Disclaimer: Saitou will Gatotsu you if you think that RK belongs to me, and Yohji will be more than happy to pull some wire over your throat if you think Weiss Kreuz belongs to me. Original shapeshifting concept belongs to L.J. Smith.

A/N: Well, aren't you people lucky. To make up for the delay of Chapter 5, I've decided to make it up to you guys and I've brought Chapter 6 up really fast. 2000+ words good enough for you? You also get to see Aoshi and Misao in action, as well as Saitou, so don't say that I'm not bringing them into the story fast enough! This chapter consists mostly of Aoshi's and Misao's spying mission, so there you go, AxM fans! There's Sou-chan teasing Kaoru as well about Kenshin, so enjoy! Thanks again to all the reviewers who have reviewed!

Reviewers' Space!

CurlsofSerenity – Yes, the sparks *do* when they get together! XD Mwahahhha~ Just you wait and see! The HalfSoul concept is kinda made up by me, and it's a bit of a combination of the soulmate principle from L.J. Smith's NightWorld series, and some stuff that I found on the internet. Glad that you're enjoying it!

InuYasha22 – Hey! I'm glad you liked it! ^^ Nothing better than a bit of fluff, ne?

april-moon – how are they HalfSouls? Well, basically, it's just like what Katsura said in Chapter 5. One soul was split into two, so there are two people walking around with an incomplete souls, which is actually one soul. When these two people meet up, there is a) the familiarity that they feel with the other person, b) the 'touchy-feely' thing, where it feels as if you've just touched a live electric wire c) HalfSouls can also 'see' each others' minds in terms of colours (as Kenshin was going on about in the last chapter.)

Nope, Katsura is absolutely correct; Kenshin, unlike Katsura, had no clue about what HalfSouls are, so he wouldn't know otherwise. However, since Katsura has got some personal experience pertaining to the HalfSoul concept, he knows what exactly is going on. Kenshin puts the familiarity down to the dream because that's the only reason he can think off. The 'electrical charge' that he feels with Kaoru, and the 'seeing her mind in colour' though, proves that it is not the dream that is causing the sense of familiarity, but the HalfSoul connection that has kicked in. O_O erm…does that explain it?

Deseray – I'm glad that you're enjoying the story! ^^;; All I can hope for is that the plot goes on as planned, and doesn't go haywire or something! Yes, Kaoru and Kenshin will eventually be together, but it's going to take some prodding to get them there. ;) you'll see!

chris – It's not exactly a new concept since it's based on the soulmate principle, but it differs a bit from the original. Stay around for more updates!!

rogue solus – hahah! Yeah, Sano is truly the God of dirty humour ^^; And Saitou comes to visit! Mwahahha Double happies for the Aoshi and Misao as well as the Saitou fans, because, tadah~ they are all in this chapter! Nice ain't I? :p Yup, Megitsune will be showing up in the next couple of chapters, and so will Yahiko. Stick around to see them show up!

NightRain – Mmm… L.J. Smith's stuff is goooood. She's gone too long on a hiatus though; the newest NightWorld book was supposed to show up ages ago, but I haven't seen any new ones since Witchlight (I think that's the right name) came out. Hehe~ I named our lovely assassin group after one of her books in the NightWorld series, called Black Dawn. ^^ The name isn't such a mystery now ne? Hehe~

I'm glad that you enjoyed chapter 4! _ I keep referring back to my old chapters to ensure that I haven't left something out, or repeated something again (because I really seem to have a bad habit of doing that a lot of the time). Yup, your comment makes perfect sense XD thank you! Wow o_O does it really seem like a novel? Kewl ^^;; that'll be the day when I ever publish my fanfiction! Hahah :p as if! ^^ but thanx for the compliment anyway. "The Last Dragonlord"? What's it about, other than dragons? Fantasy stuff really gets to me, and so does magick and all that ^^ I'll hunt around my local bookstore to see whether they have it; thanks for the recommendation! Mmm…I'm glad that the HalfSoul concept makes sense; I was beginning to worry about confusing people _ I had loooads of fun writing that chapter! Mwahahah XD Our redhead's all grown up! *Snicker* XD ooh, the dream? Well he dropped the hint already, didn't he? :p All we have to do now is see whether she remembers it or not, or whether Katsura decides to tell them both what is going on XD hehe. Stay tuned for the next chapter!

