Hello everyone! Thank you kuriko-chan and Sakuno8 for the reviews. Thank you to all those who followed and/or favorited this story.

I'd like to make this clear; this is a Sakuno-Centric fic. I hope to finish this fic soon but I am not regular with my updates. This is also a RyogaXSakuno fic . This story is also unbeta'ed so please try to ignore any minor grammar mistakes.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Prince of Tennis or any of its characters.

Words: 4,891

Key:

"Speaking"

"Speaking on telephone"

Flashback

'Thoughts'

Enjoy!

Chapter 2: The Strongest Resolve

Ryoma Echizen had always been an aloof boy. His detachment from anything that was not tennis drove most crazy. This led to him only having friends as crazy about tennis as himself. He had never really minded this until now.

All day long his Sempai had been hounding him about where Sakuno-chan was. He had no idea who that was until they described her. Oh yes, he remembered her. She had wobbly hips, long hair that got in the way when playing tennis, and was absolutely horrible at the sport. When they asked him to go find her, he simply refused and walked away. He didn't understand why they needed him to go and find her, he barely spoke to her. He just chalked it up to the eccentricity of his sempai.

Ryoma decided to hide during lunch from his noisy friends and sat under a tree to take a nap. It was a nice quiet day. The sun was shining and there was a nice breeze blowing through. It was the peace that Ryoma needed. However that peace did not last.

"Hey Ryoma, have you seen Ryuzaki-chan?" Horio, that noisy braggart, had decided that Ryoma's peace was less important than his question.

"Hn," Ryoma grunted as he got up to go and find another hiding place but Horio continued to follow him.

"We haven't seen her all day and you have most of your classes with her we thought you'd—

"Why don't you ask her grandmother?"

Horio looked at him, only just feeling the deadly aura Ryoma was exerting and gulped, "Yeah, I'll just go do that right now. Bye Ryoma!"

That was definitely the fastest the prince of tennis had ever seen Horio run. He snorted at that thought and settled down on a nearby bench. Now he understood why everyone was asking him about Ryuzaki, they had many of the same classes. He hadn't even noticed.

As soon as he thought this, back at the Echizen household, a sleeping Sakuno grimaced.

####

Classes had finally ended and now it was time for tennis practice. It was going to last for an hour longer than usual as they didn't have it in the morning because the coach was late. No one had bothered him about Ryuzaki after lunch so he assumed that they had asked the coach.

"Ochibi!" That was the only warning Ryoma got before his hyperactive sempai hugged him.

"Ne, have you seen Sakuno-chan Ochibi?"

Ryoma shrugged off his sempai roughly and shook his head.

"Ah, Ryuzaki-sensei told us that she might have gotten lost and to keep an eye out for her. She should have gotten here already so we're all really worried. Are you worried too Ochibi?"

Ryoma snorted and shook his head, "I barely even know her. I can't really worry about someone I don't know."

Kikumaru's looked horrified as he yelled, "Ochibi you're so cold hearted."

Ryoma simply shrugged and walked away, leaving his sempai whining about his attitude. His friends were just like that.

Practice didn't end until 5, but Ryoma wasn't complaining. He had gotten to play a match against Fuji and like always their match was extremely thrilling. The strangest thing that had happened after practice was that Ryuzaki-sensei had thanked him for something, he hadn't really been paying attention though so he left home without a care in the world.

As soon as he got home, his mother had called out her welcome and told him that dinner was almost ready. He had called back that he was going to take a quick shower first and then go eat.

He sighed tiredly when he heard his father's chuckles from the living room. The man was definitely reading one of his 'magazines'. He placed his bag in his room and quickly got a change of clothes and walked to the bathroom.

He thoughtlessly opened the door and walked in. The sight that met him was definitely not one he had been expecting. Both his mother and his cousin Nanako usually used the bathroom on the first floor to take showers and he had heard his father down stairs so he had not been expecting anyone to be in the restroom. He especially had not been expecting a naked girl to be drying herself off when he walked into his bathroom.

