Chapter 4

It was early in the morning with the sun slowly making its ascent to the sky as the rangers were training at the household once again. Nariko, Mentor Ji and Jayden watched from the sides as Mia, Kevin, Emily and Mike paired off to practice with their wooden swords. While the four rangers practiced Nariko covered her mouth and gave out a small yawn. Jayden who was standing right next to her, looked to his fiancé. "You know if you're still tired you can always go back to bed Nariko."

"No I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

Nariko looked at the red ranger and smiled, "Yes I'm sure but thanks for asking me Jayden."

"You know that I care for you dearly Nariko."

"I know and it makes me happy that you're not afraid to show that in front of everyone." she then grabbed Jayden's hand and held it tightly, laying her head against his shoulder.

Jayden smiled at his and held Nariko's hand back, the couple turning their attention back to their friends' training. Soon Nariko had her attention caught by Emily who was training hard with Mike, knocking the green ranger off his feet during their practice sword fight. "Wow…I'm impressed…Emily is usually the one falling over…But it's different when she uses a sword in her hand." admitted Nariko

Jayden chuckled a bit as he too saw the scene played out "Maybe she could teach Mike a few things." they continued to watch as Emily apologized to Mike who stood up.

The yellow ranger then began checking to see if he was ok even though Mike assured her he was fine, but that didn't stop Emily who tried to check for injuries and in turn Mike began running away right into the household with the yellow ranger quickly following after. Both Jayden and Nariko looked at each other before laughing a bit, while Mentor Ji sighed and shook his head.

10 minutes later inside the household, Mike was sitting in the living room upon a cushion seat rubbing his back to sooth the slight pain he was feeling. Emily had set up a bowl with 2 bags of frozen peas in the middle of the hall way just now and picked up a bag, going over to Mike holding it out toward him. "Here!"

"Frozen peas?"

"It's like an ice pack, I was accident prone when I was a kid and it always healed me right up! Here let me-" she went over to Mike who quickly stood up and away from here "No thanks!"

"You really should Mike!"

Nariko, Mia and Kevin who happened to be in the living room just watch the two run around the place then to the small dojo and back again. As they were making their way back to the living room Emily exclaimed to Mike "Come on! It'll make you feel better!"

Unfortunately though the yellow ranger stepped on the bowl holding the second bag of frozen peas and slipped, making her fall on top of the bag she was holding to her chest. In turn the bag ripped open and all the frozen peas came spilling out upon the floor. Nariko quickly got up and went to the yellow ranger's side "Oh my! Emily are you ok?"

She lifted up her face to reveal some frozen peas stuck on her cheeks and forehead, Emily spitted out some that were in her mouth. The yellow ranger then took a good look at the mess she made "They're everywhere!" she began wiping the peas off her face "I'm such a disaster!"

Nariko held Emily's hands down and began wiping her face with a cloth, "No you're not you were doing a nice thing."

Mike kneeled by Nariko's side guilty looking at Emily "I'm so sorry…"

"No it's my fault I was being silly…I'm always messing things up…Don't worry I'll clean it up…" as the yellow ranger began standing up she slipped on the peas again only to have Nariko catch her, Emily couldn't help but whine a bit in sadness "Oh no…Not again!"

5 minutes later in the kitchen Nariko handed Emily a glass of water before going over to the sink and wash dishes. Emily sipped some of the water and began gargling it, not noticing Mike entering the kitchen and over to her. Once reaching her side Mike asked, "You ok?"

Startled by his sudden appearance Emily turned and sprayed water all over the green ranger. Nariko who had witnessed this had to turn away and silently giggle, Emily quickly grabbed a small towel and began wiping Mike's face "Oh no! I'm always making a mess!" she then tried to grab the dust pan Mike was holding but he held it away from her "I'll sweep! It was all my fault and-"

"You don't have to always apologize for everything, everyone pitched in to clean up besides you were just trying to help." Mike put the dust pan away and stood at Emily's side who began playing with the small towel "I wish I was more like Mia…And you Nariko…You're both beautiful and graceful, the two of you are even smart and can cook."

Nariko turned off the sink water and went over to Emily wiping her hands, chuckling a bit "Well…I'm not too sure about the cooking part for Mia…"

"But Nariko every time I try to do something nice or good I just turn it into some big mess I can't do anything right…I'm hopeless…"

Nariko placed her hands on the yellow ranger's shoulders "Emily…I'm being serious here when I say it's not good to talk about yourself like that…Give yourself a break…"

Mike smiled a bit and nodded "Nariko is right, Emily…" the blonde girl couldn't help but smile and give Nariko a tight hug.

At the household's pond garden Nariko sat upon the small bench and simply got lost staring at the beauty of the garden. Yet as she had her complete undivided attention on the garden, her eyes were covered by someone's hands who asked "Guess who?"

Nariko placed her hands over the person's and immediately took notice of their slightly rough skin "Jayden?"

The person took their hands away letting Nariko look back of her to see it really was her fiancé who smiled at her "Surprised?"

"A bit but I knew it was you."

Jayden chuckled and took a seat next to Nariko "So what are you doing out here by yourself? I thought you would be at least with the others."

"Oh I just wanted come out here and think that's all."

"About what?"

"Stuff…"

"What kind of stuff?"

"You know…Stuff…"

Jayden gave her a little look "Nariko…Are you keeping things from me?"

She began tapping her cheek in thought "Hmm…Maybe…" Nariko stopped once noticing Jayden was still giving her a look, she laughed and shook her head "I'm just kidding with you Jayden, you know I would never keep a secret from you."

"Good because either way I would find out about it sooner or later…Nariko I want you to close your eyes."

"Huh? What for?"

