I am sorry everyone. I know it has been months since my last update. You just have to continue being patient with me. School did start, and this year I took a serious approach to it *still can't believe she did* and I've been really really busy, and haven't really found time to write. This chapter here has been in my folder for at least two months half finished, and I didn't even touch it. Then I smacked myself, and told myself to get busy and quit abusing all of you. Again, I'm sorry it took so long. I'm still continuing the story, although updates are going to be rare. I'll try to get better at them.

Thank you all for waiting so long. Here you go!

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She reached out a hand, and began to touch its barnacle covered wood, when suddenly-

"Sakura! This is a-"

The Tori immediately began to grow brighter, and suddenly what were once small waves around her began to grow bigger. She clutched onto the side of the Tori as the waves began to get violent.

"Sakura!" Kero yelled.

Suddenly, above her, a ghostly glowing woman appeared, but Sakura knew it wasn't the girl's ghost, even if she was dressed in the traditional robes. The whole area now seeped of a card aura, and this was no doubt the card.

Another wave crashed against her. It was hard to believe that a minute ago there were practically no waves. The card above her began smiling wickedly. Sakura reached for her wand key, but suddenly she realized she didn't have her cards.

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Small Meets Big

Problems Can Be Easily Solved in the Right Atmosphere

Chapter 13

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"Sakura!" Kero yelled. Sakura noticed that his voice was deeper as she grasped to the tori. Another wave came. Kero had transformed to Keroberous.

"Try to grab me!" He yelled out as he flew close to her, reaching out his front paw.

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Syaoran was up and running to the water. Sakura was in trouble, and it didn't look good. What was she doing going our there like that if she knew there was a Clow card?

He snatched out a scroll from his pocket, and immediately began chanting in Chinese. When he reached the water, he ran on it.

(A/N: Syaoran can really walk on water. Its true. Look at the 4th manga volume. ^_^)

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Sakura reached out for Kero's paw. A second later, she was firmly holding onto Keroberous' leg as he began to move her away from the tori.

"Kero!" She yelled in warning. Below then the water was beginning to swell, and suddenly shot upward. Sakura tightened her grip on Kero, but she felt the water solidtize (A/N: I think I made up that word. Gomen) , and wrap around her leg. It suddenly yanked on her, and that was all she needed to loose her grip.

"Sakura!" She heard Kero yell as she was pulled under the rolling waves.

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Syaoran ran, jumping over some of the waves at times, till he was finally where Kero was, flying around yelling at the water for Sakura. The second Syaoran was near the spot that she disappeared from, he threw away his ofuku scroll, and dived in.

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Sakura couldn't do anything. The card had a tight hold on her legs and arms. She could barely move a muscle, it was squeezing so tight.

Suddenly she felt something begin to wrap around her throat.

Please no.... She thought as it began to get a good hold of her neck, and then slowly squeeze.

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Syaoran swam as fast as he could. He was just feet away from her when he felt something grab a hold of his arm, and pull him towards Sakura. However, as it did so, it began to wrap around him.

No! He couldn't let this happen. But as he thought so, it wrapped around even more of his body, rendering him from moving.

Next to him Sakura was struggling to stay alive. Any second and she could-

Syaoran snapped his head around. Something else was there. There was suddenly a giant flash of blinding light. He was sightless for a second, but the next thing he knew he was free. He didn't give the light a second thought before he wrapped an arm around Sakura and began swimming to the surface.

As soon as he broke the Surface, Kero flew down, and assisted in helping him and Sakura onto his back, and as fast as possible. As soon as Syaoran had Sakura securely on Kero's back, Kero hauled them out of there.

Syaoran looked down at Sakura who lay motionless in his arms. Her eyes were closed, and she looked unconscious, or even dead.

"Sakura!" He called, slightly shaking her. She had to be ok. "SAKURA!"

His felt his heart skip when she slowly flickered her eyes open.

"Li...kun?" She whispered.

He wrapped his arms securely around her, holding her in a tight embrace. "Don't ever do something like that again."

Syaoran continued to hug her as Keroberous began to circle in the air to land. He had chosen a place a bit of from the cabins, and far from the water.

Syaoran gently slid onto the ground, still holding Sakura. "Are you ok?" He asked her.

