Tennis Maelstrom

This was an idea I had after I started watching Prince of Tennis again. This story is inspired by the story "Tennis No Jutsu" by ZMiDnIgHtSuNz. Please give it a read. Its really good.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 2:

(Next Morning)

"RISE AND SHINE! Wakey wakey kiddos!" Nanjiroh's loud shout echoed throughout the house.

Poor Naruto was startled by the loud wake-up call and promptly fell off his bed. Ryoma on the other hand was used to this and quietly got up.

"Tch. Baka-Oyaji…" Quiet yet annoyed.

After their morning duties and a nice breakfast, they split up. Nanjiroh and Naruto headed to the tennis court while Ryoma headed towards Gakino Gizaka garden for the tournament.

(With Nanjiroh and Naruto)

"Alright then. Let's start the Echizen Tennis Crash Course. First I'll teach you about the various grips to use. They are the Eastern Backhand Grip, Continental Grip, Eastern Forehand Grip, Semi-Western Forehand Grip, Western Forehand Grip, Double-Handed Forehand Grip, Semi-Western Backhand Grip, Western Backhand Grip, Double-Handed Backhand Grip…."

He showed Naruto the grips as he named them. It didn't take long for Naruto to memorize them. As a ninja, he had been trained to observe and memorize. He also memorized the different stances Nanjiroh-Ojisan showed him. He also learned all the rules. It didn't take him long to learn the basics properly.

Nanjiroh was astounded. He had never seen anybody learn that fast. It was unreal! Even his son, Ryoma who is hailed as a genius in tennis didn't learn the basics so quickly! But the rate at which Naruto learns was truly mind boggling!

Recomposing himself Nanjiroh continued.

"Well done brat. I didn't think you'll learn this fast. Now let's put your knowledge to the test shall we? We'll have a short, single game practice match." Nanjiroh offered. He wanted to test the kid. He wanted to see whether Naruto will be able to implement his newly learned basics in a match.

Naruto quickly understood Nanjiroh's intentions and gave an excited grin.

"Lets do this Ojisan!"

"Naruto you serve first. Since this is an unofficial 1 game match, we'll alternate the serve after every four points."

"Okay~" Naruto chirped. He was very excited for his first match.

Both of them took their positions and began. Naruto tossed the ball high up in the air and hit it, watching as it headed towards Nanjiroh's court.

*BAM*

The ball slammed on Nanjiroh's side. It didn't even bounce. It just kept drilling into the ground. Only after a minute or so did it stop spinning. By then it was literally embedded in the court.

"Wahooo! I scored! 15-love!" Naruto started jumping in excitement.

Nanjiroh on the other hand was shocked.

'W-what monstrous strength! His strength prevented the ball from bouncing and forced it to dig into the court. And that serve! Its speed was mind blowing!'

"Whoa kiddo! That's some amazing strength you got there! That speed and power was unreal.." Nanjiroh exclaimed.

'That was amazing strength for him? But it was only about a half of my strength! Man the people of this world must be pretty weak. Still I guess I have to limit myself here to get a good game' Naruto thought.

"Hehehe thanks. But I think I simply tried too hard on that one and got lucky" Naruto explained bashfully. He wasn't really used to getting praised.

Nanjiroh narrowed his eyes but shrugged, filled up the hole with sand and gestured Naruto to continue.

Once more Naruto tossed the ball high and hit it as soon as it started to descend. The ball soared to Nanjiroh's side, fast but much slower than the previous one. It bounced off and headed straight towards the waiting Nanjiroh.

The older Echizen hit the ball back to Naruto who returned it. Their rally continued for some time till Nanjiroh hit a powerful smash.

"15-all" he stated with a smirk.

Naruto frowned. Even in his limited state he was still exceptionally fast and strong. But Nanjiroh-Ojisan was way more skilled than him.

'Speed and strength alone wont help me win this match. What to do?...' But his thoughts were interrupted.

"Oi oi whats the matter kiddo! At this rate you wont even win another point let alone the game. Give up already." Nanjiroh taunted. 'Lets see what you can do kid.'

Naruto smirked in response.

"Heh.. Not a chance ojisan! I never give up! I'll win this no matter what." He shot back.

