Kindred

A/N: Many thanks to all who reviewed.

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Morning muster was always an ordeal for the Hyuuga. It was the one time during the day when he was required to be in a room with his fellow investigators, agents, detectives and other random law enforcement liaisons. Even a special investigator could only take so many cops at one time.

Neji was, as always, crisply dressed for business in a suit and tie. His hair was in its usual style, bound near the end by a band the same shade of deep brown as his hair. He never failed to elicit stares when he entered the briefing room each morning, from women or men. Neji simply didn’t fit the profile. He was too beautiful for his line of work—too wildly out of place with that long mane of lush, dark brown hair and those pastel eyes. Neji had the kind of looks typically found on models and actors. But Neji didn’t have the personality for that kind of work, not that it mattered. Neji was born beautiful, one of a family of equally beautiful and powerfully wealthy people. His good looks, while significant, weren’t as rare as people thought and he knew better than most the dangers of seeking out one’s destiny in the mirror. Neji might have been born looking the way he did, but his poise, his skill, his intellect, and his physical strength were all something he’d had to work very hard to obtain. In Neji’s life, those were the things that counted.

Neji found himself a spot in the room to wait for his partner’s arrival and the start of their shift meeting. No sooner had he gotten comfortable in his chair than he found himself sitting next to a tanned, brown-haired blur everyone knew as Kiba Inuzuka.

“Mornin’, centerfold. How’s life?” the blur spoke with a shit-eating grin. Kiba was assigned with the K-9 patrol and always smelled like the animals that worked with him. Neji turned to look at him with his typical non-expression. They had only ever spoken to each other on extremely rare occasions, and they never sat together during the shift meeting.

“May I help you?” was Neji’s disinterested response.

“Not especially”, Kiba responded, his smile wilting a little. “I, uh, just thought I’d say hello, it’s not often I see you without your partner hermetically sealed to you at the elbow.” Neji turned away from the man, looking ahead to the front of the room.

“If you’re offering to take his place, I’m not interested, Inuzuka.” Kiba chuckled.

“A joke. Wow. Who knew you had it in you?” Kiba turned his body in the chair so that he faced Neji, oblivious to the stares and murmuring from the growing number of people in the room who were now observing their interaction with interest.

“You know,” Kiba continued in a voice meant for only the Hyuuga to hear, “I’m about 99% sure I could freeze water on your ass. What is with you? It was a greeting, not a request for a blowjob.” When his statement garnered no reaction from the man the Inuzuka added, “or is that a partner-only privilege, Hyuuga?”

Neji was taking a silent inventory of the number of different methods he knew of to block the Inuzuka’s windpipe so he wouldn’t have to hear anymore of his idiotic blathering when a familiar voice responded.

“I’m 100% sure you’re gonna die wondering, Inuzuka.” Both men jerked their heads up and over in the direction of the voice to find Shikamaru standing there, one hand in the pocket of his pants and the other holding a Styrofoam cup of a steaming beverage. Kiba visibly stiffened at the Nara’s comment and stood up to face him, jaw clenched.

Kiba didn’t like Shikamaru, for several reasons. There didn’t seem to be a case the guy couldn’t crack blindfolded in less than three minutes. Kiba didn’t know anyone who had achieved the designation of special investigator as fast as the Nara had, and if that wasn’t enough, he got to be partnered with the prettiest man Kiba had ever seen in the flesh. The Inuzuka even had to begrudge the Nara the fact that he wasn’t too hard on the eyes either. Shikamaru was easily one of the luckiest bastards Kiba knew but acted like none of it mattered, which pissed him off to no end.

“Is that a threat, Nara? Because if it is, you’re in way over your head.” There was an unmistakable hint of a threat in his statement, at which Shikamaru snorted.

“You wish you mattered that much”, The Nara responded and took a sip of his drink, his eyes never leaving Kiba’s annoyed expression. “Move along, Fido, you’re gettin’ dog dander in my chair.”

Kiba was feeling explosive. His fists were clenched at his sides. Damn that arrogant prick Neji Hyuuga and his smartass, know-it-all partner! It was then that he noticed the crowd forming around them, watching for the next move. Kiba couldn’t do this now, in front of everyone. Shikamaru and Neji were the department’s favorite team-up—the Inuzuka would never get promoted if he even so much as breathed on the two of them the wrong way, and he could possibly even have his ass handed to him. While the Nara seemed like a lightweight, Kiba knew the Hyuuga could hold his own. The Inuzuka didn’t need to know firsthand what having a guy that beautiful kick the shit out of him in front of their entire department could do to his confidence, to say nothing of what it would surely do to his reputation.

Kiba glared at the Nara, and then cast a glance at the stoic Hyuuga before turning silently and walking off toward the dispersing crowd.

Shikamaru assumed his rightful position in the chair next to Neji and took another sip of his drink. He noted the seat was still warm from where the Inuzuka had been sitting in it, his drink was cooling, the murmuring had died down, and the Hyuuga hadn’t spoken a word.

Awkward. The word came unbidden to Shikamaru’s mind. Would things be weird between them today? No, Shikamaru decided. He wouldn’t allow it.

Shikamaru eyed the shift commander taking his position at the front of the room.

“Sorry I’m late”, the Nara spoke in a voice meant only for the Hyuuga to hear.

