Note: Thank you so much to everyone who was kind enough to leave feedback! And…my shoes tasted really bad. :( Oh, and just for reference, the ones after “Natural,” are flashbacks.

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Jump

It is the dead of night, and cold, too, but Sakura is patrolling the tops of Konoha’s gates – she is dressed head to toe in black. Save for the vibrancy of her hair, she blends into the dark flawlessly, watching, waiting, and armed to the teeth; a nasty surprise for any Akatsuki who think that they could breach the barriers of the village, to be sure.

It is a noble duty, and one that must be done, but the kunoichi cannot stifle a wistful sigh. Her breath pools in the chilled air, and turns silver.

The touch at her shoulder is so light it could be a phantom, and it comes out of nowhere. Her nerves are at a heightened state of anxiety already, and Sakura spins around, a kunai already in her hand.

Shikamaru raises an eyebrow lazily. “Made you jump.”

Sakura’s mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water. “You did not!” she retorts defensively. “What the hell are you doing out here, anyway? You had duty last night.”

“Ah, I decided that this whole night patrol thing is too troublesome to do on one’s own.” Shikamaru drawls, while surreptitiously scanning the surrounding area.

Sakura follows his gaze, suspicious. True enough, within a moment, Neji materializes into being a few feet away from them, somehow managing to balance three full mugs of steaming hot chocolate.

Shikamaru smirks in a rather satisfied fashion. “Took you long enough.”

“Yes, well,” the Hyuuga replies, pressing one mug into his hands, and another into Sakura’s. “Hanabi had hidden the marshmallows in her room.”

Sakura stares at her two friends incredulously, even as she feels the warmth of the hot chocolate penetrate her gloves. “Are you two crazy?”

“The word, my dear,” Shikamaru corrects, his eyes glinting mischievously. “Is genii. Not…crazy.”

Neji coughs, to hide his amusement, as resignation battles with Sakura’s features, and finally wins out. “Okay,” she says grudgingly. “But don’t blame me if you two get frostbite.”

“Honestly, Sakura,” Neji deadpans. “We may not be medic-nin, but I am fairly sure that the three of us will be able to combat frostbite.”

“I wonder how,” Shikamaru mutters.

Despite the cold and the sheer impracticality of it all, Sakura cannot help but smile at them as she holds her mug out. “Cheers.”

Jester

The first time Sakura and Shikamaru hear Neji laugh, really laugh, not some kind of twisted smirk of pleasure at seeing an enemy writhe in pain, Shikamaru pounces on Neji in an attempt to perform the Heimlich Maneuver, while Sakura panics and fears that she’s killed the best shinobi of their generation.

“Honestly,” Neji says irritably, once he has thrown Shikamaru off him, and convinced Sakura that he is, indeed, not dying a painful death. “I just found the story about Gai-sensei and the troupe of singing parrots amusing.”

“Oh,” Shikamaru and Sakura chorus meekly.

“We thought,” Shikamaru attempts to explain, “that you were dying. Or some such troublesome thing.”

Neji sighs almost imperceptibly. “Lee and Tenten reacted the same way the first time I expressed outward amusement in front of them.”

“You know what that means?” Sakura says, offering him a sickeningly saccharine smile. “It means you should laugh more often!”

There is a heartbeat of silence as the three of them regard each other, and then, Shikamaru and Sakura are the ones to fall over laughing, while Neji continues to sip his vitamin water, feeling faintly miffed.

Jousting

Hate Kakashi raises one eyebrow, very slightly, over his visible eye, as he regards the two shinobi standing in front of him. “Give me one reason,” he says mildly, “why I shouldn’t kill both of you where you stand.”

Shikamaru swallows – how troublesome is this? – but Neji attempts to answer the question in a satisfactory manner. “Because Sakura loves us very much,” he says stoically. “And if you killed us, she would be very upset. I daresay she would cry. A great deal. Would you like that on your conscience?”

Kakashi, who has killed hundreds of enemy shinobi without so much as blinking an eye, flinches at the very thought of his precious only female student crying because of him. “…A decent point, I’ll give you that. But I do not appreciate your mind games, Hyuuga.”

It is Neji’s turn to swallow, as the infamous Copy-nin gives him a decidedly fish-eyed look.