irksome one – XD I like your nick name! lol ^^;; FYI, my computer *has* indeed gone back to normal ;p thanks for whacking it; it's stopped playing dead now! And tadah! Here's the chapter! ^^

can't-get-enough-anime – nah, that's ok ^^ J and longer updates are better than no updates ne? don't worry, I'll try to update as much as possible in this last week of holidays that I've got left so that I've got less to worry about when school starts. ^^ Ah~ as always, here's the next chapter! XD Mwahhaha

Dragowolf - Yup! Here are Aoshi and Misao! See? I'm being nice here, when I could've just have Saitou only instead :p

On with the fic!

Chapter 6: Spies and Visitors

Thoughts are in ' '

Speech is in " "

Telepathy is in italics.

"Target's on the move." A quiet voice cut through the shadows of the night.

"Tail him." Aoshi replied through the little microphone attached to the collar of his long-sleeved black outfit. He allowed his eyes to shift (1) a little to keep a closer eye on both his subordinates and the target that they were spying on. His slitted cat eyes followed his targets movements.

He looked down as a black furry body curled up around his legs and he met the green eyes of a large black cat.

Chii (2), follow him and see where he goes. Shift back after you've gotten the information that we need.

The cat purred once, and jumped off the roof, landing silently on it's four feet before snaking it's way through the thin crowd towards Orisura Jin. Aoshi watched on as a masked figure landed behind him silently. He gave orders to him without turning around.

"Hannya, I'm placing you in charge. I'm going after Chii to make sure she's safe."

The man in the mask bowed once, "Hai, Okashira." And then disappeared into the night once more.

Aoshi shifted into hawk form, shrinking smaller and smaller as he changed, and he heard his bones creak as they changed into a hollow frame to form the skeleton for his wings. Feathers sprouted on his body and his nose elongated, turning hard and yellow to form a beak. He flapped his wings experimentally, to make sure that he had completely changed; it would be easier to follow Misao this way, and he wouldn't be as conspicuous as if he was leaping across rooftops in human form, or worse still, in the panther form that he liked best. It was close to morning, but that didn't mean that there weren't people around to see. 'That would certainly be too conspicuous, and they would undoubtedly know that they were being followed.' Aoshi took off into the air, gliding on the wind as he effortlessly followed the duo.

As Misao's teacher in both ninjitsu and shapeshifting, he felt that he was responsible for her safety, even though it really was a mission that she was more than capable of handling. There should really be no problem, because all they were doing was spying; they were not there to kill tonight. He was, however, concerned about how long she could keep her shifted shape (3), as she had only been training for the past two years, whereas Aoshi himself had been training for the past 10 years. He was well versed in the arts of shapeshifting, and although Misao was a bit of a natural, that didn't stop him from worrying about her.

'I'm not worried about her.' He corrected himself. 'It is a teacher's duty to look after their student and this is all I am doing.' Satisfied with his argument, he continued to fly from rooftop to rooftop, trailing the movements of both Orisura Jin and Makimachi Misao.

~*~

Misao kept an eye on her target as she dodged the feet of humans that could easily squash a cat, always keeping him in sight, but never moving too close to be detected. Although she should have nothing to fear from a human, the strange feeling in her stomach seemed to tell her otherwise, and so she was wary. In her line of work, instincts and intuition came first, sense and logic be damned. Instincts had saved her life more times than she could count and she wasn't about to disregard them; detection would mean that her cover would be blown, and the whole Oniwa Banshuu organization would be discovered. It was something that she couldn't risk.

Her family had been part of the Oniwa Banshuu ever since it had been established in the early 15th century (4), and her mother had been the Okashira before Jiya had taken over after she had died. Both her parents had died during missions while she was still young, and so she had been brought up by the rest of the Kyoto Oniwa Banshuu, and had been taught well by all the members, especially Jiya and Aoshi. For as far back as she could remember, Aoshi had always been a part of her life; teaching her how to throw a kunai properly; watching quietly while Hannya taught her kempo; shapeshifting with her. There wasn't a memory that she had which had no Aoshi in it. As a child she had loved him as a brother, and now, as a young girl of 19, she loved him as a woman loved a man. Although his tough icy exterior seemed impenetrable, she was certain that he would smile one day, and when that day came, she wanted to be around to see it.