He served again, this time aiming at the farthest corner of Nanjiroh's side.

"Hoh! Nice try but that won't work"

Nanjiroh returned the ball to the opposite corner and won the point.

"15-30"

Naruto tsked and served again. Nanjiroh returned it once again but this time he was ready. He dashed towards the corner and hit it. He then quickly dashed to the center.

Nanjiroh hit back the ball yet again. He couldn't help but smile.

'He's learning quickly...'

Naruto returned it once again and their rally continued. Suddenly Nanjiroh lobbed the ball and Naruto took that chance to smash it. The ball hit the racket's handle, causing it to fly away from Nanjiroh's hand.

"30-all" Naruto grinned. "How was that ojisan?"

Nanjiroh smirked in return." Tch. Cheeky little brat. Its my serve now."

Both took their positions. Naruto tensed. Ready to return any serve.

Nanjiroh on the other hand appeared relaxed as he got ready to serve. His left foot in front of his right foot, turned so that his toes directly faced the net.

"Naruto, I must say you really are something. To be this good when you just learned how to play. You'll go far kid. But I think I'll give you a little taste of my true tennis." His face then turned serious.

He tossed up the ball high up in the air and jumped a bit. He briefly turned his body in mid air and quickly hit the ball.

The ball raced to Naruto's side of the court. Naruto positioned himself to return the serve but something unexpected happened.

After bouncing, instead of going outwards towards the right, it turned inwards and headed left, towards his face. He was able to dodge it at the last second but the sudden twist left him speechless.

"40-30" Nanjiroh smirked. (Since it is Nanjiroh's serve, his score is said first)

"W-what was that?" Naruto asked, bewildered at what just happened.

"Twist Serve. A special serve that instead of going outwards like a normal serve, goes inwards and heads towards the receiver's face. I will explain the mechanics later." Nanjiroh explained.

Silence.

"Lets continue shall we? Or are you too scared to play." He taunted.

That got a response.

"Grrr hell no! Lets do this!" Naruto once again got in position.

'That serve is good. Yes. But there's must a way to return it. Just like Kakashi Sensei used to say. Look underneath the underneath. Hmmm... maybe... Thats it! I might just have an idea on how to counter it...' Naruto thought.

Nanjiroh once again tossed the ball and served it with a great amount of spin.

Naruto sprang to action. The moment he saw Nanjiroh put so much spin, he jumped back and moved to the left to provide himself more room to play.

'My theory is that by jumping back and creating more space, one can safely return the Twist Serve. Now lets put it to test' Naruto thought as he got ready to return the serve.

But alas. Something unexpected happened again. The ball landed in Naruto's court and bounced. Yes. But instead of bouncing forward and left like a twist serve, it bounced backwards and right and hit the net. The complete opposite of Twist Serve.

Naruto was shocked, while Nanjiroh gave a smug grin.

"Behold, the Reverse Twist. Too bad for you. I won kiddo!"

"Whoa... The ball bounced backwards... I didn't even think that was possible with a serve!" Naruto was in awe of Nanjiroh's superb skills.

Nanjiroh was having his own thoughts. 'He managed to produce a counter for the Twist Serve by just seeing it once. Its a good thing I saw that at the last second and converted it to Reverse Twist. Hehe what a scary brat! But unfortunately for you kiddo, Reverse Twist was created to counter that very same counter of the Twist Serve you just tried to use.'

Nanjiroh turned away and started to walk off.

"You did good Naruto. Extremely good. You've learned the basics completely. Right now all you can do is to get experience and improve your skills. You can also try to create new techniques. You've got great potential kid. Someday you can even be one of the best. But ..."

At this Nanjiroh stopped and half turned. He gave the awed Naruto a smirk.

"Mada mada dane" with that he walked away in the sunset. Mentally praising himself for the cool and awesome exit.

Naruto gazed at Nanjiroh's back in deep thought.

'I lost. I tried to play smart but he outwitted me. He defeated me effortlessly in the end. The loss stings but...'

He ran off towards Nanjiroh and caught up to him. Walking beside him, he finished his thought.

'The loss stung but I had fun today. Tennis is a such a fun game'

Naruto smiled. He'll take this loss as a lesson. He'll train his skills real hard for the next few days till gets to go to Seigaku with Ryoma. It is said that Seigaku's tennis club is really good. One of the best in Japan. Playing against them would be fun.

