Chapter 2

08:20

Tying up his shoes in a nick of speed, Naruto quickly grabbed his jacket and prepared to run out of the cell, …at least he could have, if a sudden hand hadn't dropped down on him from the top bunk and grabbed the nape of his shirt.

"Where do you think you're going so fast?" grumbled Shikamaru, his head still buried deeply inside the pillow, while Naruto stared at his 'magical' hand in amazed wonder.

'Dear Lord…is this guy prescient?' "Aaa…I wanted to go…sightseeing?"

"Of course you did." Pulling the blond back and further away from the bars, Shikamaru jumped off his bed and landed between his amazed cellmate and the exit. "We have an appointment with the doc. Or did you forget that already?"

'Blasted Shikamaru…that slimy…Argh!' "No," crossing his arms, Naruto tried to prevent his cheeks from puffing up.

"Great. Then wait up while I get dressed." Shikamaru yawned and walked behind the fuming blond.

'The damn slacker! God! Why is he making everything even harder!'

…

08:45

Leaning his head against the entwined hands behind his neck, Shikamaru couldn't stop the fifteenth appearing tick-mark on his forehead as the blond by his side couldn't stop fidgeting and shaking his leg.

Dropping his hand firmly onto Naruto's shaking knee, Shikamaru hissed silently, "Stop fidgeting. What are you so nervous about?"

"I'm afraid of needles." Naruto quickly thought up a lie and stopped shaking his knee, much to Shikamaru's delight, yet soon his other leg began shaking which nearly made Shikamaru roar.

"Good God man, calm down already! It can't be that bad, can it! They'll just do a little checkup on you that's all. Besides, no-one says you're getting that oh-so-scary needle in you."

'Dammit, Nara, I'm gonna kill you one day!' Naruto wished he could at least punch the damn brunet, 'Have you any idea what you've done. I'm a hundred and ten percent health filled bastard with proteins that can heave gods. If the medics do a checkup on me and find out that everything's fine, then they'll start to have suspicions on my behavior through your constant whining. God Damn It All!'

"Mr. Uzumaki?" a purple haired young-woman suddenly peeked out into the waiting hall with a tabloid held close to her chest as she called for the next patient. "Naruto Uzumaki?"

'Maybe if I ignore her, she'll think I'm not here.'

"Yes, right here." but of course, Shikamaru didn't give him the pleasures and responded in his place.

"You're next. Please follow me." smiled the lavender eyed nurse and went inside.

"Go on, man." pushing the twitching blond out of his chair, Shikamaru smirked as Naruto looked back at him with a tearfully pleading look of a six-year old child.

"Will you come with me and hold my hand?" whimpered Naruto, even though on an inside he was tearing down walls. 'Fucking Hell, I'm seriously going to murder him for making me act like that!'

Rolling his eyes, Shikamaru crossed his hands and leant back in the chair. "Quit being such a crybaby. Now go on get in. I'll wait you here." 'Geez, what's wrong with this guy? One day he's all cocky and breaking bones and the next he tells me he's afraid of needles? Che! And he claims to be a sniper at that. Such a troublesome man.'

Looking up at the ceiling, Naruto sighed dejectedly before hanging down his head and entering the medical-room. 'It'd be heaven if that ceiling suddenly dropped down on him. Jesus, spare me!'

Closing the door behind him, Naruto blinked as the first thing to catch his eye was a bright color of pink hair and green eyes. 'Weird.'

Looking up at the entering blond, the female doctor stopped her eyes from rooming the handsome man and took the handed notes from her purple-haired assistant. 'Naruto Uzumaki. A newly brought convict sentenced for lifetime.' dropping the folder onto her desk for later check, the not more than twenty-five year old woman stood up and approached the still staring blond.

"So how are we feeling today, Mr. Uzumaki?" she asked as she placed her hand on his forehead.

Jerking back at the abrupt contact, Naruto finally snapped his attention from her hair and looked at her eyes. "Fine, and yourself?" he asked, giving a friendly grin.

"Just peachy," replied the smiling pink-haired woman and headed back to her desk. "Please take off your shirt and come here."

Doing as told, Naruto stood before her.

Placing a stethoscope over his chest, the doctor forcefully pushed away her sudden desire to stare at the hard tanned chest of her patient in favor of listening to his beats and breathing.

"Hm, well the statics are okay. Let's see how everything else goes. Please take a seat."

