Like High School Didn't Suck Enough Already (A Konoha High Fanfic)

Chapter 25

Sweat slicks my skin as I push my body to it's limit in an attempt to keep Michiko in front of me. She's taunting me, I know it. She lazily dribbles the ball, posture relaxed as cold green eyes bore into me, declaring victory even with ten minutes left in the game.

A slight tensing in her legs signals the drive. I vaguely here Ino call out the screen seconds before colliding with Yuka, which with the addition of her jutsu feels like colliding with a brick wall.

Ino switches without a word from me, taking my place guarding Michiko. It's no use though. A small spark of lightning, hardly visible to the untrained eye, jumps from Michiko's free hand to Ino's exposed leg. Ino winces, losing concentration for hardly a second, and Michiko drives. I try to get past Yuka, but she's used justsu to root me to my spot just long enough for Michiko to make it to the basket. The lay up goes in easily and I glance at the scoreboard as our fourteen point deficit becomes sixteen.

A frustrated sigh escapes my lips. It was all going so well. We had caught them off guard, used jutsu to help us out, but we were at a disadvantage from the beginning. Our stamina failed us long before Suna's and injuries riddled out team. Sakura had just gone out for a broken finger. Nothing too tragic, but the refs saw it before she could use medical jutsu to heal it and sent her to the infirmary, where she's now watching us fall apart. Hinata isn't a bad shooting guard, but her defense is too timid and voice too quiet.

Suzume is playing on an injured foot, curteousy of Noriko increasing her weight when she "accidentally" stepped on it. It's been three quarters since the beginning of the game, yet it seems so far away. Suna's dirty tricks have left all of us battered and bruised. At this point it feels like we're just waiting for the buzzer to sound so we don't have to endure this anymore. It's like the team's lost all hope.

Suzume inbounds the ball to me and I immediately turn to the ref to call time out. The shrill whistle pierces the air and the clock stops. I motion for a full time out and join my teammates at our bench.

"Okay, everyone gather round. I've got something to say," I gesture for them to surround me. I look my team over, each one heaving for breath and wiping the sweat from their eyes. "What the hell are we doing?"

"What?" Ino asks.

"What do you mean, what the hell are we doing?" Temari growls. "We're getting our asses kicked by Suna!"

"Yeah?" I raise my right eyebrow. "Are you sure about that? Because to me it looks like Suna is playing the same way they've been the entire game and we've just given up."

"We're trying our best out there!" Ino defends. "If it wasn't for their damn jutsu we'd be crushing them right now!"

"We could still crush them." Suzume speaks up. "We're only down by sixteen with ten minutes left. That's three threes and a foul shot or eight twos. Where's the enthusiasm from the beginning of them game? The fire to win?"

"Listen to me," I smile and link arms with Suzume. "The five of us, we're a team. Sure we lost Sakura, but be have Hinata still and she's a phenominal shooter. Forget about the jutsu, if we focus on it we distract ourselves from playing the game. We can beat them, without cheating. Without playing dirty and stooping to their level. We run our plays like we always do and accommodate for when things go wrong. The game isn't over until the final buzzer sounds! Now get it together or get off the court!"

I thrust my hand out in front of me and the rest of the team pile theirs on top. I gesture for Suzume to do the honors and she smiles briefly before calling out, "Konoha on three! One! Two! Three!"