When Sakura comes to know that her beloved sensei, who is one of the five most important men in her life, disapproves of two of the other most important men in her life, she is hardly pleased. “Kakashi-sensei, why?” she implores. “You liked them well enough before – well, you know.”

Kakashi turns another page in his book, unconcerned. “Nonsense, Sakura. I never liked them at all; since the moment I first saw them at the chunin exams, as a matter of fact.”

Sakura nearly facefaults. “Sensei! That was…eleven years ago! They’ve changed a lot since then, and they were never really that bad to begin with!”

Kakashi puts the book down and gives her a Look.

“Okay, fine,” Sakura admits with a sigh. “They were pretty bad. But they have changed a lot.”

“Uh-huh,” Kakashi scoffs, before returning to his happy, simple Icha Icha world, where precious female students didn’t suddenly decide to engage in relationships with not one, but two of the most renowned shinobi around.

Sakura storms off in a huff at this point, but her relentless campaign to reconcile Neji, Shikamaru, and her sensei has already begun.

Predictably enough, it is a slow, painful process. Neji finds it depressing, Shikamaru nearly cries with how troublesome he finds it, and Kakashi considers quitting the village and becoming a missing-nin.

It takes fifty mandated games of Monopoly, Scrabble, and Pictionary for Kakashi to become accustomed to – and, perhaps, grudgingly fond of – Neji and Shikamaru. At this point, Sakura is content, and game nights are no longer mandatory.

But still, despite the pressing demands of all three of their careers, Neji, Shikamaru, and Kakashi all find time to meet every Thursday night and play board games together. It is the beginning of a beautiful and slightly scary friendship, and as Sakura cannot help but feel proud that she is the one who had triggered all of it.

Jewel

Neji is, essentially, a frugal person, who is perfectly capable of living life with only the barest and simplest of luxuries. One such luxury is an ivory comb with pearls inlaid into the handle. It had been a gift from his aunt upon his birth, who hadn’t quite comprehended the fact that Neji was, indeed, a boy.

The first time Sakura and Shikamaru come upon it, they are invading Neji’s room against his will, under the guise of paying him a simple visit to see how he is recovering after his latest mission-related injury. The visit had been unannounced, so when they storm in, loudly and cheerfully, the comb is lying, very conspicuously, on his otherwise bare dresser.

Neji tries his best to occupy their unwavering attention, but it isn’t long before Sakura decides she wants to look around. The Hyuuga prodigy closes his eyes—one, two, three—

“Oh my god, Neji!” she squeals, predictably enough. When he opens his eyes, he finds her brandishing his beloved hair care product, an adoring expression in her eyes. “This is so beautiful!”

Shikamaru ceases his anecdote about Lee and the kittens long enough to look up; he fixes a reluctantly admiring look on the comb. “Yeah, it’s nice.” He pauses for a moment, and Neji can almost see the cogs turning in his head. “…But why did Hinata leave her comb in here?”

“It, ah…” Neji is tempted to fake a coughing fit to play to Sakura’s sympathies; therefore making the two of them forget about the comb. However, his sense of base integrity comes into play, rather inconveniently. He clears his throat, feeling somewhat abashed. “It does not belong to Hinata.”

It takes a few moments for this to register. When it does, Sakura doubles over in a giggling fit, and a small and truly evil smile spreads over Shikamaru’s face.

Neji knows that he is helpless, in bed, with seven ribs that are currently on the mend, but he manages to summon up his most fearsome glare as he regards his two favorite genii. “This goes nowhere.”

“Sure,” Sakura says, wiping her eyes. “But only if –“

“ – You show us the matching bows and ribbons,” Shikamaru interrupts wickedly.

This is enough to make Sakura dissolve in laughter again, and Neji buries his head in the pillow with a groan, bidding a sad farewell to his dignity.

Just

“Why?” Neji asks plaintively.

Shikamaru just fidgets, keeping his eyes downcast as he mutters about how unjust and damn troublesome all of it is.

Sakura smirks, takes a step back, and takes a quick picture of Neji and Shikamaru, in their matching “Kiss The Cook” aprons. “After all, it’s only fair.”

Smirk

Sakura is dismayed when she finds out that both of her boys are true, incorrigible…smirkers. For the life of her, she cannot find a way to shake them out of the detestable habit. It has always been a habit that she’s hated, ever since she woke up one day, and realized that she was never going to see Sasuke’s smirk, greeting her and Naruto in the morning, ever again.

