Let One's Heart Decide
Disclaimer: Slam Dunk is © Inoue Takehiko and all its other companies. This fanfiction is © Hitora. It is not allowed to be put up on any other site without permission. Other characters in this fiction belongs to Hitora.
Chapter 3: Intrusion
It was hardly dawn yet a lone figure was cycling very quickly. The sky was beginning to have a slightly pinkish tinge when the figure looked at the sky and admired its beauty.
Rukawa Kaede was listening to his portable CD player and silently humming the words of the song whilst admiring the sky. Out of the corner of his eye, Rukawa caught a figure cycling madly to catch up to him. Instead of slowing down, he increased his speed. No matter how fast he went, the figure still caught up to him.
Rukawa turned to look at his brother who looked like a goldfish; his mouth was opening and closing as he tried to talk to him. Rukawa frowned and plugged the earpiece out of his ears, adding an icy stare as he looked at his brother.
"Onii-san, why didn't you wait for me?" Kazuo asked, desperately.
Beads of perspiration clung to his face and he panted to keep up. Rukawa merely looked away and continued to cycle, staring at the road straight ahead. They finally arrived at a basketball court which was situated not that far from Shohoku or the train station. Rukawa sighed inwardly when he heard dribbling from the court.
"If I waited for you, we'd be even later," Rukawa grumbled.
"I'm sure whoever that person is, they'd share the court with us," Kazuo said, walking to the court after parking his bike.
When Rukawa heard talking, he stiffened and his eyes narrowed. He quickly grabbed his brother by the collar and threw him into a bush.
"OI!"
Rukawa joined Kazuo. They crouched and pushed some leaves aside.
"Hatsuko-san!" Kazuo whispered excitedly.
Rolling his eyes at his brother's childish behaviour, Rukawa thought, 'Yappari. Sakuragi and his sister. His voice is so recognizable.'
Sakuragi and his sister were playing one on one and both the Rukawa siblings could tell that their team mate was irritated.
"I can't believe this. Why do I have to play with you? You're no challenge!" Sakuragi growled.
"Too bad! You said that you wanted to keep me within your sight, ne?" Hatsuko replied, grinning. "Besides, we haven't even started playing yet so you can't complain if I'm a challenge or not!"
"But you didn't have to bring me to the lingerie department when we went shopping last week, did you?" Sakuragi asked angrily as blush spread across his cheeks, dribbling the basketball as though he was trying to break the ground.
Rukawa and Kazuo blushed and sweatdropped. Hatsuko giggled and tapped the ball from her distracted brother's hands in one swift move, causing her long raven black hair, which was tied in a ponytail, to swing slightly. Rukawa, who was observing the little game, muttered "D'aho" at Sakuragi's mistake.
Sakuragi's ears widened and twitched. Noticing that her brother didn't attempt to steal the ball back from her, Hatsuko stopped.
"Nii-chan?"
Sakuragi crept towards the bushes and pushed it apart. There, hiding, were the Rukawa brothers in SD form, with their right hands behind their right ears.
"OI!" Sakuragi shouted at them.
Both of them looked up and blinked their eyes rapidly. Sakuragi, who was standing in the path of the sun's rays, looked as though he was glowing. Add that to the hatred he has towards Rukawa, he looked more like a burning devil than a glowing angel. Hatsuko peered from behind her brother.
"Rukawa-san? Rukawa-kun? What are you doing there?" she asked surprised.
The brothers stood up. Rukawa and Sakuragi glared so fiercely at each other that Hatsuko could practically see sparks.
"Rukawa-kun, are you here to play?" asked Hatsuko when she saw Rukawa holding a basketball under his arm. She had to look up to talk to him. In their presence, she felt really short when she was actually quite tall for a girl, standing at 1.72m.
"Oh yeah. Can we share the court with you and your onii-san, Hatsuko-san?" Kazuo replied, looking at the angel standing before him.
"Hah! Yoshi! Now I can show kitsune how good the tensai really is!" Sakuragi proclaimed.
"Yare yare," Rukawa muttered.
Hatsuko giggled. Rukawa-san and her Onii-chan looked so kawaii when they argued. Rukawa looked at Hatsuko from the corner of his eyes. Hatsuko noticed and gave him a warm smile.
"Let's play two on two, ne?"
~*~*~*~*~
The sun's rays beat heavily upon the four. Beads of sweat formed on their skin and occasionally, one of them would wipe their forehead with their shirt of sleeve.
"Kuso," Sakuragi muttered.
They have been playing for more than an hour and the gap in their score was too wide. Hatsuko looked at her brother and bit her lip.
"Onii-chan," she started.
Sakuragi shook his head. 'No. It's not her fault. She's a girl and we're fighting not one, but two Rukawas,' he thought.
