Slam Dunk Fan Fiction ❯ When enemies become friends ❯ 09: The start of a comeback: YOU ARE GOING DOWN! ( Chapter 9 )

Revised by Meeksins, 290409.

Disclaimers: Slam Dunk belongs to Takehiko Inoue sensei. I, on the other hand, own nothing except for this fanfic and the star combi's my idea.

A/N: This is NON-YAOI. Story takes place after Shohoku's match against Sannoh. Their match against Sannoh can be found in the last six volumes of SD manga.

09: The start of a comeback: YOU ARE GOING DOWN!

Rukawa, Akagi, Sendoh and Kiyota simultaneously glanced at the scoreboard and at the ticking clock.

6 minutes to go.

Not good.

69 (Kanagawa) to 109 (Akita)

40 points difference.

THAT is SO not good.

One question kept hovering over their heads...

Can they win?

+++

Sakuragi's pissed mood was slowly deflating and something else was slowly replacing it. It was the unfamiliar weight of hopelessness, knowing that their defeat was inevitable.

The Akita team was just too strong for them and everybody knew it including the self proclaimed tensai himself.

As soon as the negative thought rammed through his thick head, Sakuragi furiously shook his head refusing to believe that such a thought had actually entered his tensai mind.

When the thought kept coming back at him again and again refusing to get out of his mind, Sakuragi couldn't take it anymore.

Quick as lightning, he slammed his head down against the court floor with a resounding big 'BANG!'.

Everyone on the court who were still in the middle of the game and were still playing, abruptly froze, apparently, startled at the explosion that they had just heard. Even the audience visibly quieted down at the still echoing 'bang'.

Everyone turned to the source of the explosion; their eyes wide open and jaws loose on the ground save for a certain raven head who just puffed out a sigh and a certain white haired man who was leisurely sipping his cup of herbal tea.

"Head butted himself..", muttered Kiyota, who like the rest of the Kanagawa team members should have gotten used to Sakuragi's eccentric behaviour but haven't, shook his head as if he didn't understand why the hell he was stuck in the same team with the red head and added, "..yet again".

However, Kiyota had to admit he was rather relieved that Sakuragi had done that because it only meant that Sakuragi was about to be back to his own reckless self again and not the quiet and zoned out state he was currently in.

Sendoh, who also had snapped out from his stunned state, slowly grinned then. His usual sparkle of amusement seeping back into his eyes, amused at one of Sakuragi's yet astonishing if not crazy antics.

'Mah. Our Sakuragi Hanamichi's back', he thought with a definite grin, his earlier tensed and fidgeting stance slowly relaxing a little bit.

Akagi who just shook his head at the red head thought, 'Baka yarou' but a small smile could be seen at the edge of his lips, remembering and knowing that Sakuragi had head butted himself in order to calm himself down and to come back into focus of the game. It was the red head's infamous way to get his head back in a game.

Seeing that the game was still frozen at the moment, Rukawa ignored Sawakita who had a 'what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-that-guy' look and walked over towards Sakuragi who still had his head bent down but was far enough away off the ground. Smoke practically came out in wisps from his forehead where he had hit himself and where a red hill was slowly forming itself there.

"Nani yattende, do'aho", said Rukawa, in that low and cool voice of his.

Upon hearing the all too familiar voice of the kitsune, Sakuragi snapped his head up and glared at Rukawa. "Nandato!", he growled instead of his usual angry shouts and yells.

Noticing this slight, Rukawa frowned. Then..

Rukawa made a gesture of tapping a finger on his forehead and then jerked a thumb towards the red head. "Feeling any better?".

Sakuragi glowered at him and said, "What's your point, kitsune?".

Rukawa half smiled then, one that held no mirth in it. His eyes then became hard and serious. He jerked a thumb at the scoreboard and slightly inclined his head towards the opponent's team. "5 minutes, 40 points difference. Think you can catch up with me?".

