A/N: I don't own Prince of Tennis, I do own a scrap of paper though.

Prologue

(From Her Perspective)

I never thought of what would happen in my life. I never did. You know those weird loner types in your school? The ones that have no friends, and listen to all the rock music? That's me. Or what is now me. I was perfectly normal when I was a kid from ages 1-10. I lived in a place near Los Angeles; a place called Orange County. I went to school, and had a few friends. A few. Like not a lot. Like just 2 friends who barely hanged out with you, and were too busy in their own little dreamland to know who you are and didn't even bother to know your name. They called me down-to-earth, and compared to them I was down to earth, they were in the clear deep sky while I was in the dark brown dirt. But they don't matter anymore, it was years ago, actually it's been a decade since I last met them. They probably don't remember me, but I still do, if they did remember me they probably didn't know my name. I still remember theirs, Sarah and Wilma, my two friends who didn't know who I was.

Yet, we were friends, Sarah often invited me to her old whitewashed house and we would lie down in her big backyard under a tall oak tree and stare into the vast blue sky and counting how many leaves fell down. Wilma was another story she was raise in a large family, her small apartment was crowded with her and her 9 siblings. Wilma's father was a cop, and her mother was a stay at home mom, who worked part time in Barnes and Nobles. Whenever I went to her house, I would be given a large helping of whatever they were having for dinner and Wilma would take me to her room (they didn't eat together).

When I was 5, my mom and dad (two archeologists) went to France to unearth stuff from a place in southern France, they sent me to Korea where I lived with my mother's mother (my grandmother) I lived in South Korea's capital Seoul for about 4 years, and then I moved to Nanjing with my grandmother (named Kim, I called her ne-ne Kim or grandmother Kim) because she had to visit her sister Zhong Lu (A/N: omg I named her after my cousin! Lu Lu is going to be mad, oh well she lives like over 1,000 miles from me).

Great Aunt Lu was pretty happy to see me and ne ne. But she was suffering from lung cancer (she liked to smoke) so we ended up staying in China for 2 years. The two years that we stayed in China was pretty good, the Chinese had high expectations for us kids, just like in Korea. And the language barrier was no biggie to me, since they taught Chinese in Korea.

I had good friends, and everyone in the class was polite and kind to me, to them I was the same. We took big field trips in the summer together. And that class-it was like everyone understood each other and we did everything together. It was the same in Korea. Of course everyone had their own friends, but we did many things outside of school as a class. When I turn back to look at the past I can't help but to think I'm lucky to be in the Asian society. Everything went wrong in middle school.

When I was 10, my parents had this weird dream of uniting us back as a family. I said bye to my ne ne and my great aunt. And flew back to the States. We lived in Orange County, but this time for some reason we lived in a smaller house, and my parents weren't as happy as before, they fought about many things, mainly money and me. I after the experiences with my past friends, was friendly to everyone in my class, unfortunately they didn't think the same of me.

They thought my clothes were weird (I still wore my uniform), and shunned me as a class. It got worse in the 7th grade, where all my classes were different and with different people. The only thing I turned to was tennis, not the tennis club in my school, mind you. Actually we never had one to begin with. No, my tennis was smashing a green ball into a brick wall and hitting it with a racket to relieve stress. That was my tennis.

My parents fought more and more, and finally by the time I was 14, they didn't speak to each other. I knew, and they knew that they were going to split up soon.

By the end of the 8th grade, my parents argued so much; my mom was taking anti-depressants and eating them like candy. My dad was drinking a lot with his 'so called' friends and took to whisky everyday.

And I was depressed as heck. I don't even think my parents noticed it at all either. Sometime I just felt like going through my mom's drawers and taking some of her 'happy' pills too. But somehow I always stopped myself everytime. I had a stupid conscience.

Soon, we all came to a conclusion; well my parents did at least. They divorced eachother, and decided to work in separate archeological digs, and what about me well I was cast aside and was forced to stay in Japan and live with some aunt I never knew, who was the older sister of my dad.

As for language? -Don't worry about me not learning Japanese, I'm ¾ Japanese, I said ¾ because my mother is ½ Korean, and ½ +1 is 1 ½? Ok, I don't have the best math in the world. But if your mom is ½ Japanese and your dad is 2/2 Japanese you will end up ¾ Japanese right? I hope my logic is right…

But anyway I knew Japanese my ne ne practiced it with me often and I mostly spoke Japanese along with bits of English to my mom and dad. I was fluent, and my aunt always said I had a 'Tokyo accent'. I moved to Japan on a hot summer day, and my so-called relatives that I never knew came to greet me.

End of Prologue.

Chapter 1

Welcome to Tokyo

"Saki!" a chestnut-haired lady yelled in a not-so-crowded airport, "Saki, come here! Its me your Aunt Emiko!" Waving her hand that held some amateur guides about Japan furiously at a girl that looked around 14.