Throughout the entire match, Hatsuko has been defending Kazuo, and Sakuragi - Rukawa. The Sakuragi siblings managed to steal a few balls but could never stop the Rukawa brothers from eluding. Rukawa and Kazuo hardly passed the ball to each other so there was no possible chance for them to do a cut.
Rukawa, who was dribbling, gave his brother a glance and signaled with a small nod. With a nod returned, both of them advanced to the Sakuragi siblings and upon nearing them, they did a switch such that Hatsuko was defending Rukawa instead of Kazuo.
"KUSO!" Sakuragi yelled.
"No use sempai. I won't let you through," Kazuo told him, when Sakuragi tried to elude to help his sister.
Hatsuko defended Rukawa with a look of determination. Every time she moved forward to tap the ball, Rukawa would dribble the ball behind him or dribble the ball to his other hand. On her fourth attempt, Rukawa eluded her but like Sakuragi, she had speed so she caught up to him immediately.
Panting, she looked into Rukawa's eyes to try and read his movements. Instead, she found concern mirrored in them. Tilting her head to one side, she smiled and shook her head.
"Ikuzo, Rukawa-san," she said softly.
Rukawa's mouth twitched. He advanced forward and moved sharply to the left. Hatsuko moved to block him off but he did a roll and eluded her. Hatsuko ran after him and realized that the area under the basket was unblocked as her brother was being screened out far away from the basket by Kazuo.
As Rukawa leapt, Hatsuko leapt after him in a desperate attempt to tap the ball. However, Rukawa's jump was too high and the ball was out of reach. Hatsuko bumped into Rukawa in mid-air instead and began to fall as Rukawa smashed the ball through the hoop.
Hatsuko shut her eyes and allowed herself to fall, hoping that it wouldn't be too painful if she did. She felt herself land but it was a rather soft landing than she expected. She opened her eyes and found herself looking into a pair of smiling and bright blue eyes.
"Daijoubu ka?" he asked, grinning.
"Eh? Daijoubu," she said.
The person was still carrying her in his arms. She started to blush deeply and only then did he realize that he was still carrying her that the person put her down.
"Gomen, gomen," he smiled sheepishly.
"Iie. Arigato. Anata wa donata desu ka?" she asked, looking up at the person before her.
"Ore wa…"
Before the person could reply, Sakuragi interrupted him.
Author's note: AAH! Another short chapter!! Gomen, gomen! It was supposed to be longer than this but I did a word count and it went over 2000 words and I want my fic chapters to have between 1000-1500 words only so be content with this much for now, kay? Gomen again!
Disclaimer: Slam Dunk is © Inoue Takehiko and all its other companies. This fanfiction is © Hitora. It is not allowed to be put up on any other site without permission. Other characters in this fiction belongs to Hitora.
Chapter 3: Intrusion
It was hardly dawn yet a lone figure was cycling very quickly. The sky was beginning to have a slightly pinkish tinge when the figure looked at the sky and admired its beauty.
Rukawa Kaede was listening to his portable CD player and silently humming the words of the song whilst admiring the sky. Out of the corner of his eye, Rukawa caught a figure cycling madly to catch up to him. Instead of slowing down, he increased his speed. No matter how fast he went, the figure still caught up to him.
Rukawa turned to look at his brother who looked like a goldfish; his mouth was opening and closing as he tried to talk to him. Rukawa frowned and plugged the earpiece out of his ears, adding an icy stare as he looked at his brother.
"Onii-san, why didn't you wait for me?" Kazuo asked, desperately.
Beads of perspiration clung to his face and he panted to keep up. Rukawa merely looked away and continued to cycle, staring at the road straight ahead. They finally arrived at a basketball court which was situated not that far from Shohoku or the train station. Rukawa sighed inwardly when he heard dribbling from the court.
"If I waited for you, we'd be even later," Rukawa grumbled.
"I'm sure whoever that person is, they'd share the court with us," Kazuo said, walking to the court after parking his bike.
When Rukawa heard talking, he stiffened and his eyes narrowed. He quickly grabbed his brother by the collar and threw him into a bush.
"OI!"
Rukawa joined Kazuo. They crouched and pushed some leaves aside.
"Hatsuko-san!" Kazuo whispered excitedly.
Rolling his eyes at his brother's childish behaviour, Rukawa thought, 'Yappari. Sakuragi and his sister. His voice is so recognizable.'
Sakuragi and his sister were playing one on one and both the Rukawa siblings could tell that their team mate was irritated.
"I can't believe this. Why do I have to play with you? You're no challenge!" Sakuragi growled.
"Too bad! You said that you wanted to keep me within your sight, ne?" Hatsuko replied, grinning. "Besides, we haven't even started playing yet so you can't complain if I'm a challenge or not!"
"But you didn't have to bring me to the lingerie department when we went shopping last week, did you?" Sakuragi asked angrily as blush spread across his cheeks, dribbling the basketball as though he was trying to break the ground.
