The Way Things Are

So it's a couple days later than what I said. I'm sorry! I really hope you guys will like this chapter. It's one of the shorter ones in the story, but I think that's permissible, right? I hope so...Anyhow, happy reading! :D

REVIEW REPLIES

superwhore: lol I guess you'll see how Shikamaru reacts, eh? And yay for no anger from you! lol I'm glad. :D Anyhow, I hope you'll like the update!

solitare1: Aw, I guess a lot of people saw it coming...Oh well. :P I'll live. hee hee. I'm still glad that you're enjoying it though.

Ino-chan: I'm glad you still liked the chapter despite the cruel thing I did to Neji. He had to go back, right? At least, I thought he did. Glad you agree. lol I hope you'll enjoy the next chapter. :D Love your Sasu/Naru idea btw. XD

Bree: Wasn't it? I'm such a bitch. :P

crazyforkakashi: Oh cookies! *eats* Yum. :D My muse is content now. lol I hope you'll enjoy the update. ^_^ Maybe it'll be better? Maybe?

cynaga: Thank you! I really should go back to the beginning of this story and carry out parts. I'd really like to make the Kumo nins in Suna much more challenging...

XoXgaaraXoX: Oh thank you. ^_^ I'm glad you see it that way. ^_^ Hopefully, though, I'll keep writing a story that will stick to your interests. :D

Dying Dreams: Isn't it? I have far too much fun with being cruel. You'll have to read on to see whether he lives or dies. And thanks! I have been having a very great break. :D

amith: I'm really glad that you're enjoying it, despite you disappointment with my last cliffy. XD lol And I'll take in your vote for Neji to live. ;)

Im The Dobe: A thriller, eh? *gets the Micheal Jackson song in her head* Oh dear...I wonder how Shikamaru will handle the news...Anyhow, thank you for the compliments. I really hope you'll enjoy the next chapter!

Syake: lol Asking your parents to spar might not be a good idea. XD lol Gaara is smart though. VERY smart. And Neji is pretty, but you'll have to read on to see whether I give him a death sentence or show him mercy. That sounded evil...O_O

Admiral ShadowWolf: Glad to see I'm not the only one who notices that. :D And your desire for Neji to live has been added to my mental archives. That's a lot of votes for him living and none for him dying. XD

Starry: Yes, I did. And yes, I am very mean. Hopefully this update will make it better. ^_^

Tia: ^_^; um...sorry? lol

Zenith-Kaitou: Oh good. Someone else who isn't going to spit on me for letting Neji survive. :X I hope you'll like the new chapter!

charmpit: Are you saying that I can still let him die? lol j/k He won't die alone, I can promise you that.

Nickles: Oh, so they finally took the 1st spot eh? Hmmm...maybe I'll have to let him live just so they stay there. XD And a pissed Nara? I can't imagine what he'll be like. O_o

qwerty: Another vote for Neji not dying. Hmm...I'm getting many of those. XD Glad you liked the chapter and I hope you'll like this one.

jess249: Oh, I didn't mean to make you sad...OK, maybe I did, but this is the first time! I swear! *cough cough* lol And I hope this is being updated soon enough for you. Sorry about the break!

Annieme: Oh, so frustrated that no words could come out? That's a compliment in itself. lol I am having fun on my break, thanks. :D Hope this update doesn't come to late. ^_^;

Anaheyla: I did hurt Neji. Aren't I cruel? lol And that's another vote for Neji not to die...goodness.

Mina: I am terribly mean. I think people have gotten to know that by now. XD lol I hope you'll enjoy this chapter too!!!

