The Hot Shot's return
Summary: Okay…put simply, it has romance, and a bit of humor. Eight years after graduating from Shohoku, Sakuragi's still not popped the question of marriage for Haruko…worse, Rukawa's back.
A/N: The prologue's here! Contrary to what the summary implies, this fanfic isn't exclusive to Hanamichi and Haruko…it includes some of the Shohoku team as well…and of course, Rukawa! Don't forget to leave a review…
Disclaimer: I do not own Slam Dunk!
PROLOGUE:
There was a screech of rubber against the concrete pavement when a bike turned to a halt before a black cat that had suddenly bounded into its path. The cat's fur seemed to glimmer under the light of the lamppost as its golden eyes stared accusingly at the bike rider who had taken great measures just to avoid running over the animal.
"Ingrate" the rider thought as his dark blue eyes followed the cat's retreat into the shadows. Once again he put his foot against the pedal and began to ride away, seemingly entranced in his own thoughts.
He stopped before a house and rang the doorbell, and bowed low when he was greeted by a kind-faced old woman who smiled at him in welcome. After being bid to enter, he walked slowly through the hallways that seemed so familiar to him after several visits, finally arriving to the room he was looking for.
"I'm coming in," he announced, without waiting for an answer he slid the door open and entered.
At the center of the room sat his host, behind a small table laden with tea prepared for two. "Koonichiwa, Kaede" his host greeted,
"Anzai-sensei…Konbanwa," Rukawa answered, taking his seat before his mentor.
Anzai-sensei began to pour the tea while Rukawa stared grimly at him in mute observation. As his coach bid him to drink the tea, he began to relax…the surroundings were peaceful and he enjoyed the quiet serenity that surrounded his coach's house.
The silence need not last, for as soon as they began sipping their tea, Coach Anzai began to notice the tension loosen from one of his most talented trainees. "Rukawa, is their something bothering you?"
Rukawa put his cup down and straightened. His black uniform was stiff and buttoned up to his neck, and he looked as though he had just gotten a hair cut. There was a look of apprehension in his eyes when he placed a rectangular black box before his coach.
"I just got my diploma, today was our graduation…" Rukawa explained. No discernable emotion could be read in his dark blue eyes as he stared at his mentor in waiting,
"I see…" Anzai remarked, "I suppose you're finally going to America…"
"I am," he answered, "But I'm pursuing another profession…my parents want me to have a stable source of income rather than go after something as fleeting as athletics,"
Coach Anzai continued to sip his tea in silence, and putting his cup down he observed his student. It seemed Rukawa had already made his decision and would not be dissuaded, but the coach still had to know if his Ace player still had it in him to give up the basketball profession.
As though knowing his mentor's questioning thoughts without being told, Rukawa immediately intercepted them before they could be asked. "I'll go to University in America, but I'll be taking on a basketball scholarship,"
"What are you taking then?" The coach asked, curious at to what other interests Rukawa had other than basketball,
"Medicine,"
Surprise was evident on Coach Anzai's face, but he steadied his gaze and looked at his student, "Are you sure? Medicine in America is rather advanced, you might not be able to concentrate on your studies and maintain your basketball scholarship at the same time,"
"I can try," Rukawa answered determinedly, "But if I don't, I could get a job and quit basketball for the moment until I finish my course,"
Anzai nodded absently,
"I'll be leaving tonight, sensei, I just came to tell you that the team was having a party in celebration of our graduation…they've asked you to come," Rukawa said, as he began to stand up,
"I wish you all the luck" the coach answered,
The tall raven haired boy left afterwards, leaving the coach to wonder how someone with such talent as Rukawa could give up the profession that not only suited him, but one that he also loved.
After leaving the Anzai residence, Rukawa found himself at a basketball court, looking at the ring. Suddenly, he felt someone tugging at his uniform and looked down to see a small girl, not more than ten years old staring up at him.
