The New Ronin Landlord and Brother Arc

Chapter 1

This Is the Hinata Inn‽

(The All-Girls Dorm with the Hot Springs - Part 1)

§

October XX, 1998 (Heisei 9).

|At the Urashima Residence|

Keitaro Urashima (19) has a bit of a nightmare after waking up with a bad taste in his mouth from what he thought was Grandma Hina kissing him. Currently, he has failed the Todai University Test for the second time in a row and hasn't had a girlfriend to be with, yet. Keitaro has some few hobbies; such as drawing, confectionery, and is a print club fanatic.

(Most of the pictures were just by himself, while some of which were with him and his younger brother.)

He has a younger stepsister named Kanako (15) that is acting a bit peculiar lately. She's preparing to be on a journey with one of her relatives while furthering her education. And his little brother, on the other hand...

Naruto "Ruto" Urashima, recently turned 13, got out of bed early since he goes to Junior High and is getting dressed and cleaned up before having breakfast. He came a long way since he's part of the Urashima family. He has a hobby of gardening, ninja tactics, and dabbles with multiple jobs; which is a bit unusual for an average 13 year old. He has learned many techniques from the inherited scroll that has given him the backbreaking work that no average human being can handle and Ruto is above that.

Ruto is good to his family and his brother and is doing great with schooling and has friends that kept him in good company, especially with his two girl (space) friends that are very dear to him. He has plans to go to Todai in the near future, so he decides to help his big brother (Aniki) with his prep work.

Keitaro got to the washroom a little later and brushed his teeth when his mother was still concerned about her oldest son going to Todai. She thought that Keitaro should move on because they can't afford feeding him forever.

(She and Keitaro's stepfather just simply wanted Keitaro out of the house.)

Just then, Keitaro's stepfather told his oldest stepson that he had a call from Obaa-chan (Grandma) that wanted to see both grandsons at her residence near the inn for a good and urgent reason.

Baa-chan... That name is enough to make the oldest Urashima gag from the nightmare all over again...

And for Naruto, who was eating his breakfast, "Does this mean that I have to pack, too, Kaa-san?"

-LNH-

|At the former Hinata Inn; which is now the current Hinata-sou - Dormitory for Women|

"...and so, I'll be retiring from this job as manager here and will be leaving, because of my health concerns. I'll be doing the bucket list before I pass away in a few years," Hina (64) explained to her tenants.

Of the tenants living in the dorms were Haruka Urashima (27, Cafe Owner, Dorm Manager, and Keitaro's 'Aunt'), Mitsune 'Kitsuné' Konno (19), Naru Narusegawa (17), Motoko Aoyama (15), Kaolla Su (13), and Shinobu Maehara (12).

They were utterly shocked that their elderly landlady was leaving so suddenly. "You're retiring?" Naru asked, "Then what's going to happen to the building, Obaa-chan? Without a supervisor, what will my parents say after you're gone and the others' families will..."

But Hina halted Naru's complaint and sweetly said, "Now, do not worry yourself. I'm sure it will work out. Besides, I've contacted some family members to help manage the dormitory."

And then, all of the sudden, Motoko decided to leave the dorm, carrying a kendo sword and a gym bag full of her clothing and toiletries. Naru asked her to wait, but Motoko said, "Forgive me, but I have training camp with the club from my school today. Naru-senpai, I'll probably go along with your decision." And then she walks out the door with fangirls from her school waiting for her outside, but Motoko made good her escape.

(She is popular with some unwanted attention; not quite in the same class as the certain ducktailed fan-waver.)

Kaolla Su (who often goes by her surname) waves Motoko goodbye and she guilelessly and shamelessly slinks around the hall and goofs off, Kitsuné is still having a hangover from a bar party that she went into and has to sleep the booze off. As for Shinobu, she has homework to finish even though today is a day off for 3 days (today, Friday, and the half-day on Saturday).

Naru is left holding the bag for the dorm's future.

Later, Hina has her luggage in a knapsack on her back while Haruka is sending her grandmother off on her journey with Kanako waiting for her. "One more time. Just this once..." Hina murmured.