D.A. Maxwell: Oh fun. Working. :P lol I'm glad that you like the report of the group outside of Konoha. And you'll just have to find out how they got into the forest later. :D

lonelydove: *makes another mark* That's...a lot of wishes/wants/hopes for Neji to live. O_o lol

ShikaChouFan4Life: I am the cliffy queen. XD lol Or so I've been told. :P Thank you for being patient! I really hope you'll like the update! :D

Vampire Ruby Red: Wow! I'm in your top three? O_O Thank you!!! I'm really glad that you like it so much! It makes me happy to hear that I'm also presenting the couple to you in a way that you like. ^_^ So glad to hear that! Ahahaha...thanks for the compliment on that oral. ^_^; I really do feel like it was one of my best. Thank you again for your compliments and I really hope you'll continue to enjoy reading my story! ^_^

Damp: ...^_^; Ah...I think you're angry...*watches you cautiously* Um...I'm going to guess that you want those five men to die in a painfully, torturous way? XD

Revine: Aren't I? I'm such a bitch. XD Thank you! I really hope you'll enjoy the update and yay for angst! lol

KatFO: Wasn't it? I really am mean...Goodness, now I have a threat to add to the "Let Neji Live" vault. O_o lol I hope this update is fast enough...;)

luxeflex: I think it's one of my best actually. XD lol yes poor Neji and Gaara better get faster, neh?

AngelicChaos: ...sorry? lol Thank you so much for the compliment. Being antsy isn't always a bad thing, right? lol Hopefully you'll like this chapter!

Lith: Yes, Shikamaru is going to be pissed...but will it be his dominant emotion? I hope you'll get to read this happily. ^_^

Twisted_Reaper: lol Yes, I'm very mean. XD I'm very happy that you like it! :D I hope you'll continue to enjoy it, despite my meanness. XD lol Happy reading!

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Chapter 27

Shikamaru waited patiently in his living room, eyes pouring over the paper in front of him, a smug smirk on his face. He could hear each of the people that were visiting his home right now. Chouji with his infamous bag of chips, munching away at them. Sasuke’s fingers were tapping in a bored way on the arm of the couch. Naruto was snoring softly, exhausted from a large meeting he had had with a Kiri delegate over a trade of goods. Kiba and Akamaru were playing some sort of game while Lee was pacing back and forth on the wood floor.

“You’re absolutely positive that he’ll be coming back tonight,” Sasuke demanded, waking Naruto from his nap.

“Unless something else has come up, I’m ninety-nine percent sure,” Shikamaru stated, not raising his eyes from the paper. “But there shouldn’t be anything hindering him from returning tonight.”

“I sure hope you’re right,” Naruto yawned, rubbing his eyes. “We’ve been here for…two hours already.”

“Stupid,” Kiba smirked, flashing his fangs, “you’ve been sleeping for more than half of that time.”

Naruto huffed. “So what? You’re just playing with your dog.”

“At least he’s doing something,” Sasuke sighed.

“Sasuke, you should not act so!” Lee exclaimed. “We are here to celebrate the youthfulness of Neji’s growing up! He is no longer in his teenage years!”

“He’s turned 20,” Chouji said thoughtfully. “Wow…It’s kind of hard to think that almost 8 years ago we were still in the academy.”

“Yeah,” Kiba grinned, rubbing the back of Akamaru’s head. “We were so stupid then…”

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. “Stupid?”

“All except you, brainiac,” Sasuke smirked.

The entire group chuckled when Shikamaru returned his attention back to the paper, shaking his head. Not a sound was made after that until Akamaru lifted his head and started to whine towards the direction of the front door. Slightly confused, Shikamaru’s eyes tried to make a connection between the large dog and the door. What could Akamaru be worried about? He immediately let his chakra flow in the direction of the front of his house, trying to sense what was wrong.

Kiba turned his nose to the air and sniffed. “Hey guys…I smell blood…lots of it…”

Shikamaru’s eyes opened wide as his chakra barely touched over a weak pulse of someone else’s. His friends were shocked to find him getting out of the chair he had been sitting in so quickly and racing through the front door, though they weren’t too far behind him. He searched for the faint pulse again, only to feel it coming right in front of them. He ran through the grass, his heart beating against his chest, his mind running on frantic. He hadn’t calculated this! Why hadn’t he calculated this?!

