Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and I probably never will. I only own my imagination.

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Hyuuga Hinata was extremely confused, as she had just been told that Uchiha Sasuke was waiting to speak with her. She could not for the life of her figure out why he would want to speak with her, considering she could probably count on one hand the number of times they had spoken to each other.

But, despite her confusion, she knew that it didn’t do much good to refuse an Uchiha anything — even if you are a Hyuuga and thus somewhat higher in status. Not to mention her father would be Not Happy, a mood that he trademarked.

And so she told the butler to ask Sasuke to “kindly, please wait”, and quickly changed out of her everyday clothes and into a kimono suitable to meet the younger son of the head of the Uchiha clan in.

Feeling satisfied that her appearance could in no way offend him, she left to go greet him. He was sitting stiffly in a chair, obviously looking quite uncomfortable as he waited. Hinata almost wanted to giggle — she had never seen Uchiha Sasuke uncomfortable.

“Konnichiwa, Uchiha Sasuke,” she said, in her demure and quiet voice, offering him a polite smile in order to hide her confusion. “You wished to speak with me?”

Sasuke nodded curtly, and then spoke, “Yes,” he said. “I… uhh, I need your help.”

Hinata attempted to hide her surprise at Uchiha Sasuke, top of her class, number one rookie, needing her help, behind her polite mask. As it was, she had to raise her eyebrows. “Wh-what do you need my help with?” she asked, a note of trepidation in her voice.

Sasuke frowned, and then said, rather bluntly, “I want you to teach me how to like Naruto.”

Hinata blushed scarlet. “I-I-I d-didn’t know you were i-into that sort of thing, S-Sasuke,” she stuttered. “I-I mean, I th-though you had a girlfriend, b-but I mean…”

After a minute, Sasuke eventually understood what she was babbling about. “That’s not what I mean,” he said, thinking that this could possibly be more trouble than he had originally thought.

“O-oh,” Hinata said, totally embarrassed now. “Oh, I just thought you meant-“

“I know perfectly well what you thought I meant,” Sasuke cut her off. “Tsunade-sama’s put us on probation, because we can’t get along and are endangering our missions. And if we simply can’t get along, she says she’ll reassign us.”

“Oh,” Hinata said, feeling infinitely gladder it wasn’t what she had at first assumed it was. “I see. Umm, well, I don’t know how much good I’d be, I mean, I’m not a very good teacher, and I have no idea what I’d teach you about this anyways…”

Sasuke sighed. “If you do this, I’ll put in a good word with Naruto for you, alright?” he said. Hinata beamed at him.

“Would you really?” she asked, her face lighting up. “I will definitely try my hardest, I swear to you!”

Sasuke sighed as he agreed to coming by in two days, thinking that this was definitely more trouble than it was worth. When he left, Hinata beamed at him and said goodbye, looking flushed and excited as she waved shyly. But she didn’t look as shy as she usually did — instead, for a second, she looked alive and excited. Sasuke, as per his usual habit, didn’t wave back.

He continued on the way back, somewhat slowly, taking his time. Because of this, he was nearly late for dinner. His mother admonished him for this, and bid him wash his hands; his father just frowned in disapproval.

The family of four sat down at the table to eat. They made small talk for a while, talking about Itachi’s new ANBU recruits he had the misfortune to train, the clan business, police business, and whatever the neighborhood gossip currently was.

And then, came the question Sasuke had hoped wouldn’t come.

“So Sasuke, where were you all day?” his mother asked. His father looked interested, and for a second Sasuke felt flattered that his father was interested in his life. Just for a second. Then a wave of panic ran through him.

He struggled to think up an answer.

But, of course, Itachi beat him to it. “He went to see Hyuuga Hinata — you know, the one that’s in his class?” He gave his brother a ‘let’s-see-you-get-out-of-this-one’ look.

Sasuke shot his brother a glare, as his father asked. “Oh, really? I didn’t know you two were friends?”

“We’re not,” Sasuke said, irritably. “She’s, uhh… teaching me… to play, uhh… Go.”

Itachi sent him a very smug look — Sasuke shot another glare his brother’s way.

Sasuke’s father raised his eyebrows, choosing not to comment on the antagonizing glances shooting back and forth between his sons. “I didn’t know Hyuuga Hinata knew how to play Go,” he said, obviously quite interested.

“Uhm, yeah,” Sasuke said, quickly trying to think of how to stay one step ahead of his father in case Hinata really didn’t know how to play Go. “She mentioned it one day, during training. And I, uhh, said I wanted to learn.”

“I see,” his father said. “Well, that’s good for you, Sasuke.”

Sasuke decided, then and there, that this little arrangement was much, much more trouble than it was worth. Unfortunately, he couldn’t back out now, without sacrificing his dignity explaining to Hinata exactly why.

Definitely more trouble than it was worth.

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