Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ How the Past Can Change ❯ A Reunion and a Challenge ( Chapter 16 )

How the Past can Change

A K&K Rurouni Kenshin Romance FanFiction by: bunny ;D

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Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is the creation of Nobuhiro Watsuki, with the manga and anime rights belonging to Jump Comics and Sony Entertainment, respectively. I do not own and did not create the series or its characters...I'm just a fan, and I have no money anyways, so NO SUING ME!! :D

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AN: This story is altering the original story of Rurouni Kenshin / Samurai X. It also has some OOCness, (especially with Battousai.) If you don't like that idea, or can't handle it…I would advise you not to read this fic. If you are a hard core Tomoe and Kenshin forever kind of person, I would advise you to not read this fic. Don't get me wrong, I like Tomoe, this is just a different story ok?

Ja ne,

Bunny ;D

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"You heard me!!" she exclaimed. "Your mad aren't you!! Because she thinks we've been married for years, and now that she's alive and you don't remember what happened, you want to go back to her don't you!!" she accused, her eyes flashing.

Kenshin threw his arms up in disgust at her behavior. "It's NOT LIKE THAT!!" he yelled and then quickly exited the room, slamming the paper screen door behind him as he slid it closed. He walked out to the courtyard of the property, wanting to have a chance to gather his thoughts. He wanted to explain to Kaoru that he didn't have those kinds of feelings for a Tomoe that was completely different from his Tomoe, and that even if his Tomoe was around, she, Kaoru, his Kaoru, sweet carefree Kaoru, would be the only one for him. He took a deep breath of the fresh air and looked up at the stars wondering what he could say to make her understand.

Then Kenshin sensed it, a completely unfamiliar, and yet, strangely familiar ki…it was close by too. He averted his gaze from the nightly sky to inspect the grounds, to track down the person interrupting his thoughts. He didn't feel any hostility, but he was still leery, as always of strangers lurking around his property. He smiled to himself, His property. Yes, his and Kaoru's. "Where are you?" He called out. "You can come out now, I won't hurt you!" he yelled again.

Then in his peripheral vision, he saw a figure step out of the shadows. "I wasn't worried about you hurting me." The figure replied.

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Chapter Sixteen

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First, a brief A/N:

I would like to thank Gypsy-chan for giving me this idea. I just loved it sooo much I had to use it, although, I had already planned on having Tomoe come to visit.

- bunny ;D

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"H-how?" Kenshin asked in just barely more than a whisper.

"I don't know." The figure replied.

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Kaoru was crying softly in her bedroom, waiting for Kenshin to come back. 'That was really smart Kaoru no baka!!' she scolded herself. 'I totally over-reacted, I should have never said those kinds of things to Kenshin, he's not that kind of guy, and I know that.' Kaoru cried more, feeling so sorry for what she did. She collapsed on the bed and sobbed away. A few minutes passed and then Kaoru suddenly jerked up, her eyes dry, and then stood. She quickly, and stealthily made her way to the paper screen door, in a second. "Oh, God…he's here." She whispered to herself before running outside to the courtyard.

"Where's Kaoru?" she heard him say as she came into the clearing.

Before Kenshin could answer Kaoru appeared next to him, she had tears in her eyes.

"Kaoru!!" he exclaimed running the distance between himself and her and enfolding her in a deep embrace.

"Kenshin no Baka!!" Kaoru exclaimed throwing her arms around her younger husband as he reached her. He took her face in his hands and started planting kisses all over her face. While mumbling things to her like "Oh, I missed you so much." "Why did you have to leave me" "God!! I love you!!"

Kaoru couldn't say anything, she was just so happy to see her husband again and so stunned that he had somehow made it to the future to be with her.

(A/N: Now, just so we don't get confused. The younger Kenshin from the past will go by Battousai, and the older Kenshin of this time will just be Kenshin.)

Kenshin stood in place for a few minutes, completely shell shocked at seeing his younger self, and then seeing him grab Kaoru and kiss her all over like that. Then he got mad. 'Why does he have to keep kissing her like that?!' he yelled in his head, getting more and more angry as they kept kissing and mumbling to each other like long lost lovers, completely IGNORING HIM, her REAL husband…or almost husband. Finally, Kenshin had had enough, and shaking himself out of his original stupor, snatched Kaoru out of Battousai's arms and brought her into his own.

"Hey, stop kissing my wife!" he yelled to his younger self.

"Your Wife?" Battousai growled back, immediately drawing his katana in a challenge to his older self. "She was MY wife before she was YOUR wife…rurouni." He added.

"No Way!!" Kenshin yelled back. "I was the one who met her!! She fell in love with ME not YOU." Kenshin snarled back.

