Chapter 12: Visitor.

While Sakuragi is at the basketball park, he was very focus on honing his skills but Sakuragi gets interrupted by a sudden visitor.

A slightly taller and more bulky man than Sakuragi, he has the same red hair and also have a same facial structure as Sakuragi, Sakuragi is also seems to know the man as he stopped all what he was doing and walks towards the man.

[SAKURAGI: What do you want, Uncle Kazuki?.]

[KAZUKI: Nothing, I just came by to your house but no one was there, so I walk around the neighborhood and happen to see you here.]

[SAKURAGI: Is it my allowance again? You can just put it in the mailbox, just like I asked you guys.]

[KAZUKI: I know, I know you already said that to us, but, we wanted to make sure you were fine.]

[SAKURAGI: Hah!.]

[KAZUKI: Hanamichi…. If you want to play basketball to begin with, you could have just asked me you know.]

When Sakuragi heard that, he stopped momentarily and remembered that Kazuki Sakuragi was a good college player who were playing for a great university.

*PLAYER INFORMATION*

NAME: KAZUKI SAKURAGI.

AGE: 21.

HEIGHT: 198cm

POSITION: Power Forward/Center.

Kazuki Sakuragi, a uncle and the younger brother of Hanamichi's father. He is a skilled power forward who has played in the under-17, under 18, under-19, under-20 and under 21. Kazuki is a constant national team player for Japan and has a strong chance to play for the Japan B.League Division 1. His playing was oddly similar to Hanamichi but he lacks the strength to overpower his opponents in the screen out and rebounding situations, but Kazuki cover all of those flaws with his post up skills. He is on par with Sugiyama Shota, A last year's Japan All-Star Team.

[SAKURAGI: Right, I forgot, you are a basketball player.]

[KAZUKI: We'll, you can ask me for any tip. Or maybe if you want, you can ask me to help you get more points.]

Sakuragi was tempted but he knows better to never rely on his relatives, although his relatives don't have any ulterior motives, Sakuragi distance himself from them because to him, no one comes to them when his father collapsed. That's why said to Kazuki to just give him the allowance and get lost, Kazuki did just that and then gave a one final tip to Hanamichi.

[KAZUKI: Put some socks on, Hanamichi. Your feet is going to get callus if you continue playing without socks on.]

Kazuki then hand over a brand new 5 pairs of white basketball socks to Hanamichi and walks away, Sakuragi contemplating on whether he should puts some socks but he realizes that his feet were always in pain because of the shoes and so he decided to put on some socks, even though he doesn't want to listen to Kazuki, at this point, he doesn't have any choices.

Sakuragi then went back to his practice, meanwhile, Kazuki is walking to the train station when some people recognized him and asked for his autograph, Kazuki signed all of the people that asked him to sign on with.

On the other hand, The Ryonan versus Janshi match was on the way and unexpectedly the Ryonan high was struggling against Janshi. Sendoh was putting his team on his back and the freshman were struggling against Janshi, Fukuda couldn't do anything to help out Sendoh.

[MIYAGI: Janshi's game plan was to let them get beat by Sendoh and no one else can score than him, that is why Sendoh was getting tired even though it was only first half.]

[AYAKO: Ryota is right, usually Sendoh is calm and collected but Janshi made him go all out right from the start. He didn't have a chance to create some chances for his teammates. Janshi was not letting him.]

Sendoh continue to carry Ryonan and asinine goes by, Sendoh is getting more and more visibly tired and his shooting is getting worse every seconds. The result was understandable, Ryonan loses their 20 point lead and tied all up at the first half, 50-50.

Sendoh scores more than 30 points all on his own but due to Janshi's collective effort in locking the other Ryonan players, they might have a chance to take down one of the top four schools in the prefecture.

And with their freshman ace, Daiki, Janshi is putting up a great performance against Ryonan, and one of the factor why Ryonan was their defense in the paint and the rebounding. They all lost it when Jun Ouzumi. And what replaced him was a freshman and junior center who doesn't have any senior high center. That is why Sendoh is so focused on getting point for them, he is also doing the rebounding, defending the paint and scoring points for them.

The upcoming match is going to be tough for Ryonan as Janshi is capable of matching them with their best players also.