The girl sighed, and took a picture that showed a brown haired lady who was wearing red lipstick holding a cute Siamese cat, courtesy of her father not to get confused about who was her aunt. She stared intently at the picture and turned to look at her aunt.

Aunt Emiko hadn't changed; she still had the curly soft hair and still wore the same red lipstick (Emiko looks MUCH like Daisuke's mom from DNAngel when she was in college except fatter).

But she had gained some weight. Like a lot. Like 40 pounds. Baby fat? That and eating super rich food.

Saki turned to her aunt, and gave her a small wave. A tiny wave, which had instant effect. Emiko rushed to her niece and gave her a big bear hug.

"Honey, I'm so happy to see you! You do have Takeshi's eyes, you look so much like him." She sighed, "And he said I would never find you, well I found you at first sight! Welcome to Tokyo hun!"

She turned to face her very emo niece and frowned, "Did I say anything wrong? You look kind of pale, was the airplane food that bad? Was it because I said your father's name?! I'm so sorry forgive me!"

The girl blankly turned to her and shrugged, "No. It's just that I'm hungry for dinner."

Emiko gave a very animated sweatdrop. And I thought I did something wrong.

"Where are we going?"

"Hmm?" Saki's 'Auntie' came out from her thoughts, and gazed intently at Saki with her dark brown eyes. And then…

"Oh! You asked why we're still here?"

Saki blinked and replied, "Yea."

"Well, we're waiting for your cousin and your Grandma Hikadori," she turned furiously through the Japanese guides, "I thought I had a picture of them somewhere"-

"Mama!" A girl that was almost the complete replica of Emiko but with short black hair and looked physically fit, waved at them while holding a smoothie filled with thick dark red substance. It looked like a smoothie.

It was a smoothie.

Following her was an old lady, with many wrinkles and a hawk nose, but the thing that stood out from her face, were a pair of eagle grey eyes that were sharp and strict.

Saki guessed that to be her grandma, she didn't look anything like her other ne ne who had a kind look to her face.

No this grandma was one of those old-fashioned ladies who drank a lot of bitter tea and slammed doors like crazy.

The girl's eyes widened when she saw Saki, then she bolted towards Emiko.

"Mama, is this my cousin?" she asked, staring intently at Saki with her large doe eyes. She gently touched Saki's forehead with one of her fingers. "She even looks kinda like me!"

"Yes Gin, I think that is your cousin, why would she be standing right next to Emiko?" a raspy voice said.

Saki turned around to face the owner of that voice, and it was none other than Grandma Hikadori.

The old lady stared intently at her, "Yes, I'm your real ne ne (in China you're only supposed to call your dad's mother ne ne, Saki calls her mom's mom ne ne). And I'm tired, Emiko let's get the luggage and go."

"But! She's hungry! I thought she and Gin could go and get something to eat and we could get the luggage," Emiko protested.

The old lady gave a fierce glare, but after 5 minutes of Emiko's furious loud-mouthed talking, she gave in. "Loud-mouthed fool," was all she muttered.

Emiko winked at the two girls and gave them 2000 yen (2000 yen is only about 10 bucks), "Have fun girls! And meet us back at the airport entrance on the eastside!" She waved, and grabbed Grandma Hikadori's hand and started dragging the old lady to the luggage section.

Gin turned to her cousin, "What do you want to eat?" she asked.

Saki shrugged, "Anything I guess, I'll have what you have."

"Well I just got this drink," Gin said looking at her smoothie, she turned her attention back to Saki. "So I don't really care, I'm not hungry, but everyone says the udon noodle shop in the airport is pretty good.

So udon noodles?"

Saki nodded, "Sure."

Gin grinned, "I thought you would have a American taste for hamburgers and that like."

Saki smiled, and explained, "I lived in China and Korea for 10 years of my life, so I still have an Asian sense of taste."

"Great, so race you there?" Gin said, and pointed to the udon restaurant on the top floor (which was the third floor) in the airport.

"Sure." And both girls were off.

Saki bolted towards the escalators since she didn't know where the elevator or stairs were. She was on of those people who actually liked climbing stairs.

Gin though took the elevator and won because the elevator was really close to the restaurant. And the escalators were on the opposite side of the restaurant.

Ok think of a large oval and a smaller oval inside the large one. And think of the escalator going up from the small oval into the space between the small and large ovals.

Anyways back to the story---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You won," Saki panted and sat on the floor.

"Yep, but it isn't fair because the elevator was wayyyyyy closer to the udon shop," Gin said, then pulled Saki up to her feet and they entered the noodle shop.

Somehow they both ordered egg udon, but Saki had spicy egg udon. Then they sat down in a small table in the corner that had large clear glass glazed windows on both sides.

