Disclaimer: I do not own Hikaru no Go. Hotta Yumi does, I just play with her world.

Sai's Rebirth: The Shindou Life Chronicles

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Chapter 4

Year 7: Wakajishisen part 1

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Sai bounced impatiently for the elevator doors to open, he had been looking forward to this ever since he heard about it. The Wakajishisen. A chance to play Pro players, Sai was just bursting with excitement. While Sai's enthusiasm for the game was such that he could even enjoy playing novices, the chance at a true challenge made the cheerful boy positively giddy. Finally, he reached his floor and the doors slid open.

Walking into the room, looked around and spotted his insei friends. He also spied some of the young pros, some of them he had read about. As he walked into the room and took in the sights he was filled with anticipation, and…nostalgia? Sai's eyebrows furrowed in concentration. That didn't make sense, how could he feel nostalgic about an event that he was experiencing for the first time? Seijiro had spotted Sai and was calling him over. Shaking the confusing thoughts from his head, he made his way over to his friend.

"Good Morning!" Sai said cheerfully, as he practically bounded over.

Seijiro and Oki smiled at their friends antics.

"Excited much?" Seijiro asked, amused.

Sai's eyes lit up. "Yeah! Did you see Kobayashi-2 dan? I read that he is the most promising of the new players! The only person to rise to 2-dan sooner was Akira-'Niichan! And..."

"Akira, as in Touya Akira? You know Touya Akira?" Seijiro asked surprised.

"Yeah, he's 'Niichan's best friend! He plays with me at least once a week! I'm down to 2 stone handicap now!" Sai boasted.

Seijiro looked at his friend in amazement. Why had he never met Sai before? The Touya family were a good friends of his father. It seemed odd that he would never have had a chance meeting with Sai until recently. He didn't even know that Akira-'Niisan had any friends.

Seijiro was about to ask when he was cut off by the arrival of none other than Touya Akira himself.

Akira gave the two younger boys a warm smile. "Seijiro, Sai, are you excited for your first tournament?"

Sai was practically bursting with excitement. "Yeah! I can't wait Akira-'Niichan! I finally get to play pros who won't hold back." Sai directed a slight pout at Akira.

Akira simply gave a small smile as he patted the pouting child's head, "I'll be playing you seriously soon enough. You are growing pretty quickly."

Seijiro was stunned by the easy comradary that the two had fallen into, Akira-'Niisan was kind to him, but it was a polite kindness. Nothing like what Seijiro was seeing right before him.

It was at that moment that the buzzer went off signaling the players to report to their tables. "Opps, it's time to start." Oki said, he turned to Sai. "Sai, you haven't gotten a chance to see the assignments, but I checked all of ours. You're at table one, your opponent is Muramoto shodan. I'll catch up to you after our games." With that Oki and Seijiro hurried to their assigned boards.

Sai looked up at Akira. "Are you going to watch, Akira-'Niichan?"

Akira gave a slight nod. "I'll be watching Seijiro's game as well, so I'll be splitting my time between you two." Akira said with a small smile.

Sai gave a happy nod in acknowledgement as he bounded over to his own table.

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Muramoto Yuka fidgeted a bit uncomfortably, she was still getting used to the events that Pros were expected to attend, this was her first tournament and she didn't quite know what to expect. She had never been an insei, she had entered the Pro exam as an outsider, and managed to qualify by a hair. Gaining her strength in go salons and on the net, she was mostly self taught and didn't have much exposure to Pros. Although she read 'Weekly Go', it hadn't really prepared her for the life of a Pro. She only hoped she didn't embarrass herself too much, by losing her first match. As she understood it, an insei was a junior Pro, but some of them were good enough to qualify as Pros, but still, she was a Pro now and had to protect her reputation.

Her musings were cut off by the rumble of the chair opposite of her moving. Looking up, she saw the most adorable little boy.

The boy plopped down in the seat and looked up. "Hi! I'm Shindou Sai, your opponent! Nice to meet you!" Sai said, bowing his head a little as he said the last sentence.

Yuka was stunned and took a second to regain her bearings. After a moment of hesitation, she returned the bow. "Muramoto Yuka, nice to meet you." She said, still a little shocked. This little boy was really her opponent?

She opened her mouth to ask a question, but was cut off by the sound of the buzzer to begin. When Sai place the first stone, she looked up into his adorable amethyst eyes. He was such a small little boy, and he would be so disappointed at a loss that she didn't want to crush him. With that decided, she settled into a game of Shidou-Go, and placed the next stone.

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Touya Akira sighed. Muramoto-shodan had made the all too common mistake of underestimating Sai. She had lost the game five moves in, but she probably wouldn't realize it for another ten or twenty. Akira was a little disgusted, he expected the shodan to make a better showing, after all she had entered as an outsider, so that meant she wasn't weak. Sai wouldn't hold it against her that she had underestimated him, but Akira couldn't help but feel a little insulted on Sai's behalf. He remembered a time when people underestimated him because of his age, and it still irritated him.

Moving to watch Seijiro's game, he notice a familiar blond and the entrance way. With an exasperated sigh he made his way over to his friend.

"You're late." Akira said simply.

Hikaru gave a sheepish grin. "Overslept, Sai was supposed to wake me up." He looked up and searched the room, his eyes rested on the small boy.

Akira rolled his eyes. "Only you would depend on a seven year old to make you be on time."

Hikaru sputtered a little. "Hey! I can't help it if I'm a late riser and Sai is an early bird!"

Akira sighed, in some ways Hikaru was more like a child than Sai.

Hikaru looked around a bit, his eyes finally falling on the small amethyst haired child. "How's he doing? Why aren't you watching him?"

Akira let out a sigh. "It's a slaughter. Muramoto shodan began playing a game of shidou-go. She's already lost, but I don't think she sees it yet."

Hikaru winced. "Ouch! That's going to hurt, losing to Sai like that."

"Indeed." Akira nodded. "I was about to watch Seijiro's match. You know, Ogata Seijiro?"

Hikaru perked up. "Ya mean Sai's rival? Sure! I've been meaning to meet the kid." Then Hikaru remembered something and he looked around nervously. "Is HE going to be here?"

It was only though long years of association with Hikaru that he picked up on what the other pro was saying. "I believe that Ogata-san is coming later. He had something to attend to, but he said he would come."

"Great." Hikaru said glumly. "It feels like I just got him off my back about Sai too."

Akira offered a small smile, and patted Hikaru's arm. "Well, you knew that the day would come sometime. It was inevitable, when the name 'Shindou' and 'Sai' were put together."

Hikaru groaned, sure he had known it, but that didn't make it any easier to take. The older Pro had always unnerved him with his intense gaze and frigid mannerisms. He was NOT looking forward to the coming confrontation with the Juudan.

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Author's Note: Yes I know this was really short, but this has been just sitting around for months and I wanted to get it out somehow. I mainly posted to see how many of you are still even interested in this story. I could really use some ideas, I have a yahoo message board for that, but it has been sadly dead lately, no one posts anything anymore. I am seriously considering giving this story up for adoption, but hope it won't come to that. I do have some future plans if I can just get past a few hurdles.