His mind broke down as Neji came into his view, the setting sun giving off just enough light. He couldn’t move as the Hyuuga made his way towards him, paler than usually and blood flowing freely from his chest, a sword sticking straight through it. Shikamaru panicked and ran to the Hyuuga’s side, catching his spouse and lover in his arms as he fell forward. He slowly lowered the man to the ground, ignoring the blood that covered his clothes.

“N-Neji?” Shikamaru asked, eyes wide, his arms trembling as he held the other.

Neji merely grinned at him and stretched a blood soaked finger towards his face, running them across his cheek before a set of violent coughs shook his body, blood spewing from his mouth. Shikamaru forced his mind to work as he heard the other’s come up from behind him. Naruto, Sasuke, and Lee took off into the forest quickly followed by Kiba and Akamaru after the giant dog had gotten a sniff of the handle of the sword. Shikamaru wasted no more time and wrapped his arms around the shivering body creating the seals necessary to jutsu-jump him to the hospital.

His knees didn’t even notice as the grass turned to hard, tiled floors, bloody and with a dying Hyuuga in his arms. He screamed Sakura’s and Ino’s names before several medical nins came rushing into the room, Ino among them. Eyes going wide, the blonde rushed over to Shikamaru’s side, eyes running over Neji’s body.

“I need a gurney in here, immediately!” she ordered, turning back to the stunned medic nin. “This is a code red situation! Get a room ready for an emergency operation and inform Haruno Sakura to be here in no less than 5 minutes! I also need someone to contact Lady Tsunade and Shizune and tell them this is urgent! I don’t care if they’re getting ready for bed or not! Move people!”

Shikamaru failed to notice the nins scurrying to Ino’s orders, his eyes focused solely on the bleeding man in his arms. “Stay with me, Neji. Please, keep your eyes open and stay with me.”

Neji merely blinked, in response, keeping his eyes locked with the Nara’s shocked ones.

“Shikamaru, we’ve got to pull the sword out,” Ino said softly, placing a hand on her teammate’s shoulder. “It’s keeping the wound open.”

Shikamaru nodded his head slowly and shifted Neji until one arm was wrapped around Neji’s shoulders and the other was holding onto one of his bloody hands. Ino grabbed the hilt of the sword and started to pull it out. Neji screamed, which came out gargled because of the viscous fluid in his throat, at the pull on his skin as it had already started to heal around the sword. Shikamaru closed his eyes, wishing he could take the other’s pain, and rested his head against the Hyuuga’s, his hand matching Neji’s in grip.

Ino pulled the sword free, pushing it to the side, and placed her hands over the open wound, concentrating her chakra onto that point.

“Keep your eyes open, Neji,” Shikamaru whispered as he opened his own and stared into the white ones that he loved so much. “Please, keep your eyes open.”

Neji’s breathing was labored and strangled, yet deliberate and his heart was beating slowly. Yet his eyes continued to stare and blink at the man holding him. It seemed like ages until a gurney came in, even though it was only minutes, followed quickly by Sakura. She took one look at Neji’s body and instantly shifted to battle mode. She knelt down in front of Shikamaru and gently started to pull his fingers away from the Hyuuga’s shoulders. When he tightened them, she looked over to Ino.

“Shikamaru, you have to let go,” Ino said softly. “We need to get him into emergency healing right away. Please, for Neji’s sake.”

Shaking, Shikamaru let his grip lax and Sakura started to pick Neji up. Once free of the Nara’s hold, she rushed him over to the gurney and ordered medic nin to assist her as she kept one hand resting over Neji’s wound constantly, her chakra healing it to the best it could. Shikamaru watched with dead eyes as the bed was rolled away, Neji’s eyes locked with his, begging for forgiveness. Shikamaru almost lost it when the other disappeared. He stood up and moved towards the door.

“You can’t, Shikamaru,” Ino stated, standing in front of the door and holding her teammate back. “You have to stay here.”

“Please, Ino, please, let me stay with him,” Shikamaru pleaded, his body trembling.

“I can’t,” Ino said, her face staying firm, but her eyes showing how crushed she was for him. “You can’t go in there.”

