Old A/N - Thanks for reviewing, and tsukikagehime-chan, you have failed. The only advice I got was for grammar checks, so that's fair enough, but yeahs. .....you are not a very good flamer, although you have some truth on your profile. But I accept the things I have done wrong, and if you find it uninteresting and boring, just say so instead of going into a lapse on whining on your European life and your problem with America. Also, if you had known better, you would have known Nat was the other user of my account. 笨 蛋.

But to everybody else for you useful advice and point-outs and etc, thank you very much. I appreciate all of them, and will take them into consideration. Lol, so much to consider haha.

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A/N as of December 27 (heaps of months after this chapter was released).: Does anybody still read this? Just as a note, future tennis matches are going to be shortened considerably because long, draggy matches are annoying!

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Re-cap: Taiya gave a grin. "This game, it's my service play, right? Then, it's time for me to 'bounce-back'."

FYI - the games were 3-4, Karushi lead.

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"Well...don't underestimate him," Ryuzaki-sensei said with her arms folded. The other Regulars turned to look at her, as though wondering what she meant. (And duh, they asked).

"What do you mean, sensei?" Oishi asked. She smiled.

"Tai shouldn't be underestimated. He's lazy, but he's got great potential inside of him." 'I think.'

Taiya bounced the ball more firmly this time, fully awake. She served over-arm (like usual) except she nicked the ball on the edge of her racquet, and she could practically feel the irregular spin being applied to it.

Sen smirked; he could get this serve. And then Fudomine would be off to the next matches. They would beat the seeded team.

However, as Sen withdrew his arm back to hit the ball just as it hit the ground, the ball suddenly lurched/bounced backwards as soon as it touched the ground, and hit into the net, before falling back onto the floor.

The Freshmen let out a wail of surprise. "Eh? What just happened, Inui-senpai? The ball just flew backwards into the net instead of bouncing forwards....."

"Hmm...if I am correct, Sanzushi, instead of hitting the ball in the middle of his strings, he hit the ball with the tip of his racquet, and made a swooping motion," Inui demostrated the swooping motion he mentioned, "and caused the ball to have irregular spin. Once it even touches the ground lightly, the ball will change its' rotation with a Reverse Spin, therefore it goes backwards instead of forewards..."

"Lucky!" said Taiya happily, her fist clenched triumphantly. '...Oh my God I almost slipped in the rain just then!!' Her heart beat was racing as she glared at the ground darkly. 'You have made a powerful enemy...'

"Ace! 15 love."

"Wha-what the..." Sen said softly as he stared at the ball.

"I told you I would 'bounce back'. You aren't the only one who played against my Bounce-Back serve," Taiya stated with a grin. "You're good, I admit. Continue the game. Fast. My stomach is eating itself," she finished weakly, holding her stomach while Oishi slapped his forehead and Eiji sweat-dropped.

"Bounce-back serve...?" the freshmen chorused.

"This is getting interesting," Fuji said with a wider smile, causing his fan-girls to swoon.

Taiya won the game in a matter of seconds (strangely enough), using her extraordinary speed in some serves, along with her incredible footwork she earned from years of hard work.

"He's got incredible footwork."

"Kamio, you got competition there," one laughed. Kamio shrugged it off. "That guy's not in the Rhythm."

"It's true Tai-senpai has got good footwork and speed, but he lacks power,' Momoshiro said, frowning slightly. "C'mon, senpai! Power up! Power!"

"Relax~! Rirakushu!" chided Eiji, hands cupping his mouth.

Fuji gave a serene smile. "Aa. He's not the build for a power-type tennis player....or a boy," Fuji chuckled, causing Eiji and Momoshiro to cast him apprehensive glances. "He's like a girl."

"He's not the only one..." Momoshiro muttered, causing Fuji to stare at him.

"Did you say something, Momo?"

"No!"

The last serve, Taiya used her Bounce-back Serve again.

"He won with only serves!" Sakuno exclaimed in awe. Shiba had her camera in hand while watching Taiya play (though she didn't notice) while Inoue told her to remember to take pictures.

"That's our Sanzushi-senpai!!" Horio cheered, causing the other two to side glance at him with sweatdrops.

"Game, Sanzushi. 4-4."

"Don't worry, Sen!! You can still do it!!" Kamio and another guy from Fudomine shouted through their cupped hands.

Sen served an unusually powerful serve, making Taiya narrow her violet eyes. 'He's under stress even though he's tied with me...I guess I could take this to my advantage...'

