And so I finish the three-part paintball palooza. It was pretty sad, I'll admit, but in a way I'm glad. I don't think I can write anything that is remotely of the same caliber of part three, but I really will try.

Akanata will make a reappearance I believe, as I have had many lovely reviewers caroling their love of the dynamic duo.

This one is a fluff bomb if I do say so myself, but it's less about budding love than a growing friendship.

Also, try to keep in mind that both of them are, in the first half of the chapter, tired and different, and in the second part are really sugar high until they crash at the very end.

P.S. I have a new story out, yay!

Naruto is not of mine,

This is just my own design,

So none of this is a crime.

Take that suckers, I can rhyme!

Thirty minutes into the long anticipated (from Sasuke anyway) car ride, and neither Hinata nor Sasuke had said a word. Well, that wasn't true, Hinata had relayed what Sakura had texted back. But technically that was before they were actually on the road, so it didn't really count.

A buzzing was heard exactly one minute before Hinata's phone was due to run out of batteries.

"Sakura?" Sasuke asked quickly from his position, riding shotgun. (Hinata would not, for the life of her, let Sasuke drive in his condition)

"Hai, it's Sakura." Hinata muttered, furrowing her brow cutely as she read it aloud. "'Neji's pissed as hell, you better not take his car. Kiba says you owe him a kiss. Don't go anywhere, we'll come find you and then all go together.'"

Sasuke looked at her phone with no discernable expression on his tired face. He tried to read what Hinata typed back, but failed as she tilted the phone without realizing it.

"What did you say?"

Hinata quickly turned her head to face him, a little red tinge on her cheeks. "Well… I…"

He just raised one questioning eyebrow, holding back his wince as it hurt his head.

"Um… I was under the assumption that you wouldn't… that we were." She took a deep breath suddenly. "That you don't mind my company for the next six hours."

Inner Sasuke, who had lain dormant for a while, finally awoke. He cheered, shooting the real Sasuke a thumbs up.

After a short silence, Sasuke turned his head and faced the window. "No, I don't."

"Good. I said 'He's hurt and they'll be screaming girls (Ino) who would make his concussion worse with the high pitch of their voices. Tell Neji I'm dropping the car off at home. Batteries dead, ttyl.'"

"Did you really?" Sasuke asked disbelievingly, obviously showing more emotion when his brain was a little rattled.

"Yeah… We should be going now."

Thirty minutes later, they hadn't spoken. It had gotten to the point where Sasuke had almost dozed off, but was drawn back into the true realm of the conscious by Hinata throwing out a suggestion.

"W-we should do something to pass the time."

Albeit a useless one.

"Time would pass anyway if you think about it logically." Sasuke muttered, opening his eyes and turning to face her. Too bad her lavender orbs were focused on the road; they could have seen the odd flicker of humor that crossed his face. Sasuke… no, an Uchiha showing signs of emotion? Break out the record books!

Hinata smiled quickly at his statement. "You shouldn't be thinking about logic right now, I don't think your bruised brain can handle it."

Sasuke scoffed. He was obviously stubborn when he had a head injury. Or a pride injury. "Do you have anything in mind?"

Inner Sasuke threw a rock at real Sasuke. "She's right, damn it! This is a two-hour ride… you have an hour and a half to go! Might as well do something rather than die of boredom."

"Um… we could…" Hinata ventured, putting her finger to her bottom lip in thought. He watched her closely and frowned slightly when she blushed.

"We could play Twenty Questions." She muttered, putting both hands on the top of the wheel as she hunched her shoulders. It was the closest thing she could to her usual habit of putting her hands in front of her chest whilst driving a car.

Honestly, Uchiha Sasuke intrigued her. He was an enigma, a paradox that had never really been solved. She had never paid attention to him in high school and middle school, since her gaze had been fixed on his blonde best friend. But now she found herself faced with six (well, five-and-a-half) hours of his company and the psychologist inside of her was just screaming for her to figure him out.

"Fine by me. You go first." He grunted, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Hinata bit her lip in thought, causing Sasuke to have to look away for fear of the cuteness making him blush. "Oh! I have one! What's your favorite color?"

It was such a simple question, but it was one that rocked his world. He never really bothered with trivial things like that, and now that he was confronted with it, had no idea what his favorite color was.

