I had writer's block as usual, therefore I rewatched some of the prince of tennis episodes again. Yup and it just so happened that I happen to watch the episode where Nanjiroh was tailing Ryoma and Momo was trying to protect Ryoma's date. Then I had a rough idea on how to start. If not I don't know how long I am going to take. Tried to post this early as I MAY be going into serious mugging again (sigh) and I won't be allowed to type till my major exams are over (and that maybe 2 years later. (double sigh, I just survived one major exam 3 months ago) But I said maybe, it all depends on my decision whether I wanna choose this education route of mugging for another 2 years and live another deprived teenage hood. I haven't decided yet, cracking my brain over difficult choices.

This chapter was two weeks late as I was watching Get Backers. Very nice anime, but a terrible ending, I was terribly depressed. It didn't help when shaman king manga (last book) ended so crappily, I was terribly pissed.

So plus the delay due to watching of anime, this fic should have been posted up like 3 weeks ago.

I wanted to make 2 chappies into one to compensate readers, in case I got too busy in school and have no time to type. However, the 2nd chapter was far too long and I had to chop half of it off so here is phppsmss presenting to you 1¼ chappies.

And just a note for those who did not really understand this story, Sakura is from the future.

Just read episode summaries of 162 to 174. Ryoma is going for the US Open! He is leaving Seigaku! He can't participate in the Nationals! WAH! TT

-

Nanjroh was in his room, humming to himself as he flipped through his dirty magazine. He was in a cheery mood today even though he was sacked just hours after he started work. Swooning over swimsuit clad women was obviously not one of the job requirements therefore his buddy just hurriedly sent him packing. But he did not care! No sir! Never! Not after he managed to lay his large hands on this limited edition magazine! It was said that the pictures in this magazine were "better" and more in number. He was extremely lucky to have spotted this huge crowd of males surrounding a roadside stall on his way back home. Curiosity killed the cat, like what many always said. But Nanjiroh's curiosity benefited him greatly as he found out that the magazine was on sale. Fighting his way through the crowd, he managed to grab a copy of it, flung the money hopefully at the stall holder and dashed off gleefully with the magazine.

"It must be fate." Nanjiroh mused as he stared dreamily at the pictures.

However, his peace was interrupted by the mini commotion outside. Irritated, he looked up and strained his ears. It sounded like his son. Why was that brat at home that early? Being the nosey old man he was, he decided to check it out.

Stuffing his dirty magazine under his pillow, he walked and peered out, leaning against the doorframe in the process. Ah, there was that brat, looking unusually flustered. And what was that thing behind him? Oh well…

"Yo bishounen! Why are you back home so early?"

Ryoma spun round and gave Nanjiroh a rude stare, trying to cough out some insult to shut Nanjiroh up. It was then Sakura managed to figure out who was that man dressed in old robes.

She rushed forward and cried out with great enthusasium.

"GRANDPA!"

-

Nanjiroh's POV

Huh? I must be dreaming. There was this little girl that sped out and called me grandpa. Must have drunk too much beer yesterday. After several rounds of cheek pinching, confirming that I wasn't in la la land, I began to wonder about the Ws and H.

That little girl was jumping around like any hyperactive kid, pointing at me and tugging Ryoma's shirt.

"Papa! Grandpapa looks younger now! He used to have more white hair you know! And he wore robes with big big flowers!"

Papa? Grandpapa? I turned to that brat for explanations only to see him highly frustrated, giving me the you-better-not-ask-anything look. It was up to the intelligent Nanjiroh to solve this mystery!

Nanjiroh's data base

Keyword: Papa

Sub-keywords: Grandpapa

A little kid who looks like Ryoma

Deciphering…

Answer: Ryoma's daughter, my granddaughter

Ryoma's daughter.

A flood of emotions numbed my senses as everything just clicked into place. It was a few seconds later before I reacted. This is… this is… this is too good to be true! Thank the gods! After many years, he finally got attracted to the opposite sex! I have almost given up on him after he showed no hint of attraction to any girl I tried to match make him with. That's it! I should ask Nanako to buy offerings for the God of Love as a sign of my appreciation. Maybe I should get some for the god of marriage as well…

With immense happiness bubbling within me, I rushed up to him and gave him a bone crushing hug, "YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER! As your father, I am really happy for you! Although this happened a bit too fast… But oh well-"

"Oyachi! Stop all these crap! I DO NOT HAVE A DAUGHTER!" That stupid son of mine defended himself.

