Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor any places, things, characters, or ideas therein. The aforementioned belong to Masashi Kishimoto, Shounen Jump, TV Tokyo, etc. I am writing this fic for entertainment purposes only, not monetary gain.

Summary: Unfortunately, Saturday mornings aren't always happiness and roses for the newlywed Hinata and Sasuke. :SasuHina prize fic for keii-saru21!:

Rating: K+

Warnings: Cuteness, slight suggestive content

Pairing(s): Sasuke/Hinata

Spoilers: None

Universe: Alternate

Words: 2,000

Author's Note: Over at SasuxHina-Fanclub on deviantart, they recently had a Musical Crossover contest, and I donated a prize (1,000-3,000 word fic). The winner of the fanfiction part of the contest, keii-saru21, requested, "I would like an AU SasuHina fic about them playing a game or giving each other a challenge to see who will have to clean the mess their untrained puppy did in the back yard." Considering I have a dog myself, this was great fun since I got to revisit my Jazz's puppy days, with a good deal of SasuHina thrown in to boot! I really hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading (and to keii-saru21 for the super-fun request)!

*~Saturday Morning Confusion~*

.:fyd818:.

Married life, Uchiha Hinata mused contentedly, suits me nicely.

She lifted her cup of tea to her lips, savoring the last bit of the warm liquid as she listened to her husband pad down the hall toward the back door. The morning had started out much as any other in their relatively short married life thus far - get up, Sasuke letting the dog out while Hinata got started on breakfast...

...And then Sasuke had joined her in the kitchen, and one thing led to another, so breakfast got delayed by a good long while.

Saturday mornings usually found Hinata catching up on the housework she'd neglected the rest of the week due to her busy work schedule; but since she and Sasuke married, they'd turned into lazy days in. Since they were both scheduled to go back to work again Monday, their leave for their honeymoon being nearly over, this was truly her last Saturday to enjoy, and she planned to make the most of it.

"Hinata?" Sasuke's voice drifted to her ears, heavily underlined with a tense note which sent her scurrying down the hall after him, senses on high alert.

"What's wrong?" she asked breathlessly when she reached their sitting room. Sasuke stood framed in the open doorway leading to the backyard, every intimately familiar line of his lean, lithe body rigid, his knuckles white where he still gripped the open sliding door.

"Sasuke?" Hinata half-ran across the room, grasping his arm as she leaned around him to see what had so arrested his attention in their backyard. As soon as she did, a strangled gasp left her breathless, shocked at the unbelievable chaos in front of her.

No fewer than half a dozen gaping holes pockmarked the formerly pristine emerald grass, rich brown earth flung far and wide from each divot. Scattered among them were the sooty remains of the contents of the inset fire pit on their stone patio, left over from the housewarming they'd held the night before. The garden hose, previously neatly coiled on its holder against the side of the house, lay like a twisted snake across the patio and what was left of the yard, miniature fountains of water from several places indicating chewed spots.

"Oh, Cinnamon," Hinata moaned, "what have you done?" Her eyes locked on the small Shiba Inu puppy sitting in the midst of the destruction, ears pricked, tail wagging, his fur - the same color as her favorite sweet treat, complete with icing - caked with moist dirt and ash. Pink tongue lolling out, he looked quite proud of himself as he gazed around at what he'd managed to do in such a relatively short amount of time.

"We didn't leave him out that long - right?" Sasuke's voice sounded oddly strangled. "There must have been some other dogs... Maybe he's learned how to open the gate..." He eyed the privacy fence neatly enclosing their smallish backyard, obviously searching for some weakness which had been penetrated by outside canine forces.

"No," Hinata sighed. "He's been out here for a good two hours. Certainly more than long enough for - this." She waved a vague hand to encompass the yard in all its destroyed glory. "If you'll give Cinnamon a bath, I'll get rid of the hose and start filling in-"

"No," Sasuke interrupted. He at last tore his gaze away from the Shiba puppy, who was beginning to notice his owners weren't quite as pleased as he. "I'm the one who got him for you, plus I'm the one who let him out this morning. I'll clean up the yard, and you give him the bath."

"But technically he's my dog," Hinata contradicted. "I should-"

Sasuke's long pale hand shot up, forestalling the rest of her argument. "The surface of the table on the patio looks relatively clean," he said, eyeing it. "If we flip over the cushions, we should be able to sit there."

Hinata wrinkled her nose in confusion. "What are you talking about? Why would we want to sit down there?" Especially with so much cleaning up to do!

"Shougi," Sasuke said decidedly. Turning, he headed out of the room and back down the hall, calling over his shoulder, "Shikamaru got us a shougi set for a housewarming gift. We'll take it outside so we can keep an eye on Cinnamon while we play. Winner cleans the dog, and the loser cleans the yard."

Sounds reasonable, actually. Hinata helped Sasuke set up the board and pieces he carried out to the patio, using her bare foot to head Cinnamon off from the open door so he wouldn't go inside and make a mess there, too.

"Do you want Gote or Sente?" Sasuke asked, holding each player's twenty pieces in either hand.

"Gote," Hinata replied, accepting the white pieces her husband handed her. She hummed under her breath as she arranged her pieces in their appropriate places by rank and column. Her father had taught her to play shougi when she was six, wanting his elder daughter to understand the game and how it related to life. Hinata had further honed her skills against her cousin Neji, who played a wickedly good game. It took a lot to beat him. Not long after she started playing against Sasuke, she found out it took a lot to beat Sasuke, too.

Neji and Sasuke had played a shougi match only once. The game lasted almost six hours and ended in a draw. It had been amazing to watch, and Hinata had learned quite a bit from watching both players - things she'd put into practice many times ever since.

