(A/N: This is my first Rurouni Kenshin fanfic, and I hope you guys don't find it too awful. ^-^ Well, I obviously don't own any Rurouni Kenshin characters in this story except for my created character Shimozaki Yuji and his family. This is rated R for eventual violence, language, and possible sexual situations. And this contains the Kenshin/Kaoru pairing. Well, enjoy!)

Chapter 1: Prologue

Celadon eyes hesitantly opened to the new morning from the depths of their dream world. The eyes shut again as an involuntary shiver ran through their owner's body. Kaoru tried pulling the bedding closer around her neck, in hopes of warding off the frigid air that had already woken her from her dreams. This annoyed her........those were good dreams!

Kaoru lay on her futon for a while longer, with intentions of regaining heat and falling back asleep, since it was too early in the morning to do anything, but to no avail. It only seemed to be growing colder by the moment, now that she was awake. With a sigh that acknowledged defeat to the winter cold, Kaoru quickly threw back her bedding and got out of bed. Her thin sleeping robe did little to help keep her warm. Shivering, Kaoru dressed in a warm kimono and her warmer Winter garments. Then, making sure that her long ebony hair was tied with an indigo ribbon that matched her eyes, she exited her room to start on breakfast for the inhabitants of her dojo. Usually, the others were the ones to make breakfast, because they didn't exactly prefer her cooking, but since she was up early, she thought that she might as well do it for them.

As Kaoru went outside, she noticed that the first sparkling blanket of fresh snow of the year covered the entire grounds, giving the indication that Winter was really there. Everything looked so peaceful and majestic at this time of year. The icicles, frosted cherry trees, and snow-covered buildings were all beautiful.

Kaoru stopped on her way to the kitchen and stepped off the wooden planks of the dojo's hallway and onto the fresh snow. She inwardly smiled as her sandal-clad feet crunched the white substance beneath them. She walked over to the nearest cherry tree and closed her eyes, when under it's bare, yet snow-blanketed, branches. She inhaled the scent of the cold and sweet air around her, a look of nostalgia passing over her as she stood there in the midst of the wondrous scene around her.

She remembered playing under this same cherry tree after the first snow of the year, as a young girl. She let her eyelids remain closed, savoring the peace of the moment that reminded her of her far away childhood. A delicate snowflake tickled her cheek as a light sprinkling of snow fell from the sky.

"Beautiful morning, isn't it, Miss Kaoru?"

Kaoru had been so lost in her thoughts and in savoring the peaceful morning that she had failed to notice the light crunching noise of sandals on snow coming to rest beside her. She felt foolish for letting her guard down, and felt her face heat in embarrassment at being caught so lost in her thoughts, but she quickly nodded in agreement to the speaker.

"I was on my way to prepare breakfast early, since the cold woke me up, and I got distracted by the new snow. It is beautiful," said Kaoru, surveying the grounds as snowflakes continued to fall. "It sure brings back memories.....," Kaoru said with a sigh, then turned and smiled at Kenshin.

The ex-Battousai couldn't distinguish if Kaoru's sigh was a content sigh or a burdened one. For him, the snow didn't exactly bring back normal memories one would have of fun, laughter, snowballs, and warm blankets. For him, the deathly white snow brought back memories that contrasted with crimson-stained hands.....hands that had murdered someone they loved......... 'No!,' Kenshin told his mind. 'I won't go there. These are happier times and the people here shouldn't have to be plagued with my memories!'

Quickly snapping out of his own reflection on the snow, Kenshin smiled warmly back at Kaoru, who had been waiting for a response from him. Snowflakes continued to steadily fall between them as their eyes locked into a fusion of violet-sapphire.

After a few moments, Kaoru felt a blush rise to her cheeks, so she calmly walked past Kenshin, in the direction she had headed in earlier.

"I've got to start preparing breakfast. Yahiko will be up shortly and that boy could eat a horse if he wanted! One day, he's going to eat us out of house and home!," Kaoru joked, donning her usual joyous smile and attitude. "Well, he is a growing boy, I guess...."

"That he is, Miss Kaoru," replied Kenshin good-naturedly, knowing that Kaoru secretly considered her apprentice as a younger brother. 'Yes, Yahiko could eat a lot......but not of Miss Kaoru's cooking!,' thought Kenshin. 'Well, I don't mind Miss Kaoru's cooking. I actually think it's quite good, really.....'

Breakfast was uneventful other than it being slightly rushed; for everybody yearned to go out to enjoy the new day and new snow.

In mid-afternoon sometime, Kaoru approached Yahiko, ready to leave to town to pick up some things in case the weather worsened and they were stuck in the dojo.

"Yahiko, stay here and help Kenshin with the chores. And I expect you to have a hot bath ready for me when I return later from the market. We are low on some things. Okay?," Kaoru asked her student.

"You can count on me, Kaoru!," Yahiko responded with a nod a bit too enthusiastically. Kaoru rolled her eyes at his newfound 'talent' of sarcasm.

"I won't be gone too long. Tell Kenshin I left, please. Bye!," Kaoru yelled, grabbing a wooden basket for her shopping, upon exiting through the gate of her dojo. She passed Sanosuke, the ex-street fighter and current regular to her dojo, on her way out, who acknowledged her with a friendly nod and salutation as he entered the dojo's frosty grounds. Once through the gate, Sanosuke turned back to Kaoru and yelled.

"Watch out for ice patches, Missy! And don't be out too long! It looks like the weather might turn nasty any minute!"

"Okay, Sano! Thanks! See you later!," she yelled back, disappearing around the corner.

* * *

A man's dark eyes scanned the path ahead, amidst the forest of snow-covered trees, for any sign that would prove valuable to his 'mission'. The lone dark-clad figure had been scouring the area for a few hours now, waiting. He knew he was close to his target's home, for he had been spying at them for a couple days, just to make sure he had indeed found the correct person. And it seemed that he had.

Oh, how Shimozaki Yuji wanted this! How he wanted everything to just end! His soul wouldn't rest until he had cleared the world of all connections to his tattered past.....

*Flashback*

"Mama? Mama, what's wrong? Why are you crying?," a four-year old Yuji innocently asked his hurt mother, who held indifferent and unemotional expressions on her face through her silent tears. "Mama?" He tugged on the hem of a sleeve of her kimono. A door slid open behind the naiive and curious Yuji, letting his father enter.

"Yuji, leave your father and I to talk, and go play outside now, please," his mother said calmly, barely above a whisper to her son as her husband strode over to the two of them. Yuji knew something was wrong, but wasn't old enough to figure out how to put the pieces of this enigma together. 'Why is Mama acting so strange? How did she get hurt? Why does she never let me stay to play with father?! I don't want to play outside! I want to play with father!,' Yuji thought, as he wandered around outside.

His attention was turned from his thoughts to the noises he heard coming from where his mother and father were left. He had heard a loud band as something hit the floor and his father's raised voice in a duet with his mother's helpless cries. As he ran towards their room, he heard noises that sounded like when he got spanked for being a "bad little boy". He stopped at their door, listening in innocent curiosity, wondering what was going on.

Since he was just a curious four-year old, curiosity got the better of him. He cracked the sliding door open just an inch; just enough to see what all the commotion was about.

He was shocked to see his mother on her knees, blood spilling down a corner of her mouth, with a swelling left eye. Yuji's father had his wife's long black hair wrapped around his wrist, pulling it up level with his face. He then brought his wife's ear up to his mouth and hissed some venomous words into it, making her cringe even more. After she released another cry, Yuji's father roughly released her hair and she fell to the floor limply.

Yuji had no idea what was going on, his young mind couldn't comprehend it all. It just didn't make sense to him. Then, as his mother looked up from the floor, his father hit his mother across the face, sending her to the floor again. Yuji was shocked and couldn't figure out why his father had beat his mother, so he stood there in the doorway staring at his mother with his dark brown eyes and his jaw dropped slightly. He didn't even move when his father roughly brushed by him in a hurry to leave.

Once his father's footsteps could no longer be heard down the hall, his mother began sobbing as she tried to regain her composure. Yuji walked over to his distraught mother, hugging her as she would hug him when he was hurt or upset. He thought that someone should speak, so he asked if what his young mind thought had happened was true.

"Mama? Were you a bad little girl? Did you get spanked, like me? Were you being a bad little girl? Mama?," he clutched his mother's shaking form to support her. She started crying even more at her son's inquiries, clutching him to her chest for comfort.

