The Replacement

AN: Dedicated to J-sama who asked me to write it. So there you go. Short sweet and with no plot.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Like I say for my other things, if it were mine, I wouldn't be writing on this website.

"What do you mean? I'm being replaced?" Shinomori Aoshi stared down at the short young woman in front of him. He had just returned to her from being away at war and the first news that he gets from the woman he loved was that he was being replaced.

"Actually, technically…. You've already been replaced." Okashira Makimachi Misao stood firm on her executive decision. It was a big step and she was not about to regret it.

"What do you mean I've been replaced?"

"I never thought of you as a stupid man, Aoshi-sama." She shuffled her papers on her desk and filed them away in the proper order. "I hope I don't have to say it again."

"No, Okashira."

Aoshi gave a small bow before leaving the room. He actually had absolutely no idea why he was getting replaced. Or what position in which he was getting replaced. Was it her love? Her top ranking ninja? He had no idea and went to go find out from one of the other ninja's in the Aoiya.

"Omasu." He approached young ninja woman in the kitchen and stood next to her at the stove. "I have a question."

"Oh, Aoshi-sama. Okaeri-nasai. What can I do for you?"

"Misao just told me that I have been replaced. Do you know what she means by that?" Aoshi crossed his arms and watched as Omasu covered her smile with her hand.

"I do, Aoshi-sama. But it's easier for me to show you what Misao-chan means, than for me to try and explain it." Omasu shuffled out of the kitchen and down into the back courtyard towards the training hall. "There you go."

Aoshi looked where Omasu was pointing. There in the shade of the trees and by the cool pond, he saw Misao lying on her stomach playing with a little black and white pointed eared Akita puppy.

"A dog? I've been replaced by a dog?" Aoshi whispered to himself. How in the world could he ever let a dog win the heart of the woman he loved.

"It's not any dog. It's a puppy. Sorry, Aoshi-sama." Omasu turned and walked back into the kitchen, leaving Aoshi to stare at the picture in front of him.

"What am I supposed to do?"

Fin

9.3.2006