She wanted to be the reason for his smile.

Orisura Jin turned into a traditional teahouse, and Misao snuck in behind him, following him. Strangely enough, nobody seemed to think that a black cat in a teahouse was a strange occurrence, and so Misao encountered no trouble. She ducked behind a wall as he slid the shoji door to a room open, and heard two other men greet him as she snuck into the room. Misao hoped that none of the men disliked cats, and that she'd be able to hear what she needed to, and then slip out of there to convey the information to her Okashira.

"Is that cat yours, Jin?" One of the men had already noticed her presence.

"Huh?" The addressed person looked down at his feet to find a black cat purring up at him. "Not at all."

"What's a cat doing in here anyway?" The other man was slightly suspicious; he had heard stories of animals that appeared out of nowhere during the most top secret meetings, and then slinking away after the meetings were over. He narrowed his eyes slightly at the oblivious cat which was licking its paw while it rubbed against Jin's leg. Now that he thought about it, some of the deals that had been almost done had been cancelled because information had leaked, and the police had seemed to know their movements more than enough times to make it suspicious. He would have to keep an eye on that cat just to make sure.

The men sat down around the table and began their talk. Misao curled up around one of the legs of the short table.

"How much are they willing to pay for the 5 new girls that are coming in next Tuesday?"

"2 million yen each if they are fresh and untouched. 1 million if the girl is not a virgin."

Misao's claws dug into the table leg as she realized what they were talking about. The slave auction. It was, of course, against the law, but that never stopped the yakuza from continuing their despicable dealings. There had been rumours that there was to be one soon, and Misao figured that it was this particular slave auction that they were talking about. Girls, and some boys from the ages of ten to fifteen were either kidnapped, or taken off the streets to be sold at slave auctions. The transactions often took place underground, and the 'slaves' were sold at unbelievable prices, and were used to perform inhuman deeds. The lifespan of a 'slave' was one month, tops. After that, their owner would most likely get bored, and have them killed, only to buy another one a few days later. Misao had found a few of the remains of the slaves, and the picture was far from pretty.

She seethed inwardly now, and forced herself to remain calm as the involuntary growl rose in her throat. The men didn't seem to notice, and in fact, one of them asked for a saucer of milk for her. The conversation continued.

Jin was speaking again. "The Sanshuu have decided to host the event in the disco behind the Ikedaya Teahouse called Carousel. It will be underground of course. First come first serve. The better products will of course be sold first." The hackles on Misao's back began to rise when she heard this man calling fellow humans 'products'. 'The fucking bastard!' She seethed. A saucer of milk was suddenly put in front of her nose, and she blinked at it, before realizing that she should start lapping up the milk like a proper cat would so that she didn't give herself away.

The man who had been suspicious relaxed slightly as the cat lapped up the milk. He had slipped some poison powder into it, and by the looks of it, the cat hadn't noticed at all. It didn't matter to him whether it was a spy or a real cat; the precautions taken were necessary. If it was indeed a real cat, then it wouldn't matter if it died, and if it was indeed a spy, then that would be one less problem to worry about. He watched with satisfaction as the cat licked up the last drop.

~*~

Aoshi watched the proceedings in the room from a nearby window, still in hawk form. His insides turned to ice as he saw one of the men slip something into the saucer of milk that was meant for Misao. From the colour of the powder, he figured that it must be bloodroot (5). 'Shimatta! I have to get Misao out of there as soon as possible, and then get an antidote to it, otherwise she'll die!' It seemed to take an eternity for the men inside to leave, and he saw Misao stay in the room, waiting patiently for them to leave before she too left. The moment she started moving, he knew that the poison had already taken effect. He flew from the window into a dark alley, changing hurriedly back into human form again, and the cold bit into his skin as it cut through the skintight black bodysuit that he could barely manifest when he shifted. Making his way quickly to the teahouse, he got there just as Misao collapsed, still in her cat form. Aoshi's eyes burned an icy blue as he seethed with anger, but he couldn't follow the bastards and kill them; Misao's life was in danger at the moment. He moved back into the alley again, shifting back into hawk form. Gathering the small unconscious body gently in his claws, he took off as fast as he could towards the Black Dawn headquarters.