Taiya easily jumped and smashed the ball to the far left of the court. "Hey, Karushi-san, remember; let's not hold back, ne?"

----

"Game won by Sanzushi, 5-4."

"Whoa!"

"Seigaku's just winning point by point now! Sanzushi-senpai's not holding back no more!"

"Amazing~. From this Point of View, it seems like Seigaku actually gave games away..."

"I knew it, no unseeded team could beat the number one seeded school."

"I told you not to underestimate him," Ryuzaki-sensei said plainly, shaking her head. 'He's so much like his father...carefree, and always playing around 'til the end....Ryu, you're children are just like you. I have to catch up with you once again; it has been almost 10 years since I've seen you...ever since you moved back to China...'

"Say, Tai-chan's winning straight points just like that," Eiji stated. "Not only is he good at maths, he's also decent at tennis nya!"

"Of course; none of my senpai's are weak," growled Kaidoh, arms crossed and eyes staring intently on the match.

"I'm really curious about his time in China...did he have some sort of special training school or something?"

"With his father, I'm quite sure," remarked Fuji with a guess.

Sen shook with desperation. 'I can't lose! Tachibana-san...minna (everyone). I have to win for everyone!'

"In. 40-love, Sanzushi lead."

"It's completely one-sided for Seigaku!"

"Amazing!"

"You play hard, Karushi-kun." Taiya complimented, perspiration dotting her forehead. She quickly wiped it off with her sweatband.

"I...I won't lose," he huffed.

"I know how much you want to win, but I have to win too," Taiya stated, now unsmiling. "I have to win my first game in a tournament in Japan at the very least."

She served.

He returned.

It turned into a rally.

Taiya cornered Sen into making him lob the ball, and she took her chance. She ran up to the ball, and with a hop of her right foot she smashed it down with precision. But to her surprise, Sen was already prepared and he did his hard Jagged Volley when Taiya was fragile. It hit in and as he panted, Sen smirked.

"You forgot about that...didn't you?" he said. "I won't let you win!"

"I'm sorry, it must be heart crushing but I, too, cannot let you take this match." Taiya said calmly, although inside her body was weak, desperately clinging for stamina. "In that case, I won't hesitate to take my chances." 'Urgh....give me some food and a bed right after this...'

"40-15."

"It's match point!"

"Go!"

Sen smirked. 'He's stamina is running low... which means his mind loses it's judgement...I could probably do Jagged Volley several times when he least suspects it...and I'll also use THAT move....but for now, I must not let another ball pass me!'

Sen returned the ball with a powerful swing. Taiya's eyes narrowed in determination before she felt her foot slip underneath her.

"Dammit-!"

Her wrist got in the way of the balls path and it slammed into her hand. Taiya let out a gasp of pain as surprising pressure implanted itself among her fragile bone, and her racquet was knocked out of her loose hand. An eerie silence filled the courts.

"Tai!"

"Sanzushi?"

A heavy silence hung in the air until mutters arose in the midst of nowhere. Taiya stared at the racquet at her ground before taking a look at her wrist. "Guys and their power....." she mumbled.

"Oh no, do you think Sanzushi-san is alright?" Oishi said. Fuji had a frown on.

"Hmm...that ball had amazing speed and pressure. But it shouldn't be too bad."

"But Tai's wrist is thin like a little girls!" whimpered Eiji. Momoshiro got a cold chill run down his spine when he looked at his new senpai.

Taiya winced as she held her right wrist with her left hand gently, rotating the wrist until it gave a small crack sound, and she let out a satisfied sigh. 'How did a little yellow-green rubber ball hurt my wrist...?' "Are you ready?" she asked, picking up her fallen racquet.

"As ready as ever."

"Nice..."

Taiya threw the now-wet ball up (due to rain) and smashed it as a serve, causing water to spray out. She noticed the ball soaring towards her, and that Sen already ran up to the net.

'He's going up to the net already?'

Taiya did a straight pass of the ball to the other side, and saw a triumphant look cross Sen's face. He jumped and smashed the ball into the ground, catching Taiya off guard. Taiya watched the ball fly past before she smirked.

"Clever. Because of our height differences...you took it into advantage," she said coolly while cursing her height. "And since you were so close to the net already, you smashed it just in front of the net, so I couldn't have had time to reach it." 'Also, even if I did reach it, my wrist wouldn't be able to take it...I swear is it physically impossible for a tennis ball to do that..'