(Later that night at the Echizen residence)

"Hahahahahahahahahhahaha! I can't believe this! You got disqualified for arriving late just because a girl told you wrong directions. Hahahaha oh my god thats hilarious..." Nanjiroh laughed out.

Naruto barely managed to suppress his laughter.

Ryoma was annoyed at his father's laughter. He had a tick mark on his forehead.

"Tch... Baka-Oyaji. No need to laugh that much." He muttered in annoyance.

Sure he too was annoyed for being disqualified like that. But at least he managed to take out his anger on that pompous 16 year old bully.

Tch. The moron didn't even know the proper grips and tried to act all high and mighty. He even tried to cheat, but lost anyways.

What a loser.

Thankfully Ryoma's mom stopped his father's laughter with her frying pan's help.

"Now now thats enough dear. It wasn't Ryoma's fault so stop aggravating him. And weren't you supposed to teach Naruto tennis today? How did that go?" Ringo asked her husband.

At this Ryoma perked up. He was also curious about Naruto's progress. After all Naruto was younger than him, so technically was his younger brother.

And of course as his older brother it was his responsibility to check on his little brother's progress in tennis. And if possible help him as it was the older brother's duty to help his younger, inexperienced brother. After all he was the older brother..

"You're mentally gloating about being the older brother again aren't you?" Naruto deadpanned at Ryoma.

Apparently Ryoma had taken great pride and joy in finally being an older sibling. Of course he never failed to remind Naruto of this particular fact. He often gloated about it too. In just one day, he managed to gloat a dozen times.

Ryoma looked away. "I don't know what are you talking about. I did not do anything like that."

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"DID TOO!"

"DID NOT!"

"DID TOO!"

"DID TOO!"

"DID NOT!"

Ryoma smirked and Naruto realized his slip up.

"Heh… Mada mada dane Naruto" Ryoma smugly stated.

"Grrr... Why you..." Naruto growled. He was annoyed at being tricked like this. Clearly indicated by his increasingly twitching eyebrow.

"If you two brats are done with your quarreling, can we continue?" Nanjiroh dryly asked.

Both of them turned to see Nanjiroh's will-you-hurry-hell-up-I'm-so-bored face. While Ringo and Nanako simply smiled at them.

Embarrassed, Naruto and Ryoma sat down and quietly ate the food, while Nanjiroh told them about Naruto's training and his amazing physical qualities. Needless to say the Echizen family was impressed. Nanjiroh was a legend even among pro tennis players. To make him use both Twist Serve and Reverse Twist in a minor practice like this was truly an amazing feat, he had only done so with Ryoma before. It clearly proved just how much he believed in Naruto's and Ryoma's potential.

Dinner after that was a quite affair. Done with eating, they all went to sleep.

On his bed, Naruto started to recall the events of the day. Nanjiroh's skills really astounded him today. No matter what he tried, Nanjiroh was always a step ahead. Their match showed him that if he were to limit himself physically, he would have to work on his skills to beat his opponents.

Naruto decided that he would train all his skills, both ninja skills and tennis skills, in the coming few days. He didn't want to beat his opponents with brute force. He wanted to use some cool-ultra-awesome-special moves like Nanjiroh-Ojisan did against him.

Tomorrow he would start his special training.

He couldn't wait to play tennis against all kinds of players.

Beware everyone!

The Maelstrom has learned Tennis. And he aims to be the best.

There it is. The end of Chapter 2. Naruto has learned tennis and is very good at hit. Nowhere near Nanjiroh's level of course. Right now he is about even with Ryoma. Naruto has amazing physical prowess while Ryoma has exceptional technique. This somewhat evens them out.

Next chapter will be their arrival at Seigaku's tennis club. What mayhem will the prince and maelstrom unleash? That remains to be seen. I don't know when it will be posted though. I'm still working on it and college is taking up all my time. But I'll try to update as soon as I can.

Also Nanjiroh's move "Reverse Twist" was something I made by simply reversing the working of Twist Serve. I don't know if such a move actually existed in the anime/manga under another name or not. If yes, oh well. If not, hurray for me :P