“Smile!” she yells, once, brandishing a photograph of a cute, fluffy puppy in front of them. “That’s all I’m asking! Just one, normal, smile!”

Neji and Shikamaru stare at the puppy impassively, before their eyes meet; in unison, both of them smirk, amused, at their girlfriend’s ill-conceived scheme.

Sakura throws the picture down in a fit of temper, snarls, stomps on it, whirls around, and storms away.

Once she is out of sight, Shikamaru is the first to laugh. “Priceless.”

A true, genuine smile touches Neji’s face as he lifts the picture of the puppy and dusts it off. “Indeed.”

Sorrow

Sakura sits on the bridge, and cries until her eyes are swollen and her throat hurts and her heart threatens to burst in two with the sheer, unutterable pain of it. Neji knows where she is, but he has his own wounds to tend, and Shikamaru—

A small, despairing sob escapes her lips, and as Sakura wipes the tears away from her cheeks roughly, she cannot help but think that arranged marriage must be the two worst words in the history of language itself.

Stupidity

Shikamaru dashes the papers from his desk, sweeping everything off until nothing is left, save for the dark wood. He sits down and buries his head and, here, in privacy, he allows the hot tears to leak, slowly, past his eyelids. They stain the pages and pages of complex calculations and advanced tactical maneuvers and strategies he has drafted, until the ink begins to blur and run together.

The sole framed photograph that had occupied the crowded space lies on the floor, now, a spiderweb crack having formed on the glass that protects it.

It is an uncharacteristic thought, born out of the deepest hurt and bitterness, but Shikamaru thinks that he would trade all of it, all of the calculations and tactics and strategies, if only he could have back the one thing he truly loves.

Serenade

It is dark and far too late for him to be out, but Neji feels as if he is bleeding from the inside, and the sounds that the bed of solid limestone makes as he begins shattering it into bits with his fingers and palms does nothing to soothe his pain.

Sarcasm

When Shikamaru is upset, really, truly upset, he loses the capability for the biting sarcasm that is his trademark.

After the next mission – after it happens – and Sakura is healing his many wounds, she asks him to remove his shirt, trying her best to keep her tone light, friendly, professional. She expects a retort of some type; when he removes the black mesh shirt without any comment at all, they both pretend that they do not see the single tear that drops onto the examination table.

Sordid

“I thought it would be the new kind of love story,” Sakura admits to him, once. “Unconventional, yeah, but with the same old…happily ever after ending.” She pauses, and under the sparse light granted by the slim crescent moon, he can see her struggling to keep her features straight. “I never thought it would end like this.”

Neji squeezes her hand gently, but for something like this, there are no words.

Soliloquy

Neji is the first one to reach out to him; after – he is delivering a stack of paperwork from Tsunade-sama, and Shikamaru nods his wordless thanks.

The ANBU Captain almost walks away, but at the last possible second, he turns and looks back. “You know,” he says, and his deep voice is unusually uncertain. “Friday nights – we still go out for dango.”

He stops abruptly; the air heavy with the weight of the words left unsaid.

It is a short speech, but it is enough, more than enough, and when Shikamaru nods, he can feel a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth – the first, in a long time. “Thank you.”

Neji nods, silently, and disappears.

Sojourn

Two weeks of carefully friendly dinners pass before Shikamaru has to say it; they will find out soon enough, anyway, and it is better that they hear it from him than through common gossip. “The wedding’s in two months.”

Neji nods immediately, quiet in his understanding, and Shikamaru is grateful. Sakura is slower in her reply; she blinks twice, but when she reaches out and touches his hand lightly, Shikamaru cannot help but flinch. “You don’t have to be alone until then,” she says softly.

Before he can stop himself, his fingers curl around hers, and Neji’s fingers shake slightly as they brush a stray strand of hair out of Shikamaru’s face.

Share

That is the last night they spend together. It is as painful as anything, and all of them cry a little, afterward, even though they keep their tears to themselves, wiping them away discreetly on separate corners of Sakura’s blanket.

At last, Shikamaru feels the need to say something; for the silence is choking him. “I’ll miss—“

Before he can say anything more, Neji’s hand is firm, yet gentle, against his mouth. “Don’t.”

