The Revolution Continues Chapter 13: Three Days in an Hour, a rurouni kenshin fanfic

Disclaimer: You know the drill folks, that dumb ass, I mean wonderful, person who made up Rurouni Kenshin beat me to it, so that means I don't own it…

A/N: I'm so sorry it's been like forever since I last updated, but at least it's been less than a year, but I'm back! I hope you guys can forgive me, you can scold me for my tardiness if you wish, but please don't flame me about this chapter, it's kind of boring.

Now, on with the story…

Chapter 13. Three Days in an Hour.

Day One.

It was late into the afternoon and they had just reached the out skirts of the village. "Kenshin," Shura said.

"What is it Miss Shura?"

"When was the last time you sparred with someone?" she asked.

"What do you mean by sparred?"

"I mean with someone who was almost or equally as strong as you."

"Well, let's see," Kenshin thought for a moment, his mind drew a blank. "To tell you the truth, I honestly don't remember."

"Really? Well then, maybe it's time you brushed up a bit on your swordsmanship." Shura smiled.

"What do you mean by that Miss Shura?"

"I mean that you're, how should I put this? You're a bit rusty."

"I'm not that old."

"No, I mean, I fear that you are forgetting what you've learned in your Hiten Mitsurugi style of fighting."

"Miss Shura, you needn't fear for my memory, but if you wish, I'll spar with you."

"We'll spar, but right now isn't a good time for it. However, I will race you out of this forest." Shura took off running.

"Hey!" Kenshin yelled taking off after her. After a couple of seconds, he caught up with her. He noticed that Shura kept disappearing. "I see that you have decided to race with your true speed, well then as will I." Kenshin sped up.

Shura stopped. There was something in the forest with them, the thing, whatever it was, was stalking them. The thing disappeared. Hmm, it must be Kenshin. Shura lied to herself and started running again.

Kenshin froze. Loud growling was coming from within the trees. I hope Miss Shura is ok; she's bound to have heard this by now, he thought. His ears perked up as something jumped out of the trees and onto him.

Kenshin barely dodged the thing. It was a wolf, in fact, a whole group of them. He was surrounded.

The growling noise persisted as they neared. Shura became evermore alert, for what was coming near was no human. The animal came into view; it was a bear. Quite large for a bear, it had destroyed quite a few trees on its way towards her and he was hungry, but Shura was in its way.

The bear stopped its rampage and stared at Shura, it swiped at her. She dodged. "I've got to get out of this place." Shura muttered as she dodged another attack from the bear.

The wolves circled around Kenshin. The leader, a huge black male, came forward, growled at him, and disappeared like what Shura had done when Kaoru had mysteriously been knocked down. The other wolves sat down to wait patiently for their leader to make the first move.

"What in the world?" then, he sensed it, behind me, "Haaa!" Kenshin hit the leader in the stomach with his reverse-blade sword knocking it into a tree.

The wolf landed on its feet. It howled, signaling the other wolves to attack.

They came at Kenshin in twos. He knocked them all away. A loud noise was coming towards the wolves and Kenshin. The wolves sensed it first.

Shura dodged the bear's blows. She moved back each time it stepped toward her. Shura tried to block the bear's claws. However, she was thrown to a tree. She got up and dodged another attack that scratched her arm. She had to find Kenshin.

Shura came to a clearing. "Kenshin!" Shura called. The bear came slamming through the trees at her, slamming her into a tree. She groaned.

Kenshin heard Shura and then a loud roar. His heart fell, one of his best friends was getting hurt, from the noise it seemed pretty badly, and he had no idea where she was.

He looked at the black wolf that stared back and took off running in the direction of Shura's voice. For some reason, the wolf seemed to be racing him to get to Shura, which only made Kenshin run faster.

Shura saw Kenshin appear, she sighed in relief. Suddenly, she was thrown back so hard and fast into the tree that she had no time to react. Shura slid down to the ground. "Kenshin can take it from here." She mumbled.

"Miss Shura, are hang in there, you'll be alright, that you will." Kenshin took a step towards Shura. The black wolf jumped out between them and snarled at Kenshin. He froze. "She has done nothing to you so leave her alone. Your fight is with me."

The black wolf turned to the half-conscious Shura. To Kenshin's surprise, the wolf put its head to Shura's hand and sniffed it, after a minute or two, the wolf started to lick it.

Shura opened her eyes. Her whole body ached from hitting trees. Her hand was wet, "What?" it was a black wolf. Her eyes widened a bit, "Hey boy, it's been a while." She moved her hand from the wolf's nose and rubbed its head. The wolf licked Shura's cheek.