"Don't have one."

Hinata, in the middle of the freeway, stopped the car. True, there was nobody else on the road as far as they could see (and they could see far, being on a flat plot of land) but it still seemed crazy that she actually stopped. They both leaned forward as the abrupt halt worked its physics on their bodies.

"Nani?" Hinata asked, turning her head sharply, looking at him with horrified eyes. "You don't have a favorite color?"

Sasuke just stared at her, completely flabbergasted at what she had just done and why. It took him a while to get back to his senses. "Is there a problem?"

He was relieved when she started the car up again, but she was still obviously surprised. "You have to have a favorite color! It's just a thing humans have!"

Sasuke thought deeply, trying to understand why he had never cared. Maybe he wasn't human. "I never thought about it."

"Is there a color you like?" Hinata asked lightly, trying to start from scratch.

Retracting from his still staggered thoughts, Sasuke looked at her, attempting to think despite the pounding in his brain. "Dark blue. That's my favorite."

It just so happened to be the color of her hair. Funny.

Putting a hand over her chest, Hinata sighed in relief. "Okay, question two. Uh… oh, what's your favorite animal?"

He had never thought about that either. When he responded accordingly, Hinata dropped her head in defeat, all the while thinking: This'll be a long trip.

On question seventeen, Hinata started getting deep. "If you don't mind me asking, this is question seventeen by the way, if you don't mind me asking… why do you sleep around so often?

Little shit. She just politely ordered me to answer. Sasuke thought, internally grinning. But then he actually wrapped his mind around her question and found that his answer was more or less piloting their stolen vehicle.

Even in the darkness of the night, where you could only see well if they passed a well-lit rest stop or gas station, Sasuke knew she was blushing. He could feel it.

The funny thing was that he wanted to answer; he had to, according to the rules of the game.

"Do you really want to know?"

She tore her eyes away from the road for a moment to nod at him, and he could distinctly see her bite her lip.

"I 'sleep around', as you call it, because I can't get the thing I want." That sounded rather spoiled…

Hinata said nothing; she appeared to be pondering his answer. After a few moments of silence, Sasuke saw her expression go from one of confusion to one of amusement fairly quickly. "O-okay, question eighteen: what is the thing you can't get?"

Sasuke's heart skipped a beat, suddenly very nervous. He walked right into that! Not even bothering to notice that his palms were sweaty and his heart rate increased, the Uchiha looked directly out of the window, trying to figure out how to answer.

Eh, a little equivocation wouldn't hurt anyone. "It almost seems like… I can't have a real relationship. That's what I want."

He could feel a smile come onto her face as the atmosphere in the car immediately picked up. That was the power of her smile, to him anyway…

"Forgive me for saying, but… that's doesn't seem very much like you, Sasuke-kun." She muttered, giggling a little. In the situation, that could be classified as a rude thing to say, but she was tired. They both were.

"You must not know me very much." He responded gruffly, his gaze still intently focused out of the window.

At this she giggled again. "Well, I know that your name is Uchiha Sasuke, you like the color dark blue, you like cats, you like tomatoes, you want to be a writer when you grow up, your favorite sport is soccer, you're afraid of failing, you're highly alcohol tolerant, you listen well, you are a great paintball marksman, you actually don't use gel to stick up your hair like that, you are stubborn when you have a concussion, and you obviously aren't as antisocial as you seem, seeing as you are willingly spending the next five hours in my company."

She just listed things he had answered for her questions, added it to what she already knew and basically left him flabbergasted. Honestly, he didn't even know she was listening to what he had been saying, thinking that she was just trying to keep him awake.

Apparently he was wrong.

"Um, question nineteen: why do you live alone?"

She doesn't know? I would have thought that Sakura would have told her. "My whole family died when I was seven."

"Every person?"

"Is that the last question?"

Hinata squeaked in unfairness as he said that. Obviously this was dangerous territory to be poking around in. "No, it's not. I actually have one now. Is it because, based on your lack of familial love, that you deny Sakura's affections because you view her as a sister or a mother?"

She made that connection pretty fast. "Yes, it is."

Oddly, she seemed happy with his answer, and lapsed into a contented silence. Score one for Hinata! She thought, and inner Hinata cheered.

