Chapter 10

"Come on, Fuutarou-kun! Just some other meters and we're done hehe.", said a giggling Yotsuba while jogging, with a young blond man following her from behind.

"A-alright.", was the reply of a sweaty Fuutarou. Since it was Sunday, the young man thought of going to jogging with his childhood friend as he had started to have her helping him train outside after knowing from Maruo that he could start doing sports. Still, the blond guy wanted to increase his stamina before joining a sport club at school, so he had asked to the bunny ribbon girl if she could help him.

She had obviously accepted as her desire to help the others dictated, even if this attracted the jealousy of Nino, who didn't like so much the fact that her boyfriend passed some time alone with Yotsuba. The hero of Asahiyama calmed down by promising her that he would pass more time alone with her in return, which made the social butterfly happy and blush when he gave her another of his surprise kisses.

Now Fuutarou and Yotsuba were currently ending their jogging session, with both of them wearing a tracksuit, even if the young man preferred using a T-shirt. They were a little sweaty, and after some other meters they decided to rest on a bench inside a park that they reached.

"P-phew, f-finally some r-rest. Y-your energy seems u-unlimited, Yotsuba he?", said Fuutarou while catching a bit of breath and smirking.

"Hehe, since elementary school I was always the best between my sisters in sports. But you did really well, Fuutarou-kun. Usually is difficult keeping up with my rhythm.", she replied while giving him a bottle of water that she bought from a vending machine.

"Thanks, it's nice to know. If I want to join a sport club and become stronger to protect your sister in the future, I have to have a stamina similar to yours."

His words made her smile, "I'm kinda jealous of Nino for having such a caring boyfriend like you. Oh, about the sport club, do you have one already in mind? If not, I can suggest you one hehe."

"Hmm, to be honest, I don't have a specific one in mind, but one that I could like would be one where you play in teams.", he said with a hand on his chin.

At that reply, Yotsuba's ribbon lifted up as if she had a great idea. "Then how about the basketball club? You're very tall, Fuutarou-kun, and I think that you will score a lot of shots if you start to play it."

"Basketball huh? Yeah, I agree with you. I saw you playing one time and it seemed very interesting and funny as sport. Alright, basketball will be.", he replied with a grin, making her giggle happily because he liekd her idea.

After that, Yotsuba proposed to start another little session of jogging as it was still afternoon, with him smiling and agreeing without any complaint. This made her giggle because she liked how he was willing to train to become stronger to protect Nino, so they got up and started another jogging session, playing also catch with him trying to get her.

This was like they met in Kyoto, when Yotsuba was running around the temples while being followed by Fuutarou that tried to catch her, and when he got her, he would tickle her to make her laugh wholeheartedly. He had started to do the same with her sisters everytime they did too many mistakes on their assignments, making their tutoring sessions even funnier.

Some hours later it was evening, so the two teenagers decided to greet each other and go back to each own home. As he had run quite a lot, the blond punk returned to his house by walking, especially because he wasn't too distant from his neighborhood.

It took around 20 minutes to reach his family's apartment, and when he climbed up the stairs and stepped inside after opening the door, he was tackled and hugged by Raiha.

"Welcome back, Onii-chan! How did your jogging with Yotsuba-San go?", she asked him while smiling brightly.

"It went good haha. Even if she has an incredible resistance, I managed to keep up with her. Dinner's ready anyways?'", he replied with his stomach grumbling.

"Hehe, yes. Today I made a Dutch Baby thanks to a receipt that Nino-nee gave me one day that she visited. But first you need a shower, Onii-chan."

"Oh, that's awesome. And yes, I'm going right now.", he replied while going to his room to take a change of clothes and then to the bathroom.

Once there, he took off his sweaty clothes and entered In the shower, starting to wash away the sweat and to relax. During this, he thought about how Raiha called his girlfriend "Nino-nee", which made him chuckle.

Since he told his family about Maruo's decision to make Nino and Fuutarou engaged in the future, Isanari and Raiha had started to treat the social butterfly as she was part of the Uesugi family everytime she visited.

For example, Isanari teased often his son and Nino about how far they got in their relationship while Raiha considered her as a big sister and asked her to teach her to cook some new plates, with Nino happily nodding at her request. When Itsuki came to know about this, she was a little jealous because she thought that the young girl preferred Nino as big sister, but she smiled once Raiha started to call her "Itsuki-nee."