"Miss Shura?" Kenshin stepped forward. The wolf tensed and bared its fangs at Kenshin.

"Shh. It's alright boy, he's with me," The wolf calmed a bit, but it still didn't trust Kenshin because it could smell the blood that stained his hands.

"If I may ask, how did you get hurt like this?"

"It was a be-"

The bear crashed through the trees to where they were. It took one look at Shura and made an attack to kill her.

Shura felt herself be pulled into the cold soil of the earth and back into the warmth of the forest. She sucked in her breath from surprise.

Kenshin turned at the sound behind him. A giant bear came bounding through the trees where Shura had just been, but she had disappeared along with the wolf. Kenshin tensed up.

The bear charged forward in an attempt to kill him. However, due to the bear's large size, it was slower than Kenshin who dodged it easily. "Hiten Mitsurugi Style Ryu Tsui Sen!" Kenshin jumped into the air and slammed his sword on the back of the bear's neck. The bear was knocked out. "Now to find Miss Shura," he said as he brushed himself off and re-sheathed his sword.

Shura relaxed a bit, the wolf had taken her away from the danger. Shura hugged the wolf tightly. She hadn't seen him since she had run away from Ashiya. She had used the forest for cover and had found him, still a cub, in the middle of the forest quite a long ways from his pack. Shura had returned him to his pack, and surprisingly allowed her to stay with them as long as she fended for food by herself. They only protected her when she needed it. In a way, she had perfected her favorite attack "As One" by studying how the wolves hunted their food. They had become the forest. They owned it.

"Kenshin," she mumbled, "Kenshin, where are you?" she asked louder.

The wolf left her side. "Hey, come back," Shura said after the wolf. For once, she actually felt a bit helpless.

Kenshin stood his ground, though he was a bit injured, but he held himself steady, he had to protect Shura. He sensed another presence. He glanced quickly to his right. It was the wolf Shura had disappeared with. It was alone.

"Damn it," Kenshin swore. He had actually attempted to trust the wolf to bringing Shura to a safe place since apparently they recognized each other, only to have the wolf abandon her somewhere he didn't know.

The wolf looked at Kenshin as if it understood him. The wolf gave a short bark to get Kenshin's attention and walked back into the trees.

Kenshin took the wolf's bark as a signal for him to follow it. As he walked, he had a tough time keeping up with the wolf because of the terrain and because of how fast the wolf was. Finally, Kenshin caught up with the wolf who had stopped in a clearing. Looking over at the wolf, he saw that it had begun to lick Shura's face.

"Oh stop it already, I missed you too," Shura said laughing.

"Miss Shura, I'm glad to see that your friend took care of you," Kenshin said with a sigh of relief.

"Well, I think the pack will let an old friend visit so we can spend the night with them. However, they might be a little bit more defensive around you since you're a newcomer if you know what I mean," Shura said.

Kenshin nodded. "I think I understand you," he said.

"Help me up, we need to find somewhere to camp for the night," Shura said sticking out her hand for Kenshin to take.

Kenshin pulled her up and asked, "Do you need help walking?"

"I don't think so," Shura said as she attempted to stand by herself.

"I don't either, but I think we might want to take it slow until we reach the pack's den," Kenshin said.

Shura nodded in agreement, as they followed her wolf friend.

Kenshin and Shura walked through the woods. "Miss Shura, are you sure that you're going in the right direction?" he asked. They had lost sight of the wolf that they had been following.

"Of course I do, I lived in this forest for three long months before I met you and Kaoru." Shura said.

They heard trees falling not far from where they were now. "Miss Shura, did you hear that?" Kenshin asked. Guess I just didn't hit him hard enough, he thought.

Shura nodded, "Yeah I did, I think it may be the bear that attacked us," she said.

"Well then I suggest we keep away from it and hurry out of these woods before it catches up with us tomorrow morning." Kenshin said. He didn't really care about his own safety, but he was worried for Shura's because she was injured.

As they reached the wolves' den, Shura stopped Kenshin.

"What is it Miss Shura?" Kenshin whispered.

"We have to wait on the edge of the pack where they can see us, but they don't feel threatened. We don't join them until the oldest female comes over to us," Shura answered.

"Do you have any idea when that will be?" Kenshin asked.

"It could be from a few minutes, to a few hours. However, if the female chases us away, we have to get out of the wolf territory, and fast," Shura answered.

"How big is the wolves' territory, and why do we have to get out of it a quickly as possible?" Kenshin asked.