"I'll never figure Obaa-chan and Keitaro out..." Haruka grumbled through her cigarette.

-LNH-

|At the Preparatory School in Sasaki|

Keitaro was daydreaming about being one of the highest in the rankings, but then reality sets in and he inadvertently holds a hand of a girl with brunette twin braids wearing coke-bottle glasses, wearing an orange SALEM hoodie, and a short beige skirt and then they looked at each other in a slightly awkward manner. That was when a goony-looking, taller man named Haitani showed Keitaro a long list of people ranked from the highest to the lowest and said, "Actually, Keitaro, you're ranked 27th from the bottom of the list. Must you be hitting on girls that way?"

"You know, at this rate, we'll end up as 3rd Year Ronin," a shorter, chubby man named Shirai commented.

(Shirai and Haitani are Keitaro's childhood friends who are really flat-faced, stool-pigeoned, knob-knee'd, blubber-headed, tubs of lard for cowards that love to simply annoy the Urashima. With friends like them, Keitaro definitely won't need enemies.)

"Th-th-third Year Ronin‽" Keitaro and the geeky girl stuttered at the same time and then the latter suddenly shrieked from her captive's grip and exclaimed, "Let go of me! I don't want my grades to become contaminated with your bad karma!"

Keitaro apologized as he released his grip, but the girl accidentally tripped herself and fell down on her seat; which left her in a precarious position, giving the male onlookers a "free shot". Keitaro, unfortunately, was the closest to her. So she quickly and blushingly got up on her feet and hid her skirt and then reactively belted the hapless Urashima with a right cross. sending him flying across the hall and crashing into the wall (and right into where a cameraman is at, cracking the camera lens and giving him a black eye. Ouch...).

"Pastel Pink... I mean, that hurts!..." Keitaro mumbled while seeing stars.

Haitani sees his 'friend' twitching from the pain and says, "Yep, he's still alive. But what's with that woman?"

Shirai explained to his partner-in-crime while the geeky girl angrily walked away, "Didn't you know? People say that there is somebody from our cram school that has one of the top scores in Japan. And that's her."

"What‽" Haitani exclaimed, but then shrugged off and said, "Oh, well. It's none of my business, anyhow." He then turned to Keitaro and stated, "Come on, why don't you face the facts and find another university?"

"But..." Keitaro was about to say something, but then realized that he forgot his pocket change to get to his grandmother's inn. That was when he got a ring from his cell phone in his pocket and answered, "Moshi moshi (Hello)?"

〝Aniki?〟

"Yes, Ruto?"

〝I'm waiting for you outside the cram school. You've been forgetting to keep tabs on your to-do lists again, 'ttébayo! So Kaa-san and Gifu-san (stepfather) decided that I should move in with you, since it's closer to my school. I'll see you downstairs. Bye.〟

*beep*

Keitaro didn't know what to believe. First, the parents practically kicked him out of the house and then his brother came over with him to Obaa-chan's residence. Shirai and Haitani didn't know that their buddy, Keitaro, has close family members. So, Haitani asked, "Since when did you have siblings? I thought that you were an only child!"

"In a way, yes. I was an only child, until my mother adopted my little brother, and then later, her new husband married into our family and I have a stepsister that is a bit younger than me, but older than Ruto," Keitaro explained, but then said that he has got to run as he left his 'friends' and get to the streetcar with Ruto on their way to the family's inn.

-LNH-

It was unusually warm for an autumn afternoon in Hinata City as the two Urashima brothers were walking down the streets leading to the direction to the family inn that their grandmother owned.

"Say, Aniki? Why is Hina-obaachan wanting to bring us to Hinata Inn?" Ruto asked, "I'm beginning to think that she is trying to set up something that we are going to regret or something-ttebayo."

"I don't know," Keitaro said with uncertainty, "But I'm sure Haruka-obasan would likely be there to help put us up for the night."

"Don't count on it yet, Aniki. And let's not forget the time when Kanako-neechan has been awfully quiet lately and why she starting to have a taste for the gothic lolita fashion, why is she beginning to have a strange affection on us {I still shiver from that uneasy feeling, dattébayo}, and why she left with one of our relatives on a journey. We should try to write a letter to her at least once, 'ttebayo."

