Connecting the Dots--A Naruto/DCAU crossover

Acclimation

Shikamaru stared absently up at the ceiling. The softer bed is nice, but I should have remembered to ask for a window, he thought absently. Stupid white ceiling is stupid boring. Least they could do is paint some clouds on it.

A slight hissing sound alerted him to the appearance of a familiar bald head. Shikamaru gazed at him disinterestedly. "Hey there."

"The guards tell me you've been complaining about how bored you are."

Shikamaru shrugged, at least as much as he could with his arms still manacled in place. "You try being handcuffed to a bed all day and night. The least you could do is let me eat, or go to the bathroom. This catheter gets old real fast, you know."

"I imagine it does," observed the man, surveying him coolly. "But our deal was only for the bed, and I'm not about to let you out of those cuffs."

"What," Shikamaru allowed himself a grin. "My one friend get you convinced that maybe I wasn't bluffing after all? Sounded like quite a ruckus he made out there."

"On the contrary, the incident convinced me you WERE bluffing. If your friend can do something like that, then I fail to see why you haven't used your 'comparable power' to break loose and get somewhere less boring."

Shikamaru yawned. "Too troublesome."

"Or too risky, perhaps. Your friend found out how useless escape attempts are."

"Pull the other one," replied Shikamaru, rolling his eyes. "You don't have Naruto, he got loose. Otherwise, why relocate your whole base?"

"What makes you think I did?" A touch of interest had come into the man's face.

"Well one, this is a different room than I fell asleep in, duh. Two, I heard an enormous amount of commotion just before I was drugged, and I woke up to the same commotion—moving material, I assume. And three, the air here is different... drier, somehow. I'd say we're in a totally new location." Thoroughly enjoying himself, Shikamaru yawned again. "The only reason you'd do that is if Naruto broke out of your old one."

The man was now gazing at him with a wholly new expression. Almost a challenging one. "Naruto, you say. And how did you know it was Naruto that broke out?"

A flash of panic flitted across Shikamaru's face. "He's the most reckless of my buddies. The only one likely to try to break out. I figured if anyone tried it, it would be him."

"And you wouldn't."

"I could do it, I suppose, but it'd be a lot of bother, what with the guards and the weapons and all. Besides, I told you, my power doesn't work quite like my friend's. It'd be a tad more difficult. Of course if this place gets any more boring..." he let the sentence fall.

For a moment the man stood there, contemplating him, an odd half-smile curling his lips. "Boring, eh?" He finally commented. "Tell me, Mr. Nara... would you care to play a game of chess?"

#

"So this vehicle is flying then."

Cyborg rolled his eyes. "Yes, for the thirtieth time, this puppy is FLYING. Proceeding at a velocity of approximately 500mph at a height of 10,000 feet above the ground. That's whatcha call flying, Mr. Eyes. Anything else you wanna know?"

Neji just kept staring around the plane, ignoring the chatter from his comrades in the back. "Fascinating. Do you build these flying machines yourself?"