Chapter 4: Puu is Excitable

The next morning, Sakura and Brin were woken up by a very excited Puu. Waking up, the two girls realized that the sun wasn't up.

"Darn it, Puu, why did you feel the need to wake us up?" Brin said, kinda cross.

"Maybe it's because he hasn't seen anybody for a long time. Except Genkai," Sakura said, looking thoughtful. "Although I would rather have him wake us up at dawn next time…"

"Can't blame him, I guess. Can you imagine only seeing Genkai for over a year?"

"I think I would have nightmares. Let's wake up Kai so we can start getting ready," Sakura suggested, already heading to his room to bust open the door.

Kai was already up and dressed. "Hey guys, what's up?"

Sakura wasn't happy. "Hey, you're supposed to be sleeping!"

"Sakura, if you're up, it's pretty much guaranteed that pretty much everyone else is awake," Kai commented.

"This is true…hey! That wasn't very nice!" Sakura told him, glaring. A moment later, she was also glaring at Brin because she was laughing. "Now, should we go eat before we're forced to take part in what my dad called the evil boot camp?"

"Sure. But, did you see where we're supposed to eat last night?" Brin asked as they heard a growl come from her stomach.

"You have to earn you meals here. Fifty laps around my temple before breakfast," Genkai said as she exited her bedroom down the hall.

Sakura groaned. "Fifty? Before we eat?" she said, unbelieving.

"Do you wanna make that one hundred laps?"

Sakura was going to say something, most likely landing them with the new laps, but Kai covered her mouth and answered for her. "Nope, fifty is fine. Come on, the sooner we get the laps done, the sooner we can eat," he told Sakura and Brin, leading Sakura out with his hand still covering her mouth. Brin followed quickly, wanting to get this over with so she could eat.

Sakura, after glaring at Kai, started to run the laps. For her, though, she started slowly because she takes a while to fully wake up if she doesn't have hot chocolate. The warm drink wakes her up better then anything and she HATES coffee. After the first ten laps, though, she was running up to speed.

Brin was used to waking up and working first thing in the morning. Her problem is she usually gets something to eat and she is more of a short distance runner then one that has endurance. She really started to slow down after a while. As a matter of fact, Genkai kept on coming up to her and pushing her to make her run faster. A couple of times, Brin snarled at her.

Kai was the lucky one. While Brin and Sakura either took a while to warm up or started running out of energy, Kai kept a steady pace throughout his laps. His mornings of waking up early and running for a while helping him more then Sakura's training in the mornings or how Brin was trained. But, it still took a while…

Meanwhile, back at Sakura's house…

Yusuke woke up early for him. Actually, he thinks it might have been the earliest he had woken up since his experience at the evil boot camp. Yusuke was trying to pinpoint why he was up so early when he realized the reason had nothing to do with him at all. Through the weird connection between Puu and himself, he was able to determine the reason he was awake was because Puu was excited about something.

Why would the little fuzzball be excited over at Grandma's house, anyway? He thought, confused. Yusuke realized he was not going to be going to sleep again anytime soon. He decided to get up without waking Kayko and get ready to go see what was up with the little monster.

At the "Evil Boot Camp"…

Sakura, after getting into "Sugar High" mode without the sugar, was able to get around the temple quickly. When she finished and went inside, Kai was already done, calmly eating his breakfast, consisting of toast and orange juice. The breakfast of champions! Sakura wanted way more then that after the workout she was just forced to do.

"Any pancakes around here?" she asked Kai.

He shrugged. "It's fend for yourself and if Genkai has the ingredients…" Kai explained to her before his face paled considerably.

"Umm…Kai, are you alright?" Sakura asked, worried.

Brin, who had just stopped and stood kinda beside Kai, looked where he was looking. "Hey, Sakura, do you know who that is?" Brin asked, pointing towards the entrance where a guy was being ambushed by a little blue ball.

Sakura spun around and went very, very white. The man that was being ambushed by a little blue ball, which could be identified as Puu, was her father.

"Oh, no. It's my dad! What am I going to do?" She asked Brin and Kai, desperate. When they shrugged, she started looking for a hiding place. Not seeing one immediately and knowing she couldn't outrun her father, she ran before he looked in her direction.

While Sakura was just exiting the back door, Yusuke went in the front. He started when he saw Kai. "What are you doing here, Kai?" Yusuke asked, not looking forward to what Kai was going to say. Yusuke knew that Kai and Sakura went almost everywhere together.

