Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Unrivalled Strength!
"So, how exactly did you just drive past Kise like that Sasuke-Kun?" Kuroko asked as they were waiting for everyone else at the gym so they could head out.
Sasuke's eyebrow rose as he picked up a basketball. "It's no surprise you out of all people didn't take it as just pure speed. Yes, I used misdirection to draw his attention elsewhere. However, coupled with my speed and agility, getting past him just with a normal drive would've probably been easier and had the same effect. I just wanted to spook him was all."
Kuroko knew that Kise wasn't a pushover, so he figured Sasuke used misdirection. But the fact that he could've done the same with just a regular drive was mind-boggling. "Do you think you could teach me?"
"Well, while I'm sure you could get the misdirection part down you'll need to work more on your dribbling, and probably your endurance training altogether before you can even make it effective. At your level, about two of those drives in a game coupled with your passes and running will suck you dry of your stamina. That's if you have something to misdirect it to. Well, I've given you some things to work on so once you're ready just check in with me."
Kuroko nodded with a grateful expression as he was surprised when Sasuke disappeared and did a layup.
He frowned. "I didn't ask for a demonstration," he said as he was a bit irked it worked on him.
Sasuke looked at Kuroko with a bland expression. "What are you talking about? I just ran past you is all," Sasuke said which blew Kuroko away.
"Hey, duck!"
Sasuke turned to look at the tallest player on their team, Kagami, walk up to him with his fists clenched and eyes bloodshot. "It's time to battle me one-on-one!"
"I'm good," Sasuke said as he started doing stretches.
Kagami flinched as a red aura started coming off in waves around him. "Why not?" he shouted.
"I wouldn't want to make you quit Basketball," Sasuke said seriously.
Kagami heard snickering behind and turned around to see everyone holding their mouths as they were trying to hold back their laughs. "What are you laughing at?" he asked irritated. Sasuke shook his head as he finished his last set. "You blockhead, save your stamina for the practice game."
Kagami pointed a finger at him. "Then why are you practicing right now?"
Sasuke just shrugged his shoulders as he was about to answer before Riko cut him off. "He's not playing today...or for the next few games in the Inter-High for that matter," she said.
It became so quiet that everyone could be able to hear a pin drop on the floor for the next few seconds or so.
"Why?" they all yelled in disarray.
She looked at her watch before she motioned for everyone to follow her to the bus. "I'll tell you on the way to Kaijo."
"So, he asked you to sit out for the next few games? Why is that Sasuke?" Hyuga asked.
He was resting his eyes and replied without looking up with his arms folded. "Simply because I'd rather not paint a target on our back too soon. To be honest, Kagami and Kuroko alone have made this team significantly stronger. If you were to put me in all games along with them it'd be a one-sided battle no matter how you look at it. So, I asked coach to keep me as a trump card instead of showing all of our moves right from the start."
"Oh, if you put it like that it makes more sense. However, you're not slacking off at practice you hear me you rookie!" Hyuuga warned as he gave Sasuke a scary look.
Sasuke just sweatdropped. "Of course Captain," he said as he was put off by Hyuga's sudden bipolar behavior.
"This place is huge! You can really tell when a school is devoted to its athletics," Hyuga said as he lead the team around even though he had no idea where to go.
"Hey, guys!" shouted a familiar voice from afar.
Fortunately, he was saved by Kise.
"Kise!" Kagami yelled.
He stopped about a few feet in front of them. "This place is huge, so I thought I'd come get you," he said.
"Hello," Riko said as she bowed.
Right after she greeted him respectfully, Kagami stomped forward rather rudely. "Kise…"
However, he was completely ignored by Kise who just strolled past him. "Kurokocchi, ever since you turned down my invitation to join us, I've been crying into my pillow every night," he said while rubbing his dry eyes that definitely had no tears in them.
"What's wrong with him?" Hyuuga asked.
Kagami just stared at Kise angrily with his red eyes. "Just show us the way."
"Not even a girl has turned me down before."
"Are you ignoring me?"
"Could you please stop being so sarcastic?" Kuroko asked politely.
Kise just narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. "I'm interested to know more about the guy who is making Kurokocchi say those things," Kise said as he turned to walk, stopping just in front of Kagami. "I don't care much about being called the Generation of Miracles, but I can't ignore such an obvious challenge. I'm not mature en-"
"Alright, enough talking, can you please just show us inside," Sasuke interrupted as he was eating his second dango stick of today.
Kise blinked before he jumped and screamed like a little girl while he putting his hands up to fight. "What in the actual fuck?"
'There he goes again…' everyone thought just as they were beginning to get used to Kuroko.
Kise regained his composure after he took a good look at the guy that completely demolished him in a one-on-one yesterday. "It's you…"
"What is it? Do I have something on my face?" Sasuke asked a bit annoyed.
"No, it's just...you're just like Kurokocchi! Anyway, let's just get going."
All the while, Kise could not help but cry on the inside when he realized how they were going to get destroyed if Sasuke was going to play.
"We're playing on half a court? The other side is being used for practice?" Riko asked confused about the whole situation.
Kaijo's coach looked up from his clipboard as he saw Seirin enter the gym. "Oh, you're here. Welcome. I'm coach Takeuchi." His shoulders tensed a bit as he looked around at the team. "Which one of you is the coach?"