"a-a-a," Ryoma stuttered, blushing so red that there was a slight resemblance between him and a tomato. The girl had been in the middle of drying herself when she had heard him and froze.

"R-R-Ryuzaki?"

Sakuno just stood there before she realized that she was naked and Ryoma was staring at her. Ryoma had seen her naked!

"!"

Ryoma's trance was broken when she screamed and he closed the door yelling, "Sorry!"

The youngest Echizen gripped his clothes tightly as a blush stained his face. That had been the first time he had ever—no he needed to stop thinking about it lest he become like his father. He shivered in disgust at the thought. Although he would admit that she was very nicely developed. He blushed bright red at that thought. His only saving grace was that no one had heard Ryuzaki's rather loud scream.

"Eh chibisuke are you ok?"

Ryoma quickly whirled around and glared up at his elder brother. Ryoga wasn't supposed to be here, or at least no one had told him that he would be staying here.

"Oi chibi? What are you doing outside of the restroom?"

Ryoma's blush intensified but he still found the will to say, "What do you think? I'm going to take a shower. Why are you here?"

Ryoga frowned and said, "I thought I had heard Saku-chan scream…" He trailed off as he looked at Ryoma's blushing face closely and his brain put it all together.

"Ryoma you pervert, looks like we are related." Ryoga grinned down at his younger brother while giving him a noogie.

Ryoma angrily shoved him away and began walking toward his room. He stubbornly ignored the slight feeling of anger when Ryoga had called Ryuzaki Saku-chan. It was too familiar for his taste.

'Why am I even thinking about that?'

####

As soon as she had arrived back at the house, she had asked if Rinko had any clothes she could borrow so that she could wash up before dinner. The woman had quickly procured some of Nanako-san's clothes for her and sent her off to the second story bathroom.

Sakuno sighed in happiness as she felt the warm water soothe her aching muscles. The match with Ryoga had showed her a lot about herself. It turned out she wasn't as hopeless as she had thought. She couldn't wait to play again and it made her look forward to what she could become.

Tennis had started out as a fun thing that her whole family did, but gradually it became a chore. Although recently it had become fun again due to a certain prince, she had been worse before but was gradually improving due to the sheer amount of practice she put in. Her most recent match slightly boosted her confidence in herself.

Sakuno sighed happily when she stepped out of the shower and began drying herself. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear the door open. She didn't even notice the other occupant until she heard him stutter.

"a-a-a"

Sakuno froze completely. She knew that voice extremely well even though it was in a slightly higher pitch at that moment. She slowly looked up and saw her crush, the prince of tennis, Ryoma staring at her naked form.

"R-R-Ryuzaki?"

Sakuno stood there in horror until finally her vocal chords decided it was time to react, "!"

"Sorry!"

She tried to calm herself after Ryoma had run out of the room. She couldn't help but blush at the events that had transpired. Her mind raced a-mile-a-minute at the memory. While her confidence had been slightly boosted by the match, she was nowhere near confident enough to handle a situation such as this. This wasn't good; she was beginning to feel faint.

"No, I will not faint." She murmured in determination.

Slowly she began to dress herself as she thought, 'Even if Ryoma-kun saw me…like that…It'll be alright. He's never shown any interest in me before so he certainly won't now. It'll just be a little bit awkward at the dinner table but other than that he probably won't say anything…I think.'

"Oi Saku-chan, dinner is ready!"

Sakuno shook her head, and with those positive thoughts she quickly opened the door. Ryoga was standing there with a grin that she was getting used to on his face. She instantly became wary when that grin morphed into a knowing sly smirk.

"So Saku-chan did anything interesting happen?"

She did not like that grin, he knew what had transpired between Ryoma and her but he was definitely going to tease her. Sakuno decided that playing dumb would be in her best interest, "Why would anything interesting happen Ryoga-san? I only took a shower?"

However Ryoga's smirk did not vanish, in fact, it grew.

"Oh, and is that why your face is stained red?"

Sakuno's already flushed face became redder as she said in a higher pitch, "What do you mean? My face isn't red. It's probably just a trick of the light. Besides, even if my face is red it's probably due to the hot shower that I just took."