Kaoru looked from one Kenshin to the other. They looked so similar now that she could see them standing next to each other. Fighting over Her. It was so odd, seeing Kenshin like this. Of course she expected it out of Battousai, but Kenshin? Kaoru blinked a few times. 'Kenshin was always a little primitive though when it came to protecting me…but from himself?' she thought, completely bewildered. What was she supposed to do? Kaoru had no idea how Kenshin's past self was able to get to the future, or why he was there. He had his own Kaoru waiting for him, back in his own time. Kaoru was ecstatic to see him, but as much as she loved her younger husband of the past, she didn't want the Kaoru of the past to live without having ever known Kenshin. Not to mention that having two Kenshin's in one time? That's just plain insanity; especially if they wanted to fight over her…this situation was quickly getting out of control.

Battousai gasped at Kenshin's comment, his eyes turning into amber slits. "So what!!" he yelled. "She loves me MORE. I did things for her, I spent time with her!! I didn't take a million years to tell her how I felt about her!!" He looked over at Kaoru "tell him, sweetheart." He said, inviting her into the conversation. "Tell him what we did together."

Kaoru's eyes widened in shock. 'Why is this happening?' her mind screamed at her. "Um…" she began looking at Kenshin. Then she turned to Battousai. "Kenshin…" she began, addressing Battousai. "I…how did you get here?" she asked, stepping out of Kenshin's arms and closer to Battousai.

"I don't know sweetheart, it was just like when you left…this bright white light encompassed me, and then I was standing at the front gate of the Dojo. I saw the sign, it said "Kamiya Dojo," and I remembered that your last name was Kamiya, before WE" he emphasized, looking over Kaoru and at Kenshin "got married. So then, I hoped it was your house…and that's when I, I mean, the other me, stormed outside, were you fighting with him?" he asked. Kaoru looked back at Kenshin and her eyes watered a little. Kenshin's eyes reflected her pain at their argument. Kaoru nodded. Battousai shot Kenshin a look like he was going to kill him. Kenshin shot back a look just as menacing. Then Battousai continued, "he was looking at the sky, and he yelled at me, so I came out of the shadows. I knew I had to be at your house, and I wanted to see you so desperately. Things have been so horrible for me since you left, Kaoru." He finished.

Kaoru burst into tears, and immediately both Kenshin's hugged her, one on either side of her. "Oh Kenshin, I'm so sorry that you have to go through all that without me. I wish I hadn't had to leave so suddenly when you were so upset about going back to be with the Ishinshishi. I had no control over it, and I was worried about you, the future you, the rurouni I had left behind here, my Kenshin." Kaoru sobbed into Battousai's gi.

"What do you mean your Kenshin? I'm your Kenshin, Kaoru," Battousai whispered to her.

Kaoru noted the hurt in his voice, and bit her tongue from yelling to him that he has his own Kaoru to care for in his own time.

"Kaoru?" Kenshin asked from behind her, tightening his grip around her waist. Kaoru turned her head to look at her sweet rurouni. He smiled at her. She had called HIM her Kenshin, not his younger self. Then Kaoru looked back at Battousai. Really, the only way to tell them apart was by their clothes, and their hair style. It was frightening, and wonderful all at the same time. She had two Kenshins, but it wasn't right, something needed to be said. Then turning back to Kenshin she whispered to him. "I didn't change your past, Kenshin, you did."

Kenshin's eyes widened, and then as if on instinct, he looked up to his younger self, questioning what he knew, and for the first time, meeting eyes with himself. Looking into his own eyes, memories started flooding his mind, intense visuals and conversations that had taken place:

~ Rushing up the stairs that night and seeing a figure duck out of view. ~ Calling out to her. ~ Finding himself with a katana to a beautiful woman's throat, in a wedding kimono, who knew him, although he had never seen her before. ~

~ Taking the woman to his room. ~ Questioning her. ~ Meeting her. ~ Wondering about her. ~ Holding her as she cried to him all night. ~

~ Tomoe appeared. He told her he was married to Kaoru. ~ Kaoru denying it. ~ Giving Kaoru a warning look. ~ Tomoe leaving. ~ Kaoru hitting him on the head. ~ Stopping her. ~ Kaoru gloating over the ORO thing. ~

~ Seeing Kaoru and Tomoe giggling together in the hallway at the inn. ~ Watching Kaoru sleep and loving her already. ~ Being angry with Kaoru for saying that he was her best friend, and not her lover. ~ Kaoru confessing her relationship with him in the future. ~

~ Tomoe coming and cutting his face. ~ Kaoru trying to tell him that he was supposed to be married to Tomoe. ~ Tomoe leaving for China. ~ Kaoru crying to him. ~