"That's me," Riko replied.
"Huh? You? You're not the manager?"
"I'm Coach Aida Riko. We look forward to playing with you today," she said with a bow.
"Uh yeah," the coach responded while rubbing the back of his head with a perplexed expression on his face.
Taking a look around, Riko was a bit sheepish to ask but did so anyway. "So, um...what is this?"
"Exactly what it looks like. We've only made simple arrangements for today's game."
"Arrangements?"
"There won't be enough to learn from this game to make it worth watching for the guys sitting out."
Sasuke was now glaring daggers at the fatass that dare talk down to him and his team. 'I am starting to regret my sitting out these next few games,' he thought with fury.
Riko started to shake, but was trying her best to keep her composure. "I see," she said with a shaky voice.
"We're having the other players practice as usual so we don't waste time. Despite the arrangements you'll be playing our regulars. I hope you won't let us triple your score," he finished with an irritating raise of his hand as he walked to talk to his regulars.
Riko was now visibly holding back the urge to strangle the coach of Kaijo who dared to look down on her team.
Seirin began to feel like they weren't welcome, but also were itching to show Kaijo a thing or two about their basketball.
"They're looking down on us. They're treating this like a sideshow to their practice," Kagami grumbled.
Sasuke decided to speak up with a rather icy tone. "Screw this… coach, let me take all of them on by myself," he said. Everyone just gave him a deadpan expression to which he dared to add, "Better yet, let's make it an official one versus five game-"
"Are you going to sit out or play? Make up your mind you stu-" Kagami shouted but couldn't finish courtesy of Sasuke's hand in his face.
"Shut up you worthless, friendless, waste-of-space, literal scum of the Earth," Sasuke said which left everyone astounded that he took it that seriously and went that far.
"What am I even supposed to say to that?" Kagami asked with a raised voice.
"Sasuke-Kun, you're not playing and that's final," Riko said.
Sasuke just sighed and gave Kagami a pat on the back. "Then, go out there and give 'em hell," he said to Kagami with a smirk.
Whatever Kagami was gonna retort with flew out the window as he returned the smirk. "You can count on us. Now get your hand off my face!"
While Kise was putting on his uniform, everyone noticed that after a talk from the coach he changed back and just proceeded to tell them about giving them a beating so the coach can put him in.
Once everyone was changed, the starters from each team were lined up in the middle of the court. "Uh, we're starting the practice game between Seirin High and Kaijo High. Can I please have your five players line up?" the referee asked.
Kuroko stepped forward with a raise of his hand. "Um, I'm here."
Everyone was shouting "Oh's" when they realized that Kuroko had barely any presence.
Once the coach blew the whistle, the jump ball had commenced.
Taking the first possession was Kaijo since they won the aerial battle, and their captain started off with dribbling and revving up his team. "Alright! One, let's keep it up!"
Due to the cockiness of the coach, Kuroko came in full throttle with the steal. Picking up with the dribble, he started heading toward his basket ready to take control of the game.
All of the Kaijo players were confused as to where Kuroko came from but were even more surprised by how slow he was.
The captain of the team was about to go for the steal once again, but he was taken aback once again when Kuroko slipped a quick behind-the-back pass to his right with Kagami on the receiving end.
Kagami jumped up and slammed the ball in with his right hand.
Landing on the ground, what he failed to see was clear as day to everyone.
'He broke the hoop!'
"All right!" he yelled as he finally took notice of the broken hoop in his hands. "Huh!"
"That thing's dangerous. One of the bolts is rusted," Izuki said.
"Even so, that's not normal," Kasamatsu said in awe.
"This thing is bigger than I thought," Kagami said absentmindedly.
"I'm so sorry," Riko said with a bow.
'Tch...showoff,' Sasuke said when he heard a voice inside him hadn't heard since he returned.
'Like you're one to talk,' an echo of a voice that sounded just like Sasuke's spoke inside his mind.
'What do you want? You've been silent since we left America.'
'I got bored since you left Uzumaki...but hearing about this Generation of Miracles got me interested. It's been awhile since you were fired up against an opponent. Let me have some fun!'
'I won't need your eyes just yet. I'm doing fine with mine. Besides, I haven't actually used them at their full potential and you know it.'
'Hn, don't keep me waiting too long,' Sasuke's other half said as he faded away.
"I'm sorry we broke your hoop. Since we can't play like this, could we use your full court?" Kuroko asked.
Seething with newfound rage, the coach found himself backed into a corner when he was forced to bring the hoops down.
"Let the game resume!"
"Sorry to keep you waiting!" Kuroko said to Kise.
"Now that you're being given equitable treatment, why don't you put Sasukecchi in the game?" Kise asked.
Sasuke cringed at the nickname that Kise gave him.
"Don't worry about him. You're opponents today are us!" Kagami shouted.
"Hmph, don't you regret it then," Kise said.
Then, a sudden eruption of high-pitched squeals and cheers took over the gym. "Kise, over here!"
"He's so hot!"
Kise froze in major trepidation as he slowly turned to a twitching Sasuke who's eyes shadowed his bangs. 'I'm so screwed.' he thought in fear.