"The wolves' territory goes on until the next village, if we don't get out of the forest as fast as we can, the wolves will kill us," Shura said.

Kenshin just nodded not showing his surprise at how vicious some of nature's most beautiful creatures could be.

Shura looked back at the eldest female who was watching her. Slowly, she stuck her hand out toward the female confidently.

The female, at first, turned her nose from Shura's hand, but slowly came closer to Shura and sniffed her hand. With the memory of her scent from long ago, the wolf licked Shura's hand.

Kenshin looked at the Shura in surprise. He saw her give him a small nod and he stuck his hand out a little toward the female who sniffed it and then began to lick his hand.

Sanosuke was trying his best not to fall asleep in the carriage, but he couldn't help it.

"Sanosuke," Toru said. "You can go inside the carriage and sleep if you want, I'll be fine out here," he added.

"No, I like the open air," Sanosuke protested.

Toru shrugged knowing that he would get nowhere arguing with Sanosuke. "So, what do you think of Shura?" he asked.

Sanosuke opened one eye and looked at Toru. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, you of all people should know what I mean," Toru said.

"What? No I'm not!" Sanosuke said almost falling out of the carriage in shock. He knew that Toru was talking about. Toru thought that he loved Shura.

Toru shook his head sadly.

"What's wrong?" Sanosuke asked.

"Well, my cousin seems to have taking a liking to you, I can tell by the way she looks at you," Toru said.

"What do you mean?" Sanosuke asked.

"I'll leave that to you to figure it out, but when you do and you hurt her, I swear I'll hunt you down. However, if she chooses to marry Saitou, she will never learn to love him, especially since her heart is set on something else," Toru said.

Despite Sanosuke's threats, Toru refused to answer anymore of his questions. Knowing that no matter what, Sanosuke wouldn't touch him because Shura would murder him for it.

Sanosuke went inside to get away from Toru and found the rest of his friends asleep. He sat down next to Yahiko's feet and attempted to take a nap. Unfortunately, that never happened because of four things: 1. Yahiko's snoring, 2. Kaoru's snoring, 3. Yahiko moving around too much, and 4. the bumpiness of the road. Unfortunately, for Yahiko, Kaoru, Ayame, and Suzume, they had to deal with a not-so-happy Sanosuke in the morning.

Day Two.

Kenshin and Shura were awake just before the sun rose. They had a small breakfast of fish and then they left the wolves. Who, to Kenshin's surprise, didn't protest.

"Did they do this to you?" Kenshin asked.

"What?" Shura asked.

"Did they let you leave of your own will?" he asked.

"Oh, that, yes they did. The wolves do that to all their cubs, when the cubs become too old to be raised at home here, they're abandoned by the mothers and have to fend for themselves. However, they are welcome to return to the pack if they wish, but they are considered adults and without their parents, they must fend for themselves by joining the hunting party and all of the other things adult wolves do," Shura answered.

"It's harsh, but that's what nature has done for all animals," Kenshin said.

"In a way, I'd say that that same card has been dealt to humanity as well, for are we not animals as well?" Shura asked thinking about how neither she nor anyone else she knew had parents.

"I can see where you're coming from, that I can, however, I do not think that card that which we have been dealt is always a bad thing," Kenshin said.

"Yes, I think that you are right," Shura said.

As they reached the next village, they were met by the people with stares and mothers led their children quickly away from the man and woman wearing swords on their belts.

"I always hate when people do that," Shura sighed.

Kenshin nodded in agreement, and then asked, "Should we keep going to the next village?"

Shura nodded. "Yes, maybe the mothers won't lead their children away from us," she said.

They reached the next village quickly since the next town was only a few kilometers away, and they ate lunch as they walked. Instead of being met with stares and fearful mothers, they were met with merchants attempting to sell them their goods.

Kenshin and Shura refused their offers by telling them that they had no money with them, which was true. To their relief, the merchants were angry and left them grumbling.

"That was close," Shura said.

"Yes it was, let's keep going, I don't want us to get attacked again, that I don't," Kenshin said.

Shura nodded. "Yes, once we get out of this village, we'll have to spend the night somewhere again. Do you want to spar before we hit the sack tonight?" Shura asked.

"I guess it would be alright, that is if you don't try to take my head," Kenshin said looking over at Shura skeptically.

"Who ever said I was going to do that?" Shura asked. She suddenly took interest in one of the many objects at a merchant's stall.

Kenshin shook his head and walked ahead of her.

"Hey! Kenshin wait up!" Shura yelled putting what she was looking at down. She caught up with Kenshin, and they continued their long walk.

