Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.

A/N: I want to thank you for all the reviews you gave me! I've never gotten so many reviews for one chapter before! THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH! You don't know how much I appreciate each and everyone of you.

xIxMxPxRxIxSxOxNxExDx

- Imprisoned -

Week 3

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-xWednesdayx-

It had been an entire week since Naruto and Sasuke had cuddled, as Naruto liked to think of it. The memory still lingered, and if Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated for a bit, he could summon the memory up and relive it again, which was what he was currently doing right then on the gray, cloudy Wednesday. It was really such a drab day, the middle of the week. The week hadn't just begun, but it wasn't over. That was what Wednesday meant to Naruto, and this particularly Wednesday was even more boring than most other Wednesdays because of the looming clouds sulking above. Naruto hated gray days like these, and when they landed on Wednesdays, it changed the mood for the worst.

Today would be even a more dreary day than most. It was the day that Naruto would be introduced to a sadistic side of Alcatraz. A guard unlocked the cellar door and beckoned the two to step outside.

"The tournament's 'bout to start," he chuckled ruthlessly, "You're probably gonna be innit again, Uchiha. Most definitely."

"What tournament?" Naruto asked bewildered, "You guys hold tournaments here?"

"Yeah, but you don't got to worry none. After all, you'll only be staying here for jus' two months and some now. Only the hot-headed ones," the guard shot a look at Sasuke, "who earned themselves the life sentence are entered."

This didn't sound too pleasant. "Meaning…?"

The guard looked at Sasuke to see if he was going to say anything. Sasuke wasn't. His head was turned to the ground and his face was impassive. "Well, see here, this prison isn't nearly big enough to keep all the prisoners in California. I'll be hating to tell you this, but, see now, the government won't be giving the money we need to build a bigger prison and they keep pushing more and more prisoners at us, and we didn't have no room for them. So the boss decided to do things his way."

Naruto was beginning to get the jest of this whole idea, but he kept his mouth shut.

"He said that since all the prisoners with life-sentence were going to die here anyway, why not jus' make that time they are gonna be here a little shorter. Whose it gonna affect anyway?"

Naruto could barely contain the disgust that was coming out his throat, so he clamped his mouth shut.

"It's a tournament of life and death, see? Each prisoner gets one weapon and they're paired up with another prisoner and put into a arena where they fight for life or death."

"But that's horrible!" Naruto exclaimed, all the disgust finally escaping his stomach."

"We aren't that cruel. We only kill the amount if prisoners that are coming in and then one."

"That's still muder."

"An' that's life," the guard stated. He turned to Sasuke, "You'll be coming with me. You're second up."

"How many matches are there gonna be in all?"

"Five, there are four new prisoners coming in and no space left for them to live and we need one extra cell in case some one else comes in this week. Oh yeah, and if you want to watch them, there are bleachers to the door at the right if you want a better view."

"A better view?" Naruto croaked, "Why would anyone want to see people fight for their lives?"

"It's entertainment, one of the only kind you get here unless you can read decently."

Naruto was silent as he watched the tall, muscular figure of Sasuke, and the short, but bulky figure of the guard walk off. It wasn't until they were well out of his reach when he bellowed, "WAIT!"

"What?" It was obvious that the guard's patience was wearing thin.

"Can I come?"

"Come where?"

"I want to go to the place where you keep the… um…. contestants."

"You wanna accompany Uchiha?" the guard guessed.

"Um… well.. just to…"

"Fine, then. Come'on. If we stand here talking all day, we aren't going to get anything done. Then the boss'll get mad." Naruto hurried along to catch up with them. He glanced at Sasuke's face to see how he was reacting. He face was still as unexpressive as ever, but when he saw Naruto's head tilted up to meet his, the corner's of his mouth rose as if he was trying to show something. It definitely wasn't happiness or any other signs of gratefulness either.

"You'll be in this cell here. Don't do anything funny. We'll be watching you," the guard chuckles, "Literally, but I know I don't have to worry. After all, Uchiha, this isn't your first time, is it?" He opened a gate and waited for them to walk into the small cell furnished with only a steel bench before closing and locking it. Technically, there was no back or front to this room as the opposite ends of the walls were iron bars allowing spectators (which mainly consisted of many of the prisoners themselves and many guards) to see what was going on inside the small cells. The prisoners could also see directly into the arena as the arena was just one large pit with cells lined around it.

