Disclaimer : Slam Dunk is owned by Takehiko Inoue. Yamada Hideo & Morita Keiji are mine!
Note: Sentences in italics are thoughts.
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Moon Princess – thanks for reading and reviewing! Here is the continuation.bhuy – thanks for pointing out my error. I've edited it.
Aja – this should be more than that.
Zidane – pairings will unfold as the story continues.
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Chapter 1: Off To A Fresh Start
School has started and new players were recruited. Yamada and Morita, along with the other freshmen were accepted much to Haruko's delight. This was what she planned, to get new players for the team. Now, what they need is a plan to train them better. She, Rukawa and Sakuragi would have to work harder together since they'd be lucky if Anzai-sensei would be with them once a week. The old man has informed them that he would do his best to be there during the elimination and final games.
Being the team manageress, she was the one who contacts everyone in the team. She also handled the correspondence. Basically, she was the one who keeps the team organized.
"Rukawa-kun," Haruko turned to the team captain. "What are your plans for the team? I mean how should we train them?"
The team captain just shrugged and answered in his usual deadpan manner. "You tell me."
"Er…alright," she answered. "I'll do my best to draft a training plan for them. But we need to see the first years play so we could see where they needed some improvement." For a while there, Haruko felt that Rukawa was not that enthusiastic about training the new members of the team. Maybe he has yet to warm up on being a new team captain, she thought.
Although a girl, Haruko knew the basics of the game, especially the rules of the game after having been taught by her brother, Akagi Takenori. She was also a member of a girls' basketball team when she was younger.
"Kitsune, why don't we divide the team just like what oyaji used to do and have a practice game between us?" The redhead suggested.
"Yare-yare…" Rukawa mumbled while spinning a ball on his fingertip.
Rukawa, naturally wouldn't talk in front of the newly formed team. Times like these, he thought he would just let the loudmouth Sakuragi to do all the talking. He couldn't keep his mouth shut anyway.
"First and foremost, I am your tensai sempai, Sakuragi Hanamichi," the redhead started addressing to the first years while pointing to himself. "Our goal is to win the Inter-High Championship crown. I know all of you are wondering how we are going to do it but I, your tensai sempai would lead this team to victory!" He raised his fist up in the air for emphasis.
Oh, brother! Rukawa sighed and blew some air. He was starting to have a mild headache listening to the redhead's self-glorifications.
The older members were already used to his bragging by now. The first years on the other hand were already sweatdropping.
"Under this tensai's leadership, I guarantee that we would not only kick Kainan's ass but also all of you would be tensais just like me! But of course, there's no way you could ever come close to my tensai-ness, NYAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
A few minutes passed and Sakuragi is yet to stop from blabbering, bragging and laughing maniacally.
Rukawa has a full-blown headache by now. He knew he had to do something or else their training period would be all used up by the do'aho's extemporaneous speech. He cleared his throat and turned to the team manageress who was standing beside him. One look and a slight cocking of his head and Haruko got the message.
The team manageress walked towards Sakuragi and cleared her throat to get his attention. Sakuragi as usual greeted her with a smile and introduced her.
"Ahh…." The redhead continued. "I trust that you already know Haruko-chan. She is our beautiful team manageress heheh…."
Haruko took this opportunity to give a short introduction so that the pep talk session would be over and they could start their training. She bowed and started talking.
"Konnichiwa, everyone! I am Haruko Akagi, your team manageress. As you already know, he is Sakuragi Hanamichi, our vice team captain and Rukawa Kaede, over there, is our team captain." She gestured towards Rukawa. The basketball players bowed to Rukawa to which the team captain responded with a slight nodding of his head.
"Just like what your Sakuragi-sempai said a while ago," she continued. "Our goal is to get the Inter-High Championship crown so we would be spending a lot of time training. So what we are going to do now is divide the team into two and have a practice game. And don't ever forget! WE ARE STRONG!"
"HAI!!!!"
With that the practice kicked off.
The screeching of rubber shoes and bouncing of a ball filled the gym. Rukawa was able to easily pass by Yamada and made an easy lay-up.
Being his usual competitive self, the redhead wouldn't let another minute pass by without him scoring. Sakuragi was playing aggressively as usual. He got the ball from Sasaoka but he bumped into Morita who was about to guard him when he made a turn towards the basket area. Morita landed on his back and his glasses got dislocated on his face.
Mizusawa, who acted as the referee, whistled loudly and made a hand signal. "Offensive charging! Sakuragi-sempai!"
"Nani!? How dare you call a foul on the tensai?" The redhead was about to march towards the assistant team manager when Rukawa got his attention.
"Stop that, do'aho, you are setting a bad example to the juniors."
