Sorry cannot cut it. It took me FOREVER to get this out, and it's mortally short. My supreme bad. I had an AP test at school, which are these huge, three-hour tests you can take in a certain subject and if you get a good grade, you get college credit. I had U.S. History, and I was studying like a madman and taking practice tests and shit. I'm terribly sorry I neglected to write either this or KNTM.

My bad.

But on the bright side… that is now over with and I am going to be updating like crazy. Or at least that is my plan...

Naruto does not belong to me.

Pain. Dull, continuous pain. Bones… muscles… organs... all were drowning in pain. Sasuke was hurting in places he didn't even know he had. Even lifting an eyelid was strenuous.

It had been the terribly repetitive theme song of Super Smash Brothers Melee that woke him, and he saw vaguely that the 'Choose Character' screen was still up. He had already chosen Ness as his character, and the other pointer was hovering over Zelda.

The morning sky was grey and bland, peeking through his sliding glass door. Even still, the feeble light drove him to wince and look away.

His tired eyes flitted over to the clock on the DVD player. 2:53pm… damn. They still received ten hours of sleep even after playing Super Smash well into the morning.

If someone were to be in the apartment at this very moment, they would see a very odd sight. Sasuke and Hinata were on his rather small couch, completely still. Oddly, Sasuke was curled into a little ball, very catlike, taking up as little space as his tall body would permit. Hinata on the other hand, was completely sprawled out, lying on her back with one leg draped over the back of the couch and the other interestingly tucked underneath the first.

Their heads were almost touching and in fact, Sasuke was actually using her hair as a pillow for now.

"Oi, Hinata…" Sasuke muttered, still looking at the screen, not at her.

Her felt her stirs via her hair, but found that she didn't really change position. "Sasuke-kun?"

"I hurt."

"Me too."

They fell into a sleepy silence, in which Hinata tried to get up. Keyword: tried. She pitifully attempted to sit up, but stopped, moaned, and flopped back down. "This is problematic…"

Sasuke agonizingly turned his neck to look at her, although only seeing the top of her head. "Hn?"

"I… can't get up. How am I going to get home?"

She said it so jokingly that he almost laughed. At his silence (due to keeping his laugh in) she answered her own question. "I could call Neji-niisan…"

Sasuke couldn't even image how royally pissed off the man would be if he came to pick up his darling cousin at his house because they couldn't move from exhaustion. Exhaustion from what? Sex is what he would think, of course. Plus he would have already been a little on the mad side after they stole his car.

"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."

Ah yes, Kiba, the second brotherly figure in her life. That makes two protective barriers around her!

"Splendid." Sasuke muttered sarcastically, trying his hand at getting up. He was met with even less success than Hinata, having first to stretch out before getting up. "I'll bet they filed a missing persons report…"

That horrible thought sent some much needed energy through Hinata's body like an electric shock. She sat up and almost leaped into a standing position.

Three seconds later, both Sasuke and Hinata knew that was a bad idea. The dizzy spell of death came over her quickly, making her fall back onto the couch on her back, the same position she had been in before. Progress indeed.

"Can I use your cell phone?" Hinata asked after waiting to recover. He grunted and sent his arm down to the floor to try to locate his phone.

Once he grabbed it and gave it to her, she smiled. "Arigatou."

He could vaguely hear the ringing as she called someone, presumably Neji. "Neji-niisan! It's—"

"Hinata, where the fuck are you?" His yell was very loud, and hurt both Sasuke and Hinata's ears.

"I'm at Sasuke-kun's house."

"WHAT?!"

It took Hinata some time to figure out why he was so angry. "Ah! No! I-it's not like that! We didn't, Neji!" A heavy blush was accumulating on her pale cheeks as she tried to assure him that their sleepover was chaste.

Sasuke quietly stole the phone away and held it to his own ear to her little squeaks of disapproval. "Hyuga, nothing happened."

"Oh, don't you tell me nothing happened!"

Sasuke listened to Neji rant for a full minute, all the while holding both of Hinata's wrists with one of his own as she tried to steal back the phone. It was all in good fun though. "Sasuke-kun!"

"Okay, fine you're right, something happened…" Sasuke said, smirking at the look on Hinata's face. They were now both sitting up, a feat that had been deemed impossible not two minutes ago.

"What?" Neji asked sternly.

"We played Super Smash Brothers for six hours straight before conking out on my couch."

Both Hyugas were completely silent.

The next week passed almost bizarrely normally. Hinata found she had to kiss Kiba, and only resorted to an innocent peck, which he allowed.

Hinata and Sasuke didn't see each other at all. Not once. Though both individually reminisced about the fun night they had shared, neither sought the other out. Something about the pair of them being quiet people…

Nine days after the Super Smash paintball celebratory highly-caffeinated night in honor of Sasuke's concussion, something finally happened.

Neji and Tenten were an item.

Details were sketchy, but Hinata managed to gather from Neji that it had indeed been her who made the first move. He openly admitted that he had been way too shy, and he had quite literally jumped for joy when she admitted her feelings.

Also, an odd romance was blossoming between none other than Haruno Sakura and Inuzuka Kiba. It was just mainly companionship; with them eating out together and planning group outings together. Yeah, it was just friendly now… give them about one week longer and they'll be all over each other.

Looks like operation: Naruto is Awesome (mentioned in chapter three) was failing. Sure, Sasuke was blatantly ignoring Sakura in attempt to woo Hinata as planned, but Sakura messed up Naruto's whole plan by beginning to like Kiba.

Yes, Naruto and Kiba were friends, and they always would be, but Naruto was just on edge lately. He knew that Kiba knew nothing of his plan, so he couldn't blame him at all without making an ass out of himself. Bros before hoes was still the prominent law.

