I'm sorry for the long wait mina-san! Here's the next chappie!

Katana Behind the Bleak

Chapter 10: Set Your Aim right! PART II

Motoko was shocked my Keitaro's abrupt remark. Her blood brought in a rush of adrenaline that raised her core temperature. A blush brashly appeared on Motoko's face, staining her two cheeks scarlet red. Surely Keitaro hadn't meant what he said! Did he?!

"Motoko-san! I truly lo-…" before Keitaro was able to finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a soft voice.

"Ano…did I disturb anything?" Naru's voice resonated in the room.

Motoko became wary of her situation and quickly brushed her feelings away, and retained her general posture, "Umm…nothing….it's alright." Motoko gave a weak smile to reassure the girl.

"Oh..okay," Naru said, "but I have something that I want to speak to Keitaro."

Motoko waited.

"Alone....that is," Naru finished her sentence when Motoko didn't take the cue.

Keitaro looked in Motoko's direction and found that the mood had already been spoiled. Motoko gathered herself and headed to her room. Before she left, Keitaro had noticed a face that words would describe as annoyed or maybe even jealous…

"What is it, Naru?" Keitaro asked, a little annoyed too, but tried his best to make Naru feel a little more comfortable since it wasn't exactly her fault that he missed the opportunity to propose to Motoko….okay, well maybe it was her fault….

"Keitaro, you're the only person whom I can talk to now," Naru said, her voice revealing worry and nervousness.

Keitaro caught on to the degree of seriousness that this conversation may be leading them to and shifted Naru aside before he spoke to her again, "I promise I won't tell anybody whatever you're going to tell me now, and I'll try my best to help you."

"Alrigatou," Naru thanked before going on, "I think there's something wrong with Lan."

"Lan?" Keitaro exclaimed, amazed.

Naru shushed her with her finger and motioned him to be aware of their surroundings.

"Yes, I had a conversation with Lan, and he seemed very weird," Naru said, her eyes unable to fix their concentration on Keitaro while she was speaking. Tears were already apparent when she had finally fixed her stare on Keitaro. Keitaro saw through her glassy eyes that within the depths of those orbs, a muddle of emotions troubled the mind. Her speech even proved Keitaro's conjecture when it came out in jumbled phrases.

"Lan said…that….like him….and she will…and I asked him why he was sure…and he won't answer," Naru cried out, not even sure if she could tell what had happened already.

Keitaro calmed Naru down before asking her slowly, "What do you mean that he won't answer? And who did he say will like him?"

"Motoko! Lan said that Motoko will like him! I asked him why he was so sure and he wouldn't tell me! He used to tell me everything and now we've distanced ourselves so far apart for each other!" with that said, Naru buried her head into her hands and started sobbing uncontrollably.

Keitaro tried consoling Naru by placing a gentle hand on her back and started giving her calming strokes, to reassure her that everything was going to be alright. However, he wasn't even sure if he knew what he should do.

The next day, Keitaro found Motoko practicing her aiming technique with Lan. Lan was showing Motoko how to aim her katana at apples that were tied on a strings and hung on trees. Keitaro could barely make out where the apples were since they were green apples and camouflaged well with the green leaves on the trees.

"Now this is how you position yourself before you make a swing, " Lan said as he motioned behind Motoko, gripping hold of her shoulder and shifting her position so that it was slightly angled with the target, "Now, you pull your katana up, and fix your attention at the target before you swing your sword. Your kii should naturally come out and splice the apple into halves."

Motoko nodded and made a swung with her katana. Her kii, in fact, did come out, but what was sliced were not the apples that were hung on the tree, but the tree itself.

Lan sweatdropped as he saw the tree tip slowly to one side, sounds of leaves ruffling against each other, before finally making its fall. A loud "thud" was heard and the floor shook with great force, sending vibrations to Shinobu and Suu's legs, the two whom were having a picnic on the other side of the dojo.

"What was that?" Shinobu cried, clutching her hands by her chest.

"I have no idea," Suu chimed, "All -I- know right now is that this peanut butter and banana sandwich you'd made today tastes mighty scrumptious."

Shinobu gave a weak laugh and wondered why she had even bothered asking her friend.

Back on the other side of the dojo, Keitaro jumped a bit too when he heard the tree falling but shrugged away the fact, his mind focused more on some other issue that was of higher importance.

"Lan!" Keitaro called out, as he ran up to the duo on the practice grounds.

"What are you doing here?" Lan asked, his tone menacing.

Keitaro cringed when he saw no response from Motoko who didn't even bother looking at him once.

"I have something very important to talk to you about," Keitaro said.

"What is it? Can't this wait? You do see that I'm trying to train with Motoko here right? I see that you're wearing your glasses on right now; do you need your prescriptions checked?" Lan said, trying to make fun of Keitaro in front of Motoko to try to gain a good impression with Motoko. Little did he know that Motoko was thinking that it was a rather stupid remark actually.

"I don't mind, Lan," Motoko said finally, "Why don't you talk with Keitaro first, I can…er….practice with some other trees for now."

Both young men furrowed their brows when they heard Motoko mention practicing with another tree again.

"Alright," Lan said finally, unable to talk back to Motoko. He gave an exaggeratingly long sigh before brining Keitaro to a corner to speak.

"What is it, Urashima?" Lan, said, without even giving Keitaro a look, "This had better be quick.

"There's something I wanted to ask you about Motoko," Keitaro said.

"Oh yea? An what's that?" Lan said.

"Why are you after Motoko?" the words came out of Keitaro's mouth clearly, each word emphasized with his tone of seriousness.

"Lets say, she's my aim," Lan said, giving Keitaro a final smirk, before making his way back to where Motoko was.

Surprisingly, a strong grasp held onto his shoulder and stopped him from moving.

"No," Keitaro said sternly, "I want you to explain what that means first before you go back."

"Oh yea? Why don't you try and make me?" Lan said.

"I will, if you don't comply," Keitaro said, his voice solemn, and his glare fixed, making sure Lan wasn't taking this as a joke.

Lan seemed a little taken aback, but decided to ignore the strange rendezvous that they had just had and continue to move away from Keitaro.

"I mean it," Keitaro said, gripping his shoulder one more time, "Now, tell!"

PS: sorry, I had no time to check this over…wrote it in record time, must go to bed now! Jan e!

Okay, that's all folks! I'll try to update another instalment as soon as possible! Lets keep those reviews coming ok! Reviews keep me writing! And thanks very much to those who did review and remained patient with this fic! Alrigatou gozaimasu!