Howdy y'all. This is going to be only one chapter long. I love everything about the days of feudal Japan, especially anything samurai related. Naturally, I would love the Rurouni Kenshin anime series.
Well, here's what I've done with it. It's just a story about what would happen if, during the revolution, Kenshin was forced to fight a squad of the notorious night warriors, the NINJA. Read and enjoy my friends.
Kenshin's Unfortunate New Enemy
The crimson-haired demon walked casually through the dark forestry around him. He liked the feeling of the cool breeze that penetrated his magenta shirt and white, saggy pants, his casual samurai attire.
The man looked up at the very slender crescent of the moon, which was just barely visible through the leaves of the trees above him. The trees weren't thick or condensed, but they were spaced just enough that they provided enough places to conceal much in their shadows.
He absent-mindedly ran his left hand along the hilt of his sword, the katana long sword sheathed in its scabbard, fastened securely to his belt on the left side of his waist. He had an uneasy feeling about the night, about his surroundings.
He stopped walking and glanced around only using his eyes, scanning as much of the area around him without using his head. He dared not move. He was in very dangerous territory… He could sense the presence of people who wished to bring him harm.
He knew they were out there, though he could not see them. They were good at hiding. Kenshin Himura, the Battousai, grinned. Good though they were, they weren't nearly good enough. He unsheathed his sword with his right hand and held it in his signature stance, the style of the Hiten Mitsurugi.
Turning his head, the young warrior called out to the night. "You may as well just come out where I can see you now. Now that this one is aware of you, you haven't a chance of a successful indirect attack from the shadows."
The wind playfully twisted and messed with his short ponytail. Then the wind stopped abruptly, and the attackers walked into the open. Some of them came out from behind the trees. Some of them just dropped from the tree branches above. He was surrounded by no less that ten warriors cloaked in the darkest of clothing. They were all wearing black, tight, warrior's clothing.
Many of them brandished swords, which they unsheathed from their scabbards at their sides or from their backs. Others were playfully showing off their sharp, glimmering throwing shuriken or short swords. All of them were outfitted with the same headgear though, a mask made of cloth that twisted around their eyes.
"You are ninja," said Kenshin warily. He gripped the sword in his hands tighter. "You are brave ninja at that, to try and attack me with such few numbers."
"Do not be offended that we have come to take your life, Manslayer," said one of them with a ninja long sword in his hands. "The government of Japan fears your power too much. You are to surrender and stop your attacks in coordination with the revolt you are helping to lead, or we are to kill you."
"You haven't a chance, that you don't," said Kenshin. "But if you think you do, come and claim my life."
"Die, Battousai!" The ninja all ran forward at him from every angle. Kenshin chose not to move until the last second, until they were just close enough. He leapt up and back wards, maneuvering into a back flip with the utmost finesse and skill, twirling his blade under him as he did so.
The sword, a sword which had already slain so many helpless criminals, sliced across the neck-shoulder joint of a ninja below him. He dropped his sword, screaming and twitching on the ground. He would be dead in just a few seconds. It was a mortal wound.
The sword slashed across the face of a rather skilled ninja who was able to see it coming enough to dodge most of it. The ninja, however, was still in mortal peril. Although it would have cleanly beheaded the foe, a painless death no doubt, the ninja's attempt at a dodge only began a slow, painful death. He too fell to the ground, holding his face with both hands and screaming.
Kenshin landed in a crouch and brought his sword down with expert, lighting fast accuracy. It severed a man in two halves down the middle of his body. Kenshin turned around and whipped upward with the sword, which cut a short sword-wielding man across his jugular. The blood shot out of the fatal wound as Kenshin continued the turn.
The sword caught the blade of another ninja to his side, a skillful and well-timed block. The very slight delay in Kenshin's blindingly fast attacks was enough for a rain of shuriken to be fired from a trio of ninja above.
Kenshin's eyes only widened in shock for a second, as he again took control of the situation and put another series of attacks into play. The ninja who'd blocked Kenshin's deadly sword half a second earlier found said sword in his gut, for Kenshin had thrust it there and let go. He began to stagger backwards.
Kenshin ducked and rolled away from the pair of shuriken that had been thrown from the ninja above, a combined total of six. While evading with brilliant gymnast abilities, he caught two of them and came up behind the three ninja, having just landed.
With on in each hand, he reached around the necks of two of them and jammed a shuriken into their jugular veins and tore them out, ripping flesh, muscle and arteries out with it, sending blood in every direction. The third ninja reached into his vestment to pull out a dagger.
He charged Kenshin, thinking he had him, now that the samurai was unarmed. Kenshin sidestepped the charge and grabbed the assailant by the arm with one hand. He thrust his other, free, hand upward into the gut of the ninja. The stunned ninja loosened the grip on his weapon, which Kenshin seized and used on the ninja, thrusting that into the chest of the attacker where his heart was.
The body of the ninja fell backwards with the knife still in its chest. Kenshin quickly and effortlessly registered that only three more were alive, four, counting the one with his sword still in his gut.
Two of said ninja still alive prepared their attack with their straight ninja swords. They charged in with their one handed swords. The first one's horizontal slash was almost too easy to dodge with a nimble and limber bend of the body in a ninety degree angle backwards.