"NONSENSE! The evidence is right in front of you!" I pointed to that kid, "After exposing you to pornographic magazines for years, all my effort has not gone to waste! So tell me! Who is the lucky girl? Is it that long pig-tailed girl? Where did you all meet? Where did you two –"

"OYACHI! One more word and I will-"

"How many years have you been hiding her?"

That brat looked like he was going to die of high blood pressure anytime soon. And so I gave him a final push.

"Looks like your mum and I need to discuss about the wedding soon."

That did it. With his face as black as thunder, he looked like he was thirsty for blood. Thinking that his puny sized figure could punch the daylights out of me, he charged forward like some insane bull that saw red and attempted to tackle me. Hmph, stupid kid. With my amazing reflexes, I stepped aside with ease and grabbed that charging idiot by the collar.

"Achar! Kids nowadays have no respect for their parents." I swooped down to his level and gave him a huge smile, showing off my pearly whites. That kid broke free of my grasps, gave me a glare that could kill and towed that girl into his room.

While I had a mission to do.

Rushing down the stairs, I hollered for my niece. Nanako peeped out of the kitchen and gave me a curious look.

"Nanako, I am going to the shrine."

-

Normal POV (Ryoma's room)

"Baka oyachi!" Ryoma muttered as he slumped onto his bed, ignoring Sakura completely. Not that Sakura minded anyway. She used this opportunity to explore Ryoma's room, chancing upon a photo album. It radiated a dark ominous aura, as if the album was warning Sakura not to touch it. Being the little adorable yet ignorant kid she was, she flipped through the album anyway, oblivious to all impending dangers.

Ryoma on the other hand was grumbling to himself, cursing Nanjiroh with all kinds of colorful language that he could think of. However, he was interrupted with peals of laughter. It sounded to suspicious for his own good, but thinking that Sakura was just entertaining herself in ways which only little kids could think of, Ryoma did not bother to check. Soon the laughter increased in volume and our dear Ryoma was getting highly irritated. Tilting his head at an angle, it took a few seconds before his eyes widen in realization.

"Give that back!" Ryoma ordered, stretching his hand out.

Sakura just continued laughing as she pointed to one of the photographs. "Papa looks so cute!" she replied as zeroed onto a photo where Ryoma was taking swimming lessons at a young age.

If it was any old, normal photo which should Ryoma swimming normally, he could care less. But the problem was that the photographer was Nanjiroh and that spelled trouble. After all, his father had a weird mind and loved to snap photos of Ryoma in embarrassing positions. Ryoma had to confiscate that photo album from his father a couple of years back when Nanjiroh was flashing that album proudly to their visitors for the umpteenth time. It was a traumatic experience for poor Ryoma as he remembers wrestling that album in front of the visitors with his scarlet face burning with embarrassment.

"Mama likes tennis too…" Sakura murmured as her eyes strayed to a photo of Ryoma playing tennis.

The mood in the room somehow changed, with Sakura behaving unusually serious and Ryoma falling silent.

"Mama, Papa, Grandpapa and Sakura all lived in this huge house in America. Big red flowers in the garden. They were Mama's favourites. Sakura always spend lots of time in the garden with mama…" Sakura muttered endlessly.

Ryoma still did not open his mouth.

Sakura paused briefly before she continued her life story, "Mama always prepares bento for me before I go to school and I will always say, "Very Delicious!". Then Mama would always smile and it makes Sakura very happy. Mama also makes bento for papa too!" (My young cousins LOVE to talk like this)

"…Your mother… how…-" Ryoma asked uncertainly, well aware of the awkwardness of the topic.

"Papa loves Mama a lot." Sakura said simply, "Even Grandpapa says so and Sakura agrees too."

Meanwhile, at the shrine…

Nanako stared in bewilderment at her uncle as Nanjiroh entered the shrine with a big, happy smile plastered on his face. She shook her head and gave a long sigh; the screws in her uncle's head were loose again. As far as she knew, her uncle never believed in gods whatsoever even those he was a monk, or looked like one at least. She remembers the last time her uncle actually set foot into a shrine was a couple of years back, when her aunty (Rinko) had to literally drag her stubborn husband into the shrine. It was only when Rinko bribed him before he would step into the shrine. She will never figure out her uncle's repulsion against shrines.

Then suddenly, her uncle shocked her senseless today when he proudly announced that he would be trotting to the shrine to offer prayers, ensuring that he took along his prized sake. What's more, he was going to pay tribute to the Gods of Love and Marriage. As she watched her uncle donated a large sum of money, Nanako began to sense something fishy going on. Since when was her uncle that devoted to religion? Since when did he even believe any of these?

