Shikamaru's head hurt. It felt like Ino had been screaming in his ear for five hours straight and only just shut up. He was also tied to what appeared to be a chair, and judging by the fact that it was dark, and he felt cloth over his eyes, he was going to hazard a guess and say he'd been blindfolded. Gagged, too, if the cloth in his mouth and the strip holding it in place was any indication. Luckily, whoever it had been that put him here - odd, as he couldn't remember going on any sort of mission - had decided not to stop up his nose and plug his ears too.

Note the sarcasm.

Shifting only proved to tighten the circulation-cutting ropes around his wrists, so he stilled. Experimentally, he twitched his ankle and found that it was tied to the chair leg. The other one too. And without his eyesight (and his hands), he couldn't use his Shadows to... do something that construed escaping. Vaguely. Shikamaru didn't know exactly what, but as he was incapable of seeing or moving anyway, he decided that was just as well.

How troublesome.

xXx

Gaara sighed, sand shifting away from him as he 'ported into his tiny apartment (he'd moved out of his shared home with his siblings when he became the Kazekage). The first thing he noticed was that someone had been here since he left that morning. How did he know this? There was a large, refrigerator-sized box between the table and the couch in his livingroom.

Cautiously, Gaara approached it, tensed to leap or 'port away at the slightest sound. On top of it, there was a folded piece of white paper. He reached out and picked it up, slowly unfolding it and smoothing it out on top of the box, staring suspiciously down at the single, black-lettered sentence - in Naruto's handwriting, if he wasn't mistaken - written lazily semi-across the center.

'Open it; you know you want to.'

Gaara was slightly afraid. What was Naruto up to this time? Should he fear for his life? Or his virtue? And-

Wait, was that a grunt? Had Naruto stuffed a person in the box? Oh, no... What the hell was Naruto thinking?

"Hold on," he ordered gruffly, trying not to panic in an un-Gaara-like way (and since he was Gaara, he was mostly succeeding). At an inquiring noise from within the box, Gaara continued, "I'll get you out. I'm the Ka- Gaara. I'm Gaara." He didn't know if it was an enemy (though he hoped Naruto wouldn't do that to him), and thus didn't want them to know who he was.

Taking out a kunai, he deftly slit through the tape at the top of the box, then down the corner of it, and - upon consideration - along the bottom of the side facing him. He pulled the flap away and stared in shock. "Nara?" Well, at least it wasn't an enemy (but still, would Naruto have done that to him if it'd crossed his mind? Gaara had the sick feeling that the blond might, and think it was funny; Gaara would not be amused).

Nara Shikamaru's annoyed grunt broke Gaara from his thoughts and he carefully pulled the blindfold off the Konoha nin, then the gag. Shikamaru glanced around, looking incredulous. "A box?"

"Naruto," Gaara replied.

Shikamaru sighed. "I'll have to get him back... when I return to Konoha. I take it I'm in Suna?"

Gaara nodded. "Yes," he said, kneeling down to cut the ropes from Shikamaru's legs. Once done, he circled the box (since Shikamaru was... well, tied to a chair inside it), cut the bottom and one side of that (and subsequently collapsing the rest of the box) and freeing the Nara's hands as well.

Shikamaru stood, rubbing one wrist, and peered curiously around the room. "Thanks, Kazekage-sama," he said, turning to face the redhead. At Gaara's semi-confused look, he explained. "For freeing me."

"Oh." Pause. "And it's just Gaara, if you don't mind."

"Sure."

They lapsed into an awkward silence, just sort of standing there, staring at each other. Gaara's eyes were a very pretty green color, like... mold... or seafoam... Yeah. We'll go with seafoam. Shikamaru mentally scolded himself for thinking such weird thoughts, and finally spoke again. "So... Um, what time is it?"

Gaara started, having been mulling over thoughts of a different - though related - nature. He quickly tucked away that secret corner of his mind that instantly jumped to the fore whenever Shikamaru was around. "Time?" he asked, remembering that the genius had mentioned time. "It's... dark," he offered lamely, a little confused for a moment. Then he remembered that there was a clock on the wall over his fireplace and glanced at it. "... Seven fifty three," he corrected.

Shikamaru gave him a strange look, as if he'd suddenly sprouted a a third head. Yes, a third. Gaara was, above all things, predominantly male. So... He has two heads. Ahem. "Right," the Leaf nin muttered. He sighed. "Um... Where's the nearest hotel?"

Gaara blinked. "Hotel?" His mind caught up with him - finally - and he shook his head, allowing himself to settle into his usual personality (rather than un-Gaara-like bemusement and general confusion). "No, it's okay. You can stay here; I have a spare bedroom."

"Oh."

Gaara sighed fifteen minutes later; Shikamaru had gone right to bed.