Sakuragi stared at him then before an understanding dawned in his eyes and his infamous grin slowly forming back on his face. "You actually think I'm going to work with you?".

Rukawa just shrugged. "Nobody said about working together".

Sakuragi just grinned. "Hah. Even so there's no chance in HELL I'll be working with you".

"Exactly", said Rukawa, for once agreeing out loud with the red head.

If possible, Sakuragi's grin widened even further. "But I'm going to kick your ass and I am going to be the one to close that difference up. Not YOU. See if I don't!".

Rukawa just puffed out a sigh and shrugged his declaration off.

"NANI?!", yelled Sakuragi at Rukawa's indifference clearly back to his usual shouting and yelling self.

The whistle of the referee blew right then. "Oi! What are you two doing?", yelled one of the referees jogging up to them. "We're still in the middle of a game. The both of you are to refrain from talking. If you continue to do so and disrupt this game both of you are disqualified and out of here. You got that?", continued the referee firmly with a stern expression on his face.

Rukawa just shrugged while Sakuragi tried to restrain himself from glaring too much at the referee and he remained seethingly silent.

Taking their reactions as a yes, the referee told them to get to their positions before blowing the whistle off to restart the game back to its pace.

Before both of them separated to their respective places, Sakuragi called out at Rukawa, "Oi, kitsune!".

Rukawa half turned at him, giving him his usual cool look.

Sakuragi then grinned at him then, one that challenged him. He held up one finger then showed off all of his five fingers before jerking his thumb towards the scoreboard. "One minute, 5 points. Think you can do it?".

Rukawa raised an eyebrow as a passing interest flickered through his blue eyes. "Is that a challenge?"

Sakuragi's grin widened.

Rukawa held up a finger before showing a ball of fist at him. "I can do it with 10 points in 1 minute".

It was Sakuragi's turn to scoff. "Ceh. All talk, kitsune. If you can do that, you would have done that ages ago".

Sakuragi's word hit a nerve but Rukawa didn't show it on his face, however, it still showed in the next words he uttered.

"You're on".

+++

All the Kanagawa team members including Taoka sensei and Takato sensei, save for Anzai sensei, had either their jaws dropped open or their eyes popping out of their sockets.

Because right after the game restarted back on course, the pace was almost immediately reversed...

To their side!

Sure they were still way behind in terms of the difference in scores but...

The score was now 77 (Kanagawa) to 109 (Akita).

With Rukawa scoring five points and Sakuragi scoring the rest of the three points.

But what was mind boggling was the fact that they had scored those points right under one minute!

"What in hell happened to them?", said a stunned Miyagi, plopping back into his seat after yelling an 'ALRIGHT!' as Sakuragi made it with his given chance of a free throw.

Mitsui who also looked stunned but mixed with amazement in his expression said, "Whatever it is, I'm glad it happened".

"It must have been something to do with the exchange that both of them (Sakuragi and Rukawa) had earlier on", said Maki who was two players away from Mitsui and Miyagi.

Mitsui and Miyagi heard this and nodded together before contradicting themselves as they shook their heads instead.

Jin who heard this just smiled and said, "I'm just glad that they're finally putting their differences aside and getting along fine with each other".

Both Shohoku members stared at Jin after making that comment.

'Nai. Nai', thought both Shohoku members again shaking their heads at the incredulous comment.

Both Shohoku members turned back to watch the game when...

"HOLY SHIT!", yelled both Miyagi and Mitsui jumping out form their seats in a near stumble as they yelled in disbelief and shock.

They had only their eyes off the game in those few seconds and already the score was unbelievable!

It was now 82 (Kanagawa) to 109 (Akita)!

"HOW IN HELL DID THAT HAPPEN?!" yelled both Shohoku members still disbelieving.

No one bothered to answer them as they were too busy trying to comprehend what the hell was going on.

Not that what was happening was not a good thing.

