Kindred

A/N: Many thanks to those who have supported this fic. It is greatly appreciated.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The hot water from the shower wasn’t waking Neji up as efficiently as it usually did. He was tired. He had only gotten a fraction of his usual amount of sleep, and he hadn’t even practiced his taijutsu. The Hyuuga would be a zombie during his shift today.

But it would be worth it, Neji decided. Last night had been epic. Neji’s partner of two years had become his lover.

Shikamaru. The man had wanted him all this time. Why hadn’t he said anything? Why hadn’t Neji figured it out? The two of them were the most strategic minds the precinct had to offer. They could decode, decrypt and outfraud the very best of them. They worked side-by-side in profound harmony every day, and spoke to each other almost every night, for two solid years. Neji had often wondered if the Nara had felt need of him the way he felt need of the Nara. Now, he knew the truth. It was a shame that so much time had been lost.

They were both so alike. They lived and breathed their work, and they were the best at it. Neither one dated. Neither one questioned it either.

Neji was feeling possessive of the Nara. He felt like he’d obtained something that no one else had ever had. He wanted to shout it to the world. He’d love to go to work and tell all their colleagues that Shikamaru Nara was his and that he belonged to Shikamaru Nara. Maybe they would know, some day.

Neji was vaguely cognizant of the hot water stinging his skin. He held up his arms. They were covered in scratches. When had Shikamaru done that?

Neji reached for his shampoo, and set about the task of washing his long mane, massaging his scalp with deft fingers. His arms were still very sore. In fact, his entire body felt as if he’d been competing in a taijutsu competition for the past 24 hours. Neji’s mind drifted back to last evening. Neji was the only man the Nara had ever been with. His ass was so tight—Neji hadn’t known it was possible to be so tight! Shikamaru had begged Neji to give him everything, and he had taken it well. And the way he said the Hyuuga’s name, over and over, as though Neji were the center of his universe. He tasted so good. And he came, so many times…

Neji smiled. I am the man.

Shit, Neji thought to himself, looking down. He made to rinse the shampoo from his hair and then reached for the conditioner. He’d use most of that in his hair, and save some to slather on his suddenly swollen, twitching cock.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A thoroughly clean, relieved and dripping wet Neji stood inside his expansive walk-in closet, naked as the day he was born, contemplating his wardrobe. He was in a unique mood, and wanted to wear something to fit the occasion. The Hyuuga spotted a long-sleeved black silk shirt, and reached for it. Black, he thought to himself. Because I am the man. Neji fished a hanger holding a pair of camel-colored pleated trousers from another rack. Now, a tie. What color tie would go with this shirt? It was black—most anything would work. Suddenly, he thought of his lover, who lay in his bed in a deep sleep. Shikamaru never wore a tie to work. Today he wouldn’t be working, though. Neji decided that, in honor of the sexy Shikamaru Nara and his amazingly tight ass—the one that was now the exclusive property of Neji Hyuuga--he would forego a tie. Neji walked out of his closet to get dressed for work.

Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

By the time he’d finished getting dressed, Neji was feeling more alert. Checking himself out in the mirror, he decided that he was glowing. His hair shone. His watch shone. His shoes shone. His smile shone. He was shiny today. And he certainly felt…shiny, too. Almost like he’d been shot in the ass with a syringe full of smiley faces. Is this what it would be like to be with Shikamaru? It was so unlike Neji to be…gregarious.

Neji walked over to the bed where Shikamaru lay. The vision of the man sleeping caused the Hyuuga’s breath to catch in his throat. At that moment, he couldn’t remember ever seeing anything more beautiful up close. Neji bent to place a light kiss on the Nara’s lips, and then whispered, “I’ll be back soon.”

My Shikamaru. Mine, Neji thought to himself as he left for work.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Neji pulled into the parking garage and parked the Nara’s car next to his own. He got out of the Lexus and did a quick inspection of his BMW, which had been parked there since yesterday morning. Satisfied that everything was okay, Neji went inside the precinct.

