Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Unhealthy Obsession ❯ The Wounded Traveler ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Kaoru rescues a young man from his death and lets him recuperate at the dojo for a few weeks. His charm and wits, disarm the young assisstant master and Kenshin dosn't like how his relationship with the young woman is slowly growing apart.

Warning: This story will be based mostly on the anime, but I have read the entire series via translation sites and I'm in the process of buying the entire manga series. I have 1-18 right now. ^_^

Rating: T/PG-13 (may go up in future chapters)

Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing the wonderful characters for awhile. I wish that I could keep them... Any OCs are my own, respectively.

" blah " denotes speaking
' blah ' denotes thoughts
A series of periods in a line (...................) in bold denotes a shift in time.

Ka miya Kaoru watched quietly as her student, Yahiko, diligently practiced the set of katas that she had assigned him, an anxious look on her pretty face. She shifted her gaze out to the front yard of her home, her azure eyes trailing a butterfly that sailed lazily past on the gentle breeze. Kenshin had been gone for four days...to the young assistant master it felt like an eternity.


A government official had been expecting a shipment of valuable documents and emblems to be shipped out to sea and he had been offering a hearty sum to protect his wares so Kenshin and Sanosuke had taken the offered job; Sano to help pay back his ever increasing tab at the Akabeko and Kenshin, just to help Kaoru with some extra payments at the dojo.


The trip was estimated to be about six to fourteen days; it depended on the weather. It could be anywhere between two to ten days before the ex-hitokiri and his ex-street fighting friend would be back, and Kaoru was worried about them. Not nessasarily about their well-being, even though Kenshin's Hiten Mitsurugi was slowly gnawing away at his body, but the fact that Kenshin might not want to come back.


The incident on May 14th had left permanent scars on Kaoru's heart. She would never forget those whispered words of, "I must wander again," and, "Sayonara." The thought of Kenshin leaving had left her bedridden for many days on end until Megumi had nealy slapped and talked some sense into the younger woman. If it hadn't been for her traveling to Kyoto, Kaoru most likely would have seen Kenshin again, but now the country was safe; the threat of Shishio's domination long forgotten. Everything had been peaceful until Enishi and his personal vendetta had arisen. The man had been crazy; the memory of his sister's murder by Kenshin had made his hair turn white and his sorrow blacken his heart. His desire to kill Kenshin had burned his sanity and wasted his life, but thankfully in the end, Kenshin had won, yet again. Enishi's crazed plan to destroy Kenshin was finally a thing of the past.


When Kaoru had returned safely to the dojo, she had expected Kenshin to finally confess his feelings for her. Yahiko and the others had told them how distraught Kenshi had been after they had found the hideous doll thet Enishi's henchman, Gein had made of her. How the rurouni had sat frozen in Rakuminmura, waiting for his own death. How the only voice that he reached him in his inner turmoil was that of Tsubame, and that was only when Yahiko had been in danger. Kenshin must have cared for her a great deal to just wait for his own life to end in such a way that practically wasted his body.

And yet, Kenshin had done nothing. No confessions of love nor long-awaited proposals. Not even flowers, a walk through by the stream at night. Nothing to indicate that he loved her, or at least had deep feelings for her. Kaoru had been driven nearly completely insane.

"Hey, busu, busu!"

Kaoru snapped ot attention and glared at her student. He was leaning against the dojo wall, shinai over his shoulder, tapping his foot impatiently.

"What were you thinking about so hard with that spaced out look on your face? I've been trying to talk to you for the past five minutes!"

"What were you going to tell me?"

"I was just going to ask about Kenshin."

Kaoru's eyes quickly scanned the yard. "What? Is he back?"

"He's not here yet, busu, I just wanted to talk about him."

Kaoru sighed and slumped slightly. "What did you want to talk about?"

Yahiko rolled his eyes and shook his head. "You two are so dense!"

Kaoru's face turned red in anger. "What was that, Yahiko-chan?"

"I'm not little!' the boy all but screamed. "I just have a suggestion for you."

"What is it?"

Yahiko held up a finger and gestured for the girl to come closer. He did this until he could whisper in her ear, and then yelled, "On a night when Kenshin is up there sitting on the roof like he always does, I want you to go up there and kiss him!" the boy screeched. "You guys are going way too slow! Everybody, and I mean everybody know that you two love each other! Why don't you tell him already?!"

Kaoru promptly snapped her bokuto over his pupil's head. "Get your mind out the gutter, Yahiko! Keep your mind on your relationship with Tsubame-chan, and keep your nose out of mine!"

"What relationship," Yahiko scofffed. "It's more like master and servant."

