Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Fate Chooses a Wolf's Mate ❯ Meeting the Ninja ( Chapter 1 )

He spun around and saw the building begin to crumble. As he turned to run out of the way he saw a woman.

Then all was black...

Ch 1 Meeting the Ninja

The next feeling was a sharp pain in contrast with a cool, moist freshness.

"He's coming put of it"

a woman? No several women

"Good, Fawn should be here soon"

"Shhh!"

They were quiet and still,

Waiting obviously, he thought as he squinted his eyes open and glanced around, taking stock of his surroundings. Five women, one still holding a wet cloth, stood in the clearing. Then he felt it...

"Here she comes", 'it' reported.

He had completely missed her... until he ignored the others. She had absolutely no ki, just empty space. Which was how he located her. You should always feel a resonance of the background; living things, wind, and the like. She seemed to simply be nothing.

She jumped down and they all waited. He could feel their attentiveness. Even "Miss Invisible" had a feeling of purpose around her.

Two more were approaching, they were also expertly controlling their ki. He normally would have trouble sensing them except he was hyper alert from his run with "Miss Invisible".

They landed in the middle of the clearing. He couldn't decide what was so special about them, their manner and dress were similar to those already in front of him.

They all wore ninja uniforms, which accounts for their behavior and relative skill. The uniforms were tight with no sleeves and thin ubi. Most of their legs were exposed, down to their white socks and slip-on shoes.

None of this was extraordinary for shinobi, even kinoichi. The startling aspect was the chains. Each had two or three chains cross-crossed over their waist and between ten and twenty thinner chains connecting their shoulders with wrist bands, acting as sleeves. Their hair was tied up in every imaginable fashion, though it was all up and out of the way.

"You idiots should pay attention"

A quiet whisper, harsh as steel, caught his attention. None of the women in front of him could have said this, the voice came from behind him. Yet another woman came up behind him. Now he was off-balance, he couldn't sense her, he had to use other senses and ignore what his ki "sensor" was telling him.

She came forward and put a hand on his left shoulder, "Please completely open your eyes, Saitou Hajime"

Saitou opened his eyes and attempted to look at this woman whose ki was completely blended with her background. It was like trying to see a fly, if you don't keep your eyes on it, you will look right over it.

He found that he couldn't physically look at her, his wrists were bound behind the tree and his ankles were similarly bound to the roots.

The woman, Fawn he assumed, put her hand on his shoulder and came in front of him. She offhandedly said “don't strain yourself”.

The group giggled, Girls Saitou just glared at them.

“Report!” Fawn ordered. Still giggling a woman and Miss Invisible came over to report. Saitou wanted to hear what was reported but Miss Wet Cloth came over and sat in his lap,

“You must still have a headache Saitou-sama”

Many of the women had come over and they were almost preening him, flirting he assumed.

“Ferret! Girls!” Fawn had stopped talking to her reporters and was staring, looking almost as annoyed as Saitou felt, at the group of fighters, one, a restrained individual, felt immense relief.

“What are you doing?” That's what I wanted to ask

“We were just going to begin questioning him that's all” Miss Wet Cloth crooned sweetly

“Squirrel, if you must have your fun go about it one at a time…and cleanly”

Squirrel pouted all these nuts must have animal nicknames, a good idea for women if I do think so myself

At that point Squirrel replanted herself on Saitou's lap saying excitedly, “me first me first” Saitou just raised his eyebrows at her antics and further locked his jaws against whatever torture they had in store.

She leaped on his lap and giggled. Then she looked down into her lap, took a deep breath, and stared into his eyes.

“my name is Squirrel, what's yours?” she was using a sultry voice, puffing up her chest and leaning close to him.

Is she serious? Apparently this was their version of `questioning' captives. Hajime just raised his eyebrow and frowned at her.

Although each girl, save Fawn and her reportees, tried, Saitou just straight-faced them all.

Eventually they'll tire of this game and get nasty. However, the girls just continued trying. They seemed to have limitless energy. When he didn't respond to their antics; they pouted, allowed another a try, then return to try again.

Fawn, finished discussing with Miss Invisible and her compatriot, came over, “Girls, assignments!” All the girls immediately jumped to attention, and skipped over.

“Hawk, Ferret, Fox scout; Squirrel, Chimp hunt; Ox, Bear, Beaver messages; Snake, Falcon upward scout... Move!”

