Author's Note 2: I cannot believe I am doing this now, I mean I do have other things on hand to do but I simply decided to revise this fic of mine, revamping it into something better. Well, here goes nothing and on a side note, the sequel up and running now.

Title: Lost and Found

Genre: comedy/general/romance

Rating: PG-13/ T

Pairing: Fujima Kenji/Sakuragi Hanamichi

Summary: Fujima Kenji and Sakuragi Hanamichi used to be childhood playmates; the two of them ended up losing contact with one another after some unforeseen situation occurred that resulted in Sakuragi's move from the neighborhood.

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Slam Dunk nor its' characters.

Lost and Found- Chapter 7

Shoyo High

Hanagata Toru, the Vice-Captain of the Shoyo Basketball Team was beyond bewilderment as he stared at his friend, Fujima Kenji with unreadable eyes. His friend had literally canceled the team's morning practice earlier in the day without any warning to him in advance, saved for a phone call to his house an hour before the scheduled training hours through the help of his friend's mother – Fujima Miyako.

When he inquired on his friend's reasoning for canceling the practice session, his friend's mother had kindly informed him of Fujima Kenji's absence from the house since 5am that particular morning. What on earth could have possessed his friend to head out so early in the morning?

"What? Toru, is anything the matter?" Fujima shoots a questioning look at his friend, who was now eyeing him with an unreadable expression.

"I thought I should be the one asking you that... since you are the one who cancelled out on me this morning. And then when you arrived in school earlier on in the day, you had practically walked past me without any form of acknowledgement. Furthermore, when I inquired you on your training plans for us pertaining to the winter tournament issue, you chose to give me a half-hearted response. Heck, you didn't even bother to pay attention in class for the first time in your life; as you always seemed to be in deep thoughts. Day-dreaming in class was never your thing, alright? So would you care to explain yourself to me, anytime now?" Hanagata retorted his tone a little too sharp for his liking such that he nearly winced at his own words. Nevertheless, it just goes to show how frustrated he was with his friend's behavior recently, and in particularly – this morning.

"… I apologized. I've been so deep in thoughts that I failed to notice that I'm not behaving appropriately. It's just that I've recently been reunited with a childhood friend of mine, and was a little overwhelmed by all these emotions and feelings that suddenly engulfed me whenever I'm with him. Anyway, to simplify things for you so as to prevent your confusion…I'll just give you a brief summary of what happened that bothers me.

This friend of mine…he used to live in my neighborhood, but he moved away around ten years ago due to some disputes between his parents. In short, his parents' divorced one another and the family sold off the house while he shifted elsewhere with his father who had gained his custody. Anyway, he lost his father some years ago to a heart attack and was currently living in a run-down apartment on his own without much allowance. I've only just discovered this little detail that I felt so bad for him. I was supposed to be his best friend and yet I wasn't even there for him when he needed me. The sheer thought of how he's suffering from poverty while I'm here enjoying life with all the comforts... I just felt so guilty so I was thinking of asking him to move in with me. Scratch that…I actually suggested it and promised him a positive response to the situation. So now, I was actually thinking of how to broach the subject with my parents. I swear I didn't mean to ignore or neglect you on purpose." Fujima Kenji hurried to explain his situation, and was quite apologetic about his earlier treatment of his friend.

"Oh...well, I guess I over-reacted slightly too. I didn't know you had so much on your mind..." Hanagata replied dumbly, not knowing how to react to his friend's sudden confession.

Fujima Kenji had always struck him as the calm and cool figure; this was the first time he had ever seen his friend acting so 'out' of it that he freaked out a little. Frankly speaking, he had no idea how to deal with an emotional Fujima Kenji as he had never really seen how his friend behaves outside of classroom and beyond basketball practice hours.

Hanagata Toru knew that the only reason his friend had been willing to share the information was out from guilt. Apparently, Fujima Kenji had felt bad about withholding certain information away from him whom was supposedly a friend, a close one at that. That and also probably the fact that his friend had knew of his reluctance to let things off the hook without a valid reason, and hence the decision to share some details with him.

Either way through this confrontation, if there was anything Hanagata Toru understood. It would be that whoever the childhood friend his friend was referring to, that person was one that Fujima Kenji held close to heart. After all, it was not a common occurrence for Fujima Kenji to be distracted easily and whoever could achieve that was no ordinary being.

