The Immortal Factor

written by Shaun Garin

Love Hina is created by Ken Akamatsu. Kishimoto Misashi created Naruto.

The quiet scratching of a pen on paper could be heard coming from Urashima Keitaro's room as he worked on the newest math problems that were posed to him. As a fledgling Archeology student, he was required to take certain mathematics. Though how finding what x equals seemed a bit confusing to him when looking at the whole picture.

As Keitaro yawned and stretched, the door slid open and the yell of "HEY KEITARO!" was heard a moment before Kaolla Su plowed into his head with a drop kick.

"BLARGH!" Exclaimed Keitaro as he was tossed across the room to land in a heap while Su landed on his back. "Whatcha up to there Keitaro?" asked the young girl. At the age of sixteen, Su was starting to show a tiny bit more maturity but still retained the thought of drop-kicking him no matter what she was wearing.

Keitaro rubbed the back of his head. "Just some homework," he said as he got up while Su clung to his back like she was still thirteen.

"Hehehe," giggled Su as she wrapped her legs around his neck and hung off. Keitaro turned a bit blue before readjusting her vice-like grip around his neck. "Say Keitaro, I've been wondering something."

"Hmm? What's that?" asked Keitaro.

"I wanna know why you're immortal," said Su as she dangled and played with Keitaro's socks. "I've tried every test imaginable in the last few weeks and short of dissecting you..."

Keitaro shuddered as Su dropped to the ground and bounced to her feet. "Well, I suppose the problem could be internal..."

"Great!" exclaimed Su as she pulled out some huge mecha with tentacles. "Open wide!"

"NO NO NO NO NO!" screamed Keitaro as he backed up while Su advanced on the hapless teenager. "It's not like that!"

"Oh? Do you have something weird like Blood Worms from Blade of the Immortal?" asked Su. An arrow labeled "Close to home" shot Keitaro through the head.

Looking back and forth, Keitaro closed the door and sighed. Then, he took off his shirt.

"Ooooh, Keitaro's getting naked!" exclaimed Su, preparing to remove her own shirt. But a hand stopped her as Keitaro clenched both fists and seemed to concentrate.

As Su watched, a strange tattoo appeared on his stomach. It looked a bit like a Naruto fishcake and was swirled to a point. "This..." said Keitaro, "Is the Urashima family secret."

"A Naruto?" asked Su curiously, poking at the tattoo. "What's so special about this?"

"My family has a legend," said Keitaro, pushing up his glasses and looking serious. "That an ancestor sealed a demon into the navel of a newborn child. And that demon has been passed down through the first child of each family. With each generation, the demon's power weakens just a bit, so that it will never return."

"Wow..." Su poked at his bellybutton. "And this demon is in there, sleeping?"

"Yeah, for now at least," said Keitaro. "there were times in the family when the demon awoke and spoke to him or her. It called itself the Kyuubi, or the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon."

"And Keitaro has a demon huh? Then why are you immortal?"

Keitaro shook his head. "I'm not immortal, I just heal really damn fast. Our ancestor reportedly took a shot through the lungs and he didn't die because he was using the power of the Kyuubi to fuel the fight he was in. His name is lost, just that we know that he was a great Ninja."

"He...." said Su as Keitaro stopped concentrating and the seal vanished. "So Keitaro... you going to tell Naru about this?"

"Well..." said Keitaro but the door slid open revealing Naru carrying a tray with misshapen rice balls on it.

"Hey Keitaro, you want... food?" Naru blinked at the shirtless Keitaro and Su who grinned and waved.

"YOU PERVERTED TROLL!"

And thus, Keitaro was bashed through the nearby door as Su skipped away, wondering to herself how she could talk to the demon inside the Not-So-Nearly-Immortal Keitaro.