Disclaimer: The author does not own the animation series Naruto, and is merely borrowing for use in entertainment.

Chapter III: Competition Smile

I'm high and I'm hopeless
So help me to get untied
Fast asleep now I'm going blind
Falling down in my mind, down in my mind
(Competition Smile, Gin Blossoms)

Sasuke went to school early again. Much to his disgust, the number of girls in his fan club had swelled – all due to the fact that he wore those stupid cat ears. He grumbled under his breath as he stepped inside his classroom. All this trouble, just so that he could get to his school in peace.

"Oh. Good morning, Uchiha-san."

"It's Sasuke," he replied shortly, not even looking at Hinata's direction as he put his schoolbag away and sat down. "Here again early?"

"Ah – early morning duties. And, um, habit." He felt rather than saw the girl settle down on her own seat, skirts rustling as she did so. "The school is so peaceful in the mornings, so…"

Finally he looked up, propping his chin on his fist. "You didn't go to the nighttime festival," he remarked idly. "Sakura was looking for you."

"I had to go home. Chichi-ue didn't give me permission to stay at the school so late," the girl explained, looking out of the window. "There's training, as well."

Sasuke frowned. "Don't tell me you went straight home just to train, Hyuuga?"

"Um. Yes?" Hinata answered hesitantly, blinking owlishly at Sasuke as he stood up, skirted his desk, and stood next to where she sat, looking down at her with a most peculiar expression on his face. "Sasuke-san…?"

Then, without any warning, Sasuke bopped her lightly on her head.

"U-uwah!"

"I-di-ot. What were you doing, going back home to train?" Sasuke scolded as the girl clutched at her head. "You should've gone home to rest, not overwork yourself, stupid!"

"B-but…"

Sudden laughter interrupted whatever rejoinder Sasuke was going to make, and the two turned to the doorway to see Naruto doubled over in laughter. Sasuke scowled. "I don't see what's funny, dead last."

"You –ahaha- mother," Naruto gasped in between laughter, wiping tears of mirth as he walked over. Their identical expressions of confusion set him off again, laughing uproariously.

Giving up on understanding the laughing idiot, Sasuke went back to his seat, scowling. Naruto had settled down on his seat as well, still chuckling. "Sasuke-bastard's a mother cat!"

Sasuke twitched. "Shut up, Naruto."

"Keh, it's true! You're the one fussing over Hi – "

"Naruto, shut up!" Sasuke growled, cheeks flushing darkly.

"Heheh, Sasuke, you're blushinoow!" Naruto clutched at his suddenly smarting head, teary-eyed as he looked behind him. "Wah, Sakura-chan, you're so mean!"

"And you're so noisy, Naruto!" Sakura shot back, vein pulsing on her forehead, her fist still clenched. "It's too early to be this noi...sy…" Her voice trailed off as realization dawned. Her green eyes narrowed. "Waitaminute! You're early!"

Naruto flashed a victory sign, smirking. "I win, Sakura-chyaan!"

"Wha – no!" Sakura moaned as she sat down heavily on a nearby chair. "Damnit."

Hinata blinked questioning eyes to the Uchiha (since Naruto was busy doing a weird victory dance around the room), silently asking him to explain. Sasuke tapped a finger idly on his desk. "Dead last made a bet with Sakura – if he goes to school earlier than Sakura, even just once, they'll eat lunches and go home together for a week. Not to mention, she'll be tutoring him on math. If he loses, he won't bother her for a week, and would also be doing after-school cleaning." He smirked suddenly. "I don't envy Sakura. Naruto's hell on math."

"I heard that, Sasuke-bastard!" Naruto shouted across the room, then suddenly grinned and resumed dancing. "But keh, I don't care! I'm too happy to care! I win! I win! Whooo-hooooooo!"

Sakura moaned in despair, while Sasuke merely sniffed in derision, turning away to look out of the window. After a while, he yawned and closed eyes, propping his chin against his fist.

"Sasuke-san…knows a lot about Naruto-kun, ne?" Hinata suddenly spoke, pushing up her glasses nervously. "You – Sasuke-san is good friends with Naruto-kun?"

"Friends with dead last?" Sasuke snorted, but didn't open his eyes. "It's not something I decided on, but yeah. Something like that.

"I'm glad." Hinata smiled. "Naruto-kun doesn't have...a lot of good friends."

The teen opened one eye to look at her, attention caught at the wistfulness of her tone. Hinata was watching Naruto dance around the room, her eyes hidden by the thick glasses that she wore, like a mask hiding her emotions.

-

Lunch came. Again, Sasuke was besieged with lunch offers – more so than the usual, due to what happened during the school festival. He escaped to the roof, bringing his own lunch with him.

