"I'm not saying it's your fault, Tenten." Neji reassured over the phone. "It's Lee's."

"But I still feel guilty for leaving you..." Tenten's voice cracked slightly on the other line due to static. "Plus, it's even worst because Hinata can't get a hold of your uncle, so we can't even get you a lawyer."

"Perfect..." Neji sighed and turned as he felt a light tap on his shoulder to see an officer point to the clock. "I got to go."

"Okay..." Tenten said in disappointment. "And don't worry, we'll figure something out."

"I hope so..." Neji said then hung up the phone, following the officer deeper into the building he had arrived at less than an hour ago, in what was shaping up to be the worst night of his life. The City's Correctional Center. The two walked in silence as they traveled down a hall lined with iron-barred cells on either side but, due to the dim lighting, the figures inside were unidentifiable (and judging from some of the sounds inside was probably a good thing). Really loathing the fact he now had an extended stay in this place, Neji made mental note to hit Lee the next time he saw him.

"Get in." The officer ordered after they had stopped at a cell near the end of the hall and opened it slowly. Without a word, figuring it would be best to keep quiet given his not having a lawyer, Neji obliged and watched as the bars were put back in place and locked. Turning around, and in spite of himself, Neji jumped a little when he came face-to-face with his new cellmate...Kind of. Truth be told the blond was a good head shorter than he was and was currently looking up at him with fierce, blue eyes. Neji guessed he was probably a year or two younger than himself. Something about him seemed familiar...

"Um...Hi?" Neji greeted awkwardly and the blond frowned.

"Who are you?" The blond demanded, in tones a little less inviting than his new cellmate had hoped.

"...Hyuuga Neji," said person replied unsurely.

The blonde's eye twitched, almost unnoticeably, as he walked closer to Neji, who suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. He slowly raised a hand to the side of Neji's head and grinned as he touched his ear and drew his hand back.

"I'm..." The blond opened his fist to expose a bright, shiny quarter and grinned wider. "Naruto. Uzumaki, Naruto. Grade-A prankster and your new cellmate."

---

"I really had nothing better to do in here," Naruto explained, flipping the sliver coin in his hand. "I mean, there are limited hobbies here."

"So...You took up pranking?" Neji asked, cocking an eyebrow. "In a prison of all places? Somehow I think that's an indirect way to sign your death waver."

Naruto shook his head. "Naw, I've always been into pranking, it's actually the reason I'm in here, don't ask how, but it is. I just needed something to keep me sane while I'm in here, unlike some people I know. He continued. "And I plan to stay that way for the next two weeks."

"Christmas?"

"Exactly. I get out of here Christmas day and I don't plan on screwing up my chance for freedom from now 'til then."

"I've only been here two hours and I can't wait to get out..." Neji muttered, secretly surprised at how much he was actually enjoying the conversation. Who knew prisoners were so good at making small talk? In a single hour he already liked Naruto more than he liked most of his acquaintances, and that included the person to blame for his being here.

Naruto stared at his cellmate, a bit puzzled, before asking: "are you single?"

Funny. Neji suddenly liked him less.

"N-No, no! Not like that!" Naruto waved his hands as if trying to wave away the question. "I meant, d-do you have someone outside of here that you need, or want to, get back to?"

"I do..." Neji said, relieved.

"I see..." Naruto nodded slightly and grinned. "That's always something to keep you going, right? Gotta admit, I'm a little envious." He added quietly, standing up and stretching. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm bushed.

"It is late. We should probably get to bed." Neji suggested then watched as Naruto climbed into the top bunk before doing the same to the bottom bunk.

"Well, g'night then, new cellmate." Naruto said both fell asleep within a couple minutes.

---

"Tenten!"

Said brunette looked up from her lunch of soda and corn dogs, with fries, to see Hinata making her way to her with a little girl in tow. For a split second, Tenten thought it was Hinata's younger sister, Hanabi (who is a demon while we're on the subject), but that was ruled out when she saw the young girl actually had orange hair tied in two adorable pigtails.

