I don't know why, but I feel like plowing through with the rest of this series. It's already halfway done. Can you believe it?

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Chapter 14: Day 12- Price

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Chopsticks clinked against porcelain plates as food was retrieved. It was dinnertime at the Uchiha household and as per usual, dinner was a quiet, comfortable affair.

Picking up his cup of tea, Sasuke went to take a sip when his mother spoke.

"Itachi called today," she said, oblivious to the splutters and coughs to her right. "Before you ask, Fugaku, his grades are fine. He called to check up on us and Sasuke…"

"Yeah, mom?" he asked pounding on his chest, his eyes watering as his throat burned.

"I—you're never going to believe this, but he said that you got angry at him over the phone."

At his mother's words, Sasuke tensed. He knew what his mom was talking about. It was that web-chat with Itachi. He should've known this would come back to bite him.

"It's nothing, mom. We talked when I caught your flu and I snapped at him. It was probably because I was cooped up in the house for so long and I had a migraine that morning. Don't worry about it. I'll go apologize to him after dinner," he said as he lied through his teeth. It shouldn't have been too hard since that was the same lie Sasuke had repeated over and over to convince himself that the argument had nothing to do with the pink-haired girl living down the block.

"Well, alright…if you say so," his mother said warily.

Fugaku merely grunted.

Sasuke stared up at his ceiling and sighed. His homework was finished, but no one was online, leaving him with nothing to do. Turning onto his side, he entertained the idea of playing darts or practicing for his martial arts class, but he had finished his workout earlier and darts seemed unfulfilling now that he could nail all of them in the middle from across the room, on the bed, from his bathroom, etc.

Just when he was contemplating an apology to Itachi just to kill time, his phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Teme!"

"Dobe," he greeted.

"So how's the bet going? You still holding up?"

He scoffed. "Piece of cake."

"I wouldn't be so sure. You still have 18 days and that's a long time, teme."

"I'll still win, dobe."

"Yeah right. I'm going to be the one who wins and when I get that prize, I'm going to laugh it all up in your face."

"We never agreed on the prize of the bet."

"We didn't? I thought we did."

"We didn't. I was just waiting for you to figure it out."

"Well, geez, you could've told me so I didn't sound like an idiot just now."

"Coulda, shoulda, woulda—didn't feel like it."

"Fine. We'll just do it now."

"So what do you want?" Sasuke asked, bored.

"Ramen, obviously. From Ichiraku. One month's worth."

"A week. It's not like we bet on anything important."

"Fine. What do you want?"

"Hmmm…"

What did he want? He already had enough money to last him a while, all the manga he wanted was already available to him, and he was very content with the items he had now. Suddenly, it hit him.

"I don't want to referee your stupid matches with my brother."

"Okay."

"And…"

"And…?"

"And I want Hyuuga Neji as my replacement."

"How the hell am I supposed to that? Neji's going to kill me if I even get anywhere near him!" Naruto shouted.

"Not my problem."

"Come on, teme! I'm going to die and my prize isn't too bad."

"A week of ramen for you is six months for another person," Sasuke said rolling his eyes. "So do we have a deal?"

"Teme, please! I'm begging you!"

"So you don't want the Ichiraku ramen?" Sasuke asked slyly.

"…"

"Well?"

"I hate you."

"Prepare to pay up, dobe."

And then he hung up the phone and went to sleep.