The teen had just finished eating when raised voices caught his attention. Sasuke frowned when he looked down. It was Hinata, taking a step back from the two upper high school students – the same students that tried to take a picture of her yesterday.

Sasuke cursed under his breath, and looked around for something he could hurl down on the two jerks (His bento? His spork?) when quick movement caught his eye. He looked down just in time to see another upper high school student slap one of the offenders, long brown hair swaying with the force. The two students slunk away, chastened.

Sasuke blinked. A female student? No, he amended, eyes narrowing as he watched Hinata being hugged briefly by her savior. Male, definitely male. The same male he saw waiting for Hinata when she gave him the apron three days ago.

A twinge of an unknown feeling burned through him and the teen stamped it down, annoyed. Turning, Sasuke grabbed his now-empty bento and left.

-

"Oi, Sasuke-bastard, you look as though you just got whipped," Naruto greeted him as he strode back to the room. The blond grinned. "No, actually, you look like you lost a fight or something."

"Whatever. Shut up, Naruto."

Naruto frowned as he followed the brunette, sitting down and straddling Hinata's chair. "No, really, Sasuke – what happened?" he prodded, somewhat concerned. "You only look that way when you lose a tennis match – or any match, for one thing."

"Nothing's happened, Naruto." Sasuke sighed, and made an effort to change the subject. "So how did lunch go?"

Naruto instantly brightened and proceeded to give him a blow-by-blow account of his lunch with Sakura, leaving Sasuke free to examine his thoughts. He made appropriate sounds to indicate that he was listening, but the teen wasn't, not at all. He was busy trying to sort out the emotion that flickered through him when he saw Hinata being hugged by someone he didn't know.

Emotions, Sasuke finally decided, are annoying.

-

Homeroom came.

"Alright, settle down!" Sakura commanded from the front, rapping a knuckle against the teacher's desk. "Kakashi-sensei's given us this time to discuss about our prize for winning at our school festival yesterday."

"Tch, how troublesome." Nara Nakamaru mumbled, chin propped at his fist as he stared blearily at their class representative."What did they give us, a pack of ballpoint pens? Several notebooks? Bowling coupons?"

Sakura scowled, remembering their prize when they won last year (which was, sadly enough, the aforementioned bowling coupons.). "No, thankfully - not those. The prize for winning this year is an early school trip for our class, and," here she paused dramatically for added effect – "…and since we worked so hard this year, we get to pick the location ourselves!"

Silence. And then - wild cheering.

Sasuke merely snorted, and tuned out the noise. It's not as if he cared, anyway.

-

Amidst the voting, rapid-fire discussion, and Naruto's whining, the teen heard a delicate snort – and glancing forward, discovered Hyuuga Hinata sleeping, slumped over her desk. Glossy black hair cascaded down over her shoulders and spilled over the table like silk. His mouth twitched – it's funny, he thinks, that just looking at her sleeping reminds him of a cat taking a nap in the sun.

And as suddenly as he thought of that, he scowled and brushed the thoughts away.

Tuning out the discussion was easy, but blocking the inane desire to look at a sleeping Hyuuga was harder than Sasuke thought.

What in the world was happening to him?

Still scowling, he decided to get o-dangos and takoyaki after tennis practice. Yeah, he's hungry, that's it. Or else his thoughts wouldn't keep slipping on cats and blissfully sleeping Hyuugas under the sun.

-

In the end, the class decided on Kyoto. Generally, the class was happy with their choice – if you excluded the vision of Naruto, sulking in one corner. The entire class had vetoed the energetic blond's suggestion of going to the Ramen Museum, and he had immediately sunk into gloom and doom.

"Oi, Naruto – c'mon!" Kiba hollered over at the door, duffel bag slung over one shoulder. "We still have soccer practice!"

The rest of the class dispersed quietly, each heading towards their own clubs, with some heading home. That is, except Hinata, who was still sleeping on her desk, unaware that homeroom had already ended. Sasuke sighed as he stood up. "Oi. Hyuuga."

Hinata merely mumbled, and turned her face away, rubbing her face on her arms as she did so. "G'way, Neji-jiji…"

Sasuke twitched. Neji-jiji, was it? Uncharacteristically irritated, the teen shoved a hand to his pocket. Coming out with a folded handkerchief, he lightly whapped it on the sleeping girl's head, jerking her awake and tousling black locks. The girl gave an eep when she saw him, flushing. He stared down at her, still holding the handkerchief. "…you're hard to wake up, Hyuuga."

Hinata's flush deepened, and she cast her eyes away. "Uhm...err… U-Uchiha-san…"

"A thank you would be nice," the teen suggested dryly as he tucked the handkerchief back to his pocket. "And its Sasuke, idiot."