'You're lucky I am sitting out blondie or you'd be dead meat,' Sasuke thought as he was trying his best to not draw attention to himself.
After a small beating from Kasamatsu and an exchange of words brings us back to the game.
Running past all the defenders, Kise managed to get open rather quickly.
Kasamatsu went ahead and dribbled past a defender as well as bounce pass it to Kise under another player's legs impeccably.
Kise then went in for a one-handed dunk just like Kagami. Seeming to hold onto the basket a little longer, Kise finally dropped back down to the ground.
"Ah! He's so cool!"
"Idiot, I told you to break the hoop!" Kasamatsu shouted as he started roughing up Kise once again.
'Well, he did dunk harder than I did,' Kagami thought, hardly able to believe it himself.
Hyuga dribbled the ball to half court; then, he passed it to Kuroko who instantly tapped the ball to Kagami who also did another one-handed forward-facing dunk.
"Let's go all out!" Kagami shouted after he landed not a second later.
"Yeah!" Hyuga responded
Riko and the others on the sidelines were enthralled by the way both teams were playing at the moment. 'Both teams are clearly adamant about making sure they score, but so much so that the defense pales in comparison. It's like like they're both punching each other in the face without bothering to defend!' she thought.
Kuroko continued to amaze everyone that could see him with his passes while Kaijo continued to answer back with their plays.
Then, Kagami decided to go for a fade-away shot after a high-speed dribble.
However, it was blocked by Kise who then proceeded to perform the same exact move he used on Kagami but with shot going in instead of being blocked.
Sasuke's boredom with the back-and-forth game was transitory when he witnessed Kise pull off something he thought only he could do. 'Did he just...copy a move? Interesting,' Sasuke thought as he was beginning to get harder to stay on the bench.
As Hyuga was dribbling the ball, Kuroko scared him by voicing his thoughts on their next move.
Taking a time-out, both of the teams' starters took a breather on the bench with both getting noticeably different treatments from their respective coaches. "How many points are you going to let them score?! Is the defense asleep? Huh?!"
"Sorry. This is hard," one of them whispered.
Kasamatsu agreed and turned to Kise. "You should be able to take on Kagami, but what is with Number eleven?"
Kise's mouth spread into a grin as he was jovial at being able to brag about his former teammate. "I know, right? Kurokocchi's actually…"
"Why the hell are you so happy?" Kasamatsu asked irritated as he punched Kise in his kidney area earning a grunt from the model.
However, Kise pushed his hand out of the way with a confident smile on his face. "It's okay. The balance will tip soon enough."
"Why didn't you tell us sooner that you're misdirection can wear off?" Hyuga asked in panic.
Sasuke scoffed. "Who do you think we are? God? Every technique has a weakness. Well since we're having a "confess the weaknesses" meeting, I might as well tell you mine," he said.
'This can't be good,' Riko thought as she was waiting for a list of bad things that Sasuke would say.
"Well...if I find some weaknesses I'll tell you. Well, aside from the misdirection time limit that is."
Leaving everyone in suspense and then dropping a joke like that sorta pissed them off. "Don't make it sound bad if you have no weaknesses that you know of!" Hyuga said as he chopped Sasuke in the head.
"Ow, what was that for?" Sasuke asked.
"For being an idiot!" Hyuga shouted.
Kise still had that smug expression on his face before he explained the weakness to Kasamatsu. "They won't be able to use their misdirection after forty minutes. In fact, the longer he's in the game the more we get used to it effectively making him just another player."
"Switch from man-to-man to zone defense. Keep it tight inside, and move in to help stop Kise quickly. Stopping Kise if your first priority," Riko said as she retreated back to the benches.
Sasuke was sitting there with his arms crossed and an unusual concentrated look on his face. "Are you sure about this?" Sasuke asked.
"You said it yourself, we can't show all of our strength early on, and especially not in a practice game," she said effectively calming him down even if just a bit.
After a while, Kise began to talk down to Kagami who for some odd reason began to laugh uncontrollably. "Sorry, sorry. I'm just so happy."
"Happy?" Kise asked.
"It's been a long time since anyone has said that to me. I heard it all the time over there."
"Over there?"
"In America."
Kise immediately was surprised and had an excited look on his face. "You lived in America? That's Amazing."
"I thought I jumped the gun coming back here to play. Hearing you say that is encouraging, really," Kagami said as Kise had a frown on his face once again. "Life is all about challenges. There's no point if there's no one strong to play. It's better if I can't win!" Kagami said as he clenched his fists.
After Kuroko and Kagami's coordination, Seirin was able to keep up with Kaijo's continuous scoring as once again they were both scoring one after another. Once there were only a few seconds left, Kagami had blocked Kasamatsu's layup.
The ball had fallen into Hyuga's hands as he struggled to throw the ball toward Kagami.
Kise stepped up in front of them as he was concentrating with all his might to figure out what kind of play they were setting up. He was surprised however, when Kagami passed it to Kuroko who in turn didn't immediately pass it back to Kagami.
Once Kuroko had both hands on the ball, he made a motion that everyone assumed was him performing a shot.
Sasuke had a knowing smile on his face. '...Alley-oop, huh? Not a bad way to end the game,' he thought.