She nodded her head as he continued to hold her against him.

"Thank you." She said softly.

They were like that for several minutes while Keroberous tolerated it. So the Gaki was hugging his mistress. She was just through a lot. And anyway, there was plenty of time to get back at the Gaki later. However, it was hard for Kero to keep his temper seeing them. This was all the stinking brats fault to begin with.

Sakura suddenly took a step back. "Li-kun." She was avoiding looking at his face. "Why did you come to... to save me?"

There was no reason for him to lie anymore. In fact, he was mad with himself now for doing so before. "Because... because Sakura. Your my friend... A friend that if I lost, I don't really know what I'd do."

"But you said..."

"It was a lie. I was a idiot earlier. Afraid of things I-"

He would of continued if the air was knocked from his lungs when she threw herself at him. He fell over as she continued to hug him.

"I knew it! I knew it I KNEW IT!" She kept repeating.

Syaoran was beat red at the moment, and Kero was on his last nerve.

"We.... we should go tell the others about the card. I don't think its one of their cards, so they can handle it better." Syaoran managed to say, standing up and pulling Sakura's arms off of him. "I don't think we want to see that card act in the day time when our class is swimming.." He said as he began quickly walking away.

Sakura quickly got up, and followed after him. Before long she caught up just as the cabins were beginning to get in sight.

Syaoran kept stealing glances at Sakura as she happily walked next to him. He still he still needed to apologize.

"Sakura..." He said looking strait ahead.

She responded with a "hmmmm?"

"I... I'm sorry..."

"For what?"

"For... making you cry earlier." He answered in a quieter tone.

He looked at her again, and he saw she was smiling at him. "Its alright Li-kun."

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Minutes later...

Sakura followed Syaoran's example, and crouched down next to him as they watched the two teacher's cabins.

"Ok." He whispered. "You're going to have to go get you, and I'll go get me."

Sakura couldn't help but smile. What he just said sounded totally insane.

"What are you smiling about?"

"Nothing." She said, her smiling only getting bigger.

Syaoran decided he was going to try and ignore it. At least she was ok. If things went differently minutes ago, she may of not been there anymore...

"Anyway, if someone else finds you in there, I don't know... just say you were scared to death of ghost or something, and you wanted to see 'Hana-sensei.'"

Sakura nodded. "Right! I got it."

Syaoran began to get up. "And be careful." He said as he started heading towards the male teachers' cabin.

Sakura nodded again, and embarked on the other cabin.

"I wonder if we'll get caught." Kero pondered out loud to no one in particular. He was busily flying next to Sakura, and didn't want to leave her side at the moment.

Sakura tiptoed to the door, and slowly began tuning the handle. It opened with a slight squeak, which compared to the silence around her seemed as loud as someone yelling. It was at that point Kero decided it was best to stay behind.

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*LittleGreenWolf is searching desperately for her pre-written part of this chapter* I CAN'T FIND MY FAN FICTION FOLDER!!! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! *Finds her Kawaii Eriol/Syaoran folder at her feet* Oh! There it is! But I'm missing a couple pages! *doesn't remember what she wrote there...* Oh well! *continues typing* ^_^

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Inside where some beds with sleeping forms. The sounds of light breathing filled there air. Ever so slowly she began to tiptoe through the room, and almost screamed when one of the sleepers sat up.

Mitzuki-sensei sat, smiling at her, and pointing to a bed in the corner.

Sakura nodded a "thanks" with a smile and walked over to the bed.

There was her future self, sleeping with a smile. Sakura stood staring at the girl. She still couldn't believe SHE would grow up to be this pretty.

She carefully began shaking the older girl, whispering "Sakura-san, you need to get up."

No answer, the girl just turned to her side with a grunt. She wasn't awake.

"Pleeeease." Sakura continued, shaking the girl. She should of brought Kero with her.

"I don't want to wake up yet, Syaoran." The girl suddenly, said in a half daze as she sat up. Sakura stood rigid and turned red as she stared at the girl who was rubbing her eyes. It couldn't mean what she thought. Syaoran just comes to wake her up in the mornings... that has to be it. Yet she continued to blush.

The older girl's eyes suddenly went wide in seeing her. She was awake. "Sakura?"

"We... Sy-Li-kun and I, we really need your help."