"Oh! I'm sorry! A-and thank you, Sasuke-san," the girl stood up and bowed, flustered. When she straightened, it was only then that she noticed that the room was already empty. "Wha- homeroom's already finished?"

Sasuke sighed. "Idiot. Why do you think I woke you up?"

"Oh."

Hefting his duffel bag over one shoulder, Sasuke frowned. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go home."

The girl blinked, and then snatched her bag hastily. "Oh! Ri-right!" As suddenly as she had moved, her face paled in horror, and she started to shove various notebooks into her bag. "Oh no, I'm late for my club, and I still have to continue teaching the new ones the tea ceremony!"

And with that, the girl shoved her bag shut, hastily sketched a bow to him and hurriedly left the room.

Shaking his head, Sasuke was about to leave when he noticed a notebook lying forlornly on the ground. The teen sighed. With his luck, it could only be Hyuuga's – and when he riffled it open, it was. Resigned, the teen shoved the notebook into his bag and left the room.

-

Sasuke strode through the hallway, still in his tennis uniform, Hinata's notebook on his hands. Judging from her haphazard comment earlier, the Hyuuga was part of the Tea & Calligraphy class – something, the teen remembered, Naruto had mentioned once before. He shoved an irritated hand through his hair. It was a good thing that his practice had ended early, for once – with their coach attending an emergency meeting, there wasn't much to do.

Stopping in front of the door, Sasuke frowned. There wouldn't be fangirls in this club, wouldn't it? He raised a fist to knock, and then stopped in mid-air, undecided. The Hyuuga had mentioned teaching tea ceremony to new members – would he be disturbing them if he knocked?

Heaving a disgusted sigh at his indecisiveness, the teen raised his hand again to knock, when the door slid open, revealing a surprised Hyuuga Hinata. Sasuke blinked in surprise, taking in the girl's clothes – she was clad in a kimono, luminous white flowers swimming in a sky of midnight blue, making a vivid contrast against her porcelain skin. Her hair was pulled up into a simple bun, revealing the delicate features of her face; her pale eyes devoid of glasses as she stared back to him.

"Uch-Uchiha-san?!" Hinata squeaked, hands flying up to her mouth. "H-how – w-why…?"

"You left your notebook." Sasuke answered simply, finally finding his voice. "And its Sasuke, you idiot."

-

How he came to be served tea and daifuku, Sasuke doesn't know. But here he was, sitting quite calmly on the tatami floor, partaking tea that the Hyuuga made. The teen took a bite and munched slowly; this would be the second time that he was fed by the girl. It wasn't that unpleasant, he decided, just a little disconcerting how the girl handled him so well when it came to food. At that thought, the teen frowned. An Uchiha shouldn't be handled so easily.

"U-Uchiha-san, is the mochi not to your liking?" Hinata's anxious voice broke through his musings, and the teen focused on the girl sitting before him. "I could replace it, if you'd like."

"What? No, this is fine – and how many times do I have to tell you, it's Sasuke." The teen replied shortly. "You keep forgetting."

"A-ah. I'm sorry."

Sasuke took a sip of the tea, studying the girl over the rim of his cup. The Hyuuga looked distracted; always, her eyes slid from him to the window, her lips turned downwards. "How did the ceremony go?"

The girl started, obviously not expecting him to speak, much less ask about the club's affairs. Her pale eyes once again slid from his unflinching stare. "I – I wasn't able to teach them today. They - they decided it's too hard, after all."

"Is that so?" Sasuke frowned; the fickleness of girls never ceases to amaze him. "But this club does have other members, right?"

"Oh – oh yes," Hinata hastened to reassure him, leaning slightly forward. "Temari-sempai and Ino-chan. Nara-san is part of this club as well, but he's practicing Go with Asuma-sensei today."

"Only the four of you?"

Hinata flushed as she nodded, looking away as her she unconsciously pushed her fingers together. "W-we're not a very popular club."

"I could see that," Sasuke remarked idly, and the girl flinched. "But then again, I don't think you'd like it if there were too many of you, Hyuuga."

Startled pale eyes flew back to his. "H-how did Sasuke-san know I…?"

"Just a guess," Sasuke shrugged. "Besides, I don't like too many people myself."

"O-oh."

The teen watched as Hinata put away the tea and the plate, and then stood when she finished. He handed the notebook to the girl. "Here."

"Thank you, Uchi- err, Sasuke-san." Hinata smiled shyly at him, clasping the book close. "I'm sorry for being such trouble."

Sasuke grunted, and walked towards the door, slipping his feet to his shoes as he did so. Sliding open the door, the teen raised his hand in farewell. "The tea was good, Hyuuga."

And with that, he left the room.