Love Hina: Healing Hearts

Disclaimer: I don't own Love Hina, so please don't sue. I have no money to give to you.

Chapter Four: Shadows

She ran toward the broken doors of the dojo. He left hand pressed harder against the deep gash in her right arm. They had been attacked without warning, without provocation. The shadows came from all sides and struck with fury of angered war gods. She wasn't even sure how many of them there were. He students were gone; they had run off into the night. Whoever was attacking wasn't interested in them. Her relations however were not to be found, they were the ones being hunted. The dojo was to confined a space to fight this enemy, she had to get away.

She rushed through the doors and out into the dark forest. She had made it only a few meters before one of the assailants blocked her path. A figure in a black leather trench coat stood before her brandishing a long, ornately engraved dagger. A long hood hid the head of the attacker, so there was no distinguishing features at all. She had nowhere to run, her arm hurt too much to mount any form of meaningful attack. She resigned herself to the inevitable conclusion. She stood her ground, prepared to meet her end as a warrior. She closed her eyes as the figure dashed towards her; a moment later she heard the sound of metal against metal. She opened her eyes to see another figure, similarly concealed in a black trench coat blocking the strike of the first. She stumbled backwards away from the two figures. What was going on here?

The first figure in black stepped back, unsure of how to proceed now.

The second stood stone still, making no effort to attack or to prepare a defense against an attack from the other. For a time the two figures simply stared each other down.

At last the first figure moved, replacing the dagger to its sheath beneath the trench coat. It nodded to the other, and ran deeper into the fading shadows of the morning.

The second black figure turned to the woman across from her. It bowed, and then threw something into the ground at her feet. Seeming to have completed its task the second figure also disappeared into the shadows.

The injured woman bent down to retrieve the item on the ground. It was a small shinobi-style throwing star with a piece of paper wrapped around it. It was cryptic enough getting a message in this way, but that wasn't what unsettled her. She hadn't been able to sense the ki of either of the black dressed figures. She had to prepare, perhaps even enlist the help given by the ancient pacts. She watched as the shadows faded into the light of sunrise over the city of Kyoto. For the first time in her life, Aoyama Tsuruko was afraid.

***

It was raining. Not any ordinary rain, but a thunderstorm unlike the region had seen in years. She couldn't let that stop her though; she had to get this to the secret spot. He had to know that she had been there, that she hadn't forgotten about their promise. She couldn't break her promise to him! If she could get her note to their spot, he would know why she couldn't come. Suddenly, the wind gusted strong once again. Her foot slipped, and she began to fall. She screamed out for help, and then the world went black.

***

Su shook her friend roughly. " Shinobu! Shinobu! Wake up! I need breakfast!"

Shinobu rose groggily. "Su? What is it?"

"You overslept! We're all down stairs, but there's nothing to eat!" Su cried unhappily.

Shinobu nodded and rose. "Ok, I'll be down in a moment." She watched as Su scampered out of the room. Shinobu quickly dressed in her school uniform, she brushed her hair out, thankful that she took a shower last night rather than waiting until this morning. She looked out her window and frowned. It was raining quite hard, and rainy days always made her feel so depressed. She checked herself in her mirror once again and then headed downstairs to the kitchen. As she entered the room, Hotaru handed her cup of green tea.

The young girl grinned sheepishly. "I'm not as good a cook as onii-chan, but tea and coffee I can handle."

Shinobu smiled back and took the cup. "Thank you. It smells wonderful." She took a sip of the drink and turned to begin preparing the morning meal. "Hotaru, have you heard from your brother lately?"

The other girl went to the refrigerator, and pulled out a few items for Shinobu. "He called a few days ago, but that was it." Hotaru replied sadly.

Shinobu nodded. It had been a little over a month since Ken had left suddenly. The others had been very upset when Shinobu had told them he had left. Hotaru had actually cried a little bit, and surprisingly Su became angry as well. Keitaro had said that he was free to come and go as he pleased. Still, no one was happy about his abrupt departure, except perhaps Motoko if you counted apathy. Shinobu brought out breakfast to the others at the table and sat down to eat quickly. Shortly after that she rushed off to school.

***

Later that day, Shinobu returned home after class. Normally she would have looked through the shops in town instead of coming home immediately, but the continuous sheets of rain encouraged her to just come straight back to the apartments. It was unusual to be home this early for her. Su was staying late at school with the engineering club, and Hotaru had joined one of the clubs, so they had remained behind when Shinobu left. Naru and Keitaro were in class over at Toudai, and Motoko was in her prep school classes. She had waved to Kitsune at the teashop, but the dorm itself was empty.