"Hey Hinata." Tenten gestured to the girl. "Uh, who's your little friend?"

"This..." Hinata placed her hands on the girl's shoulders. "This is Moegi. She wants to talk to you."

"Me? Really?" Tenten was slightly surprised, looking from Hinata to the little girl. "About what?"

"You know Santa, right?" Moegi asked hopefully, with all the cuteness a little girl could muster (which was actually a lot).

"Uh...Well, kinda. In a sense, I guess you could say...." Tenten was unsure of the question, and looked at Hinata who gladly clarified.

"Well, you see, it seems that my cousin promised to give this little girl, uh, 'the best Christmas ever.'"

"'The best Christmas...ever?'" Tenten repeated, looking at Moegi, who nodded.

"You see, I live with five other kids. Foster kids. And my foster mom...Well, she..." Moegi looked down sadly. "She's in the hospital right now so my foster dad's been working two jobs to help her and give us a good Christmas...But things aren't going to well--" Moegi sniveled "--He's never home anymore and me and my brothers and sisters aren't getting along too well and I-I figured the only way things would go back to normal, back to where everyone got along, would be t-to have a great Christmas to remind everyone t-t-that we're still a f-family." Moegi hiccupped as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Oh..." Hinata sobbed lightly as she scooped the little girl up in a hug. "I-it's okay dear. You'll get to be a family again. A big, happy family"

"That's right. I promise that you will be." Tenten agreed, also hugging Moegi.

"You guys better give that poor little girl the best Christmas she, or anybody else, has ever seen! I mean it, Tenten!" Lee yelled from his station with a waterfall of tears on his own cheeks.

"We will. We will. I swear." Tenten assured with no doubt in her mind.

"Thank you..." Moegi sniffled, wiping her eyes.

"Moegi!" A sudden voice called, making the trio turn to the entrance where a teenager, or possibly preteen, male stood in the doorway. He had unusual plum-coloured hair and dark eyes, currently focused on the young girl.

"Oh, I gotta go." Moegi said slowly, withdrawing a small piece of paper from her pocket and handing it to Tenten, who took it.

"What's this?"

"My address." Moegi replied before waving and running to the entrance, disappearing with the teen.

"Everyone knows you cannot break a Christmas promise!" Lee shouted suddenly. "You just cannot! It is inhuman! And if you do...Your heart is made of stone!"

Tenten sighed, knowing this was true and she had to fulfill this promise to Moegi. There was a problem however, she couldn't do it alone and the very person who had made the promise to start with was currently behind bars. Guess she would just have to fix that then.

---

Naruto was sleeping peacefully, or at least as peacefully as one can on a third rate bed, with an occasional snore escaping from his mouth and he would have continued sleeping like this if he hadn't heard the sound of stone chipping in his ears. As silently as he could, he climbed out of the top bunk, taking care not to wake his partner, and stared blankly at the wall opposite the bars. Unless it was his sometimes overly active imagination, he could have sworn he'd seen one of the large cement blocks, or bricks, move slightly.

"What the heck..." Naruto muttered, rubbing his eyes as the same block moved gradually. Now he was sure he wasn't imagining it. This time the block had moved almost completely out of the wall and Naruto drew a breath, wondering if the guards would hear it smash on the cement ground. Seemed likely, But they didn't. Naruto let out a sigh and walked to the makeshift window.

"Excuse me!" A hushed voice called from the other side.

"Uh...Hello..." Naruto greeted as he peered down at the brown-haired female staring back at him. "Can I assist you?"

"Yeah, I'm looking for my boyfriend, Neji; know where I can find him?" The girl asked as she put her pick and hammer on the ground outside.

"Um, yeah. Actually, I do." Naruto eyed the girl before stepping back. "Hold on a sec', 'kay?"