This is as close to a plea as the Hyuuga can get, and Shikamaru recognizes this and falls silent. He nestles against Sakura and feels Neji wrap an arm around his waist, and Shikamaru closes his eyes and tries his very best to commit every little detail to memory.

Solitary

For a few months, afterward, they are all in a painfully awkward state of limbo. The nights that Sakura spends, alone, in the cold and dark while patrolling the village borders are even more agonizing, now that she knows what will not await her when she returns to her apartment a few hours later, at dawn.

One night, she turns to a touch on her shoulder, and finds Neji regarding her, his white eyes turned a luminescent shade of ivory under the moonlight. “I could not sleep,” he murmurs, by way of explanation.

Sakura laughs, a little bitterly, and the sound echoes a little. “Join the club.”

They sit in silence for an hour longer, until it is almost sunrise; until she feels his gloved hand slide over her cold one, and Sakura turns and looks at him sharply.

“You don’t have to go through this alone,” Neji says quietly.

It is a few moments before she leans into his touch, and together, they watch the sun slowly slip over the horizon.

Nowhere

They had made this village exclusively their own, and Shikamaru cannot walk anywhere without being assaulted by the tens of thousands of memories that they had formed, together.

Neutral

Tsunade says nothing about it directly, but from that time forward, she ceases assigning Sakura to missions with Shikamaru and Neji. Sakura supposes she should feel a million different things about this, but it hurts too much to feel, nowadays, and when she looks at her new team of Kiba and Shino, she forces a smile.

Nuance

Neji notices the way Sakura winces, almost unnoticeably, when she looks at the calendar, but he makes no mention of it.

The following Saturday morning, she shows up at the Hyuuga compound, wearing a long, violet-colored silk Chinese-style dress. Her makeup is impeccable and her hair perfectly styled, but Neji can see the determined set of her jaw; the face of a kunoichi preparing to do battle. “Let’s go,” she says abruptly.

Neji blinks, leaning against the door, so that his long hair cascades over one shoulder. “I thought – “

She smiles at him, but it takes a noticeable effort. “You thought wrong.”

In an hour, he has showered and donned his most formal set of ceremonial Hyuuga robes. Shortly afterward, they are at the wedding.

It has attracted a large crowd, but Shikamaru, standing at the head and looking most uncomfortable in his robes, can pick out the bright pink hair and white eyes even from a hundred feet away. His eyes widen; he makes no attempt at hiding his surprise.

Neji gives him what could best be described as an encouraging smile; Sakura lifts her wineglass in a silent toast, and Shikamaru inclines his head, even as he feels his throat constrict.

Natural

It is only natural that this should happen to them, the two survivors, but as they take their vows, both Neji and Sakura (and Shikamaru, waiting in the crowd) know that this is merely the next best thing.

Horizon

They are little more than teenagers thrown into an adult world, really, forced to come of age too soon, and Sakura realizes this the first time that they have been assigned on a mission together, when Neji attempts to chase an eagle into the horizon, and Shikamaru cheers him on loudly.

Valiant

“That was unnecessary and far too troublesome,” Shikamaru grouses, as he bandages the lesser of Neji’s wounds. “A few shuriken wouldn’t have killed us.”

Sakura cannot help but smile at him, even as she guides the poison out of the kunai stab in his chest with her chakra. “You’re just far too brave, Neji.”

“It is the duty of the captain to protect his team,” is the only reply the Hyuuga gives.

“And you love us,” Shikamaru prompts, and Sakura giggles.

“…Yes, that too.”

Victory

There is no greater satisfaction than returning after a mission well completed – Shikamaru is less likely to proclaim things troublesome and can even be persuaded to sing karaoke at passing bars, sometimes, Neji is less likely to forbid Shikamaru from singing, and Sakura is a great deal more likely to throw her arms around them in a fit of goodwill and declare them the best teammates ever.

Defeat

“Another successful mission,” Tsunade says, stamping their file, and giving her three favorite genii a smirk. “I’m not surprised.”

Sakura smiles, and flings her arms around Neji and Shikamaru’s shoulders. “After all, we’re damn near unbeatable.”

…

Oh, holy crap, why was this so sad and ironic? I’m sorry, guys. D: The next one will be happier, I promise.

Feedback appreciated!