"I don't understand, Sasuke. Why do they have these people pit themselves against one another? If you survive, you can then be charged for murdered and sentenced with the death penalty, or you can just die early. There really isn't difference."

"Just as there is no difference between having a life sentence and dying in jail fifty years later than dying in this tournament now."

"This whole business is so revolting." They were silent as they listened to the crowd outside yelling and making comments on who was going to win. It wasn't hard to pick out the yells of "50$ for Sasuke! I'm willing to bet 50$ on Sasuke," and "NONO! I'll put out 500$ for Sasuke. He's definitely my man." And then Naruto remembered the guard's remark earlier, After all, Uchiha, this isn't your first time is it?

"Hey, um.. Sasuke?"

"Hn."

"The guard mentioned earlier that… well, this isn't your first time being a competitor."

"So?"

"Then how many times have you competed?"

"I lost count at 14."

Naruto was speechless, "So you… you're saying that you went up against more than 14 different opponents and you… killed them all?"

"No."

"But Sa-"

"When I was younger, my father taught me many defensive and offensive techniques, and one of them included a lesson on hitting vital points."

"Vital.. points," Naruto repeated, he whistled softly. "I thought you had killed all those people. Thank the heavens you didn't 'cause otherwise, I wouldn't have –"

"Naruto, listen to me!"

"The tournament will now begin! Our first competitors, number 2394 and number 1093!" A large voice boomed into the arena. Two gates opened and the men inside staggered out. Naruto watched with horror as they raised their weapons and began to stare at each other with somber eyes.

Sasuke tore his eyes away from the gruesome battle, "Hitting the vital points of a person will knock them out, but they will awake just hours later. The guards cannot bury a live person so this person who has been knocked out has to be stuffed into the extra cell. It was only a matter of time before they figured out who it was."

The yelling and cheering of the crowd drew their attention back to the bloody fight of the two contenders. The shorter man with the sword currently had the advantage as he dodged in and out of the two daggers the tall man was holding. Both men had huge droplets of sweat rolling down their faces, and their shirts looked wet to the touch. The taller man, 1093, had a large gash across his leg. Blood was running down the wound and it looked as if it would cause him to run no more. The shorter man only had a small slit on his cheek, but otherwise was in pretty good shape.

"Anyway, the point is, they're going to make me kill him this time. They even brought one of the doctors to check his pulse, and until he dies, they're not letting me out of the arena."

"Then just don't fight!" Naruto argued, "Sit there until he returns to consciousness, then knock him out again."

"I don't think you understand."

"This isn't legal is it? This tournament?"

"I don't think so."

"Then why can they hold it? They're bound to get caught?"

"What's the point? No one cares about the prisoners here."

"That's not true!"

"Before you came here, I bet if someone told you that the prisoners were killing each other, you wouldn't give two pennies to help them."

"I…" Naruto realized that he wouldn't have.

"OH! And there goes 1093. Looks like he's collapsed from the pain in his left leg. Looks like 2394 is going in for the kill!" the man announced, his voice full of anticipation for what happened next.

"AGH! I can't watch!" Naruto turned his head to face the wall, but it didn't block out the horrible scream from 1093. "This is the most sickening thing I have ever known."

"Then, you'll probably hate me by the end of the day, too."

There was another silence as Sasuke watched the scene in front of them unfold. There was a loud yell and that was it, the end of 1093's life.

"Well, what a match! Next up, we have the famous Uchiha versus 4931. This will be 4931's first time competing, but I am sure this will be a well-fought out match. After all, 4931 used to be a famous gang leader up in Chicago before he escaped to the crowded city of San Francisco."

"Hey Sasuke, why don't you have a number?"

"It's obvious, isn't it? Why do they need to call me a number when everyone already knows who I am. It's only the people who no one knows do they use their numbers. That way the spectators can tell who is who when the commentator is making comments. If they used names, the people might not be able to remember which name belongs to which person and when they fight, everyone will become more confused. Uchiha is my number," Sasuke sighed as the gate lifted, "Stay here."

