Chapter 4

The tears wouldn't stop falling, 'why am I acting like this, what is going on with me?' Naru asked herself. She was sitting in a small sand box on a plastic turtle. 'How come I am never first in his life, why is it always someone else?'

'It probably not really his fault, after all he cant really change who he is, he will always be a perverted lecher, but that doesn't give others a right to use his weaknesses against him. That idiot would probably make out with a rock if it gave him the time of day' she said trying to give Keitaro the benefit of the doubt.

Another thought came to her, 'No, that jerk is always going to be like this, I'm always going to be number two. But why does that idiot chase after all those girls, is he trying to fill the number one in his life?'

She then softly said "Aren't I good enough for him?"

She waited for a response and none came. 'I guess this plastic turtle doesn't know either' she thought.

It had been hours since she had been home, and it was getting time for dinner. She didn't want to let anybody else know she was really having problems right now, so she slowly made her way back to the Inn. 'If its one thing I am good at, it would be hiding my feelings an emotions.'

Motoko opened her eyes to the smell of Shinobu's cooking that had been making its way through the house.

She realized she had fallen asleep while studying and she could vaguely remember Keitaro falling asleep. She also remembers that he was asleep for some time, and he was supposed to be helping her. That's why it had gotten so quiet... The solitude and peaceful breathing of Keitaro had affected her.

The mental image came of her sitting here at the table they were studying at and staring at Keitaro sleeping on the floor. 'He looked so cute' she said. The rest of the image seemed to disappear. She couldn't quite remember what had happened. It was like looking through too many panes of glass... the image seemed to just fade to grey.

She didn't remember getting a blanket out, or when Keitaro left. She looked at Shippu, and said "what happened?" Shippu only cocked a yellow head that seemed to say "wouldn't you like to know"

She quickly checked her cloths and brushed out a few wrinkles that she had obtained from sleeping. She put on a pair of white socks, and her house slippers. She checked her hair to make sure that she didn't have any stray hair going in weird directions. 'What am I doing?' she asked herself, 'was I ever really this vain?' She didn't know the answer to that question, but regardless she picked up her brush and gave her hair a quick brushing.

She looked at Shippu and said "How do I look?" Shippu's response was to settle on the perch in a more relaxed state. "I guess I will take that as an O.K."

She opened the door to her room only to be attacked by a blond streak of energy. "Motoko! Shinobu sent me to get everybody!" Motoko peeled off of her a short blond person that had some how managed to somehow tangle her arms and legs up with Motoko's enough that it proved difficult to accomplish.

Finally free of the tangle Motoko said "O.K. I will be right down."

Satisfied the ball of energy said "Now for Keitaro!", and out of no where Su pulled out a remote control device and with a maniacal giggle she was off heading towards her next victim.

Treading down the hall she was just about to Naru's room when the door of her room slid open. Naru stepped out into the open, and was slightly startled by Motoko's presence out in the hall. Naru looked at Motoko, and said nothing. However the look on Naru's face probably could have froze a charging bull. Naru then turned and with a very feminine quarter spin and a hair flip that seemed to say "HA!" in a very cold way. Naru then began walking down the hall to the stairs.

'I am not going to loose that idiot to an unfeminine sword freak like her' Naru said to herself as she walked to the top of the stairs.

Motoko was a little stunned by the very cold look she had just received from Naru. 'I guess she is angry about something again, but what would I have done to make her send icicles my way,' she wondered. Then she once again began to move, and fell into step behind Naru.

They were proceeding down the stairs and Naru was just about at the bottom when an explosion seemed strong enough to shake the dust out of the ceiling and a very Keitaro like scream could be heard from outside. Motoko was distracted by the sound of a scream that seemed to be moving at high velocity over top of the inn. Her head followed the scream as if she had X-Ray vision. She didn't notice that Naru had stopped her progression down the stairs. The scream stopped and Motoko once again turned her head to watch where she was going. 'Woah!' she thought as she was suddenly startled by Naru's presence a few centimeters away and she was about to collide when instinct took over and Motoko raised her arms in defense desperately trying to stop her forward momentum. However her she was too late and she couldn't stop fast enough and her hands came to rest on Naru's back. Naru stumbled down the last two steps carried by the momentum that Motoko had transferred to her. Naru was just taken off balance for just a second but she regained her composure after a few extra steps. When she came to a stop she turned and looked at Motoko as if demanding an explanation.

