Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, hence why I am writing fanfic…

XXXXXXXTime/scene/ POV change

"English"

'Japanese'


Last Chapter:

"…Hai," he said keeping his eyes straight on the horizon. "…What about you and Sano?"

"What about us?"

"You two ever dated?"

A small wistful smile appeared on her face. "We did a while back, but it never worked out. We have more of a sibling type of relationship," she said. "…What about your parents, where do they live?"

"They're dead," he simply stated. "How about yours?"

"Same… So…how close are you and Aoshi?"

"Close, like brothers. You have any siblings?"

"One…a younger brother…or two if you count Sano," she said a bright smile appearing on her face. "But my younger brother is still in Japan. He's planning on moving here as soon as our aunt back home can raise the money to send him over."

"I see…"


Chapter 7:

Kenshin listened to his 'friends' chatter endlessly about their first week of school, which had just ended with a small Friday night outing at the local Japanese restaurant called the Akabeko, all planned by a certain blued eyed girl. As they walked down the hallway towards their dorm rooms, Kenshin's eyes narrowed as he realized that the door to his and Sano's dorm was slightly ajar. Sano blinked in surprise when Kenshin, whom he had been talking to, suddenly disappeared from beside him and reappeared up in front of the girls with his arm out to stop them. The three girls glanced at each other in confusion, before turning their gaze to the short red headed man in front of them, whose eyes were narrowed in concentration.

"Kenshin, what's –" Kaoru stopped when Kenshin's finger went up to his lips in a gesture for silence.

Kenshin reached into his pocket and glanced back at Aoshi, who nodded and began ushering the girls to stand behind him. With a quick flip of his wrist, his black switchblade snapped open and Kenshin swiftly made his way into the dorm, ignoring the worried whispers of the others out in the hall. Letting his eyes adjust to the darkness of his home, he scanned the living room and finding that nothing was out of place, he headed towards his slightly opened bedroom door. But just as he was about to enter the hallway, his senses went off and he shifted to the side just in time to see a fist sail mere centimeters from his face.

Without wasting a breath, Kenshin whirled around and slammed his assailant's body up against the wall with his switchblade held threateningly at his throat. Kenshin's eyes narrowed as the middle aged man smiled viciously down at him, feeling unthreatened by the metal at his throat.

"Your reputation precedes you Battousi-san," said the man with a knowing look in his eyes.

"Who are you?" Kenshin hissed warily.

"I had heard that you were an amazing kid, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised," he continued on ignoring the redhead's questions.

"Who are you?" Kenshin repeated his eyes narrowing further.

The man's smile slowly changed into a smirk. "The boss wants to talk to you," he said.

"You still haven't answered my question," said Kenshin. "Who are you?"

"You'll find out soon enough" he said in an arrogant tone. "Now let me go and I'll take you to him."

"I don't think you're in any position to be telling me what to do," whispered Kenshin his patience beginning to run thin.

"On the contrary, I think we are," he said just as Kenshin felt a blade lightly touch his back.

"Let him go," a soft voice whispered beside his ears. Inwardly, Kenshin cursed himself for being so careless and overconfident. Stiffly, Kenshin released the taller man's shirt collar and dropped his hands to his sides. "Atta boy," smirked the man in a condescending manner.

"I take it, they sent you," Kenshin said forcing himself into a relaxed stance.

"Very perceptive of you," the man smirked. "Our boss wants to discuss some things with you."

"They'll get suspicious if I walk out of here with some wannabe robbers," said Kenshin glancing at the front door which was still slightly ajar.

"Don't worry about that," said the second man walking up close to the door. "Just play along and follow us. We hear you're a pretty fast runner."

"What do…" Before Kenshin could even finish, the man that was standing in front of him shoved him hard and the man by the door quickly threw it open. The red head was so surprised that he stumbled out into the hallway and landed painfully on his butt.

"Kenshin!" he heard Kaoru from the direction of the girls' dorm where Aoshi had obviously been trying to bring them.

Just as he looked up, the two men took off towards the staircase and Kenshin scrambled to his feet. Glancing back at Aoshi once again, and seeing complete understanding in his icy blue eyes, he turned his attention back to the two that had just disappeared into the stairwell.