Ryoga laughed heartily at Sakuno's flustered actions and simply nodded his head. She was a terrible liar; the higher pitch to her voice gave her away instantly.

"Alright Saku-chan, if you say so."

####

Dinner was just as awkward as Sakuno had thought it was going to be. Ryoma would not look even look at her and when their eyes would meet from across the table, he would instantly look away. Although he never brought it up. Rinko and Nanako soon pulled her into a conversation on the newest fashion trends which Sakuno was grateful for.

Meanwhile Ryoga was pulled into a conversation of the latest models by his father while occasionally asking Ryoma about his school. This continued on for the rest of the meal, Ryoma and Sakuno avoided looking at each other while the rest of the family looked on in amusement.

"Arigato for the dinner, it was wonderful but I should get going now."

The Echizen matriarch looked at the young auburn haired girl worriedly as she looked at the time, "Ryoma why don't you walk Ryuzaki-chan home. It's dark out already and I don't want her to go home alone?"

Ryoma and Sakuno froze at the innocent request. Seeing that the awkward teens were not going to be responding anytime soon, Ryoga decided to intervene, "Oka-san, I'll take Saku-chan home. Chibisuke's got a lot of homework to finish."

Ryoma looked ready to negate his brother's claim but his mother's acceptance stopped him.

"Well then let's go Saku-chan." Ryoga said cheerily as he internally laughed at his younger brother's anger.

He knew his brother extremely well even though they weren't as close as they used to be. The Ryoma he knew would never go out of his way to help someone but that didn't stop him from giving her tips on her tennis stance and swing. He had also never acknowledged any girl that was not family. His remembrance of her long hair and horrible sense of direction was a huge step for him even though he didn't know it. Also, his reaction to Sakuno-chan's body was also something that had never happened before. It made Ryoga want to laugh hysterically at him. Ryoma was way too dense and ignorant in the ways of love and attraction. He didn't know that he was attracted to Sakuno and that made Ryoga want to tease the hell out of him.

They reached the house quickly with no problems from either Sakuno's sense of direction or any shady characters. Sakuno had relaxed now that she was out of Ryoma's presence. Ryoga had been strangely silent based off of her experiences; the man was extremely talkative and flirtatious.

"Arigato Ryoga-san, I know you didn't have to walk me home."

Ryoga looked at Sakuno's bowed figure and smiled, "It's alright. I couldn't let such a cute girl walk home alone in the dark."

Sakuno blushed then coughed into her hand to try and hide it. Silently she excused herself and began walking toward her front door when Ryoga called out.

"I'll see you tomorrow at the public tennis courts at three then Saku-chan! It's a date!"

Ryoga waited until Sakuno was inside the house to leave. Whistling a tune while walking home with his arms behind his head he thought, 'Looks like I'm going to have to develop training program tonight.'

####

Sakuno's morning was the same as usual. The only difference was the fact that she was so sore that she could barely get out of bed, but she still woke up late and rushed to put on her clothes. This time she went the correct way to school with her grandmother. Before they parted ways, Sakuno told her that she had an errand to run after school so she wouldn't be staying to watch the tennis practice.

While Sumire found this strange, she didn't ask any questions, something Sakuno was grateful for. She didn't want her grandmother to know about her training with Ryoga quite yet.

Her day passed peacefully. The only interruption being her best friend Tomoka's outburst at her leaving early and missing the boys' tennis practice. When she had told Tomoka that she had an errand to run; the bubbly girl simply pouted before getting a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

"Sakuno…could it be that you have a…date?" She had asked slyly. Sakuno couldn't help but blush when she remembered Ryoga's careless mention of their 'date'.

"Kyaaaah! It is a date! Sakuno, I give you full permission to go on your date but you must tell me how it went tomorrow! I'm not taking no for an answer!"

Sakuno sighed as she remembered her best friend's antics. Tomoka was her exact opposite but the two never butt heads. Sometimes she wished she could be like Tomoka: outgoing, talkative, and confident. She admired those traits Tomoka had, even when they got them in trouble.