"I won't let you do that!" Kise roared with a certain fire in his eyes.
Kagami finally had one palm on the ball as Kise was staring, wide-eyed as he was beginning to fall. "I don't need you to return the favor! That's because this ends now!" he shouted as he slammed the ball into the hoop as the referee blew the whistle meaning the game had ended with a buzzer-beater with the score 100 to 98 in Seirin's favor.
Kise just stood there with a lost look of disbelief as he contemplated his first time experiencing defeat.
"I can't believe we won!" Hyuuga said.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes comically. 'Is this dude...crying?'
After a harsh kick to the back from Kasamatsu, Kise finally gathered himself enough to line up. "With a score of 100-98, Seirin High wins," the referee said.
"Thank you very much!" each team said as they bowed to one another.
As Seiring was beginning to pack their stuff, Sasuke heaved a loud sigh. "Well, as much as I wanted to play, I'm glad that I followed through with my plan to stay out of the game...and...the...next...few games," Sasuke said as he got noticeably more depressed as he forgot about the next few games.
Izuki attempted to cheer him up by patting him on the back.
Meanwhile, Midorima was having a long talk with Kise.
…
"But honestly...they're not good enough," Midorima said rather confident of himself and his team.
Kise shook his head. "Trust me, that wasn't Seirin's full strength at all."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
Kise was about to tell him when Takao interrupted with his loud breathing as he was pedalling the wagon he took Midorima in. "Midorima, you bastard! You left me alone in the middle of traffic! Do you know how embarrassing that is?"
"I just came to watch the game today, but allow me to apologize," Midorima continued as he faced Kise. "We will not lose to Seirin."
As he finished saying that, first Kise then Midorima himself to turned to look at the said team heading to their bus.
He smiled. "Well, I'll leave it as a surprise then," Kise said to himself quietly.
Riko gave everyone a thumbs up. "Everything's okay," she said.
Everyone was relieved at that bit of news.
"Thank goodness," Hyuuga said.
After a long silence, everyone had a bright smile on their face. "All right! We won!" Koganei shouted as he threw his arms up into the air.
Afterwards, they all were wondering what they could do to eat, but gave up as none of them could pool enough money for even a simple drink.
"I have enough money," Sasuke said as he was finishing another stick of dango.
Everyone stopped in their tracks, and immediately went up to him with tears streaming down their faces. "Sasuke! You're the best!" they all said in unison.
However, they were stopped by Riko as she blew her whistle. "Wait, Sasuke...you might not have to pay after all."
All of them gave her questioning looks as she began walking with them following suit.
"This is too much," Hyuga said as he was staring down a steak as big as a brick.
However, after a while, they noticed their steaks were disappearing out of nowhere when they could not bear to take another sliver of a bite. "What the?"
"Sorry, but I'm not losing to you! This is my fifth one!"
"Who said I was competing with you, you loser?" Sasuke said.
They were completely aghast by what they saw that they dropped their forks and stared with the jaws hanging down.
Sasuke and Kagami had finished several plates of the steak. Lightning streaked in between their heads as they saw the last plate.
They both reached for it, but Kagami was surprised when Sasuke reached for it after he did and yet had grabbed the steak with his fork with super-speed. "Thanks a lot," Sasuke said.
Kagami was twitching and had a ferocious vibe starting to come off of him. "I'm gonna-"
"We did it! Free steaks!"
They were all kicked out however, as the restaurant owner was pissed he couldn't rip them off.
Once everyone was gathered outside, they all thanked Kagami and Sasuke for saving their asses when it came down to it.
"Alright, let's go home. Is everyone ready?" Riko asked.
Sasuke shook his head. "Kuroko left a while ago. Did you guys not notice? Oh wait...right," Sasuke corrected himself before they could shout at him.
"Well anyway, let's go search for him. Everyone stick together so we don't have to go looking for everyone all night!" Riko said.
Sasuke had already left which the group had no indication of knowing that fact.
Meanwhile, Kise was having a long talk with Kuroko. "I didn't expect you to say yes, but I was serious," he said as he was trying to balance a ball on his nose while sitting on the top edge of the bench.
"You'll fall over," Kuroko warned in his usual monotone voice. "Sorry," he said as he looked down.
"I'm kidding," Kise said as he hopped down, "Anyway, I wanted to ask for your reason." Kise stopped bouncing the ball on the palm of his hand as he cast Kuroko a worried look. "Why, right after the middle school championship game, did you disappear?"
'Hm...why indeed,' Sasuke thought as he had walked up to the two without them noticing and had been sitting on a bench for about a good two or three minutes.
Kagami was beginning to get irritated with Kuroko once again. "Sheesh," he mumbled as he continued his search as he also ignored Riko and her warning. He was pleasantly surprised and felt a nostalgic feeling as he watched the high schoolers play street basketball. As he was enjoying the game that was going on, he caught sight of two people he knew all too well.
"...I felt we lacked something," Kuroko continued.
Kise gave him a hysterical look. "Sports are all about winning. What could be more important?"
"I thought the same thing until recently. However, I don't know exactly what's wrong with it, but all I know is I hated basketball at that time. The feel of the ball, the squeak of the basketball shoes, the swish of the net. I started playing because I loved the game. That's why I was impressed when I met Kagami…"
Tuning out the rest, Sasuke noticed Kagami had walked up to them and was listening in. Deciding to see how this would play out, Sasuke continued his observations as he suddenly clutched his head in pain. 'What do you want now?'
