Chapter Eight

Practice Starting Now!

"… Now that that's over. We shall commence training immediately. All to the courts," Tezuka's voice carried across the courts as the Regular team stood in front of him. Every one of them, excluding Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto, were wearing their new shirts and jerseys.

Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke were still wearing their normal clothes in which they arrived in.

"Ok team, I hope I do not need to make the first ten minutes of our practice an introduction performance. Is that right?" Tezuka looked around for confirmation as all 12 of them nodded. "Now listen up, for those who were in the team last year and before, you know I do not take breaks, this is no different. The Nihon Tournament is only five weeks away to start of the new tennis year; the winning teams will then get placed into the next narrowed down tournament etcetera until the last tournament between two schools will be left. Today we are jumping straight into it and measuring the speed of all our serves so we can work on that today. Come this way," Tezuka walked off as his teammates grabbed their racquets and followed, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto grabbed theirs as well as they saw what the others were doing and followed behind.

Sakura kept her head down as she felt the slap mark growing redder by the minute.

"Sakura-chan? Are you ok?" Naruto asked quietly as he placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort.

"I took away her dreams Naruto… how is that justified? Imagine someone taking away your dreams of becoming Hokage? How would you feel? I feeler lower than dirt at the moment, I took away her dreams Naruto, her dreams!" Sakura looked up as tears started to well in her eyes, but she pushed them away with total will power as she looked at Naruto with pleading eyes for him to have an answer.

"Sakura-chan… I can't tell you what to do; I can't give you a way out. This is the way of the Shinobi. This is the sacrifices we need to make to protect our village." Naruto said quietly as his face showed maturity, as if he had seen too many things in his short lifetime of 16 years that not even a 90 year old man would have seen.

"I know Naruto, it's just… its so hard!" It was then that both Sasuke and Naruto knew that Sakura was not just talking about Sakuno and her dreams, but of everything involved in the Shinobi world, and they knew they could do nothing but watch their only female best friend break and shatter under the pressure of being a Kunoichi of the village hidden in the leaves.

--

"Make a line!" Tezuka called out as they all ambled onto the court single file.

"Isn't he just Mr. Bossy?" Naruto muttered as he did as he were told, their previous predicament shoved to the side, not forgotten, but put to the side so they could do their job; be Shinobi of Konoha.

"Just do as you're told Naruto," Sakura muttered back as she took her place between Sasuke and Inui next to her, who had his notebook and pen in his hand ready to take notes.

The sight made Sakura turn towards Sasuke and catch his eye, an unspoken conversation told in their gaze,

'Did you get the notes?' 'Yes' 'What of these new ones and the new ones to come?' 'We will grab them again when the time comes, we will continue updating our information as he does'

Sakura and Sasuke both nodded as Naruto stood there looking at both Sakura and then Sasuke in confusion,

"What the hell's going on here?" Naruto exclaimed bringing attention to himself. Sakura slapped her forehead as Sasuke muttered,

"Dobe."

"WHAT WAS THAT TEME!?" Naruto exploded in anger. Sakura stood there with a tick of anger on her forehead as she threw her fist down straight onto the top of Naruto's head.

"Shut up Baka!" Sakura hissed through clenched teeth as Naruto rubbed his now pounding head in pain.

"Sakura-channn," he whined as he cried anime tears. All three turned around at the sound of a cough. The culprit was Eiji as he, and the others, looked at them with amusement. The only ones who weren't amused were Kaidou and Tezuka, and that was because Kaidou had a stick up his ass, and Tezuka never laughed. At least not often enough to call it normal; I think it's a record three times he has laughed that the Regulars can recall seeing.

"Are you finished?" Kaidou asked rudely as stood with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Sure thing Bandana," Sakura said as she smirked at his reaction.

"Stop fucking calling me that!" He exclaimed as he held his fist in the air as a threat, but they all knew he would never actually lay a hand on Sakura because she was a girl.

"Mind your mouth Bandana, otherwise I will wash your mouth out with soap," Sakura said mildly as she grabbed the ball thrown to her from one of the Regular teams' helpers, a.k.a. the ones who never got in, but wish to be as close as they can to the team without actually being on it.

"Argh! You little –" Kaidou started before Oishi broke him off my clapping him on the back with a friendly laugh,

"Let it go man, she's a chick –"

"And what is that meant to mean?!" Sakura exclaimed roughly as she grabbed her tennis ball and practically squeezed it to death. Inner Sakura was going ballistic,

"WHO THE HELL DOES THAT ROUND SHAVED HAIRED HEAD YETI THINK HE IS!?"

"Whoa; nothing, nothing, just trying to get Kaidou here to calm down. Take a chill pill," Oishi held up his hands in a 'mean-no-harm' kind of way as Sakura seethed quietly with her racquet held tightly in her right hand, her knuckled turning white with pressure. Back in Konoha she would just have bopped the offender on their head to make them show respect, which never worked, but she couldn't to these guys because they would then know something was up with her, and then they would question all three of theirs' origin and purpose.

"Quiet down, all of you," Tezuka said emphasising the last bit especially to Kaidou and Sakura. "Training commences NOW!"