“Ino, please,” Shikamaru said softly, his head hanging.

Ino shook her head. “I’m sorry, but if you go in there, you could kill him.”

Chouji came into the room at that point and Ino sighed in relief. The Akimichi immediately made his way over to his shaken friend and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Shikamaru? Why don’t we go into the bathroom and wash you up. We need to get you out of these bloody clothes.”

Shikamaru stood still for a moment before he dumbly nodded his head. Ino watched with worried eyes as Chouji led his friend towards the bathroom. She shook her head and disappeared behind the door. She had more important things to worry about at the moment. Chouji, on the other hand, couldn’t push his worry aside. His best friend was staring blankly at nothing, not arguing or protesting with anything that the other would ask him to do or say.

Shikamaru slowly pulled on a clean pair of pants when Chouji had left with his bloody clothes, and made his way over to the sink. He started to wash his hands and arms, looking blankly at himself in the mirror. His hands, arms and parts of his face and neck were covered with Neji’s blood. Unable to hold back any longer, Shikamaru started to cry. This time, he had no cigarette to blame it on. He slumped down to the floor, his hands dripping with the discolored water, and cried like he never had before.

He buried himself in his arms, letting the mostly cleaned limbs catch all of his tears. His cries turned to gut wrenching sobs. He didn’t care if anyone heard. Didn’t care if someone found him in this state. For once in his entire life, he could care less about the people around him. All of them but Neji. His sobs became louder and he started to rock back and forth on the floor, trying to find some form of comfort, some source of warmth. Yet his world was crumbling and falling apart.

He didn’t hear the door open, didn’t see his father walk into the bathroom. Shikaku let out a soft sigh, the only sign alerting his presence to his son, before he walked over and kneeled down next to the teen. His hand was gentle as he placed it on his son’s shoulder and pulled the younger Nara towards himself. Shikamaru buried himself in his father’s arms like he had done when he was just a small child and cried. Shikaku couldn’t offer any words of comfort and simply held onto the shaking form, resting his head against that of his son’s.

It was several minutes later when Shikamaru had somehow gotten a hold of himself, sniffing and wiping his eyes as he got to his feet and finished washing his hands, face, and neck. Shikaku handed the teenager a shirt, offering to put his arm around him should he want it. Shikamaru swallowed and his chin started to shake once again and Shikaku wrapped his arms around the other once again, not bothering to tell him to stop crying and to act his age. Too young. He was too young to go through something like this. Not even he had experienced something like this before.

Shikamaru cried for a few more minutes before he regained a semblance of his control again. Shikaku helped him wipe away his tears and slowly led him from the bathroom into the waiting room. Yoshino was over by their sides the moment they walked out and Shikamaru vaguely noticed that they were not the only ones there. They sat him down in a chair and Yoshino ordered her husband to go get him some water. Shikaku grumbled something under his breath, but left nonetheless.

Slowly, Shikamaru raised his eyes to look at all those who were here with him and his parents. Chouji hadn’t left since the beginning and was staring at his best friend with hopeful, but sad eyes. He looked over to find Tenten paler than usual and Gai was dead silent. Hinata was leaning onto Shino her eyes lost and worried. Her sister’s were no better and Hanabi was clinging to their father, whose face was as stoic as ever, but his eyes showed his worry.

The doors leading into the room suddenly flew open, revealing a very tired looking Kazekage and Sand siblings. The redhead was immediately pulled into a hug by his lover. Shikamaru’s eyes started to water and he had to look away, his body trembling and threatening to break down on him. His father returned with a water bottle and Yoshino immediately opened it and poured some onto a cloth. She gently washed Shikamaru’s face, wiping away the salt of his dried tears.

“Shikamaru?” she asked softly as she set the cloth aside, kneeling in front of her son while Shikaku sat down next to him. “Honey, look at me.”

Raising his eyes, Shikamaru looked into the comforting brown of his mother’s and his lip started to tremble again.

