Love Hina Fan Fiction ❯ Great White Hunter: Keitaro ❯ GWH:K Naru ( Chapter 3 )

GWH:K Chapter 3

Naru

 

Twice daily visits to the hot spring were quite enjoyable. The girls weren't often there with him, after the initial thrill wore off. He was still himself after all. Seta and the dean of the Archaeology department had arranged to allow him some home study and he'd agreed to write a report on the artifacts they were bringing him a few at a time. Many turned out to just be normal east African artifacts. Some were much more modern Muslim artifacts tied to the Moors from Timbuktu, which was quite a ways from there across Africa, but probably not related to the Turtle Civilization which most of their carbon dating work found to be considerably older. Correlating these lab results with descriptions and pictures of the collection and their unique and identifying characteristics showed the site they'd unearthed had been abandoned around 1500 AD. From the look of things and the amount of buried garbage piles and various structures, including aqueducts and city walls, it had enough infrastructure to support a modest civilization. It was no Timbuktu, of course, but few places were. The Turtle Civilization had a lot more temples than libraries, and a lot more robots and guard systems than even modern cultures. That was one of the greater mysteries of the mess. A week after he'd taken his first Co-ed bath in the springs, Naru finally came to see him as he studied the artifacts.

 

“Keitaro, can I come in?” she asked sweetly. He turned and examined her, searching for violent intent and found only gentleness. This is the Naru I love, he though to himself. He nodded, indicating a seat beside his kotatsu.

 

“I…I wanted, that is, uh… I wanted to say… I, uh, how do I put this?…I'msorry!” she finally blurted out. He looked at her carefully, thinking while she sweated a bit in embarrassment.

 

“Why are you sorry, Naru?” he finally asked.

 

“I, umm, have…haven't… been…verykindtoyoulatelysinceyougotback!” she jabbered nervously.

 

“Well, that's true. I've been trying to talk to you since I returned but you have been avoiding me and I'm not exactly able to chase you, now am I?” he said, pointing at his injured leg. It was a hot day so he'd exposed the metal staples to the air, the skin greasy with antibiotic ointment and a flyswatter nearby to keep the little beasts away from his flesh. He could walk around with crutches, and his physical therapy nurse was impressed with his recovery so far. Unfortunately, little progress had been made with the disposition of his choice in the women of Hinata Sou. He wanted to blame Naru for this, but it was possibly more complicated than he wanted to pretend.

 

“I'm sorry,” she repeated, eyes downcast and hopeless looking. He couldn't be mean to her when she was like this. His protective instincts cried out to comfort her when she was vulnerable and she did this enough to really confound him since it was always followed with a cry of “PERVERT” and one of the famous Naru-Punches which would knock him across town yet again. Did she know what she was doing to him? Maybe he should tell her.

 

“Naru, I want to tell you something and I hope you'll listen. When you are like this I love you with all my heart,” he started to explain. Their was a catch in her voice and she looked up at him. “But the trouble is, you generally hit me if I try to express my love physically, like a man should. If I try to kiss you, or hold you, you hit me with as much violent force as you can manage. I am certain that were I not living here, you would have killed me long ago and be spending your life in prison for murder, blaming me all the while.”

 

“That's not true,” she started to deny. He shook his finger at her and shook his head no.

 

“Yes, it is true, Naru. You know that I've had feelings for you since we met here four years ago. I've tried to tell you. And once I got the nerve up and did tell you, you pushed me away, again and again. The other girls here know your feelings better than you do, but you keep hurting me. Both my body and my spirit. I can't live this way anymore, Naru. I'm not immortal. I almost died, once from the lion, and once from the infection. I love you, Naru. Are you going to keep taking me for granted or are you going to do something about it? Violence is not the answer,” he pointed out as her muscles tightened with the usual response to emotional questions.

 

“You can't leave me,” she protested. “We have a relationship.”

 

“Yes, one which has changed little in 4 years. I open my heart to you, and you hurt me. Do you think that is healthy? Because I don't. You don't own me Naru. After years of abuse and allowing your own doubts to rule you, you can compete for my attention just like the other girls.”

 

“Are you breaking up with me?” she asked, tears falling on her hands.

 

“If you don't care to embrace your real feelings and accept me without violence, then yes. I'm going to go on dates and spend time with the other girls. If you have more than jealousy and hatred in your heart, you'll be thinking about how you want me in your life.”

 

“How can you do this to me?” she blubbered, staring at her knees.

 

“What do you think was going through my mind every time I went airborne from your fist?” he asked.