Well Nanjiroh did not help her to understand the situation. When Nanako approached him to clarify her doubts, Nanjiroh just gave her another of his damned mysterious smile.

"You got to be so proud of Ryoma! That brat finally made his move!"

And he went ahead leaving a very clueless Nanako behind.

"I am really grateful what you did for that brat and I really appreciate it! After years of hard work, it finally paid off!." Nanjiroh started, wiping off an imaginary tear.

Picking up his sake, he continued, "Here is my prized sake, top grade stuff. It is really difficult to obtain in this area. I hope that wedding bells will clash soon. You should know what I am saying right?"

And after his terribly brief prayer(after all, he does not visit shrines often), he started shaking the bamboo container for fortunes. Soon the deciding stick fell out and he strode over to the fortune teller whose appearance rivaled Nanjiroh. The fortune teller flipped was deep in thought for quite some time before he spoke those words of wisdom.

"He will reach there eventually, but may stray along the way."

Sitting in an unrefined manner as he dug his nose, Nanjiroh gave the fortune teller "the look" before dismissing it as a hoax.

But being Nanjiroh…

"So you mean, that stupid son needs someone to guide him along the way? To watch over him?"

"Erm…. Yeah. Yes… yes."

Heck whether that fortune teller was a hoax. This was a chance to "watch over" Ryoma and his granddaughter and it was too good of a chance to miss.

Back at Ryoma's house…

It has been a couple of hours since that "father-to-daughter" talk between Ryoma and Sakura and Sakura reverted back to her gaki- self and went round the house on a rampage, much to Ryoma's horror. Thank god his family members were out to god-knows-where and would not have to witness Ryoma tearing after Sakura to prevent further damage. It all started when Sakura spotted Karupin at the doorway and being the little kid who had short attention span, she broke off the so-called serious conversation immediately and went to cuddle the "cute fluffy thing". Unfortunately, Karupin does not like strangers more than Nanjiroh and Sakura should count her lucky stars that Karupin was not in the mood to attack anyone that day. However, Sakura chased after the poor cat which darted around the house. Then Sakura realized that the cat must be playing catching with her therefore she obliged and went after it at top speed – which means going under furniture and knocking down stuff. And that also means Ryoma running after her to pick up the pieces, prevent her from doing any more damage and saving his pet from the pursuing monster.

Damage was mainly confined to the living room so far and Nanjiroh's processions seemed to have the worse hit. His magazines were scattered all over the room as the cat and the girl treated those magazines as door mats. A handful of those "dirty" magazines were torn due to constant trampling and the others were awfully crumpled. Poor Ryoma had to pick them up and store them properly. Don't get the wrong idea. Ryoma did not give a damn about his father's magazines and approved of sending that trash to the incinerator. However, at the thought of his sempais' finding out about Nanjiroh's obsession or Sakura accidentally stumbling on one or his father giving him hell later was a little too much for him to bear.

It was nearly half an hour later before everything was calm once more and Ryoma managed to repair all damage done. By done Sakura was tired and gave up on chasing that animal, much to Karupin's delight. Instead Sakura began to wonder about the house. On the other hand, Ryoma was inwardly glad that the house was peaceful and quiet once more and did not really mind Sakura's sudden disappearance.

However, the peace did not prevail as Eji's voice pierced through the silence like a knife cutting through melted butter.

"Nya! Ochibi! We are here!"

Ryoma was extremely pissed and dragged his rotting carcass off the couch to open the gate.

At the same time…

Sakura was exploring the second storey of the house and she was partically attracted to the brightly colored bed sheets in the master bedroom.

"Woah! This bed is bigger than Papa's bed!" Sakura was terribly impressed as she climbed onto the bed and treating it like a trampoline. Up and down she went as the bed sheets began the crumple and pillows began to fall out of place. It was then that she suddenly spotted something at the corner of her eye. Turning her head, her eyes fell onto a brightly colored magazine, which was actually the magazine Nanjiroh hid under the pillow.

"Ah! Grandpapa has books like this but Papa refused to let me see it" Sakura muttered as she recalled the past/future. Shifting into a comfortable position, she scanned the cover.

"Woah! Colorful pictures!"

And Sakura flipped open the magazine.

Back at the living room…

Eji was starting on his routine of glomping on ochibi and the rest of the regulars began to settle down on the floor. Ryoma was pretty surprised that they arrived with an arm load of books and other stuff. Tezuka was absent though as he had to attend to other private matters.

"Sempais… what are those books for?"

