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In This Together by Archaic Aphorism

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Story notes: Very vague... sort of a preview/teaser for a story I'm hoping to write when I wrap up a few of my other ones? Not written too well, and it's pretty short. Eh, you'll have to tell me what you think.
Chapter notes:

I'm sorry it's so late!! I had most of it written the day before Christmas, but then things got... gah, I just never got around to finishing it up. It's not even that great, because it's vague and hard to understand (unless you're me and you know the larger plot that it fits into). Writing quality's not where I'd like it to be, either, but... I'll shut up because you guys always yell at me when I mention stuff like that.

Bah. Humbug. Happy late holidays.

This new irregularity of life was slowly becoming regular. Because, honestly, no matter where we went, the walls were always dark, the air was always chilled and damp, the floors dirty and the windowsĦ­ well, heh- nonexistent. And really, no matter how long we stayed, we always moved again, and every time we moved, always the same; quick, violent, lots of cursing and dashing through forests and crawling through fields.

Only to end up in a place just like the last, only with a different maze of passages inside.

I wouldn't say that this newly felt rhythm to our lives felt any better, because it certainly didn't, but it created a pattern. A semi-stable environment in what was really made to be completely unstable, unsustainable- improbable.

It really is improbable; I still don't quite get how the hell we got here, or why the hell Shikamaru threw us in with their lot. Disgusting traitors! And now, we have to smile and go along with what they say, with their ideas; become traitors ourselves. The things that happen hereĦ­ are disturbing.

"NejiĦ­" Shikamaru murmured, stumbling into my room. Or maybe it was his; they all looked the same, anyways.

"I'm still keeping track," I absently informed him, pulling my knees to my chest, examining a lock of my hair.

"Oh," he half sighed, half groaned, slumping down against the wall between the bed and the corner, next to me. "I thought you might be."

I exhaled and shifted to look at him. Looked at him hard, enough to make him narrow his eyes and fidget. "Yes, Neji," he almost queried, too grown up now to become nervous or get the genin jitters from my blank eyes. I pushed a small balled up piece of cloth into his hands. He frowned.

"Where'd you get this?" he asked, peering at it. He espied the hole in the scant bedcovers to his right. "Ah, I see. What's it for, then?"

"Today is Christmas," I said. He chuckled softly.

"Good thing I'm not Jewish, or I'd have to be offended," he smiled. The expression, appearing on a still-somewhat-sane face seemedĦ­ completely and utterly out of sorts in a place like the one we were in. It made me want to wipe the thing off his face entirely. Maybe take his nose with it, just for the hell of it.

"Open it," I urged, and he returned to the usual somber expression worn around this infernal rat hole. Silently, he undid the knot and peeled it open. Inside was a thin, purple ribbon I had pilfered from a stolen document a while back. Silently, unceremoniously, I picked it up and held it for us to see at eye-level.

There was an odd breathless feeling shrouding the event, and for a moment, I could almost forget that we were currently stationed in a slimy old hollowed-out cave. For a moment, it was just me and Shikamaru and a bit of scum clinging to the wall we leaned against.

I took his hand and tied the tiny ribbon around his pinky finger. It took a few attempts, because for some reason my hands were shaking; hands that had never shaken once when massacring hundreds of innocents. Shikamaru noticed, glancing up at me unsurely. Perhaps he was going through the percentages of likelihood that I was a Neji-doppelganger spying on him. The thought made me smile a little, and he seemed to relax a bit.

When I was finished, I laced my fingers with his and held up our hands.

"Shikamaru," I said, "I admit I have very little insight as to what you are doing keeping us here, or why you did it in the first place, or how you plan to get us back out... but I want you to keep this ribbon and know, whenever you look at it, that no matter what, we're in this together."

He untangled his hand from mine and brought the ribboned pinky to his lips, kissing it gently.

"Thankyou, Neji."

"But don't think I 'm not still pissed off," I retorted, standing and brushing myself off. He chuckled momentarily, reclining against the slick wall. I was still glaring at him when the door to his room (or my room, whoever's it was) slid open with an ominous clack. I looked, Shikamaru pressed himself against the wall, pressing his palms to his eyes.

"Hyuuga Neji," Orochimaru's voice came in a husky drawl, "Come with me."

He was wearing that smile. That smile which never meant anything good was about to happen. Shit.

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama," I replied, following him without a second glance back at Shikamaru.
Chapter end notes:

Eh, I wish I could've done better.

With all luck, I'll have another chapter of Methods of Malady out by the end of the break.

With all luck.

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