Hanagata Toru was the one other person whom Fujima Kenji had trusted in life, other than the teen's younger siblings and parents. Still, there are things that regardless of how close he was to the brunet…the other teen just won't reveal to his knowledge. However, observant is his middle name and henceforth there are things which he knew about his friend that he didn't comment on either. Among them included his discreet discovery of how his friend, Fujima Kenji, had actually prefers guys over girls as romantic interests.

It was actually kind of funny now as he thought back to the number of times; girls from their school had tried to attract his friend's attention only to fail miserably. There was one time a girl was so clingy that Fujima had snapped and come outright with the information that he was 'gay' during one of the after class tutorial session whereby they have to work together as a group on a class project. Luckily for his friend, the teacher was nowhere near the classroom when it happen although his words did caused the girl to wail and runs off in tears.

After the incident, rumors started to go around about how Fujima and he was a couple. For a while he nearly panicked until his friend confronted him in front of the rest of the team members, and told him to get his mind out of the gutter because he, Hanagata Toru, was simply not Fujima Kenji's cup of tea. When Nagano and Takano attempted to poke their nose into the business, they were send scuttling off with a death glare from Fujima instead.

While Hanagata Toru was musing inwardly to himself, the Captain cum Coach of Shoyo Basketball Team, Fujima Kenji had long fled the school with the intention to rush back home and consult his parents on the idea of allowing Hanamichi to move in with them.

Meanwhile for one Sakuragi Hanamichi…the redhead was trying to ignore all those teasing remarks from his group of close friends dubbed 'Sakuragi Squad' and focused his thoughts on the on his newfound childhood friend, Fujima Kenji of Shoyo High when he noticed it. The lack of the usual heart thumping feel upon the entry of his all time romantic crush – Haruko Akagi's entry into the school gym when he was practicing one of his dunking moves.

Everyone on the team seemed to be surprised by his lack of actions; even he was surprised by the fact. Because under normal circumstances, he would have rush immediately over to the girl and start boasting about his newly acquired skills or whatsoever despite the possibility that he might have ended up missing out on a shot or two while running over to meet his dream-girl. However, this time around not only did he show no outward reaction not even did he miss a shot when Haruko called out to him. He had only glanced over to the girl once and acknowledged the latter's presence with a quick nod of his head.

"What's wrong with him?" Miyamoto, one of Hanamichi's best friend from the squad asked aloud when he noticed the redhead's obvious lack of reaction towards the girl's presence.

"No idea..." the other two from the squad replied while Mito Yohei, a friend who Sakuragi Hanamichi knew from his Junior High years just appeared to be deep in thoughts.

Turning his attention towards Ayako, the basketball team manager… Yohei asked. "Sakuragi... was he always like this?"

Ayako stared at the redhead for a moment before turning to the group of Sakuragi's friends and responded.

"No, not exactly... up until the game before Shoyo, he was behaving his usual ways. I mean behaving like an idiot, but somehow something changes in him after the game played against Shoyo ended. Later on during the game with Kainan, he's more mature although he's still behaving like an idiot and always looking at Haruko whenever possible. But as the week's passes by, he had grown to be more subdued and mature during practice hours regardless of the fact that he still managed to make a fool out of himself when it comes to actual game.

His treatment towards Rukawa Kaede were just like always, with insults passing between them most of the time, and not to forget his tendencies of being disrespectful towards his seniors. However, his attitude towards Haruko-chan had been bordering more on the subdued side and his concentration was better nowadays. I just thought it was because he took it quite hard on himself when we lost to Kainan..." Ayako stopped talking as she continues to watch the self-practice of one Sakuragi Hanamichi.

Sakuragi Hanamichi was struggling with his inner self while he practices his shooting, he briefly wondered what had causes him to act so out of character. This was the first time ever that he had simply dismissed Haruko entrance since he joined the Shohoku Basketball Team. The fluttering feeling that has always been there when he saw Haruko Akagi was diminished. Not only that he actually found himself no longer so obsessed with the idea of his 'love' not been reciprocate by the girl. Heck, he didn't even care about the idea of Rukawa getting all the attention from Haruko.

It was as though his love for Haruko was slowly dying out, but then he still treated Rukawa Kaede as a rival... but somehow it was no longer in the field of love but more in basketball matches itself. The desire to score more points than the latter was still there as he wanted to prove he wasn't weak, and it was true that the insults traded between them still occurred every now and then but they're not as intense when being compared to the time whereby he had first joined the team.

