You guys asked for action, here it is… a little bit. Beyblade modifications, wicked, forbidden thoughts, a clue to Sakura's past… also, thank you:

Crazygurl-15

     and

airreha-star

for reviewing. Why can't the rest of you review too? Tell me what you wanna see, what you don't, etc. Please, at least three reviews this time? *gets down on knees* Please?!

Chapter Three: Riddles

            Kai sighed, tension draining slowly from his aching muscles. His beyblade had a new defense ring, a new attack ring, and a new coat of paint. It looked almost brand new. He could beat Sakura with this beyblade, he hoped. He prayed. Did he want to beat her, though? He'd rather drag her up to his room and… he choked as desire slammed into him. He shouldn't have been thinking of her now, especially like that. Well, she was the most gorgeous thing on earth….

The launcher's reassuring weight rested in his palm. He slipped a finger into the cord ring and pulled the ripcord. His beyblade flew to earth, screaming through the air, tearing up wet, slimy turf and spraying shards of razor sharp gravel. He didn't flinch as a piece of gravel sliced his cheek, but the person watching him hissed in sympathy as the blood began to seep from the shallow cut. The deep, cherry redness clashed starkly with his pale skin and blue shark fin tattoos. The watcher gazed on as Kai wiped blood off his face on his sleeve, attention focused on his bit beast and beyblade. He was awesome, totally in the zone. He was just like her brother, she realized. Just like him. It made her smile.

Sakura leaned back against the cold, concrete wall, relaxed but alert, strangely happy about the power of the blade she was watching with calculating blue eyes. They glittered, her delight shining in them as she correctly anticipated each of his moves. They were the same she would have employed. She wondered whether he really was as good as she thought, or if there was something wrong with her. Probably, there was something wrong with her. Yes, definitely… or not, she thought as Draanzer decimated a large boulder. He was good, she decided. Well, of course, a voice in her head nagged. Then, looking slightly impressed, her thoughts followed that line. Kai was good… correction, he was very good, she admitted, though tying with her certainly agreed to that. Lasting two minutes against her testified that, though she was hardly the kraken of Beyblading. She was just… her.

She smiled as her gaze followed the beyblade, modified to improve, as it ripped through stones and trees, splashed through water. She flinched as the spray showered her gently. He was enjoying himself, she noticed. She wondered briefly why he'd be improving his beyblade, but then groaned inwardly at her own naivety. He was trying to beat her again, she supposed. Yes, that was probably it, her and the rest of the world. Improving his beyblade to contest with hers again. Let him, a part of her said. He won't ever beat you. You're one of the best, second only to your brother. The Twin Titans, that's what the world knows you two as. No one can beat the two best bladers in Russia, the two best bladers in the world. Kai will never beat you, the voice said. She wasn't so sure, though. She wasn't sure at all.

            "If you're done spying on me, you can come out now, Sakura." She smirked at his words. She should have realized he knew she was here. She'd made enough noise. "Come on, you're driving me nuts. Get out here."

            Sakura walked up behind him, hips swaying just a little. She was flirting sarcastically, not serious, and he knew it. "Am I distracting you, Kai?" She asked innocently. "I'm very sorry. I thought you wouldn't mind this outfit." Kai, about to retort scathingly, took a glance at her and snapped his mouth shut with a click of his teeth. Girls shouldn't dress like that, he thought numbly, girls shouldn't ever, never ever, especially if they're that beautiful. Sakura wore a skirt of dark blue, and a white shirt with bell sleeves and a lace up front, that showed just enough of what Kai didn't want, yet somehow desperately did want, to see. Wanted to touch… He clenched his teeth as a forbidden thought flashed through his mind.

            "What the hell do you want?" He was not in the mood for desire that could never be sated. He hated her for being so beautiful. She was being a distraction, the vixen.

"What, being a spectator's a crime now? Yeesh." At his look, she quit fooling. She could tell he wasn't in the mood for their usual games. "I met Tyson, Kai." He stiffened. Fury, like the thudding hooves of the black Horse of Death, pounded at his temples, making him wince. She'd met Tyson. Damn it, she'd met Tyson, and probably liked him, as much as, or possibly- probably- far more than, she liked Kai himself. The thought made his stomach clench. He didn't want her to like him more. He realized he was jealous. He didn't want to be jealous. He didn't want to feel anything, lust or hate or affection, or anything, for Sakura. "He's an okay blader, I suppose." He gave her a questioning look when she didn't continue. She looked upset, ashamed of herself. "I tied with him too, god damn it. What the fuck is wrong with me, damn it!?"

She slammed her fist into the trunk of a tree, and the wood splintered. Blood trickled from cuts along her pale knuckles. Without thinking, Kai took her hand and put his lips to one cut, soothing it with his tongue. She swallowed hard, but Kai didn't seem to be paying attention to what he was really doing, but was gazing at her, waiting for her to finish. She looked down at her feet and sighed. "He doesn't blade the way you do, but he is good. It's very annoying. You're driving me mad, you know that?" Kai suddenly realized what he was doing and dropped her hand as if he had been burned.

"Sorry."

"No problem. You two still driving me insane."

            "I kinda figured. Why, because I'm so good looking?" She snorted, trying to keep her gaze from running along the hard lines of his muscles, his handsome, square jaw… her eyes flicked to below Kai's waist and smirked in satisfaction. So she affected him, did she? Well, he affected her too, now that she thought about it. He was good looking… maybe, but that wasn't why he was driving her insane. Not really. She could handle a hot guy… of course she could.

            "No, you frighteningly slow idiot, it's because I found someone besides my brother who's as good as I am. It irks, but it doesn't, ya know?" He nodded, and his hair brushed into his eyes. Her fingers itched to straighten it. It was probably very soft. "So, anyway, I just wanted to tell you."

            "How did you know I'd care?" She smiled at his curiosity. Stupid cat, he was.

            "You do care. How I knew it, is unimportant. Curiosity killed the cat, Kai."

"So I'm curious. No harm in that, is there?"

"Curiosity only serves in the bedroom, Kai." He wondered briefly if the two of them could fit on his bed.

"Bedroom games bring out the kitten in you, don't they, Sakura?"

"Yes, you would ask." He smiled at her. "See ya." She turned away, but he caught her wrist, clasping it gently. Her eyes widened, but before a mix of panic and delight could appear on her face, she tamped it down. "What is it?"

            "Who are you, Sakura? Really?"

            "Really? That is a very good question. I could tell you my name, but you know it already, and that's not the answer anyway. Who am I? I wish I knew." She bit her lip and sighed. "I'll tell you who I am, or a bit of it, anyway. I'm a lost little girl, stranded in the middle of a freezing ocean, and no one is there to save me. Shards of ice rain down upon me, and the waters are stained with blood and tears." With that, and memories of… past punishments beating themselves against the inside of her skull, she walked away, trying not to cry. Memories really did hurt, and he made her face her past with such innocence… it would destroy her one of these days.

Before she turned away from him, though, Kai saw what he soon learned was a rare glimpse into Sakura's heart. A single tear had run down her cheek. Her eyes had been shining with pain and unshed tears. What did she mean by that? 'I'm a lost little girl, stranded in the middle of a freezing ocean, and no one is there to save me.' No one there to save her? What did she mean? Was she in trouble? 'Shards of ice rain down upon me, and the waters are stained with blood and tears.' Shards of ice? Blood and tears? She was in trouble. She was in a lot of trouble. Now he suddenly remembered why he hated cryptic riddles. They were hell and a half trying to figure them out.

            "Sakura… what's going on with you?"