Nori: You know, I'm not even sure of what chapter I'm on now. So I will just do the disclaimer! I do not own Rurouni Kenshin or any of the characters but I do own all the OC's and ideas! READ!

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"Sano, hold still, I need to fix that hand," a woman demanded to the man who's hand she held. "This is the fourth time you've broken it, now!"

The man just looked away from her.

"Are you even listening to, me? Sano!" the woman shouted to him. He looked up.

"Yea, I'm listening, can you stop being so bossy?" he said. "Ow! That hurt!" he pulled his hand away.

The woman glared at him and held out her hand.

"Sanosuke," she said in a tone only a mother would use towards her child. Sano rolled his eyes and held his hand out to the woman again. She began to finish bandaging it up. "You do realize that if you break your hand this badly anymore it might need to be amputated, don't you?"

Sano didn't answer her. He just sat there until finally she said,

"There, finished. Don't use that hand for anything for about five days, ok?"

"Yea," Sano sighed. "Thanks, Megumi." He stood up and walked out of the room where Megumi had bandaged his hand. He walked down a few long hallways and into the kitchen where another woman, younger than Megumi sat cooking. A boy was with her, too.

"Hey Sano!" the boy shouted. "How's your hand doing? Did Megumi fix it for you?"

"Yea, it's fine," Sanosuke told him. "I just can't use it for a few days." He took a whiff of the air and smelled something burning. "Great, the little missy here is cooking again?" he said sarcastically.

"I heard that, Sanosuke!" the girl bending over a pot straightened and glared at Sanosuke. She had a wooden spoon in her hand that was still wet and steaming from the boiling water. She glared at the tall man.

"Haha, yea, Kenshin said that he had to run some errands so Kaoru has to cook," the boy told Sanosuke. "I guess we should all plan on puking later tonight."

"Yahiko!" Kaoru shouted and chased after the boy with her wooden spoon still in hand. Yahiko ran away from the crazed teen while managing to still laugh his head off. Sanosuke just chuckled at how immature the two could be sometimes. But, then, who was he to talk? He insulted the girl all the time. He just smiled and shook his head.

Sano turned and walked out of the kitchen, then out of the whole Kamiya Dojo. He took a deep breath in, savoring the fresh air. He began to walk off the dojo's grounds and into town.

Sano looked up and noticed the dark clouds; the air was thick with the smell of rain. This didn't bother him, though. The rain was always so calming and relaxing. He loved it, even though he wouldn't admit it to any of his friends. Sanosuke was the type of guy who always put up this tough front. He would always pick fights, even if he knew he would lose in the end.

At the same time, though, again not wanting to admit it, but still, everyone knew that Sano was caring. He would do anything to protect the ones he really loved. In the past he had even come close to death making sure that his friends were safe.

He kept walking at a steady pace through town. Hardly anyone was on the streets, probably because of the coming rain. This didn't bother Sanosuke, he hated walking through crowds of people, it annoyed him to no end.

Drip. Drip.

Sano flinched when he felt a raindrop land on his nose. He looked up at the sky again. It had begun to sprinkle. He smiled. The small drops of rain landing on his skin in the hot weather felt so good.

He continued to walk. He headed for the small forest that was to the east of the dojo. It was the perfect place to train in weather like this. If it began to pour the trees would block enough of the rain out so he wouldn't slip, but let enough through to keep him cooled off.

Sano made it to the woods. He walked through the bushes and trees to his favorite training spot. It was a small clearing, trees surrounding it in an almost perfect circle. There was a pond with a little water fall at the end too. The water was clear and clean, a perfect spot to drink.

He smiled and lay on the ground on his stomach with his hands right next to his chest. With his back as straight as a board he began doing push ups.

"Screw what Megumi told me about my hand," he said to himself. "It feels fine."

He did hundreds of push ups, nonstop. By the time he felt he was finished he hadn't even broke a sweat. His breathing was still normal.

Then he lay on his back and began to do sit ups. Every time he sat up he would punch twice. He did as many sit ups as he did push ups. When was finished he jumped to his feet. He was soaking wet from the rain and his own sweat.

