Disclaimer: Not mine, nor will it ever be.
A/N: Hey guys, my life has been really hectic later. I have a business studies test on Monday, a Math test on Wednesday my birthdays next month along with my brothers and my sisters birthday and, worst of all, my best friends mum just died. She had a brain tumor so I've been spending a lot of time with him. So, I apologize for this late update and the next chapter may be slightly late as well.
This chapter is dedicated to Kate, may you rest in peace.
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But really, who knew that the most feared assassin in all of Japan, was caught without a hakama on at the age of thirteen? Or that at the age of eleven he wet the bed.
Well, Saito said to himself smirking, if I have it my way, everyone at that table will know.
Lunch was going to be very interesting today.
--------The Make Kenshin's Life Hell Group-------
The entire room was currently stiflingly silent. Kenshin was starting to feel claustrophobic, especially with the way Saito and Hiko kept on smirking at him. And for some reason Aoshi kept on looking at him and Kaoru oddly.
For the first time since his training with Hiko, Kenshin tried to eat quickly so that he could get away from the room. The odd thing was, Hiko and Saito weren't the only ones that were acting oddly. He could sense mischief emanating from the ki of Megumi, Yahiko, Misao, Sano, Okami and even Katsura. And anything that could make all of them feel mischievous was definitely not good.
Feeling a spike of humour go through his master ki, Kenshin sent a glare over, just knowing that there was no way that Hiko would let him sneak off without enduring some form of humiliation after the events of last night. Neither, for that matter, would Saito. The only difference between them was that Hiko knew him far better than Saito ever would.
Hiko knew which buttons to push, and when Kenshin would react out of his frustration. Hiko also knew that Kenshin had virtually no chance of beating him, not with Kenshin's no-kill vow, and with that Kenshin would barely even be able to wound him.
Saito, on the other hand wasn't so confident. He knew that Kenshin wouldn't kill him, but despite popular belief Kenshin wasn't all that much of a pacifist. It was true that he didn't enjoy to fight, but when he did fight, he only held back enough not to kill. Broken bones, ligaments or deep wounds he could and would do. And, as had been proved in the fight up on top of Mt Hiei, Kenshin's skills had not declined enough for him not to be able to wound him badly. Saito did not want to think about what could happen should Kenshin ever hit him with the Amakakeru Ryu No Hirameki.
Hiko seemed to sense these thoughts and thought that it was time this was sped up a little bit before Kenshin managed to escape. Although from the looks of things, his idiot apprentice's friends seemed to have something of their own up their sleeves. And from what he knew about the 'Kenshin-gumi' as they called themselves, it was bound to be humiliating.
"So, what did you all do today," said Misao cheerfully, beating Hiko to the punch of breaking the ice. It was actually quite surprising that Misao had managed to stay quiet for so long, she was normally hyper and talkative, was she perhaps thinking about the humiliation, whoops, I mean matchmaking, of her friends?
"Ah, you know, Kenshin and I went for a walk," said Sano casually. "Talked a bit, you know."
"What did you talk about?" asked Kaoru, trying desperately to keep the conversation going. Even though she couldn't sense ki, she to was beginning to feel claustrophobic.
Sano was practically bursting from trying to suppress his laughter from the look on Kenshins face. "Oh you know, this and that," he answered, with barely suppressed mirth in his voice. Hearing this, Kenshin intensified the glare he was pinning Sano with. He was only a step away from being Battousai, with his violet eyes flecked with bits of amber.
Hiko was wondering what on earth they had talked about. From what he had seen so far, not one of his baka deshi's friends had managed to infuriate him anywhere close to amber eyes. But, he set that thought aside for another time. He could always humiliate or blackmail his apprentice into telling but for now, Saito looked like he was about to speak.
Kenshin had apparently noticed the same thing, for he had stopped staring at Sano and his eyes were instead roving around the room, looking for possible exits.
"Well, I had quite a… informative morning," Saito began, smirking. Kenshin turned his glare over to Saito and, on occasion, flicking his eyes over to Hiko. Sano would never let him live any of these stories down, now would Saito. Or Misao, for that matter.
Everyone just stared at him in shock. Saito very rarely spoke on the rare occasion that he saw the entire Kenshin-gumi, only to offer degrading comment here and there. From Okami and Katsura's point of view, he only spoke about battles and swords and such.
