"Um, Sai, how did you manage to get me a personal tryout with the coach of the Kishimoto Shuriken?" Sakura asked nervously. "I mean, isn't he really far up?"
"I know a lot of people, Sen," Sai replied. "And connections do come in handy."
"I'm nervous," Sakura admitted as they passed under the shadow of the entrance to the gym where the Shuriken practiced and approached the coach on the fourth court down.
"Just keep your cool," Sai replied. "He's the one looking for someone like you. He won't bite."
"Aah, are you Sai Aizawa and Sen Hitachi?" The coach introduced himself. As they talked, a door opened and another young man came out, shedding a track jacket.
"Sorry I'm late, Coach," Suigetsu said. "You wanted to see me?"
"Aah, Suigetsu," the coach said warmly. "Not at all, you're just in time. This is Sen Hitachi, and he's looking for a place on the Shuriken. More specifically, the point guard position."
Suigetsu looked ruffled. "A replacement for Uchiha? Is there anyone who could take his spot this late in the year?"
Sakura couldn't resist. "Uchiha and I have played before," she snarled. "If you don't think I'm good enough, just say so."
Suigetsu backed down.
The Coach threw Sakura a ball. "Loosen up a bit with that, and then we can go one-on-one against Suigetsu, here."
Sakura closed her eyes, deeply inhaling the leather smell of the ball. Even though she hadn't played since the end of high school, her muscles still remembered the moves. As though in a trance, Sakura began to dribble with her eyes closed. Back and forth, around the back, between her legs, over and over, simple patterns. She spun on a dime, muscles in perfect harmony, and shot. The ball went through with a swish.
The Coach looked impressed. "Now try that on Suigetsu."
The guard moved with an alligator's grin into a defensive stance. But he was defending nothing. Spinning around, Suigetsu watched in awe as Sakura performed a lay-up. She had blown past him in the time it took him to blink.
The rest of the affair went similarly. "Sen" quickly proved to be one of the best basketball players that the coach had ever seen. He saw them out of the gym, telling Sakura to show up for practice on Friday and thanking Sai for the lead on a new point guard. As a treat, Sai took Sakura out to dinner.
"Hahaha, here's to the Kishimoto Shuriken!" Sakura hiccupped, raising her sake glass up yet again and draining it like a pro. Sai winced.
"Shouldn't you ease up on the hard stuff, Sen?!"
"Ah, whatever-hic-!" Sakura said heavily, laying down the white china cup. "-hic- I'm not Sen for –hic- three more days."
Sai quickly pulled the sake bottle out of her range. "Sakura, take it easy. You're an adult, show some responsibility."
"Responsibility be –hic-!" Sakura growled. Sai winced again. If she hadn't hiccupped when he did, he was sure he and the entire bar would have been treated to a harsh expletive. "Responsibility didn't save Sasuke-kun." She leaned over and snatched the sake back, pouring herself another glass. "He –hic- was amazing. But someone –hic- had it in for him, and so –hic- he got thrown in jail. That's –hic- all there is to it." She tipped the glass back. "There's nothing anyone can do –hic- about it. There's no evidence, no –hic-!"
Sai then realized why she was drinking herself under the table. In order to staunch her fears, her doubts, and her pain over Sasuke's arrest and subsequent jailing, Sakura was drowning herself in one of the most effective painkillers of all time: alcohol. He stood up, leaving their payment on the counter.
"Come on, Sakura, let's get you home."
A general haze of smoke from banned cigarettes filled the small room. Sitting around a card table, dealing aces and playing with toothpicks for counters, were four strange-looking characters. On the wall behind them was a black banner that proudly sported a red cloud.
There was dusty creak as the floor in the corner suddenly lifted straight up! A black-haired man climbed out, dusting off his clothes. He kicked the trapdoor back into place and stepped over to the card table.
"So, Itachi, didja get him canned?" one of the card players asked nonchalantly, laying down a four and an eight.
"He's out of the way," Itachi said carelessly. "I want the satisfaction of destroying everything close to him, while he rots in jail, unable to stop it. Then I'll put him out of his misery."
One of the players, a platinum blonde, chuckled. "You're a -bleepi-ng cruel -bleep-, Itachi, you know?"
