Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ How the Past Can Change ❯ Kaoru in the War ( Chapter 9 )

How the Past can Change

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 / 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

---------------------------------------------------------------- -------

"Good. Meet me downstairs in 5 minutes. That's where the meeting will be. Bring your katana, or get one if you don't have one." Kenshin said shutting the door behind him.

"But, I only use bok-" Kaoru stopped, realizing Kenshin couldn't hear her anyways "-kens…" she finished lamely to herself.

'I only use bokkens you crazy assassin!!' she fumed to herself. 'Mou!' Kaoru shivered. 'I'm going into a real war battle tonight' she thought nervously.

Pushing her thoughts aside, she quickly changed into the younger Kenshin's clothes. Kaoru took a deep whiff of his clothing once it was on her and closed her eyes for brief a second, letting the smell of him take her home to her peaceful rurouni, to calm her jumping nerves and pumping adrenaline. 'Stay focused tonight Kaoru,' she told herself as she quickly gathered their clothes and tied them all up in a tight and small blanket. Then she grabbed a broom and broke off the bottom for a make-shift bokken, gave it a couple of practice swings to see if it would make do, and after nodding her head that it was indeed as good as she would get for a bokken, headed downstairs to meet up with Kenshin and the rest of the Ishinshishi samuari.

---------------------------------------------------------------- ----

Chapter Nine

-------------------------------------------------------------------

There was an eerie sort of quiet calm over the clan, Kaoru noted, as she arrived at the meeting room, possessions and bokken in tow. Kenshin was standing right at the entrance, and pulled her close to him as soon as she entered the room.

"You look cute in my clothes," he whispered into her ear. "Like a true Inshinshishi samurai," he added trying to boost her confidence.

Kaoru couldn't help but blush. She couldn't believe Kenshin could be so bold like this, 'maybe it's his teenage hormones,' she thought. Kaoru bit her lower lip trying not to loose her composure and laugh her head off at the picture her mind created of her rurouni with raging hormones.

The meeting was extremely brief. First they informed them of what they knew of the plans of the Shogunate, they wanted to burn Kyoto to the ground, this very night because the festival was happening and there would be many witnesses of it. So the plan for them, was that they needed to head to the Shogunate's hideout where the Shinsin-gumi were supposedly having a meeting at this very moment, and make sure that the leader was killed. Kenshin was of course, put in charge making sure the leader was assassinated, Kaoru noted. Upon receiving his orders, Kenshin only nodded, and grabbing Kaoru headed out of the room.

Once outside, there were 5 or 6 distinct groups of 4 - 5 samurai each. Kenshin joined up with 3 that appeared to be waiting for him. All three of them stared at Kaoru for a second and then looked at Kenshin.

Kenshin noticed the looks on the faces of his fellow samurai and decided it would be best to give a brief explanation. "This is my wife, Himura Kaoru." He began, putting his arm around Kaoru in a sort of introduction. "She is an assistant master of Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu, and she will be fine. I can not allow her to stay here at the inn."

Kaoru almost cried at hearing Kenshin introduce her as his wife, with her married name and everything. 'Oh how I wish I could have heard those words from his lips for the first time in my own time.' She thought wistfully.

The other samurai simply bowed in respect. Kaoru bowed back.

"Let's go." Kenshin said grabbing Kaoru's free hand and pulling her behind him as he led the way through the alleyways of the now-night-time Kyoto.

Kaoru ran behind Kenshin as he half pulled her, forcing her to keep up with his "god like" speed, and wondered when they would stop running. She didn't even know Kyoto was this big!! Just then Kenshin abruptly stopped, and it was only Kaoru's own training that prevented her from slamming into his backside. She was actually quite pleased with herself, since usually she was somewhat klutzy in those situations, 'maybe it's all this battle ki that is making me focus so much,' she figured. She peered around Kenshin's shoulder and noticed two samurai dressed in the same outfit, it was different than the colors that her and Kenshin and the rest of the Ishinshishi wore. 'Are these Shinsin-gumi warriors?' she wondered to herself.

Immediately upon seeing Kenshin, they drew their swords. Kenshin pushed her away and before Kaoru could even blink both men were on the ground, bloody and dead. Kaoru winced, 'poor Kenshin had to go through so much!!' she thought to herself.

Kenshin flicked the blood of off his katana, re-sheathed it, and grabbed Kaoru's hand again, pulling her through the alleys once again, the other Ishinshishi samurai right behind them.

They stopped a couple more times for the same type of encounter until they rounded a bend and were met with a whole group of samurai. Kaoru was not sure what to do, but this time the other three samurai that had been accompanying them this whole time, unsheathed their swords and stepped up. The one in the front turned back to Kenshin and nodded his head at him. Kenshin nodded back, grabbed Kaoru once more and they ran, but in the other direction.

"What was that all about?!?" Kaoru yelled to Kenshin as they ran.

"I need to get to the hideout, our top priority is killing the leader. I didn't have time to deal with all those men, it could have delayed us, 5 minutes maybe." Kenshin replied and picked up the speed at which they were running.

'Oh' was all Kaoru could think as she continued to run behind him. It was barely more than a minute, and once again they stopped, but this time, there was a building right next to them that had dimly lit lights all throughout it.

"Is this the place?" Kaoru whispered as Kenshin pulled her into some nearby brush so the couple of guards would not see them.

Kenshin merely nodded and placed his finger over her mouth indicating that she not even whisper again. Kaoru nodded in response.