Just by seeing the look on Kenshins face and the smirk both Hiko and Saito were wearing, Katsura could tell that this was bound to be both interesting, humiliating and utterly hilarious.
"Do tell," said Hiko, his smirk widening at the mess that was currently his students ki. Kenshin was apparently comfortable enough to have forgotten to mask his ki, and Hiko could sense a lot of terror emanating from it along with embarrassment and annoyance.
The fact that Hiko had lowered himself down enough to – well almost – ask a question cemented the belief in everyone's head that this was bound to be interesting.
"Yes, I was talking to Hiko-san, and he was telling me about a few troubles he had had with his apprentice years ago. Although, I don't quite recall what it was…? Something about bed wetting? Or perhaps it was accidentally throwing a stone at a beehive? And there was something about being chased by rabbits?"
By now everyone at the table was roaring with laughter while Kenshin was just staring stonily at nothing in particular. Kenshin kept his composure through sheer will power and only a slight hint of red appeared on his cheeks. This made Hiko stopped laughing and he looked at Kenshin thoughtfully with something akin to pride in his eyes.
Katsura had never in his wildest dreams thought anything like this would have ever happened to Battousai. He was wondering how on earth he was going to look at the Battousai in his own time the same ever again. Okami was going along the same thoughts. No wonder Kenshin always refused to talk about his childhood, she thought with pure mirth.
Yahiko, on the other hand, was laughing from both relief and mirth. If somebody else had discovered something like this about their idol and role-model then it would probably make them fall off that persons pedestal. But finding this out about Kenshin just made Yahiko admire Kenshin more. The fact that Kenshin had once been young, impressionable and a bit of an idiot yet still managed to become the strongest swordsman in Japan meant that Yahiko still had a chance. And it also showed Kenshins strength of will; that he didn't give up no matter what life (or Hiko) had thrown his way.
While everyone was still laughing a few moments later, Megumi took the opportunity to throw a wink at Okami, who in turn nudged Katsura who gave a slight nod towards Misao. She immediately stopped laughing, though her lips refused to stop twitching, as she picked up her still full cup of tea and pretended to drink from it.
Hiko, who had noticed the entire display, sat back to enjoy the show, as did Aoshi who had also seen them.
While the group was still laughing, Okami leant over to Kaoru and asked in a low voice, "Oh, Kaoru-chan, I believe I accidentally left something in the living room, but I'm afraid I don't really know the way, would you mind showing me?"
Kaoru looked surprised but answered with a smile, "Of course. Would you like me to show you know?"
Okami was smiling inwardly but outwardly she only said calmly, "That would be nice, thank you very much Kaoru-chan." With that Okami quietly stood up and followed Kaoru out of the room. Kenshin did notice, but was too preoccupied with his current humiliation to think on it. If he had he may have spared himself some more humiliation.
When everyone had stopped laughing Misao stood up and announced to the room, "Well, I'm gonna go help Omasu clean up." She stood up with her own full cup and casually picked up Yahiko's and Katsura's cup, looking like all she was doing was picking up dirty dishes. While Misao was talking, Megumi slipped out unnoticed. Well, unnoticed by everyone except Hiko who was still watching everything with a keen eye.
"Would you like to some help Misao-dono?" asked Kenshin, in a slightly higher voice than normal, his cheeks still tainted with a little red.
Misao inwardly cheered, this was exactly what she wanted to happen. "Thanks Himura, can you please take these into the kitchen?" she asked politely.
Kenshin only nodded and stood, not looking anyone in the eye. Misao waked over but then Yahiko 'accidentally' flung out his arm just as Misao was walking past, causing her to trip and for three cups of tea to fall on Kenshin, completely soaking the redhead.
"Oh no! Himura, I'm so sorry!" said Misao, with her hand over her mouth. Next to her, Yahiko and Sano were desperately trying not to laugh.
"Don't worry about it, Misao-dono," said Kenshin in a slightly strained voice. The days events were really starting to take their toll on the poor man. "I am going to go change," he announced to the room at large," and then left, still without looking anyone in the eyes.
Hiko had to admit he was slightly puzzled, what was the point in that? There had to be more to the plan than this, but what?
His musings were cut short when Okami and Kaoru walked in, Okami not having been able to find the 'object' she had lost the previous night. They were quickly followed by Megumi, who was holding Kenshin's sword.
