Kaoru awoke in the middle of the night. She looked around the room which was dimly lit and saw Kenshin, still sitting up against the wall, he was slouching a little against his sword in front of him, he was awake. " Are you alright, Kaoru? Go back to sleep." Kenshin said. Kaoru just nodded and laid her head back on the pillow and drifted off to sleep, knowing Kenshin would watch over her.

Few minutes later, Sano and Aoshi came into the room. " Is Kaoru-san sleeping, Battosai?" Aoshi asked, settling down next to Kenshin, Sano closed the shoji door quietly and settled down on the floor himself. Kenshin nodded and spoke quietly, as to not wake Kaoru up. " Yeah, just few minutes ago." They all went to sleep on the cold floor.

Earlier that morning, Sano had found them a place to sleep, the same place they were now staying and had snuck them in without the landlord knowing. The next morning, the landlord came into their room asking for their payment. Neither had the amount of money to keep them for another week. So they were all kicked out into the streets, asleep or not.

" Ow!" Kaoru cried as she landed painfully on her butt. She glared at the landlord who never gave another glance at them as he entered back into his hotel. Sano went over to Kaoru and helped her up, she began to brush all the dirt off her clothing. Once everyone was sure that they hadn't broke anything, they walked down the streets of Tokyo, looking for a place to stay, some hard earning job and some food in their stomachs.

A guy from a brothel was watching people on the streets, looking for a new woman to add to his collection. There he saw, a girl walking with some guys. He smirked, ' Finally a prey this early in the morning. I couldn't be more lucky than this.' The guy came up to them and looked over at the raven haired girl, a grin appeared on his face, " Hey girl," He addressed Kaoru. She looked up at him, " What?" Kaoru retorted. The guy just smirked even wider. " Want to work for me?" The man asked as he pointed to a building full of pretty women.

Aoshi, Kenshin and Sano looked over where the man was offering their Kaoru to go. It was a brothel, a place for prostitutes. The three of them went into a defensive stance in front of the man, blocking his way to Kaoru. " No way, is Jou-chan ever going to be a prostitute!" Sano yelled. " Although she may be good looking..." Aoshi started, " HEY!" Kenshin and Sano cried turning to look over at their other friend, " ... But I will never let her be a part of that filthy scum of a place." Aoshi concluded. The guy just laughed. " That's why I want her, 'cause guys these days like them young." the guy smirked.

Kenshin snarled at the comment. " You sick bastard!" Kenshin yelled, pulling out his sakabato. Kaoru stopped him with a pull on his hakama. He turned slightly and spoke, " Why, Kaoru?" Instead of replying, Kaoru walked up to the man and turned back to her companions. " We really need the money guys." Kaoru desperately said.

The man smiled. " Good choice, little girl. Now come-" the man made an attempt to grab her, but Aoshi stopped him and spoke, " What if we don't want you to, Kaoru-san?" Kaoru looked over at Aoshi and pouted. " Aoshi! We really need it." " Don't you know what a prostitute is or does?" Sano asked. Kaoru just cocked her head to the side. " Do I have to?" Kaoru asked. The three boys sweatdropped animately.

" No, I don't think she does." the man said as he took a step towards Kaoru. Aoshi also took a step forward. " Ah, ah,ah. Touch her and you die." Aoshi threatened. Kenshin pulled Kaoru to the side, sheilding her from the man and looked at her. " Kaoru, a prostitute is when a girl or woman, such as yourself is forced to sleep with a man." Kenshin carefully said. Kaoru just shrugged. " Sounds easy to me. I don't know why it got you guys all worked up. I sleep with you all the time, Ken-nii." Kaoru said.

Kenshin shook his head in exasperation. " It's not the same, Jou-chan." Sano said. " It's not?" Kaoru replied. " No. I mean sleeping with a man, being intimate with him." Kenshin replied as easily as he could. " What's 'intimate'?" Kaoru chirped innocently. Aoshi, Sano and Kenshin fell down animately " WHHHAT?!" ( I knoe your thinking that Kaoru might be dumb for not knowing, but most kids at that age doesn't know what the word, 'intimate' is. deal with it.).