"Sakuno, don't forget to tell me how it went tomorrow!" Tomoka called out after Sakuno hurriedly left the room, walking straight towards the gate. Neither girl noticed the curious amber eyes that followed Sakuno's form as she left.

####

When she arrived at the public tennis courts, Ryoga was nowhere to be seen. There were already people playing, but not so many that all of the courts were being used. Sakuno decided to go and grab a court before they were all taken. She was hoping that she could find one that was pretty obscured from the view of curious passers.

As luck would have it, there was one such open court. It was slightly more rundown than the other courts, but Sakuno was positive that it was because hardly anyone ever used this particular court. The net was worn and had slight tares, but it was still usable. The court itself had a lot of trash on it and dead leaves cluttered the edges of it, but in a match those would not get in the way.

After a sold fifteen minutes of waiting for Ryoga, Sakuno decided to begin stretching and warming up. The young girl was actually quite flexible, being able to do the splits and place her torso to the ground while in that position. She was even more flexible that Eiji Kikumaru, but was not anywhere near him in terms of reflexes. Sakuno was quite slow reflex-wise and knew it was one of the things she needed to work on but didn't know how.

"Saku-chan, sorry for the wait but I met this pregnant woman and she went into labor when we were speaking so I had to wait with her for a cab!"

Sakuno sweatdropped at his highly unusual excuse but didn't comment on it. She was having a hard time grasping the fact that Ryoga had actually come. After the boy hadn't showed up within the first fifteen minutes, the girl was positive that Ryoga had rethought this and decided that she just wasn't worth the effort.

"Alright Saku-chan, let's get started!" Ryoga exclaimed as he set down a bucket that she just noticed that was full of tennis balls.

"What are we going to be working on Ryoga-san?" Sakuno asked curiously while examining the tennis balls, making a note that they all had a different color ring around them.

Ryoga gave her a smile that sent shivers down her spine while he said, "We're first going to work on your endurance and stamina by running 4 miles every morning and 30 laps around this court before we start practicing. Then during practice we'll be working on a reflex exercise for 30-40 minutes. Your flexibility is extremely good so we will not be focusing on that for now. After working on your reflexes, we'll work on anything else I find you need to work on because Saku-chan, mada mada daze."

Sakuno choked on her saliva and her eyes bulged when she heard that. Sure, Ryoga had said that all with a sweet smile on his face but she could hear the underlying malicious intent hidden within his voice. Just what had she gotten herself into?

####

Ryoma, by nature, was an extremely curious person. His curiosity had gotten him into trouble countless times, but he never could resist it. All day he had been avoiding looking at Sakuno Ryuzaki. Whenever he saw her he couldn't help but see her naked form in his mind again. It was troubling, but the way she acted was intriguing. She hadn't even blushed whenever she looked at him, perhaps him seeing her like…that didn't bother her as much as he had thought it would. She made him curious, so it was by complete chance that he had seen Ryuzaki speak with her friend, Tomoyo…no Tokama…he knew it was Tom-something but couldn't hear what had been said. The next thing he knew was that Ryuzaki was rushing out of the room, clearly heading for the gates of the school instead of the tennis courts like usual.

He ruthlessly shoved his thoughts of her away when tennis practice began, but he couldn't help his eyes straying to that empty spot next to the loud-mouthed girl that cheered for him.

"Saa, if your attention keeps drifting you're going to lose this match Echizen."

The calm, slightly amused voice of Fuji drew his focus back into the match. He didn't even know when they had started playing. Ryoma quickly placed his full focus on the match in front of him.

"Oi Tomoka-chan, where's Sakuno-chan?"

Ryoma's match had just ended with him barely scoring a win against Fuji by one game so when Momoshiro voiced his question, he placed his full attention on Tomoka. The same went for all of the other regulars, excluding Tezuka as he was speaking with the coach about setting up a scrimmage against Hyotei in two months.

"Well sempai, Sakuno had a date," Tomoka giggled out.

