NOTE: Okay this was an unplanned, hastily written drabble for .net/topic/21716/2864947/1/#24758221 The NARUTO ANTIWRITER'S BLOCK PARTY FORUM - Skit/Dialogue Game. Beware of crappy writing and random. ALSO, for those who is interested in continuing...I've left my own prompts at the bottom of this fic. Please, please, please link me if you do choose to write it!

It wasn't often that Uchiha Sasuke was pulled out of his ANBU team to take on other missions. To be honest, it never happened. For one, his actions were still monitored in and out of the village. The only reason he was even allowed out on missions was because Naruto was in his ANBU squad and had promised to keep a close eye on him as well. It was understandable, then that Sasuke felt very much isolated and nervous as he was now; stuck in a cavernous tunnel with his partner.

After two years of probation, Sasuke had slowly become accustomed to the pure lack of privacy in his life. He was vaguely certain that he was being watched via satellite – no matter what Sakura insisted, he was certain that one damned medic had implanted a chip in him. Shrugging nonchalantly, Sasuke figured that it could have been worse. He could have been assigned to D-ranks for the rest of his life. At the moment, he would much rather prefer a lifetime of D-ranks.

Casting a brief glance at his partner – one Hyuuga Hinata, Jounin, and someone of no consequence to him – he sighed. It was one pathetic excuse of a mission and not worth his time. Unfortunately, the criminal they had been chasing after was much more resourceful than they had given her credit for. She had led the two of them into this tunnel and had sealed the entrance. They had been roaming this place for half an hour already.

"Do you see anything?" Sasuke asked tiredly. Every few minutes, he would ask, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw her shake her head. He knew that she would have told him if she did see anything, but he honestly didn't have anything else to do. "Are you sure?"

"Indubitably." Was her cool reply.

Sasuke twitched. Something was awfully…off about that word. "You're positive that's a word?"

There was a long-suffering sigh after a bout of silence from his partner. Sasuke was briefly reminded of Umino Iruka, his old Academy sensei. "Uchiha-san, it's a word. I'm positive."

"Alright."

They continued to walk on in silence. Sasuke was never much of a chatterbox and from what he had gathered from the Hyuuga, she wasn't much of a talker either. From their past meetings, he remembered that she had a crippling crush on Naruto…and that was about it.

He had been imagining all the things he would do to the blasted criminal when they finally caught her – honestly, no one got away with trapping him in anything – when he heard a small squeak come from his partner. "Bats!"

Sasuke paled slightly and instinctively pulled them to the floor. "Don't shout, you idiot." He hissed. Of all the things he had to run into while he was in a tunnel, on a stupid mission that wasn't even an S-rank, it had to be bats.

"S-sorry." Hinata whispered. He didn't reply – any noise might set them off. He tensed and Hinata let out another small squeak.

"Do you mind? Be quiet."

"You're holding onto my wrist too tightly, Uchiha-san. Can you…p-please let go?" He let go as if she was on fire. Sasuke let out a disgruntled sigh and rolled his eyes. Hopefully, she didn't activate her Byakugan, otherwise she'd be able to see that he was red as a tomato.

"Right. I think we should stay here for a while." He said gruffly but didn't outright order. He was not the leader of this mission, as much as it irked him. He really wasn't keen on walking around with a bunch of bats hanging above his head. And judging by her reaction to them, she wasn't a fan of the winged creatures either. It wasn't like the criminal could get very far. Aside from that rather tricky earth jutsu that sealed them into this tunnel, she couldn't escape out of a wet bag. "Do you have a blanket?" It was getting cold.

"Sorry." Why did she not sound repentant or apologetic at all?

Again, Sasuke twitched. He could have sworn she had a blanket. Or was she unwilling to share? Instead of calling her out, Sasuke shuffled until his back was against the tunnel's wall and muttered darkly. "Whatever."

There was silence. Above them, the bats and various other creatures moved. With each noise, both of them tensed. In turn, they cast each other glances, before relaxing, until another noise caused them to tense once more, and repeat. They pointedly ignored one another throughout all of this.

But it was after the third time Hinata had ducked when a bat swooped down did Sasuke choose to say anything – a rare occurrence, that. "So you're afraid of bats?"

Hinata, instead of flushing in embarrassment, merely quipped back coolly. "D-don't pretend you haven't been tensing every time one of them flew by, Uchiha-san." Sasuke twitched again, when did she stop stuttering? He liked it much better when she didn't speak so much a word to him.

"Hn. It's not like I wanted to be given this mission anyways." Sasuke grumbled. It was true. If he had his choice, he would be wearing his mask and on another A-rank. Instead, he was bare-faced and on a B-rank.

"H-Hokage-sama insisted you associate yourself with someone outside of your ANBU squadron." Hinata explained. "I was the only one with a mission who was in need of a partner…"

She sounded mournful; as if she'd much rather have someone else with her instead. Sasuke didn't mind. Most people didn't want him around, not after what he'd done. "If it weren't for me, who would you have for a partner?"