Kenshin grabbed the arm of this attacker with both of his legs, using his hands above his head to keep him standing. He twisted his legs, and the ninja rolled into the air. His hand let go of the sword, which twirled into the air, but the ninja's arm was not broken, as was intended. That ninja had some ability, noted Kenshin, but not much to worry about. This said ninja fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of him, as the other with the sword made his attack.
Kenshin jumped over the head of his attacker, straight up toward the thick limb of a tree hanging overhead. The ninja didn't notice this as he raised his straight-edged sword so it was perpendicular to the ground, ready to destroy the foolish samurai with no means of defense while falling.
While in the process of raising this ninja sword, however, he noticed Kenshin's feet hit the branch above, and the samurai pushed off hard, propelling him at unimaginable speeds toward him. He couldn't possibly raise the sword quick enough to defend his life, and Kenshin twisted his body while falling so that one arm knocked away the flat side of the sword. The other arm grabbed the ninja by the face as he tackled the black-clad warrior.
The impact caused the surrounding dirt to blow in all directions, a result of a weak kind of shock wave. The ninja was knocked unconscious. However, the one knocked to the ground previously was up again and ready to fight with the only other ninja left. This ninja lashed out with a volley of shuriken as the other ran in with a pair of swords to attack.
Kenshin had little time to react, though he didn't need much. He twisted in a full rotation so that the first two projectiles flew right by his face, missing by inches. Kenshin proceeded to duck forwards under a third shuriken, which cut a few strands of his red hair as its fall was delayed from his head. Kenshin straightened immediately to avoid an upward slash from a sword held by the other ninja.
He used the momentum of the rapid jerk upward to force himself into a back flip handspring. The sword-toting warrior slashed down with the other sword, however, which barely missed his feet during the evasive maneuver. Kenshin's back hit a tree, and he rolled away from it like it was a brilliant pick and roll move, just as a shuriken hit where his head used to be.
He turned to come around the other side of the tree, where a sword cut a large chunk out of the bark. Kenshin twisted away from it as it also barely missed. The ninja rolled with him around the tree and swung with a mighty blow using the sword in his right hand.
Kenshin caught him by the wrist just as he saw another set of shuriken buzzing toward him. Kenshin twisted the wrist, and the sword deflected one of the projectiles right in front of his face. The person holding the sword was in pain, and he hastily attacked with a horizontal slash with his left hand.
Kenshin jumped over the sword, still maintaining the hold on his right hand, and he twisted the hand even more. The man yelled as his hand was broken, and he let fall the sword. Kenshin grabbed it with his own right hand, his free hand, and twisted the person even more so that his body was forced upward into a seismic toss.
The body of the ninja went into the air just as Kenshin dodged and blocked two more shuriken from the pesky long range assailant. He let the body of the thrown ninja fall on his own sword as Kenshin straightened it properly. The entire length of the blade sliced through his chest, and he fell dead to the ground.
Kenshin looked up at the person twenty feet away. He was unarmed now, and the other had who knows how many projectiles in his vest still. The ninja had both hands in his vest, indicating he had at least enough to throw with both. The ninja flinched to throw his next volley, and Kenshin reached to his right, where his hand found the hilt of the sword which still lay imbedded in the gut of the standing, choking, bleeding ninja.
He took his sword and firmly slashed outward, spraying blood in front of him and to his side. The ninja let out a raspy scream, and he fell as the next two shuriken neared Kenshin. Continuing with the fluid motion of the jerk from the previously fallen's chest, Kenshin whirled the blade in front of him, and both twirling shuriken stars were deflected. They hit a tree behind him on either side.
The ninja reached quickly into his chest pockets again, but obviously found nothing, because his hands ventured to another pocket at his side. Again he found nothing. The panicked warrior patted around his person in a desperate attempt to find just one thing to use as a weapon. He was screwed.
"You are unarmed, yes you are," said Kenshin. The ninja looked up at him with fear and terror in his eyes. He fell to his knees.
"Please do not kill me, Battousai," he pleaded. "I'm unarmed. I cannot fight you any longer. I am of no threat to you anymore."
"You should accept your death with honor," said Kenshin as he raised his sword and prepared his last attack. "I will help you on your path to an honorable death and acceptance of defeat."
"No… please Himura," the ninja pleaded. "Don't kill-
Kenshin rocketed forward with deadly speed, and with a single movement of his arm, he sliced through the neck of the kneeling warrior. He straightened himself as he casually shook the blood off his sword with one jerk. He sheathed it as the head of the last ninja rolled off its shoulders, and the body fell to the ground with a sickening thud.
Kenshin walked into the shadows of the trees, not taking a single look back on the corpses of the group of foolish people who tried to stop him. His work would continue. Nothing would ever stop him from doing what he must.
That's the end of it. I love the Kenshin series. It ranks up there with Gundam Wing. If you liked this story, please submit a review, because I might think about continuing it, based on feedback. Otherwise, this is just a one chapter story. I have other Kenshin story ideas in my noodle as well, but I'm kinda busy at the moment. Check out my other awesome stories some time.