While this chapter is completely canon in my story, my good friend Versatz wrote a parallel of this chapter where instead of playing badminton, they play basketball, since that was going to be the game that the PE clas were going to play. But realizing that i was sucha noob at the sport, I decided to change it to a sport that I am far more comfortable with. So, after you're done reading this, please go take a look at the 'Chapter that never was, but could have been' over at Versatz's account XD

When he had come to school that day, Sasuke had been quite surprised by his welcome into the classroom. He had thought that due to his beating up of Gaara, people would now keep away from him. Unfortunately, it had had the opposite effect. People had gathered around his table, both male and female, and refused to stop talking and leave until the teacher called the class to order. He hadn't needed friends before, so why would he need them now?

"Uchiha! You're up now!"

"Alright," Sasuke called back. He stood from where he was sitting on the bleachers that lined the sides of the gymnasium. He walked to his side of the badminton net and turned to face his opponent. She was kind of small with long black hair cut straight above her eyes which were light purple. Sasuke had heard earlier that she was an ace at this game but looking at her she looked anything but that and had he not seen her completely serve her last opponent he would have definitely underestimated her.

"Hyuuga Hinata verses Uchiha Sasuke, go!" The teacher blew the whistle and Sasuke took up a defensive stance as Hinata lightly lobbed the shuttlecock into the air. Without blinking, the petite girl brought her raquet down on the poor mass of feathers, sending it rocket over the net. The class crowding around let out a gasp as they were unable to see where the shuttlecock had gone, yet Sasuke was able to return the serve. When he was small, a teacher of his had teased him and his brother at being able to 'see everything'.

Surprised at Sasuke's ability to return her move, Hinata didn't react as the shuttlecock landed on the ground near the back of her side of the court.

"My point," Sasuke murmured. Hinata blushed and tossed him the shuttlecock to serve. Instantly after catching the mass of feathers, Sasuke threw them up and smashed them over the net, nearly hitting Hinata as he did. Just because he was a guy, didn't mean he was chivalrous. But this time the girl was ready for it and easily returned it with a quick flick of her wrist. Sasuke smirked and lightly lobbed it over the net, expecting her to try and smash it over and win back the point. She did this and Sasuke retaliated by returning the shuttlecock with a smash of his own, sending it flying over Hinata's head and behind her.

There's no way she can return that, Sasuke thought to himself. But he was wrong. Just as he shuttlecock dropped to around the height of the back, the skin around her eyes wrinkled and Hinata brought her arm around, smacked it back over the net without even glancing at it. This shocked Sasuke and he was only just able to return the shuttlecock back again.

It's as if she can see behind her... Sasuke observed as again and again Hinata was able to return shots that should have been in her blind spot. Again and again did they batter the shuttlecock across the net between them, the minutes ticking past. Now and then one of them would make a mistake, so slowly the scores grew so that they were head to head at fourteen. One more point to either side and they would win.

Early on in the match, Hinata had had the advantage being far more experienced, but Sasuke, having an uncanny memory, had evened their prowess by memorizing and executing perfectly all the moves that would have defeated a normal opponent.

The atmosphere in the crowd was electric. It had grown since the match had started and now even the male class had come over to see what the fuss was about.

I wonder if Naruto is over there... Sasuke had wondered at one point. The momentary lapse in his concentration had lowered his defenses and Hinata had scored against him. That was how they had come to the current score. Swing, hit, swing, hit, the rally went on and on, the crowd Ooo-ing at each near save.

Hinata smacked the shuttlecock right over the net so that Sasuke had to run forward and pat it up. It was at this point when the crowd seemed to shift a little and a blonde figure was revealed. Taken off guard, Sasuke nearly lost his footing and missed the shuttlecock. The white ball of feathers fell lightly to the ground, barely making a sound as the crowd roared.

Suddenly hit by a wave of fatigue, Sasuke sank to the ground, panting. Stupid sport. A hand made it's way into his vision and he looked up and found Hinata standing before him, her hand held out to him.

"Good match," she said, smiling.

"Right," Sasuke agreed, but he didn't take her hand and instead jumped to his feet on his own, finding he stood about half a head over the girl. She blushed in embarrassment and retracted her hand. Sasuke was about to say something to try and clear up the small misunderstading but the crowd had enveloped Hinata so he instead chose to thread his way out through the crowd before it got too dense and he'd have to make physical with someone to get past.

Finally he found his way to the bleachers he had been sitting on about half an hour ago. Picking up the bottle of water he had brought with him, he took a long swig. Suddenly realizing that someone was behind him, he turned and found a classmate of his standing there. He had short brown hair and strange red triangles on his cheeks. Weirdo...

"Hey there, hot stuff," he said, making Sasuke choke on the water. The HECK!? "That was some game you played just then." Sasuke was speechless. "Wanna go somewhere later?" This made him blanched. Is he hitting on me?! OH GAWD!! NOOOO!!

"Hell no!" Sasuke exclaimed. "The heck's wrong with you?" The guy was taken aback by this and Sasuke took this opportunity to quickly walk away. Reaching the end of the bleachers, Sasuke suddenly feel a hand wrap around his wrist.

"Where do you think you're going?" The brunette asked, an edge in his voice.

"Let go," Sasuke commanded coldly, though he was starting to feel weak.

"Oh? Why should I?" Glaring at him, Sasuke tried to wrench his way out of the hold but the brunett's grip was too hard and Sasuke was far too faint.

"Le-"

"What do you think you're doing?!" At this familiar voice, Sasuke whirled around to see Naruto running toward them. He reached them and wrenched the brunette's hand off of Sasuke's wrist. Sasuke could see nothing so a jab of fear shot through him when his legs buckled, but strong hands caught him. Slowly regaining his vision, Naruto set Sasuke down on the bleachers, still holding on to him so that he didn't teeter over.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke nodded, but it came out jerky and there were shakes running down his back that he was sure Naruto could feel.

"What wrong?" the brunette asked, stunned by what had happened. Naruto turned to answer him.

"She's-" Naruto started, glancing at Sasuke for help.

"I have anemia," Sasuke said quickly, ignoring the look from Naruto, glancing down at the ground as he lied. It had been a while since he'd used that particular one.

"Oh, I see. I'm sorry about that," the brunette said, bowing before quickly running away to his friends, probably hoping they hadn't seen what had happened. Sasuke sighed out of relief and Naruto sat down next to him.

"Just how do you get yourself into such sticky situations?" Naruto asked, smiling bemusedly. Sasuke scowled making the blonde laugh even more. "You're really cute when you look angry."

"Shut up dobe," Sasuke growled back, turning so that Naruto couldn't see him blushing.

"Uchiha-san! I want you to teach Yamanaka-san the basic rules of badminton," the teacher called from the other side of the gymnasium. Glad at the opportunity to leave the whole embarrassing situation behind, Sasuke quickly jumped to his feet and jogged over to where the blonde slut stood holding the raquet at a weird angle.

She pouted when she saw that it would be Sasuke teaching her and Sasuke glared back at her. Stupid damn blonde... He was suddenly very irritated, making him very strict with the girl, picking out every fault in her stance and serve. So much so that by the end of the class, she was on the ground in tears. Sasuke had no tact, so he ran as fast as he could out of the gymnasium. Today would be the first day he was going to work at Hitai-Ate so he didn't want to be late. Yep, that's definitely the reason why.

I felt so disturbed as I wrote that last bit with Kiba. I don't particularily like this chapter... I kind of lost inspiration towards the end XD