Chuckling again after remembering such moments, the young man finished his shower to then dry himself and wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of blue trousers.

After that, he got out from the bathroom and joined his family to eat Raiha's Dutch baby. Both him and Isanari ate the inviting plate in a similar way of the youngest quint, happily complimenting the young girl for how good it tasted. That made her smile and giggle, hugging her brother in return.

"Hey, why do you give a hug to him and not me too?", asked a frowning Isanari.

"Hehe, because I love Onii-chan and Nino-nee more than you, Dad.", replied Raiha, shocking the blond man that sulked with fake anime tears.

"Maybe you shouldn't have told him that.", said instead her brother with a sweat drop while Raiha assured Isanari that she was kidding and gave him a hug that he happily reciprocated.

'Family moments like this are truly nice. Right, Mom?', thought the young man with a smile, remembering how his mother also played a prank similar to Raiha's to Isanari. Since she died, the young man had some moments like this one where he would remember her, but instead of pulling off a sad expression, he would smile as a sign of nostalgia.

He and his father missed Shizuku, and Raiha too even she didn't know her very well as she was very little when Isanari's wife died. Still, they managed to get over it and continued to live even if they had debts to deal with, which began to be less annoying thanks to Fuutarou's job as a tutor. This meant that the Uesugi family could relax and Fuutarou could enjoy more his student life as he was actually doing.

When they were done with having dinner and the blond punk helped Raiha to wash the dishes, they started to play Fanfare together before going to bed, using a chocolate bar as a prize for the winner.

So they played for at least half an hour, after which it was Isanari to win and enjoy the prize while Raiha pouted and Fuutarou patted her head to console her. They saw then that it was late, so after telling each other goodnight, they went to sleep in each own room, with Fuutarou starting to sleep for the day after.

The morning after the young man got up and went to have breakfast with Raiha and Isanari before greeting them and leaving with his motorbike to go to to school. While he was driving, he took a glance while waiting for the green traffic light to some shops on the sides of the streets that sold clothes or parfums.

'Maybe I could take Nino there sometimes.', he thought with a smirk, finding it a nice idea for another future date. He knew that the social butterfly adored going shopping and make ups after all.

After some quick minutes, he arrived to Asahiyama where he parked his bike and greeted some students that waved at him. He then waited for the quints in order to greet them and get a bento from Nino, who surely had prepared for him. And as he expected, a limousine that costed at least millions of yen arrived and stopped near to him, with one of its doors opening from which the Nakano sisters got out.

Once she saw her boyfriend, the butterfly ribbons quint went towards and gave him a hug. "Good morning, Fuu-kun!", she happily told him.

"Yo, Nino. Do you have my free lunch?", he replied with a smirk.

"Huh? You greet me and then ask me for food? Aren't you happy to see me?", she said, pouting.

"Maybe Fuutarou-kun is happier to see us all hehe.", suddenly said Ichika while waving to him.

"And he's right. Free food is the best thing in the world!", said instead the youngest quint, agreeing with Fuutarou.

"Itsuki, you should stop thinking about food sometimes.", said Miku with a deadpanned tone, making Itsuki pout and everyone else chuckle.

"Haha, changing topic, of course that I'm glad to see you, Nino. And here's the proof.", said Fuutarou, planting his lips on Nino's and making her blush and moan. Her sisters got instantly red at such sight, and the same could be said for some passersby students.

After the kiss, he detached his lips from hers and looked directly in her ocean blue eyes. "See? I'm happy to see you.", he told her with a smirk while her face was completely red.

"Y-you c-catch me off guard t-too often, s-stupid F-Fuu-kun.", she stuttered, looking down embarassed while he simply chuckled.

Seeing him be so straightforward made the other quints feel kinda jealous of their sister for having him someone like him as boyfriend. Of course they had accepted their relationship and future engagement some time ago, but they always got embarassed when Fuutarou was so assertive with Nino, especially Itsuki and Yotsuba. They found him very bold.

Following the kiss, Nino gave to the young man his lunch box, getting a nice headpat from him in return. They then entered in the school building with her sisters, going then in each own class.

While walking in the corridors, the heroic delinquent greeted back some other students, with the girls giggling to receive his attention. Itsuki frowned at that because even if she knew that the young tutor was now popular, she didn't like how some girls looked at him with interest despite knowing that he had a girlfriend.

