Author's Note: Hi, hi~! As I was writing today, I noticed that my little comments during the story might obstruct(look at me, using complicated words ^v^) the reader from, well, reading, like just now. Please do tell me if it does bother you. Don't be shy, I won't bite~


POK

POK

POK

Graceful as a gazelle, she darted across the court rallying with her opponent.

'Let's see...right...now!'

With a swift motion, Sakuno lobbed the tennis ball high into the sky. Certain that it would land near the baseline like the multiple times before, Naomi hurriedly ran to the baseline...Only to see the ball drop peacefully on the service line without a single bounce, despite the height it fell from.

'Sakura no kansho.'

Sweat dripped down her face, blurring her vision. Blinking it away, Sakuno tried to focus on her match.

"Deuce," the umpire declared wearily for the sixth time. 'This is going nowhere,' he thought, before calling for a break.

The brunette huffed in frustration and began making her way to the bench.

"Relax, Sakuno, you're doing fine."

Sakuno turned around, startled, but her grimace quickly vanished and was replaced by a relieved grin.

"Yumi-chan!"

Her cousin faintly smiled, before taking a seat beside the brunette.

Sakuno sighed,"I can't handle her mirage shots, they're too difficult to return!"

She described how whenever she was about to return the ball it would appear to go through her racket. Fuyumi nodded understandingly, as she gazed thoughtfully at something off in the distance.

"You know," she said softly,"If you can't return the shot, then stop her from making it. There's a weak point in everything."

Sakuno looked at her cousin for a moment, before nodding in understanding.

"Hai, I will keep an eye out for that," the brunette replied, walking back to her match.

'Stop Adachi-san from making her shot...how do I do that?' she wondered.

"40-all," Naomi called across the court and served.

The two continued to rally until Naomi decided enough was enough.

Sakuno inhaled sharply; there it was again, the mirage shot.

'Think, Sakuno, think!'

As the neon yellow ball passed by, cinnamon orbs narrowed and focused in on the motion of the ball.

'There's no spin whatsoever, a perfect flat serve.'

SWISH

The umpire called, "Advantage in!"

Naomi bounced the tennis ball then threw it up for another serve.

'If I do this...' Sakuno wondered. Positioning her racket above the incoming ball, she returned the ball with a fierce backspin.

Originally hoping to end the game with a mirage shot, her opponent was taken by surprise at the insane amount of spin on the ball. Her shock had also just costed her a point. She tsked.

The umpire yawned, "Deuce."

For the rest of the game, Sakuno strained to put extreme amounts of spin on the ball, effectively closing down Naomi's mirage shots. Of course, she wasn't completely helpless without her special serves, as she managed to score a decent amount of points just by control and speed alone.

"3-2, Ryuzaki wins," the umpire almost cried out in relief, two hours later from when the match had begun.

But eventually even all of her skills still weren't able to help Naomi from the inevitable, for she still lost.

"It was a great game, Adachi-san!"

Naomi looked up at a smiling Sakuno, who was offering her hand. With a grin, she grabbed her hand and got up.

"Consider me impressed, Ryuzaki-chan."

The two eventually parted ways.

Looking around, the brunette didn't have much trouble locating where her cousins were. The twins had left for Natsumi's match 15 minutes after her's started, with Fuyumi coming over to check up on her every so often.


The pinkette bounced the tennis ball a bit, before throwing it up for a serve.

"Now, should I go easy or go hard?"she muttered under her breath. Flashes of the way her opponent treated her precious Saku-chan just now immediately flooded her mind.

Her heart went cold. The scumbag (A/N: Sumi-chan, I thought you were above name-calling...) wasn't even worth her time.

"Easy, it is."

POK

Cracking down her racket on the poor tennis ball with the wrath equivalent to that of Thor himself, the supposed girl-lookalike had just sent the ball flitting across the court with eerie ease, bouncing quickly off of the cement ground, and back up straight for his face.

Not wanting to ruin his self-proclaimed handsome face, Sasuke moved to block the tennis ball. Too bad, really, for he was just a split-second late.

CRASH

"What the fu-, you son of a bit-(A/N: You mean as in a cute male puppy, right?...Right?!)"

Her opponent was roaring with fury after getting knocked down by her serve, which, by the way, was an ace.

"Jesus Christ, man. Have some balls, will you? It only left a scratch."

It was true. As much as Sasuke wanted to deny it, a simple graze by the tennis ball had not only caused the high schooler to fall on his derrière and left his cheek bleeding slightly, but it had also knocked down his pride and left it bleeding too. The crowd around them laughed and cheered on his opponent.