"My turn." Sasuke muttered almost possessively. "Favorite color?"

An hour later, they entered the gated grounds of the Hyuga mansion and drove silently into the garage. They deposited Neji's car in its usual spot and relocated to Hinata's Porsche before speeding off to Sasuke's apartment.

Randomly, while they were waiting at a light, Hinata's stomach gave a low, warbling growl, demanding to be fed.

"Hungry?" Sasuke asked, smirking over at her, who had clutched her tummy with one hand.

Pale eyes looked back at him. "I haven't eaten since… yesterday's dinner."

When Kiba had shouted her into the conscious world, she had just hastily gathered herself and rushed out the door. She nicked a granola bar from his house, but that was a pitiful excuse for a meal, especially with the activity planned for the day.

"Turn left then…" Sasuke muttered, and she changed the turning signal immediately. "There's a good Chinese place on 23rd."

Obediently, she followed his directions, leading her to a little restaurant she had never seen before. It was so small it could have easily been looked over. Catch 22 was that the place was completely packed to bursting, making those waiting to dine have to stand outside. He turned to face her with a pensive expression. "What would you like?"

"Chicken, but… Sasuke-kun, it's really crowded. I don't think—"

He cut her off with his signature smirk before opening the door and stepping onto the sidewalk. Without one look back, he darted past the line and was soon lost in the sea of people.

How is he going to get any food in the next year? She wondered, propping her left elbow on the top of the steering wheel and placing her chin in her palm. That place is so crowded and probably overheated! What if he faints again? Should I follow?

Her fears dissipated when she saw him crawl his way out. In her shock of seeing the three plastic bags filled with take-out boxes, her elbow slipped and landed on the horn, causing a single, loud, long note to sound to everyone's displeasure. Sasuke just grinned and opened the door. He haphazardly placed the bags in the back before settling down in his seat and buckling himself.

"You didn't specify what chicken you wanted so I kind of went ballistic. There's lemon chicken, sesame, chicken fried rice, chicken spring rolls—"

"How on earth did you manage to get that much food that fast?" She asked quickly, looking at him oddly. To get all that food that fast was unthinkable, and considering the place was packed beyond belief and obviously busy as all hell just made it even more unachievable. "S-seems impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible, just mathematically improbable." Sasuke muttered, shooting her a smirk. "Actually, I know the owner… and his daughters."

That pretty much summed it up. She blushed and started up the car, deliberately keeping her eyes off the player sitting beside her.

"Wha… what did you get for yourself?"

"Basically everything. I haven't eaten in a while either. Thought we might pig out to the best."

Hinata giggled without knowing why. "A paintball celebratory feast?"

"Hn,"

She full out laughed this time, causing him to fight a blush at the melodic sound. "And to drink?"

He frowned. "Sake?"

"N-not in your condition…"

"We need caffeine."

She nodded in approval before taking another detour. In the parking lot of the supermarket, Hinata jumped out of the car with it still running and sped into the store, ignoring the stares at her army-like uniform. She emerged a few minutes later with four 2L bottles of Mountain Dew under her arms.

Without realizing it or stopping himself, Sasuke's mouth opened slightly. Four? She neatly gave them to him as she got back into her car and again they sped away, this time actually making it to their destination.

In an odd display of chivalry, Sasuke carried two of the three bags and all of the soda, leaving Hinata with only one, admittedly light bag. Though she had argued and even played the 'cripple' card, he had stubbornly just grabbed all he could.

His apartment was dark when he opened the door, and he had to reach across her to hit the switch on the wall. It was plain, with white walls and light brown, cedar hardwood flooring. Despite the plainness, it exuded a very 'high-end' air. There was a large sliding-glass-door leading to a balcony directly opposite where they were now, with his living room directly in between. He had a small couch that faced a nicely sized television, which had many connecting cords to gaming consoles and she could even see two DDR mats peeking out from behind the hutch the television was placed in.

All in all, a male apartment.

Sasuke strolled into the kitchen that was through an entryway perpendicular to the door, leaving Hinata to follow him. On the table they placed their burdens and then he mysteriously left, leaving her to set everything up.

A rouge thought was plaguing her mind as she daintily grabbed two glass cups from his cupboards. What if he is trying to take a quick shower? I don't think he knows he can't.

