At last, Thursday arrived. There was a lot of preparing the Hinata residents had to prepare for this very evening. From scrubbing, to sweeping, to cooking, to dressing, and a little house construction, it was all done within three days. By this time, Shinobu sat on the top steps to the House of Hinata. Her eyes wandered about as well as her mind. It wasn't very late in the day, but the clock sue was ticking by pretty fast. Where the devil was Keitaro? It's true that she didn't really give him a specific time to meet her, but it sure seemed pretty late at the now.

The younger girl looked down at her small teddy bear shaped pocket watch. It read five after eight. Shinobu had officially been waiting for her sempai for two hours and fifteen minutes. The discouraging thought that maybe he wasn't going to show up began to take over.

"What if Sempai doesn't show up? Maybe I asked too much on him?"

She placed her cheeks in her hands as her elbows rested on her hands. She closed her eyes with a small sigh. There was no real meaning for this. Maybe it was an act out of a small depression. It could have been a way to relieve oneself of this reality. Then there was also the possibility that it was a mere Shinobu thing. Whatever the case, her eyes were shut to view, but her other senses were more open up.

The smell of the evening wind had an almost pine needle taste to it. The cool breeze wasn't chill, but it could relieve someone of their own body heat in small gust. There was the rustling of small leaves in the trees, as well as the slight whispers of the wind. Then, an unnatural sound approached her ears. It was the sound of deep breathing and rapid footsteps on concrete.

She shifted her senses back to her main one, eye sight. Quickly approaching up the steps was once again her Sempai, Keitaro Urashima. Shinobu stood up as the older boy arrived at the top of the steps. He was obviously running for a long time, by the way he was huffing and puffing.

"Sempai", Shinobu excitedly shouted, "You made it."

Keitaro wheezed out, " Yeah sorry I'm late. My motor bike broke down, I had to push it for a few miles, then I had to go buy and install a new piece myself, then I had to manuever past traffic to get here."

"It's okay, it's okay Keitaro Sempai", Shinobu reassured. "You showed up, that's what counts right?

"Right", Keitaro agreed. "So, where do you want to go now? The park? The City? The River Bridge? I heard they're having fireworks at the hound forest entrance tonight.

"Actually Sempai", Shinobu began, "I was wondering...if you wanted to...

"Yeah"

"If you wanted to",Shinobu continue under nervous stutters. "If you wanted to go inside."

"Wh-what?"

Keitaro felt like he was hit by a taser...Well not exactly, as he was hit by a taser once in his life before. Still, the metaphor brought up a point. It had been nearly two years since he last set foot through the Hinata Sou front door. It felt like bad Taboo for him to enter at this point.

His response was, "Shinobu I...I can't."

"Please Sempai, I'll be in there with you.

"It's just...that..." Keitaro began to add before Shinobu grabbed his hand with both of hers.

"I promise Sempai, you won't regret it. Haruka is waiting inside to see you Keitaro."

Shinobu thought to herself that maybe if she mentioned some of his family, the Urashima would change his mind. Her efforts would soon pay off.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to pay her a visit for a little while", the older boy finally agreed.

Shinobu jumped a bit as she excitedly pulled Keitaro towards the front door.

As the little girl opened the main entrance, Keitaro hesitated to go through. She could read Keitaro's face, and it was saying that he was still uneasy about this place.

"It's okay Keitaro. You can trust me"

She gave him a sweet smile that practically faded away all of his shyness. They boy took no more than three steps into the building before the lights brightened up and "SURPRIIIISE" echoed deeply across the neighborhood. Shinobu looked to her side to know what Keitaro's reaction was, but he was gone from sight.

"Hey, where did he run off to now" Kitsune questioned.

"Oh, it's just you" Keitaro said as he emerged from a hiding spot behind the stairs.

No one seemed to notice as he slipped a gun into a holder behind his back. Another thing no one noticed, was when Naru began to descend down the stairs. She stopped midway, nervous to be seen by Keitaro yet.

She thought to herself, "Why am I so nervous? My heart's beating so fast. I have to talk to him at least go say Hi to him."

"Keitaro!"

No one stopped Kanako as she ran up to her older brother. Naru remained hidden behind the stairway railing as she watched Keitaro interact with everyone else. Kanako practically jumped into Keitaro's arms, and her scooped her up in a great deep hug. Her feet dangled off the ground a good six inches. She noticed this when he finally set her on the ground.