"Is Ken-san here," she asked, looking around the room. She did, of course, know that Kenshin was not, in fact, there, but she did have to keep up appearances or Kaoru would get suspicious and the whole plan would fall apart.
"No he went up to his room," said Katsura casually, inwardly shaking his head over the fact that he had been pulled into this scheme.
"Oh," Megumi said, "Well then Kaoru, can you please give Ken-san his sword? He left it in the other room." This was, of course, completely untrue. Kenshin would have never left his sword anywhere, especially in Kyoto.
Sano had managed to sneak it out from Kenshin's side, thankfully he had been far too preoccupied with Saito's 'revenge' to notice that his sword had just been taken. It really had been a stroke of luck, because they were all worrying about how on earth they were going to mange to separate the former manslayer from his sword. But Sano had, by some miracle, managed, and then he passed it on to Yahiko, who passed it to Megumi and she took it with her when she slipped out when everyone had been watching Misao.
But if Kaoru was suspicious, she didn't show it as she took the sword with a cheerful "Sure!"
She walked out the door, completely unaware that everyone's eyes were following her. Yes, everyone's eyes. Saito and Aoshi had both realized by now that something was going on and had joined Hiko in watching the events unfold.
When Kaoru was heard walking up the stairs, the Kenshin and Kaoru group looked at each other and, by an unspoken agreement, all rushed out to see the results of their scheme.
Hiko also stood up, feeling like he would really want to see this. He had an idea of what they had wanted to do. He walked out without a glance or a word towards Saito and Aoshi, both of whom were still in the room. He then jumped up to Kenshins balcony, completely masking his ki so that Kenshin wouldn't get suspicious. Then he stayed there, silent, watching and waiting.
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Saito and Aoshi had both decided to stay in the room, as neither had any clue about what was about to transpire. Well, Aoshi thought he had a vague idea after what he had told Misao.
So both men were tracking everybody by their ki. Kaoru was walking down the hallway to Kenshins room, which was where Kenshin was. They had lost Hiko on the redheads balcony, so they assumed he was still there with his ki masked. Everybody else was crowded on the stairs, most likely watching their every move.
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Kaoru had a strange feeling that she was being followed. Unknown to her, she was. She stopped outside Kenshins room, and, transferring the sword from her right hand to her left, reached out her right hand towards the door.
But then, she hesitated with her hand on top of the door knob. She had a deep feeling of foreboding, and she didn't know why. She stayed there for several long, agonizing moments.
Behind her on the stairs, they were all panicking. If Kaoru didn't open the door, Kenshin will have had enough time to get dressed. Megumi was murmuring in a slightly panicked voice, "Come on, tanuki-chan, you know you want to open the door. Just open the door."
As if Kaoru had heard Megumi, she shook herself and then firmly grasped the handle to the shoji. She threw it open and then walked in saying, "Kenshin I brought you your -" However she cut herself off when she saw what she had walked into.
Kenshin was standing in the middle of his room, with a gi in his hands, but not actually wearing one. The two of them just stared at each other in horrified silence, both blushing, neither of them making a single move, Kenshin with his eyes fixed upon her face, and Kaoru with her eyes roving around Kenshins muscular chest.
---------Authors Notes------------
Yeah, I know its short, but like I said, I haven't been in a writing mood lately. At the moment, my best friend is my top priority. Thanks very much to all my reviewers! And guys, please do review, I could seriously use some cheering up.
For now, my reviewers: TeZukAb0ch0u (hehe, well you got the lunch. Not very fast I'll admit, but read my AN above for why. I'm gonna try and get the next chapter out sooner.) Keniichi (hmm, I dunno if I'll bring in someone else. Maybe. A good friend of mine is home schooled as well, she likes it and she still stays in contact with her friends. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!) Evee-san (I'm glad you're enjoying my fic, hope this chapter didn't disappoint!) kokoronagomu (Well, I think that this might count as Kaoru torture. As for Hiko and Saito… well I haven't really thought about it. I suppose they might… we'll see ne? Thanks for the review!) inuwolf04 (Yep, Kenshin's screwed alright. And theres still more to come…) skenshingumi (I decided to change it to Drama/Humour, thank you very much for the advice. Glad you liked the last chapter, yeah, I'll admit I enjoyed writing that Hiko/Kenshin scene. Hope you liked this one!)
Thanks to all of you guys! Please review!