But alas, just because he wouldn't pick a fight with Kiba didn't mean he wouldn't rant at, not to, Sasuke.

X.x.X

"I just don't know. Everything is going to the dogs, and I mean that quite literally." Naruto spat, lying on his back with his hands behind his head.

They were at the beach, and Hinata was yet unaware of their presence. Sasuke, this time armed with And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, was leaning against one of the trees that grew out of the sand and helped to shade part of the beach. Yeah Christie wasn't Shakespeare, but he felt like mixing up his beach reads a little bit.

"Sasuke, man, you have to help me get her from Kiba."

Sasuke, knowing Naruto would just keep talking to him, set his book upside down so the page was kept. "You could challenge him to yet another paintball war and this time get Hinata on your team…"

Naruto sat up quickly and turned to face his friend, his face completely set. "Yeah, lets—"

"Yeah... not being serious." He still painfully remembered the events of the last one. Although the outcome had been nice, the process sucked some major ass.

His face fell, and he lied back down. They relaxed in silence for a while before Naruto displayed an odd surge of observation. "That's the fifth guy who's come up to Hinata…"

Sasuke's neck cricked as he turned it to see what was going on. It was true; some blonde asshole was leaning against the post, chatting her up. "Why?"

The blonde yawned, putting his hand over his mouth. "I dunno, because she's pretty maybe?"

"No dobe, I mean why are they flocking now?"

"No se." Naruto muttered lightly, readjusting himself on his towel. "Summer heat?"

Sasuke sat cross-legged, staring over at Hinata, who was politely trying to shoo the boy away. After a few moments, he got the hint and walked back to his friends, all of who gathered around to hear what had transpired. He saw her throw a huge sigh and tie her long hair into a loose braid.

Naruto smirked as he heard what Sasuke muttered before returning to his book. "Fucking assholes…"

"Sasuke-baka, why don't you ask her out?" He asked quickly, suddenly curious as to what was going on in his friend's head.

Because of you. "Because she'd say no."

"You never know unless you try!"

Why don't you just shut up? "You'd be hard-pressed to try unless you know."

Naruto threw his hands in the air from his lying position. "You are ridiculous, you know that right?"

Returning to his book, Sasuke stopped himself from smacking Naruto in the head.

"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed suddenly, sitting up with his sunglasses askew. "I could tell her you like her!!"

Time stopped as the impossibility of that suggestion fell on him. "You better not."

Naruto smiled slyly before jumping up and beginning to run towards Hinata, who was luckily all the way across the beach.

"Naruto!" Sasuke growled, throwing his book and sand everywhere as he got up and tried to catch up to his friend. Well, ex-friend if his plan fell through.

So began the race. Sasuke was the faster runner, but Naruto had a ridiculous head start. Good thing it was a long beach…

Hinata was now in a foul mood, although nobody would know because she was so chipper on the outside like usual. That guy was the latest in a long line of boys who decided to chat her up today. But seriously, was it because of her denials that made them think they had a chance?

Idiots.

She was starting to regret taking on this job. What with the constant advances, the boredom, and the overheating, it basically sucked. With that thought in mind, she leaned back in her chair and stretched luxuriously. At least she was outside though...

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw just one more anomaly in her sought-after, perfect beach. Two guys her age were running full out in her direction, throwing sand everywhere and on people. She was two seconds away from busting out the 'ol megaphone before she saw who it actually was.

Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun?

"HINATA!" Naruto yelled, waving at her while running from Sasuke. The Uchiha was gaining on him quickly as they neared the chair.

Then it happened, the epic fall. There was a deep divot of sand that Naruto did not see and once his foot fell into it, he completely lost his balance and started to plunge forward. In his desperation to save himself, he threw both arms out for balance and ended up completely close-lining Sasuke to the ground with him.

"Ah!" Hinata muttered, throwing aside her megaphone and jumping down to their level. "Are you guys alright?"

She fell to her knees in between them, putting her hand on Sasuke's shoulder and looking from one boy to another.

Something became interestingly apparent to Sasuke. First was that Hinata had not cried out "Naruto-kun!" when they both fell; she had addressed both of them with her exclamation. That must imply that she thought of them on the same level. Secondly, Hyuga Hinata was now touching his shoulder and was sitting closer to him than Naruto. She was fucking touching him.

Oh my.

"We're fine, but Hinata, I have something—"

"W-why were you two running?" Hinata interrupted, daintily retracting her hand from Sasuke's shoulder and standing up.

"Because Sasuke—"

"I can't have you two destroying the peace of my beach." She said lightly, cutting him off again. She was a master of the quiet authority. Probably a Hyuga thing.

"Sorry," Sasuke muttered, shooting a glare of all that was evil at his blonde friend.

In the end, all of Naruto's efforts to tell Hinata of Sasuke's undying love were blatantly shot down by Sasuke and unknowingly shot down by Hinata. They ended up having to go back and apologize to the little girl who got a bunch of sand in her eyes and the boy who's sand castle they destroyed, on Hinata's orders.

The whole time, Sasuke was as stoic and moody as usual, but on the inside he was jumping for joy. She had touched him and not Naruto. She had acknowledged them both on the same level.

Hooray for baby steps!

Sorry this was both short and pointless. I'm just having a little bit of development between their relationship in each one so this was just whatever. It's hard to do an aftermath chapter, so this was, I repeat, whatever.

Scenes from the next episode:

"So, what are our liabilities?" Sasuke asked quickly over the phone, his brow furrowed.

"Uh, she could be anywhere in Konoha. Anywhere."

"Oh… wow."