Ryoma prodded at the towering pile of books and it wobbled dangerously. Some books were at least a few hundred pages thick with yellow pages sticking out at odd angles. The musty smell emitted by some indicated how ancient some of the books were and how long they were stuck in the attic.

Eji sprang up as he began to do a brief introduction.

"Nya, ochibi. We told you that we as your sempais will help you alleviate your suffering."

"And…" Ryoma raised an eyebrow.

"We went to dig out some references that may be helpful for you." Eji pointed at the tall stack of paperbacks. "Nya, I got this from a nearby bookshop!" Eji tossed one of the books to Ryoma.

"How to communicate with you child… … Kikumaru sempai, I don't need this…"

Eji ignored Ryoma as he went through the list of books. Meanwhile, the rest of the regulars went to help Eji.

"I picked this out for you Echizen!" Momo stuffed a yellow book into Ryoma's hands.

"PARENTING FOR IDIOTS!" The cover screamed at Ryoma's face. Ryoma somehow had this feeling that he was thoroughly insulted. Scowling, he was about to argue with Momo when he saw Oishi handing him a book.

"Responsible parenting? Oishi-sempai I-"

"This is very important for Sakura's upbringing." Grabbing the book, the mother of Oishi flipped to various tagged pages, "See Echizen, this page tells you the dos and don'ts. This page tells you how to lecture your child properly. You don't want to let Sakura have a scarred childhood, do you? It is bad for the child's development and –" Oishi rambled on and on, it was as if Oishi was the father of Sakura.

Inui finally stood up, glasses gleaming in the light, in his hands were two very old books.

"Echizen, these books were past down in my family for generations. It was because of these books that I became a data player."

Ryoma peered boredly at the cover of the books, "Inui-sempai, what has statistics and math textbooks got to do with Sakura?" Ryoma held those books up, giving Inui a questioning look.

"Math is the basis to everything! Percentages, numbers…" Inui said in a dreamy voice. Pointing to "Math for preschoolers", Inui piped, "I have the complete collection of math books for every age. It develops Sakura's potential in math as she grows up. I shall lend it to you after you completed these books. Say, I have my very own Inui's juice recipe book. Maybe I should impart some secret recipes to her. Hee hee hee…" Inui gave a creepy smile which froze everybody's blood.

"Ano… Echizen… I …"

"Speak up Taka-san. Here!" You should have guessed it.

"HORA! ECHIZEN! IT IS IMPORTANT THAT SAKURA REMEMBERS HER CULTURAL ROOTS! THIS BOOK IS THE PRIDE OF MY FAMILY!" Taka-san swung the book dangerously at Ryoma. Ryoma managed to catch the heavy book in the nick of time before that book can create a hole in the wall.

"Yadda, history is so boring!"

"I SAY READ IT!"

"YADDA!"

"READ!" Taka-san gave a furious bellow and he almost smashed the thick book against Ryoma's face.

This created a mini commotion as Ryoma, probably due to a stressed out morning, snapped and almost went head on with Taka-san. Kaidoh and Momo had to refrain Ryoma from practically lunging at Taka-san as the others went to stop Taka-san. The sadistic Fuki just stepped back and enjoyed the great show. It was understandable why Ryoma snapped anyway. I mean, no matter how calm and patient a person was, having a splitting headache plus all the burden of taking care of a hyperactive child was a bit too much for him. Plus all the embarrassing moments he experienced this morning and his father finding out about Sakura was straining his mental health.

It was after sometime that Ryoma finally managed to calm down and they managed to force the racquet out of Takashi's hands. Frowning, Ryoma ignored the sheepish Takashi as he dragged his body and dumped it onto the armchair. He really could not care if Fuji brought Yuuta's old baby clothes over or if Kaidoh donated his precious bandana. He did not bother to intervene when another fight began between Kaidoh and Momo (Momo again retorted that the bandana had a horrifying shade of green). All he wanted was to wake up from this horrible nightmare and to have some peace and quiet in the house.

It was then Kikumaru and Momo (after fighting) decided to explore the Echizen's household and of course poor Ryoma had to go after them to prevent any damage done again. So there was Inui, Fuji, Takashi, Kaidoh and Oishi left in the living room.

And they did not sense impending danger approaching.

While everyone was minding their own business, the door was suddenly pulled open as Sakura entered. All eyes fell on her as Sakura tried to figure out who were the strange big people in the living room.

"Ano… are you all Papa's friends?" Sakura enquired.

"Er… Yes something like that…" Oishi said.

Sakura stared at Oishi for a few seconds before her eyes lit up in realization.