"Ne, Oni-chan, what are you doing here?" she asked curiously, undaunted by the fierce-looking gaze she received from him, "Do you play basketball?"
Rukawa nodded silently. The girl was clutching a basketball in one of her small arms, looking awkward with it.
Noticing his gaze was fixated on the ball in her arms, she smiled. "Would you like to borrow it? I'm waiting for my other Oni-chan to arrive, so you could use it while he's not here" she said, holding out the ball to him.
Rukawa took it without a word. He positioned himself before the hoop, and made a jump shot. The ball made a perfect arc and landed at the center of the hoop, making it bounce as it landed at the court.
The girl ran after it, and tossed it clumsily back to Rukawa, "You're a good player, Oni-chan…almost as good as my other Oni-chan," she smiled, "He says that because he's so good, the only other person who could come close to beating him would be Rukawa of Shohoku,"
Rukawa could feel a small tug at his lips, "She doesn't know who I am," he thought, as he observed the young girl before him. She seemed familiar, but he dismissed it. "All young girls look the same" he reasoned,
The sound of a passing airplane ended his little practice, and he began to walk away, the girl followed him. "Ne, Oni-chan…will you be practicing basketball here more often? My other Oni-chan may like to fight with you…"
Rukawa's grim expression was suppressed when he saw the anticipating look in the girl's eyes.
"Will you play again?" she asked,
The question caught him off guard, and he looked closely at the girl, thinking she might be some sort of apparition reminding him of what he would be giving up once he took up Medicine. The girl's eyes never wavered, even as he got on his bike and prepared to leave,
"I don't know…" he answered, as he pedalled away to catch his flight.
Chapter 1
News
"Haruko-chan! I've got news for you!"
Haruko Akagi sat straight in her chair as she turned to see who had bounded into her office, uncaring of the tired patients who hushed him for silence. "Sakuragi-kun, be quiet, onegai-shimasu, my patients need rest"
"Gomen," Sakuragi answered, speaking in hushed tones but giving killer looks at those who had shushed him.
Haruko sighed when her patients looked away. "Eight years, and he still has that killer look with him…" she thought as she bid Sakuragi to go with her to a less crowded part of the nurse's office she stayed in to avoid disturbing her patients.
"Nurse Akagi!" someone called as the door to her office slid open, "Takeda scraped his knee during soccer practice, its bleeding bad…"
Haruko sighed, "All right, have him sit down and I'll tend to him,"
She helped the student carry Takeda's limping body to the chair that Sakuragi occupied. He seemed unwilling to give it up. Haruko coughed to make it obvious,
"oh, sorry…" he muttered as he vacated the chair and allowed Haruko to tend to Takeda and his scraped knee.
After treating her patient, she finally focused he attention on Hanamichi Sakuragi who seemed eager to tell her whatever news he may have with him. "all right, Sakuragi-kun, I'm all ears, what's this big news your so eager to tell me about?"
Sakuragi smiled and tossed her a newspaper, "Open page eleven,"
Haruko followed, and found the page, scanning the articles until she found the one that she believed was the reason why Sakuragi seemed ecstatic, "My God!" she gasped, as she continued to read the article, "Sakuragi, this is amazing!"
"Yeah, could you believe it?"
Haruko continued to read on. The article was on a former team mate on the Shohoku basketball team back in high school, and her heart beat wildly with each sentence she read, "Japan's former basketball rookie is medicine's most promising intern" she read the title, as she looked at Rukawa's picture in the paper.
Sakuragi was still smiling, though she couldn't quite understand why Rukawa's success would please him—they had always been rivals.
Rukawa's research and study on new therapy processes and techniques for weak respiratory capacity in University had managed to gain distinction and was already being applied by some prominent doctors in the US. He had just taken his exams for his doctor's license, but there had already been rumors that he was offered a position as Medical Representative in a very prominent company dealing in Medicine.