Then before Kaoru even realized what Kenshin was doing, he leaped out of the brush, leaving her behind, and took out both of the guards before they could even cry out or unsheathe their katanas. Kenshin turned back to the brush that a rather dumbfounded Kaoru was standing in, and waved for her to join him on the steps.

Kaoru ran silently out of the brush and over to where Kenshin was. Kaoru grinned remembering how she had learned to quietly move through bushes by spying on Sano to make sure he was ok at night.

Kenshin quirked his eyebrow at Kaoru's grin and she waved her hand at him as if to say 'I'll tell you later.'

Kenshin nodded. He pointed at the very spot that Kaoru was standing on, just to the side of the doors leading inside. Kaoru realized he was telling her to stay there. She opened her mouth to protest, but was met with a gentle hand over her mouth and a menacing look from Kenshin's now yellow eyes.

Kaoru decided not to test him. In love with her or not, she was still dealing with a deadly assassin. 'Kenshin has defiantly always had a more menacing and forceful side to him,' she reminded herself, 'this is not the time to argue, our lives are at stake' she thought as she nodded her consent.

Kenshin nodded back, and then in a brief second he flung open the doors. Shouts and the sound of metal on metal could be heard as well as the groans of those whom Kaoru assumed were being killed mercilessly by her young husband.

---------------------------------------------------------------- -------------

Kaoru heard the sound of a paper screen door opening and peered her head around the corner of the building to see a man quickly exiting the room and descending the stairs of the porch, only taking a second to glance back at the building before continuing on. Her brows lowered in annoyance. "Oh no, you don't" she said under her breath realizing he must be the leader Kenshin had come to assassinate, making his get away as Kenshin killed all of his "underlings."

Kaoru dropped the blanket with their belongings on the ground. With a speed and power, Kaoru did not even know she possessed, she leaped into the air, over the railing of the porch while at the same time, extracting her make-shift bokken from her back and landed right behind the man. Just as he was turning to see what was behind him, Kaoru swung down on his right shoulder with great force, dislocating his shoulder and disabling him from using his sword. Then before the man even knew what hit him, Kaoru swung another strike at his kneecaps, forcing him to buckle over and fall on the ground. "Tsukanogedan-hizahishigi!!!" Kaoru yelled as she gave the leader a final blow to his head, knocking him unconscious.

"HA!! HA-HA!!!" Kaoru gloated as she put her hands on her hips, bokken still in hand, and placed one foot on top of her "conquest." She glanced towards the door he had come out of, wondering how Kenshin was doing in there. She didn't have to wait long before Kenshin came flying out of the room. In mid-air of his "flight" down the porch steps he noticed Kaoru in her victory stance and stopped short, in front of her, his eyes in little amber slits.

"Kaoru," he paused, looking highly ticked. "I told you to stay over there." He said pointing with his katana in the general direction of their left behind belongings.

Kaoru glared at him. "What!! You think I'm going to let the very reason we came here sneak out the side door before you complete your mission?" She threw her arms up in disgust. Kenshin backed away from her swinging bokken. "I want to get the hell out of here ok?" she yelled at him.

Kenshin frowned, and then glanced down at the poor soul lying under Kaoru's foot. "Who's that?" he asked her, once again pointing with his katana.

Kaoru took her foot off and rolled the unconscious man onto his back, for Kenshin's inspection. "Is this the guy we came here for?" she asked him.

Kenshin grimaced. "Yeah, I think so." He said. Then he lifted up his katana and drove it through the man's heart.

Kaoru jumped back at the blood beginning to pour out of the man. Then she hit Kenshin. "You baka!! Can't you at least warn me before you do that? I hate seeing you like this!! I wish you would realize that you jerk!"

Kenshin frowned at Kaoru. "I'm sorry, I'm not used to all this yet, you being here, having someone give a damn about me and the things I do."

Kaoru sighed. She took Kenshin's arm and led him back in the direction of their belongings. "So now what?" she asked him as she bent down to pick up the previously discarded baggage.

Kenshin shrugged.

"HIMURA!!!" A man yelled running up to the two of them.

"Yes?" Kenshin questioned.

"Quickly, back to the inn, we're being attacked!!" he informed him, turning and running back from the way he came.

Kenshin grabbed Kaoru and they quickly ran back towards the inn, this time taking a much quicker route, Kaoru noted. Just before reaching the inn, Kenshin stopped short…"Katsura" he said as they almost plowed into 3 men, making their way in the opposite direction.

"Kenshin!" the man in the front exclaimed. "I'm very happy to see that you and your wife are ok." He briefly smiled.

"I had feared for your life sir." Kenshin offered.

"Aa." He agreed. "I wish that I was dead…all my ideas are dead." He said quite sadly. "I fear that we have lost everything. Our hideout has been discovered, and although, I would imagine your mission has been successful, we have lost just about everyone else tonight. There were many locations that the Shogunate's various clans were meeting at tonight, only yours went well. We need to regroup and I don't know how long this will take. In the meantime, you need to be hidden, so as you do not become a target. I know there are many who want you dead as it is." He paused. "You and your wife will go to a house I have up in the mountains, it has already been arranged. You will stay there until I send for you." He finished.

Kenshin nodded solemnly. "Kaoru and I will set out at once, and await for word from you there."

Katsura smiled and turned to one of the three men with him. "Izuka, you will give Himura-san directions on how to get there."

The man nodded.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- --

AN: I hope everybody likes where the story is going ;) Sorry about my writing skills lacking so much.

Please visit my new RK website if you have the time: http://clik.to/dreamsofrk. If you have any RK fanfix of your own, I'd love to post them there!! ;)

Ja ne,

Bunny ;D