"Contestants, please come forward… WAIT! It looks Uchiha has brought another man along side with him. What is happening? The judge is walking into the arena to talk to him." The crowd quieted down to try and hear what Sasuke was saying.

"Oh, Naruto back there? He just wanted to experience everything," Sasuke said calmly. "He's leaving in just a ten weeks."

"Excuse me?"

"There are people expecting him back at home, and I'm sure they wouldn't be too happy if he died here."

"Ex-ex..excuse me?" the balding man stuttered.

Sasuke leaned closer and grabbed the man by his collar and whispered, "You heard me, now get going. You don't want any trouble do you?"

"I'm.. not.. af-af-afraid of you!" he cried, but nevertheless, he turned to Naruto and gritted his teeth, "Come with me, you'll be watching from the stands."

Naruto glanced back at Sasuke as he questioned what was happening with his eyes.

Sasuke just turned away.

"Come on, hurry up!" the judged snapped impatiently.

"Wait a sec," Naruto ran back to Sasuke and whispered in his ear, "Sasuke, no matter what you do, I'll still like you."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh," Naruto's mouth began to form the word "nothing," but instead, "Sasuke, take care of yourself and don't get hurt. Otherwise I really will be mad at you."

Sasuke laughed in a nonchalant way, "Baka, do you think I would really care if you were mad at me?" But despite these words of ignorance, Sasuke kept his soft, gentle smile on those seductive lips until Naruto left the arena.

"Just go find some place to sit down unless you want to return to your cell. If you choose the latter, I will have to accompany you," the judge said monotonously after he had escorted Naruto up the bleachers.

"I'll stay," Naruto whispered, his heart was beating rapidly for Sasuke's safety. He looked around the bleachers and found what seemed to be a nice-looking man. He made his way to him and plopped down besides him.

"Hey!" he smiled cheerfully, the way he normally greeted new people.

The man nodded.

"I'm Naruto! Who are you?"

"What a blunt way to introduce yourself. I'm Shikamaru."

"Oh! Nice to meet you," and then after a while, "You don't seem to be enjoying yourself very much."

"Well, duh. Who likes to watch people kill each other? I'm only here 'cause at least there is something I can learn here than staring at the wall in my room."

"I suppose," Naruto looked out into the arena as he watched Sasuke and 4931 face off.

"Hey, you should be happy or at least relieved that you're up here and not down there. Looked like the judge wanted to send you in and have all three of you fight each other."

"You're not serious!"

"These guys are looking for any form of entertainment they can get without spending any money, and what could be more entertaining than having roommates killing each other? I guess they had to settle with this though."

Naruto was speechless once again. This whole thing was so wrong. It was like Ancient Rome all over again.

"But it looks like your buddy down there managed to change his mind. What did he say?"

"Oh, he just said something like that my friends will be expecting me in ten weeks."

"That's it? But normally the judge would have been like 'Who cares?' He must have said something else," Shikamaru was staring at Naruto with a frown on his face, "What could he have said?"

"That was about it!"

"There must have been something else you missed," but Naruto shook his head, "Oh well, it was worth a shot," Shikamaru muttered to himself. "You know, you're really lucky you have him as a friend."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't pretend you don't know," Shikamaru sighed, "Although he is a prisoner, he is a great influence to all who are around him. He is stronger than anyone here, the guards are afraid of him as many weaker men have rebelled a long time ago. Even though everyone acts like they don't like him and give him looks whenever he walks by, most secretly admire him and wish they could be more like him. It's a funny world."

"And the fighting finally begins with 4931 making the first move. Oh! What a narrow miss!" After they had been standing across from each other for what seemed like forever, 4931 had ran forward and slashed his two daggers in the place where Sasuke had just been. Sasuke, sensing the attack had leapt to the side and ran away from 4931 keeping a fair distance between them.

"There are many prisoners who respect him here, but just as many who scoff at him and call him a sissy," Shimaru commented. He had sat up to watch the fight begin.

"Looks like none of them want to get this battle started, so I guess we'll have to help them," the commentator roared. Four gun shots rung into the arena causing Naruto to jump up.