“You so owe me, Nara”, was the Hyuuga’s response.

Shikamaru smirked. Everything was fine.

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

The shift meeting was routine, no surprises. When it was over, the duo moved to their respective desks in the bullpen. Neji worked quickly, assembling the day’s agenda for the duo. Shikamaru sat hunched over the file he’d been poring over the past 24 hours.

“Haven’t cracked it yet?” a voice above the Nara’s head asked. He looked up to find a bespectacled, gray-haired man in a polo shirt and chinos standing next to his desk. “You must be losing your touch.”

“In your dreams, Yakushi.” The Nara went back to studying the notes in the file. Kabuto Yakushi moved to the chair next to Shikamaru’s desk and sat down with a sigh.

“More like my nightmares. Without guys like you we forensics weenies would spend the day playing solitaire and surfing porn.”

“Which part of that was the nightmare part?” Shikamaru asked without looking up, and Kabuto laughed.

“I suppose it depends on who you ask, but probably the part where my tax dollars are paying for that shit.” Shikamaru looked at the Yakushi again, a bored expression on his face.

“Okay, okay, this isn’t a social call.” Kabuto’s eyes met Shikamaru’s. “So, Nara, that little scene at muster this morning—what was that about? One minute everything’s cool and the next, you’re standing toe-to-toe with Inuzuka.” Here we go again, Shikamaru thought to himself, though his expression didn’t change.

“Why don’t you ask Inuzuka?” Shikamaru asked him.

“Because Inuzuka’s full of hot air.” Kabuto leaned in closer to the Nara. “Was he really making a pass at Hyuuga?”

Kabuto knew he wouldn’t get a straight answer from the Inuzuka. He also knew that Shikamaru was better than most cops at reading people. Kabuto, as did many of their colleagues, suspected Kiba Inuzuka of riding the fence, a topic that was popular only because the idiot Inuzuka had vehemently denied it more than once. If it were true, the Nara would have already figured it out. Not to mention the fact that no one was sure about Neji Hyuuga’s sexual orientation (and more than a few were interested). If anyone had a bead on that, the Hyuuga’s partner did; another reason the Yakushi had sought him out.

Unable to resist, Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

“Are you kidding? Not even Inuzuka would be stupid enough to make a pass at another male officer in the middle of a room full of mostly male cops.” Shikamaru neatly closed the folder he’d been reading. “Besides, it wouldn’t have taken my partner more than nine seconds to dislocate about twenty bones in the guy’s body.”

“Is he really that good?” Kabuto’s eyes were alight with what looked to the Nara to be mischief.

“See for yourself—ask him to spar sometime.” The Yakushi shook his head.

“No thanks. I’m partial to my skeletal structure; I’ll take your word for it.” Kabuto looked over at Neji, who appeared to be reading a file. “Doesn’t it blow your mind?”

“What—Hyuuga’s combat skills?”

“No, Nara. All of it.” Kabuto found he couldn’t take his eyes off Neji. “The looks, the brain, the combat skills—and from what I hear, the money.” The Yakushi turned his head back to the Nara, who maintained his bored expression. “The guy’s just—perfect. How can you stand it?”

“Well, if I don’t he beats my ass.” Kabuto laughed again.

“So he’s the bouncer on this team, and you’re the mastermind. I would have figured the guy would have been too busy washing his hair to learn any self defense moves.” Shikamaru smirked. The Nara wasn’t exactly a slouch when it came to self defense himself, but it wasn’t what he was known for. Besides, with Neji as his partner, it hardly mattered. The Hyuuga’s combat skills far exceeded his, and from what he could tell, those of most of their colleagues. The Nara was fine with their dynamic just as it was.

“Well, I’d keep an eye on Inuzuka if I were you.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because sooner or later, he’s going to learn the hard way that nothing could be further from the truth.” Kabuto trained an intense look on the Nara.

“You do think he was making a pass at him, don’t you?” Shikamaru snorted, and then looked at Neji.

“Nah. He was just picking on the quiet kid, you know how it goes.” Kabuto didn’t look convinced.

“And what were you doing?” Shikamaru looked at Kabuto then.

“Trying to save Inuzuka a trip to the hospital.” Shikamaru pushed his chair back and got up from his desk then, case folder in hand.

“Where are you going?” Kabuto asked him, standing. Shikamaru looked at his watch.

“To brief the shift commander and get warrants.”

“Don’t forget to put me on the guest list, Nara.” Kabuto watched with interest as the Hyuuga rose from his desk and wordlessly, noiselessly, walked over to his partner and stood behind him. The Hyuuga probably heard the entire conversation. Kabuto’s curiosity about the nature of the partnership between the Nara and the Hyuuga spiked instantly.

Without meaning to, Kabuto’s eyes met the Hyuuga’s and Kabuto wondered to himself if someone in Neji Hyuuga’s ancestry had possibly mated with a wolf. Kabuto looked away.

“I’ll see what I can do”, Shikamaru answered, and the duo turned and walked out of the bullpen.

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

A/N: Yes, I'm back already! I'm having so much fun with this fic, it's practically writing itself! Please provide feedback, I do appreciate it so. What do you think of Kabuto being a good guy? I can't remember reading a fic where he was good, so I decided to write him into this one that way. I hope you're enjoying this, because it only gets better from here! Stay tuned!