The older girl threw off her covers and stood up in her black pajama outfit of a tank top and pants of with silver stars. Not something Tomoyo made. Store-bought...

"What is it?" She whispered as she followed her younger self to the door.

****

Both Lis stood outside the female instructor's cabin.

"What's taking them so long?" The younger of the two asked.

"My guess is that she's having a problem waking Sakura up." Big Syaoran answered. "She can be... well, just very hard to wake up sometimes."

"How often do you wake he-" He stopped seeing the door open.

"What is it?" The older Sakura asked. Both of the older Cardcaptors turned to the younger...

****

Sakura watched the tori where she had almost drowned less the an hour ago. There was no indication of the danger it held.

"Whatever happens, you two are to stay here." The older Syaoran was saying. Beside the younger Sakura, the older Sakura already had the star wand out. When would she get such a wand.

"But why can't we go with you!?" Syaoran demanded.

The older one looked like he was trying not to lose his temper. Already the younger Li had demanded that he go with them, several times, and had gotten the same answer each time.

"How about this. Right now, you are us in the past. Right? Well this never happened. At this moment we were sleeping in our beds in the little cabins, and there was never a card at the stupid tori. You really don't need to be involved with this. If one of you were to get injured in this fight, it could radically change what we know as the present."

Younger Syaoran looked like he wanted to say more, but he kept his mouth shut.

"We can't risk that happening."

"Will you need me?" Kero asked from the younger Sakura's shoulder.

Syaoran looked hard in thought. Kero stood less of a risk of getting hurt, and he seemed to have a pretty good understanding of the situation.

"You just can't get hurt Kero." The older Sakura said. Already Kero was beginning to transform.

"I'd say go back to the cabins, but I don't think you'll do that." The teen boy said to both of them, but looking at Syaoran. "Just don't try to get involved, no matter what you see."

****

"So do you actually grow some brains, gaki?" Kero in the giant lion form asked as he flew towards the tori.

"Kero..." Sakura warned.

"What, I can't ask a simple question?"

"He doesn't change at all, does he?" Syaoran bemusedly noted.

"I guess not." Sakura answered as she looked ahead. So far nothing seemed wrong with the tori. As the came closer to it, she now begun to feel slight traces of the card, and then suddenly, there was a glowing woman in a Japanese kimono on top of the tori.

"The card..." She whispered.

"I'd say its pretty confident with itself to show itself so soon. You two have to watch out-" Kero just finished when suddenly he had to dive down in the air to avoid being blasted away by the stream of water that shot at them.

So its a water elemental. Sakura thought to herself as Kero continued dodging the water with seemly no problem, but he would tire eventually. These cards are made to be stronger then mine, so Watery would be no match for it if this is the water elemental of the new deck. She would need to use a different card, but the problem was, what would hold the water.

She tightened her grasp as Keroberous was suddenly knocked to the side as a pillar of water knocked into his side. After a few seconds he was able to regain control, and he flew up high above what seemed to be out of the card's reach.

Capturing Watery had been hard enough, but then it had been in an aquarium, on land. Here, out in open water, the card had the advantage. She didn't think a freezer would suddenly pop up that would be able to hold this card, but... it probably depended on the salt in the water. She could still try freezing the card.

"I'm going to try something." She announced as she reached for her cards. "Ugh, Syaoran, can you make sure I don't fall off?" If she used her cards both her hands would be full.

Syaoran wrapped and arm around her waist in a firm hold, and instanly she felt more confident, and less likely to fall off.

She took out two cards, and returned the cards to her pocket. She then grabbed her wand and threw her two cards above her head. "Windy! Freeze! Turn that card on the tori into ice!"

As soon as the top of her wand hit the two cards, there before her were the cards. The elegant swirly form of Windy, and the icy fish form of Freeze shot at the woman. The card suddenly got sly grin on her face, and then a giant barrier of ocean water surrounded the tori, blocking off the cards. Now the card was no longer visible.

Unexpectedly from behind, another pillar shot at Keroberous, and caught him off guard. The water hit strait on, and violently knocked him to the side. Sakura felt herself thrown from Kero, and now in the air. Syaoran shot forward and grabbed her hand with his. She couldn't help but smile at him as he began to pull her back up.