Shinobu was alone. At least she thought she was until she heard the sound of snoring from the room next to hers. She froze in the hallway, wondering who could possibly be in there. She quickly ducked into her own room for fear of being heard. He first thought was that a thief had broken in to escape the rain outside. She knew that made no sense logically as they were on the second floor, but to her emotional side was the fear of being attacked again. She quickly looked around her room for anything that she could use to defend herself. Before long her eyes settled on the smooth black sheath in her closet and picked it up. Motoko had given this to her as a gift when she had began her training last month. Shinobu unsheathed the katana and tried to hold it the way she had been taught. The long blade trembled in her scared hand, but she was determined to prove herself unafraid.

She emerged from her room silently and pressed herself against the wall. She slid along the wall to the door of the next room and slowly opened it. As she crept further into the room, her sword began to tremble more. At last she saw the intruder. He was sprawled out on a futon that was short for him. She couldn't see his face however as it was buried beneath his pillow. He wore a pair of faded blue jeans and a white long sleeve shirt. Not far from the futon was a pile of wet clothing. Shinobu reached down to remove the pillow from his face, and screamed as he grabbed her wrist. She stumbled backwards and fell against the wall.

"Jeez Shinobu!" Ken rushed over to help her to her feet. "Don't sneak up on a guy like that. Especially, with a katana, you'll get yourself hurt waving something like that around." He inspected her wrist and was relieved to see that there were no signs of bruising.

Shinobu stared at him, and then averted her gaze. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." She shifted her eyes to glance at him sidelong. "When did you return?"

Ken shrugged. "Don't know, a couple of hours ago I guess. I was so exhausted that I wasn't really paying attention. I just came in and crashed."

"I see." Murmured Shinobu. "So, where did you go?

Ken pulled over the low table from the corner of the room and motioned for Shinobu sit down. "Had to see someone about a debt, that's all." He pulled a small, self-heating electric thermos from a bag against the wall and a few empty cups. He poured each of them a glass of the dark brown liquid, and handed one to Shinobu.

"Thank you, but I don't drink coffee." Shinobu nodded.

Ken smiled. "You're smart then. That stuff tastes nasty." He took a look sip from his cup. "This however, is the best hot chocolate ever made."

Shinobu took a sip of her drink. "Hotaru will be happy to see that you're back."

Ken nodded. "How had everyone been?"

"Good, but they're really mad at you still." Shinobu replied.

Ken nodded again. "And what about you? Are you still mad at me?"

"A little…" Shinobu admitted.

"Gomen nasai." Ken took another sip of his drink. Silence dominated the small room for the next few minutes. "When did you take up kenjutsu? You didn't strike me as the fighting type the last time we met."

Shinobu almost told him, then held back. He was holding back secrets, she wondered if she should trust him with everything. "I just wanted to try a new hobby, so I asked Motoko to teach me."

Ken nodded. "She is indeed skilled…" He paused and lifted his head. "Did you hear something?"

Shinobu was about to reply when the door of the room flew open suddenly.

"What the hell do you think you're doing in here alone with Shinobu?" Demanded Naru.

Motoko brought her sword around towards Ken. "How dare you sully her with your uncouth behavior!"

Su also entered the fray sporting a dangerous looking bazooka. "What's an uncouth? Does it taste yummy?" She lowered the sight of her weapon to frame Ken's head. "Prepare to commence Operation: Preserve Shinobu's Innocence! Ready, aim, fire!" Two missiles raced toward their target.

Motoko followed up next. "Rock splitting sword!" Her ki wave exploded forward.

Naru pulled back her fist and released a strong punch.

Ken watched as everything rushed to towards him. "This is really going to hurt." He pushed Shinobu out of the blast radius just as he went up in a cloud of smoke.

Shinobu watched as Ken went flying out the window as burnt mass of flailing limbs. She then looked over at her friends. "Operation: Save Shinobu's Innocence?" She questioned uncertainly.

Su rested her missile launcher against her shoulder and laughed. "It was originally called Operation: Revenge On The Jerk With No Manners, but when you were unexpectedly on the scene and in danger we changed the title! Wasn't it great?"

Shinobu blinked in confusion. "I was…in danger?"

Motoko returned her sword to its sheath and rested it against her hip. "He's already shown a himself to have little respect for others, there is no telling what he may have done once he had you alone. He is a male after all."

Shinobu stood quickly. "We were just talking!" She looked around at the others. "Oh, this is pointless to argue." Shinobu muttered. She walked quickly from the room towards the front door.

"Where are you going?" asked Naru, now concerned with Shinobu's behavior.

Shinobu pointed to the rain just outside the now broken window. "You just attacked Ken and might have hurt him. He'll get sick if he stays out of there to long." She grabbed her umbrella. "I'm going to go look for him."

The other three girls looked on in shock.

"Did we do something bad?" asked Su worriedly.