She wouldn't try to scare them with a glare like Nino would do as she was the most diligent between her sisters; she just hoped that no girl would flirt with her sister's boyfriend and ruin their relationship. She didn't want to see Nino sad and in tears again like she was when Fuutarou lost consciousness after saving her. And the same went for the other quints of course.

She and Fuutarou arrived to their classroom after some corridors, where everyone of their classmates greeted them. Also their Sciences and Biology teacher entered, starting a lesson about human anatomy. Since Biology was her strongest subject, the ahoge girl didn't have any problem in following the teacher's explanation and taking notes. Fuutarou smiled at seeing her able to take notes without any difficulty.

In Miku's and Nino's classroom instead, the social butterfly was having no problem in following the lesson of the English teacher while Miku struggled and pouted for this. Nino was smiling happily during this because of the kiss that her beloved Fuutarou gave her at the school gates; she looked forward to getting another later.

Yotsuba was instead following her Japanese lesson with her usual cheerful energy. This was also due to the fact that she was happy that her childhood friend had started to go jogging with her because he asked her to help him increase his stamina. As she was determined to support his and Nino's relationship, she wanted to do her best to help him as his friend and student.

The same went for the oldest quint, who was currently following her Social Studies lesson instead of taking a nap. She couldn't allow herself to disappoint her tutor in their next exams, and just like she passed her audition for her actress job, she wanted to pass the exams with her sisters and Fuutarou.

After the lessons of the first hours ended, the hero of Asahiyama left his classroom with Itsuki to go to the cafeteria. Once there, Itsuki took her signature tray full of food while Fuutarou had already the homemade bento of Nino.

They then searched for her sisters and when they found them, the young man sat next to his girlfriend and Itsuki next to Ichika. They started all together with him enjoying the food prepared by Nino, who smiled and blushed happily because of his praise, and Miku giving a Matcha soda can that she had bounty for him.

"Oh yeah, I have to tell you girls that today's tutoring session is cancelled. I want to go take a look at the basketball club of our school after lessons.", suddenly said the young man, leaving each quint stunned.

"Y-you w-want to take a look at the basket club? D-do you want to join it?", asked him a curious Ichika.

"Hehe, Fuutarou-kun really took in my suggestion. If he starts to play basketball, he will become very strong to protect Nino.", said instead Yotsuba. And the words to protect Nino made the social butterfly look at her boyfriend with shining eyes.

"Y-you w-want to become stronger to protect me, F-Fuu-kun?"

"W-well, yes. I don't want to risk that something terrible like that cliff fall happens to you again, so I decided that I will do my best to be able to protect you better.", he replied while scratching the back of his head and blushing a bit.

Such words made Nino's heart beat faster and blush deeply to then hug him tightly with a big smile on her face. "I'm so lucky to have a great boyfriend like you hehe.", she happily said while having her head caressed by him.

"Would you protect also your Onee-San, Fuutarou-kun?", asked him Ichika in a teasing way.

"Let's say that if someone tries to hurt you, he will get a punch in the gut.", he replied with an evil grin, making them chuckle. During this, he got advantage of Itsuki's distraction to steal her chocolate pudding, making her frown and tell him to stop stealing her food. That made her sisters laugh at her expenses until Ichika gave her a vanilla pudding that made Itsuki smile.

They continued to have lunch by chatting together and with Nino imagining Fuutarou in a basketball players uniform, blushing vividly and giggling for how hot he would look. Her boyfriend blushed a bit and teased her by asking her if she imagined him shirtless, making her redder and shout that she didn't. He and her sisters chuckled for how he embarassed her.

The bell then rang, so everyone of them got back to each own class, not without Fuutarou givinh them some easy assignments that they could do at home even without a tutoring session. They didn't mind this as he told them that he would check their answers once they sent them via message.

The lessons of the second period went pretty normal for each quint while Fuutarou was helping Itsuki in their classroom to take notes about a Japanese literature's argument. A girl that sat at the desk in front of him asked him for help too, and he didn't mind showing her notes, which made her thank him for his kind gesture.

'While they don't try to invite me to hang out with them, there's no problem.', thought the blond punk, glad that she didn't invite him to hang out somewhere to thank him.

He had clearly showed that he was already taken with the kiss that he had given to Nino a the school gates, so even if he was popular because of his heroic action, his "fangirls" better avoid flirting with him. Especially because his girlfriend could get jealous and angry easily.

