Snapshot (Haikyuu Fanfiction Series!!!)

44. Endless Tosses

Sakura POV
(At Night- In the gym)

For the past few days late at night, I've been helping Nishinoya and Asahi practice, yet it hasn't been easy. Rather, I think it's going to take a while for us to get anywhere. Practicing with them made me notice their small improvements, but also their weaknesses. I seriously hope they can both get it down by the time we go back to Tokyo for the training camp, or at least before the Spring High Preliminaries.

"Sakura, I'm ready!" Nishinoya gives me a wave and I throw the ball to Nishinoya. Asahi prepares a jump, but immediately stops himself when he realizes the volleyball isn't directed towards him. I watch Nishinoya's toss hit the net and a sullen Nishinoya lands on his feet. Nishinoya quickly turns to me. "One more time!" he begs me for another toss and I nod my head.

"Sure!" I toss the volleyball to Nishinoya again for him to set it, but he quickly stumbles and Asahi ends up missing the ball. "Um, Nishinoya? You passed the line," I point out to him and he pouts.

"I know!" Nishinoya says with a frown and turns to Asahi and me. "Sorry Sakura! Asahi-san!" he loudly apologizes to us.

"It's okay Nishinoya, my jump serves haven't been perfect either," Asahi tells him.

"That's right, Noya, you're getting a lot better since the first time. Same with you, Asahi, you've been doing better too," I reassure them and their confidence grows.

"Yoosh! If Sakura says that I'm getting better, then I have to keep practicing my tosses to become the best!" Nishinoya pumps his fists with his eyes burning with determination. He positions himself and gets ready for another toss. "Again, Sakura!" he shouts with a burst of energy.

"Alright! Here we go!" I toss the volleyball to him once again. He slowly runs to the volleyball and takes a quick glance of the line. He makes his slightly awkward jump and performs a decent toss that Asahi is able to spike.

"Nice job Nishinoya!" Asahi praises him and I watch Nishinoya's nose grow larger from pride after hearing Asahi's compliment.

"Yooosh! I'm getting super pumped up now!" Nishinoya shouts and turns to me with a thrilled look on his face. "Sakura, keep throwing the volleyballs for us!" he asks and I grab another volleyball from the cart.

"Of course Noya!" I grin as I continue helping them out with practice.

(One hour later...)

After Nishinoya's excitement of successfully tossing to Asahi, he pretty much let that get to his head and failed the rest of his tosses. Seeing this, Asahi and I both knew Nishinoya wasn't going to get anywhere for today, so we decided it was Asahi's turn to practice his jump serves while Nishinoya received them.

I sit down and watch Asahi practice his jump serve as I drink out of my water bottle. I relax on the bench and my phone vibrates in my bag.

*Bzz*

I check my phone and turn it on silent to make sure I wasn't interrupting their practice. I look at my phone to see who's texting me and realize that it's Mihane. Of course it would be. I open the message.

<SAKURA!!! Are you alive???>

I tilt my head in confusion seeing the message she sent.

<I'm alive. How about you? How's libero training?>

I text her back and receive a quick reply.

<Good, but that's not important!>

She sends me a second text. My eyes widen seeing the first sentence of the message. I immediately look up to make sure Nishinoya is still practicing with Asahi and look back to the message on my phone.