Taiya thought she heard a gentle voice chuckling, making her grow irritated. 'OH MY GOD!! FUJI IS LAUGHING AT ME!!! I'll get him back after this....how dare you laugh at my height...!'

"40-30, Sanzushi lead."

'Damn guys with so much determination.' Taiya once again threw the ball up and started another round.

It was an intense match, and everyone knew Sen was doing everything he could in order to stop Taiya from getting the last point. She served the ball, much to her displeasure of her now throbbing wrist, and they both were rallying until Taiya felt a spasm of pain. And it wasn't from her wrist either. Taiya started to pant heavier than she'd like to, and her legs felt weaker. The lactic acid was building up on her muscles again. They screamed murder.

'Okay, I must end the game as soon as I can...before I lose it.'

"I won't let you win!" Sen shouted determinedly as he struck a super-strong ball. Taiya was stunned.

A shadow cast over Taiya's eyes from under her cap as she quickly returned the ball. The ball suddenly dropped low to the net.

And went over and landed on Sen's side of the court with minimal bounce.

Sen was shocked. Taiya lifted her head and held out her racquet towards him, pointing it at him with a smile. "'You forgot about that....didn't you?'" She gave a grin, causing Fuji to choke out a laugh with Eiji.

"Fujiko~! He won! Yay for Chinese-Japanese!" shouted Eiji excitedly as he jumped on Oishi's back, making the vice-captain smile at him somewhat nervously.

"Game set and match, won by Sanzushi, 6-4."

An eruption of cheers went off as the many Seishun Gakuen students hooted in glee. Taiya walked up to the net as usual and held out a her left hand.

"Great match, Karushi-san," she said simply. Sen stared at the outstretched left hand for a moment, and Taiya knew what he was thinking. He smiled somewhat sheepishly and shook the hand with his hand as well. With that, Taiya beamed and went back to her team-mates. A few steps and....

"Sanzushi-senpai!!"

"Sanzushi-san!!"

"Tai-kun!! Great job!!"

Fan-girls....

"Sanzushi-san....are you alright?"

"......I don't know..."

-

"Ah, so tired! And thirsty," Taiya added as she took out her water bottle and took a long drought from it.

"In that case I've got some of my special, healthy, good cooling down improved Inui Juice—"

"NO WAY!"

"Great job, Taichi." Taiya turned only to be face to face with Ryuzaki-sensei.

"Uh, thanks a lot, sensei."

"I guess you still play as well as ever," said Ryuzaki-sensei. Taiya stared at her, puzzled. She knew it; she had met Ryuzaki Ryuzaki-sensei in the past! But...that was probably 10 years ago...and she didn't even do tennis back then....

"I remember you, Taichi, were..." Ryuzaki-sensei strained to remember, "Playing heavy matches against older students and always did well. Keep it up."

Taiya rerturned the warm smile Ryuzaki-sensei gave her, and only pouted as she remembered that fact. 'Brother started playing tennis when he was 6 years old...and he was amazing at it. Maybe not so much as Fuji,' she chuckled to herself at the thought, glimpsing at the Japanese boy standing a few meters away, 'But he learnt so fast...'

"You should get your wrist bandaged," Ryuzaki-sensei suddenly spoke up. But Taiya waved her right arm reassuringly, bottle still in hand.

"Don't worry! It's nothing—" Then the bottle slipped from her grasp and hit a passing Momoshiro on the head, causing him to wheel around and suddenly pick a fight with Kaidoh. Taiya gave a sheepish look.

"Sorry, my bad."

"Heh, just wrap it."

Taiya's right wrist was now lightly bandaged, and she stared at it with a glare. 'You and my height, curse you all!'

"You had an interesting match, eh, Tai-kun?" came a voice to her left. She instantly used her left hand and backfisted the person until she felt it connect onto something firm, and turned to see a shoulder. Fuji pouted childishly, which was very different from his usual characteristics.

"Eh, Tai isn't being very friendly!!" he said, rubbing his shoulder gingerly.

"I warned you before, Fuji-kun. Tai is all you need to say," she stated firmly, placing her sweat-towel back into her bag. Fuji gave a fake pout.

"But I thought we were friends...." he whined, purposely imitating a child in order to annoy the cross-dressing girl.

"Yeah, yeah, please don't worsen my headache with your Out of Character-ness."

----

In the Singles two, Ryoma ended up winning the game with a false Twist Serve, which was actually a counter spin. He turned to his teammates, who were sitting on the bench.

