Disclaimer: Really, I don't own this series, but I did create Sakura, so no poaching please.
Author's note: Okay, so I'm going to mess around with the time line a little, hope you all don't mind.
Chapter 2 - Lunch Date
"Inoue-sempai, why are we at Seigaku, they're not having ranking matches for a while."
"I just got an advance copy of an article that's going to be published in The National this Tuesday. It will concern Ryuzaki-sensei and Sakuno-chan; I want to know if they're aware of the article."
"The National? How did Ryuzaki-sensei or Sakuno-chan appear on their radar? They're a purely gossip, UFO abductions, tabloid."
"I know, but I think they actually have a story this time Shiba. Come on they should still be practicing." When they got to the tennis courts, they saw the regulars matched up against one another at different courts except for Ryoma. Ryoma was playing against Sakura, and to the amazement of almost everyone there, Sakura was putting up a good fight against him. The only people who seemed amused were Ryuzaki-sensei, her son, Oishi, and Tezuka.
"Hey, Tezuka, doesn't look like Sakura-chan has changed that much," remarked Oishi. Tezuka didn't say anything, and just watched the match. They were soon joined by the smiling Fuji, and the data collecting Inui.
"So she hasn't giving up a single service game yet. Who knew that sensei had such a talented granddaughter," Fuji remarked.
"Hmm, Eichizen should have been able to finish this set, but yet has trouble with her. Defies the current data on Eichizen."
"She's able to keep up with Ryoma-kun because Lena-chan helped me coach him," Ryuzaki explained. "There would be times when I'd be away at tournaments with other students, Lena-chan would take over practicing with my other student like Ryoma-kun, until I came back. So she knows his style, tempo, strong and weak points, and she picks up some tricks of her own."
"Wait a minute, I thought that Ryoma's father coached him before he came to Japan." Oishi stated confused.
"Nanjiroh?" Ryuzaki let out a small laugh. "He's a great player, probably one of the greatest to play in the circuit, but that man has absolutely no patience. He wouldn't have been able to handle trying to teach a young person how to hit a backhand if that person just started to perfect his swing. No, he's a great opponent to play against, but he is no good as a coach. On the other hand, Lena-chan is a good training partner. She can pick up on player's weak points and helps them to correct them no matter how long it take." He then cupped his hands and yelled over the court, "That's fourth time she's kept her service game, Ryoma-kun, that means the match is finished."
Inoue and Shiba looked at the regulars confused, Ryuzaki-sensei turned to explain to them. "The gentleman is my son visiting from America. He was Eichizen's coach for some years, before Eichizen moved to Japan. The girl playing against him is my other granddaughter, Sakura. When Eichizen was in American, Sakura use to practice with him, even when he surpassed her as a player. However, according to my son, the two of them have an agreement every time they play. If Sakura can maintain her service game for four games, then they stop the match, no matter the score."
"I can't imagine Ryoma agreeing to such an arrangement," Shiba stated.
"I'm not sure about the circumstances around the agreement either, but Eichizen has honored it for the last year he was in the United States, but it doesn't mean he's happy about it. Hold on, I'll introduce you two to her. Sakura, this is Inoue Mamoru and Shiba Saori. Inoue-san, Shiba-san, my granddaughter Sakura Ryuzaki."
"Oh, you must be the two reporters from the tennis magazine. My cousin Sakuno has written to me about you," Sakura bowed, "Thank you for looking after her during the matches."
"Oh, it's no trouble, she's really curious about tennis, and very enthusiastic about cheering for the team," Inoue told her. "Um, actually I didn't come here to talk about tennis, I was hoping to talk to your grandmother about a different matter, I didn't realize that you were in Japan as well."
Ryuzaki-sensei and her son looked at each other for a moment, while Sakura's smile faded, luckily Sakuno was too far away watching the match between Momoshiro and Kaido with the other freshmen to hear. Sakura answered softly before the adults could respond, "If it's about the article, I think I can speak for my family, when I say that we have no comment."
"I'm not asking as a reporter, I'm asking as a friend. It'll be entirely off the record." Inoue stated quietly.
Ryuzaki-sensei looked at the reporter, "We know, but the subject is something we would prefer to stay in the past. I'm sorry. Sakura, you should probably go and shower."
She nodded, "Um, I don't know where the girls' tennis club room is, can you show me the way Inoue-san? I think Shiba-san might want to take some photos of the current match between Momoshiro and Kaido." Inoue nodded in agreement. The two of them started towards the girls court. "You must understand, my family tends to guard our private lives and history very carefully. I know you mean well, but for my grandmother and father the subject is still really painful." She paused for a moment before continuing again, slowly. "If you're free on Sunday, my grandmother has school duty, Father is meeting friends, and Sakuno is going out with Tomoka, I'll talk to you off the record."
"Are you sure that you should go behind your family's back?"
"I have my reasons, so do we have an agreement?"
Two days later
Oishi and Tezuka were walking towards the newly redone clay courts by the university when Tezuka noticed Sakura waiting by a fountain in the park. He stopped for a moment, but it was long enough for Oishi to stop as well. "Isn't that Sakura-chan? The girl wearing sunglasses at the fountain, looks like she's waiting for someone. Did you want to stop by and say hello?"