He only hoped that he would be fast enough.

~*~

"Ohayo." Was Kaoru's sleepy reply as she joined Soujirou and Kenshin at the dining table. Kenshin had settled well into the Black Dawn household, and had gone back to Kyoto to move some of his stuff from the compound into his new living quarters. His room was next to Kaoru's, and no more accidental-walking-into-the-bathroom-while-bathing incidents had occurred. It had been slightly more than 2 weeks since Kenshin had moved in, and the others were already used to him being around the place.

"Ohayo." They replied.

Kaoru accepted the bowl of miso soup that Kenshin passed to her. She inhaled the salty scent of the steam; it was a better wake-up drink to her than coffee was. "Arigatou." The soup warmed her and her mind finally decided to wake up properly.

"Kenshin-san's cooking is infinitely better than yours, Kaoru." His blue eyes twinkled at her from across the table and she glowered right back at him. Kenshin chuckled at the exchange between the twins. "Maa, maa, Kaoru's cooking isn't all that bad." The stare turned on him and he froze slightly. "I mean, it's not bad at all!"

You see? Soujirou smiled at Kaoru. He's so obviously smitten over you that he'd say your cooking isn't bad, when in fact everyone knows that they might die from it! He could practically see a vein popping on the side of her head as she threw a string of curses at him.

Shut. Up. Sou-chan.

The mental laugh that echoed in her mind only made her angrier.

The knock on the front door drew them out of their laughter, and they automatically slipped into assassin mode. Kaoru grabbed a knife, holding it in a backhand grip, while Kenshin and Soujirou grabbed their katanas which had been lying nearby. The men made their ways to the windows on either side of the front hall, while Kaoru moved towards the front door.

"Who is it?" Kaoru called out.

There was a release of breath, and then a sarcastic voice spoke. "Ore da, tanuki-musume."

Kaoru and Soujirou relaxed at the sound of the voice. It could only be their father's closest friend, almost a relative. No one else spoke that way.

Saitou Hajime.

Kaoru opened the door, beaming at him. "Saitou Oji-san! What are you doing here?" The man himself was standing there in full police uniform, a smoking cigarette dangling between his fingers.

Saitou eyed the knife she was holding, and then the katana that was still clutched in Soujirou's hand, stepping into the house as Kaoru shut the door behind him. "Is this any way to greet your uncle?" His golden eyes flickered over the rest of the house before resting on a certain redhead. His eyebrows rose higher.

"Ah, the chibi-gaki (6)."

Kaoru and Soujirou turned to see what he was looking it, and found Kenshin standing there. Kaoru was surprised to see that he looked absolutely, infinitely pissed off. 'And his eyes have turned amber too.' She thought, 'They only turn amber when he's on a mission or…' Her thoughts ended there as she recalled the bathroom incident, and she put a lid upon them.

"Mibu no Ookami." Kenshin acknowledged smoothly.

The atmosphere in the room thrummed with pent up tension, and both the fighters seemed ready to leap at each others' throats at any second. The tension was so thick that you could have cut it with a knife. Kaoru and Soujirou exchanged perplexed and worried glances, mutually agreeing on one decision. Stop them before they kill each other!

Before they could move, there was a flurry of knocks on the door, and the attention of all the four in the front hall suddenly riveted to the door. The knocks came again, and Kaoru approached the door; Saitou readied his gun while Kenshin and Soujirou once again had their hands on the hilts of their swords.

"Who's there?"

A voice laden with fatigue and worry answered her question.

"Open the door Kaoru! It's me."

Kaoru hurriedly opened the door to find Aoshi on the doorstep, with what looked like an unconscious cat in his arms. He thrust the cat into Kaoru's arms. "Read me. (7)" He said, and promptly collapsed on the doorstep.

Dictionary

Okashira – leader (of a group), chief

Ninjitsu – the art that a ninja learns

Oniwa Banshuu – The spy organization that Aoshi and Misao are in.