"Yeah, we should, nii-san." Keitaro was lost in thought about meeting some long lost friends that had long since moved about 15 years ago, until Ruto caught his attention, "Aniki? You're not thinking of the girl you've made a promise with again, have you?"

"No! No, I wasn't thinking anything perverted!" Keitaro blurted out but covered his mouth, feeling like a jackass.

Ruto sweatdropped and exasperatedly said, "Aniki, I thought I told you to get your mind off those perverted reflexes. Don't you ever learn about respecting women without the need of those smutty books and videos?"

Keitaro was miffed and embarrassed that at the point that Ruto had made, so he remarked, "Oh, yeah‽ And what about you? I bet you don't even have a girlfriend for a little squirt like you!"

"Dattébayo!" Ruto exclaimed with his verbal tic, "Don't call me little! I've yet to reach a growth spurt and I'll have you know that I have 2 best friends that are both girls. It's just..." The younger brother paused for a moment because of his life with his close friends and classmates.

"Just what, Nii-san?" Keitaro asked.

Ruto answered, "It's just that we haven't gotten to the next base yet, and one of them has a birthday coming in the next few weeks." And he slightly blushed from his relationship with the girls while Keitaro was touched (and a bit jealous) that his little brother is growing up. But then Ruto cleared his throat and said, "Anyhow, let's find the Hinata Inn. I just can't wait to see Haruka-obasan and Obaa-chan again after all this time missing them."

And Keitaro agreed.

Ruto followed his older brother to the places he used to go as a kid, all the way towards the inn.

-LNH-

|At the Hinata-sou|

Both brothers said their formal greeting as they entered the front entrance and removed their shoes. While Keitaro was looking for Grandma Hina, Ruto noticed something was off. There's not a soul in sight, but yet there are recent scents of tobacco smoke lingering in the halls. and there are other shoes in the shoe rack, mainly women's shoes. So he said, "That's funny, Hina-obaachan isn't here. Her shoes are gone. Why is that, Aniki?"

"That's Baa-chan for you, Nii-san," Keitaro remarked, "She always wanted to do something before she kicked the bucket. And there's no sign of Haruka-obasan, either."

"Well, since no one is around, how about we drop our luggage in Obaa-chan's room?" Ruto sighed in relief.

"Since when did you carry a huge suitcase?" Keitaro exclaimed as he did not see anything heavy that his brother was holding.

"Simple, Aniki. Since Kaa-san and Gifu-san kicked you out while you're gone to cram school, I packed your belongings in this nifty little package." Ruto shows a bound scroll labelled Keitaro's, "All you have to do is to touch the seal and say, "Kai (Release)", and poof!, your belongings are ready to be set up. But we should probably wait until we find Haruka-obasan first."

"Sure... You sure surprised me on that one," Keitaro's jaw dropped from his younger brother's unusual packing arrangement.

"Oh, and Kaa-san said I should come over here because it's much closer to the school route," Ruto explained, "So we'll never be too far apart from where we'll be staying."

-LNH-

Later, Keitaro decided to cool off at the Landlord's Room while Ruto decided to wait at the adjacent part of the room. They reflect upon themselves on what went wrong with their lives. The former was thinking about the last test (and his life) and grumbled, "Dumb friends and parents! They always treat me like I'm a big dunce with absolutely no faith in me. My parents were even saying, 'The sky will be falling before you can get into Todai!' Geez!"

"Aniki, your so-called friends are nitwits, but don't you dare think about our parents like that!" Ruto scolded, "It's just that you're either not trying hard enough or you must have enemies."

"Sorry, but it's true that my average score is 49, and I'm not good at Japanese, Math, Literature, English, History, and Biology... *groans*" Keitaro is a born loser in schooling.

Ruto sweatdropped and figured to himself, "Yep, he definitely has enemies: bad karma and bad luck. In fact, poor Aniki is bad at school, sports, is a bit of a slob, and doesn't have any good special talents... *sigh* What a pain."