"Did I make it in 10 minutes?" Taiya shook her head; who makes those sort of bets?

Everyone raised a hand and gave a thumbs up, Eiji doing it with both hands, and Tezuka...don't think he did it actually. Ryoma let out a small sigh of relief. Cheers erupted into the crowd, a few squeals from...fan-gilrs making her shrivel in fear, but nonetheless Taiya beamed happily.

Seigaku won the Districts.

----

"District Tournament winner, Seishun Gakuen. Together with the runner-up, Fudomine Jr. High. We will be anticipating good games from both of you at the Prefectural Tournament. That is all."

Everyone bowed once, and Taiya noticed a girl with short brown hair was clapping enthusiastically along with the crowd, and couldn't help but feel good about herself. It felt damn good to win in tennis; that's why she liked it.

After the bow, Ishida, the dude with the white bandanna on his head turned to Takashi. "Ano, excuse me, how is your right arm?" he asked politely. Momo and Takashi both turned and gave a smile.

"Ah, it's fine. It wasn't your fault, so don't worry about it." Then she saw Momo sneak a racquet into his hand. "Here, Taka-san."

Taka went to his Burning Mode, causing Taiya to go into a fit of laughter.

"We won't lose next time."

"Yeah, I'll be looking forward to it."

"Yo viper."

"Shut up, you rhythm runt."

"Um, Sanzushi-san," came a voice awkwardly. Taiya turned to face Karushi Sen, her opponent, and she gave a small smile.

"Hello, Karushi-san. Is anything the matter?" 'I sound so....olden-day-ish.' Sen only gave a small laugh before shaking his head.

"No, I just wanted to ask if your wrist was okay. I tend to hit hard shots, and your wrists seems very delicate—no offense or anything, you're strong and all but—!" He spluttered, catching the rather demon-like gleam in Taiya's eyes. "B-but...yeah, just wondering..." Taiya brushed it off.

"It's nothing. Thank you for your concern," she added awkwardly at the end, knowing she sounded extremely Second-Language at that moment. Taiya placed her arms behind her head, walking along side Tezuka while staring off at the setting sun.

'Just a matter of time now.'

----

Everyone was taken to this Sushi shop, apparently owned by Takashi's dad. Taiya and everyone else all sat down, chatted, joked, Kikumaru slinging his arm over Momoshiro's shoulder and dancing around, until the door opened, and there stood Ryoma.

Silence.

He suddenly closed the door and Taiya laughed out loud as Momshiro ran after him and pulled him inside.

A lot of noise was made as everyone celebrated the win against Fudomine.

"The more green tea you drink, the healthier your body gets, or so my father says," she muttered. 'I don't think I can live with Fuji around, no matter how many tons of green tea I drink.' Ryoma took a seat on Fuji's left, while Taiya was 'placed' on his right.

"What is this?"

"Can't you guess?" Momoshiro said in disbelief.

"What do you want to eat first?" a voice said behind. Taiya and Ryoma both turned their heads slightly to see Taka-san there, placing more cups of tea onto the tables. "This is a place run by my dad. When he heard that we won, he closed the shop and made it our celebratory party."

"That's very nice of him," Taiya stated calmly as she took another sip of her tea, while Fuji snickered into his hand (she had sniffed her tea to see if it was poisoned).

"Tai, I'm not evil enough to do that," he smiled, while Taiya grinned, slightly pink; she didn't think she'd be noticed.

"Sushi...is it nice? I've never had it before..."

"Mm! It's great—best in Japan," complimented Fuji while Taka-san just smiled, embarrassed. "Isn't it, Eiji?"

The red-head nodded in agreement along with Momoshiro. Eiji was looking around for some good sushi. Fuji happily took a sushi filled with a green paste inside and neared it to his mouth. Suddenly, Eiji appeared behind, causing Fuji to turn in innocent curiosity. Taiya's heart raced.

'He looks innocent...! o.0 My weakness....!'

Taiya slapped herself to gain some sense into her, trying to supress the flush creeping on her face.

"Ahh, eating rolls by yourself, that's so selfish, Fuji!" Eiji exclaimed incredilously to the still innocent and confused Fuji.

Taiya pointed to herself. "What, am I part of the background or something?"

"Ahaha, sorry, Tai-chan." Taiya sighed; he just won't drop that suffix, will he?

"Ah, look over there, Fuji."