"Here comes another!" Keroberous abruptly yelled as he tried to avoid the next shot of water without throwing Sakura off as Syaoran continued trying to bring her back up.

Sakura was hit with the spout of water, and the force from it broke Syaoran's hold on her hand.

"Sakura!" Syaoran yelled at her as she fell to the barrier of water below.

She hit the wall of water with a splash, the coldness of it making it feel like hundreds of needles were piercing her skin, but then suddenly she was falling through air again. She was inside the barrier, and still falling. The tori was now on about fifty feet away, and at the rate she was going...

A bright light filled the air and she felt hands on her arms, and her decent begin to slow. When her eyes adjusted to the light, she could see the transparent forms of a young man and woman slowly guiding her to the tori. The lightly set her down on it, and smiled at her before letting her go.

Sakura lowered herself down on the Tori, and knelt, not trusting her feet on the slippery surface. The ghostly forms where on either side of her, glowing warmly, and she realized she didn't have any fear of them. Here two real ghost were next to her, and she wasn't afraid!

Ahead of he, on the opposite end on the tori, was the card.

The ghost beside her became white blurs as they shot forward. She saw each ghost grab onto the card, and begin lifting it off the tori. The barrier of water above her suddenly broke apart, and she clutched onto the tori as the water came down on her. Seconds later she looked around again, alright. The barrier around her was gone, and the sea suddenly looked calm.

"Sakura!" Syaoran yelled from Kero as the yellow lion approached.

Above the ghost continued to lift the card, but she could see their light flickering She could sense they wouldn't be able to keep the card contained very much longer.

"Freeze! Windy! Surround the card!"

The two cards came from beside Syaoran and Kero, and began to circle the ghost and the card. They continued moving in a circle until you couldn't see inside the round globe they made. They all of a sudden stopped, and Sakura watched as they lowered the stiff, icy form of the card onto the tori. The ghost smiled down on her from above.

"Unknown card, escaped from thy master,
I command you,
Seal onto me!"

She slammed her wand against the card after saying those words, and a swirl of smoke began to surround her. Seconds later where the humanoid form of the card used to be, a card was in its place.

Sakura leaned forward, picked it up. On it was the same woman in a kimono that she had just defeated. Below she read out "The Sea."

She held the card to her chest, and looked up to where the ghost were. They were hugging each other as they continued to smile at her.

"Thank you!" She grinned. "You helped me so much!"

The nodded happily, before suddenly fading away.

So Naoko's story may of had some truth to it.

"Sakura!" Syaoran called as Keroberous rode down beside the tori. Sakura didn't even hesitate as she jumped into Syaoran's arms.

****

Tomoyo happily filmed Sakura as she hit the volleyball to the teacher's side of the net. There the ball was sent back to the students side, where they would send it back and forth until it finally hit the ground.

Tomoyo grinned. Sakura was back to her old self, although she hated missing Syaoran's apology. She bet it was something else, but no one would tell her about it! She sighed. Hopefully, one day, she would know what happened between the two.

Tomoyo continued to smile gleefully as Sakura suddenly tripped into Syaoran, and they both fell to the ground. Syaoran was a bright red as he began to get back up.

"All right! I have the results now!" Terenada sensei announced as he came onto the beach. Every student stopped what they were doing. Syaoran just happened to be helping Sakura up at the moment, and let go of her hand when he realized he had been holding it for a while.

"Its time you find out what side won!" At that the kids began gathering around the teacher.

They had just finished the last activities in that day. All the scores were known except for the judging on the cooking contest for breakfast that day. So far both sides were tied, six points each.

"The winning side of that doesn't have to do homework over the break is... the boy's side!"

All the girls groaned over the cheering of the boys. Sakura let out a disappointed "hoee" but turned to Syaoran and smiled. "Congratulations Syaoran. All your great cooking really made the difference."

The boy just went back to his usual shade of red.

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-_-; Yeah, the ending there was kind of rushed. I wanted to finish off the beach trip in the chapter, so that's why. And I was excited with FINALLY getting this chapter finished. Sorry if some of you thought the whole ghost thing was stupid. I wanted to tie in Naoko's story somehow. Until next time, and there WILL, eventually be a next time. I just need to start making more time for writing.