The whole tennis court fell silent. All of a sudden there was a clatter as Ryoma's racquet fell to the floor. He didn't know why he felt a huge surge of annoyance at the thought of Ryuzaki going out with someone. He barely talked to her. Sure he had seen her naked, but that was it. No, he decided, there was no possible way that he was mad about Ryuzaki's date. He was most likely angry that he had barely won against Fuji. Yeah, that was it.

Silently, with a huge amount of bloodlust, he picked up his racquet and moved to Momoshiro. Everyone's eyes followed him as he walked towards the slightly shaking second-year.

"Oi Echizen, calm down. I'm sure that Ryuzaki's date is going horribl—

"Play a match with me," Ryoma interrupted darkly.

Sweat began forming on Momoshiro's face and the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up from the feel of his kohai's malicious aura.

'I'll be killed if I play against him when he's like this,' Momo looked around desperately at his fellow regulars, 'please help me!'

The other regulars however, knew better than to interfere when Ryoma was like that. They all simply looked away from Momo and sent out prayers for his safety.

"Let's go Momo-sempai."

"Nooooooooo!"

####

Sakuno was exhausted after the 30 laps. She would have believed it would have been impossible to do without a drop of sweat until Ryoga had proved her wrong when he ran with her. It had taken her about 40 minutes to do, which was extremely good for her considering how sore she was and how little cardio exercises she did. For Ryoga however, this was pitifully slow but he vowed that by the end of two weeks he'd cut her time in half.

"Alright Saku-chan, it's time for reflex training."

Sakuno swore that this man was not human, there was just no way he wasn't tired after that run. When he had given her a five minute break to stretch and cool down, she had fallen to the ground in exhaustion. Now she understood when he said that this would be hard.

She wearily got up from her stretch and slowly walked over to Ryoga. The man was smiling that spine-chilling smile again as he picked up his racquet and a ball from the bucket he had brought.

"Now this exercise is the beginning of the reflex exercise that I have in mind. The first thing we must do is see if you can see the color of the stripe around the tennis ball when it is hit to you. When you can see it 100% of the time when I hit it to you then we'll move on to the next part. Sounds easy right? Well get to the other side of the court so we can start. I'll start off slow and gradually adjust until you can't see it anymore."

Sakuno swallowed hard at his explanation. She won't lie and say that she wasn't frightened. Ryoga's hits at full power were probably scarily fast and strong. She just hoped that he wouldn't be too disappointed with her when this exercise was over. She walked over to the other side of the court and stood there warily.

"Are you ready Sakuno-chan?"

Sakuno gulped at his use of her whole first name but nodded anyway. As soon as he hit it, she saw it zooming towards hit and closed her eyes, fearing that it would hit her. When she felt the air as the ball whizzed past, inches away from her head, she opened her eyes. Trembling slightly, she looked back to where the ball had landed and was horrified to see the green striped ball lodged firmly into the fence behind her. He had hit that harder than any of his hits during their match and he called that hit slow. She looked back at Ryoga with wide, fear-filled orbs.

"Sakuno-chan, you have to see the ball to tell me what color stripe it had."

He hit a ball towards her again but she continued to close her eyes in fear. Again and again he hit a ball towards her but she never once opened her eyes. She had frozen on the court with her eyes tightly shut in fear.

Sakuno trembled at the oppressing aura that she felt surrounding Ryoga. It was suffocating and powerful. She cowered against it. It made her feel helpless and she fell to her knees, hitting the ground with a hard 'thud'. There was no point of playing tennis anymore; she could never face off against a player like Ryoga. She should just give up, yes that's right, she could just give up. She was a hopeless case when it came to tennis after all. Everyone had told her so but she had desperately fought against that label.

A strong firm voice broke her from her self-pity, "Are you giving up that easily Sakuno? After all that fight you showed me yesterday, you're just going to give up? Hn, maybe you actually are hopeless at tennis."

All the people who had told her to quit and that she was a horrible tennis player suddenly appeared before her and Ryoga was no longer in front of her. All the disappointed faces of her friends, teammates in middle school, her coaches, her grandmother, Ryoma…her parents. It was too much for her. She didn't want them to look at her like that, like she was hopeless. She wished she could prove them wrong so desperately that it physically hurt.