Eiji pointed somewhere, and 'innocent' Fuji turned to look at where he pointed. Eiji swiftly grabbed one of the rolls, throwing it into his mouth as he chewed happily. Fuji turned back, confused at where one of the sushi rolls went.

A loud wail was heard in the direction of ... Eiji. Everyone broke out of their conversations to stare at him, who was covering his mouth with his hand, tears at the corner of his eyes and a red flush mark over the bridge of his nose. Taiya and Fuji were laughing at the sight, but then a horrible thing struck her head:

What was inside that sushi to cause that? Fuji always eats something irregular.

"What are you eating?!" Eiji exclaimed. Fuji gave a cheerful smile as he held one up.

"Wasabi Sushi."

"Tea, tea!"

Fuji then turned to Taiya, who was drinking her tea. "Would you like to try one?" he offered. "You did say you haven't tried wasabi before."

Taiya stared with an almost fearful expression, but then when she saw Fuji's KIND smiling face, she sighed in defeat. Since he ate it every night with his dinner it couldn;t be that bad. "Alrighty, I guess it can't kill me."

"I don't know about that," Momoshiro muttered.

She picked up her chopsticks and picked one up delicately. "Itadakimasu." And placed it into her mouth before she chewed. People waited in baited silence. She swallowed, her face puckering up for a second before it returned to normal.

"Whoa," she exhaled some air, waving a hand in front of her open mouth before she smiled in between actions. "Strangely spicy, and stingy on the tongue, but surprisingly it wasn't bad...with the rice with it anyway!"

"Oh no, Fuji affected him with the disease!" Momo exclaimed. Taiya and Fuji quirked an eyebrow.

"Disease?"

"The N.A.N.I disease!"

"Huh? What's that stand for?"

"Nostalgic (yet) Allergy-filled Neutral (foods) Illness!!"

Taiya translated that into English in her head with immense difficulty, before coming to a conclusion. "Momoshiro-kun, does that even make sense?"

He ignored her and continued ranting.

"It's ultra rare, and it only started in this generation, starting from none other that Fuji Syusuke!" Momo said in a dramatic voice, waving his arms in the air in panic. Taiya sweat-dropped at how dramatic he was acting, because she thought it was a joke at the start.

"....and then it'll spread by the tens, hundreds, thousands and then millions—"

"And then it won't be feared anymore, since most the population would consider it normal all of a sudden," she finished for him, not noticing she was helping herself to some more Wasabi sushi, a good pot of tea ready at her side.

Momo pointed at her with a shaky finger in horror. "Only the insane will say that!"

"Uh...right—oh my God, Fuji, where'd you put my tea cup?!"

Oishi and Eiji laughed as Taiya started to yell at Fuji with tears at the corner of her eyes; he had hid the tea pot and her cup somewhere, and she had just taken a nice bite of extra-hot wasabi sushi.

"Oh, this is fun."

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!"

"Ha ha ha, somebody take a picture for me."

The click of a camera sounded off after Fuji had leaned sideways near a spluttering Taiya (her tongue was hanging out due to the wasabi) and he held a picture-perfect smile.

An eruption of laughter came as they saw the picture.

"Tai-senpai looks so funny!"

"What a face! Ha ha ha!!"

"You guys....!"

Hours later, after much fun events, photo taking, eating and drinking, and fooling around, Ryuzaki-sensei and Tezuka were about to head back to the school.

And for the first time, she saw Tezuka smile at everyone when they were joking around.

'I have a feeling...that I might just get too attached to the people here.'

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(old) A/N - Man, oh man, I have no motivation hahaha. Naruto stories are still in action, but PoT, and dealing with those wacky flamers everywhere is extremely boring after a while. Fun at the time, but boring after a while yeah. It just gets too boring after they say the same things again and again. I love reading stories and watching PoT, but writing is getting boring. Maybe I'll just end up finishing my Naruto story lol.

Why the Hell would you think I'm American, tsukikagehime-chan? But there is one thing you are right about; I cannot stop ya with force since I don't know where you live, uh, 'motherfucker' (refer to your profile name.) Doesn't 'motherfucker' have a space or dash between? Meh.

Flames are not bad, but when you have one like tsukikage-hime-chan's, you lose interest in them very quickly. Everyone, learn from this lol. Just kidding.

(New December 27 2007) A/N - Edited. Hopefully it's easier on the eyes.

(December 9th, 2008) A/N: Given it another once-over examination and corrected. Wow, this story is so old.