They reached the outskirts of the town that they had been walking through. Their legs were tired, as it had been a while since either of them had walked two days straight without rest.

"Miss Shura, I think that our legs are too tired for a spar tonight, what do you say we do it tomorrow?" Kenshin asked as he dropped himself onto the ground to rest against a tree that marked the end of the town.

"Sure, why not, since I know I'll be mad enough to kill someone tomorrow since we're going to reach Ashiya, I'll just plan on killing you," Shura said plopping herself onto the ground next to him.

"Do you want to eat dinner, or do you want to go to sleep and just have a bigger breakfast?" Kenshin asked.

"Breakfast sounds good," Shura mumbled as she stifled another yawn. She twisted and turned her body until she got into a comfortable position to sleep in, yet she would be able to stand quickly and defend herself if necessary.

"Good night Miss Shura," Kenshin whispered. He leaned on the tree, closed his eyes, and fell into a light sleep.

Kenshin was woken by whispers coming from behind one of the trees that were in front of him. He kept his eyes closed so the intruders wouldn't know he was awake.

"What do they have to offer other than their swords?" one of them asked.

"Are you an idiot? Don't you see, that girl could help a lot, if you know what I mean," said the other one.

Kenshin looked at Shura while the two men were distracted. Although her eyes were closed, Kenshin knew that she had heard every word of the two intruders just by how her face looked. Her lips were closed too tightly to be that of a sleeping person's, probably to keep from saying something to the man who had inferred whatever kind of "help" she would be able to give them.

"Alright, are you ready?" the leader asked.

"Yeah," replied his partner.

The two stepped out from behind the tree silently.

Kenshin hesitated before standing up with his hand on the hilt of his sword ready to defend himself. Shura, to Kenshin's surprise, hadn't moved an inch.

"Who are you?" Kenshin asked the two men.

"Who we are is none of your concern, but if you give us your sword and the girl, we may just let you go alive," said the man to Kenshin's right.

"I think that you would much rather leave than fight me, especially not her," Kenshin nodded towards the "sleeping" Shura.

"What is a weak woman going to do to two strong men like us?" asked the man mockingly.

"You shouldn't-," Kenshin was interrupted by Shura who stood up.

"Can't a woman get some sleep around here without having to listen to the ramblings of men?" Shura asked.

"Stupid girl, you should be on your knees begging for your life and praying that your boyfriend can protect his weakling girlfriend," the man said pulling out a short sword out of its sheath.

"I see we may have to use force to get you to leave us alone, however I would hope that you would think twice about that," Kenshin said.

"Who, you and that woman, what's she going to do, chase us away by batting her long eyelashes at us?" asked the other man suddenly becoming stronger willed as time went on.

"How dare you call a woman weak, now leave before I have to hurt you," Shura said annoyed at the man who thought women were inferior.

"What are you going to do with that wooden sword, fight us? What, you can't handle a steel blade?" the man asked angrily finally taking note of the weapon Shura possessed.

"Who ever said that this sword was only wood?" Shura shrugged. She pulled her sword with its wooden sheath still on it to be used as her weapon.

"Now!" yelled the bigger of the two. Both men lunged at the two samurai.

Kenshin and Shura dodged the two men and knocked them both out with a blow to the back of the neck.

"I don't feel like sleeping much anymore, lets just keep going," Shura said. She started walking out of their little clearing.

Kenshin followed her leaving some space between himself and Shura to give her time to get over her anger.

"I hate men," Shura mumbled, "They think they're so much better than us, what fools, do they not notice that the only reason why they seem to want strength is only to impress women and to prove themselves? Those fools, not realizing that women hold ultimate power throughout the world, however, men are foolish enough to think this no true. Ugh!" Shura yelled throwing up her arms in frustration.

"Miss Shura, I don't think that women are inferior to men, in fact, some of the strongest people I know are women, and at times, women can be the most dangerous of all things," Kenshin said.

Shura stopped and turned to Kenshin. "At least someone seems to think so," she said giving him a small smile.

Kenshin smiled back at her and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to rest for the night?"

"Yes, the faster we get to my uncle's house and say no to my suitor, the faster we can get back to our normal lives," Shura said.

"Maybe," Kenshin said following Shura as she had started walking again.

A/N: Again, I'm sorry I haven't updated in a long time, but I've been out of the country since May, and I didn't get back until a day after school started. I know that isn't an excuse for the month of April, but I had writer's block for that time up until now I've been slowly working on this chapter and I finally have it done so please R&R!