Not far away from them, two wide eyed senseis couldn't believe at the speed that their team was gaining to get the upper hand of the game. Especially of the two players that made it possible.

However, a certain white haired man just a few seats next to them just chuckled and said to no one in particularly.

"The real deal has yet to begin".

+++

"WOH!", cried Takamiya, who was back in the stands with the other Sakuragi gundam members. Like everyone else there, he was shocked by the turn of events but also at the same time excited to no end. "YOSH, HANAMICHI! GANBATTE YO! OFFENSE! OFFENSE! OFEENSE!", yelled Takamiya along with Okusu, the blond member and Noma, the other black haired member of Sakuragi's gundam as all three banged their empty soda bottles on the railings in front of them as loudly and as noisily as possible.

Youhei, who was relieved that Sakuragi was back to normal, just grinned and shook his head at the reversed pace of the game and at his red head friend, amazed also at the unexpected turn of events.

Haruko who was also relieved was back to screaming her support along with her two other friends, happy that her close friend was back to himself.

+++

"How was that, kitsune?", yelled Sakuragi, after he brought a powerful dunk through the opponent's hoop, earning yet two points for their team.

Both of them were racing back neck to neck to their territory ready to defend it.

"Child's play", muttered the raven head player, in his usual low voice but Sakuragi heard it.

"NANDATO!" said Sakuragi. "Child's play my ass!"

With that he zoomed towards the player who had the ball in hand, namely Fukatsu, paying no heed to guard Mikio Kawata whom he was supposed to guard.

On fire himself, Rukawa refused to be left behind and went after him almost forgetting that he was supposed to guard Sawakita who was running neck to neck with him.

Fukatsu, who saw the three incoming players, widened his eyes in reaction. Sendoh who saw this took the opportunity to take advantage of his opponent's distraction and slapped the ball out of his hands.

The minute Sendoh had the ball in his possession, he slipped past Fukatsu, who just realized the mistake he had made, yelled to his Kanagawa teammates, "SOKKO (fast break), MINNA!"

"HOH!", they yelled in response, as they zoomed down the other side of the court.

Two particular players were already ahead of the rest of the players and Sendoh took the opportunity to pass the ball to one of them.

Sendoh held the ball high up in the air in his hand while still on the run and threw it in full blast towards the player of his choice.

"KITSUNE! TEMME!" yelled Sakuragi in outrage as Rukawa received Sendoh's pass easily.

Screeching to a halt behind the three pointer line, Rukawa executed his three pointer shot.

It was then and there that Sakuragi made an abrupt screech to a halt, frozen in his place as he watched the ball fly up into the air as if in slow motion and slowly falling back towards the net.

A sense of déjàvu suddenly flashed through him as if he had seen and felt something like this before..but where? when?

It was then that he remembered the game that they had against the Aichi prefecture. The one that they had thought was going to be their last match until...

~FLASHBACK~

Sakuragi was barely aware of his surroundings, of the shouts and yells of his teammates, as he stepped behind a line which he was not aware of but at the same time unconsciously was. He raised his eyes to look at his target, the net, which seemed so far away and raised his arms in a high arc. Almost in a blur, with deadening calm, he let the ball fly away from his hands.

2 seconds..

Everyone stared at the ball which was flying high overhead them. It was so high that they wondered how the hell that was possible.

1 second..

The ball was falling.. falling so fast that it was a blur and looked like a meteorite about to crash on earth.

It also looked like it had no chance of getting through the net.

And everyone knew it.

There was also the fact that the shooter was Sakuragi and everyone knew that he had never attempted a 3 pointer shot before much less learn it. It would take a miracle for the shot to go through.

Even before anything happened, Rukawa was the first one to be shocked because...

Zero second later..

A miracle did happen.

The ball had swished through the net.

He had done it.

~END OF FLASHBACK~

Sakuragi blinked uncharacteristically as Rukawa's 3 pointer shot whooshed through the net as his momentary flashback ended.