Morning muster didn’t begin until 0700, but Neji had arrived a few minutes early. He put his things on his desk and decided to get himself a cup of tea. He stood in the break room, holding the Styrofoam cup in his hand and, closing his eyes, took in the aroma of the tea as it brewed in the cup. It made him think of Shikamaru, who always came to the shift meeting with a cup of tea.

People walking by stopped and stared as the Hyuuga stood and inhaled the scent of the tea in his hand. By all accounts it was an unusual scene to witness.

Neji went into the meeting room and found his seat, as usual. He sat silently, having lost the battle with his urge to smirk, and sipped his tea.

“Hyuuga”, someone called out. Neji looked up to see the blond detective he’d been told was the Uzumaki. “Nice job on that case.”

“Thank you”, was Neji’s pleasant response. The Hyuuga didn’t actually smile but it was there, in his voice. Neji took another sip of his tea. Shikamaru should be there next to him, fielding kudos. They cracked that case together.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The shift meeting was routine, with one exception. The shift commander had chosen today of all days to call out the efforts of the team of the Nara and the Hyuuga on one particular case. Neji found himself the subject of applause--and stares, because he was sitting alone for the first time in two years. Where was the Nara? No one had asked, but it was clear from their expressions that they were curious.

Neji got up from his seat when the meeting ended. He was on his way to talk to the shift commander about the Nara when he found his path suddenly blocked. Neji looked up to find Kiba Inuzuka standing there.

Gone were Neji’s smirk and his happy-go-lucky mood. Cue the buzzkill, Neji thought to himself.

“Well if it isn’t the centerfold”, the Inuzuka greeted in a voice laced with sarcasm. “Where’s your partner?”

“Not here”, was the Hyuuga’s response. Neji braced himself. He was fully prepared to bum-rush the idiot Inuzuka if necessary to get back home to Shikamaru. He wasn’t in the mood for this game.

“That’s interesting”, Kiba responded, “because his car is here. But then, you already knew that didn’t you?” The Inuzuka stood with his arms crossed and a smug expression on his boyish face.

“What do you want, Inuzuka?” Neji asked in a disinterested voice. The discussion had already become tiresome.

“I want to know where your partner is, Hyuuga. I know you left here with him last night and today he is nowhere to be found. What’d you do? Kill him and stuff his body in the trunk? Get him drunk? Or maybe you did something else?”

“When my partner returns, you can ask him yourself”, was Neji’s calm response.

Kiba wasn’t satisfied. To the shock of the growing crowd around them, Kiba moved forward, closer to the Hyuuga and locked gazes.

“But I’m asking you, Hyuuga.” Kiba gave the taller man an up-and-down perusal with his eyes. “You’re not wearing your clothes from yesterday, or anything I’ve ever seen your partner wearing, which means you got dressed at home. That implies you took him to your place. So what’d you do to him, Hyuuga?”

Neji hadn’t realized until just then how closely the Inuzuka had been watching him and his partner. He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised, but seriously, didn’t the guy have anything more constructive to do with his time? Neji stood his ground, but he was losing patience. “I don’t believe either of us is required to answer to you Inuzuka, now move out of my way.”

Kiba’s expression changed. Now he was just angry. “You fucked him, didn’t you?” Kiba asked him. He didn’t care who heard him. “He isn’t here because he’s too sore to move. You must have worn him out pretty good. Man, you’re just full of surprises. I had you pegged for a bottom.”

Someone should have told you what happened to the last guy who mistook me for a bottom, Neji thought to himself, feeling his expression change. Yes, I fucked him. He begged me to. He squealed my name over and over. Now he’s lying in my big bed, naked and unconscious. I branded that sweet ass of his because I AM THE MAN, he is mine now and if you so much as look in our direction again--

“I guess that is a partner-only privilege, eh, Hyuuga? You special investigators have all the—“

Fuck this.