"I don't understand how my little brother has a way of attracting women and I don't," Keitaro further reflected, "*sigh* Oh, how I wish I could date a girl... No. I think I should try to talk to one...in all of my nearly 20 years of life..." Sure, Keitaro has a rough life; from kindergarten to high school, girls just simply avoided the poor guy and even jeered at him. In the athletic festivals, he had to be the benchwarmer before he was called out. And at the dance rituals, he was forced to dance with a male partner. (Gloom, despair, and just plain agony.) But worst of all is that he has a bad habit of being a Print Club fanatic, because most of the pictures are basically just by himself (other than with his siblings). This kind of melancholy is enough to make the elder Urashima very upset. "Aaaugh! Rats! Rats! Rats! I just gotta take my chances on Todai, otherwise, I'll never get a date at this rate!"

That was when it occurred to Keitaro about the girl that he promised long ago and another girl that is like a kid sister to him. Of all the girls that were being nice and even talked to him, they were the ones.

-LNH-

As the brothers were walking along the hallway, there were still no signs of activity, yet. While Keitaro was thinking about getting a job that will make him stay out of his parents' home, Ruto called his brother, "Aniki! Get a good look at this, ttébayo!" And he pointed to the door that said [Bath] on the sign. Goody-goody for them, now they can relax after walking for so long.

The brothers got undressed and put their clothes in separate baskets and they took a soaking from the showers before they went into the onsen (hot spring) with towels around their waists. "Ah!" Keitaro breathes out a sigh of relief, "I forgot that there's an open-air bath in here."

"I agree," Ruto complied, "That Obaa-chan sure knows how to make this place luxurious."

What Keitaro didn't know is that there's something bothering Naruto's senses, so he uses his Shadow Clone Art to do reconnaissance while in camouflage to observe any incoming targets approaching. Right now, the double spots a girl coming at 3 o'clock and then dispels itself. *poof!*

Ruto senses his double poofed itself out, and then relays the message to Keitaro by whispering, "Aniki, hey! We got company."

Just then, a peculiar brunette girl with the long antennae-like bangs, named of Naru Narusegawa, walked into the bath, all-nude with a small towel, not enough to cover her front, in her hands, and she sat down in the hot water, giving the brothers a quick wink and said, "Konnichiwa."

Keitaro and Ruto became the 'shock absorbers' when a beautiful girl came in at the wrong place and the wrong time. Inwardly, Ruto pulled a famous Elder Joseph Joestar and silently yelled in English, "«OH...MY...GAWD!»"

§


Omaké

How Ruto Decided to Move Out of the House

It was a day off from school for 2 & 1/2 days (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Morning) when Naruto 'Ruto' Urashima sees his brother forcibly leaving the house. "Do I have to pack, too, Kaa-san?" he asked his mother about his brother's situation.

At first, his parents objected to him about going to Grandma's Inn at Hinata City by himself. He's just a boy in the streets of the sleepy little town, they said to each other. But his school is closer to the inn than from here at home, and he gets closer to his classmates. Not to mention, Keitaro needs somebody to put his klutzy self back in his place.

So the mother asked her son, "Before you make your decision, can you tell me about your friends that you hang around with?"

Ruto mentioned his good friends that are both girls. One is in his year and in the same room as he is. Her name: Shinobu Maehara. The blond mentions that she is prone to nervousness, at first, but she is a kind and gentle soul that just needs a bit of courage to move forward. She has a talent for cooking meals in the kitchen.

And then, there's another girl that's one year ahead of him. and she's a bit of an oddball. (And no, it's not her looks.) Her name: Kaolla Su. She sometimes likes things mechanical, jungle and tribal arts, and bananas. One time Ruto asked Kaolla if she's from a foreign country like India (because of her dialect). But she said that she's not from there. Then he surmises that Kaolla looks more Aboriginal with Indian-style looks and accentuation, and lives in a distant Pacific Island somewhere. The dark-skinned girl was stunned that her friend had deduced where she originally lived, but she promised to keep her family origin a secret until she is ready to tell. Ruto (as well as Shinobu) decided to make a solemn vow between each other as close friends.

