those opal eyes. Shikamaru drew his head back, raising his palms outward in what he hoped was a white-flag gesture.
"I hear you," he said quietly. "Take it easy."
Neji's eyes pinched, hardening. He drew back sharply, twisting away to stalk across the room. Shikamaru remained against the wall, assessing damage control, his eyes darting to the door then back to Neji.
He felt like he'd just walked into the lion's den.
At the forefront of his mind was the absolute priority that no matter what happened, he had to keep Neji contained until he could calm him down. He tracked the Hyūga's movements, watching Neji pass in and out of one of the rooms, stalking back and forth like a predator pacing out their frustration; or premeditating how they were going to vent it.
Shit.
Shikamaru eased away from the wall. "What's this about, Neji?"
"Don't ask stupid questions…" Neji uttered, shoving the small jar he'd taken into his ninja bag, drawing the strings taut in a jerk.
"You need to calm down," the shadow-nin advised, closing distance in a slow, steady orbit. "You need to stop and think."
Neji paused, looking across at Shikamaru like an animal scenting a trap. "And you need to get away from me."
Shikamaru dropped his eyes to the Jōnin's black-and-tan bag. "Goin' somewhere?"
"I am going to end this."
Neji shouldered the bag and turned towards the exit. Shikamaru changed course, side-stepping broadly until he'd put himself between Neji and the door, shaking his head.
"Not gonna happen."
"Get out of my way."
"Not a chance. You're not thinking clearly."
"I'm perfectly clear on what I'm going to do."
"What the hell happened in there with Kitori?"
Neji pressed his lips together and said nothing.
The silence pulled so tight it was painful.
Shikamaru was under no delusions as to how seriously screwed he might be. However, he removed himself from the thought of Neji's threat by operating solely on objective, rather than outcome.
I'm not backing down.
His confidence was in no way amplified by the various scenarios playing out in his brain; most of them ending with him on the floor. But he'd overridden self-preservation mode. He had no idea what mode he was operating in now, much less what red zone Neji was edging into.
He just knew one thing.
The missing pieces were here and he wasn't about to back off until he found them.
So I can find you…
Shikamaru dragged in a slow breath. "Tell me what's wrong."
The softness in his voice eased the lock at Neji's jaw, but the Hyūga's eyes remained crystallised and cold. "Get out of my way before I remove you."
Shikamaru didn't flinch.
"Are you deaf, Nara?"
"Tone deaf, yeah. Not blind though, so cut the bullshit. You know I'm seeing through it."
One dark brow arched as Neji pinned him with a glare. "Why the hell didn't you see through Kitori then?"
"Kinda did. You told me to quit sending her death glares so I backed off."
Shikamaru regretted the ill-placed sarcasm the second Neji took a step forward; the sheer vibration of his anger filled the space seconds before the Hyūga's body did.
"Don't you dare get humorous about this," the Jōnin warned, his mouth twisted in a snarl.
It was a reaction, but it wasn't enough. Neji's eyes were still closed off, still shut down. The truth and reason locked behind that hard, bitter casing.
You're not gonna hide from me this time…
Shikamaru shook his head, struggling to divorce his emotions from his thinking. "I never liked her – guess I've got an acceptable reason now. Why is her betrayal affecting you so much?"
Neji dismissed the question, but his answer was the tightening of the chords in his throat. Shikamaru searched the straining tendons as if he'd find those missing pieces.
Why the hell are you hurting so badly that you'd hurt everyone else to deny it?
"Move, Shikamaru."
"Neji," Shikamaru shook his head, swallowing, struggling not to just grab the Hyūga and shake him.
Neji drew a tight breath.
"Gods just move before I hurt you," he whispered. But the threat was crushed to dust by the pain in his voice.
Shikamaru, unable to remove that pain, reacted to it – wanting to tear it out.
Control slipped and impulse drove him.
He closed the distance and grabbed Neji's shoulders. "Talk to me, dammit!"
The tactical error turned out to be the best mistake he could have possibly made. Neji hadn't expected it. It corralled the Hyūga out of hiding and into conflict.