'Let me play! There is a perfectly good court to your right, and a strong player in front of your face.'
'You know what...I don't even care anymore...go for it. Just wait until their done bickering,' he said as he gave in.
'...'
Once Sasuke opened his eyes...his left eye had developed a ripple pattern with the two innermost rings consisting of three tomoe each. However, his right eye stayed it's usual dark color.
Yami Sasuke had switched when Kise was still giving his two cents to Kuroko. "The other four have special abilities even I can't imitate. I realized during today's game that he's still learning. Just like the Generation of Miracles, he has a unique ability. For now, he's still an immature challenger. He's enjoying the thrill of playing strong opponents. One day he'll reach our level, and then he'll drift apart from your team. Do you really believe Kagami won't be a different person?"
After a few seconds of silence, in came Kagami kneeing Kuroko as the said phantom was reeling in pain from the sudden action.
He turned to Kise. "Hey."
Kise smiled in return. "Were you listening?"
Sasuke cut in before Kagami could say anything. "I was listening," Yami Sasuke said as Kise, Kagami, and Kuroko all were taken aback by his sudden intrusion.
"What the fuck! Why do you always do that?" Kagami shouted as Kise was breathing hard.
However, Kuroko grew wide-eyed as he knew something was different about Sasuke. Until just recently, he was not able to notice him. Then, all of a sudden he's invisible once again but he also has a different feel to him.
Yami Sasuke was about to suggest they play a game when his attention was drawn to a fight that was going on at the court beside them.
Kuroko had taken it upon himself to go and settle the fight himself while Sasuke was beginning to grow more excited by the second.
"There's nothing fair about this," Kuroko said as he was spinning the ball on his finger while bringing it to one of the thug's noses who stepped back.
Once Kagami and Kise had stepped in, they declared that five-on-three was good enough, when Kagami was elbowed on his side. "I think you mean five-on-four, Taiga," Sasuke said as Kise and Kuroko visibly flinched.
Kagami had a bead of sweat running down the side of his face. "Uh, yeah, that's right…"
However, Sasuke raised his hand. "Actually, I'll take them all on," Yami Sasuke said as everyone here thought he grew a second head.
Kagami stepped forward. "The hell do you think you're talking about? We're all playing-"
"Shut up! I'm ending this," Sasuke said as Kise put a hand on Kagami's shoulder.
"We should just let him handle this," Kise said as he was shaking to the confusion of Kagami.
"Hah? You're about to get beat so bad kid, but don't blame us for your mistake. We'll shoot for ball then-"
"Jump ball is fine. Just hurry up," he ordered as he took his spot on the half court circle.
"You're just a hotheaded idiot. Let's hurry up and finish this guys!"
Kise had the ball and threw it up in the air. What happened next baffled all of them.
Sasuke had won the contest and had tapped the ball to the other team to which one of them caught it with a haughty smirk. "See? It's too easy!" he shouted but was confused when he didn't have the ball anymore as it was bouncing in front of him. "How? I dropped the ball?"
Yami Sasuke just ran past him and grabbed the ball going in for a layup.
"What just happened?" Kise asked incredulously.
Kuroko shook his head. "Once the guy had the ball, he just dropped it as he turned around...but why? Why was he confused?"
Passing the ball in, one of the thugs saw too many of his teammates open as he realized Sasuke was playing zone but as he went to pass he noticed that the ball was not in his hand. "What the fuck?"
He was going to pick up the bouncing ball when Sasuke had beat him to it and scored a half-court shot.
"What the hell is going on? Why are you two messing around?" one of the posers shouted as he took the ball and threw it to the other side of the court where one of the guys were open. "This is going in," he mumbled as he was setting up for a shot when he glanced at Sasuke in front of him and felt a weird feeling as he began to wobble before he regained his bearings.
He was about to shoot when he too had dropped the ball. "No...way," he said as Sasuke picked up the ball again and all four of the other players began to quadruple team him. He smirked as he did a fake crossover three times with inhumane speed before doing a fake spin move while bouncing the ball in between his opponent's legs before bouncing the ball back effectively breaking all of their ankles. He continued to dribble past them as he did an in-between-the-legs dunk.
Silence.
"Wha-uh-ah-..." Kagami continued to make gibberish sounds as he was amazed and wide-eyed at what had just gone down.
"What the fuck was that?" Kise asked rhetorically. "You can't just call that a game anymore…"
'Okay that's enough, let me back out. You've gone too far and you're lucky you only used Almighty Push otherwise the crowd that had gathered and began recording with their phones would unveil all of our strength,' Sasuke warned.
'Well, I had my fun,'Yami Sasuke said as he switched places with Sasuke as his left eye lost its tomoe spinning before all the concentric circles had gather inwards before revealing Sasuke's coal colored eyes.