After taking his blood pressure, temperature and basically anything that could lead to sings of bad indication, she sighed and stood up. "Well your beats are steady, the temperature is normal, and there seems to be no signs of any pressure on the body. All in all, you seem perfectly healthy."

"Honest?" blinking his lids in happy delight, Naruto glared at the glass wall behind which a certain 'slacker' could be seen lazing around. 'I had no idea!'

"Let me just take a small blood specimen for a few test runs. It'll tell us if there's anything wrong with your body that we can't see." taking out a small cotton covered in ethanol, she outstretched Naruto's arm and run it over the part of his skin; tossing it then away she grabbed a syringe and said in a soothing manner, "You won't feel a thing."

'Hm…a needle. Wait! A needle? Ah…fuck.'

Pulling out the blood-filled syringe, the doctor turned to Naruto with a smile, "There, that should-…"

'Thud'

Blinking, the female-doctor looked down and stared at her passed out patient on the floor. Exchanging glances with her equally blinking assistant, both girls giggled.

…

"Mr. Nara?"

"Hm?" opening his eyes, Shikamaru stood up as the nurse peeked through the door.

"Could you please be of some assistance?"

"Huh?" confused, he skipped a quick glance at the two guards by the main entrance before he went after her, only to freeze as soon as his eyes met his blond cellmate on the ground. "Ah, crud. He really wasn't kidding."

Smiling, the pink-haired woman waved him over, "Could you please help us place Mr. Uzumaki on the bed. He kind a…passed out."

"Sure, Miss Haruno."

"I had no idea he was this sensitive." smiled the nurse, watching Shikamaru easily pick up the poor blond and place him onto the hospital bed.

"In truth, I didn't either." rubbing his neck, Shikamaru looked at the medic. "So? Anything wrong with him? Other than this."

Frowning, the pink-haired doctor said, "No. He is perfectly healthy when it comes to appearance. Though I did take some of his blood to check if there is anything beneath. The results will be known after two days, be sure to bring him back here then. In the mean time, here, I've written out some medicine for him. They're light, so there is no danger of overdose. If what they'll just help him relax during his sleep and lessen his constant needs."

"Aa…" Sighing, he took the bottle of tablets from her and looked back at Naruto.

…

01:01

Staring at the bottom end of his cellmate's mattress that covered his view from the ceiling, Naruto couldn't erase the constant scowl that fell on his features every minute he was kept from his work. 'Thanks to this little visit to the doc, I now can do nothing but play a dumb under drug/medicine (whatever) affected invalid; not to mention the embarrassment I have to live with after deliberately passing out. Sheesh…' Dropping a hand over his bare stomach he tapped his fingers and turned his head to look at the bottle of tablets sitting on the nightstand. 'Since it's gotten this far into act, I might as well play along and give Shikamaru a feeling that the medicine is working, which means – no work today or tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Ahh…fuck this!' sighing, he brushed his fingers over his chest and reached out to finger his necklace…, though it wasn't there. Naruto's eyes snapped open wide and he jumped off his bed. "My Necklace!"

"WHA!" jumping up at the shout, Shikamaru cursed as he tangled with his sheets and accidentally rolled down from his bed, falling onto the floor. "AAhh! Fuck that hurts!" Rubbing his head, the lazy brunet pulled himself off the floor and looked tiredly to the side to see his cellmate make a mess out of his own bed.

"Where is it? Where is it!" Naruto constantly repeated to himself as he turned his pillow inside out and fumbled around with sheets. "God Damn It!"

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Nara!" snapping his glaring eyes at startled Shikamaru, Naruto abruptly tackled him down. "What the fuck did you do to my necklace!"

Still blinking away the last heavenly remains of yet another interrupted sleep, Shikamaru stared at him with confusion, "Your what now?"

"My necklace!" Naruto growled as he shook his poor cellmate like a rag, "Where the hell did you put my necklace, thief!"

"WHa-? Hey! Calm down, Uzumaki!" shaken into awakens hard enough to be able to grab Naruto's wrists and stop him, Shikamaru growled back, "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"You fucking liar!" pissed, Naruto slammed the unfortunate and terribly confused Shikamaru down and set on his stomach. "If it wasn't you, then who else? There is no-one other than you and me here!"

"Jesus! Calm the fuck down!" Encircling his feet around the blond, Shikamaru quickly flipped them over and pinned Naruto down himself. "I told you, I have no idea what you're talking about!"