"Wow, Japan's so pretty. There's so many skyscrapers and lights!" Saki said, after taking her first bite of the egg udon.

"Mmm," Gin said, and put the chopsticks lazily into her mouth and had a thoughtful expression and then asked, "From where you came from, did you not have a lot of buildings? Was it a rural area?"

Saki laughed, "No, it had a population of over 2 million people, but we had a lot of earthquakes, so most of our buildings barely reached over 20 floors."

"Oh. It was Los Angeles in the West Coast of America right?"

"Yep."

Gin's mouth formed an 'o' and suddenly she threw Saki another question, "Saki can I call you onee-san?"

"Hmm?" Saki looked at her cousin that sat opposite of her from the table. Gin looked really happy and had a pure grin on her face, she looked really innocent.

It would break her heart to say no.

"Sure," Saki replied, she felt really irritated all of a sudden; she could have just called me that in the first place I wouldn't have care. She thought to herself.

Gin beamed and looked at her watch, "I think we should go now, Grams will be mad at us and complain to Mama. And Mama already took the burden of letting us eat out by ourselves."

"Grams?"

"Grandma Hikadori."

"Yeah, I know but, she'll allow you to call her that?"

Gin smiled, "She actually does, but that's the only word she'll allow you to call her other than Grandma Hikadori."

"That sounds, um."

"Weird? Get used to it, our family is pretty hectic. Come on, let's go!" Gin finished the last of her smoothie, paid the bill and had 300 yen leftover, then both she and Saki made a hasty retreat to the entrance of the airport.

When they got there, Grandma Hikadori or 'Grams' and Emiko were already there.

"Its about time," the old lady grumbled, and headed toward the parking lot.

"Girls can you help me with the luggage?" asked Emiko after Gin gave her the 300-yen. Emiko was seriously struggling with the 3 big bags filled with stuff from the states.

It had taken her a long time to get them to the entrance from the baggage section, and Grams was no help at all.

"Yeah sure." Both girls replied, and all three of them headed out each carrying a bag each.

They soon got to a silver car and Grams was waiting outside mumbling about how cold her feet were, even though it was still sunny outside.

They packed up all the stuff, and went into the car, and Emiko turned on the ignition and started to drive on the main highway.

Saki stared outside if was almost sunset and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, (A/N: I have no clue when they bloom so bare with me here!) almost to the point where the pink leaves would fall off, and wouldn't appear until next spring.

"You like them too huh?"

"Huh?" Saki stared at Gin who had broken her chain of thought, and smiled, replying in a quiet voice, "Yeah, the sakura blossoms are really pretty."

Gin nodded and slouched in the seat, "They are so pretty, and the best thing is they're everywhere in Tokyo, there's a saying that goes, 'Your lover will guide you through your future, but the sakura blossoms will give you a future.' Kind of makes sense huh? For you I mean, you just came to Japan, so maybe the cherry blossoms will lead you to your future, onee-san."

Saki grinned maybe it was time to start a new life for herself. And Japan just might do it for her.

They arrived home at around 7'o clock at night. And Emiko made herself a bowl of instant ramen, while she was eating, Gin asked her a very random question.

"Mama?"

"Yes?"

"Which school is she going to? She's going to Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku with me right mama?"

"No," Emiko glanced at Saki and smiled, "She's going to another school because Takeshi (Saki's father) enrolled her in different one, top-rate of course, but a different school. Don't worry its pretty good."

"Wouldn't it be better if I went to the same school as Gin?" asked Saki, "It would be easier."

Emiko smiled, "It would, but there's no hassle because you both take the bus, and it stops at every middle school."

After she finished eating, everyone started to help Saki with her unpacking and showed her where she the guest bedroom which was now her.

Then they all got ready for bed.

Well not everyone, Emiko was reading a diet magazine, and Gin was getting ready for school tomorrow (A/N: I think they do this in Japan too like they do in China, they go to school for part of the day in the summer to review lessons, if they don't, lets pretend. Yes, pretend they do that).

Saki sighed she would have to get use to the time difference and tried to fall asleep. Tomorrow was Monday; she had set her alarm to 6:30 in the morning.

She confided in herself that she was going to wake up at that time. She was going to wake up, yeah right.

She was Ito Saki (remember Japanese names go last name first then first name last), ruler of the turtles, and someone who didn't know which school she was going to.

But she could deal with that tomorrow, who was she kidding?

A/N: Yea, I know that I know like nothing about the Japanese culture. I don't think the bed they sleep on the floor is called a futon, oh well. I based this mostly off what they do in China because I'm Chinese, and because my cousins live in China, well some of them do. And when I go visit them in the summer, they sure review for like 2 hours in class in the summer everyday except weekends. --

I live in the United States of America, I'm not going to mention where, but I think I gave out too much information on my cousin. DX

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