What Sasuke used was nothing more than a superhuman analyzation of the future to which he moves and positions himself in a way that the opponents will respond to and put them in a state that will make them for some odd reason lose their ball handling skills for an instant and inevitably drop it. However, higher-skilled players just tend to dribble poorly or perform the next action just as poorly. This is due to them being in an uncomfortable position regarding the player and their teammates, the hoop, out-of-bounds lines, and Sasuke himself. Obviously, this would only be highly effective in team games as an opponent is less likely to lose the ball in a one-on-one given the amount of room to dribble in. He named it "Almighty Push" as it looks as if an unknown force pushes the ball out of their hands. He could also do the reverse, but instead of the ball, with his supreme court vision, he moves to where they have to respond in a way that makes players collide with one another effectively pulling them together. There is zero chance of this working in a one-on-one game as well. He named this technique "Universal Pull".
Every single one of the thugs that played against Sasuke were staring at him with a terrified expression on their faces as they watched his left eye change in a demonic way.
Sighing, Sasuke put his Seirin jacket back on as he began walking away.
Realizing that they were just standing in place staring off into space, the trio also followed suit.
"Amazing," one of the harassed players said taken aback by the completely one-sided game.
Kise, Kuroko, and Kagami were all giving Sasuke weird looks while the two Miracles were getting certain unsettling, familiar vibes from said player. "What?" Sasuke asked in annoyance.
"That was amazing! How have I not heard about you until now?" Kise asked excitedly.
"I was in America for a majority of my life, so it figures that I would not be known of around here."
Shaking his head, Kagami couldn't help the inferior feeling he was so desperately trying to squash out of his entire being. "You lived in America? Where?" Kagami suddenly asked in shock.
"Oh yeah, I heard you lived there too Kagami," he said as both Kise and Kuroko had knowing looks about the way he suddenly called him by his name. "Well, I lived in Los Angeles for awhile."
Kagami had wide-eyes at that bit of information he received from Sasuke. "No way...we lived in the same city!" Kagami shouted vigorously.
"Oh, is that so? Weird how I never saw or heard of you, but it is a big city after all."
"Well, I can't argue with that, but with your skill I would've assumed you'd be on the news or something…"
"Huh? I was...but I wasn't the highlight of the game," Sasuke said.
"What do you mean?"
With a forlorn smile on his face, Sasuke turned to the three as they stopped at the same bench they all were conversing at. "I lost in the basketball state finals."
They all were shocked that the very player before them, one they thought was unbeatable, was beaten at basketball. "Y-You lost? Well, that's America for you. The competition there is way more fierce than here," Kagami said.
'Hn, I'm still better than that knucklehead...still can't believe he didn't say bye,' Sasuke thought as he was lost in his thoughts.
Kise was having his own thoughts on Sasuke as he waved goodbye to the trio.
Eventually, Riko found the three and proceeded to put Kuroko in a hold while everyone else continued on home.
As Sasuke was walking home, he felt his phone vibrate as his ringtone sounded. Taking it out of his pocket, Sasuke's eye twitched as he saw the Caller ID. Answering it, Sasuke put it to his hear with a sigh. "Hello?" he said.
"Yo, so I heard you went to Japan."
"Yeah, what about it?" Sasuke asked.
"Moody as always it seems. I hope it's not that time of the month-"
"Shut your trap Naruto. Finally decided to contact me, huh?"
"Hey, c'mon now! Cut me some slack okay? Coach is beating it into my body to not slack off and win the championship game," Naruto chided.
Sasuke heard in the background a voice that sounded like a certain ex of his. "Is that Sasuke-Kun?"
'Oh great…' Sasuke thought as he could feel Naruto's grin, knowing exactly what the blonde was about to do.
"Naruto, don't you dare put Sa-"
"Sasuke-Kun!" Sasuke heard as he facepalmed before hanging up the phone. "What a fucking loser," Sasuke mumbled.
"H-He hung up!" Sakura yelled.
Naruto and Shikamaru were both holding in their laughs before it turned to whimpers as they looked at their manager's scary face. "You did that on purpose didn't you?"
"No-"
Naruto didn't finish that sentence as he was slapped by an irate Sakura. "Naruto, Shikamaru. Let's hurry up and get back in line, alright?" the coach ordered as both Naruto and Shikamaru straightened up.
"Yes, Coach Hatake!" they both shouted as they joined the rest of the team in suicides.
"T-This is chaos," Fukuda whispered as he looked unsure about buying bread after looking at the savages in front of him.
"We have to go. Three times the strength and footwork training will kill us," Kagami said.
"Alright, I'll go first," Kawahara said as he had a determined look on his face. "I might not be as strong as Kagami, but I'm pretty confident in my power," he said following up with a war cry as he began charging into the horde.
Sasuke and Kuroko shared looks as they both strolled forward.
Meanwhile...Furihata, Kawahara, Fukuda, and Kagami were all failures at even getting halfway through the crowd even though Kagami had a good idea to start with.
Eventually, both Sasuke and Kuroko had walked up to the group with the desired bread gathered in their arms.
Kagami had grabbed both Sasuke and Kuroko by the collars before Sasuke had pushed him off by his face. "You guys, how did you get these?" he asked completely ignoring Sasuke's action.
"Simple, we walked up and bought some and walked off."
Kagami was grinding his teeth. "Stop being sarcastic you bastard!"
"I'm being serious you idiot," Sasuke deadpanned.