Rukawa, who saw Sakuragi's current spaced out state, slightly raised an eyebrow at him.

"Do'aho", said Rukawa, guessing what the red head was thinking.

Upon hearing the kitsune's voice, Sakuragi snapped back to reality and looked a bit irritably at him.

However, before Sakuragi could utter a word, Rukawa cut him off.

Slightly raising his eyebrow a bit higher at him, Rukawa said, "Remembered something, do'aho?"

Sakuragi who looked blankly at first at the question the kitsune had asked of him, then he slowly grinned, his infamous tensai grin.

"Heh", said Sakuragi, if possible his grin went even wider. "That's not all that I've just remembered".

He then looked up at the audience, seemed to search through them, stopped and then looked back at the raven head, a thumb jerking towards the direction that he had cast his sight earlier.

"Still your word on that deal up?"

Rukawa immediately frowned at that and looked at where Sakuragi's thumb was pointing.

Then understood what the red head do'aho meant.

Puffing out a sigh, Rukawa said, "Yare, yare. It looks like the No. #1 spot solely belongs to me then".

"NANI?! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU MEAN BY THAT?!" burst out Sakuragi, swearing to god that he'd kill that kitsune someday but unfortunately not right then.

Rukawa just raised his eyebrow again, shrugged and walked off.

But he said over his shoulder. "You do your part of the bargain too, do'aho".

Sakuragi who had decided not to wait killing him right then stopped in his tracks.

Sakuragi then went over to Rukawa and pounded him on the back, his tensai grin back on his face. "YOSH! But I'll NOT pass the ball to you".

Rukawa, who was annoyed at him for pounding his back, shoved Sakuragi away from him but in response to his announcement, the raven head just puffed out a sigh and shrugged his shoulders indifferently.

Rukawa looked up at the scoreboard then counting up the difference of scores and checked the time they still had left.

'Under four minutes and we're still 24 points behind', thought Rukawa seriously getting pissed at how far behind in points they were.

"Do'aho", said Rukawa then, stopping the red head from his tracks. "Don't let go of that rebound. I'll take care of the points".

Staring at him incredulously at what he had said, Sakuragi was about to yell when he stopped and said with narrowed eyes, "Nanda yo, kitsune. The Rebound King wouldn't let go off it no matter what".

Sakuragi jogged off then and went to mark Mikio and muttering under his breath, ".. and I have absolutely no intention of letting you score all the points, kitsune".

Somewhere off the two, a certain player heard their exchange and smiled.

An indirect challenge was issued.

And there was no way he was going to let that pass.

+++

Akagi was seriously getting pissed off at the oaf that was the King Kong duped player, Kawata, the centre on the opponent's side. Kawata was yet again mercilessly throwing taunts at him just to rile him up and force him to make a foul. But this was Akagi who knew how to restrain himself even though he was seriously thinking of bashing the bastard's head right then and there. It was no wonder that Uozumi though rivalled Akagi in terms of skills and techniques in playing as centre had lost his temper against the jack ass bastard who stood in front of him especially with that impatient and explosive temper that Uozumi was famous for. Akagi silently thanked god that he had more patience in him then he realized. Maybe it had been due to all of the patience he had been put through with Sakuragi's idiotic character and not to mention all the crazy things that the red head had a habit of doing.

Like calling his former captain a gorilla for instance, the first time that they had met together one morning in the Shohoku high school grounds.

Speaking of which, that idiot sure as hell is playing his part in the game pretty well right then unlike himself. Another one of the things that was beginning to grate on Akagi's already dangerously thin nerves besides Kawata's persistent bullshit talk.

The King Kong's skills in rebounding, defence and offense around the goal area was also not making his patience anywhere near anywhere good.

It was no wonder that Kawata was the no. #1 centre player in the nation, what with his damnable great skills at playing his position AND pissing the hell of other people's head off.

'FINE. If that's going to be the way it is. So be it', thought Akagi through a new found determination and through gritted gorilla teeth.