"Wow brother, you got big!"

He scratched the back of his head shyly as he said, "Yeah, I kinda had a growth spurt when I was gone."

"I'll say"

Their attention was turned back to the main household of Hinata Sou, Haruka Urashima. As he was about to embrace her in a hug, the older woman grabbed the sides of his cheeks. He flailed his arms in discomfort as she continued to stretch the skin that were his cheeks. The Narusegawa girl chuckled to herself from Haruka's actions.

"You're malnourished, and you have bags under your eyes", she said plainly. "You need to get some more sleep, and remember to eat."

She released his cheeks, causing them to slap back into place like a rubber band.

"Nice to see you too aunt Haruka", he stated while rubbing his cheeks.

"Always a pleasure Keitaro, but I'm not the only one here to see you you know".

Haruka motioned to the other three girls waiting on the other side of the room. Not wanting to get between anything that needed to be said, his aunt left to the kitchen while pulling out another cigarette. Keitaro's uneasy feeling returned to him again. Sure he met these people before, it was a fact that he lived with them once upon a time. Now, he felt like he was meeting strangers again. Swallowing down whatever stopped him from talking, he took a slight bow.

"Hello Motoko, Su, Kitsune, it's nice to see you all again."

"Welcome back Keitaro!"

He was stopped mid sentence as Su rushed the young man with a flying kick to the stomach. Naru cringed from the feeling of pain that Keitaro must be feeling right about now. Then, something remarkable happened...Keitaro didn't go flying. There was very little reaction from the Urashima male. Sure he took a step back from the impact, but he didn't go flying into the wall, he didn't get the wind knocked out of him, he was barely phased by the attack/greeting. Naru's mouth was opened in a silent gasp. Su felt as if she hit a brick wall. It didn't hurt, but she was stopped in mid-flight. Before she fell to the ground, Keitaro gently seized her hands and hoisted her into a standing position.

"Are you okay Su", Keitaro asked a bit concerned.

"Wow Keitaro", Su joyfully boasted while tapping Keitaro's stomach, "You've gotten strong."

He looked towards the other girls. They all seemed to have a shocked expression on their face. Anyone that was human would have been put to the ground by a kick like that. Yet, their supposedly weak and frail Keitaro was still standing without so much as a bruise on him.

"I've been uhh" Keitaro pretended like he was lifting weights over his head.

"It was expected from everyone that Keitaro would have some change to him after nearly two years. This on the other hand, was almost too much. Keitaro had some explaining to do now that he was here.

"Urashima", now everyone focused of Motoko. "You have some explaining to do for us, like what happened the other night."

"About that, I want to apologize to you all." I never meant to hurt any of you. I guess I just freaked out when I saw you all..especially..."

"Naru", Su pointed as she finished his sentence.

Instinctively like a trained dog, Keitaro followed Su's finger and where it pointed. From behind, Naru slowly took the last few steps before she reached ground level.

"N-Narusegawa."

Keitaro choked on his own words. He so badly wanted to make a run for it again. Still, Shinobu asked that he stay, and the others expected him to stay as well.

"Keitaro, it's umm, well..."

Now she was drained of speech like some idiot ready to give a public speech. She mentally kicked herself for being caught so easily. This meeting was definently going to happen, but any procrastination would have helped. Almost like some crazy driven god was watching them, Naru's prayers were answered.

"Eveyone", Mutsumi rang without a care, "I'm back with the groceries.

She couldn't really see where she was going, because of the many food bags she held. Plus, everyone else was focused on the long-awaited meeting between Keitaro and Naru. Like always, Mutsumi was careless to what was going on around her. One of the bags she carried had a hole in the bottom, causing an orange to roll out onto the floor. With the luck she had, Mutsumi tripped on the small fruit, causing her to stumble and lose her balance; as well as lose the groceries. The only salvation to save her from her fall, was to grab hold of something. That something, happened to be none other than Keitaro's shirt. With the reflexes Keitaro had still unknown to all others, the boy quickly spun around from the tug on his shirt. There was a ripping sound, and a loud thud.

The thud came from the weight of the grocery bads making contact with the floor. The ripping noise, came from Keitaro's shirt, as it was tore completely off. Through it all, Mutsumi was fine. She was immediately seized around the waist by Keitaro's tightly gripping hands. To ensure that she didn't fall completely over, the Otohime girl wrapped her arms around the gentleman's neck. The scene was somewhat paralyzing for everyone. Despite the small shock, Mutsumi was able to whisper out, "Oh, Hello there."