"Ah! Uncle Oishi!" Sakura cried, approaching Oishi as she continued, "I could not reconise you at first though, you had more hair."

"Ah… yes…" Oishi started, oblivious to the stares from the other regulars.

Sakura took a quick look around before piping, "Where is Papa? I need to ask him something."

"Echizen went off with Momo and Eiji." Fuji butted in.

"Yup, we will help you then." Oishi offered genourously, with the other regulars nodding their heads.

Sakura seated herself comfortably in the middle of all the regulars, with Oishi by her side. She took out the magazine that she was reading earlier on and flipped to a particular page before asking, "Uncle Oishi, why aren't these girls wearing anything?" Sakura flashed it for all to see, unaware of the sensivity of the topic.

Gaping sounds greeted Sakura as the rest of the regulars stared speechlessly at the magazine in her hands. Oishi, Kaidoh and Kawamura turned bright red as they processed the images, resembling goldfishes deprived of water. Kaidoh immediately covered his eyes and muttered something about having to scrub and sterilize his eyes for a month. Kawamura started muttering incoherent words, babbling nonsense throughout. Fuji started laughing as Sakura stared expectantly at Oishi for answers. Inui, on the other hand, dropped his pen as colour drained from his face. It was a few minutes later before he flipped open his notebook, scribbling down great data at breakneck speed. The gleeful look on his face was far too suspicious to be dismissed as the normal Inui's excited look.

"Saa Inui, the pen is going to break soon if you write that fast." Fuji spoke with a morbid smile on his face. True enough, the pen was strained as Inui hands were in a blur.

"So Uncle Oishi?" Sakura enquired, pushing the accursed magazine closer to his face. Oishi broke out of his shock and was horrified to see that magazine so near his face. Grabbing the magazine from Sakura, he demanded pointing at the offending magazine , "Sakura! How did you get this?"

"Huh? Oh I found it under Grandpapa's pillow!"

Unfortunately, the shock blocked Oishi's hearing ability and automatically assumed that it was Ryoma who was reading porn. Oishi was a righteous man, an honorable lad who never in his life read or even had a glimpse at porn. He was a principled young man, one strongly against porn! And today he, Vice-captain of Seigaku's tennis team, had his eyes soiled, his reputation kicked about in the mud, his pride crumbling into dust, his values falling into pieces. Today was the first time he ever saw porn, some loose woman dressed so skimpily, it hurt to even take a look. His dignity tottering, his dreams of becoming a decent young man were dashed. And it was all Ryoma's fault for bringing this misfortune onto him.

The gods have tried to make the situation worse as Ryoma suddenly appeared at the doorway, with two of the remaining regulars peering curiously behind him.

"Oishi-sempai, is there anything wrong?" Ryoma asked when he saw Oishi's dazed look.

"Nya Oishi, what is that in your hand?" Eiji dashed forward and grabbed the magazine out of the dazed Oishi's hands and read the contents together with Momo. It wasn't long before they realized why Oishi was in a daze.

"Ochibi! How could you read such stuff! Eiji exclaimed, sorely disappointed that Ryoma was not that pure and innocent junior that he used to know. Momo had the same reaction as Kaidoh.

"Damn, I have to use detergent and wash my eyes now!" Momo waved a fist at Ryoma.

"Har? Sempais, I do not know what you are talking about!" Ryoma defended himself as everyone gave him "the look".

Oishi approached Ryoma as if the world had come to an end. Moral values kicked in as he started his tirade, "Echizen! I can't believe you would do such a thing? Why do you read such stuff? Worse still, you influenced Sakura! Now her mind will be horribly polluted like drain water. You hear me? Drain water!"

"Har?" A confused first year replied.

Ignoring Ryoma, a teary and distraught Oishi flipped through his book on responsible parenting, "According to this book, Sakura may have a traumatic childhood if her case was not dealt with properly. She may experience metal images of nud-…"

"Oishi-sempai what do-" Ryoma shouted.

A magazine landed right smacked on his face. Grabbing the magazine, he opened it and tried to solve the puzzling mystery. His eyes dilated and widen in realization.

Oh shit!

This was just a nightmare.

It was his father's pornographic magazine.

His sempais found out about it, Oishi-sempai about to faint any moment.

And horrors of horrors they thought that he read porn.

Worse still, Sakura read it.

What could be worse?

"Papa, why are those women not wearing clothes?" Sakura tugged Ryoma's shirt.

He was seriously going to give his father hell later on. Make chopped pork out of Nanjiroh.

But first, he needed more aspirin to handle this chaos

Hope you like it. Reviews make my day!