Ruto also said that he's been friends with Shinobu since the 4th Grade and with Kaolla, a year later.

(The Missus remembers the first time she met the island girl a few summers back...)

The parents, however, are getting a bit anxious about their youngest child getting the wrong impression with his best friends, more like absolutely worried that their little boy would cross that line of having a "too close of a relationship" with the girls and end up being grandparents to their kids too sudden, since the cases of teenage pregnancy are on the rise. So they decided to give him "The Talk" about men, women, sexual relations, and raising children. It took a while to sink in, but Ruto managed to understand (or at least the gist of the scheme of things) on what to do with girls that are soon to be women.

Later, Ruto uses his ninja art to pack Keitaro's and his belongings into 2 separate scrolls, via Sealing Arts (Fūinjutsu), and put them in his backpack. He has some extra pocket change for the streetcar, in case his big brother forgets to bring some, like he usually does.

Just before Ruto leaves the house, his mother promises to send him money for his rent, groceries, and a little nonsense until he is able to hold a career. She also told him not to overdo on eating ramen, keep his nose clean, do his homework, be in constant contact by phone and mail, be good to his neighbors, and try to keep Keitaro in line as he tries to study for the university test for Todai for the 3rd time around. Since cram school is about a few hours away, he decides to take the initiative before the session is over. So the teenage Urashima finally said goodbye to his parents and then went to the train station in Sasaki.

All that is left now is practically an 'empty nest' for Mr. and Mrs. Urashima as they see their youngest child leave the residence. However, the one thing that they learned now is that 'goodbye' isn't really forever.


Author's Notes (A/N): Naruto in this story still has some elements from his side of the story, with a twist. This time around, he has a family to love with and has two best friends that are girls that will be revealed later on. He also has an older sister figure, other than Kanako, and soon would have a rival in a form of sports.

Why does Naruto have the nickname 'Ruto'? Because his name would get confused with a lot of people with Naru in their names, (i.e.: Naru Narusegawa). So, he goes by a shortened version of his name to avoid the confusion.

Ruto currently stands at 5 feet, 1 inch (which is about the same height as Kaolla's). He hasn't had a growth spurt, yet...

His Zodiac is Libra.

His favorite meal is ramen (any good variety).

Favorite Series: Mutant Hero Terrapins (parody of The Ninja Turtles series), Secret Agent Inspector (parodies of Inspector Gadget and James Bond series), and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure series (the real thing).

His dream is to become a doctor (doesn't matter how minor or major it leads to be) and help the less fortunate.

Ruto often has a fox-like expression similar to Mitsuné Konno (or more like Yakumo Fuuji from 3x3 Eyes), has 2 birthmarks on each of his cheeks (that looked almost beast-like) that have been there since the day he was born to the world. There was a woman in traveller's clothes who recommended him to join the kendo club to hone in on his fighting skills. Since then, he's been one of the top tier of his school's club.


Extra Backstory: In this story, The school where Ruto goes to is surprisingly called Konoha Junior High. Konoha Senior High is next door to it, by means of the overhanging hallways. (Think of it as the same kind of building as Karasumori Schools from Kekkaishi.) The school grounds were founded by the headmasters Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha in 1903 (Meiji 35), but the records of the land are dated back to circa early 12th Century A.D. (Toba eras) and were claimed by Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki and his brother Hamura. The Junior and Senior High buildings were rebuilt in 1984 (Showa 58), and the conjoining of both buildings wasn't actually fully set until 10 years later (Heisei 5).

Ruto is in Class 7-3, with Shinobu sitting next to him. (Kaolla's class is on the 8th Grade floor above, but she comes by with Ruto and Shinobu during lunch and study hall.)

The head principal for Ruto's middle school's name is Hiruzen Sarutobi (65), the Senior High's head principal is Tsunade Senju (47). The advisors are Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane, and Danzo Shimura. All of them, excluding Tsunade, were either veterans or witnesses of the 2nd World War.

But that's another story for another time...

-blukmage19