Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or any of the characters; I only own the ones I made and the plot of the story.

"Inui, stop pushing!" Eiji cried.

"Ii data…"

"Inuui!"

"Eiji-senpai, be quiet!" Momo whispered, "They're coming!"

The regulars were all cramped behind some bushes in Fuji's front yard. Echizen had gone in the house. Now, he and Narumi were coming out. A few seconds after they went down the steps, Fuji poked his head out the door. He ran to the bushes to join his fellow teammates. Everyone was there, even Tezuka. He'd taken interest in this Narumi girl. She was sweet and didn't distract Ryoma during practice.

"Saa, let's follow them!" Fuji said. The team got up clumsily. Momo was limping a bit. His injury still bothered him.

Echizen was taking Narumi to the burger shop. The regulars followed, cramming into the boot seat behind Narumi and Ryoma.

"Ryoma, what should we do next?" Narumi asked.

"I was thinking maybe some bowling. A break from tennis would be nice," Echizen said.

At this, Tezuka fumed. "Iii data," Inui said.

"That's fine with me," she said.

After awhile they got up (so did the regulars).

Narumi and Echizen walked a few blocks, talking about tennis, and then remembering that they were trying to forget tennis, talked about a different subject. It was this time that Echizen was thinking about Narumi's life.

"Ne, Narumi," Echizen said.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know Mizuki?"

"Hai," she said, frowning.

"You know what he did, right?"

"To my brother? Yes. Yuuta wouldn't believe me when I told him he'd be hurt."

"That's why you left, because of Mizuki?" Ryoma guessed

Narumi looked at him, and then stared ahead. Echizen looked at her sympathetically. After a minute she said, "Yuuta was my favorite brother. He was rational and not sadistic. When he wouldn't believe me, I was really upset. I went home that night. Yuuta called, but I wouldn't pick up. He got really angry and didn't come home that week. Then after the match in the preliminaries, he came home. I was confused, since he hadn't talked to me in a while. But then onii-san told me about how Yuuta found out that Mizuki was hurting him to win; I got mad at Yuuta for not believing me. The next day I told onii-san that I was transferring to Seigaku. And..." she stopped abruptly. In their way was a boy with black hair and green eyes. He smiled coolly.

"Eh, Echizen is with a girl!" he said.

Echizen glared at him and stepped in front of Narumi protectively. "What do you want, Kirihara?"

Behind the bushes, the regulars were all praying that Ryoma would keep Narumi safe. But they were all surprised when Narumi pushed pass Echizen and stood to face Kirihara.

"Oi, back off seaweed head!" she said, "you'd better watch what you say"

"N-narumi?" Echizen stammered

"I don't need you to protect me. He may reek evil, but I can handle my own problems." she said firmly.

Echizen stared. Kirihara blinked, then he said, "Oi, looks like this girl has attitude!"

Narumi just gazed coolly at him and hissed, "Back off."

The regulars were sweat-dropping. Fuji's eyes were open. Tezuka's glasses were flashing. Inui put down his pencil. Eiji bit his nails. Momo growled lowly. Taka-san reached for his racquet. Oishi was ready to start losing his cool. But what happened next blew it.

Kirihara's fist was clenched tight. Tezuka and Fuji noticed it first. Both of them jumped out of the bushes and tackled Kirihara. He was taken completely by surprise. Echizen stood in shock, but Narumi was already moving. She heard the bushes rustle again, and out burst Momo, Eiji, Kawamura, Inui, and Oishi. They rushed to pull Fuji and Tezuka off of Kirihara, who, at the moment, had a black-eye and a bloody nose. Kirihara cursed at the regulars and ran off into the crowd of the bustling city.

"S-senpai-tachi, what are you doing here," Echizen asked, wide-eyed.

"Ah, well…" and Momo explained the two baffled freshmen the whole story. Narumi was shocked. Her brother knew the whole time. She cursed and ran off, ignoring the shouts of her teammates.

Fuji residence:

Narumi walked home, a bit upset that her date was ruined. She was mostly angry at Fuji for telling the whole team that she was going on a date with Echizen. She sighed and went to her room.

After awhile, she heard a knock on the door. That didn't surprise her.

"Go away, onii-san! I don't want to talk to you!" she said.

The knocking stopped. Then Narumi heard, "Oi, Narumi, I'm not Aniki, I'm Yuuta."

Narumi sat up immediately and opened the door. "Aniki!" she cried.

"So, I hear you…" Yuuta began, but stopped when Narumi glared at him, willing him to talk no more on the subject. Instead he said, "I hear you joined the Seigaku male tennis team."

Narumi cracked a smile. "Yeah," she said, "and so far the only ones I can't beat are Buchou and Onii-san," she gloated.

Yuuta grunted because he knew that Narumi was better that him.

Narumi grinned dubiously, "I could beat you any day," she teased, and Yuuta tackled her and started a tickled war. Yuuta won in the end. Narumi's stomach ached from all the laughing. Yuuta was laughing to. They stopped when they heard a soft knock on the door.

Narumi froze. She looked at Yuuta, telling him to ignore it.

"Narumi," Fuji said, "I'm sorry for what happened. Can you forgive me?"