Tezuka didn't answer. He was a little confused at the moment, ever since he saw her at the tennis courts, Tezuka felt confused. After the run, Sakura went up to both him and Oishi and said very softly so no one else could hear, "It's good to see you again, Syu-kun, Kuni-kun." He hated that nickname, still felt embarrassed by it. When she first called him that six years ago he remembered telling her that he would never respond to it, but that was before she beat him on the tennis court. After that day he agreed to be called 'Kuni-kun' but only by her. For the next two summers when she'd visit, he remembered cringing at the idea of having to respond to that nickname, and how relieved he felt when she left. Yet it felt good for him to hear her call him that name after four years. It was the only thing that she said to him, and for some reason he felt a little disappointed that Sakura didn't talk to him again during practice. He didn't understand how he could feel like that, and of all times, he didn't need this now. What he needed was to prepare for the match against Grinka and afterwards their next opponent. Tezuka hadn't responded to Oishi's question when they saw Inoue greeting Sakura.
"Hmmm, meeting with tennis reporter Inoue Mamoru, I wonder is this a date? Must gather more data."
Oishi almost jumped from being surprised by their fellow classmate hiding behind some bushes. "What are you doing Inui?"
"Gathering data on Ryuzaki Sakura, she makes for a very interesting analysis." Inui's glasses glinted in the sunlight. "Will continue surveillance on subjects, did you want to join me?"
Normally Oishi and Tezuka wouldn't even bother with following Inui on one of his surveillance trips. That was more Kikumaru's and Momoshiro's style, but this time was a little different. For Oishi, it was because he was curious with why his old friend would want to speak with a tennis reporter. For Tezuka, he figured that he should be there to keep an eye on Inui, to make sure that he didn't do something stupid to embarrassed the Seigaku name. They had only traveled for about two blocks when Kikumaru, Fuji, and Kawamura spotted them. Kikumaru was about to call out to them when Oishi saw him and motioned for them to be quiet and to come over.
"Nya? What's going on?" Kikumaru whispered.
"We're following sensei's granddaughter, Sakura and Inoue-san."
"Are they on a date? Who would have thought that he liked younger girls," Kikumaru joked.
"Eiji, that's not funny."
The six seniors trailed the two to a small Chinese restaurant near the business district. They walked in after them, to find the two talking to the hostess.
"How about that table for two by the window?"
Sakura glanced at the table the hostess offered and then looked at a table that was farther inside of the restaurant. "How about that table over there?" She asked pointing to the other table.
Inoue and the hostess looked confused, "But that table sits eight, you only have two in your party."
"We have eight people in our party, I believe that Fuji, Inui, Kawamura, Kikumaru, Oishi, and Tezuka are also joining us today, Inoue-san," she informed them as she took off her glasses.
The five members hiding behind the large doorframe cringed at being discovered (Think sweat drop, turning blue, and jaws hitting floor, except Fuji, he just smiled more.), but each one of them stood up and walked towards the other two. Tezuka was leaning on the other side of the door frame with his eyes closed (Only one small sweat drop), he only shook his head, and calmly walked over. The hostess looked a little confused and then led them to the table that Sakura pointed out. After they sat down and ordered their food, Oishi asked her, "How did you know that we were there?"
She laughed and took out her sunglasses. "They're my old spy glasses that I bought when I was 11. They have a reflective coating which allows me to see what's behind me in case I'm being followed. I saw you guys when you started to trail us. I started to wear them because I didn't want the press to follow me."
"Why would the press be following you?" Fuji asked.
Sakura reached into her backpack for another pair of glasses. After putting them on, she pulled out the hair tie securing her ponytail. The boys looked at her for a moment before Kikumaru pointed at her in recognition. "What a minute, I've seen you before, you're that model that's in all of my sister's magazines. You're Selene Lee." She nodded smiling at their shocked faces, took off the glasses, and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.
The revelation explained a lot to Tezuka, it helped him understand why he started to think about her. All of the students at Seigaku had heard about Selene Lee, she was a new up and coming model that was very popular in the teen magazines. They had all seen her photo in random ads around the city for the past year, but she hadn't gotten popular until the past couple of months. Tezuka was kicking himself for not realizing the connection sooner, except for the different eye color, glasses, and the makeup that she wore in the ads, any person could see that Sakura and Selene resembled each other.
"Ano, why bother with the contacts and the glasses? I mean it doesn't make much sense to me," Kawamura politely asked.
Sakura's smile dropped from her face and a melancholy look came over her eyes before she answered, "I do it to protect my cousin, Sakuno."
Jadeling's last note: Hmmm, not much to say about this chapter except that it didn't have that much plot. Well, I hope you guys got a couple of laughs.
Thanks for all of the nice reviews! Yea, you like me!
SereneC - Thanks for noticing the hours, and I mean hours of editing it took for this chapter so I wouldn't make dumb mistakes like saying "Their" instead of "There."
Shells - Sakura is talented at sports, she kind of fell into the modeling thing, it'll be explained in the next chapter. Hee hee Fuji rocks, all I have to say is "Lucky Pocket."
Stawberry Dreams - Yeah, go us girls! I can't promise anything concerning Ryoma and Sakuno, but I'll include hints, really I will.
Aeris - I'm trying to make Sakura semi-normal, but I admit the more I write the more she does seem like a Marysue. In her defense though, you and the PoT boys only see her for very short periods of time, and she's not staying in Japan for long, only for spring break. So like in most real life situations, you're probably not going to see her flaws right away, however, you'll notice quirks, like her betting ^v^.
Hitori - THANKS!!
Once again people, thanks so much. This fic got more reviews than my other one. Yea!!!