"Uuummm, Hi", the boy said with a blush.

All around the room, there others were frozen by what happened for many reasons. It stung a little bit as Keitaro held Mutsumi backwards as if in a Tango Dance. It wasn't perverted or anything. It looked like the seen out of a bad romance novel. There was also the unaccepting fact that his reflex could keep up in a fraction of a second. There's no way the old Keitaro could do this. The final straw was that he now had no shirt on. By now of course, the Urashima boy had caught onto this. He lifted Mutsumi onto her feet with a deep hot pink blush over his cheeks. The color deepened when he realized how bad his situation really was.

"I'm so sorry", he quickly defended, "I didn't mean to..."

He didn't finish his speech as he noticed his torn shirt on the ground. His slow wits now caught on that he was completely shirtless.

"Oh no! Aaawww, why is this now happening to me! Back then it was everyone else but me!"

"It's ok, you don't have to worry" Mutsumi assured him. "It was my fault, I'm a bit clumsy. Thank you for not letting my fall."

"Oh it's no problem. It's what I do."

He tried to chuckle off the situation, and in good nature she did the same.

"I'm Mutsumi Otohime" the girl told him.

"I'm Keitaro Urashime, it's a pleasure to meet you."

He politely shook her hand. She had some kind of gleam in her eyes that made him feel calm. Calmness was something Keitaro hadn't felt since he re-entered this place. There was also something familiar about this girl, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. These thoughts would have to be put at rest for the night as the others spoke up.

"I would advise that you put a shirt on now Keitaro", Motoko spoke out.

"Huh, oh right, right."

"Keitaro bent down to examine his now torn shirt. While he held the shirt up, he didn't know that he was being examined by the other girls of the Hinata Dorms. Every one of them, Naru, Mutsumi, Kanako, Motoko, Shinobu, Kitsune, and even Su, all stared at Keitaro's well toned upper torso. With the exception of a few scars here and there, his arms, stomach, and thorax were all chisseled into perfect form. He wasn't bulky or hulking, but anyone could tell he was capable of a lot of physical things. The thought creeped up in every girls head at least once...how stong was he, and how strong was he in bed. The perverted thoughts kept pouring in, until Keitaro announced, "This shirt is totaled". From that point, the perverted images were shooken free.

"This is kind of a long shot, but, you wouldn't happen to have a shirt I can borrow, would you?"

Pretending she wasn't thinking anything suspicious, Su said, "If Keitaro wants, he doesn't need a shirt. He can just eat dinner without it."

For a guy this would cause a nose bleed. For a girl, the upper part of the face turned purple, and the lower half shined a deep red.

"I might have something he can wear" Mutsumi spoke up.

"You", Naru questioned, "You have something he could wear?"

"Why of course", Mutsumi clasped her hands together, "I'm always sewing new things for my family, and I think I have something new for my dad."

"I guess we could try it, it's better than having nothing", Keitaro insisted.

"Alright, then it's agreed. I'll take you to my room."

With that, Mutsumi snaked her arms around one of Keitaro's, and led him upstairs. The thing that put everyone in silence was that Keitaro was not complaining about it.

"You have the most beautiful eyes, and wonderful muscles Keitaro."

"Thank you Mutsumi, you have beautiful eyes too".

The conversation between Keitaro and Mutsumi was now in silence as they walked upstairs. The other girls collapsed on the couch and could only stare at the staircase where Keitaro was only moments ago. Removing herself from silence, Naru spoke up.

"Is it me", she started, "Or has Keitaro become..."

"Hot" the other girls finished.

"Oh...Do you think Keitaro..."

"He didn't notice", every girl but Naru answered.

"D-Does it feel like Keitaro, and Mutsumi..."

"They had had a spark" the other girls answered Naru's questions in unison.

The moment was dulled. He hadn't been in the house for more than fifteen minutes, and already they were off to a shaky start. There was still much to be said, and he had much to answer. The first step was getting him in the house, that was done. Still, they weren't any closer to making him stay, or speaking to Naru...The worse part was, dinner hadn't even started.

"This was going to be a long meal", Naru thought to herself.

Hi everyone, I'm back with another chapter. Sorry for the long wait, and thank you for your patience. With school and my other stories, I'm gonna be kinda slow to update. Just hang in everyone, I'm get more in soon. Hope you enjoy, and hope for some reviews.