Naruto moved slowly along the rubble, back to the bed and knelt down to the bottom, nudging his cellmate, who had about as much as a reaction as a dead rock.

"Hey, wake up, man." No response. Naruto sighed and raised his hand in the air, then brought it down hard on his cellmate's chest. This woke him up.

"Naruto! What the hell was that for?" Neji demanded, breathlessly.

"You have a visitour," Naruto replied, making a point to be hushed, pointing to the hole to which Neji's eyes traveled, and widened slightly. Looking from the hole, to Naruto and back, he thought better than to question anything and walked to the opening.

"Man, what are my parents going to think when they find out that I'm dating a convict?" Tenten asked, shaking her head disappointedly.

"I have no idea, Tenten." Neji grated. "And now I have a question for you."

"What?" Tenten cocked her head.

"Are you completely out of your mind?" Neji hissed. "What are you trying to do? Get us both in even more trouble?"

"No..." Tenten said innocently. "I'm getting you out of here, silly."

"You know, I'm curious. What would possess you to try and break into a federal prison?"

"I met Moegi today."

"And who's that?"

"The little girl who you promised to give 'the best Christmas ever' to." Tenten glared at her captive friend, who had obviously forgotten this little fact (not that it surprised her).

"So what?" Neji asked, wanting a point to be made fast.

"You promised her the greatest Christmas, and you're keeping that promise, mister. You can't break a Christmas promise." Tenten said furtively.

"She's right ya know." Naruto agreed, appearing next to Neji.

"Get out of here!" Neji said sternly, pushing the blond away but not before an idea had made its way into Tenten's head.

"Wait; bring him back for a second. I want to talk to him. Alone." She added, when Neji gave her a confused look.

"Fine." Neji left the square hole and motioned for Naruto to take his place, as he returned to the bed to sit.

"Hey. What's up?" Naruto greeted.

"Okay, listen. I need your help." Tenten said in hushed tone, just so only the two of them heard. "You see my boyfriend over there made this promise to a little foster girl who lives with, like, ten thousand other foster kids and her foster mom is sick so she's in the hospital and her foster dad's been taking longer shift so he's never home and all she wants is for her family to have a good Christmas and I came all the way down here to make sure Neji fulfills his promise and he's being his typical self and not cooperating. Make him cooperate!" Tenten finished, out of breath and panting.

"Okay! I got it!" Naruto nodded and, unseen to Tenten, picked up one of the larger remains of the cement block and walked slowly to his cellmate and, before he could say a word, well...Let's just say cement plus head equals a total knockout.

"...Not quite the method I would have picked but I guess it works nonetheless, though..." Tenten laughed nervously as she eyed her boyfriend's unconscious body. "He's going to have one hell of a headache when he wakes up...If he wakes up, that is...Help me put him through here."

Naruto obliged, struggling to pick up Neji's limp body. "He's a lot heavier than he looks." The blond informed, settling for half dragging his cellmate to the hole.

"Just hurry," Tenten said hastily, then, noticing that the blond had a sudden grin on his face, added (or tried to), "what are-"

Before her sentence was complete, Tenten was showered with bits and chunks of the wall that once separated her and the cell but was now a big pile of rubble, thanks to the blond, who had somehow gotten it into his head it was okay to use her boyfriend as a battering ram.

"Again...Not the method I would have picked..." Tenten sweatdropped as Naruto half-placed half threw her boyfriend, who was not going to be a very happy person when he woke up, on the other side of the 'wall'. "But thanks anyway."

"No problem." Naruto gave her a thumbs up. "Keep that promise."

"You bet we will." Tenten winked. "Nothing's going to stop us-"

"Hold it right there!" Suddenly blinded by a bright light, Tenten cut off as it engulfed her and the less-than-subtle hole in the side of the building. "You're under arrest!"

"Ah, crap..." Tenten muttered.

---

Whoot! And up goes chapter two, whether I got reveiws or not :P If you do read, review please. You hold the power.