"Yeah! You show that pervert who's boss!" Momoshiro happily hollered at the top of his lungs. The regulars had just returned to watch the interesting match.

"There is over 99.9901% that Tsukino-kun will win this match," said the data-man monotonously.


An hour and forty-eight minutes later...

Sure enough, just like Inui predicted, Natsumi had won big time against Sasuke.

Everyone was amazed. At first, they enjoyed the little show at the beginning, but soon they began to realize that Sasuke was horribly overpowered by his pink-haired opponent.

To start off, the tennis player possessed deadly accuracy and control, each time not failing to send Sasuke chasing after the ball, only to see it land directly on the baseline then bounce just out of his reach. And while her opponent was soaked in sweat and fatigue, she, on the other hand, was just getting warmed up

Out of desperation, Sasuke had made the mistake of assuming that his opponent was weak based on appearances, which led to his demise.

"I'll destroy you, ya little sh-(A/N: Stop. Just stop.)!"he roared in anger.

He begun returning each shot with all of the strength he could muster, thinking to himself that those scrawny arms wouldn't hold up to any of his powerful shots. He was terribly mistakened. Thinking that it was a power challenge, Natsumi, who had been holding off to conserve energy, decided to let loose a bit. The battle of strength escalated to the point where when Sasuke couldn't return the ball, and the flying projectile crashed into the fence. The crater created by the said impact was enormous, by far the largest addition to the fence of craters behind him.

"Let's end this!" she shouted out of habit, before effectively ending the game with another power shot.

Determined to not let the brat win, Sasuke caught the ball in his racket, his face scrunched up in effort, and strained every muscle to return it.

SNAP

"Huh?"

Looking down in surprise, he found that the ball had ripped through many of his racket's strings. His eyes caught the yellow ball bouncing away from him.

"2-0, Tsukino wins," the umpire declared.

Sasuke was downtrodden, his pride ripped to shreds. Not only did he lose to sissy, he also didn't even score a single point from the boy.

'Just who is that bastard?' (A/N: Anyone have some extra powerful soap?)

Natsumi merely sighed, having already lost interest in winning. It was just too easy. She almost felt bad for the guy. It was as if she was the bully, not him.

It was at this moment when a lady in the crowd recognized her.

"Oh my god, you're Natsumi Tsukino!"

Shoving past a couple indignant onlookers, the woman was by her side at the speed of light.

Her excitement showed as she gushed,"Hello, Tsukino-chan! I'm Bora(A/N: Because I was bored and lazy), a journalist at Tennis Daily magazine! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hi, Bora-san, it's nice to meet you too," Natsumi replied cheerfully. She appreciated the attention, but it still unnerved her a bit, even after all this time.

As mentioned previously, Natsumi was once a regular on the famed Shikoku girl's tennis team and had been throughout junior high and into high school. They have remained undefeated for a very long time now, winning the national championship every single year. The record caused a lot of media coverage, and every year, there's a lot more pressure to win. Not to mention, the pinkette had also participated in quite a few prestigious tournaments herself, the U.S. Open, the Australian Open, and the Roland Garros, to name a few.

"Now, could you explain what just happened? It's not everyday that a skilled tennis player such as yourself challenges an amateur."

Before the emerald-eyed girl could even think of a reply, the lady continued, noticing Fuyumi and Sakuno approaching.

"Ooo, is this who I think it is?"

Before the journalist could pry further, Fuyumi interrupted, taking her sister's arm.

"Sorry, but we need to be somewhere right now. Goodbye." She marched off, dragging a bored Natsumi, followed by a confused Sakuno.


Feline eyes roamed the premises, before locking onto a certain girl walking out of Court 6. He had just finished a match at a nearby court, having obviously won it, and now was searching for the rest of his senpai with a particular sadistic genius who had also just finished his match.

"Saa, doesn't she seem familiar?"

Ryoma's eyes widened in surprise.

'So, Fuji-senpai noticed too?'

His eyes reverted back to the brunette in question. Pulling down his Fila cap, he cooly replied(A/N: Mhmm, sure, Echizen-san, sure.),"Hn."

Somewhere, he knew he had seen that insanely long chocolate hair and those large cinnamon doe eyes.

Unbeknownst to the prince, the sapphire-eyed prodigy was actually gazing far off at Court 7, referring to a particular girl sitting on the bench. Unlike Ryoma, he already knew the brunette was his coach's granddaughter the moment he saw her, despite the changes to the girl's appearance. He simply chose to remain silent, for it would be much more fun to see his friends' reactions when they do find out.

"Sorry, but we need to be somewhere right now. Goodbye."

Sapphire eyes followed her as she walked off.

'I wonder...what if..?'