"Did they get him? Did they get him?" Naruto shrieked.

"No, looks like he managed to dodge all of them," Shikamaru observed. 4931 was more unfortunate. One bullet was lodged into the side of his arm and the another tore off the flesh of his arm.

"How can they do that! That's so inhumane!"

"Shh! Listen."

4931 seemed to be saying something to Sasuke, but it was unaudible from where Naruto and Shikamaru were. Sasuke replied something which caused 4931 to redden with anger. He threw both daggers at Sasuke in such fury that Sasuke was unable to escape from harm this time. A large dagger sank right below his knee causing him to grimace when he pulled it out. It wasn't a relatively deep wound, thankfully, however it caused a loud discussion to rise among the audience.

"Woah, that's the first real wound that Sasuke's got," Shikamaru remarked. They watched as 4931 said something to him, but Sasuke's expression didn't change. After some more conversation between them, Sasuke suddenly lunged forward without any warning and withing seconds had slashed 4931 in the neck. Naruto had never seen anyone die before and it was a horrifying experience. 4931 eyes were wide open as he fell to his knees before finally falling face down into the sand. A gate on the other end of the arena opened and two guards came out with guns loaded and raised. Sasuke threw the daggers up into the air and they spiraled around each other as they fell. He proceeded to go with the guards. Once the two bulky men were next to Sasuke, they pointed their guns back at the ground, but still clutched tightly on to them.

"I guess I should go and… congratulate him," Naruto shrugged as he looked at his shoes.

"Yeah, sure. I think I'll stay, but can you ask him something for me?" Shikamaru asked.

"Sure."

"Ask him what he and 4931 were saying to each other back on the arena."

"You can always ask him if you want."

"I would, but then I would have to walk all the way back down and then wait for some guards and then walk over there and then walk back… it's way too troublesome when you can do it. Just tell me at dinner."

"Yeah, alright," Naruto started heading down the steps. He turned back to look at Shikamaru and found that he was already sleeping and sighed.

He climbed down the bleachers and waited for two free guards that would accompany him back to his jail cell. He was surprised to find that Sasuke wasn't already there waiting for him.

It wasn't until much later in the afternoon when Sasuke entered the room. He looked miserable, his hair was all damp and sticking up where it shouldn't be, and it looked like he hadn't showered in a while.

"Sasuke!" Naruto jumped up to greet him.

Sasuke nodded.

"You look really tired. Where'd you go afterwards?"

"They wanted me to stay and watch the other matches after they bandaged me up…"

"Oh, oh yeah."

Sasuke lay down on top of his matress and closed his eyes.

"Hey Sasuke?"

"Yeah?"

"You know how you and 49…something were talking?"

"Mmm."

"What were you guys talking about?"

"Just stuff."

"He seemed really angry when he threw those daggers at you."

"Yeah."

"What did you say to him?"

"He told me that he wanted to live and that there were still many things he hadn't done, that he wanted to do. Then he asked me if I wanted to live… And I said yes. I told him I wanted to live because of something way more valuable than why he wants to live."

"That's it?"

"That's all you need to know."

"But you guys talked some more after he missed."

"He said he wasn't going to give up just because he lost his weapons. He said he wasn't a gang leader for nothing. He said he was going to come out of this fight alive. And then when I attacked him, he told me his name."

"That's it?"

"That's all you need to know."

"Sasuke," Naruto whined.

"He told me I had changed since the first time he laid eyes on me. When he first saw me, he said that I wouldn't have cared whether or not I was alive or dead. Life had no meaning to me."

"But that's not true, right?"

"It was… until…"

"Sasuke?"

"I'll tell you some other time, just not now."

Naruto leaned over and knelt beside Sasuke's bed, his blue eyes staring into Sasuke's dark eyes.

"Sasuke? You know I like you…. I like you very much."

"I know."

"Sasuke?"

"What?"

Naruto leaned forward and touched Sasuke's cheeks softly with his hand before planting his lips softly on Sasuke's.

-xWednesdayx-

And that's it. Use your immagination for the rest!

By the way, the whole tournament thing in Alcatraz is NOT true (in reality). It's just something I made up for the story! So please review!