Kawata, who was pushing Akagi from behind as both readied themselves for a rebound from Minoru's (the shooting guard of the Akita team) hurried jump shot, was about to jump off from the ground for the ball when Akagi pulled the end uniform shirt of Kawata's, (not visible to the referees/judges eyes or much of anyone else for that matter) Sakuragi style (refer to volume #28 of SD manga), bringing the other player off balance.

Feeling fired from all the crap talk from Kawata, Akagi roared, "TAKE THIS!", as he slammed the ball away from the goal area.

Kawata who was trying to regain his balance on the ground just watched an orange blur going over them and straight for a black and spiky haired player.

Realising that he had been pulled from behind, Kawata glared at Akagi before shouting at the referee not far away from him, "REFREE! INTENTIONAL FOUL!". He waved his arm wildly at Akagi who was already on his way to the other side of the court.

The referee was looking puzzled at his actions when a shout from the Akita coach blasted at Kawata. "KAWATA! NANI YATTENDE?! FALLBACK, FALLBACK! The ball's on the other side!", yelled the normally calm and cool coach of Sannoh namely Doumoto, an almost older and moustached version of Sendoh though just a bit shorter in height.

"AH, HELL", said Kawata racing back to the other side of the court in no time flat.

And the battle between the two primates rose up a notch after that incident but Kanagawa's gorilla was beginning to get on a roll.

+++

Sendoh, who had seen Akagi's little trick, was laughing inwardly.

'Didn't think Akagi was the sort of person who'd resort to those kinds of tricks', mused Sendoh, thinking that it was so much like something that Sakuragi would do instead of the Shohoku's former team captain.

'Speaking of which', thought Sendoh his grin turning into a thoughtful frown as he scanned the area before him and past Fukatsu's shoulders as he looked for an opening and a player for him to pass the ball to, 'At least now Akagi's less pressurised than he was before even if it is just a little bit', thought Sendoh looking at Akagi who now didn't look much annoyed and angered by whatever Kawata's saying to him.

'On the other hand, Kiyota's really in a bad state right now', thought Sendoh, noticing that the shorter player really had a hard time guarding the other team's shooting guard, Minoru. In addition to the other player's relatively higher frame than that of Kiyota's, his skills were also of that of high quality Akita team style that Sendoh was all too familiar with. Apparently, the guard's skills weren't making Kiyota's weariness any less either.

Just then, Sakuragi for some reason or other yelled at Kiyota his tone of voice amused as hell. "OI, NOSARU! (wild monkey!)", yelled Sakuragi at Kiyota who was not far away from his side.

Startled, Kiyota almost turned around to face the red head monkey but when he did, he almost let his mark loose. Instead, without looking at Sakuragi and glaring at the player in front of him as if to stare him down so that he'd stay put replied back at him, his annoyance 100% full forced into his tone of voice despite the growing weariness that slightly mingled in it.

"Nanda yo, Akage saru?", said Kiyota.

Sakuragi snickered then, bringing out a vein out of Kiyota's temple.

"Why don't you just call out to that fan loving coach of yours, eh? You look just about as dead as Maki-jisan and Jin-kun..", taunted Sakuragi, his annoying tensai grin on his face.

PISSED, Kiyota swung around to face him, didn't give a shit about the player in front of him, and yelled. "NANDATO, AKAGE SARU! TAKE THAT BACK!".

Sendoh went wide eyed at the scene before him and even wider still when an annoyed referee was coming up to them, his whistle about to slip in between his lips.

`Ah, shit. If this continues on, they'll get disqualified', thought Sendoh, quickly trying to think up of something to avert the referee's attention.

"HEAD'S UP, KYOTA!" yelled Sendoh, throwing the ball at the still very pissed wild monkey.

Surprised and startled at the mention of his name, Kiyota turned around and just in time caught the ball from smashing his face in.