But, the push ups and sit ups were just a warm up for Sano. He walked over to one of the trees that surrounded the clearing. He began to punch the tree with all his strength. Bits of bark flew everywhere each punch he did. After awhile, though, his bandaged hand began to throb. He winced a bit in pain and stopped to look at it.

The bandages were soaked so he peeled them off. His knuckles were bloody and swollen. Sano knew they would begin to bruise soon, but he didn't care. He needed to toughen up his hand so it wouldn't keep breaking.

Sano just threw the bandages to the side. His white shirt with the symbol for "bad" on it was getting soaked and it began to stick to his toned chest. He took it off and threw it where the bandages were. Then, he went back to his training. Without the wrappings on his hand it hurt even more, but he still pushed himself through it all.

Once he felt he was done with his upper body training, he began to train his legs. He started by throwing simple roundhouse kicks to the same tree he was punching a few minutes ago. (A/n: That poor tree is really getting abused…)

As Sanosuke was training his legs, he heard a shriek from a far off distance in the forest. He stopped kicking the tree and looked around. He tried to figure out where the scream had come from. He could definitely tell it was a female's voice, but who and where were they?

Sano just shook his head, water dripped everywhere. The rain was coming down harder, now. Maybe it was just a bird or some other animal. He went back to kicking the tree. This time he used combinations. He would roundhouse kick, into back kick, into side kick, into three point punches.

Just as he was about to start another technique he heard the scream again. It seemed to be the same voice but this time it wasn't as high pitched. It was more like a lower grunt as if whoever it was just attacked someone. The voice seemed closer and was followed by more yelling. Now, Sano knew for sure he wasn't just hearing things.

The voices got even closer until Sanosuke heard footsteps behind him. He spun around just in time to see a young girl with flaming red hair carrying a Dao sword with a red hilt to match her hair jump down from the waterfall into the small pond. She trudged through the water as fast as she could.

The girl turned and looked back. Right when she did two huge men jumped into the pond where she was. The men seemed to be after her for some reason. The girl jumped out of the water and spun to face her two attackers.

"What do you want!?" she shouted. "Why are you following me?" She held her sword out in front of her.

"You're not from here! You're a spy of the government!" one of the men shouted. He was tall and overly muscular. It looked like he could crush anything by just touching it. His hair was dark brown and spiky, his eyes were the same color.

"I told you! I'm not from here but I have nothing to do with your stupid government!" the girl shouted back at them. She glared at the two.

Sano's eyes went wide. He saw that her eyes were two different colors. One bright blue, the other violet. He had never seen anyone like her in his life. She was so unique. Where did this girl come from? She was tan and short, like many Asians, but her eyes. Their color and shape, they were nothing like the people from Japan.

"Look at the way you dress. And your hair and eyes, how can you not be working for the government?" the other man shouted.

He was more stupid looking than the first and much smaller. He was still large enough to crush the girl, though. His teeth were a disgusting yellow, and his eyes were grey. His hair was shoulder length and a greenish brown color. He wore a white strip of fabric around his neck.

Sano looked back over at the girl. He was so entranced in her eyes that he never noticed her clothes or how beat up she looked. The girl wore an orange tank top with a studded black belt around her waist hung to the side a bit. The clothes on her legs were in between pants and shorts. They were black and baggy and stopped just below her knees. She was barefoot and her feet looked tired and sore from running through these woods.

That's when the girl looked over at Sano. She squinted her eyes in confusion, as if she wasn't sure how he got there.

"Don't tell me you're with them, too," she groaned. "I might be able to take on those two at once, but I know I'm done for with three against one!"

Sano just stared at her for a moment. Entranced by her eyes, again. He snapped out of it, though and shook his head.

"N-no, I don't know these thugs," he said. "But I can help in getting rid of them for you."

The girl just looked at Sano and smirked. She nodded.

"That'd be great," she said and turned back to the men just in time to block an attack from the man with the greenish brown hair. While Sano and the girl weren't paying attention he had pulled a dagger out and went to attack while she was off guard. Luckily, though she was quick and used her sword to block and push the man back.