Taking a shower was a no-no if someone had a concussion. The hot water and steam would attribute to lightheadedness, thus making the concussion much worse. She couldn't have him killing himself…

"Sasuke-kun?" She asked lightly, peering around the corner of what she thought was his room. To her relief it was, and she was met with him coming out of the bathroom with a new set of head bandages. No shower.

At his name, he looked up at her, frowning slightly for who knows what reason. "Yes?"

The realization of her situation sent a screaming blush to her features. "O-oh! I was just checking to make sure you weren't taking a shower. That'd m-make it a lot worse."

She's concerned about my health… take that Naruto! He thought quickly, letting his classic smirk adorn his features.

"Hn," He muttered, leaning against the doorframe of the bathroom casually as he looked at her.

At that moment, Sasuke's cell phone, which had been charging on his bedside table, buzzed loudly, signaling a text. Both of them jumped at the sudden sound and looked at it before Sasuke actually went and checked it.

He said nothing, but frowned as he read on. Suddenly he quickly stole out of his room, brushing past Hinata who followed hesitantly.

Not five seconds after he had reached the front door and turned off the light, heavy pounding was heard on his door.

"Oi, teme! Are you here? You can't just escape like that!" Came Naruto's loud exclamations, slightly muffled by the piece of wood in between them.

Hinata gasped, not at Naruto for once, but because they were about two seconds and five feet away from being caught and that would make him aggravated, which would hurt his head, which would make the concussion worse, which she did not want to happen. Sasuke's hand shot out in the darkness and lightly covered her mouth.

Apparently Sakura was with him, because after a brief respite of the knocking, she spoke. "Maybe he's not home. He could be out getting something to eat."

Please Naruto, don't say anything… don't you dare say a word. Sasuke thought, gritting his teeth. He flinched at what the blonde said next.

"Or, he could be ignoring us, and is in his room right now with Hina—"

Sakura's audible punch silenced Naruto's ranting. "Baka, they wouldn't do that. Well, she wouldn't anyway."

Hinata felt herself going red as she imagined what Naruto was obviously thinking about.

"We could just let ourselves in you know…" They heard Naruto mutter. "His key isn't very well hidden…"

"You'd be in so much trouble! No, let's just leave and come back tomorrow when he is sure to be here."

After one more unnecessary knock from Naruto, the pair of them left. The fugitives inside the house waited for a full minute before turning the light back on again.

Looking down at his phone, Sasuke cringed as something popped up that he hadn't seen before. "23 missed calls and 17 new voice mails…"

"Wow…" Hinata muttered, but her musings were cut short by her stomach giving a loud and painful gurble. It was then that the pair of them remembered they had incredibly good and free Chinese food waiting for them in the kitchen.

Happy, warm and full, the pair of them relocated to the living room, to the couch to be exact. Each had one of the 2L bottles of Mountain Dew with them, without using glasses.

Little known fact about Hyuga Hinata:

When she was, 1. caffeinated, 2. full, and 3. deliberately avoiding sleep, the heiress was just different. She was a little more outgoing. It was a combination that added up to her basically being in a mildly drunken state. Yay!

"Nice gaming selection…" Hinata muttered, taking a drink from her large bottle of pure sugar. Sasuke looked in the direction that she was looking and smirked.

"You play?"

"Uh huh!"

He chuckled and a mental image of Hinata blasting the shit out of Covenant Elites popped up. Yeah, she really was a pretty awesome girl. "You have officially achieved Bro Status."

Over Hinata's face bloomed a cute smile. "Niisan gets angry when I play with him… I don't know why! He will barely play a-hic- 1v1 against me anymore!"

So now she had hiccups. Sasuke was very close to drowning in cute.

"Do you win?" He asked, moving to sit cross-legged in front of one of his consoles. Hinata looked and saw he had both an Xbox and Gamecube. Old-gen consoles, but still with good games.

"S-sometimes. Well no, the majority of the time." She giggled, noticing she was still wearing her headband. She untied it lightly and also took down her hair from the high-pony.

Sasuke turned his head to look at her. "That'd be it. You killed his man-pride."

Wrong thing to say. Hinata immediately put her hand over her mouth in horror. "I... but, it's just a-hic- game!"