***

Shinobu found Ken a few hours later slowly walking home to Hinata with a slight limp. "Oh no! You did get hurt!"

Ken brushed his long hair from his eyes and smiled as he saw her. "Daishobu, Shinobu. I just landed on an old injury. Even as tired as I am, it'll take more than an attack like that one to take me out of the game."

She rushed over and tried to help support him, but he waved her off.

"Knock it off, you'll get all wet and catch cold." Ken continued to walk on. "Besides, this is nothing I can't handle."

Shinobu didn't believe him. She watched as he grimaced with each and every step. She ignored his protests and placed his arm around her shoulder, helping take the weight off of his foot. "Come on, let's find someplace to get you out of the rain." She took the lead and entered the first building she found, which happened to be an inn. "Oh no!" She thought silently. "This wasn't what I had in mind!"

Ken laughed at the worried look on her face and limped over to the old women behind the check in counter. "We'll take your best room please." He looked back at Shinobu. "Is that ok?"

Shinobu nodded dumbly. "How are we going to pay for this?!" Her brain yelled at her. Her eyes widened as another thought came to mind. "What am I doing in a hotel alone with Ken?! He doesn't expect us to…does he?"

"Shinobu? You going to stand there all day?" Ken called back as he followed the old woman down the hall.

Shinobu followed quickly and entered the room they had rented. It was large and spacious with a full array of amenities. One of which was a recessed and partially hidden chest of drawers.

"We keep certain items in here just in case young couples like yourself should need them." The old woman smiled and left the room. "Just be cautious in whatever you do."

Ken and Shinobu blushed deeply in shocked silence. Then exchanged glances and began to laugh nervously.

Ken reached into the closet and handed Shinobu one of the inn's kimonos. "Why don't you wash up first? You got wet because of helping me and I don't want you to get sick as a result."

"But you're soaking, while I'm barely damp." Shinobu protested as Ken pushed the kimono into her hand and forced her into the bathroom.

She resigned herself to what Ken had ordered. As she showered she had to admit that the warm water felt wonderful after being in the rain for so long. Still, she wasn't sure exactly what possessed her to stay out as long as she did. She hadn't even stayed out that long when Keitaro had run off those times. She gasped as the thought hit. "It couldn't be…that I like Ken. Could it?" She wondered aloud. She finished showering and toweled off before entering the main portion of the room once again. "Ken? You can go now if you'd like."

She looked around the room when she received no response. There was a small ticket on the table, and upon closer inspection she realized it was a claim ticket for the inn's laundry service. She made her way to the far side of the room and found Ken sitting on the floor with his back press firmly against then wall, snoring softly. Shinobu didn't seem to be able to stop herself from staring at his sleeping form.

Without the gel to maintain it's upright styling, his hair hung loose around his face. It was much longer than she had first thought, which surprised her since she had always thought that boys preferred to keep their hair short. She crouched down besides him to get a closer look at his face, but spotted something else. When Ken had sent his clothes to the laundry, he had changed into one of the hotel kimonos as well, and the fabric was much more loose than the clothing he had worn before. Shinobu focused on the small portion of skin on Ken's arm. She gasped as she realized that his arm was covered in a series of scars, and reached out towards them, as if to confirm that they were real. Suddenly Ken awoke and pulled his sleeve down over the scars.

"Please don't." Ken stood quickly and went over to the mini-fridge and pulled out a couple of sodas. He tossed one to Shinobu.

Shinobu looked down at the soda. "Gomen nasai. I didn't mean to…"

Ken waved it away. "Forget about it."

Shinobu nodded and opened her soda. An awkward silence filled the room as she sipped at her drink. "How did you…"

Ken turned away and looked out the window into the rain. "I don't like to talk about it."

Shinobu kicked herself mentally again and again. "Baka! Baka! Baka! You should have known better than to ask something like that!"

"Sorry." Ken apologized. "I shouldn't have snapped at you for my carelessness."

"Carelessness?" Shinobu questioned.

Ken nodded. "I should have hidden them better." He unconsciously gripped at the scars.

"Are you…ashamed of them?" Shinobu's voice wavered uncertainly.

Ken paused for a long time before answering her. "Yes, and a the same time, no. I am not ashamed of how or why I have these scars, but I am ashamed of the reasons that lead to them being put upon my skin." He turned as there was a knock at the door, and retrieved his clothes along with Shinobu's from the old woman. "We should change and head back to the apartments," He smiled playfully. "Otherwise the girls are going to start spreading rumors about me taking advantage of you." He handed Shinobu her clothing and left to the adjacent room.

Shinobu watched as he slid the partition into place. She changed quickly and then she and Ken left the hotel together.

A/N: Good? Bad? Other? Please let me know so I can improve on future works.