The man just chuckled. " What's wrong about it?" Kaoru asked. Aoshi glared at the man for putting those thoughts into the little girl as they pulled her away with her desperate attempts to get away and back to the man to take him up on his offer. " You guys! Let me go! Why did you do that?" Kaoru looked back. " Because you're not ready to do those kinds of things yet." Sano replied. Kaoru just balled her fists. " I am too ready, Sano." Kaoru said. " You're just a kid, Kaoru." Kenshin said.

POW!!

" No, I'm not!!" cried Kaoru. Kenshin was unconcious on the ground. " Okay, you're not Jou-chan." Sano said, wanting to give the subject a rest. " Yup! Now come on! I don't want to stay out in this heat..." Kaoru groaned. " Stop your groaning, Kaoru." Aoshi said. Kaoru turned to look at the stoic boy and replied, " Well... you wouldn't know heat because all you could feel is coldness!!"

" Oohh..." Sano and Kenshin said. Kaoru's face held triumph. " Do you want to die, Kaoru? Because I have no problem in killing women." Aoshi said. " Don't you dare hurt her, Aoshi. We're friends!" Kenshin cried. " Want to make something of it? The little brat started it and I've come to end it. It's as easy as that, Himura." " Is that a challenge, Aoshi?" Kenshin smirked. Kaoru left and Sano went to chase after her. While Kenshin and Aoshi continued their battle on the streets.

In the middle of their battle, they got arrested by the town police. " Hey! Let us go! We're only children! You can't do this to us!" Kenshin cried. " That's true, but in this case, you two were carrying swords and that's illegal here now. So you should get punished for carrying them." The police officer said as he dragged them both to the police station, where they were both put behind bars and locked them in.

Aoshi looked around. " Hey, Battosai?" Aoshi said. " Now what, Aoshi?" Kenshin growled. " Where's the chicken head and Kaoru?" Aoshi asked. " Huh?" Kenshin replied looking around and realized that they had left when they got caught. ' Grr... Sano.' Kenshin angrily thought. " They ditched us!" Kenshin cried. " Or... They had another reason for doing that." Aoshi said. They thought and shouted, " KAORU!!" " She's always getting us into trouble." Aoshi retorted. " Well... she is the youngest of the group." Kenshin pointed out. " Yeah, I know. But how do we contact them? We're stuck in here." Aoshi said.

" Hmm... Let's stop and think about it." Kenshin said and he got a bonk on the head. Kenshin fell to the ground unconcious. ' Stupid Himura.' Aoshi thought angrily.

Few minutes later, a scream was heard. " Aaaahhh!! Hey! Put me down!" Kenshin and Aoshi both looked up and saw a police officer carrying Kaoru over his shoulder. " Let me go, or you'll be sorry. Grr..." Kaoru cried. " Hey! What did she do?" Kenshin asked. " She ran out for not paying for her meal." the police officer replied straining to contain the struggling girl on his shoulder. " NO!" Kaoru cried and then whimpered, " Well.. yes... but..." " Kaoru..." both guys groaned. Kaoru wailed.

The police officer threw the girl in the cell with her two buddies. She landed face first into the concrete. Kaoru wailed some more. Kenshin crawled over to the bawling girl, " Kaoru? Where's Sano?" " S-Sano. He ditched me!!" Kaoru cried. Aoshi and Kenshin sighed.

' I think I should get Kaoru out of jail before Aoshi and Kenshin finds out.' Sano thought walking the way to the police station and fishing out some money for Kaoru's bail. When he arrived there, Sano couldn't believe who was there too. " Kenshin and Aoshi. What? Have they finally arrested you for trying to kill each other?" Sano joked. " Sanosuke..." Aoshi growled. Sano just shook his head as he paid for their bail. " Tsk. Tsk. What will you guys do without me? One minute I leave and the next you guys got yourself locked up. Tsk. Tsk." All three of them growled at him angrily. " What? Don't tell me you want to go back in there?" Sano tsk at them again.

They again all walked down the streets of Tokyo looking for a new home, some paying job and food in their stomachs.