Kempo – Martial art; bit like thai boxing if you think about it. Exclusive use of your body as a weapon. Correct me if I'm wrong, ne?

Kunai – 'darts' that are used by ninjas. Misao's weapons of choice.

Yakuza – Japanese gangsters/mafia

Sanshuu – Literally means '3 colours' (borrowed from Samurai Deeper KYO, hehe); one of the Yakuza groups in this story.

Shimatta – 'Damn it!' Although this doesn't seem like much of a swear word, in Japan, it is considered very rude if you curse in any form or manner. So, let's just say that it's kinda the equivalent of 'f***' or 'shit'.

Ohayo – good morning

Maa maa – kinda soothing-like noises that Kenshin often makes to calm Kaoru down J

Katana – Type of Japanese sword. Longer than a tanto, shorter than a tachi. _ but let's not get into the types of swords, or we'll be here forever!

Ore da, tanuki-musume – 'It's me, raccoon-daughter/raccoon girl.' Musume means daughter, but well, if you really want to be particular, then we could use tanuki-onna instead. Whatever. It's Kaoru's nickname that's been assigned to her by none other than Saitou.

Oji-san = uncle. It's confusing because ojii-san is *grandfather*. Strange that only a single hiragana depicts the two apart.

Chibi-gaki – little brat. ^^;;; Saitou's referring to Kenshin here! O_O

Mibu no Ookami – Mibu's wolf. Saitou's codename.

Notes:

(1) shift – short form for shapeshifting. People who can shapeshift are known as shapeshifters, or 'Shifters for short. Aoshi and Misao are 'Shifters, if you haven't figured it out by now.

(2) Chii – literally means 'small'. Misao's codename in the Oniwa Banshuu. ^^;;; Fitting, don't you think? ^^;

(3) Since Misao is only an amateur 'shifter, it will be harder for her to maintain her shifted shape, than it would for Aoshi. Although there is indeed no time limit as to how long you can stay for in a shape, the more advanced you are in shapeshifting, the longer that you can stay in a shifted shape.

(4) I have absolutely no idea when the Oniwa Banshuu was supposedly created, so I just made up a date for it. If anyone does know, then please tell me, ok? Thanx.

(5) Bloodroot. Funny herb that I created from out of nowhere. If it does exist, then I have absolutely no idea what it does. In this chapter, it is used as a potent poison that can kill, even in small amounts. It is mixed with a liquid, and then ingested, where it is then absorbed into the bloodstream, and then does havoc to your body. The effects take about 20 minutes to 1 hour to show, and the victim usually dies after a couple of hours. People who are trained in martial arts may be able to hold off the effects longer than a normal person would. Misao is able to do this.

(6) Ah, you're probably wondering why Saitou is referring to Kenshin as chibi-gaki (little brat). It has something to do with Kenshin's past, and I'm not going to go on about it in here, but I'll work it out when I'm done with this fic, and can start working on Fallen Path again. Until then, this is just one of the cryptic things in the fic. XD mwahahha

(7) "Read me." So what is this cryptic sentence that Aoshi says to Kaoru? Well, he's just giving her the permission to read his mind. Although Kaoru and Soujirou could easily skim his mind without permission, they respect people enough (except those that they're meant to kill) to get their permission first before going into their minds. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. pple! The reason that he's asking her to read his mind is so that she can find out what's happened to Misao, and so that she can get the antidote for it.

A/N: Yiii. Took me a very short time to put everything into this, and I have no idea why, but it's just sooo much easier to write stuff for this fic than my Inuyasha fic. _ there's only the epilogue left to go, but urgh, I've barely even started on it. Guess that's going on the backburner too. ^^;;;

Anyway, I hope that appeased Aoshi, Misao and Saitou fans, since they've all appeared in this chapter (*phew* a load off my mind!), and I hope that you like the 'shifting concept. My computer (strangely enough) seems to have been playing games with me, because when I went to fix it today, there was nothing wrong with the modem although I couldn't connect at all at home! *Gives computer an evil look* so everything's back to normal now, and I hope to see you all soon! Megumi will be showing up in the next one or two chapters, and Yahiko should be too. XD Just stay with me ne? ^^ See ya'll in the next chapter!