Later on before practice had commenced, Koganei handed out the Inter-high bracket sheets. Hyuga had begun explaining what the Inter-High is and how it works.
"We've got three weeks until the Inter-High preliminaries. We didn't make it last year, but this year is going to be different. We'll be facing a lot of strong schools, but our biggest and strongest opponent is Shutoku high. Last year, they were in the nation's top eight. On top of that, similar to Kaijo, they had one of the Miracles join their team this year. If we can't beat them, we won't make it to Nationals.
Kagami turned his head to Kuroko. "Kuroko, you know who he is, don't you?"
Kuroko also turned as he had his usual blank face. "I doubt you would believe me even if I told you. But, just as Kise-Kun said, the other four are on another level," he said returning his line of vision to the ground. "If they've gotten even better, I cannot imagine how good they are now."
"Before we can play Shutoku, we've gotta win our first game. "Let's make sure we're on the ball!" Hyuga shouted.
"Yeah!" the rest of the team bellowed in response.
Eventually, Riko had returned and had given the run-down on their first opponents of the tournament which had brung everyone down.
"So, Kagami, Kuroko, and Sasuke, you will have your own training regimen starting tomorrow that we'll slowly integrate into our team play," Riko said as that made Sasuke and Kagami smirk in eagerness while Kuroko kept his emotions inside. "The preliminaries start on May 16th! Until then you won't have time to complain!"
"Yeah!"
Over the next three weeks, the Seirin basketball team trained extremely hard in all areas concerning both fitness, team plays, and improving strengths and weaknesses. Sasuke got along well with Izuki as they were both playing the same position, and he was starting to feel more at home with his team. The training wasn't at all hard, but he did get a good work out in, and was busy polishing up his skills that he hadn't used just yet while finding new ones. Overall, the team was coming far and were consistently diligent when it came to practicing. Soon, came the fated day of the Inter-High.
Closing her flip-phone, Riko gave her team a smirk. "Everyone's here, right?"
Kagami had bloodshot eyes once again, while everyone else was looking ready for the game.
Unfortunately, Sasuke's plan of sitting on the bench for the first few games was irrevocable now. He was twitching with the urge to play in today's game but knew that he had to sit out for the greater good of the team. "Oh well," he said with a smile as he was content with cheering his teammates on from the sidelines.
"Dad doesn't seem to be here," Hyuga said as he caught sight of the other team practicing.
Izuki turned to look behind him. "Now that you mention it…"
"Ouch," someone seemed to say in pain as everyone stopped to look at the source of the voice.
There, was the foreign player that was a bit late to the game. "Everything is so short in Japan."
He walked up to the coach who was looking at him with a less-than-pleased expression. "What are you doing? Hurry up."
"Sorry I'm late."
Running up to them, one of the main players put a hand on his hip as he had a slightly hysteric look on his face. "Why is that the only you can say fluently?"
A ball had just hit the back of his shoe as Hyuga had apologized while going to pick it up.
"By the way, did you guys really beat Kaijo?"
"Oh, it was just a practice game," Hyuga responded.
"I see. I guess the Generation of Miracles aren't as strong as we thought," the player said as Hyuga leveled him with a slight glare.
"The Generation of Miracles lost? They brought me here to beat them. I'm disappointed they're so weak," Papa said with an aloof expression and a shrug of his shoulders as he turned to walk away.
He gave a grunt of surprise when he ran into something or rather someone he later realized. "No, little boy. Children should not be on the court," he said but with a passing wind that came out of nowhere and indoors, Papa saw Kuroko's jersey. "You're a player?" he asked as he narrowed his eyes. "Hmph, they lost to a child like him? Are all the Generation of Miracles children?"
On the ground, the rest of the Seirin team were laughing so hard that it was obvious why. "Honestly, I'm starting to get annoyed," Kuroko said as he was stuck with the conundrum of hiding his emotion and expressing his irritation.
"You don't like to lose, do you?" Kagami asked still trying to recover from his laugh-fest. "I guess we'd better show dad why he shouldn't piss of kids!"
As they were all lined up, Riko glance at Sasuke who was blatantly brimming with excitement while shaking all the while. "Coach, this is really hard after all."
She sighed. "I know, but you were right and this is totally worth it in the long run. I'll only put you out there if the situation seems drastic, but if we can't pull through the first game without your help then how can we grow?"
Sasuke smirked while his bangs shadowed his eyes. "You got me there."
"Let the game between Seirin High School and Shinkyo Academy begin."
"Let's play a good game!" they all shouted.
As to be expected, Papa had won the jump ball leaving Seirin baffled. Passing the ball to the same player, Kagami moved to defend against him. It was all for naught, as even when he jumped to block the ball, he lost again in the battle involving height advantage.
Answering back, Hyuga passed the ball to Izuki who dribbled down and past half-court as he then bounce-passed it to Mitobe who passed it back to Hyuga.
Thinking it was going to go in, Hyuga shot a three but was once again shocked when Papa had not smacked but palmed the ball mid-shot.
"Seriously?" Hyuga shouted in confusion.
"Are you one of those hard-working teams?" the point-guard of the other team asked with a condescending tone.
"What?" Hyuga asked
"We see a lot of those. Guys saying it's not fair we've got a foreign player. We're not breaking any rules."