"WHAT THE HELL..", yelled Kiyota a bit off balance at the sudden throw.

"Kiyota! The ball. The BALL!", said Sendoh, running towards him.

As if realising for the first time that the ball was actually in his hands, Kiyota looked down at them, saw the ball and was off!

Sendoh didn't know what the hell happened to him (Kiyota) but it looked like someone had just stepped on his tail and he was seriously pissed off by it.

Kiyota zoomed in and out of the other players' way, followed in hot pursuit by Minoru and Sawakita right behind him.

Seeing an opening, Kiyota abruptly made a jump without pausing and held the ball in the air and was about to execute a shot under the basket when two pairs of arms and hands appeared blocking him like a wall. It was Sawakita's and Kawata's block combination!

There was no way he could make that shot.

But there was no way it was going to just end there either.

Suddenly, Kiyota slammed the ball he had downwards away from the ring.

Straight towards the awaiting gorilla centre player, Akagi!

"YOSH!", Akagi said the minute the ball was in his possession.

He immediately made a jump for the ring while Kawata and Sawakita were still in the air and in the mid process of falling back to the ground.

With a resounding smash, he slammed the ball through the ring.

"Alright! 2 points in, GORI!" yelled Sakuragi as the scoreboard showed 87 (Kanagawa) to 109 (Akita).

Akagi who had slapped high fives with a huffing and puffing Kiyota slammed a pounding gori style hand behind Sakuragi's back making Sakuragi yell, "ITAI!".

"SOKKO, MINNA!" yelled Akagi as each of them raced down the other half side of the court.

"So, how was my pass? Incredible, wasn't it?" said a smug looking Kiyota, who ran beside Sakuragi.

Sakuragi pulled the skin of the lower part of his eye, stuck out a tongue at him and said, "Which part of it was incredible, Nosaru? You couldn't even get in a basket".

"NANDATO?!", yelled Kiyota outraged. "I'll shove those words right down your throat when I get those points for our team, AKAGE SARU!"

"NO CHANCE IN HELL AM I GOING TO LET YOU DO THAT!" yelled Sakuragi, with a snort.

"OH YEAH?!"

"HA!"

"Temme matte royo (You just wait and see)", muttered the both of them as they glared each other before they separated off to take their respective positions.

Sendoh and Akagi who had witnessed the scene just shook their heads in exasperation.

It was bad enough that they fight and bring their nonsense bickering into their practice games but did they have to bring in their nonsense now, in an actual game? Hell, both of them were going to get hell from them and the rest of the Kanagawa team members for that.

'At least that meant Kiyota's back to his old self', thought Sendoh with his ever present amused smile remembering one of the practice games they had together as a team that had a scene that looked very similar to this one. 'Kiyota plays better if he's not under too much pressure caused by his opponent', observed Sendoh, thinking that he himself was TOO much pressurised by HIS own opponent.

Then a thought occurred to him making him pause then grin in amusement.

'Did Sakuragi do that in the first place just to fire the other monkey up I wonder?' he thought with a definite, amused grin.

+++

Rukawa who had also witnessed the bickering nonsense between the two earlier puffed out a small sigh of exasperation, his expression clearly telling anyone within sight that they were 100% complete idiots.

Sawakita who was as usual facing him as his guard smiled then, making Rukawa's sense of alert heightened.

Normally, Rukawa would have just ignored that smile of his which the current No.#1 player seemed to be doing a lot but this time he didn't.

Because it was the same smile he had last seen the last time they had a match together at Inter-High.

The smile that meant he was about to do some damage to the Kanagawa team's current situation.

Before Rukawa even finished his thoughts, Sawakita, in the blink of an eye, slipped through Rukawa's tough defence and zoomed towards the goal area.

"Ah, SHIT", cursed Rukawa under his breath, as he ran at top speed after Sawakita who was whistling for Fukatsu to pass the ball at him.