Itachi allowed a thin smile to curve around his face. "Yeah, Hidan, I know."
"So who's next on your list?" The boy who had been identified on TV as Tobi now showed his character in a whole different light.
"Hmm, well, my mother for one, but she can wait," Itachi pondered. "I need her to die of a natural cause and bequeath the fortune to me."
"A natural cause? Or a 'natural cause'?" Kakazu interjected. Itachi looked at him.
"What do you think?"
"Well, if she's -bleep-ing last on the -bleep-ing list, which -bleep- is next?" Hidan demanded, laying several toothpicks in the center.
"That girlfriend of his." Itachi threw a photo onto the table. It was the one that had been in Sasuke's dorm: he and Sakura were laughing at the camera.
"You mean the -bleep- with the -bleep-ing pink hair?!"
"She looks nice. A pretty toy, perhaps," Tobi said.
"But not much when we're through with her," Kakazu growled, flicking open a pocketknife.
Itachi leaned over the table. "Take it slow, OK, guys? It'll look suspicious if she goes too fast. Play it safe, take your time."
"Time? Time?! We've got all we need," the fourth player finally spoke. "With your brother in prison, what's to stop us now?"
"This girl's a tricky one, Pain," Itachi replied. "She might be a little slippery to catch."
"Not a problem." Pain's eyes glittered maliciously in the light from the dingy lamp. "Akat Tsu Ki has never failed once we set our minds to something."
"Sure you don't wanna join?" Kakazu motioned to the table. Itachi shook his head.
"No, Kisame and I are going to finish polishing up our fake identities. After all, two wanted criminals can't just walk into any old place, can they?"
"What was that -bleep- Kisame canned for again?" Hidan asked.
"He massacred a lot of people, didn't he, Itachi?" Tobi said. Itachi nodded.
"Yeah, and he broke out with me. You don't want to speak ill of a former Akat Tsu Ki, Hidan, or Kisame might have to come after you."
"Let the -bleep- try," Hidan murmured. Itachi crossed over to the trapdoor and opened it again.
"I'll see you all with the next arrangements, then?"
Pain waved a hand over his shoulder. "Go, Itachi. We've got everything covered, here."
The trapdoor closed with a click, leaving only the shuffling of cards and clicking of toothpicks to rustle in the dingy light.
Sasuke was pacing his cell, back and forth, back and forth. He had the steps memorized: ten steps wide, twelve steps deep. There was a TV blaring and a good selection of books down the hall, but the Uchiha didn't care. He kept going – back and forth, back and forth.
Suddenly, the announcer came on, saying that the Kishimoto Shuriken were about to play the Bya Kugan Juken in one of the games of the season.
They won't win, Sasuke's mind said. Kishimoto hasn't got a point guard anymore.
But he was wrong.
"The strange thing is, Kishimoto, after losing their rising star Sasuke Uchiha and junior point guard Kimimaro, has finally managed to salvage ANOTHER guard," the sports announcer said. "The coach hasn't made any prior announcements, but out there, warming up, is a FIFTH player! Let's take a look at him and his stats…"
The camera zoomed in on the gentle features and face of the new Shuriken player. Sasuke was still engrossed in his worried pacing.
"Sen Hitachi, a rather unusual find," the reporter read off his stats. "Apparently, Sen was homeschooled, but knows how to handle a ball rather well. We don't know his shooting average, but –get this- his height is 5'10. 5'10??!? What coach in their right mind puts such a short player out there?!"
"Who knows?" the other sportsman said mysteriously. "We could have another Pistol Pete on our hands. We're still waiting for the tip-off, and it's a full dome tonight, folks!"
Sasuke stopped, staring at the image of Sen Hitachi scoring a lay-up. The style…why was it bothering him? The way Sen jumped, putting all his weight on his right foot and soaring gently up to the basket…
SAKURA. The Uchiha suddenly found himself riveted to the screen. How the heck had Sakura made it onto the Kishimoto Shuriken!? Would she save him AND his basketball team, too?
The two guards on rotation passed the new kid. He was relatively quiet, with good looks and a lot of money. Too bad his older brother had gone wrong, and he was following in his footsteps. The new kid was glued to the TV in his cell, watching the Kishimoto Shuriken game, enraptured.