The paper added some of Rukawa's comments…mainly composing of "Shut up! Ahou!"'s and "leave me alone"'s. There was one comment from a known doctor, remarking on his attitude, "The guy's one hell of a bastard…but he's got the talent to make him seem like the Archangel of Medicine,"
She closed the newspaper and smiled at her long-time friend, "Sakuragi-kun, I'm glad you finally are happy for Rukawa, you've always been such great rivals…I think its gonna be a great chance for you to make up at our grand alumni reunion,"
Sakuragi's face fell, "What are you talking about?"
Haruko was puzzled, "Isnt this about Rukawa?"
"I was talking about this," he said, pointing at an ad below the article on Rukawa and, "Could you believe it? There's an all-you-can-eat night at Uozumi's restaurant!"
Haruko almost fell from her seat, as a large bead of sweat fell from her fore and her face contorted in a weak grin, "Sorry, I read the wrong article…"
"So that's why you took so long…I was beginning to wonder if an all-you-can-eat night at Uozumi's is really that big a matter that it took time to sink in," Sakuragi said aloud, as he took the newspaper and began to read,
Haruko watched awkwardly as she saw the redhead's face begin to transform from a laughing happy-go-lucky average ordinary guy to a red-haired demon, "THAT DARN STUPID KITSUNE! I BET HE WROTE THIS ARTICLE HIMSELF AND PAID THE NEWSPAPER, WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS? LOOK… HE STILL HAS THAT FOXY LOOK ON HIS FACE!"
Haruko sighed, as she watched Sakuragi rant and tear at the article, "So much for peace between those two…talk about wishful thinking,"
…………………………….
Akira Sendoh put the newspaper down and grinned after reading the article on Rukawa, "So Rukawa's gone and become a doctor, eh," he said to himself, "I wonder if he could still shoot some hoops…"
As he went back to remembering the old days, his eyes came to glance at a small ad at the bottom of the article, "Hoo-hah! An all you can eat night at Uozumi's!"
………………………….
Uozumi had read the article and was pleased to find out that Rukawa had become a success, just like he was. His restaurant was booming, and he somehow found it a strange coincidence that Rukawa's article was directly above his ad for an all you can eat night.
"It's really nice to know that people you used to know have become famous," Uozumi smiled, as he chopped at his ingredients and yelled at the chefs under his command.
"Hey boss," a waiter called as he got into the kitchen, "Someone's asked to see you,"
"I'm busy,"
"But boss, it's Professor Akagi…"
Uozumi sighed and called for another chef to take his place at chopping ingredients and got out to greet his former rival. "Hey Akagi, what brings you here?"
Akagi looked up from drinking his iced tea and eyed the apron on Uozumi, "kiss the cook? Never thought you'd be the kind to wear such things…" he laughed,
"It's from the wife," Uozumi reddened and tore off the apron on him, as he sat down and ordered his staff to bring him some tea. "How's school?"
"Not much, summer's coming in three months and already the students are planning their vacations…" Akagi muttered, "By the way, how's your wife?"
"The missus is doing quite well," Uozumi answered, slightly reddening at the mention of his new bride. "She's been working hard at promoting our newest branch just across town,"
"I've never quite believed you were the marrying type, Uozumi" Akagi remarked, noticing the pride in Uozumi's voice when he talked about his wife,
"How about you? Any plans on getting married yet?"
"None at all…but Haruko's pestering me about it already, she believes I'm already too old to stay alone and she insists on staying at my apartment until I find myself a wife!"
Uozumi chuckled, "I see nothing wrong with that…"
"Nothing's wrong with Haruko being there…its that red-haired shadow that follows her around!" Akagi grumbled, slamming the glass of iced tea he had on the table, "He goes there everyday and messes around with my papers and once he even had the nerve to call me "Gorilla" in front of my students when he went with Haruko to the University!"
Uozumi roared, "it seems that red-head admirer of Haruko's still not popped the question yet?"