"Well, you can have up to two of them," he responded simply.
"Right? What's wrong with getting strong players? It's really easy. All we have to do is pass the ball to him and we can't help but score."
Hyuga caught onto the bragging and false bravado of the overconfident player and a frown marred his face. "I don't know how easy it is, but if that's your policy, you'd better not complain."
His eyebrows furrowed in agitation as he stared at Hyuga. "We've got our own ridiculous players. We didn't have to recruit them though."
Papa went in for a shot that was too short and hit the rim.
Mitobe had successfully gotten the rebound and passed it to Koganei who dribbled until he passed it to Izuki who went for a layup.
Shooting over and over again, Papa's accuracy had significantly dropped with each turnover.
Working on his defense with Mitobe, Kagami had gotten stronger at putting pressure on his opponent which is resulting in what is happening with Papa.
"What's your problem?"
"This method is stressful for me too."
After his pondering, Kagami had caught up with his marked man, and decided to give him a piece of his mind. "Hey, let me tell you two things. First, I'll block one of your shots in this game."
Papa's eyes had narrowed. "There's no way you can do that. I will not lose to a team with a child on it."
Spinning and getting past his defender, Kagami had gotten open. "And second…" Kagami said as Izuki seemingly "passed" the ball straight to the tall player.
Thinking he was going to get the ball due to the rash pass, he was met with disappointment and surprise when the ball suddenly curved under his legs and went straight to Kagami.
Receiving the ball, Kagami did another one-handed dunk that he always seems to do. "...this kid might give you some trouble."
"Could you stop calling me a child."
Answering back with faltering confidence, the point guard had gotten the ball and passed it in. "Let's get them back!" he said as he passed the ball but soon realized his mistake.
Kuroko had smacked the ball down hard enough to get it to go up and into Kagami's hands as he performed another dunk.
Returning back to defense, Hyuga was amazed at how well Kuroko was playing in today's game. "Are you really that mad about being called a kid?"
"Yeah," Kagami agreed.
The first quarter ended with 23 for Seirin and eight for Shinkyo.
"Kuroko, we'll be swapping you out this quarter...and...Sasuke we're putting you in his place."
Everyone was stunned by Riko's choice while Sasuke nodded his head in understanding.
"Wait coach! I thought you both agreed that Sasuke would only play when we really needed him?" Furihata asked.
"While that much is true, all he's doing is assisting. Besides, no one really pays attention to Kuroko let alone notices his passes so Sasuke should be fine."
They all turned to Sasuke and had sweatdropped at his blatant shaking. "You must really be fired up, huh?" Hyuga asked.
"Let's get this over with," he said.
Once the second quarter had started up, Shinkyo immediately fired off with a basket while Kagami was not able to block or pressure Papa this time.
"He really is amazing," Izuki commented.
"Has he gotten even taller?" Hyuga asked.
"I'm serious now! I will not lose!" Papa declared.
"Hah, I couldn't ask for any more. Bring it on Dad!"
Hyuga was going in for a three when he pulled out a new play as he threw the ball straight at one of the players while Kagami realized what he was aiming for.
Before the player could touch the ball, Sasuke had punched the ball up toward the basket while Kagami had jumped and caught the ball mid-air proceeding to slam dunk it.
The point guard had passed the ball to one of the other players who passed it to Papa as he faked and set up for a jump shot.
He was horrified however when he saw Kagami jump up high enough to probably block his shot which forced him to pass it back to one of the other players.
"What's wrong Papa? You had that!" the point guard shouted.
Passing the ball back, he went for another shot as he realized once again that Kagami was gradually getting higher and higher.
Riko was starting to notice it as well.
Finally getting a three-pointer in, Shinkyo still had a long way to go thanks to Sasuke's assists.
Passing the ball in, Hyuga dribbled in before passing to Izuki who then bounce passed it to no one. With their attention on the ball they had not time to prepare when it curved straight back to Hyuga who had already sunk the three.
"Again? Where the hell are these passes coming from? I thought they benched number eleven?" the point guard asked no one in particular.
As they were on defense, Sasuke had ran by Hyuga and told him to start running back.
While Kagami was defending quite well, Papa had passed the ball to one of his teammates but it was stolen by none other than Sasuke who spun and threw the ball straight to Hyuga who blanched at the high-speed pass. "What the hell?" he shouted as he caught it and sunk another three-point shot.
Eventually, after the two next quarters, Sasuke was starting to get more noticeable to which they subbed back Kuroko in. Even after knowing they were not prepared for Kuroko to still be able to disappear.
Dribbling the ball with frustration, Papa glared at Kagami. "No, I won't lose," he said as he screamed while going for a shot.
"You said you were disappointed in the Generation of Miracles, but you overestimated yourself. Compared to you, they're way stronger!" Kagami shouted as he jumped up and finally blocked Papa's shot like he said he would.
The game ended with the score being 91 for Seiring and 67 for Shinkyo.
Up in the second floor, Midorima was perplexed. 'How can there be another player like Kuroko? Not only that, but he seems to be fundamentally stronger. What's going on? With this, they'll be able to use misdirection for the whole game...but it still changes nothing. I will triumph in the end,' Midorima thought.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone