Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ How the Past Can Change ❯ Unanswered Questions ( Chapter 2 )

How the Past can be Changed

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

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

AN: This story is altering the original story of Rurouni Kenshin / Samuai 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

Kaoru covered her mouth with her hand, hoping to stop the sound of her heavy breathing from giving her location away. This person was a killing machine, and she didn't want to get on their bad side…not to mention, if this killer knew what she had just witnessed, she was sure she would be the next to die.

"You might as well come out…I can sense you…besides, I saw you standing here when I was all the way at the bottom of these stairs." A voice shouted out.

Kaoru couldn't help it…she gasped. She'd recognize that voice anywhere.

Immediately, she found herself pinned against the very tree she had been seeking to find protection from with a sword at her throat.

Kaoru's eyes widened…"K-K-K-Ken…shin?" she questioned.

Chapter Two

Kenshin's eyes instantly widened in surprise, causing his eyes to turn from yellow to their normal purplish hew, Kaoru noted. The tightness of his grip on her slackened and he pulled his sword a little away from her throat. 'He doesn't exactly look like Kenshin,' she thought. He definitely had Kenshin's voice, his flaming red hair, his eyes had the ability to change from yellow to purple, and back again, she assumed. But, he looked so different!! He looked…like a young version of Kenshin? 'A teenage one?' she questioned in her mind.

"H-h-how do you know my name?!?" he questioned her in a whisper of uncertainty.

Kaoru's eyes looked pained for a moment. "Y-you - you don't know me do you?" she asked him, whispering herself.

"Himura!! Let's get out of here!!" Someone shouted from the stairway.

Kenshin and Kaoru startled, and Kenshin turned his head towards where the voice had come, his face away from Kaoru's so she could see the side of his face. She gasped again. "Your scar!!!" she exclaimed. Reaching her hand up to trace the single line that was bleeding down the side of his face.

Now completely caught off guard, Kenshin turned back to look at her for a second like she was crazy, yet, at the same time questioning what she knew, and then turned back towards the voice, as it yelled again with more urgency. "Himura!! COME ON!!"

"It's not an X…it's not an X…" Kaoru mumbled to herself over and over as if in a trance, her mind quickly putting two and two together. She was in the PAST!! She HAD to be, Kenshin looked so young, he even wore his hair differently in a high ponytail. She felt her self go numb, her emotions turning off, and depression taking hold, the reality truly sinking in, that she was hitokiri battousai's wife, he didn't know her, and they were stuck in the Bakumatsu!!

"Coming!!" he yelled back to the voice. Turning back to Kaoru he whispered, "You can explain later, but you are coming with me." Kenshin then released his hold on her for a moment, re-sheathed his sword, picked Kaoru up, and with her in his arms, jumped back to the stairway where his friends were waiting.

"Who's that?" one of them questioned.

"Don't worry about it," Kenshin replied in a low growl, indicating that he wanted no further questions from the man about it.

"God, Himura, just the other day, you brought that Tomoe woman to the inn after a battle, and now you seem to have picked up another one!!" the guy responded, clearly not taking the hint.

"Tomoe?" Kaoru questioned, snapping out of her shocked stupor as her brows furrowed in worry. She glanced at Kenshin's face, but it was expressionless, as usual in regards to women, as Kaoru knew all too well. Her heart began to beat faster, 'Tomoe, is here?' She shook herself violently, trying to shake the feelings of raging jealousy begging to over take all her other emotions. 'I don't want to be jealous,' she said to herself. 'You are in the past, accept it for what it is.' She tried to reason with herself.

"I said that's enough!!" Kenshin growled again, sprinting down the stairs and back to where ever it was that he had come from. Kaoru knew though, that they must be on their way to Kenshin's clan's hideout.

They arrived shortly at an inn in what Kaoru figured must be Kyoto, but during the bakumatsu era. She shivered as Kenshin set her down just inside the door, keeping one hand firmly around her arm, as if she would run away or disappear if he let go of her.

"You have another lady for me to care for Himura-san?" a woman questioned.

"NO." Kenshin said abruptly.

The woman quirked her eyebrow at Kenshin, "I told you the rules before, Himura-san." She stated.

"I know…don't be concerned, I'm not breaking the rules." He replied.

She smiled knowingly at him. "Ok, Himura-san, I will trust you on this one." She said winking at Kaoru. Kaoru wondered why on Earth the woman would be winking at her? 'Does she know something I don't?' Kaoru wondered.

Kenshin sort-of smiled at her. Then he turned back to Kaoru, "follow me." He said pulling her towards a hallway.

"Yes." Kaoru said allowing Kenshin to drag her to what she assumed must be his room at the inn.

'She looks so frightened' Kenshin thought, 'Heh, I would be too, if I was dragged away by the most feared assassin in Japan. I doubt she has any idea of how much she has rattled me. How does she know my name? No woman knows my name, well except Tomoe now, I wonder who this woman is? She appears out of nowhere wearing a bridal kimono of all things. I bet the innkeeper thinks I just married this woman myself. This must have been her wedding day, but then, where is her husband? And what was she doing on the stairway in the middle of the night? Why does she act as though she knows me? Is she some sort of spy or something?' Kenshin glanced back at her once again to take in if she might be strong enough to be a swordsman or ninja of some sort. 'Maybe. It appears that she is in good condition, and she knew my name, but I saw a strange sort of recognition on her face, and she looked genuinely surprised that I didn't know her. It's weird, but I feel some sort of connection to her. I don't know if it's a good connection or a bad one, but there's a connection. I don't even know if she's sane or not, but I think I want to get to know this woman a little better. It's time for some answers. Frightened to death or not, she's giving me some answers as soon as we get to my room' he decided, nodding his head in affirmation to no one in particular.