"Sorry about that Naru, I was just surprised" Motoko said rubbing her hand in her hair like a kid that had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

'Yea right!' Naru said to herself, and without saying a word continued her journey to the kitchen.

Motoko looked down at her feet in puzzlement. 'What just happened' she said to herself. There was no response, and she didn't understand. This was a whole new world for Motoko, feelings and girl behavior was a whole new game that Motoko was late in joining. She was also doing it without learning the rules that most girls her age had learned on the playground in elementary school.

'Push comes to shove, I am going to start fighting dirty,' Naru said to herself as she entered the dining room that was just off the kitchen. 'Accident my butt she did that intentionally'

'Shinobu's dinner was excellent; it even had exceeded her normal meals' Keitaro noticed. "Shinobu this is really good!" he said. He was desperate; the atmosphere at the table had been so incredibly awkward tonight. He could feel the tension in the air, but couldn't understand the source. Even the energetic Su was subdued by it.

Shinobu blushed, "Thank you Sempai, w.. would..d you like some more?"

"No thank you, really I am stuffed, it was excellent," he said.

"Kay... I will start cleaning up then." Shinobu said. She had also noticed the atmosphere at the table and was disappointed she was hoping the dinner would have been in a much lighter environment. She had cooked it especially to say thank you.

"Here let me help you" he said, and he started gathering up plates. Motoko and Naru had both avoided looking anyplace but at their plates all night. They both suddenly got up and excused themselves from the table, and went in different directions.

'That pervert, first Motoko and now Shinobu again!' Naru said angrily on her way to her room. She felt veins begin to bulge on her forehead as the blood pressure started to rise. She couldn't help but begin to clench her fists.

Motoko went outside long enough to wait for Naru to go wherever she was going. The cool night air felt good in her lungs, it felt like she hadn't tasted fresh air for days. 'I was suffocating in there, I was almost ready to scream at Naru, What was happening? Why was I reacting to Naru like that? Hell! Why was Naru acting like that? ... I don't understand.... I .... '

Motoko sniffled, and then rubbed her damp eyes and stared at the dampness on her hands with a very puzzled look. 'I am even crying now?!... God I am so confused! What is happening to me?' Her legs suddenly felt very heavy like they were collapsing from the pressure of her upper body, and she quickly found a place to sit down.

Her brain was racing full of questions without answers and no one to talk too. The one person that seemed like she wanted to help Motoko had been called away by Granny Hina earlier last week. 'I never thought that I would actually want Kanako here, but I need..... something....'

She turned and decided to go work out. She went inside and using all of her skills that she knew, stealthily went in her room and grabbed her bokken, and snuck back out of her room. She quickly went up to the roof to try to clear her thoughts through physical exercises.

What she failed notice while she was in her room is that Shippu wasn't on her perch. However there were two seemingly knowing eyes watching her while she walked around outside. These same eyes watched her make her way to her practice area on the roof. They also watched over her as she was attempting to work her frustrations out. It was like the air had become a mortal enemy to her.

Meanwhile Kitsune had tried her best to ignore what was happening at the table by quietly drinking her sake. It didn't take much for her foxy eyes to figure out what was happening. She knew enough to not say anything that might set off the potential bomb with a sensitive triggering device. Once both of them left the table it was like someone had opened a window and let all the friction out. What is up with those two? Naru acted like she was ready to leap across the table and kill Motoko at the drop of a hat. Motoko was no better; she was wound up tighter than a cornered cat ready to lash out if anything flew her way. She had stayed until the table was cleaned off and Keitaro was giving the table wipe down with a damp cloth. Shinobu was in the kitchen humming up a storm. And Su had already gone off making adjustments to her latest device in order to "optimize the launch trajectory" she had said.