He reacted with a snarl.
"Kitori just handed that girl over!" Neji shouted straight into Shikamaru's face, dropping his black-and-tan bag in a thud as sudden as the rage in his voice. "Her daughter and her daughter's child!"
"I know that!" Shikamaru shouted back, tightening his grip until Neji jerked away from him so fiercely that they both stumbled. "Why is this ma—"
Neji cut him off by shoving him back. "And then she allowed us to go to execute her son!"
Shikamaru staggered back a pace and straightened up, forcing himself to calm down, to remain level-headed now that Neji was responding to him. "That's right. She did."
"No. She did nothing," Neji ground the words out sourly, veering away. "Nothing."
Shikamaru frowned, slipping into tactical mode, watching Neji turn away with a growing sense of suspicion. "Because she was scared."
Neji swung back, shaking with a sort of animal intensity. "Because she was weak!"
Shikamaru sucked a breath against the powerful anger. He could almost feel Neji's chakra glowing with it. But the answers were there, somewhere right in front of him. The pieces scattered on the floor like those shards of glass earlier.
Think. Think. Think.
Shikamaru's mind scoured through the mess, pulling together the pieces with mental fingers. Sliding them into alignment. Trying to find the design.
"Neji…"
"She just stood by—"
God this isn't about what someone 'did'…
Shikamaru frowned. "Neji."
"—and let it happen!"
No...That can't be it…
Slowly it began to take form, shocking Shikamaru because he'd never thought to even consider it. It made no sense.
No…it does…
And slowly, Shikamaru's blood began to chill, his heartbeat slowing as his suspicion threatened to solidify into the bitter truth.
…and he's so deep in denial he doesn't even realise it himself…
"Neji," he whispered, staring at Neji and seeing none of the rage tearing along the Jōnin's regal frame.
He was seeing through the anger; seeing through to what that anger was protecting. He was seeing through to what was locked behind those guarded eyes; hard and glazed and reflecting a lie that Neji had probably told himself over and over for the past two months.
Maybe even years…ever since he was a kid…
Over and over until he'd actually believed it…
He still believes it…
Shikamaru's eyes softened, sadness aching through his gaze as he looked on, making no move to step away as Neji drew so close that those white eyes eclipsed Shikamaru's vision completely.
"Just like those birds!" Neji roared. "Kitori put her own flesh and blood into a cage!"
And with those words, Shikamaru no longer suspected – he knew. He had it.
And the knowing hit him so hard it knocked his breath out in a shake against Neji's lips.
"Neji," he whispered, "this isn't about Kitori and her kids…"
Neji scowled. "What?"
Shikamaru shook his head, his voice soft and low. "And for the past two months…it's never been about your clan either."
Neji shoved him back a step, but his eyes flickered warily. "What the hell are you talking about, Shikamaru!"
Shikamaru took a step forward, swallowing hard.
"It's not Hiashi-sama or the Hyūga elders that you can't forgive."
"What are yo–!"
"It's your father."
Silence...
A silence in which one shinobi gained his greatest weapon, while the other lost his greatest defence.
Truth. Denial.
Shikamaru worked his throat, forcing himself to go on. "Hizashi was the one who just 'stood by'. That's what this is all about. God...that's what it's always been about."
Like a fracture, a sudden, stricken look seized Neji's face, paralysing his breath.
Shikamaru watched, left numb by his own accuracy and the impact of its truth.
Neji said nothing. The colour had drained from his skin. He was as still and frozen as the moist sheen in his eyes; the pale irises staring at Shikamaru, sheeted with shock. But his gaze was no longer faraway – it was haunted and heartbreaking...but it was here.
Those moonstone orbs widened...translucent with tears that wouldn't fall.
Couldn't fall.
Shikamaru felt an ache he'd never felt before, swallowing up the air in his chest.
"Neji..."
The second he spoke, the ice in Neji's eyes didn't just crack.
It shattered like broken glass.
And those broken eyes were the last thing Shikamaru saw, before pain slammed into his jaw and the world crashed into black.
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Break to Breathe