"Argh! Kitsune!! "
Sakuragi started counting one to one hundred. This was the technique he learned so as not to start a fight with Rukawa. He had learned that hotheadedness wouldn't accomplish anything when playing and it was especially futile to argue with a referee. He blurted out because he knew this was just a practice game and Mizusawa was not a real referee.
The freshmen couldn't help but wonder why the team captain kept calling the vice team captain, do'aho while the vice team captain was calling their team captain, kitsune.
Haruko was on the bench studying each player while taking down notes and stats.
"Nyahahaha!" Yohei, Takamiya, Ookuso and Noma were giving each other high fives. The Sakuragi Gundan was actually commissioned by Haruko and Sakuragi to videotape their practice games so they could show it to Anzai-sensei. Apparently they were rejoicing that Sakuragi committed a foul.
"Nice going, Hanamichi!" yelled Ookuso.
"Too bad this is just a practice game!" cried Noma.
"Or you will be on your way to breaking the foul record!" declared Takamiya.
"Shut uuuup!" The redhead bellowed out on them.
Anzai-sensei was doing his daily morning walks with his wife while pondering about the Shohoku Team. Haruko had told him that they had recruited new players. He promised her that he would check on them once in a while and instructed the team manageress to give him a report on the progress of the team once a week.
The old man had never been known to be a conventional coach. He was not the kind of teacher who would spoon-feed his students. Although he gave advices to the individual members of the team, he leaves it up to them to realize their own weaknesses and work on them.
Despite the super ace's experience, he knew that Rukawa was not a good choice for a team captain but he gave the position to him so that he would learn how to lead people. Although he doesn't hog the ball like he used to during his first year, the star player was obviously failing in the communications department. There was no way Rukawa could survive in America if he wouldn't talk. The coach was afraid that he would just end up like his former student who went to America without any communication skills and therefore nobody passed the ball to him. He maybe a famous basketball player in Japan but he would be a nobody in America. The Shohoku ace should realize what teamwork means and the importance of communicating with his teammates. Anzai-sensei firmly believed that Rukawa could change. Just like how he himself had changed from being a 'white-haired devil' to become a 'white-haired buddha'. It's only a matter of being thrown into the right circumstances. He only hoped that it wouldn't be too late.
On the other hand, he knew that the loud Sakuragi would make a good team captain as he could easily inspire his teammates. But he gave the vice-team captain position to him so that the redhead would not have a very big self-inflated ego. An unchecked oversized ego could also be very fatal sometimes. The team coach was just glad that Sakuragi was not that hotheaded anymore. He had learned his lesson. It was brought about by that one incident when the redhead almost killed a referee for calling a foul on him. It resulted in him being expelled from the game and proved to be very fatal in winning their game over Kainan. That also resulted in him being suspended for one game which was very heartbreaking for the whole team. After asking for forgiveness from everyone, the redhead was a changed man from then on.
Anzai-sensei knew that vice-team captain or not, Sakuragi would still inspire his teammates.
"Rukawa-kun!" Haruko called out to their team captain. "Miuradai said they want to have a practice game with us next Saturday. What do you think?"
Rukawa stopped from stuffing some of his things into his locker.
"Here, read this." The team manageress shoved a copy of the printed email to him.
Rukawa didn't bother to read the letter. "Tell them we're waiting."
Haruko prepared the stats of the players and gave it to Anzai-sensei. The stats were taken from their practice games from the last two weeks. The coach started calling the players one by one while Haruko distributed their jerseys to them in preparation for their coming practice game with Miuradai. This will be their usual starting line-up:
#4 Rukawa Kaede – small forward
#5 Sakuragi Hanamichi – center
#10 Yamada Hideo – power forward
#14 Morita Keiji – shooting guard
#7 Kuwata Toki – point guard
#11 Iishi Kentaro – small forward (6th man)
#6 Sasaoka Satoro
#8 Kawasaki Ryo
#9 Abe Hachiro
#12 Hayashi Takao
#13 Saitoh Yoshi
#15 Okita Jiro
"Ohayo! Fujii-chan!" The redhead marched towards her and greeted her with a wide smile as usual.
"O-Ohayo, Sakuragi-kun!" She nervously bowed and greeted in return.
"Are you girls going to watch our practice game with Miuradai?" The redhead asked her.
"Ha-Hai."
"Ok, see you there!" The self-proclaimed tensai waved to her as he sauntered away.
Fujii could only look back at Sakuragi's departing figure as she heaved a sigh of relief. The redhead did it again. Every time Sakuragi would greet her at the school hallways, her knees would go weak. Just the mere sight of Sakuragi coming on to her was enough to make her nervous and weak that she felt like she needed something to hold on to.
What exactly attracted her to the redhead, she doesn't know. All she knew was that she loved seeing that happy grin on the redhead's face and the flamboyant personality he exudes which is very much in contrast to her own timid self.
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A/N: Anyone alive out there? Magparamdam naman kayo! (Translation: Please make your presence felt!)