Haikyuu: Nah, I'd Adapt!

While the loud commotion was reverberating across the gym, the weird duo had their own concern at the moment.

"Does this mean..."

Kageyama stared blankly at the gym ceiling. His breaths were slowly steadying, but his chest felt heavy. Raising a hand to his head, he clenched his fingers tightly into his hair, "...we don't make it onto the team?"

The bitter reality hit hard. They had lost the test.

"...!"

Hinata, who was lying flat on the floor not far from him, gritted his teeth.

In an instant, he shot to his feet. His brown eyes burned with determination as they locked onto Daichi amidst the chaos.

"Captain!"

The shout echoed through the gym, cutting through the noise like a knife. Kageyama's blank expression turned into determination as he also stood up.

"...?"

Together, they stood firm, facing Daichi, whose confused expression matched everyone else's.

Daichi frowned, "What are you both do—"

"Please..."

Before Daichi could finish his question, Hinata bowed deeply, his voice cutting through with unwavering resolve.

Kageyama followed immediately, bowing in perfect unison with Hinata as he added, "...give us one more chance to join the club!"

The gym fell silent.

"Daichi, did you not explain it properly to them?"

"Umm... well..."

Suga scratched the back of his head in awkward amusement at the sudden request. Daichi looked momentarily caught off guard, unsure of how to respond.

On the sidelines, Tsuna sighed and shook his head.

'These two idiots...'

It was obvious to him that Hinata and Kageyama had misunderstood something. They must've thought the test required them to win the match.

In reality, all they needed to do was prove they could work together as a team. And as far as Tsuna was concerned, they had surpassed expectations.

The energy and synergy between the two had made the match exhilarating.

It had been a long time since he felt that kind of thrill.

"Pfft..."

A snicker escaped Tsukishima's lips. Knowing it was not the time to trash talk, Yamaguchi hissed, "Tsukki!" 

However, even Yamaguchi's lips twitched in amusement at the duo.

"Eh?"

Hinata and Kageyama straightened their backs, their face turned from desperation to confusion. Their wide eyes darted from Daichi to the rest of the team, trying to figure out what they had missed.

"That test was to see if you both could cooperate," Tsuna said casually, stepping forward as Daichi quietly signaled Shimizu for something.

Kageyama furrowed his brows. "Cooperate? I thought we had to win..."

"Don't overthink it," Tsuna replied, shaking his head. He grabbed a water bottle from the bench and leaned against it with a small grin.

"Besides, even if the test required you to win..."

He paused, taking a slow sip from his water bottle. "...you will still going to lose."

The words hit like a spike.

"Next time!"

Hinata immediately blurted out, as Kageyama finished the sentence for him, "We will win!"

The others, who watched from the sideline, shook their heads with little smiles on their faces. These two were certainly quite compatible with one another.

"I'd like to see you try," Tsuna responded without even looking at them as he noticed what Shimizu was taking out—a box.

"You guys brought the registration papers, right?"

Daichi suddenly spoke to both of them, which brought them back from their hotheadedness. They nodded dazedly, "Ah, yeah..."

The duo scrambled to their bags, pulling out the registration papers they had nearly forgotten in their excitement. They handed the papers to Daichi, who glanced over them before nodding in approval.

Shimizu stepped forward as she reached into the box and pulled out a few jackets with the team's logo stitched proudly on the back for the freshmen.

"Here," she said handing them over one by one.

Hinata and Kageyama froze as they took the jackets from her hands. For a moment, neither of them moved, their eyes wide as they stared at the fabric like it was made of gold.

Their faces lit up with unrestrained excitement.

Tsukishima just sent them a mocking smile while Yamaguchi respectfully accepted the jacket.

'Now that I think about it...' Tsuna thought while seeing all this as he turned to his bag, where he had placed his jacket, and muttered, "Mine's getting smaller."

His body had developed along with his training over the last year, and he'd grown enough for the jacket not to fit anymore.

"..."

Shimizu seemed to have heard his mutterings as she quietly stared at Tsuna and went silent to the side while Daichi officially welcomed the freshmen into the club.

As Daichi was about to start the club activity for real, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the hallway, growing louder as they neared the gym.

Uneven breathing followed, and before anyone could react, the door suddenly slammed open.

Almost everyone recognized the person who had entered.

"Hmm? Sensei...?"

He had messy black hair, brown eyes, and glasses, his face flushed from running. He was breathing heavily, trying to catch his breath.

It was Ittetsu Takeda, one of the teachers at the school.

"I... I got it..."

He gasped between breaths, clutching a rolled-up piece of paper in his hand. He looked up and finished his sentence, "A practice game against the top four teams in the prefecture, Aoba Johsai High School!"