"Just close them…"

She crossed her arms and pouted a bit "Fine…" once Nariko closed her Jayden carefully pulled out something from his pocket and held it inside his hand. He then put his hand in front of his fiancé's "Ok you can open them."

Nariko did as she was told only to look confusedly at the red ranger's closed hand. Jayden smiled once seeing her look and slowly opened his hand to reveal a beautiful pink flower. Nariko gasped at the sight of the lovely flower "Oh Jayden! How did you manage to get a cherry blossom?"

"I have my ways." he then placed the blossom in Nariko's hair "There…You look wonderful with that flower Nariko…"

"Thank you Jayden…" the couple stared deeply into each others eyes and slowly began leaning in for a kiss.

Just as their lips were about to touch, to their dismay a voice called out "Jayden!" they stopped and looked to the caller to see it was Mentor Ji who continued, "A Nighlok has appeared in the city!" the red ranger sighed and looked back at his fiancé "I have to go…"

"I know…"

"I'll come back though…"

"And I'll be waiting…" Jayden then got up from the bench and ran back towards the household with Nariko watching the red ranger take his leave.

Minutes passed and the rangers returned to the household after the Nighlok: Negatron escaped, but not before injuring the group with his insults except for Emily. Currently everyone was in the living room having a meeting on today's event. Mentor Ji began slowly pacing back and forth in front of the group "That Nighlok is a bully, he likes to hurt people's feelings, he channels mental pain and turns it into physical pain."

"He caught me off guard, it won't happen again." admitted Mia

"Hey listen…I may have had training wheels but I didn't need them." confessed Mike

The pink ranger couldn't help but ask the others, "And…I'm a good cook right?"

It was silent for just a split second before the group nodded. Remembering what Negatron said to him Kevin asked his friends "Am I boring to you guys?"

"You're extremely orderly and disciplined Kevin, it's a great quality for a samurai." answered Jayden

"Yeah…You're right it is."

Mike then looked to Mentor Ji "Emily was the only one who wasn't affected that Nighlok knew exactly how to hurt us, why couldn't he hurt her?"

Ji placed his hand upon the yellow ranger's shoulder, "Perhaps Emily has some special power…"

"It's nothing great like that...I was teased and called names as a kid which made me sad…But my sister told me to just pretend that the person teasing me didn't say anything at all and it really worked so when the Nighlok said those things to me it was like he didn't even say them…"

"Then why are you always putting yourself down? It makes no sense unless it's what you really think about yourself." said Mike

Emily was quiet for a bit before she averted her gaze to the floor "Well no but…"

Noticing her sudden change made Nariko hit Mike in the shoulder who happened to be sitting right next to her "Mike!"

"Ow!" he looked at her holding his shoulder in pain and looked back at Emily, her sadness easily showing to everyone "I'm sorry I…"

The yellow ranger then got up and quickly left the room with everyone watching. Not liking that Emily was upset, Nariko turned to Mike and scolded him "Mike! The Nighlok can't hurt her feelings but you can!" realizing what he had done Mike groaned "Oh man…"

Later the rangers headed out of the household as Negatron appeared in the city again. While they were gone Nariko was sitting by the pond garden once more in deep thought, not noticing that Mentor Ji was approaching her who then called out her name "Nariko!"

She didn't answer him causing the samurai mentor to place his hand on her shoulder "Nariko." this caused her to jump a bit at his touch and quickly turn around. "Oh Ji! You had me scared for a moment…"

"Is something wrong?"

"No…Why do you ask?"

"Because it looks like something is troubling you."

"It's nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"This has nothing to do with your family, the Yamada clan?"

Nariko abruptly stood up from the bench "No it doesn't Ji! So just drop it!"

Her sudden outburst happened to surprise Ji greatly, "Nariko…"

"L-Look I'm sorry…I didn't mean to snap at you like that…It's just I have a lot on my mind at this moment…"

The samurai mentor gently grabbed Nariko's shoulders, "I understand…Forgive me if I went too far…"

"No there's no need for you to apologize, you did nothing wrong Ji…You think I can go out for a little walk just to clear my mind a bit?"

"Of course just be careful out there." Nariko simply nodded and headed back inside the household to change her clothes before going out on her walk.

20 minutes passed and Nariko was walking on a bridge near a park trying to clear her mind of things. She stopped and leaned against the bridge railing, tiredly sighing while rubbing the back of her neck "Ugh! This is so frustrating!"

"Hey Nariko!" she turned around at the call of her voice to see the rangers heading for the stairs leading up to the bridge.

Nariko went over and met with up with the group "Oh hey you guys."

"What are you doing out here by yourself?" asked Kevin

"Ji let me go out and have a little walk to get a little bit of fresh air."

"Well since you're here you want to get some ice cream? There's an ice cream truck waiting." said Mia

Nariko smiled and nodded "Yeah I'd like that."

"Well then come on! Sweet delicious ice cream is waiting for us!" exclaimed Emily, she got off of Mike's back and began running for the ice cream truck with Mike, Mia and Kevin following leaving Jayden behind with Nariko.

As the other rangers went ahead Jayden walked over to his fiancé's side "What's wrong Nariko?"

"Why do you always think that something is wrong with me?"

"Nariko I've known you since we were little and I can easily tell when something is bothering you."

"Jayden I'm telling you there's noth-" Jayden cut her off by claiming Nariko's lips in a kiss, she stiffened a bit at the sudden action but then relaxed and closed her eyes returning the kiss.

The two slowly pulled away and stared into each other's eyes, Jayden then cupped Nariko's cheek. "I know you refused to talk about what's on your mind right now but promise me you'll tell me when you're ready."

"Jayden…I promise…" he kissed her forehead before grabbing her hand "Come on lets go get some ice cream." Nariko smiled and let her red ranger lead her to the ice cream truck where Mia, Kevin, Mike and Emily were waiting.