'That's it... this someone is going to have to do something.' she said to herself. She got up from the table and made her way to her room. She was going to need a little bit of "courage", and besides this may be her last drink ever. She had a special bottle that she had been saving, and if this might be it... She had hid it behind some large books, in her room, for a night when she really needed to forget something. When she got to her room she quickly changed into her robe and shorts that she wore to go to sleep, she wanted to be comfortable if she was going to go face Naru. Then she got up on her chair, and moved the large books on the top shelf out of the way, and pulled out a tall round clear unmarked bottle of colorless liquid.

She took a small swig straight from the bottle, and put the stopper back in the top, and set it on her desk. She approached the door to her room, and she had the sudden mental image of someone playing Taps on a bugle and seven soldiers standing in a row, firing three rounds in unison over an open grave. She quickly returned to her special sauce and poured one very full glass, and finished it off like she was in a drinking game. She then stepped out of her room, and went up the stairs to Naru's room. She paused briefly outside and then knocked gently. "Naru... it's me Kitsune."

She waited. "Pardon my intrusion" and she opened the door and stepped inside Naru's room. Mitsune's eyes went wide. Around the room it was in shambles... Books were off the shelf and scattered about the room. One of her notebooks was in pieces and the table was on its top lying upside down on its table top. The storm that had passed through this room was now sitting over in the corner in the next room, huddled in a small ball.

Kitsune carefully approached the storm, and realized that it was no longer a hurricane but a small rain storm. As quiet sobs wracked the small figure Kitsune couldn't help but put a tear in her own eye. "Naru.... are ... are you ok?" Kitsune asked.

Her only response was a shudder and a sob.

"Naru .... I have known you a long time, what is going on? ... Why are you acting like this?"

"Naru.... did something happen.... Did Keitaro do something to you? ... Did Motoko...?" she asked carefully.

There was another shudder and a couple of sobs this time.

Mitsune sat near Naru for several minutes. She was waiting hoping to get some kind of response out of her old friend. It was breaking her heart to see her like this. She gingerly reached over and tried to put her arm over Naru's shoulder, when Naru suddenly brushed it away.

The unexpected response was unnerving for Mitsune. This was her best friend going through high school, and if anybody was supposed to be here for Naru it was her. 'What was going on?' she wondered. 'Now she is not talking to me too?'

"Why are you upset, are you mad at me too?" Mitsune asked.

After several painful minutes a small voice finally said "Just leave me alone."

"Why should I leave you alone? You obviously are in pain and something is very wrong Naru, and I want to help."

"You just want to help yourself" Naru said in a cold voice said.

Mitsune was startled, 'where'd that come from!' she wondered.

"What do you mean?" Mitsune asked.

"Your just like the rest of them", Naru said and she turned to Kitsune and pulled back one of her hands and then SLAP!

Kitsune was in shock, her face was stinging badly. She put her hand over the spot that she had just been struck. Tears were forming in her eyes, both from the pain and the shock. Naru had never before struck her, not even in a jest, so to be struck like that was so unexpected. Naru then proceeded to get up and forcibly pickup Mitsune and push her out the door to her room.

Standing out side the door Mitsune was dumbfounded. She stood there for a few moments wondering what to do, clutching her face, and wiping the tears with the other hand. Finally she started to move, going to go quietly back to her room to find more of that soothing liquid from her special bottle.

"Sempai?"

"Yes Shinobu?" Keitaro responded.

"Are you avoiding Naru-sempai?"

There was a long pause. "Yes, for now she needs space, every time I try to get close to her, she decks me one. I keep waking up in rooms other than the one I was just in."

"I am just concerned, because Naru sounds like she really needs a friend when I talk to her. She needs someone to talk to. She seemed really upset all this week, and I don't know what to do about it."

"O.K. I will try again tonight to talk to her. Maybe she is ready to talk." Keitaro tried his best to hide his worry in his voice. He knew that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try tonight. Damn he just didn't understand women in general, how was he supposed to help.

They quickly dried the dishes, and Keitaro went back to his room. As he rounded the corner, he saw a much stooped shouldered Kitsune clutching her face, as she headed towards her room. "Kitsune, what's going on, don't tell me you're upset at something too." He then added "have you been crying?"

Kitsune looked back at Keitaro, and she was still holding one of her cheeks. She then said, "Wait for me in your room, we need to talk."

He had been right, by the look on her face, she had been crying. He went into his room and waited for her.