 

“It… was love,” she whispered. “I just… I just don't know how to… share it… trust. All you cared about was your promised girl. And there was no way it was me. Can't you see how that would tear me apart?” she finally responded in a clear voice, fierce eyes measuring him at last. Naru's fire was exciting to him, and he was often aroused in its presence. He supposed that did make him a pervert after all.

 

“Hurting people isn't love, Naru. When did you first love me? Not when you admitted it to yourself but when you first felt attraction, when was it?” he asked her.

 

“When I realized you were lying about being a Todai student,” she admitted with some shame. “You owed me for keeping your secret and I felt excited.”

 

“So long. Wow. Did you know I wanted to confess to you then?” he asked. She shook her head. “Even in braids and your thick glasses you were beautiful, Naru. Trying to hide it just made you more attractive to me,” he admitted carefully watching her reaction.

 

“So why didn't you?” she asked.

 

“Because I was 19, you were 17 and we'd just met and you'd already pelted me across rooms and through walls three times. I'm just as sensitive about rejection as you are, Naru,” he added.

 

She nodded at the word: rejection. Seta has rejected her, even kindly as he'd been about it. He broke her heart. She was still hurting over it until last Christmas. Now Keitaro was rejecting her too.

 

“And when I confessed to you last Christmas, how did you feel?” she asked.

 

“Like the luckiest man alive… but nothing changed when we got home. You haven't stopped hitting me, you haven't stopped calling me a pervert, and you haven't…,” he stopped saying what he was thinking then. She looked at him sharply, grimacing.

 

“There's no excuse like fear of rejection anymore, Naru. You know that. But you refused to finish what you started. You're a tease,” he said. She knew he was right. She hated that he was right.

 

“Maybe I'm traditional,” she lamely denied.

 

“Motoko is traditional, Naru. Even she is more forward with her feelings for me. You're a modern Japanese woman. Is your independence so important that you would deny a physical relationship with a man you love?” he asked carefully. She flushed with shame, and anger, trembling.

 

“How dare you ask that of me. How dare you!” she hissed.

 

“When I tried to kiss you, you belted me through a wall, then wouldn't speak to me for two days. It was a kiss between us and you refused as violently as you could manage,” he accused. “You are capable of such tenderness and sweet feeling that my heart melts, yet you are so quick to anger and violence I fear for my life around you, Naru. Can you imagine how I feel?” he asked. She shook her head.

 

“No, no I can't,” she sputtered coldly.

 

“Don't treat me that way, Naru. I've forgiven you for a thousand assaults, for all the times you've broken my heart, for all the abuse you've given me over the last four years, all for those few moments where you were gentle and kind. Those infrequent moments when you acted like a normal girl. I can't do that anymore. I've reached my limit. I nearly died and I realized I don't want to go on this way anymore. I'm going to choose one of you girls to be my girlfriend, maybe my wife someday. If you want me, you're going to have to compete for my affections, just like they are. I know you, and I know your temper. I also know when you lie so you won't be able to fool me. Use this as an opportunity, Naru. A chance to decide if you wouldn't be happier alone, or with a man who you feel differently about than you do me. If you don't change and become a whole person, a non-violent person, you're going to end up in jail for spousal battery. If I wasn't so forgiving you'd be there now,” he stated sadly. She winced at the truth of the accusation. It was true, but she didn't have to like it.

 

“So you want me to change? Just like that? That's impossible,” she replied, sobbing quietly.

 

“You've had four years, Naru. If you can't change by now, you never will. You're welcome to try. I know part of you is gentle and kind, the part you often suppress around me. I love that part of you so much Naru. Can you be that girl all the time, for me?” he asked. She stilled for a long time, sniffling, no answer given.

 

“Maybe you'd better think about it, just so you're sure. I'll see you later, Naru,” he said, quietly dismissing her with his words. She rose and walked from his room crying her eyes out. There was nothing he could do. A few minutes later Kitsune came to his doorway.

 

“Can I come in?” she asked, voice sounding firm and disapproving. Keitaro put down the Moorish dish and sighed, gesturing across from him.

 

“Do ya think you coulda stabbed her in the heart a little deeper?” she demanded. “I heard you. What kind of cruel man are you, Keitaro? Naru is a fragile girl. She doesn't know how to be around men.”

 

“She's had four years to learn and is unerringly violent. Each of you has changed, grown into kinder, gentler, and more confident women, but not Naru. Even when she finally admitted her feelings for me, it didn't change how she treated me. You know this. You've seen it.”

 

“Don't you think I know that? You didn't have to tell her that way. You don't have to break her heart. I'm ashamed of you. I think I need some air,” she said upset and angry, and left his room in a huff. A little later he heard her upstairs, consoling Naru, who sobbed for hours.