I*sniff*don't*sniff*own*sniff*Love*sniff**cough*Hina*Cry*

Chapter 3: Samurai(?)

It has been a few hours since Motoko left Hinata-Sou. She was now wandering around Tokyo with no certainty where her feet would take her. Her face has lost its shine ever since she had that talk with Naru.

"What would my sister think about this," she sighed to herself. "I can just hear her now. 'You are a shame to our name and to the Shinmeiryu.' I'm… a shame."

"Motoko," Keitaro shouted again and again. It was just a few hours since he started his search for Motoko in the streets of Hinata Springs. He has gone to check on Mutsumi's apartment, Motoko's school, and the near by dojos but Motoko's shadow was nowhere to be seen.

"Motoko," Keitaro sighed as he sat at one of the benches. "Where are you?"

"Hey," Naru said softly as she sat at a bench at the cemetery. "I hope I'm not bothering you or anything."

Beside her was a gravestone. It was quite old but the flowers in front of it showed how people still visited it. Naru looked at it and gently touched the name engraved on it. "What should I do," She asked the person with tears starting to form in her eyes. "What? Natsumi?"

It has been exactly four hours since Motoko reached Tokyo. The first two hours were spent walking aimlessly in the busy streets of the business district. The next hour was spent on searching for a place to stay. But to her dismay not one single inn was available. The last hour was spent sitting on a park bench. She was completely lost, sure she had lots of experience in Tokyo but it was her first time there with a bag full of clothes and no place to return.

"Nice samurai costume," A girl commented as she wrote down details on Motoko's clothes. "How much did it cost you?"

"Pardon," Motoko said as she leaned back from the girl.

"How much," the girl asked with a straight face. "Something like that can't cost cheap right?"

"These are my clothes," Motoko said in an annoyed tone.

"I can see that," The girl replied with sarcasm on her words.

"No," Motoko said standing up. "These are my daily clothes. I wear them everyday."

"Really," the girl asked in a shocked fashion. "You're pretty hardcore. But really a maid costume suits you more. A sailor uniform maybe?"

"I'm leaving," Motoko said and took all her bags and started walking away.

"Hey wait up," the girl shouted and ran after Motoko. "I'm Yuki, mind asking you yours?"

"Motoko Aoyama," Motoko said in a really rash tone. "Now mind leaving me alone. I'm busy."

"Busy," the girl named Yuki asked. "Don't tell me you ran away from home."

"That's not possible, I lived in an apartment. And… I was the one who 'left'," Motoko replied but her tone started to change when she said the last part.

"I see," Yuki realized the change. She noticed the sudden sadness on the person's tone. "Well, if you're interested, I know a place which is still open."

Motoko simply looked at her with puzzled eyes. But the girl she just met simply smiled at her and started walking the opposite direction saying, "Well? Interested or not?"

Keitaro and Naru met each other on their way home. But all the way back neither of them started a conversation. Naru seemed to have something on her mind and wanted to think about it alone. Keitaro on the other hand, wanted to ask Naru everything but with her acting like that now, it would only make their relationship worst.

"Sempai," Shinobu shouted as she greeted the two. "Did you find her?"

"Sorry Shinobu," Keitaro answered the girl patting her head. "I searched everywhere but she's just nowhere to be found. I guess she really left Hinata for good."

"But," Shinobu tried to answer but was stopped by Kitsune.

"It's no use now Shinobu," the fox answered in a really motherly way. "Dinner's ready. Let's discuss this, another time. It won't be good for our health anyway. Let's go Shinobu."

Keitaro looked at the two and started to worry more. If those two were started acting like that, then how about Suu, how could that girl possibly deal with something like this? She was the closest to Motoko after all.

"Hi keitara, Hi Naru," Suu greeted the two when they entered the dorm. "Has Motoko come home yet?"

"Sorry Suu," I said to the girl. "I couldn't find her."

"I see," the girl frowned a little but quickly regained the smile on her lips. "But I'm sure she's going to come back someday. It's Motoko."

"It's Motoko ha," Keitaro chuckled a bit as he watched the girl jump to the kitchen. "I wish I was as optimistic as her."

"Optimistic ha," Naru whispered and walked off.

"Naru," Keitaro asked with a worried tone, but the girl simply ignored him and walked off to the dining area.

Motoko reached the place Yuki was talking about around dinnertime. They took the train and arrived at Akihabara a little early. The reason why they came late was because, when Yuki saw all the interesting costumes at a nearby shop, she nearly took three hours checking on all the items.

"We're finally here," Yuki said with a smile on her face. "So how does it look?"

"You said 'finally' so easily when you took so long on that shop," Motoko commented before looking up to see the simple boarding house in front of her. "It's not too bad. I guess."

"Good," Yuki grinned and took some of Motoko's bag. "Let's go, we still have to introduce you to the tenants."

"Eh," Motoko reacted. "But, I'm not sure if I'm going to stay at all."

"Oh come on," Yuki continued walking. "It's all ready dark. Don't tell me you're planning to look for an inn this late."

Motoko couldn't deny that. Even as an experienced swordswoman she still didn't like the sound of camping out on the streets. She didn't have ay choice so she decided to take the girl's offer and maybe stay for a few nights.

Inside, a girl wearing a ninja suit greeted the two. "Hey Yuki, who's that girl," she asked intently as she jumped down from the ceiling.

"Oh, you're early," Yuki greeted the girl. "Mind introducing yourself first before asking someone else's name."

"You're right sorry," The girl laughed. "The names Fujika Hattori. Nice to meet you!"

"Aoyama, Motoko Aoyama," Motoko said calmly. "Are you an actual ninja if I may ask Hattori-san?"

"Just call me Fuka," the girl shouted and huffed. "All of the tenants call me that. And nope, I just admire them. I have almost all of their merchandise in my room. Would you like to see them?"

"Thank you, but maybe next time," Motoko said.

"Oh, come on," the girl pulled on Motoko's sleeves. "We won't take long."

"Help," Motoko kept shouting as she was pulled away by the girl's strength. Even Motoko's strength, which she uses to blast Keitaro into the sky couldn't help her get away from the girl's deadly grip. Yuki on the other hand simply stood there watching the two. "See you in dinner," she said waving her hand.

On the mean time, three others had their eyes on the un-expecting samurai.

Happy New Year guys! And thanks for subscribing to the story… I appreciate it a lot and sorry if there are any grammatical errors. I'll try to limit them as much as possible since as I'm just learning. Anyway it seems like Motoko just met some peculiar people. And what is happening on Hinata-Sou?