Sano ran over to her and stood next to her. His fists were clenched and ready for this fight. His shirt was still off and his skin shimmered from the sweat and rain water. The other larger man rushed towards Sanosuke. This man had no weapon, which didn't surprise Sano. He didn't need one because of his massive size. He went to kick Sanosuke but he blocked and countered with a punch of his own. The hit connected with the man's jaw. It knocked him back a bit but wasn't enough to count him out for this fight. He ran back towards Sano and punched him full force in the gut.

Sano keeled over for a moment and coughed. He glared up at the thug and hit him with a back fist to the temple. The hit was hard and moved the man to the side more. This gave Sano a chance to back up.

The man's eyes glazed over for a second but he just shook it off. He glared over at Sano, who just glared right back. He shifted his eyes to the side for a second to see how the girl was doing with the other thug. She seemed to be holding her own pretty well, Sano was impressed.

But, during that short period of time he looked over the man he was fighting pulled out a dagger of his own. He came charging towards Sanosuke, ready to kill.

Sano looked back at him and moved to the side, dodging the blade. Sano then elbowed the man in the arm, causing him to drop his weapon and fall forward. Sanosuke then took this chance to kick him right in the back of the neck, full force. The man went flying across the clearing and landed face first into a tree. He fell back with a loud thud and lay on the ground unconscious. Sano smirked.

"Serves him right," he said aloud.

He looked back over at the girl with bright red hair and saw that the man she was fighting lay unconscious as well. She stood over him with her hands on her hips. Her Dao was sheathed. She turned her head to Sano.

She stared at him for a moment, taking in his appearance. He was very tall. Well over six feet. His hair was brown and seemed to defy all laws of gravity, his eyes were chocolate brown. Around his forehead he wore a red headband. At the moment he had his shirt off so she could see his well toned chest and arms. His pants were white and under them he wore white wrappings. His shoes were just plain black.

"Thanks," she said once she finished looking him over. She turned and walked away from him.

"Wait!" Sano called, grabbing his shirt and running over to her. She looked at him.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Who are you?" was all Sano said.

"Uh, I, um…" the girl picked up her pace as she walked through the woods but Sano easily kept up. "Um, no one."

"No one?" Sano asked. "Just tell me your name."

"Why don't you tell me your name first," she retorted.

"I asked first," he said.

"So," the girl said and smiled. "I won't tell you my name until you tell me yours." She stopped walking and folded her arms over her chest.

Sano narrowed his eyes at her, and then sighed. This was going nowhere. He might as well just tell her his name and then maybe he could get some information out of her.

"I'm Sagara Sanosuke," he told her. "There, happy? Now tell me your name. And about those weird clothes you're wearing."

Now the girl glared at Sano. How dare he insult her clothing!

"Hey! Shut up!" she shouted at him, her arms at her sides now, hands clenched into fists. She stood on her tip toes to attempt to get into his face, but she failed miserably being as short as she was. "You're calling my clothes weird? Look at yours! Weirder! And so is that name ya got."

"Don't you dare insult my name!" Sano shouted back bending down to her level so he was able to get in her face. "I'm named after the great leader of the Sekihoutai!"

The girl's face turned from anger to a softer expression. She stood normal now.

"Sekihoutai?" she repeated. "What's that?"

"How could you have not heard about the Sekihoutai?" Sano stepped back from the girl. "The lies about the army spread all across Japan." He shook his head. "We were a joke."

"What lies?" the mysterious girl asked.

"You know, girlie, I should be the one asking the questions here," Sano snapped at her. "You were the one who barged in on my training session."

"But you were the one who offered to help me," she smirked. Sano glared at her, yet again, and grit his teeth. How did she always know what to say back?

"Just tell me. What's your name? That's all I want to know, then I'll gladly leave you alone!" Sano said through his teeth.

"It's Ruri," was all she said. She turned and walked away.

"Ruri…" Sano smiled. "I've never met a girl like her." Then he turned and walked the other way, back to the Kamiya Dojo.

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Nori: DONE! OH MY GOD! IM SORRY I WAITED THIS LONG TO UPDATE!

Tama: Good job! Makin' people wait like that.

Nori: You're one to talk! But, I have an excuse, with Christmas and school and my brother and we just got a new computer, I didn't have time to update everything! But never fear! Updates for all my fics will definitely be up soon! IM SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT!!

Tama: Read and review please!

Nori: NO FLAMES!