Rukawa and Kazuo blushed and sweatdropped. Hatsuko giggled and tapped the ball from her distracted brother's hands in one swift move, causing her long raven black hair, which was tied in a ponytail, to swing slightly. Rukawa, who was observing the little game, muttered "D'aho" at Sakuragi's mistake.
Sakuragi's ears widened and twitched. Noticing that her brother didn't attempt to steal the ball back from her, Hatsuko stopped.
"Nii-chan?"
Sakuragi crept towards the bushes and pushed it apart. There, hiding, were the Rukawa brothers in SD form, with their right hands behind their right ears.
"OI!" Sakuragi shouted at them.
Both of them looked up and blinked their eyes rapidly. Sakuragi, who was standing in the path of the sun's rays, looked as though he was glowing. Add that to the hatred he has towards Rukawa, he looked more like a burning devil than a glowing angel. Hatsuko peered from behind her brother.
"Rukawa-san? Rukawa-kun? What are you doing there?" she asked surprised.
The brothers stood up. Rukawa and Sakuragi glared so fiercely at each other that Hatsuko could practically see sparks.
"Rukawa-kun, are you here to play?" asked Hatsuko when she saw Rukawa holding a basketball under his arm. She had to look up to talk to him. In their presence, she felt really short when she was actually quite tall for a girl, standing at 1.72m.
"Oh yeah. Can we share the court with you and your onii-san, Hatsuko-san?" Kazuo replied, looking at the angel standing before him.
"Hah! Yoshi! Now I can show kitsune how good the tensai really is!" Sakuragi proclaimed.
"Yare yare," Rukawa muttered.
Hatsuko giggled. Rukawa-san and her Onii-chan looked so kawaii when they argued. Rukawa looked at Hatsuko from the corner of his eyes. Hatsuko noticed and gave him a warm smile.
"Let's play two on two, ne?"
~*~*~*~*~
The sun's rays beat heavily upon the four. Beads of sweat formed on their skin and occasionally, one of them would wipe their forehead with their shirt of sleeve.
"Kuso," Sakuragi muttered.
They have been playing for more than an hour and the gap in their score was too wide. Hatsuko looked at her brother and bit her lip.
"Onii-chan," she started.
Sakuragi shook his head. 'No. It's not her fault. She's a girl and we're fighting not one, but two Rukawas,' he thought.
Throughout the entire match, Hatsuko has been defending Kazuo, and Sakuragi - Rukawa. The Sakuragi siblings managed to steal a few balls but could never stop the Rukawa brothers from eluding. Rukawa and Kazuo hardly passed the ball to each other so there was no possible chance for them to do a cut.
Rukawa, who was dribbling, gave his brother a glance and signaled with a small nod. With a nod returned, both of them advanced to the Sakuragi siblings and upon nearing them, they did a switch such that Hatsuko was defending Rukawa instead of Kazuo.
"KUSO!" Sakuragi yelled.
"No use sempai. I won't let you through," Kazuo told him, when Sakuragi tried to elude to help his sister.
Hatsuko defended Rukawa with a look of determination. Every time she moved forward to tap the ball, Rukawa would dribble the ball behind him or dribble the ball to his other hand. On her fourth attempt, Rukawa eluded her but like Sakuragi, she had speed so she caught up to him immediately.
Panting, she looked into Rukawa's eyes to try and read his movements. Instead, she found concern mirrored in them. Tilting her head to one side, she smiled and shook her head.
"Ikuzo, Rukawa-san," she said softly.
Rukawa's mouth twitched. He advanced forward and moved sharply to the left. Hatsuko moved to block him off but he did a roll and eluded her. Hatsuko ran after him and realized that the area under the basket was unblocked as her brother was being screened out far away from the basket by Kazuo.
As Rukawa leapt, Hatsuko leapt after him in a desperate attempt to tap the ball. However, Rukawa's jump was too high and the ball was out of reach. Hatsuko bumped into Rukawa in mid-air instead and began to fall as Rukawa smashed the ball through the hoop.
Hatsuko shut her eyes and allowed herself to fall, hoping that it wouldn't be too painful if she did. She felt herself land but it was a rather soft landing than she expected. She opened her eyes and found herself looking into a pair of smiling and bright blue eyes.
"Daijoubu ka?" he asked, grinning.
"Eh? Daijoubu," she said.
The person was still carrying her in his arms. She started to blush deeply and only then did he realize that he was still carrying her that the person put her down.
"Gomen, gomen," he smiled sheepishly.
"Iie. Arigato. Anata wa donata desu ka?" she asked, looking up at the person before her.
"Ore wa…"
Before the person could reply, Sakuragi interrupted him.
Author's note: AAH! Another short chapter!! Gomen, gomen! It was supposed to be longer than this but I did a word count and it went over 2000 words and I want my fic chapters to have between 1000-1500 words only so be content with this much for now, kay? Gomen again!