Kiba didn’t finish his sentence. Before he knew what was happening he found himself turned around and pinned painfully against a wall with one arm in danger of being ripped from its joint by one fed-up special investigator. Kiba tried to defend himself, but in vain. The Hyuuga was far more skilled and blocked every one of the Inuzuka’s moves effortlessly.

“Ow! Fuck, Hyuuga, get off me!” Kiba screamed, struggling to free himself from Neji’s vice-like grip. Neji applied more pressure to the arm and kicked his feet apart. The Inuzuka wailed.

“Ow! Damn you Hyuuga get off me right now!”

“Or what, Inuzuka?” the Hyuuga asked in a voice laced with impatience, a voice that Kiba had never heard before. Panic seeped in quickly. The Inuzuka tried to pull his arm free.

“Careful, Inuzuka”, Neji warned, his hold on the officer never faltering, “you keep struggling and that arm is going to pop right out of its joint.”

Kiba was on the verge of tears. He could feel the grinding in his shoulder from his arm being shifted out of position as well as muscles surrounding them being pulled beyond their limit. The pain was increasing steadily. The room was full of cops who simply stood there, watching. Kiba couldn’t move and the Hyuuga wouldn’t let go.

A draft and the sensation of hair tickling his face told the Inuzuka that the Hyuuga had shifted behind him. The next thing he knew there was a voice at his ear.

“This is the only other time I’m going to tell you”, the Hyuuga stated in that impatient voice loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, “and the only warning you’re ever going to get from me.”

“I’m—“ Neji applied a jolt of pressure to the arm, causing the Inuzuka to grunt.

“Not—“more pressure; more grunting.

“Interested.” Neji leaned the weight of his entire body against Kiba’s arm before stepping back and releasing it, causing the tortured Inuzuka to fall to the floor in a heap.

“Aaah!” Kiba wailed. The pain was excruciating.

“Is there a problem?”

Both Kiba and Neji looked toward the direction of the voice to find the shift commander standing there with an unreadable expression in his eerily mismatched eyes. It was impossible to read his entire face because a black mask covered it from the nose down.

“No, sir”, was Neji’s calm response. Kiba sat on the floor pouting but didn’t respond.

The shift commander’s eyes locked with Neji’s. “In my office, Hyuuga, like it already happened.”

“Yes sir.” Neji made his way to the shift commander’s office without looking back.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A put-out Inuzuka watched as Neji left the room with the shift commander and the crowd dispersed. A parade of cops who simply stared and shook their heads walked by him. Kiba was trying unsuccessfully to get up from the floor using only one arm. He looked up to find Naruto Uzumaki standing there, arms crossed, shaking his head and tsk-ing.

The Inuzuka scowled. “You lost, Uzumaki?”

“Gods, Inuzuka”, Naruto asked, “why does it always have to be by the scruff of the neck with you?”

“Fuck you, Uzumaki!” was Kiba’s response.

“Sorry, Bowser”, Naruto replied, “but you don’t make the cut. I prefer redheads.¹” And with that, the Uzumaki walked away.

Kiba sat there close to tears muttering something about blond cops who are full of shit when he sensed someone else standing nearby. He turned his head and looked up to find Kabuto Yakushi standing over him, extending his hand.

“It’s probably sprained”, was all he said.

Without a word Kiba extended his good arm to Kabuto, who leaned down and pulled him off the floor.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A/N: (1) that was my reverent nod to my other OTP, NaruGaa. I couldn’t find a suitable place for Gaara in this fic, but I had to mention him since his Naruto is in here.

The song Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangsta is a Geto Boys monstrosity; I take no credit for it.

Neji’s not used to having these kinds of feelings, is he, LOL?

I decided to bring Kiba back since he’s the one dumb enough to actually ask Neji where his partner ran off to. Yes, the Inuzuka takes one for the team in this chapter. And from the man, no less!

The next chapter is the final chapter, folks.

Please review!