Snow-white dishonour.

Ehhh, I still need a beta ^^; Well, I think this is longer then the last one, though it’s another friendship chap… But don’t worry, I’ll get there =) I’m sorry for not updating sooner, our internet connection died a week ago and just got back =/



Warnings are in chap 1, and I still don’t own.



Thanks a billion to my reviewers!!! It really does make me write faster.



R&R?





Six months passed, Shikamaru trying to find an apartment and a way of telling his mother that he was leaving the nest. Kakashi training relentless and searching every thing he could find about the Hyuuga clan to find a way to protect his best friend and his young lover. He never told either Shikamaru or Genma why he was so obsessed with looking through the law scrolls. But Shikamaru slowly became aware of the fact that every time Kakashi hit a dead end, the copy ninja would come to him for a spar…



The two of them teamed up with Genma to train Neji for the upcoming exam which had been slightly postponed due to the problems Konoha still were suffering. And Neji were training as if his life depended on it, which, in a way, it probably was. If he failed this time… Well, none of them wanted to think about it… The exams were finally here again and once again Neji was lying beside Shikamaru on his bed.



“Are you going to tell them when you pass?”



“IF I pass Shika, and I’m not sure… It depends on a lot of things I guess… Genma mainly, we haven’t really talked about it. It is one thing with you and Kakashi, but I’m not so sure about the rest of them. Could you even imagine the look on Gai-sensei’s face if I told him? I can’t and what about Genma’s friends? Next to Kakashi, Genma’s closest friend is Iruka. Iruka was never my sensei, but he was still a teacher at the academy.”



“Are you having doubts in your love for him?”



“NO!! No, that was not how I meant it. I… I fear for him Shika…” Neji closed his eyes and his already pale skin paled even more. “His family doesn’t know either… What kind of boyfriend am I to ask him to risk every thing, even his life, for me? That isn’t love! I can’t ask it of him…”



Shikamaru sighed and absentmindedly scratched his head. There was simply no good answer to this, no matter what the two lovers were going to suffer. Kakashi had failed in his search for anything in the Hyuuga history to help them, and even if there had been something Shikamaru wasn’t sure that it would have helped. Neji was the strongest living Hyuuga, probably even the strongest Hyuuga there ever had been, and the clan would be furious when they understood that there wasn’t going to be a descendant to this strong Ninja.



“Families are a curse…” Shikamaru sighed.



“You don’t have to tell me about that.” Came a voice from the open window and the two on the bed was up and in fighting stance in a second only to be laughed at.



“Gaara! Don’t do that!” Neji growled at the red head as he slid in through the window.



“Why not? I scare people where ever I go, so why not you two too?”



Shikamaru shook his head with a smirk and did something completely out of character for him as he walked over to the Sand Ninja and hugged him. Gaara was more then a little surprised by this. Sure, these two was among the very few he called friends, but to have someone touch him like that was inexperienced, but not unwanted.



“Glad to see you Gaara-kun! I take it that you and your siblings are here for the exams too?”

Shikamaru asked as he pulled away from the red head and flopped back down on the bed.



“Yeah… I wasn’t sure if I was going to be allowed to enter again, but apparently some Leaf Jounin put in a good word for me…”



“That would probably be Kakashi.” Neji said and smiled at Shikamaru.



“Kakashi-san? Why would he do that? I hardly know him?”



“You don’t but Shikamaru does… In fact there has been trouble separating the two of them.”



“Neji!!! Don’t put your love life into mine!” But for some reason there was a faint blush on Shikamaru’s cheeks which made both the others raise an eyebrow at him.



“Ok, there seems that there has been a lot going on since I left. So you have a lot of telling to do, so spill.” Gaara said and unleashed the strap that held his sand gourd and flopped down on the floor as Neji sat down on the bed cross-legged.



“Neji… Trust him…” That was all that Shikamaru said, and Neji slowly nodded. This was a test, and maybe, just maybe he had one more friend that was ok with his choice in love. An hour later Gaara had asked all the questions he could think of about Genma and was now glaring at the floor. Neji felt like fidgeting and kept glancing at Shikamaru who simply kept staring at the ceiling.



“If they dare try to break you apart, I will destroy them.”



Both Neji and Shikamaru stared at Gaara. It was undoubtedly his way of saying that he approved of the relationship. But there was something else in that cold voice…



“Gaara…”



“No. I spent my childhood wishing for love, and then I despised it. Now that I finally have been given some friends, I will do anything to protect them and their happiness. I want to have what you have with Genma one day Neji.”



He looked up from the floor and they could both see the painful desperation that was in those green eyes. It was heartbreaking to see and none of them really knew what to do at first. Shikamaru was the first one to regain his composure and slid of the bed to sit next to Gaara and wrapped his arms around him.



“You will Gaara. You’ll find it, I’m sure.”



“How can you be so sure? I’m a monster, how could anyone love me back?”



“Gaara, when I first met you I was terrified of you, and now I’m sitting here, holding you. You just have to give people a chance and some time. Besides, you are not a monster because of the fact that you have a monster inside of you. That’s the monster, not you, you troublesome boy.” Shikamaru smirked at him.



Gaara tilted his head and looked at him.



“When did you become so smart about people Shikamaru?”



“He spent too much time with Kakashi. The pervert seems to rub of on him…” Neji smirked.



“Ah, that’s right. That sounds like something I want to know about.”



“There is nothing to know, we work well toghter and we’ve had to try to find a way of keeping the two love birds safe.” Shikamaru looked away from the two others. Neji made big eyes, he hadn’t noticed the change in Shikamaru’s and Kakashi’s relationship…



“Shikamaru, please, the truth now?”



“That’s all there is to tell Neji, but…”



“But you wish that there was more, is that it? You’ve fallen for him haven’t you?”



“I don’t know, I just don’t know, so stop asking!” Both of the others were shocked, it was rare, if not unheard of, that Shikamaru lost his temper like that. “I’m sorry. It’s just too much to deal with at the moment. I’ve been put in the security group for the exams, and for the last week I’ve been scanning the forest and going over every possible way there could be for anyone to get into the village, my mother is breathing down my neck all the time, I’ve been trying to find away of keeping you and Genma safe Neji. Then there’s the fact that Asuma has let me train Choji, Ino and Sakura for the exam and for some freaking reason Ino has started following me around like a lost puppy all the time. On top of that I’m moving next week and I still haven’t found a way of telling my mum that… So even though he seems to take up a lot of my mind, I just don’t have the time to worry about it.



The two others realised that this was the queue to change the subject and as they left the Shadow master an hour later they were still the best of friends and Shikamaru wished both of them the best of luck.



As he crawled under his cover sometime later he made a silent pray that they would both pass this time.