~Eight Years Later~

A twelve-year old Yuji walked home with a sore shoulder from his daily lesson with his sensei at the town's dojo. He trained at the dojo and spent as much time as possible there to learn to become a strong fighter. He also spent as much time as he could there because of his father.

He was much too used to the injuries and bruises his crazed father gave him. The rest of his family, especially his mother, all suffered like he did because of his father. He now had three younger siblings and came home every day from his lessons to find them more bruised and battered than they already were. He was hoping that one day, he would become strong enough to rival his father so he could protect his siblings without fear of being beaten himself.

He was quite strong for his age, really. He acted with the maturity of most decent grown men, for his childhood had been left behind the day his father had first hit him when he was six years old. Most of his earlier memories were forgotten like leaves in the wind, for life went much smoother when things were forgotten. He had his father to thank for his joyous childhood. All that he really remembered was being trapped in a Hell-like home. His lessons were an escape from it all, and he felt that he would be able to confront his father soon. How ironic that 'soon' was sooner than he thought.

He had finally reached his home.

Silence.

He searched for his family. His younger brother and sisters. His mother. He stopped short as he came to his parents' room. He peered inside, much like the way he had done eight years ago when he was only four, when he had first witnessed his father beating his mother.

Bile raised in his throat at what he saw. He threw up on the floorboards in front of him as tears fell from his eyes.

He had killed them. His father had killed them all in one fell swoop. He looked again with blurry eyes to see his family. Each and every one had been stabbed to death and lay in a haphazard pile, drenched in each others' blood.

Wishing them goodbye and a safe journey, Yuji set out to find his father. After furiously searching the remainder of his home in a kind of blinding trance powered be dismay and hate, he found his father, drunk of course. Yuji grabbed the bloody knife, that had obviously been used to kill his mother and siblings, from the floor and held it above his semi-conscious father's head, ready to kill.

His father, Yuji noted, stunk of alcohol, urine, and blood. Yuji felt the bile rise in his throat once more, but held it down and closed his eyes shut for a moment in his inner pain, thinking about the crime he was about to commit. He opened his eyes when his father made an attempt to speak, but he decided to speak first.

"Why, Father? Why?!," Yuji managed through his tears and hate for the drunkard in front of him. Through his father's nearly incoherent mumblings of answers, Yuji had gotten the whole story of why his father hated his mother and siblings so. And his reason only made Yuji hate his father more. He then killed him.

That was the first time he had taken a life. He felt refreshed and relieved at seeing his father's blood on his hands. He had become strong enough to face his father.

He ran from home that night, after praying over his loved ones' bodies. He spilt his own blood onto their bodies, so that it would mix with theirs, letting them know that he was living, he was suffering like they had, and that he would join them soon. He wished he could join them now. But, he had one task to complete before joining them. He was more of a ghost then.

As he journeyed, all his forgotten memories returned to plague his every waking moment and every horrifying dream. He had slowly become maddened and crazed with a lust for the blood of those who were unknowingly behind his mortifying past.

By the time Yuji was fifteen, his eyes, mind, heart, and soul had turned black and blinded by his hate. He kept his secret locked away in the depths of his mind, like a knife threatening to stab him, driving him. Nobody knew the reason behind his murders; his secret. N body except for his father's rotting corpse. All would be revealed in time, anyway.....

*End of Flashback*

Now, Yuji had turned himself into a sort of unjust God of Death, untimely cutting the threads of fate with his powerful detestation. He cut dull threads, mere bystanders, for practice, while searching for the golden threads, his targets. So far, he hadn't been able to find even one of the golden threads he had been searching for. He had searched for about ten years, and not one clue. He had sought in vain for ten years, yearning to slice down just one golden thread, so he could be closer to cutting down his own. Not one fucking thread! Not one fucking clue!

Until now........

He eyed the young beauty strolling down the icy path ahead. Malicious laughter echoed hauntingly inside his mind, as it did every time he has spied on his target. He had found a golden thread at last!

Kamiya Kaoru.

To be continued...............

(A/N: Well, what do you guys think, huh? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter, please. And just to clear it up, the reason behind Yuji's want to target Kaoru will be explained later in the story....not now. Right now, it is supposed to be slightly confusing and unexplained, because the rest of the story will slowly unravel the truth. ;) So, please review with comments, praise, or constructive criticism. BTW, this story is going to be a long one and continue for a while hopefully. Well, thanks for reading!)