"I don't meddle in their affairs, especially that of the ahou's"
"But you don't mind having that 'ahou' as your brother-in-law?" Uozumi piqued,
Akagi was sceptical, "Like I said, I don't meddle in their affairs, whether he does become my brother-in-law or not, is yet to be seen"
"You think Rukawa's coming back?" Uozumi asked, for a quick change of topics.
"Yup, he is…I went to visit Coach Anzai this afternoon and learned that he'd be staying over at their place for the time being,"
"Does the team know about it?"
"Not yet, I'm planning to let them find out for themselves" Akagi explained, "But I don't think that the 'ahou' is going to be that pleased,"
Uozumi smiled, "It'll give him some competition, that way he'll get to propose to your sister,"
Akagi's expression dimmed. "I'm not so sure, Sakuragi may be pressed into proposing to Haruko, but he's not the problem," he said, looking grimmer by the second, "I'm not so sure about Haruko…"
Uozumi seemed to understand, and made haste to change the conversation, "By the way, I heard you're having a grand alumni reunion, which means you'll get the chance to meet up with old schoolmates, right?" Uozumi asked, while ordering for another glass of iced tea.
Akagi smiled, "Yeah, it would be great to have to see the old team again…"
"Our school is having a reunion as well," Uozumi mused.
Akagi nodded, and suddenly perked, "By the way…when's the all-you-can-eat night?"
…………………………..
"Damn you Takamiya! What the heck were you thinking when you ate those snacks!" Yohei Mito grumbled aloud, as he almost went berserk with the inventory report he had in his hand.
"Calm down, Yohei" Takamiya soothed while munching at his potato chips, "These expired just yesterday, we can't sell 'em now…"
"he's got a point," Okusu seconded, ruffling his own blonde hair in exasperation, "Besides, Noma's gone and bought some new stuff we can sell, so they can be part of this months inventory…"
"Sure, sure…as soon as Noma gets back, I have to start on a new inventory…this sucks!" Yohei muttered, "we could have sold those expired goods for half-price…just to increase capital or something,"
"Don't be so uptight Yohei, our grocery is doing quite well…we're opening our third branch soon," Takamiya smiled, as he munched on expired potato chips.
The door to the grocery opened and a moustached man entered, "Hey guys!" Noma greeted, "The truck is outside with the stuff, wanna help unload 'em?"
"Why not, that way we can close early for the evening…" Okusu answered, as the other three boys followed suit.
"Hey, have you guys read the news lately?" Noma asked as he handed a box of snacks to Yohei from the truck.
"Oh, about the all-you-can-eat night at Uozumi's?" Takamiya asked, still preoccupied with munching his chips.
"Nah, not quite…it was about old Kitsune," Noma explained,
Okusu perked, "You mean Rukawa? I haven't heard about him for ages since he went to Africa or something, how tan do you think he is now from all the sunlight?"
"It was America, baka," Yohei chuckled, "I read the article about him, he's done quite well"
They silenced for a while as they finished unloading and closed the grocery store. All four boys gazed lovingly at their "Three Stooges Grocery" and smiled,
"It's amazing how eight years of hard work has earned us," Yohei said proudly, looking at the neon light of their grocery store, and taking off the tag on his shirt with 'General Manager' printed on it.
"yeah," the boys answered in chorus.
"Too bad Sakuragi's not in with the partnership," Okusu sighed,
"He's still our pal, but he's a basketball coach now…and we've been quite busy preparing to open our next branch to visit him," Noma said,
Takamiya began to change the subject, "Yohei, you mentioned something about Rukawa, right?"
"Yeah, I did, he's some sort of doctor right now…"
Okusu began to be pensive, "I think he may be coming back for the reunion…"
Noma brooded, "I wonder if Haruko thought of the possibility…"
"What about Sakuragi?" Takamiya asked,
There was a moment of eerie silence,
Followed by a chuckle, and finally…a raucous sound of laughter, "Ready the popcorn boys, 'coz its gonna be one heck of a drama we're going to be watching when it comes to the Sakuragi-Haruko-Rukawa love triangle!" Yohei announced,