Kaoru, flushed in anger over that statement. It wasn't really like she had asked Kenshin to do all of the housework for her; he just did it of his own accord in return for being able to stay at the dojo. The man even liked to do laundry, and she was sure by all of the complaints that she had received that no one wanted her to cook for them.

Yahiko watched his teacher fume silently for a few moments before turning away to walk out of the dojo. "Since you're too occupied over Kenshin, I'm going to head over to the Akebeko early to work."

"You didn't finish your katas, Yahiko!"

The continued to walk away. "I'll do 'em later. See you, busu!"

The boy turned around just in time to see Kaoru wave the broken half of her weapon wave warningly in his direction. He smirked back and opened the gate, and then disappeared from sight.

Kaoru sighed and walked back into the dojo, thinking to herself that she needed a nice walk to help calm herself down. She started off to riverbank, hoping to get her mind off of her slacking student a certain auburn-haired rurouni.

As she sat down at the edge of the riverbank in an attempt to clear her mind, Kaoru thought she heard a sound like labored breathing. She tensed and rose to her feet, looking around in confusion and slight comprehenshion.

"Hello, is anyone there?"

No answer. Kaoru began to make her way towards the sound; praying that she wasn't getting herself into trouble. Her eyes momentarily dropped the ground and she saw a dull shining trail leading away from her. As she keeled down, a chill ran through her as she realized what the substance was.

'I wish that I hadn't left my broken my weapon,' the sapphire-eyed girl thought as she looked anxiously around for something in which to defend herself. She settled on a broken tree branch, and then cautiously made her way around the wide tree.

"Hello, is anyone there?" Kaoru called once more.

A noice stirred to her left and Kaoru's eyes widened as she saw a man standing there with blood running down the right side of his face, bruises all over his face and his clothes in tatters. He gazed at her for a moment before swaying dangerously on his feet and crumpling to the ground.

Kaoru rushed towards his and tried to move him from his position on the ground. He looked terrible.

"What happened to you, sir?"

THe man opened his eyes briefly to answer the girls question. "Was...attacked...robbers...beat me...left for dead..." he moaned in pain and his eyes shut again.

Kaoru lay him back down gently and rose quickly to her feet. "Don't worry sir, I'm going to get help." With that final statement, Kaoru took off down the road towards town. Hopefully she could catch Yahiko before he made it to Tae's.

Thankfully, Yahiko was taking his time gettign to work. He was walking with a laid-back stride, hands behind his back, shinai strapped to his back. The boy heard rushed footsteps behind him and his name being called in a frantic pitch and he turned around to see Kaoru running towards him full tilt, blood staining the front of her training gi and hakama. His dark eyes widened with worry.

"Kaoru, are you all right? What happened?"

The girl didn't waste any time; she grabbed onto the boy's gi and turned around back to the place where she left the wounded stranger.

"There's a man," she panted, "that's wounded very badly. I found him and he's unconcious. We need to take him back to the dojo and then call Megumi and Dr. Gensai!"

Yahiko didn't protest as he ran with his teacher back to the unconcious man. His prone figure had taken on a deathly pale look and the two struggled to pick him up and carry him back to the dojo. They nearly dropped him on more than one occassion, but soon the dojo gates were in view.

Kaoru and Yahiko hurriedly set the man in one of the spare rooms inside of the dojo and the man groaned in pain as he was set down onto the cool sheets. His blood began to stain the white cotton but Kaoru didn't care. She told Yahiko to bring her a bowl of water and a few washclothes and some bandages. When Yahiko set down her supplies she proceeded to gently wipe the blood off of his face. Yahiko then ran off to find a doctor.

The man groaned in pain and Kaoru slowed her movements in an effort to ease the pain. "I'm sorry, sir, but I must get the blood off of your face."

The man shook his head slightly. "Don't...waste...time over me...be dead soon...anyway..."

Kaoru shook her head and continued cleaning off his face. "No, don't think that. A doctor will be coming soon and you'll be fine!"

In truth, Kaoru had no idea if the wounded stranger would be okay at all. His injuries were terrible and she was frightened about what might happen to him. She hoped that a doctor would come soon.

"Don't worry," she murmured softly as the man's eyes began to close. "You'll be fine.
That was a bad way to end the chapter, I know, but it would ruin Chapter 2 if I had of kept going. I hope that my readers find this story interesting. I'll try to update as often as I can, but school is starting Monday, and this is my junior year, so I'm going to be busy...

*Pathetically holds out rusty collection tin* Could you spare a review?
I won't update unless I have 8 reviews or more!
Korogi-chan