couldn't see her screen. Probably irrational, but still... Since Sakura was still engrossed in whatever she was watching, though, she wouldn't be able to see Tenten screen anyways.

Tenten checked her friend list out of habit, even though her static put their sessions on hold for the next month or so. She perked up when she realized that even though CL hadn't logged back in, Spin was on.

[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: Hey!
[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: long time no see stranger
[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: I thought you were busy with exams :)
[Whisper] Spinfan96: Hello
[Whisper] Spinfan96: I am on track with my revision
[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: lmao not accusing you of anything
[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: Just surprised to see you online
[Whisper] Spinfan96: It has been an... unsettling day
[Whisper] Spinfan96: Shall we do a mission?
[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: Nah
[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: I'm in the mood to beat somebody up

[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: I, too, had an unsettling day
[Whisper] Spinfan96: Sparring it is, then
[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: You're on

As they made their way to the training ground, Neji wondered what had occurred to make Haruno so irritable. Perhaps her roommate is rubbing off on her. Unfortunate that my attempt at comradery with Higurashi failed this afternoon. I'll have to think of another way to keep tabs on Hinata-sama this summer. When they arrived at the training ground, Neji pulled his attention back to the game and let Haruno pick the training course. He raised an eyebrow when she chose an extremely hard, "stay alive against endless enemy waves" challenge, though.

[Whisper to SharpandPointy] Spinfan96: Are you sure?
[Whisper] SharpandPointy: I'm in a mood
[Whisper] SharpandPointy: What, you're not scared are you?
[Whisper to SharpandPointy] Spinfan96: Of course not.

As he concentrated on the challenge, Neji had to admit that this barrage of violence was good for clearing out his mind. Still, he wasn't doing as much damage as Haruno was. She really does have some anger issues to work out. Her aim got better though. Determined not to lose, he redoubled his efforts.

[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: Whew~
[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: gg
[Whisper] Spinfan96: yes, good game
[Whisper] Spinfan96: shall we go again?
[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: lemme just check on my roommate, and then we can go again

"Sakura-chan, do you need anything?"

Obviously still immersed in her video, it took Sakura a minute to look up. Only then did Tenten notice that her eyes were red and swollen. Shocked, Tenten sat down on her bed and wrapped her into another bear hug.

"I'm fine," Sakura protested through a clogged nose. Still, she patted Tenten on the back in return. "I'm just watching the video and it's making me all sentimental, that's all."

"If you say so," Tenten worried, but Sakura pushed her off the bed. She shooed Tenten away gently and firmly, and Tenten realized that she'd left Spin waiting in-game for too long.

[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: Sorry, my roommate's having a bit of a hard time recently.
[Whisper] SharpandPointy: shall we continue?

Neji frowned at the chat. Haruno must be talking about Higurashi. My information is that the Suna girl isn't there that often, and I haven't heard anything about Hinata-sama. Was the injury serious? Perhaps I should have insisted on staying.

[Whisper to SharpandPointy] Spinfan96: yes

[Whisper to SharpandPointy] Spinfan96: By the by, I hope your roommate's pain isn't serious?
[Whisper] SharpandPointy: hmm?
[Whisper] SharpandPointy: she's OK
[Whisper] SharpandPointy: I think
[Whisper] SharpandPointy: It's hard to tell with heart pain, you know?

That can't be right. Higurashi's as clear as glass with her emotions, and the injury was to her posterior, not her heart. Could it be... Hinata-sama? Neji ignored his conscience, which insisted on reminding him of the time she'd come to find him in the dorms. I must discover evidence of Haruno's perfidy. Hinata-sama will thank me for this someday.

[Whisper to SharpandPointy] Spinfan96: Don't worry too much about it
[Whisper to SharpandPointy] Spinfan96: Fate has a plan
[Whisper to SharpandPointy] Spinfan96: Just give it some time and space to do its work
[Whisper] SharpandPointy: Yeah, you're right
[Whisper to Spinfan96] SharpandPointy: Another round?
[Whisper] Spinfan96: Indeed.

The two continued gaming together, totally unaware of the beautiful misunderstanding that had just been perpetuated.

(; ω ; )ヾ('∀'* )

"Hey, hey, Sasuke, you idiot!" Naruto barked as he came into the room, laptop in hand, and saw Sasuke staring at a screen, "At least try to remember that you're recovering from a concussion, geez!"

"It was just a few minutes, don't overreact," Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto's overdramatics, but he shut his laptop anyways. "Did you get it set up?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't easy to hack Way. The original programmers knew what they were doing." Naruto sat down on the hospital bed with him, "Luckily for us, the team responsible for patches didn't. I can see why BLOOM wants another partner involved for Way 2. You'll get an email when Sakura-chan logs in."

"Good," Sasuke nodded, then added, "make sure this vulnerability is patched for our version."

"Yeah, yeah, way ahead of you," Naruto scoffed, then hesitated, "You... don't think we should slow down, you know, with you in the hospital and the game-"

"Don't even think about it, idiot," Sasuke cut him off, "We'll submit that bid, and we'll win."

The scowl Sasuke gave him made Naruto grin, "Damn right we will!"

"Go away," Sasuke tossed a balled-up tissue paper at him.

Ducking, Naruto nevertheless obligingly got up and walked towards the door, "Alright, alright, I'll leave you to whatever it was you were doing." His suggestive eyebrow wiggle implied he'd known exactly what Sasuke had been doing right before he walked in.

"Idiot," Sasuke muttered quietly as the door closed behind Naruto. Still, he felt the tips of his ears go red \ as he opened the page he'd just been looking at and hit refresh again.

The title card for their video flashed across the screen, and the number of views didn't change in the five minutes he'd been talking to Naruto, even though he'd reloaded the screen several times. He had been watching as the number slowly ticked up in the past few days. Sakura had reuploaded the video publicly to the forums for the contest, so only the two of them had this private link that he'd originally used to share the video with her. I guess since I uploaded the video, it must not count my views... then...

Sasuke couldn't help himself, and rubbed his thumb over the screen when Chibi Sakura's teary face appeared. Why in the world have you watched this video fifty times in the past few days?

( ^ ___ ^ )

AN: FINALLY~

I know, I know, Author-san finally comes back and this is what we get? A 4K word equivalent of the 30 second video montage and two scenes from Episode 10? Well yes, but I wanted to luxuriate in that monologue. Thank you to all of you who've reached out with no judgement to check in on my health and well-being - yes I am absolutely fine, just swamped with life stuff and chasing down a few other plot buns (my first gift fics, and uhm *coughreallysmuttysmutcough*). As I've said before, either I, my descendant, or my ghost is going to finish this fic. Honestly mostly I struggled with the NejiTen scenes in this one - plotting LScore left writing LScore some poorly thoughtout plotlines, but I guess that's inevitable when your outline is 70 pages long. Butbutbut guys, you know what comes next chapter?

THE SCENE.

Yeah, it's gon be goooood. I've already started writing, I'm so excited. This chapter was produced with no Beta, so please go easy on me, lol. I will finish replying to comments in the next 24 that I've woefully neglected (again, sorry and thank you to everyone who've left them - comments really are author crack). As always, comments, reviews, favs, kudos, bookmarks, and BRIDGES TO NOWHERE are always make my day. See you soon~