Staring at the taller man above him, Naruto's eyes finally lidded and he calmed down, seeing that Nara indeed had no idea of what his crazed mind was saying. "Then whe-…"

"Hey! You two!" a sudden metal slam against their bars snapped both heads to the entrance, where a silver-haired officer stood with a strange dark-blue mask covering the bottom half of his face. "If you are going to get intimate now, then pull up some sheets and do it more quietly, before you excite any other inmates around here." he said pointing behind himself.

Naruto's eyes widened as they followed where the man's thumb was jerked and looked across the other seen cell-rooms, where many pairs of leering lust-filled eyes were peering at them through bars. Then his eyes took a slow travel back towards the position he and Shikamaru were in.

'What A…!' "Now wait just a fucking m-…" Clapping down Naruto's spluttering mouth with his hand, Shikamaru looked back at the smirking officer.

"Sorry, Mr. Hatake. We'll try to be quieter next time."

"I sure do hope so." nodding, the officer looked one more time at the blond before he chuckled and left.

Grabbing Shikamaru's hand, Naruto tore it off his mouth and glared, "Darn it, Shikamaru, why did you say that! Now everyone's gonna think we're fucking together. Gha! What the Hell is wrong with you! Have you forgotten that you have a bloody girlfriend, for pit'sake! And…and…and anyways, get the fuck off of m-…"

Snatching Naruto's hands from pushing against his chest, Shikamaru suddenly trapped them atop of Naruto's head. "Shut up, Naruto!" And before the blond could retort back, Shikamaru's lips crashed against his own.

Naruto's eyes went wide and he felt like screaming murder. 'What the Fuck are you doing!' trying to force his hands away from his cellmate's unexpectedly strong hold, Naruto whined as Shikamaru's grip only tightened on him more forcefully and his tongue suddenly darted out to pressed its entry.

Pressing his lips together, Naruto blocked Shikamaru his way.

Growling at the stubborn denial, Shikamaru suddenly bit Naruto's lip into submission and ground their groins together. The blond's gasp was all it took for the brunet to slip his tongue inside and explore the tasty entry while his lips rubbed against Naruto's. Sighing in a moment of containment, he soon opened his eyes and slowly broke the forced kiss.

Pulling away, Shikamaru's eyes narrowed as they turned to look to the side and meet with the other inmates, who glared at him before leaving the bars and returning deeper back within their cells.

Sighing in silent relief, Shikamaru looked at his still not breathing wide-eyed cellmate and grinned at him while licking his lips. "You taste good."

Naruto blinked, still staring in dumb startle.

Feeling like being a tease, Shikamaru placed his elbows on either side of Naruto's head and leaned down to whisper over Naruto's lips. "As alluring a sight it all makes, don't take it the wrong way."

Finally finding his voice, Naruto gapped, "…yo-you-you…lazy Horn'bag!" snapping in rage, Naruto suddenly forced his knee up.

Shikamaru gasped and his mouth fell open in a silent scream as the blond suddenly hit him hard between his legs. "Fuck!" rolling over and away from him, Nara grit his teeth in pain. "Why did you do that!" whispered struggling Shikamaru, while Naruto took that time to crawl away from him and into a safe corner.

"Why? Why! I'm supposed to be the one asking you bloody 'why?'!"

Glaring up at him, Shikamaru bit out, "Fuck, man. You don't understand."

"Yea well, I have a pretty good hunch. Seeing the way I resemble most parts of your girlfriend it would be no wonder that you'd think it's high time to come onto me. Two more years probably ain't helping you much, are they?"

"It's not like that. Shit," struggling to stand up, Shikamaru cursed as he fell back to his knees.

"You…don't you come near me!" warningly pointed the madly blushing Naruto, feeling like now he should be far more wary of his brown-haired cellmate than his cellmate should be of him. 'The lazy drag, I never imagined he'd be so strong.'

"Crud! Did you had to hit this hard," glancing pass his shoulder, Shikamaru made sure no-one had their attention on them and turned back to cornering Naruto. "Alright, now listen," pulling his hands up in surrender, Shikamaru chanced to reason, "I swear I am no maniac, no rapist or some sick fuck looking for a quick laid, and no – I am not horny or anything like that, so get that off your mind. The reason why I kissed you was for your own good."