Fukatsu immediately broke Sendoh's defensive barrier and ran pass him. Sendoh, who had no intention of letting Fukatsu pass the ball to anyone let alone to Sawakita, reconstructed his defensive wall, this time as tight as he could possibly make.

Fukatsu, who was now trapped in Sendoh's wall, once again gritted his teeth cursing inwardly to himself that he couldn't pass the ball directly to Sawakita.

But wait, an opening to his right..

'Yes, there it is!', thought Fukatsu as he pulled his hand back and launched the ball straight towards..

"MIKIO!", yelled Sawakita the minute, Mikio had the ball in his grasp.

Sakuragi who was guarding Mikio was jumping up to steal the ball away from the tall opponent but Mikio was already throwing it back at Sawakita!

"Dammit!" muttered Rukawa under his breath as Sawakita made a beeline for the outside lane of the goal area.

Sakuragi, who was as pissed as hell because he had just let a ball get the better of him, ran towards Sawakita, apparently wanting to get something back from him.

Rukawa's eyes widened a bit when Sawakita was a step away from the 3 pointer line.

Sakuragi saw this too and his eyes widened even further than Rukawa's.

'He's going to do the 3 pointer shot!', thought both of them at the same time as Sawakita turned around now behind the 3 pointer line, glancing at the incoming players that had every intention of stopping him.

Sawakita flashed them a half grin then, all the challenge written on his damn face as he jumped and readied to take his shot.

As if in answer to the open challenge that was on Sawakita's face, both Rukawa and Sakuragi either growled or snarled back at him before they jumped up after him, their arms and hands outstretched far beyond their limits blocking Sawakita's view as much as possible.

Their jumps were so high and so powerful that they were going over the barrier of high school basketball standard jumps, making everyone looked on at them in fascination and disbelief.

But it was also Sakuragi's and Rukawa's aggressive power and the force of the jump that made them slam against Sawakita's frame making him fall backwards to the ground...

But not before Sawakita smirked at the two faces in front of him and executed a high arc in a powerful 3 pointer shot.

"Ah, SHIT!", muttered Rukawa under his breath realising their mistake and Sawakita's aim right then.

Sakuragi, on the other hand, yelled his outrage when Sawakita's shot went right threw the net.

"NANI!", he yelled, grinding his teeth in frustration, as the scoreboard showed 87(Kanagawa) to 112 (Akita)

As if to make matters worse, the whistle was blown and the referee shouted, "OFFENSE CHARGE. JUUBAN (ten) and JUUICHIBAN (11)! TWO FREE THROWS FOR THE AKITA SHOTEN TEAM!"

The crowd roared their cheer for the Akita at this announcement.

"NANI?!", shouted Sakuragi at the referee, his outrage fuelled even more but even before the referee felt offended, 3 sets of fists found themselves connected on Sakuragi's head, with Akagi delivering his infamous gorilla punch on top of his head, Rukawa giving him a severe blow at one side of his head and another blow on the other side by Kiyota.

All the three of them had at least one vein popping out of his temple, clearly restraining themselves from doing more than punch the daylights out of him.

Sendoh who flinched at the pain that Sakuragi must be feeling right now, jogged up towards the referee who had called out the charge and apologized on behalf of Sakuragi saying that the red head was only joking.

Appeased somewhat by Sendoh's reassurance, the referee continued the game so that Sawakita had his chance at has two free shots.

"Sakuragi", said Akagi standing beside Sakuragi who was standing next to Rukawa, Kiyota and Sendoh. "Cool that hot head of yours and stop yelling at everyone especially the referees or else you'll be disqualified".

Sakuragi who didn't need anyone telling him that, wanted to shout just that at him but managed to restrain himself instead though it was a great feat to do so.

"Yeah, Sakuragi-kun. We need all the help we can get to get back at the other team", said Sendoh, who was wiping sweat off his forehead "and that", he continued looking at the red head with a half grin, " also means we cannot afford to lose anyone including you, Sakuragi-kun".