After 2 hours, every student was done with the lessons and started to go home, minus the ones that had club activities and in particular Fuutarou, who was towards the school's gym where the basketball club was currently training.

Once he stepped inside, the young man could see the club members doing some exercises of dribbling, with a middle aged spiky brown haired man giving them instructions. At a certain point, one of guys noticed the figure of Fuutarou in the door and exclaimed, "Look, it's the hero of our school! Uesugi Fuutarou!"

All the club members and the spiky haired man that looked like the coach looked in that direction and found a smiling Fuutarou looking at them. "Hello, everyone.", said the young man while waving at them.

"So you're the famous Uesugi Fuutarou. What brings you to our club? My name is Kurogane Seiya by the way.", said him the coach with a smile.

"Well, let's say that a friend of mine suggested to practice basketball as she thinks that it would be a good sport for someone like me, so I'm here to join your club.", replied Fuutarou with a confident tone.

At such reply, Kurogane-sensei and the club members were stunned and speechless for some minutes, which made Fuutarou nervous, but then they reacted by cheering and shouting something like "Hurray! We will have the hero of our school in our club!"

Before their reaction, the blond punk raised an eyebrow that was noticed by the coach that told him, "You're asking yourself why we're so glad to have you join us, right? Well, we can say that after your brave act and how you managed to survive from that fall, our club and others were really interested in having you join, Uesugi-kun, and knowing that you want to be part of our club makes us really glad haha."

"Coach is right! Having you in our club will be fantastic, Fuutarou-kun. I'm the captain of our team, Ichijou Ryuuzaki. Nice to meet you.", said a young man with green hair while walking towards Fuutarou and extending him a hand.

The heroic delinquent was surprised for the effects that him saving Nino' life had on every student and teacher, but before their cordiality and happiness to have him join the club, he grinned and shaked Ryuuzaki's hand, telling him, the other members and the coach that he was glad him too to join them.

After that, the coach asked Fuutarou to go to change as he wanted to see his abilities, so the young man went to the changing rooms and came out from them while wearing a blue t-shirt, a pair of tracksuit shorts and that trainers that he used during his and Yotsuba's jogging.

Kurogane-sensei asked him to show him how good he was with dribbling and shots, so Fuutarou took a ball and started to dribble it by switching hands when he was ordered to do. He was a little clumsy at first, but he showed more ball control by each minute.

When it came to throwing the ball to the basket, one of the members gave him some suggestions on how to focus better on the target and how he had to launch the ball correctly.

The coach and the rest of club observed how Fuutarou threw the ball to the basket and scored various times, even if some miss ones happened. Ryuuzaki and the other members smiled and complimented the young man for what he accomplished, with him giving a thumb up in return.

Then, a girl with long and waved brown hair suddenly approached him and offered him a towel. "Here, Uesugi-kun. You may be a little sweaty after these exercises."

"O-oh, thank you umm..."

"She's the girl in charge of nursing the club members when they hurt themselves, Fuutarou-kun. Her name is Izayoi Akiko.", said Ryuuzaki.

"Nice to meet you, Uesugi-kun. I'm glad to have you join our club as well. If you happen to get hurt, I will make sure to help you hehe.", said the young girl, giggling and making some club members blush because of her cuteness.

"Oh, nice to meet you too, Izayoi-San. And thank you again.", replied Fuutarou while drying off the sweat with the towel, unfazed by her beauty compared to the club members.

Akiko was surprised by how the blond guy didn't blush or get embarrassed when she smiled at him. Usually she saw a lot of guys blush when she giggled and was kind with them, and the guy in front of her didn't show any shade of red on his face. 'So he really loves the girl that he saved during that incident in the school trip. She's very lucky hehe..', she thought while still smiling.

And after she told him that he was welcome, Fuutarou got asked to try some layups, getting an explanation on the correct passes to do by Kurogane-sensei. At first the young man was having some problems in following the correct passes, but after trying again, he managed to do some good layups, getting some compliments by the coach and Akiko too.

"Alright, since Uesugi-kun showed his abilities, welcome this young boy in our club, everyone!", suddenly said the coach after Fuutarou was done with the layups.

"Welcome to our club Fuutarou-kun/Uesugi-kun!", said the other members and Akiko in unison, making Fuutarou grin.

"Good, now we can celebrate with a little match 5 vs 5 and then you can sign the application form, Uesugi-kun. Take position everyone!"