Yoshino gave him a small sad smile. “It’s OK to cry. There is nothing wrong with crying.”

“I couldn’t do anything,” Shikamaru whispered, his hands clenching into fists. “I couldn’t do anything to help him.”

Yoshino shook her head. “Shikamaru, you still can.”

Shikamaru blinked. “What?”

“You can believe,” Yoshino said softly. She rolled her eyes when both Nara males snorted. “I know it sounds stupid and there are no facts to back up that it works, but you have to try.”

“Mom-“

“Listen to me,” Yoshino stated softly. “He needs you to believe in him right now. He needs you to believe he can make it through this. He needs your strength and faith, not your worry and doubt. He needs to know that you think he’ll make it.”

“But how can he know?” Shikamaru asked spitefully. “How can he know when I haven’t told him?”

Yoshino sighed and placed a hand on her son’s heart. “He’ll feel it here.”

Shikamaru frowned. “That’s so stupid.”

Yoshino shook her head. “Is it? Your father came back to me because he felt something here, right? I wanted him to come back to me. I begged and pleaded with whatever deity was out there listening that he would come back. He did, didn’t he?”

Shikaku’s eyes fell to the floor before a hand came and wrapped around his. “Yoshino…”

Yoshino’s eyes began to water. “I’ve finally forgotten, Shikamaru. I’ve finally forgotten the pain I felt. And all of it was to thank on that Hyuuga you married.”

Shikamaru looked at his mother in disbelief. She had finally and completely moved on…because of Neji?

“I’m not going to stop believing that he can make it through this,” Yoshino stated firmly, “because I need to thank him. I need to thank him for not only the change in me, but for the change in you. Don’t stop believing in him. He needs you to have faith in him and those saving him. He needs you to.”

Shikamaru blinked and stared at the floor for a moment as his mother moved to sit by his father. He needed to believe. Shikamaru hated believing. That meant he didn’t know. Didn’t know what was going to happen. Didn’t know how things were going to turn out. He hated that because more often than not, he did know. He knew how things were going to turn out and how they happened. Sighing softly, he closed his eyes. But maybe this time he had to just…believe.

“Nara Shikamaru.”

Shikamaru slowly turned his head up to find Gaara standing by him. He stared at the redhead for a moment before he watched the other get to his knees. He was shocked when the Kazekage bowed down before him. “I can’t apologize more than this. I should have sent guards with him.”

“Get up, Gaara,” Shikamaru said quietly. “It’s not your fault. The fact that you’re here when you are states that you realized the danger he was in and came to aid him yourself. That enough is alone. But if it’ll make you feel better, you’re apology is accepted.”

Gaara sat back up and got to his feet. “If…it helps you any, he asked to leave quickly…so he could return to you.”

“There’s no lie about that,” Kankuro added. “I’d often catch him looking towards Konoha.”

Shikamaru let out a sharp laugh. “Idiot.”

Temari snorted, although it was somewhat sympathetic. “You two are perfect for each other. Sad.”

Shikamaru smirked with no real feeling behind it. “Thanks.”

He slowly drifted away from the conversations that were brought up to try and lighten the mood and continued to stare out onto the floor. He felt a little better, considering that he had held his dying lover in his arms. His eyes started to water again and he closed them tightly. He had to believe. Had to have faith in the person he loved and the people healing him.

“I love you.”

The words rang through his head like a mantra. Neji had told him that he loved him. Had whispered it before he left. And what had he done? He had kissed him. He hadn’t been ready to tell Neji how he really felt.

I won’t fail again, Shikamaru thought firmly, continuing his staring contest with the far wall. I’ll tell him. The minute I see him, I’ll let him know. I won’t let him go without him knowing.
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I get too attached to my stories. I literally cried with Shikamaru in this chapter. Sad, eh? lol I'm such a cruel bitch. I make myself cry. XD lol

I have three days left in my Spring Break (including the weekend) so the next update with be either Sunday or Monday. Hopefully you guys will be able to survive till then. XD lol

Please review!!!