XXXXXX

Aoshi nodded at Kenshin as his eyes seemed to say 'don't let them follow me,' before turning his attention to Sano, who was just about to take off after the redhead.

Putting his hands on the boy's shoulder, Aoshi stopped him and took a step forward.

"He can't handle them by himself! Did you see the size of those guys?!" cried out Sano.

"He'll be fine," Aoshi answered.

"Why did he even go after them? What matters is that nobody's hurt," said Megumi.

"Himura's always had a strong sense of justice," answered Misao.

"We can't just leave him," insisted Kaoru looking worriedly towards the door leading into the stairwell.

Aoshi sighed. "Sano stay here, there may be more of them around," he said sensing that he was about to protest. "I'll go after him."

Without even waiting for the spiky haired boy to answer, Aoshi took off after Kenshin. He did not doubt that Kenshin was fine, but the others, minus Misao, were not so sure and would not relax feeling that the small redheaded man might be in danger. So he would go, if only to keep them from acting brashly in order to 'save' their new friend. Aoshi sped down the steps and as he reached the parking lot, hesitated because he didn't know which direction his friend had taken. Jogging onto the sidewalk, he was slightly surprised to see a flash of red hair disappear down an alleyway on his left.

With such a late start, Aoshi would have expected Kenshin to have gotten a lot farther then just a nearby alleyway. Heck, he should've already caught the two suspected robbers. Walking over to the alleyway and finding a desolate dead end, he quickly scanned the sides for a door. Finding one, Aoshi stepped out of the alleyway and leaned back against the wall casually to wait for his friend to finish his business.

The redhead's lack of speed meant only one thing; that he wasn't trying to catch the two men, but rather following them. So there really was no danger in the first place.

XXXXXX

Kenshin blinked as the darkness of the room was suddenly replaced with bright, almost blinding, lights. The room was an ordinary looking office with a wooden desk in the center and two comfy chairs placed in front of it. Behind the desk sat a sleazy looking man with a mustache. Despite the professional looking room, he wore an old polo shirt and some plain brown pants.

"Himura! Well what a surprise!" cried out the man good-naturedly. Kenshin had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes childishly at the man. "It's been what, nearly three months since I've seen you last? How've you been?"

"Iizuka-san," Kenshin nodded as a form of acknowledgement, eyes a cold amber. "What's my assignment?"

"Jeeze Himura, you need to loosen up," laughed the man. "It's always about business with you."

"Iizuka…" Kenshin said, a slight edge in his voice.

"Alright alright," sighed Iizuka. "Try to be nice to him and this is what I get," he mumbled. "Anyway, here is most of the information you will need," he slid a manila envelope across the desk to Kenshin, "Katsura-san will inform you of the rest of the details soon."

Kenshin picked up the envelope and nodded. "Is that all?"

"That's it for now. Oh, and one more thing, if the US government – their CIA or FBI or whatever – find out what we are doing, we may have to cooperate and work with them, by their laws and terms. So be sure to take care of this discretely if at all possible.

"Understood," said Kenshin bowing quickly and leaving the small office. Hastily, Kenshin exited the alleyway and wasn't surprised to be joined by Aoshi.

For a while, they walked slowly back the dorms in silence, before Aoshi decided to break it with a question he more than likely knew the answer to.

"Was it them?" he asked keeping his eyes straight out in front of him.

"Hai," Kenshin murmured fingering the envelope in his right hand.

"So I guess your vacation is over?"

"Hai."

"What's with the wannabe robbers?"

Kenshin gave a small sigh and an annoyed look entered his eyes. "Over the past few years, Iizuka has suddenly taken up the sport of 'testing' me before giving me my assignments."

"In other words, he's playing with you."

"Exactly… though he insists that he is 'keeping me on my toes,' as he puts it. He and I both know that he is doing this for his own amusement," said Kenshin rolling his eyes at the man's immaturity at times.

"I see he hasn't changed much," commented Aoshi.

"Nope."

By this time, the two men had reached the front of the dorm building and were climbing the stairs two at a time. As they reached their floor, Kenshin quickly stashed the envelope into his room before he and Aoshi entered the girl's dorm where their friends were watching T.V.

As the two entered the room, the three girls and Sano turned around. "Did you get them?" asked Misao.