Several of the girls had continued staring at Saitou, suddenly they jumped into action. Five disappeared into the woods and two to the trees. Two remained to receive their respective messages for delivery.

“We'll be at the Underground later so return there.” Fawn instructed as they leapt off into the trees in different directions.

“Owl, please bring me Horses answer as soon as it arrives.” At this Owl, Miss Invisible, bowed and took to the trees. Saitou attempted to keep his senses on Owl as she moved off but, he lost her when Fawn grabbed his notice.

She turned to him, holding what had appeared to be a stick that she had used to point to the girls as she delivered assignments. In fact, it seemed to be a small spear or a long handled kunai, being roughly the length of ones forearm. She looked at him.

“Now to deal with-DON'T MOVE!” she had suddenly snapped to attention and thrown her “stick” at Saitou No not at, near.

Saitou tensed but remained motionless. The “stick” stuck two inches into the tree a bit above his left ear. Within moments two kunai were vibrating on the stick. They had just been thrown and had landed stuck in the handle of the small weapon. If the stick hadn't been there his head might have had a few extra holes in it, or at least a new, shorter haircut. He was having a hard time moving as it was, no way he cold have dodged them.

“Fox!” Fawn was pissed, someone scurried away in the brush.

“I swear those girls” she muttered under her breath then looked up, “hungry?” Her mood changed at the speed of light and he found that he was indeed hungry. She came over with some food and plopped down on the stump next to him, rummaging in a sack. Saitou looked at her with some skepticism.

“Don't worry it isn't poisoned, we won't be attempting more questioning of any sort until we're back at headquarters. The girls were just bored.” She smiled, and sat on his lap, a plate of food in her hand.

“Open up” she lifted a chopstick with up to his mouth and waited patently. He glared at her a moment then obediently opened his mouth.

They went through an entire plate of food and a few cups of water. Fawn was talking most of the time.

“You know I haven't seen the girls this frustrated with a subject in years. You can't blame them though, you Shinsengumi guys have been a mystery to them long enough where their concerned, we're all a little curious. I've heard of your Aku Zoku San motto, can you really keep up this motto I wonder. And why do you think you have the right to judge? If you say because we're strong then your no different then those you hunt. What a mystery. I mean why can't...”

She broke off suddenly and looked up. Owl hopped down on the other side of the clearing and tossed her a message. A white bird flitted about her, the messenger and then came over to rest on Fawn's shoulder.

Fawn had caught the message and was reading it, a frown growing ominously large on her face. “Did you read this?” She asked of Owl who nodded solemnly. “I'll go inform the others.”

“Good leave Snake Ox and Falcon remain so we can deal with him” She jerked her head at Saitou, who was attempting to see exactly how they had tied him to the tree.

As Owl leapt away Fawn turned, with a frown on her face. Saitou, having decided that not only could he not free himself but that he couldn't even see the knots, turned and looked at her. Her hand was on her chin as she though hard, whatever was the problem, she didn't have an easy answer.

She came over and plopped down, "oh boy". Saitou just watched queitly, facinated. So far she had been authoritative, stern, giddy, or stoic. Right now she seemed to be swaying from anger to upset, and then back again.

Suddenly she gave a harsh "KYAAA!" and slamed her hand into a neawrby stump the width of Saitou's shoulders. The stump was immediatly dimolished. Saitou raised his eyebrows with interest, he never would have expected her to loose that kind of control. Fawn was holding her head in her hands and glaring holes in the ground in front of her.

"The Shinsengumi protect Kyoto, right?" Her question startled him. He didn't think she remembered he was there, much less that she would say something to him.

She looked up when he said nothing, "you guys protect Kyoto right? Are you willing to give everything for your goal, Aku Zoku San? Will the ten leaders be willing to give their all, is Kondou-san willing to send his men into any battle for this ideal?"

Saitou had straightened up considerably throughout this, how does she know so much about our group. Although the Shinsengumi was a proud force that tried to explain their ideas, they were very strict on how much was told, including the inner structure of command. And yet this woman...

"I'm much more observant than my companions. So?" Much more observant could be an understatement, no one should know that kind of info. He bgan to answer her when "Squirrel" and another woman, "Chimp" ifI remember correctly, entered the clearing, immediatly drawing both fighters attention.

"Oooooooooo Fawn you try!" Fawn spun around angrily at the singsong voice of Squirrel.

"No! Absolutly not!"

"Come on!"

"I said 'No!'"

"Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!" She just kept repeating over and over again, giving Fawn and Saitou each large headaches. Saitou, when he wasn't glaring at the annoying girl, looked at Fawn in confusion. Fawn didn't see his look because she was holding her hands over her ears and clencheing her eyes shut.

"Alright!" She finally shouted, well as close to a shout as a ninja gets anyway. There was cheering as Falcon, Ox and Snake also landed. "Stop before my head explodes, jeez" she muttered as she walked towards Saitou.

She sat in his lap and put her arms around his head. "You have to actually try"Squirrel chirped.

"Hai Hai" Fawn chuckled, then she took a deep breath and leaned her face close to Saitou's. Saitou slid his face back into the stone facade he had before as Fawn swept her lips across his. As she settled on his lap he prepared himself to not flinch.

The kiss didn't last long, but its effects were profound. For the first time in her nineteen years, Fawn felt heat pool in her stomach. Saitou who usually controled his reaction perfectly, felt heat rise in his body as her tongue slid across his lips. When she withdrew her tongue they both felt the absence of the contact.

The only outward sign of this emotional change was Fawn's eyes sliding closed, and Saitou's hands fisting. All at once she broke off. She looked at him with confused eyes then back at Squirrel, who groaned.

"Awwwww! He didn't even react to Fawn, man, this guy can't have his head screwed on correctly." The only one who had noticed either reactions by the participants of the kiss was Owl, who was standing behind him. SHe now spoke.

"Fawn, our orders are here, we'd best move out" Fawn nodded, leader back in place.

"Snake" and "Falcon" were assigned the job of watching Saitou, whose feet were tied a foot apart and hand re-bound tightly behind him.

After a few minutes, Saitou decided that besides being very insubordinent, these girl were very sadistic. Since he couldn't lift his legs very high he kept stumbling and falling flat on his face. Even those with the best balance can't walk if they only have a foots leeway betwwen their ankles. When he stumbled they would just giggle and pick him up.

Up front, Owl and Fawn were having a discussion, and Fawn was getting aggravaited.

"We can't do this on our own, too much of our forces are in other cities."

"I agree, but we can't trust them, their to dangerous, too unknown."

"I believe you said the same thing about me when I approached you with this posting."

"That was different, our Okashira trusted you. I'll follow our Okashira, and trust his judgment"

"And you don't trust your commander, I'm hurt." Owl glared at Fawn.

"In all seriousness though. They would fight for their goal of Aku Zoku San, if nothing else."

"That's the other thing, when did you collect all this info you seem to have about these nuts?"

"You know I'll never reveal my sources, Besides I trust them and I'm going to use that trust"

"Then better go to him now and not wait until we stop." Fawn just looked at Owl oddly. "If you don't he'll likely be as black and blue as our uniforms."

Fawn started and smiled. She then stopped, signalling the others to keep walking. As soon as the trio had caught up with her, she began walking in step with them, catching Saitou as he was about to fall for the umpteenth time.

"Falcon scoot ahead with Owl. Snake please scout to the left for our target." They both bowed, grinning, and took off.

Fawn just shook her head and secured her grip on Saitou's arm. They began to walk in step again. Fawn, Saitou soon discovered, not only watched his steps, but knew exactly when to support him to smoothly help him traverse the wood. Together they made good time, Saitou not falling once. Then she spoke her reason for returning to his side.

"Would you help someone else protect Kyoto?" Her question surprised him, by content more than sound. Is she asking for...help?

"Depends" he finally answered, deciding that was safer and more profitable than remaining quiet.

"They're going to burn Kyoto." Plain and simple. For the first time in their trek Fawn didn't anticipate Saitou falling, as he tripped over nothing at all. This was incredible news to him.

"The plan is to burn Kyoto and assasinate the officials in the chaos. This is not the concern, those who live in the city of Kyoto that are not the intened victims will also die in the raging fires. This is the fate we must stop"

Saitou had been walking in silence, soaking in this idea. It was a stunning.

After another hour of silence they slowed. Appearantly they had arrived at teir destination. "Saitou-san, we may not have enough power to stop this. If your commander is willing to help here is a location and intructions for conact with our group. You'll wake up in a 1/2 hour with a teeny weeny headache" Saitou attempted to pull away from his captor. He wasn't fast enough.

A/N Hi everyone. This story is on ff.net but it once the whole marriage thing happens I might want to make this hentai so this version may be a little hentai.

I'm also making these chapters longer ^_^

For the other version(these first ones shouldn't be too different); http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2750455/1/