Sakuragi, who had been in a fuming bad mood, was now slowly cooling down at Sendoh's words.

"Ceh", said Kiyota with a snort at Sendoh's words but didn't agree or disagree with him.

Akagi just nodded his agreement. What Sendoh had said was true. They couldn't afford to lose anyone on the team, including the red headed idiot no matter how much of a trouble he could bring to them.

Rukawa, on the other hand, just puffed out a sigh and gave an indifferent shrug. "The world is about to end if we need this do'aho's help..."

Snapping up like an over wounded spring, he lunged at Rukawa but was pretty banged up by Akagi.

Just then, Sawakita had finished his two free shots and needless to say the other team gained another two points.

All the other three players namely Akagi, Sendoh and Kiyota were about to head off to the other side of court when they stopped at a conversation that caught their interest behind them.

"Yoh", said Sawakita pulling the attention of both Shohoku players, in front of him, namely the red head and the raven head.

Sawakita then jerked a thumb towards the scoreboard.

The score that showed 87(Kanagawa) to 114(Akita).

A total of exactly 27 points behind.

Yet again.

"I heard the conversation between the two of you not a while ago", said Sawakita, a grin and a half smirk beginning to form on his face.

Both Sakuragi's and Rukawa's eyes narrowed at him.

"27 points behind and like what under 3 minutes?”.

The eyes were dangerously getting narrower by the minute.

"Stop dreaming and start admitting defeat, kiddos", said Sawakita turning his back at them as Fukatsu called out for him. "There's no way you guys can beat us much less take over my current No. #1 position".

Five pairs of dangerously, blazing eyes bore at his back but Sawakita did not show any sign that he was aware of it.

"..also there's another thing that you don't know...", Sawakita continued without pausing in his tracks and slightly turned his back to glance at the Kanagawa team behind him.

"...all of you just don't know who the heck you're dealing with. We're the Akita team. There is absolutely NOBODY who can defeat the team that holds the champions of the champions".

+++

Out on the stands in the audience, Sakuragi's gundam noticed the blazing aura of fire that was getting larger and larger by the minute. The murderous aura that swirled around all the five Kanagawa players on court.

"Uh, oh", said Takamiya, going over against the railing as if to get a better view of the scene developing before him. "The guys are BURNING over there", he stated the obvious.

Noma and Ookusu nodded their agreement saying their chorus of, "Hn, Hn".

Youhei, who had an eyebrow raised questioningly at the five players, turned to look at what may possibly have caused the dangerous auras radiating from them. He spotted a white jersey player in front of them, nearly bald and had his back facing the other five players.

'That guy', thought Youhei watching the particular player with his eyebrows furrowed together into a thoughtful frown. 'What's his name again? Sawakita?'. He spotted the name etched behind the guy's back which confirmed his thoughts and wondered, 'What's he saying to them?'.

It was then that both Sakuragi and surprisingly Rukawa called out to the white jersey guy in front of them. Their fiery auras, a mixture of red and blue, being the largest amongst the five Kanagawa players, flared up even more as glared at the other player.

+++

"Sawakita!", said both Sakuragi and Rukawa simultaneously, with Sakuragi in a loud barely restrained angry voice and Rukawa in a growl loud enough for Sawakita to hear.

The mention of his name made Sawakita halt and slowly turn around.

Black eyes met 2 pairs of blazing fire liquid lava eyes and freezing cool sapphire eyes.

The fire that was surrounding both players were now dangerously getting stronger and hotter and the air around them fairly sizzled with the tension of it.

Slowly, as if in unison, both Sakuragi and Rukawa held up their fists with their thumbs sticking out horizontally on the other side.

Then pointing their fists, thumbs downwards at him and at the team behind him, they said..

"YOU ARE GOING DOWN!"

+++

TBC...

Reviews as always are appreciated! Email: yuki_ne@hotmail.com.

THANKS for taking the time to read this fic.