"Visiting Genkai on a lovely day…" Kai trailed off, inwardly cursing Sakura for running off and leaving him to deal with Yusuke.

Brin spoke up. "We were giving Genkai some company, seeing as how not too many people come up this way."

Yusuke looked over at her. "And you are…?" he asked.

"Oh, sorry. My name is Brin Ishida. I'm one of Sakura's friends," she answered.

Yusuke took this opportunity. "And where is my darling daughter?"

"I don't know. Didn't she say she wanted to stay home?" Brin asked Kai.

Before Kai could answer, Yusuke snorted. "I don't believe that for a second. Where is Sakura?"

Again, before Kai could answer, he was interrupted. This time, it was Genkai. "Well, hello. Longtime no see, dimwit."

"Hello grandma. Where is Sakura? She's probably around here somewhere," Yusuke commented.

"If you think so, you're welcome to look around. But first, I want to talk to you…" Genkai replied, getting behind Yusuke and taking him into another room. Before exiting, she looked at Kai and pointed at the roof.

Kai laughed. "Well, I know where to find Sakura now."

"Where? Why did Genkai point at the roof when Mr. Urameshi couldn't see?" Brin asked.

"Because when Sakura ran, she must have found a way to get onto the roof of the temple. It was going to be one of my first places to look, actually," Kai answered.

"Doesn't she always hang out on the roof at school?" Brin asked.

"Yes. She likes being up high. Let's go find her. Maybe bring her a piece of toast since she didn't get those pancakes," Kai said, grabbing some toast and leaving the room. Brin stared after him for a moment before following.

Sakura, meanwhile, had found her way onto the roof. There was a vine on a side of the temple that grew up the wall, so she just climbed up it.

'Why does dad always find out what I'm up to? Well, except for the training…' Sakura thought, thinking about the past. There was the time she tried to sneak chocolate from the store…and when she was grounded, she tried to escape to Kai's house…

"Hey, Sakura," Kai said, interrupting her thoughts. She jumped and nearly fell of the roof.

"Kai! Don't do that to a girl when she's on the roof of an old lady's place trying to stay out of her father's sight!" Sakura yelled down to him. Then she blinked as she realized Yusuke could probably hear her when she yelled. "Thanks to you, now I need a new hiding place, and quickly."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Brin said, holding the toast like a peace offering (which it was, as Sakura looked about to attack Kai).

"Genkai is talking to your dad inside. But, I think he already knew you were here," Kai added.

"Great…now I wonder what my dad will say now. I'm doing something he doesn't want me to and he gets a lecture…" Sakura grumbled unhappily as she came off the roof. Then she took the toast from Brin. "Thanks."

"No problem. Do you think your dad will get very angry when he finds out?" Brin asked.

Sakura thought for a moment, then looked at Kai. "Do you remember what he said he would do if he found out I had been training when I was supposed to be at school?"

"I think he was going to ban you from whatever it was that gave you the idea," Kai said.

"Well, then dad would have to ban me from himself, my finger, and your dad," Sakura commented, thinking about all the factors that went into her decision to come here.

"Speaking of your dad, here comes the joyful man himself," Kai said, pointing to where an entertained looking Genkai followed an obviously fuming Yusuke.

As Yusuke walked up, Sakura looked up at him, gulped, and waved. "Hey, dad. Lovely weather, isn't it? Did you do something different with your hair? It looks good," She said, hoping to slightly break down his foul mood.

It didn't work.

A/N: OMG! I updated this story! We can do a happy dance now! Alright, time to grovel. What happened was last year my computer decided it hated me and decided not to work. Then, a couple months later around the end of January I was typing it, but then the word processor I was using decided to be a poop and freeze up, erasing everything I had. For a while I didn't do anything as I was busy with school, not to mention I was very angry and didn't want to write for a while. When I went to type some more for my story, I couldn't remember what I had for chapters 2+3, so I didn't have the flow of the story (2+3 were on my computer). So, my brother somehow got my other computer to work and I started writing this one. But, then I crashed my hard-drive. Thankfully, I had this saved to a thumb-drive. I've been working on it on my brother's laptop and been waiting for a chance to put this one up. I should be working on chapter 5 with Yusuke's reaction soon and I should have a hard-drive to be able to have internet again. Wow, long author's note. I'll leave you all here.