"Yeah, and you beat him at said game."

Apparently Hinata was ADD when she was caffeinated, full and determined to stay awake. Her attention span was fairly small at the present time, causing her to jump tracks instantaneously. "Super Smash Brothers Melee? I've never played that…"

Sasuke's heart skipped a beat. Never played Super Smash? Impossible! "Really? I find that hard to believe."

Hinata pouted. "Why?"

"It's only the single most awesome game in existence." He muttered, turning to face his Gamecube and beginning to boot up the game.

It ended up being the single most awesome game in existence. Hinata loved it from the start.

But then she found that she could never win. She huffed angrily as the Sasuke-controlled Samus blasted her Peach off the screen… for the fifth time! She only had one life left on this round, and he had all of his. "This isn't fair!"

Sasuke, sitting next to her on the couch, let out a merciless chuckle. "You could have used Toad to block and then frying-panned me off the edge… Try thinking a little more."

On impulse, Hinata quickly quit to the starting screen and set up the next match. Personally, she loved the song in the background. Sasuke decided to choose Bowser and Hinata's scrolled paused on Roy for a minute before choosing Marth right next to him. She then chose Pokemon Stadium as the playing field, hoping it would make some difference.

Okay, he's not unbeatable… Hinata thought quickly, trying to strategize. I just have to trick him.

Their game started off nicely, with Hinata almost being knocked off the edge but then using Up+B to jump to safety. Two items dropped, a mine and a Pokeball. Bowser and Marth went for the ball, with the latter surprisingly getting it. Hinata threw it quickly at her adversary, smiling wide as Entei popped out.

So, her first kill wasn't exactly her kill. Bowser was near the edge and Entei's fire had completely knocked him off and Sasuke, surprised by the odd turn of events, failed to jump in time.

Hinata said nothing, although her smile infected Sasuke. He was happy she got a kill, even if he could have easily leaped to safety. Sadly, he didn't see her pick up the mine and place it by the edge from which he had just fallen to his death.

The arena changed to a fire style, which only further opened up space to her cleverly placed mine. A few minutes went by where they fought lamely, though never dying.

It happened quickly. Marth charged up the full power of his sword and got Bowser full blast. The great evil turtle-dragon was cast into the air before falling back down directly on her pre-placed mine. The resulting explosion shot Sasuke's character flying to hit the screen in an obvious and cleverly initiated knockout.

From then on, Hinata became a master with Marth, and began to get kill after kill on whatever character Sasuke picked. He was becoming increasingly annoyed and his anger reached its peak after Marth smash-moved Kirby off the map.

His sitting position changed dramatically, putting him cross-legged and leaning forward to better observe the screen. This was his battle-mode.

A new game was started where Hinata characteristically went for Marth and Sasuke (to a brief chuckle from Hinata) chose Jigglypuff and then Hyrule.

Hinata's experiences with the little creampuff were not at all happy. She couldn't control the roll move and her singing always missed and gave Sasuke a chance to just smash her out of the ring. Jigglypuff sucked.

In five minutes, the Sasuke-controlled Jigglypuff killed her Marth three times. One by charging the roll, one by smash moves, and one merciless sing-to-sleep-then-hit-with-Ness'-baseball-bat.

So Sasuke's favorite character was obviously Jigglypuff and hers was Marth. One would think it would by switched around…

The pair of them played long into the night, with the Mountain Dew coursing through their veins and being driven by an odd, virtual bloodlust. They passed the 2:30am 'allowed to sleep' mark without even realizing it.

Hinata dozed off at the 'Choose Character' screen, and Sasuke gave into sleep after waiting for her to choose her guy. They had turned off all the lights, and the only radiance was the television. The background sound was playing over and over again, acting as a lullaby for the tired friends.

It was 5:18 in the morning.

Alright, this one is over and done,

We all know Super Smash is hella fun.

But there is something, of which you know none!

What will happen to our heroes with the rise of the sun?

I'm the second coming of Shakespeare, just thought you guys should know…

Scenes from the next episode:

"How many seconds would it take for him to plot my murder?"

Hinata smirked. "He's a genius, so about 15. But if Kiba were with him, it'd be about 10 seconds. And you'd be killed twice over."