Then, something just snapped into place within her. All of a sudden her fear of disappointing others was gone; it was replaced with a frighteningly strong resolve to prove them wrong. She was done wishing that she could prove them all wrong; she would prove them all wrong. She would become one of the best.

Slowly, she got up from her fallen position and stood tall.

"Please hit it again Ryoga-san."

This was it; she would show them all her determination, her iron-will, her resolve to become the best.

'Watch me rise everyone.'

####

Ryoga knew that what he was doing was risky, but he needed to get rid of her fear and hesitation. She needed a resolve to push her past her limits. This method had her face all of her fears head-on, it could either completely break her as she submits to all the labels or it could make her into something great. He had faith in her that she would put through though. There was something that he had seen in her eyes that made him believe in her whole-heartedly. He had seen that fire in her eyes; that thirst for acknowledgement. She was determined but she lacked a strong resolve. His father had told him much the same.

When he saw her slowly getting up he kept up his cold façade but was internally smiling. When she raised her eyes to meet his, he couldn't help but let out a small smirk. It seemed like she had found her resolve.

"Please hit it again Ryoga-san."

This was it; the historic moment when Sakuno Ryuzaki shed her shy hesitant persona and started on the path to becoming one of the strongest professional tennis players in the world.

####

"Pok!"

The sound echoed throughout the whole court.

"Red!"

Ryoga grinned. This was what he had been waiting for. This was what he knew she could do. The last hit had been even faster than the first, but she didn't cower against it. Instead, she stood tall, her eyes wide open with a confidence fitting of someone of her potential.

"Pok!"

The sound grew even louder.

"Blue!"

His hits became heavier after each one, but she was still able to see the stripe. In the back of her mind she thought this was insane, she shouldn't be able to see something so fast but she steadfastly ignored it until gradually it disappeared.

"Pok!"

The sound was almost deafening.

"Yellow!"

Ryoga was honestly surprised that she could still see the stripe even when he had served at full power. She had even more potential than he had thought. The whole point of today's practice was to simply give her a resolve and show her just how much she can already do. He was only going to be pulling out what was already there for now.

"Good Sakuno, we're done for today."

The girl sat down as soon as those words erupted from his mouth. She was completely and utterly exhausted. When she heard a ringing sound, her head snapped over to where her bag was.

"Moshi moshi. Ah, Oba-san! Ah I didn't even notice that it was 6 already. Yes, I'll be home in a few minutes. See you soon. Bye."

Sakuno looked over toward her new tennis coach and smiled tiredly when she saw that he was back to his old self.

"I'll walk you home Saku-chan, but before we start walking I'd like you to wear these," Ryoga thrust out what looked like 4 thick sweatbands, "These are 5 pound weights for both your wrists and ankles. You'll need to wear these for the entire day or week, until I say you can take them off. Every five days we'll increase your amount by five pounds."

Sakuno looked utterly horrified as he placed them on her. He was smiling that creepy smile again and she swore the man was enjoying her torture.

"With this your speed will increase and so will your muscle strength. Well, let's get going Saku-chan."

In silence, with some grunting from Sakuno from walking with weights on her sore and tired body, they walked towards the Ryuzaki household. Ryoga thought about what was next on their training menu while Sakuno wondered if she was going to survive his training.

"Arigato Ryoga-san, I'll see you tomorrow morning at 5."

Ryoga smiled and waved at her until she went into the house. Smirking at the torture—training, he had planned for tomorrow.

####

Sakuno nodded at her grandmother tiredly and almost broke out in tears at the sight of all the steps she had to climb to get up to the shower. Ever so slowly she began to climb, step after step, thinking about her new goal.

'I will become one of the best. I know I can do it and with Ryoga-san by my side, it's almost guaranteed that I will become one of the best. Just wait everyone, I'll be at your level soon enough.'

####

End of Chapter 2: The Strongest Resolve

Notes:

Arigato: Thank you

Sempai: Upper-classman

Kohai: Under-classmen

Oba-san: Grandmother

Chibisuke: Shorty

Chibi: Little one

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!

-SJB