Since the total number of players was 10 with Fuutarou included, they got divided in 2 teams exactly of 5 players, and when they got in position, they started to play the match.

The young tutor was surprised that they made him play a training match already, nonetheless he tried his best to defend and attack against his opponents. Obviously, the other club members had more experience than him, but that didn't mean that Fuutarou wasn't willing to not try to score some points and impede the opponents to get too close to his team's basket.

Kurogane-sensei and Akiko observed how he was playing and they smiled; the young man seemed to learn pretty fast and was able to give some difficulty to his opponents, showing to have a decent resistance. But their smile was due also to the confident grin on Fuutarou's face, which was very attractive to Akiko's eyes.

An hour later, the match ended with Fuutarou's team losing 40-36, but despite he could say that he had a lot of fun. Since the time for the club activities was finished, the coach made Fuutarou sign the application form and sent him and the other players to take a shower and change.

Once in the changing rooms, the top student took a quick shower and made friends with some of the the other players, talking about music tastes, films and girls too. Some of them asked him how he didn't get red when Akiko smiled brightly at him, with him saying, "I got already a beautiful girlfriend, and looking at other girls doesn't interest me."

At that reply they were first stunned to then chuckle, telling him that in that case, they would do their best to make a move on Akiko. 'I guess that Izayoi-San has quite the fanclub here.', thought Fuutarou with a sweat drop by seeing how those players started to think and imagine to kiss Akiko.

After every player was done with taking a shower and changing clothes, the club left the gym and the coach greeted each student before leaving like them. Fuutarou did the same and started to walk towards his motorbike, but before he could hop on it, he head his phone ringing.

He took it out from his bag and checked the caller: it was Nino. Smiling, he accepted the call and said, "Hello?"

"Hello, Fuu-kun, how did it go at the basket club?"

"I thought you called me to know that; let's say that it went great. It seems that after I saved you life, my action spread over to the sport clubs too, because the club told me that it and other clubs were very interested to have me joining them."

"Really? I'm so glad for you. That means that you're now part of the club."

"That's right. I made friends with the other players pretty easily too, and it seems that I have quite the abilities to give problems to the most experienced ones."

He heard giggling, "Hehehe, it seems that my boyfriend will be a strong basketball player. And no girl will bother him during the club."

"A-ah, about this, you must know that there is a girl in charge of nursing the players that get hurt. Her name is Izayoi Akiko."

It took some minutes to hear her loud response, "W-what?! Oh come on! Now that I have to be careful that she doesn't steal you from me moo."

"Haha, stealing me from you? When you're way more beautiful than her and all?"

After that, there was some silence from her part, which he guessed it was because she was flustered. "F-fuu-kun, i-it's not fair that you always make me so embarrassed. But I'm happy to hear that you find me so beautiful hehe."

"Beautiful and dumb I add."

"You dummy!", was her reply to his teasing, making him chuckle wholeheartedly. Even if they were talking by the phone, he liked speaking to her like this; talking and laughing with the person you liked the most was always the best.

He then told her that he would like to take her on a date to some nice shops that he saw in the morning, making her giggle and tell him that she looked forward to that. After that, they told each other a "See you tomorrow. Love you." and the call ended, even if he received via message her answers to his assignment. And he received the ones from her sisters too after a minute.

'I'm really proud of you girls that are doing your best.', he thought while checking their messages and smiling. He was glad that they were studying better compared to before in order to pass their next exams, and he was sure that this time they would pass all the subjects.

And he obviously would show to be again the top and most student to tutor them and how he was about to become a strong basketball player. His fire of determination was pretty big after all haha.

A/N

Chapter 10 for you, everyone! Yep, as a dear friend suggested me, I decided that our favorite tutor will join Asahiyama's basketball club, where he got welcomed nicely thanks to his popularity. In order to be ar least resistant to the fatigue of playing, he even started to go jogging with Yotsuba that accepted happily to help him increase his stamina.

The bunny ribbon girl and her sisters are even doing their best at school to pass their exams with all passing grades to make their tutor proud. Nino is of course being careful that no girl tries to flirt with her dear boyfriend, as shown when Fuutarou told her about Izayoi Akiko, but she calmed down easily when he reassured her that she was more beautiful to his eyes and that no one could take him away from her.

The young man also showed to learn quite fast some easy moves to play basket, and despite playing with experienced players, he's ready to give them quite the difficulty while also having fun haha. I hope that you liked this chapter and stay tuned for more.

See ya!