~ Running through Kyoto with Kaoru by his side. ~ Being angry with her for not listening to him. ~ Her HELPING him in battle. ~ Katsura telling them to go live in the mountains. ~

~ Convincing Kaoru to marry him. ~ Kaoru crying during the marriage ceremony. ~ The argument over his future self on the way up the mountain. ~ The pain of feeling like she didn't love him. ~ Their first night in bed as a married couple. ~

~ Teaching her how to cook. ~ Waking up alone. ~ Convincing her to let him teach her Hiten Mitsurugi. ~ Watching her sleep. ~ Arguing over using a katana or a bokken and settling on a sakabatou. ~ Going to bed during the day. ~ Pushing her more and more in her training. ~ Kisses while teaching her how to cook. ~ Planting in their garden. ~ Going into town together. ~ Loving her. ~ Caring for her when she exhausted herself in her training. ~ Sleeping with her. ~ Teaching her about ki. ~ Kissing her. ~ Arguing with her about going back to war. ~ Kaoru leaving him…Kaoru yelling that she loved him…~

And then, as suddenly as the flashback images had begun, they stopped. Kenshin was still blushing furiously, over the visuals of their first night together, but he now remembered his new past. It was as if for a year of his life, he had lived two different lives. In one life, he was silently hurting and numb to it, briefly loved, and then sent into despair. In the other, he was silently hurting, and then caught completely off guard, and jarred from his current way of thinking, he had been intrigued, saved, loved, and then left...but with a hope…of meeting Kaoru again, and soon, and with his new past, it was as if he had just lived it. It was like it had just been the last few months of his life, although he knew that it had happened years ago. He smiled. Kaoru loved him…even when he was an assassin. He squeezed her again. Now, why was his past self here? And what were they going to do with him? Kenshin was not sure, even with the memories of Kaoru he just received from his younger self, he still didn't know how he got to the future, or why. He had to know. There was no way that he was going to lose his Kaoru. Especially not now, not now that she was truly his, even loving the side of him that he had always thought she would hate so much for his killing ways, and naïve ideals.

"So, why are you here?" he asked his younger self.

Battousai glared at him. "I'm here to get Kaoru, why else would I be here?" he replied.

"I'm very sorry, but my Kaoru is not going anywhere with you, she is staying here with me." Kenshin stated.

"I came here, to get her, I'm lost without her, and she's my only happiness." Battousai explained, hoping that his future self would give in.

"Aa." Kenshin agreed. "But Kaoru is all those things to me as well. You have your own Kaoru waiting for you in the past, you should go to her. But as for my Kaoru, she is staying here with me, where she belongs."

Battousai growled. "No! She's just a baby still! I can't do that. I want MY Kaoru back and I want her now, don't make me fight you for her." He challenged, backing away and pushing Kaoru over to the side, he dropped into a Battou Jutsu stance, ready to attack his future self.

Kenshin frowned. He didn't expect his younger half to be so unreasonable, however, he was not yet a rurouni, and he did not suffer the loss of Tomoe, so he was in some ways a different person than himself. "I have no desire to fight myself. The last thing I want to do is knock myself out, even if you are a little different than me, we are still the same person. You must realize that this is insanity." Kenshin tried to reason with his younger half again.

"Shut up, rurouni!" Battousai yelled and began to draw his katana to attack.

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A/N: I suppose this is a good place to stop.

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! ;D

Just a few things:

Chocolate Star - Sorry about that…did I forget to mention that my ficcy wasn't complete when I told you to read it? I'm happy that you like it so far though ;D

Keao - Which website? I have so many ^_^;;

Here they are:

My Rurouni Kenshin site is:

~ Dreams of Rurouni Kenshin ~

The URL is http://clik.to/dreamsofrk

My Sailor Moon Websites are:

http://princessserenity.net

http://www.dreamwater.org/serenity

http://clik.to/sereendyshrine

My Jubei Chan Website is:

http://destined.to/lovelyeyepatch

My husband's website (that I update) which is an anime collective is:

http://clik.to/animedomain

Ella - I dunno, It had to be a mystery how the time travel occurs, at least for now, because it's part of the story, sorry if you wanted more detail on that part.

sync*in - you said…"aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! you ahou!! how could you do this!! who is it??! im betting my life that its tomoe cuz she's still alive right?? or is it kaoru?? since her ki raised.. anyway, i love this fic." So I figured you would say the same thing since the cliffhanger was so similar ;) ::hehe::

And special thanks also to:

Rurouni Angel

Omochi

Angel

Moonlight^Angel

Crystal Okamino

Lesly

Bao Blossom

And Firuze Khanume

For all your awesome reviews ;)

Till next time ;D