"Weren't you the guard for Kishimoto?" one of them called. The kid answered without looking.
"Yeah, but they've got someone else, now." He almost sounded cheerful about it…
The guards shrugged at each other and continued on their rotation.
Sakura was feeling nervous, but excited. The feeling of being back on the court, ball in hand, was wonderful enough. And being in front of over a thousand screaming fans was exhilarating, too. But the men she played with!
It's just like back at Firestone, Sakura tried to reason with herself. Pretend you're a guy, and you'll do just fine.
But somehow, these big, tough, twenty-year-old players failed to spark her confidence. Sakura merely gulped as she looked at Juugo's massive height.
Uh-oh…
"Hey, you there," someone purred.
"Huh?" Sakura pivoted to see some girl, dressed in the skimpy cheerleader outfit of the Shuriken, gesturing in what she clearly thought was an alluring way.
"Come here," she said, leering at Sakura.
Sakura wanted to do anything but go near this girl. Fortunately, Coach blew his whistle just then.
"Huddle up!"
Karin pouted and stomped the ground with her foot as the new boy trotted away.
"Don't worry," a squad member assured her. "He'll come round and see sense eventually. You're too pretty to ignore, Karin."
The Akat Tsu Ki frat house was full of beer, loud laughter, and the clink of glasses. Lounging on the threadbare couches and lying on the floor, the Akat Tsu Ki frat boys fought tooth, nail, and claw to find a good spot to watch the game on TV.
Itachi, Kisame and Pain, as senior members of the fraternity, had immediately claimed the choicest spots. They now sat watching the game with keen interest as Kishimoto took the tip-off.
"That point guard," Pain murmured. "He's pretty good for an untried amateur."
"Sen Hitachi?" Tobi asked. "He looks like a girl."
Itachi snorted. "He looks scrawny, like this kid on a team I coached once. 'Sakumo Hayaro', he was calling himself. Turned out Sakumo was actually a girl in disguise. But I don't see how any girl could trick her way onto a college team." He stood up.
"Where are you going?" Kisame asked.
"To review those tapes we stole from Sasuke's interview with that pink-haired girl," Itachi said. "She was the one who tricked her way onto the team, and I want to make sure she hasn't got something up her sleeve."
Kisame burped. "Check all you want. There's nothing on those tapes, they just made out for three minutes straight. Strange way to say goodbye, if you ask me."
"That's only because you've never kissed a girl, Kisame," someone else called. Kisame crumpled his beer can and threw it at the speaker.
"Shut up," he growled, to raucous laughter. Smiling slightly, Itachi left the game room, settling down in a more quiet space to watch the tapes of Sasuke's interview with Sakura.
The first half a minute, Sakura and Sasuke exchanged a few words, mostly sentimentalities. Itachi snickered. They sounded so corny…like bad actors in a terribly scripted movie. And then came the strange part: Sasuke pushed Sakura back against the door and, as Kisame put it, 'made out with her for three minutes straight'. Itachi frowned. He rewound the tape and sat there, watching.
Suddenly, he hit the pause button, peering closer at the screen. The frame before him quavered, but the image it held was clear as day.
For a couple who was supposed to be kissing, it sure looked like Sakura was saying something to Sasuke. And he was talking back.
Itachi quickly grabbed the tape from another camera and stuffed it in, skipping to the exact same time. He froze the image. There: he had a side view of the supposedly kissing couple. They were close, no doubt about it, but definitely not kissing. Sasuke's mouth was open, and he was telling his girlfriend something.
The sound quality was so poor that Itachi could not make out what was said, on any of the tapes. He swore audibly.
"Kuso!"
Kisame looked up as Itachi came back in, fuming about something. "What's up?"
"Sasuke told his girlfriend something," Itachi growled. "Something important, because they didn't want anyone to see on the security tapes."
Kisame shrugged. "So what do we do about it?"
Itachi grabbed his collar, hoisting him upright. "We're going to my brother and finding out EXACTLY what he told that pink-haired girl!"
Sorry about taking so long, but I've been working on a story of my own that I hope to get published sometime in the next two years!! XD That would be AwEsOmE!!!
Anyway, again, sorry about the slow updates, but I have many more important things than fanfiction in my life right now. Ciao!
Rhulain