Aoshi sent her a look. "No, they got away."

"Oh…"

Kenshin casually rounded the couch and lifted Kaoru's legs, which had been spread out on the couch, before sitting down and replacing her feet on top of his lap so that she wouldn't have to change positions. "They were really fast," he said leaning back comfortably.

"They didn't look all that fast to me," said Sano his eyes watching Kenshin suspiciously.

Kenshin shrugged. "Maybe you should've gone after them, then."

Sano's eyes narrowed slightly and a tense silence seemed to cover the room.

Sensing some hostility from the normally cheerful Sano, Aoshi cleared his throat. "Misao.. we should get going," he said breaking the silence.

"Uhh…yeah," said Misao getting up to her feet. The girls, of course, promptly got to their feet to say good-bye, and Kenshin merely nodded his head at Aoshi as a gesture of farewell.

Rolling his neck tiredly, Kenshin listened as the girls gave each other hugs and then promised to make plans to go out like this again, before the door closed and Kaoru and Megumi returned.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

So much for my afternoon!

Kenshin sighed as he leaned against the glass railing overlooking the ramp filled with arriving passengers at the LAX Airport. He had been planning to start his assignment today, but apparently that would have to wait. Not that he was complaining; he had been putting off opening the envelope that Iizuka had given him all week and one more day couldn't hurt. Besides, Sano had asked him personally if he could pick the kid up and Kenshin wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to regain the trust that had started to waver ever since that break-in nearly a week ago.

So once again, Kenshin allowed his eyes to scan the crowds of people walking up the ramp, pushing up carts of luggage, for a "brat about 10 years old with dark crazy hair and dark eyes" as Sano had put it. Apparently, the kid was Kaoru's little brother and he had somehow scrounged up enough money to come to America. He had called Sanosuke and the two decided to surprise Kaoru with his arrival. So in other words, Kaoru knew nothing about her brother's coming and Kenshin was the one responsible for picking him up and keeping him occupied until Sano brought Megumi and Kaoru home from their classes.

Seeing a boy that seemed to fit Sano's description, Kenshin stepped back from the railing and headed to the gate where he would meet the kid. Slowly, Kenshin made his way over to the boy, who was obviously scanning the crowds of people for the familiar rooster head.

"Yahiko?" Kenshin said as he stepped up to the boy. The kid jumped and whirled around.

"…Yeah…who are you?" he asked in a slightly accented English.

"Kenshin, I'm a friend of Sano," he answered his face betraying no emotion.

"…Why didn't he come?"

"He had work and couldn't get off on such short notice." A scowl appeared on the boy's face and Kenshin shrugged. He picked up one of the boy's luggages, and began to walk away, knowing that the boy was following him. Catching up to the redhead as they exited the airport building, Yahiko looked up to the short man.

'Do you speak Japanese?" he asked in his native tongue.

'A bit,' Kenshin answered keeping his face straight. The scowl on Yahiko's face grew deeper and they continued on in silence. Just as they entered Kenshin's car, a phone started ringing and Kenshin shoved his hand into his pocket and and flipped his cell phone open.

'Hai.'

'Did you get him?'

'Yeah I got him.'

'Alright, thanks a lot,' said Sano's voice.

'No problem,' he answered.

'Also, we won't be back until about 4 o'clock cuz Kaoru needs to pick something up at a friend's house. So you can just drop the brat off at the apartment, if you want, or entertain him or whatever you want.'

'Alright. So I guess we'll see you at four?'

'Yep. Bye'

Kenshin snapped the phone closed and glanced at the boy in the passenger seat. The scowl on the boy's face had grown deeper, if that was possible. A smirk appeared on Kenshin's lips, before he asked, 'Are you hungry?'

Yahiko glared at the redhead before turning to look out the window and grudgingly nodding his head.

What a jerk! A bit of Japanese my butt! He speaks it perfectly!


AN: Sorry for the lonng wait and for those of you also following my other stories, i'm extremely sorry for not updating much. School's been so stressful and i haven't been in the writing mood. I know, i know more excuses, but I'm sure most of you know how it feels when life gets in the way of writing. lol. ya so i hope you liked this chapter. Next Chapter will have some Yahiko&Kenshin interaction and who knows what else. PLease Reveiw!!!!