Shaking his head to rid himself of such random thoughts, Sakuragi Hanamichi decided to focus his attention on the practice. With the sheer fact that they are going to face Ryonan off in the match with coach Anzai absence makes him want to do better, and the idea of Fujima Kenji being present to watch him in action just managed to fuel his desire to do better than Rukawa stronger. The sheer thought of his childhood friend brought a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, as Sakuragi leapt into the air and promptly smash another ball into the hoop creating yet another 'dunk' sound in the school's gym.

Fujima Kenji was both nervous and excited at the prospect of living with Hanamichi under the same roof; he looked at the time reflected on his watch for the tenth time in an hour as he started to pace his living room with anxiety. Miyako and Kosuke Fujima looked at each other apprehensively while they watched their eldest son; Kenji stood up from the couch and started pacing about the room.

"Kenji, you are going to wear a hole into the carpet we are standing on if you continue pacing..." Kosuke said as he set his newspaper down on the table.

"Sorry Dad..." Kenji replied apologetically only to remain in his seat for a few minutes before the pacing routine starts up again.

After watching the exchange, Miyako Fujima could only shake her head at her son's antics. She was about to say something when the doorbell finally rang on cue, she heaved a sigh of relief as she watched his son opening the door to reveal a tall red-head standing on the front porch of their house with slight apprehension visible on the features.

"Aa...Finally, Hana-kun... It's been a long time. Do not worry about the rent; feel free to stay as long as you deemed it appropriate." Miyako greeted Hanamichi the moment the redhead was ushered into the living room by her very enthusiastic son, Kenji.

"Oh... thank you..." Sakuragi Hanamichi replied absently as he took in the decorations in the house. Hanamichi was stunned by the fact that the Fujima's hasn't minded his staying in their house and had graciously offered him sheltered for free and over an unlimited period of time. He then surveyed the inside of the house and realized that it hadn't changed much compared to his last visit before his parents' divorced.

Fujima's residence was huge compared to the tiny apartment which Hanamichi used to stay in. The house was fully equipped with a swimming pool in the backyard and a mini-koi pond in their garden at the front of their house near the front gate. It's a three-storey mansion and it's large compared to the other houses located along the street in their district.

Unlike the front of the house, the interior of the mansion itself was decorated much simple and plain. The walls were painted of a creamy white, nothing too striking or too fanciful which suits them just well. Hanamichi followed Kenji up the staircase towards the second storey of the house where all the living quarters were located since the third storey only consists of one attic room which had been used as a storage room for years in the Fujima's household.

They entered a room two doors away from the staircase; the room was painted in a pale shade of blue. A single bed was placed in the right corner of the room right beside the window. The curtain draping for the window is also blue in color, and it was drawn during the days to block out the sunlight. A table equipped with shelves for books was placed in the other side of the room facing the bed, next to it was a wardrobe. The bed sheets and blanket provided for Hanamichi was also a matching shade of blue to go along with the color scheme of the room.

"Is this all?" Kenji asked as he set the last of Hanamichi's luggage at the foot of the bed.

"Huh? Oh... yeah... right, that's the last one. I don't have much since majority of the furniture came with the apartment itself then, so I only had to pack my basic necessities and other random things which I bought either for school purposes or for myself." Hanamichi replied as he checked the luggage brought in by Kenji.

"Oh... so I guess I'll leave you alone to sort out your belongings then. Take your time; I'll call you when it's time for dinner." Kenji announced as he made his way to the door.

"Sure, thanks again for the hospitality." Hanamichi smiled in response.

"No problem, anytime!" Kenji smiled as he closed the bedroom door behind him leaving Hanamichi alone in the room.

Kenji's smile widens at the thought of seeing Hanamichi everyday and the possibility of a relationship forming between them romantically just brighten up the day. A sense of hope fills his heart at the very idea; he smiled happily as he made his way to the kitchen and joined his mother in task of setting the table.

TBC…

Date completed: 13/03/05

Date revised: 07/04/05

Date edited: 02/03/2013

P.S: Major editing again… since I intend to make this the prequel of Slam Dunk: Glorious Moments, I had taken to do some editing on Fujima's family itself. Although, this was ages ago I doubt anyone still remember it but still…I wanted no bugs in the series :D