𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚎 • 𝚜𝚊𝚜𝚞𝚔𝚎 𝚞𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚑𝚊 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

22 - Down the Hill

November, 1992 - Japan

After Haruka had accepted the fact that there was simply no way to look cool while wearing all the protective gear necessary to skateboard (even Sasuke looked like a dork...but a cool dork somehow, damn him), she found that skateboarding was actually pretty fun. She hadn't picked a bad sport to take a crash course in.

It wasn't that similar to rollerblading—which Haruka knew she would always prefer—but that strangely liberating feeling about gliding down the streets was still there. And so, her rollerblades hadn't seen the light of day since her lessons began. She had taken it upon herself to skateboard everywhere she went instead, always needing to leave a bit earlier to account for it.

Painting took a backseat as well. Her mural was coming along nicely, and she didn't feel too bad about slowing her work down. She knew it would be finished by the end of the school year. So, a large amount of the time that had been previously devoted to it was when she practiced skateboarding relentlessly. Sasuke had shown her the basics, and she just needed to make them muscle memory, which he didn't need to be there for.

He did, however, definitely need to be there the first time that she attempted to skate down the first path at Nozo hill—the one that Koda had chosen for the race. They had practiced going down some hills in their neighborhoods and in the park, but they were nothing compared to the one that she would actually need to race on.

So about a week and a half into training, after school on a Tuesday, they found themselves at the top of the hill. Haruka was already littered in scratches and scrapes of all kinds, but it was just going to get worse going forward.

She stared down at the hill in front of her. It was steeper than anything she'd ever seen. As soon as she pushed off, the first slope would speed her up considerably. If she didn't handle it correctly, it would majorly throw her off. Never before had she had to worry about turning, speeding up, and slowing down while going down a hill. Up until now, it had just been about making to the bottom with all of her body parts still attached.

For the first time it occurred to her that Koda probably hadn't expected her to accept his challenge. This was truly crazy—if she hadn't been on a time limit, there was no way she would be attempting anything like it so soon. But she had accepted, and now she would pay for it. Even if she was covered head to toe and wore pads everywhere, there was no way she would be coming out of this without some damage.

"Relax," Sasuke said at the sight of the look on her face, drawing her out of her thoughts. He too was bundled up for the cold and wore protective gear. "You're not going down the whole thing in one go yet."

"Right." She said stiffly. They had already stretched and warmed up; there was no delaying the inevitable anymore. She thought she would be more excited when the time to conquer the real deal finally came, but dread was the only thing running through her veins.

"Try the kickoff first. Just stop before the first turn." Sasuke said, after he had shown her the correct stance. It was an odd one, different than what they had been using before, and it was a tuck. Both feet were facing forward rather than sideways, and her back knee was bent so it touched the calf of her front leg. Her arms were behind her back, and she leaned forward.

Everything about it felt unnatural and new. So, after Sasuke kicked off, quickly got into said stance, and came to a short stop just before the course's first turn, her mouth practically fell open.

"Show-off," She muttered.

"Your turn," He spoke in the distance, now waiting calmly at the bottom of the slope. The one thing he lacked as a teacher was the true ability to calm her down. He totally knew what he was talking about when it came to skateboarding, but he couldn't help her overcome her intimidation too well.