Cinnamon came and sat down next to Hinata as Sasuke moved his first piece to start the game. He wagged his tail as his intelligent dark eyes watched his mistress and master move the tasty-looking wedge pieces across the board, their eyes only occasionally flickering to him as they played.

Eventually the puppy got bored and wandered away. Hinata watched him until he laid down on a sunny spot on the patio. Assured he meant to take a nap - after all the damage the little rascal did, was it any wonder he was tired? - she turned back to the board and advanced one of her gold generals, taking one of Sasuke's silver generals out of play.

Sasuke muttered a curse, scowling at the board as he debated his next move. The summer sunshine warmed their heads and shoulders as they sat, the golden rays giving her husband's hair a raven's wing gleam. For a moment Hinata contented herself with sitting there watching Sasuke study the board, until he moved one of his lances and looked up with a challenging tilt to his lips.

Shaking herself out of her preoccupation (for heaven's sake, the last thing they needed was to get distracted again!), Hinata sternly refocused her attention on the game. Originally she'd intended to let Sasuke win (sneakily, of course!), but now she was starting to feel exhilerated by the challenge. She got a distinct feeling he was baiting her, doing the same thing to her she intended to do to him. So, she decided, she would make him play. Just like her, he couldn't resist a challenge.

In one of her favorite moves - but one she didn't dare use often - she confidently advanced one of her knights, sliding it into a position Sasuke couldn't help but be tempted to utilize.

Sure enough, Sasuke grinned at what he considered her downfall, pouncing on her knight and capturing it without even giving it a thought. Setting the knight piece aside, he leaned back slightly, his dark eyes gleaming with a premature sense of victory.

Hinata smiled sweetly at him. Without looking away from those intense dark eyes, she reached down and captured Sasuke's last gold general, leaving his king unprotected.

Sasuke's victorious grin vanished. He lifted his eyes from the board to his preening wife, then back around. "You-" He stopped, looking speechless.

Leaning forward over the board a little, Hinata whispered, "Play the game like you mean it, Sasuke. Just try to beat me!"

As she'd hoped, he snatched the challenge right up. Without making the mistake again of not thinking about each move before he made it, Sasuke studied every single one of her pieces, then his own before he made his responding move.

His king was safe again - for now. Hinata hummed cheerfully to herself as she did her own examination of the board, content to leave her king in its protected cubby as she advanced another pawn. She kept a few in reserve, since she couldn't retreat the one she'd just moved, but she had a plan.

Now, to see if she could get Sasuke to fall neatly into her trap again.

Cinnamon woke and wandered over again, sitting next to his mistress, who absently reached out to rub the now-dry but still messy top of his head, not even noticing how dirty he was, so focused was she on the game.

For a while only the clack of shougi pieces on the wooden board differed from the usual summer sounds of singing birds and the wind blowing through the windchimes hanging from the eaves. Feeling thirsty, Hinata wondered if Sasuke wanted something to drink as badly as she did, but didn't want to interrupt the flow of the game by suggesting it. She felt the tension in her stomach tighten in the same way it always did when the end of a match neared. She welcomed the feeling, keeping her features firmly schooled against the smile threatening to emerge.

A tight band of tension stretched between them. Both Hinata and Sasuke took even longer considering every move, neither of them ready to admit defeat. For this short while they were enemies facing each other across the battlefield, like two ninja from ancient lore using every sneaky trick they knew to penetrate the other's defenses and capture the king.

Cinnamon, sensing the tension, huddled close to his mistress, a soft whine emitting from his throat. Without taking her eyes off the board, Hinata laid a gentle hand on his side, petting his matted fur until she felt his trembling ease.

At last, almost three and a half hours after the match began, Sasuke pounced on Hinata's king. "Gotcha," he said in a low growl, a rakish half-smile tilting up the corners of his mouth.

From her seated position, Hinata bowed politely. "An excellent game, as always, Sasuke," she said diplomatically. "It looks like you're going to clean the dog, and I shall do the yard." Exactly as I'd planned from the beginning. Even though things had turned out precisely the way she'd wanted, Sasuke had certainly put up a fight.

Standing, Sasuke came around the table to extend a hand down to help her to her feet. "Here's an idea," he said, voice suddenly husky. "Why don't we do both - together?"

Taking Sasuke's hand, she rose, ignoring the stiff muscles in her legs which protested having been locked in one position for so long. "I suppose," she said, pretending to give it serious consideration, "that would be an acceptable alternative."

Wrapping one arm around her shoulders, Sasuke drew her to him and leaned down to kiss her neck. Placing his mouth right next to her ear, he whispered, "As long as we don't forget who won."

Planting one hand against Sasuke's toned chest, Hinata gave him a firm shove, laughing as he lithely jumped backwards off the patio and landed on the grass in a crouch like a cat ready to pounce. "Egotist," she said fondly.

It took them the rest of the day, but together they got the yard - and then the dog - cleaned up. Although a few distractions occurred, of course (after all, newlyweds will be newlyweds), they very carefully did not leave the untrained Cinnamon unattended again.

Well... Not until the next Saturday, anyway.

*~The End~*

Author's Ending Notes: I had a great deal of fun writing this fic for keii-saru21 as a prize for her winning the fanfiction section of the Musical Crossover contest over at the SasuHina fan club on dA. I have a dog myself, and genuinely enjoyed revisiting Jazz's puppy days to lend an air of authenticity to little Cinnamon's antics. On a different note, while I looked up shougi and how it's played, I have never played the game myself (and doubt I'd be any good at it since I am horrible at chess), so please forgive me for any mistakes I might have made during Sasuke and Hinata's game. Thank you all so much for reading this fic, and I hope you enjoyed it!