"Oh!"

"Seijoh!?"

"Whoaa!"

At the mention of the top four teams, everyone's faces lit up. It must have been hard to schedule a practice game against them, which was why they were impressed.

"Aoba Johsai, huh?"

Tsuna leaned forward, his interest was immediately piqued. After all, he still remembered Oikawa, Aoba Johsai's setter from last year.

He glanced at Takeda as he blinked his eyes confusedly before asking, "Anyway, who is this person?"

"...?"

The room went silent. Everyone stared at Tsuna, shocked by his question.

The excited atmosphere from a while ago suddenly evaporated into thin air as they all looked at Tsuna in disbelief. The freshmen were also quite unfamiliar with this teacher, but they were not curious enough to ask out loud.

Takeda's face darkened immediately. His shoulders slumped, and he looked utterly defeated.

His voice was barely a whisper as he mumbled, "Ah... yeah... of course, nobody knows an average teacher like me..."

"S-Sensei, uh, don't worry about it..."

Tanaka rushed forward, trying to smooth things over. Daichi quickly added, "Tsuna is a bit of an exception. Don't mind him, sensei."

"Yeah, it's true. He's blockhead, please don't mind him." Suga chimed in confidently, trying to salvage the situation, "After all, who in Karasuno doesn't know Itachi-sensei?"

"..."

Itachi-sensei? Who the hell is even that?

Everyone froze, staring at Suga in disbelief. As a third-year, he had confidently gotten the teacher's name wrong.

They all turned in unison to look at Takeda, whose face had drained of color and immediately thought, "We messed up..."

Thankfully...

After some careful attempts to patch things up, they managed to get Takeda to pull himself together... barely.

"I see many new faces around. My name's Itachi Takeda," Takeda spoke with no change in his expression, his tone flat as if he'd gone numb.

Everyone flinched at the introduction and turned to stare at Suga, whose face looked like he was about to cry.

Takeda continued, "I'm the volleyball club advisor..."

There was a long pause, and the tension grew thick in the room. Takeda let out a deep sigh, massaging his forehead.

"...I have no volleyball experience, so I can't help much with the practical stuff," he added, his voice deflated. "But for anything else, I'll try my best to help. Nice to meet you."

"Sensei, when do we practice against them exactly?"

"Ahh, that..." Takeda opened the rolled paper in his hand and scanned it quickly before answering, "We'll play against them this Friday. So, we have two days to prepare."

"Eh, and..." Takeda hesitated as he read a specific part, then looked at Kageyama. "They also specifically requested that the setter be Kageyama-kun for this practice game."

"Huh!?"

Tanaka immediately rolled his eyes, a small scowl on his face. "So, they're trying to assess Kageyama's ability, huh? Are they taking us too lightly? How cocky! We beat them up pretty badly last year. "

"Huh? You guys beat them up?"

Kageyama's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't known that.

Hinata was equally shocked and immediately rushed over to Tanaka, his eyes sparkling with excitement, "What? You guys defeated the top four teams in the prefecture!?"

"Kekeke, of course!"

Tanaka puffed out his chest proudly and began to recount how they had singlehandedly destroyed Aoba Johsai.

Kageyama and Hinata listened intently, sending surprised glances at Tsuna, who remained quiet.

"Stop bragging!"

Suga smacked Tanaka on the bald spot of his head...

Which... was pretty much the whole head...

"Ouch!" Tanaka winced, rubbing his head, while Suga shook his head in disbelief.

Tanaka then sheepishly gave an apology with his expression before asking, "So, does that mean they didn't know Tsuna came back?"

Aoba Johsai had probably heard about Tsuna's injury, which was why they hadn't considered him for the practice game. After Karasuno's loss to Date Tech, they might have assumed Tsuna's injury kept him out of the picture this year.

"That's likely the case," Daichi nodded, shrugging his shoulders. "I mean, he just came back today, so obviously, the news hasn't reached them yet."

"Umm, I have a question!" Hinata raised his hand eagerly, his eyes shining with curiosity. "Why did Tsuna-senpai leave in the first place? And why did the top four teams think he wouldn't be back so soon?"

"Ah, that..."

Suga hesitated as he glanced at Tsuna, who was trying, and failing, to strike up a conversation with Shimizu. She kept ignoring him. Suga sighed before he slowly began to explain what happened last year.

"Oh... such an unfortunate accident..."

"Yeah, if I were to lose my dominant ha... hold up?"

They both blinked their eyes as if something started to click into their heads before exchanging a look, their confusion slowly turning into realization.

"N-Nani?!"

Their eyes widened in shock, and their jaws dropped to the floor as they shouted in unison, "So he beat us up without even using his normal hand!?"

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