Naruto snapped his teeth at him, "My own good? How th-…" In a flash, Shikamaru was in front of him with a hand clapped onto his mouth. Naruto felt like panicking again, until he saw Shikamaru press a finger to his lips in a silent gesture to be quiet.

"Don't shout. We're not in the woods." Looking quickly behind him, Nara made sure once again that none was looking before he freed Naruto's mouth and spoke again. "As you already know – this prison is no flowers and justice. There are all types of bastards here – rapists, pedophiles, maniacs and killers."

"Oh you don't say. Isn't it like…obvious?" sardonically growled the blond.

"Don't make me gage you, Naruto. For Christ's sake, let me finish!" warned Shikamaru, making Naruto quiet down for a bit. "Ok…As I was about to say, there are also certain customs within this prison each inmate should know of. And the most important one is the one concerning you." getting Naruto's attention on that, Shikamaru continued, "You see…every time new inmates are brought in, the other prisoners get overexcited, for it is then a chance to grab and catch a new fish. Each new inmate who comes within the field is set eyes on – be it to kill if the person reveals to be a threat in strength and power, or be it for pleasure and sex. The day you came, you've already been added as both: a threat, after that little episode with Kabuto, and a boy who's yet to be 'claimed'."

Naruto stared at his cellmate for the longest of times. "So…the reason why you-…"

"…-kissed you, was to keep you safe. If I show them you belong to me…- figuratively speaking Naruto! -…they'll leave you alone. With me you can be safe."

Naruto always thought that he could see through his sluggish cellmate…up till now. It was like he was looking at a complete stranger now. Even though it could never be told at first, he was now more than sure that Shikamaru was anything but what he showed him to be at their very first encounter. Not only was it revealed in the 'slacker's' strength but also in his influence around the prison. Respect and caution – those seemed to be the main characteristics the other prisoners dared to reveal around him; features Naruto simply brushed off as mere trifles without a second glance. But now there was simply no arguing the fact that Shikamaru was one very dangerous 'slacker' to know. 'And now with that influence of his…he expects me to become his personal whore? That bastard!' Naruto's eyes flashed in anger, "Teme! Are you actually insinuating that you want me as your bit-…!"

"Stop shouting already, geez!" clapping Naruto's snappish mouth for the countless time, Shikamaru sighed. "Not literally, no. As I already made that clear, I'm not going to sleep with you or rape you, I'm not even going to force you into a kiss unless it's necessary. I just want to help you."

"Help? Just to help, is that it?"

"Yes, that's it. No catch, just a friend's help."

'Friend huh?' Naruto glared at him. 'There can be no friendship between two inmates, especially in a place like this. …Unless there's a benefit.' "Oh yea? Friendship or not, I still find it hard to believe that you'd grant me such a luxury with no refund." The sudden smug look on the 'slacker's' face only confirmed Naruto's doubts. "Tell me what is it you want in return?"

'Seems that the little fish isn't as naïve as I thought.' "Is there something you can offer?" smirking at him, Shikamaru chuckled as Naruto huffed with a blush and looked away. "Relax man, I'm kidding. I want nothing from you in that field."

"Hm. Which 'field' then?"

"Verbal."

'What?'

"…I want to have your honesty."

Naruto didn't miss the way his voice abruptly changed and he looked at him with arched brow. "Honesty?" 'Why would he want my honestly, of all things?'

Shikamaru's eyes seemed to lose all traces of his ever lazy expression and he started at his cellmate with dead seriousness. "Yes. I make sure no-one lays a finger on you, and in return you keep no secrets from me."

Naruto's eyes widened some at the man's blunt proclamations. 'No…secrets? Could it be that he suspects something?'

Watching him carefully, Shikamaru felt his long since misled dots connecting together as the blond failed to conceal his hesitation along the hidden astonishment. 'I knew it.'

To emphasize himself more clearly, he then said, "You can drop the act, Naruto. I know you are not sick and nor are you simply trying to reveal yourself at nights. Tell me the truth: what is it that you're really doing during those late hours?"

Lost and caught, all Naruto could do was stare into those deep black eyes that suddenly revealed the wisdom of 'seven wonders', which he failed to notice much-much sooner. 'I'm screwed.'

… … …

A/N

Thanx to ya: narubby23, -siarafaerie-101-miss, xXKuroTenshi666Xx, neko raccoon, KCameh & saya420! XDD