Soon enough five minutes from the second half of the match had flew by, meaning there were only five more. And the purple puppy was still in the lead, the three points having turned into five.

A lot of fives.

Meanwhile the reddish pup was still confused, not giving his all, making his human confused. But Akashi still hadn't noticed Murasakibara's plan. So he did what he could and stopped the game, asking for a timeout.

"What's wrong? Why is he suddenly scoring?" Akashi asked his pup. The animal only looked down, lowering his ears and tail.

"You're going easy on him, aren't you? Why?" Akashi asked again. His puppy expected him to be angry but Akashi wasn't, his voice was gentle, curious.

The pup didn't know how to explain himself though. Regardless, he tried. Lifting one paw and whimpering loudly enough for Akashi to hear, he looked towards the purple puppy. The human looked confused for a few seconds before looking to the other bench where Murasakibara was giving cookies to his puppy. A puppy who seemed perfectly fine, waggling his tail happily.

"Is he pretending to be hurt?" Akashi asked, brows narrowing. His reddish puppy looked at him, confused, before he suddenly understood what was going on, too.

This was Murasakibara's plan. And Akashi had figured it out. Once the game continued, the reddish pup didn't fall for the trick again, instead quickly scoring a few baskets, trying to get the points back.