DISCLAIMER : Following the word itself "fanfiction", I do not own anything in this fiction and credits belong to the rightful creators of the manga: Inoue Takehiko, the publisher, the broadcasting company of the anime and etc.

"Ah! There he is!" Ayako exclaimed upon finally catching sight of the awaited ace. "Sawakita is here...!"

"That #9..." Hanamichi muttered while grinning. "That #9 that beat the shit out of that stupid fox, teehee...!"

"You can't think of anything meaningful, can you Hanamichi?" Miyagi sighed at Hanamichi's usual idiotic antics.

"Speaking of Rukawa... haven't seen him anywhere... that's surprising..." Kogure noticed.

"He prolly doesn't have the guts to face Sawakita again yet... haha" Mitsui supposed. "That arrogant brat..."

"BELIEVE ME! It's that Rukawa dude who stopped me on my way! IT WAS HIS FAULT!" Sawakita blabbered on, trying to defend himself from the accusations of his angry teammates and his coach.

"Of all the lamest excuses! In the first place, that dude wasn't even around!" Doumoto-sensei opposed strongly. "I always have reminded you!"

"B-but...!"

"SIT THE FUCK DOWN!"

"Fine... (sigh)" Sawakita rolled his eyes, still mumbling eventually sat down... "When just last night y'all even told me to be honest about everything... tch..."

"Watch closely Sawakita." Doumoto-sensei, back to his usual tone, told Sawakita. "You too Minoru..."

"Familiarize every single move. Second half is still 14 minutes away."

"Doahou..." Rukawa muttered as he stood by the farthest corner of the balcony still overlooking the match below, away from those people who knew him specially his teammates who have been a bit confused as to why he wasn't visible anywhere.

"You call yourself the best in Japan, yet you act worse than an imbecile. I can't believe I lost to you..."

"LOUDER!"

Shoyo's cheering squad, in high-spirits as well, cheered louder to boost their team's confidence, as they were facing Japan's #1 Highschool Basketball Team that have just been dethroned.

"IKE IKE SHOYO! OSE OSE SHOYO!"

"Dammit...! I have to find a way to pull those aces out of the bench..."

Fujima thought to himself, glancing to Sawakita and Minoru on the bench, while sprinting back and forth, keeping up to Sannoh's unbreakable defense.

"We need to score more, as fast as we could!" Catching the ball passed to him by Takano. "

Fujima then looked straight into Fukatsu eyes, raising his arms high up to execute a jump-shot.

"You never learn yo...!" Fukatsu dashing back to Fujima, aiming to jump, when in a split second...

"Don't underestimate us..." Fujima then cuts in, breaking through Fukatsu's defense, this time aiming for a lay-up... "HANAGATA!"

THUD!

In a blink of an eye, Fujima then bounces the ball from below towards Hanagata, who caught it with a 100% accuracy, now going for another jump-shot.

"As if I'd let you!" Nobe jumped up right in front of Hanagata to block.

With a smirk, Hanagata then thrusted himself backwards, before being able to throw the ball in the air, passing through Nobe's defense...

"FADE-AWAY...!"

Shoot!

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOO!"

Once again, the crowd roared louder as Shoyo finally took their second score, tying up to Sannoh.

8 minutes.

[Shoyo - 04 Sannoh Kogyo - 04]

"Who do you mean 'HE'?" Naomi asked concerning her friend's bothered condition.

"Eiji-kun... my childhood friend I've been telling you about..." Mika answered in a slightly worried tone, her eyes still wandering around the gym, not noticing that Sawakita had already taken a seat on the benches.

"He's from Shoyo?!"

"Nooo! Sannoh! geeez..." Mika rolled her eyes.

"Ahhhh! Okay, okay! Sorry I forgot... I was too disturbed about Fujima's beard..." Naomi just scratched the back of her head. "Well, maybe he was sick or something? Or he's just a benchwarmer and he didn't really need to play?"

"A BENCHWARMER? No way...!" Mika objected. "You never listened to me, have you? I always have told you, he's just like you!"

"Hey, I DO listen! He's that MVP douchebag right? That one who did not show up last night?" Naomi raised a brow, folding her arms to her chest. "I don't make people wait... so, that makes us 'different' haha...!"

"Hey, he did show up!" Mika still objecting. "And he's gotten more handsome..." Mika then blushed by the thought of seeing Sawakita again last night after some period of time, now gotten taller, and manlier than before.

"Too bad, you're not gonna be able to see him..."

Shoyo ruled through out the whole first half managing to break through Sannoh's tight defense.

[Shoyo - 28 Sannoh Kogyo - 22]

However, things did not go as how Shoyo wanted it, still Sannoh's aces, Sawakita and Minoru on the benches. Fujima scoring 15 points, while the rest in all scored 13. With a total of 28 points, giving it a 6 point difference, Shoyo took the lead against Sannoh.

Half-time Break, inside the locker rooms...

"6 point difference... that's what they get for underestimating us..." Hasegawa said with confidence, although exhausted.

"I don't think they are underestimating us..." Hanagata, wiping his face dry with a towel while sitting down contradicted.

"Sannoh is trying to wear us out..." Fujima, after gobbling mouthfuls of Gatorade finally spoke, still breathless. "We needed to maintain that lead no matter what..."

"Huh?" The rest of the team, except Hanagata looked back at their playing-coach, who had been previously bothered about the situation.

"They were quite lenient in scoring at the moment and focused on defense..." Fujima continued. "We can usually score up to 30 or more points within the first half..."

"Using that giant lardball #15, and that #8 who was known to be an expert on defense, saving that MVP ace #9 and their other ace #6 for later..." Hanagata further stated.

"Looks like what we did to Shohoku before did backfire us..."

"Indeed." Akagi spoke out. "This indeed is a familiar scenario..."

"Eh?" Ayako, Kogure and the rest looked back at Akagi.

"Only that back then, Shoyo pretty much underestimated us... This time, Sannoh INTENDED to wear them out before getting back at them on the second-half..."

"That #8 and #6 again... pffft" Mitsui scoffed, remembering the match quite a month ago. "Good luck with that, Shoyo..."

"What to expect...? Aren't they the reigning champion?" Someone spoke from the behind. "Too bad their Girl's Division wasn't as good as this one... didn't even had the chance to have a match against Sannoh Girls' Division..."

"Naomi!" Ayako ran to her light-featured friend who stood out the crowd for looking a bit different. "Naomi-san! Konnichiwa!" Haruko, Sakuragi and the gundan greeted back as well.

"Hey guys!" She greeted back with a smile.

"Surprised to see you here!" Ayako said.

"I came to see Fujima play and to my dismay I arrived to all of these weird shit instead... haha" Naomi retorted. "I can't wait to see Ryonan vs. Sannoh. Then I'll see Sendoh play! Teehee!"

"I have no idea how someone like you who only cared about 'cute guys' became th National MVP..." Ayako shook her head, rolling her eyes. "Back then you even used to fangirl Rukawa and Mitsu-"

"SHUUUUSSSSHHHH!" Quickly covering Ayako's mouth up, Naomi interrupted her. "He might hear you!" In a loud whisper.

"Alright, alright..." Ayako then sighed after breaking through Naomi's clutches. "I can't blame you for having a different taste in men after all haha! They really are good looking hahaha!" Ayako let out a loud chuckle, followed by Naomi as well.

"Oh! Where is Mika by the way?" Ayako noticing it finally asked.

"E- ehh!" Upon looking around, Naomi was surprised not to see Mika anywhere... "S-she was here a while ago..."

END OF CHAPTER 8