Kaoru saw Kenshin nod his head and wondered what he was thinking. 'He probably just decided what he's going to do to me,' she mused. 'This is a totally different person than the Kenshin that I know and love,' she reminded herself. 'Well, at least he's not holding a sword to my throat anymore. Of all the things I never thought I would see in my entire life, that would have been number one, my sweet Kenshin with a sword to my throat…' she thought. Kaoru made a muffled sniffling sound at the pain of the shock of all that had happened to her. She was going to be married, she was finally going to have Kenshin, and now… And now…she sniffed again, trying to hold back the tears as Kenshin finally opened a paper screen door and led her into a room.

Kenshin led Kaoru into the room and guided her to sit in front of him as he sat down. As if out of habit, Kenshin sat with one knee up and one hand on his sword. Kaoru recognized the position and smiled, a very sad smile. She found a strange sense of comfort knowing that Kenshin wasn't ALL that different, even way back when.

"Why are you smiling like that?" he gruffly questioned her.

Startled at his question, Kaoru slightly jumped. "Ah…well, um…because of the way you are sitting," she finally answered honestly.

"How is that?" he questioned her again.

"Well, you have your hand on your sword, propped against, your side…and one knee up, and you are leaning against something. You always sit like that," she blushed. 'Kaoru no baka!!' She yelled at herself. 'Now he's going to have a million more questions.'

Kenshin frowned. 'What is it with this girl?' he wondered, even more shaken up than before. "How do you know that?" he asked.

"I…I…well, you see…I," Kaoru was at a loss for what to say to him. 'Well, you see, Kenshin, I'm your future wife, and you know, we've lived together for a couple of years now,' she thought in her head. 'Sure, he'll believe that!!'

'Enough of this, first I need to know the basics, name, age, why she's wearing a wedding kimono!' Kenshin said to himself as he watched the woman in front of him fumble for an answer to his question. "Ok, wait, let's start from the beginning then. Who are you, and how do you know who I am? Why did you expect me to know you, and for that matter, how do you know so much about me?" he asked her.

Kaoru's eyes widened at his bombardment of questions. "Well, my name is…Him-, I mean, well, I'm still Kamiya Kaoru actually." She replied sadly. 'I didn't even make it to the ceremony' she remembered to herself.

Kenshin raised his right eyebrow at her. 'Still?' he wondered at her wording.

Kaoru almost cried remembering how only a couple of hours ago, she had received the exact same look, from HER Kenshin, back home…at her dojo, "in the future…" she whispered to herself.

"WHAT?" Kenshin asked, sitting up straighter and moving towards Kaoru. He was now feeling completely emotionally rattled over this strange girl. "Did you just say 'in the future'?" he asked Kaoru.

"What?" Kaoru questioned back "I said that out loud?"

"What about the future?" Kenshin asked her.

'Change the subject and fast!' Kaoru's mind screamed to her. "Oh, nothing, Kenshin. Nothing about the future, I don't know anything about the future. So my turn, uh…who's Tomoe?" Kaoru asked him.

Once again, this woman and her knowledge of him took Kenshin aback. His eyes narrowed 'why does she want to know about Tomoe? Is she here because of something to do with Tomoe?' he wondered. "Tomoe? She was drunk in the street the other night, and like you, she saw me killing some people. She collapsed, so I brought her here. It was raining and I was afraid that she would die. I should have killed her for what she saw, but like you, for some reason I didn't." Kenshin explained aloud.

"Oh…good" Kaoru breathed a sigh of relief. 'So they aren't married yet.' She thought. 'Good at least I won't have to see Kenshin going around kissing someone else, or sleeping with someone else. That would just break my heart. I know they are supposed to be together, but I would never have wanted to see them together, not when I love him as I do.'

"Why?" he asked.

"Oh…nothing, nothing at all," Kaoru said blushing again.

Kenshin narrowed his eyes at her, becoming angry that she wasn't telling him everything she knew. 'She's going to tell me everything before I go to sleep tonight, so help me God,' he promised to himself.

"Fine. It's my turn…why are you wearing a wedding kimono?" he asked her.

Kaoru looked down at herself. Then she absently patted her hair, realizing the combs were still there and everything. She looked up at Kenshin, 'Oh God, she's going to cry,' Kenshin thought, just as Kaoru burst into tears. If there was one thing that he couldn't handle, it was a woman's tears. Not that he had seen many women cry first hand like this in his life, but it made him nervous, and he didn't like the feeling. Not knowing what else he could do, he moved over to her and hesitantly wrapped his arms around her slight frame.

"Oh Kenshin!!" Kaoru exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around him and cried onto his chest, not caring that he wasn't her Kenshin. He was there, and for some reason, offering his shoulder to cry on.