"Perhaps…Rock Lee-san." Hinata said with a wan smile. He was a bright and exuberant young man, much like Naruto. He was Neji's teammate and strong. But going from the scoff that had come from the Uchiha, Hinata guessed Sasuke didn't think too much about Lee. She felt the need to defend the man. "I always liked Rock Lee's qualities. His strength, his courage, his –" loyalty. It was a good thing he cut her off.

"Colorblind…ness?" Sasuke asked in a dry tone.

Hinata sniffed, although she couldn't fight off the tiny smile from her face. "It only goes to show what a good shinobi he is. He can fulfill his tasks even with such…festive clothing."

"No comment." He was sorely tempted to replace 'festive' with another word, but decided it wasn't worth the trouble in provoking his partner. For all he knew, she could be spiteful and give him an awful assessment report. "I bet I wouldn't catch you in that type of clothing…"

"Uchiha-san!" Hinata hissed in an admonishing tone. No doubt, she was going to brush him off and ignore – "I'll accept that bet." She replied in a slow, confident tone. "But…but what do I get when I do it?"

Well…Sasuke wasn't really sure. He hadn't expected her to rise to his bait. Only Naruto did that – and that was only because he was the only one who talked to him nowadays. Sakura was always busy as was Kakashi. "I'll…treat you to something?" A meal with him usually appealed to women. "But I highly doubt you'll do it." He added hurriedly. "You don't have to." This woman was full of surprises after all, he might as well discourage her a little – give her a way out.

"Mitarashi-san once made a bet with me…" She began lowly, making Sasuke strain a little to catch her words in the relative quiet. "I had to wear her costume for an entire day. It wasn't…that bad really." Sasuke felt a bit of dread fill the pit of his stomach. If the Hyuuga had the gumption to wear Mitarashi's outfit, she could definitely wear Lee's spandex – maybe even something worse. He groaned. "Let's get out of this bat cave, Uchiha-san."

After their mission – a success, obviously – they had met up a few days later. She had managed to wear a festive bright pink spandex number that put Lee and Gai to shame. And quite grudgingly, Sasuke cancelled his evening training with Naruto to take Hinata to a new restaurant that had opened near the Academy. It wasn't until he had walked her halfway to the Hyuuga compound did Hinata turn around and asked in a way that reminded him quite strongly of a playful tiger, "Do you care for another wager, Uchiha-san?" He knew he shouldn't, but he did.

He knew he shouldn't have agreed to that wager. As soon as he had caught sight of Uzumaki Naruto, he had been tempted to turn tail and run – but it was his damned pride that stopped him. The leer on his friend's face made him reconsider. "You can't imagine what a little birdie told me this morning, Sasuke-chan."

Sasuke scowled but made sure to make a mental note to himself: kill Yamanaka Ino. "What is it, dobe?" Sasuke continued walking, hoping and praying that the blond would leave him be.

"I've heard that someone's been making bets with Hinata-chan." Naruto snickered mischievously. "I wonder what that person could have possibly done –"

"I was supposed to walk around half-naked." Sasuke blurted out. From past experiences, it was better to tell Naruto the truth than to let him ruminate. All his hypothesises were usually much worse than the actual fact.

The leer, if possible, grew wider. "So, at which point did the pants come off?" Sasuke shot him a look. Naruto merely smirked back, "Any kunoichi worth her salt would tell a guy to lose the pants, Sasuke-chan." Sasuke couldn't help but blush a little – even demure little Hyuuga Hinata? "So I was right." Damn. Naruto – "So how long were you half-naked?"

"Noon. We met at dawn." Sasuke volunteered more information – again, a rare occurrence.

"So…, what you're saying is that until noon, you had no pants on?" Sasuke twitched. What was with that tone of his? He shrugged. "So what did you two do?"

"…nothing."

A squawk of disbelief. "Nothing?"

"What were you expecting?" Sasuke deadpanned, keeping his tone neutral and his eyes flat. Naruto was such an immature pervert sometimes; he often wondered why he had even made Chuunin.

"I don't know." Came the disappointed reply. "For a girl like Hinata, telling you to strip was like throwing herself at you." Naruto groaned, completely unaware that Sasuke had stopped walking in shock. "I can't believe you didn't do anything!"

"Wait a minute!" Sasuke snapped and quickly sped up to catch up to the blond. "What are you talking about?"

Naruto rolled his eyes condescendingly, "Honestly, Sasuke. And people thought you were a genius. She's obviously interested. I think you should be happy – it's not like she's ugly or anything, and besides…"

From across the street, he spotted Hinata walking along with her old teammates – an Inuzuka and an Aburame. Ignoring Naruto completely, Sasuke called out, "Hey, Hyuuga." Hinata looked up and met his eyes. "Care for a wager?" She smiled.

CONTEXT: Anko is a telemarketer...and she's called the Hyuuga Residence.

WORDS: vacuum, taxes, baseball bat, barbie, tornado

QUOTES:

1. "Did you just...?" "You bet I did."

2. "I'm going to tell father you're pregnant with a deadbeat's baby if you don't let me!"

3. "I'm sure Neji would be interested in a blow up sex doll of that kunoichi from that show...what was her name?"

4. "Stop coming onto my father!"

5. "So anyways, when I was ten, I tried to flush my hamster down the toilet, but - oh right, I'm rambling. What was I doing again?"