I'm soooo very sorry for not updating sooner. I've gotten caught up in school and life's been hectic. But I'm just so sorry that it took me this long.

Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it? -guy in suit pokes her with a gun- GAH! IDON'TOWNIT IDON'TOWNIT! Happy? I said it. You can go now. -evil guy in the suit walks away... happy-

Sanosuke: Why oh why did you do that to me?

Schweppes: Did? I don't know what you're talking about?

Sanosuke: Kenshin and... me. -blushes- YAHH! Why?!

Schweppes: -laughs- Well, I couldn't resist!

Sanosuke: -sweatdrop-

Schweppes: ON WITH DER FIC!

NOTES: (A/N), 'thoughts', -actions-... and this fic is AU if you didn't get that by now (alternate universe)

When we left off: Sanosuke was going to drive himself crazy with this question. But something distracted him for a second, "Who's here?!"

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Aoshi burst into the clearing. Wearing his normal clothes, his eyes still a piercing ice blue, hatred etched into them.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Sanosuke snapped at him. Looking around the space for anything that could be used as a weapon.

"That is none of your business." He took out his gun and pointed it at Sanosuke's head. "Now come with me, or else you'll never get to see your friends again.

Sanosuke wasn't about to let Aoshi win so easily. He stood up and grabbed a piece of driftwood, the closest thing to him, and hit Aoshi over the head. Blood was trickling down the side of his face from the force of the object. While Aoshi was still recovering from the blow, Sanosuke was getting ready to punch him. Fist met with arm in the Futai No Kiwami. Aoshi then became unconscious, his left arm with a huge dent.

Sanosuke didn't realize, that while he was fighting, Aoshi had blown a whistle hidden in his sleeve. So now men were coming on to him from both sides. They were in all black and wore masks.

He would never give in. he would go down fighting. He punched as many people as he could, blood spraying from the force. The men were slowly going down, but there were still way too many. They had already surrounded him, and two of them grabbed his arms. Sanosuke thrashed trying to break free from the faceless men.

One took the piece of driftwood from the ground that was used against Aoshi and hit him repeatedly over the head. Sanosuke couldn't take the pressure and fell over, being caught by the ninjas.

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Kenshin finally made it to the beach. He looked down as he paned from the long run. Not yet seeing the scene of many dead or unconscious men sprawled out before him.

A trickle of blood was moving it's way across the sand and met with purple eyes. Kenshin gasped at the unsuspected liquid and forced himself to look up.

"Holy shit." He mumbled at the sight before him.

Searching his now piercing eyes around, looking for Sanosuke, he realized that he wasn't there. He set his eyes back down to the slowly moving line of the crimson blood.

Kenshin cringed as the smell still haunted him to this day and decided to find out who took Sanosuke. So he kicked one of the unconscious men until he awakened.

"Where did they take Sanosuke?!" He demanded in his Battousai voice.

"A... Aoshi!" The man stumbled upon his words.

Battousai yelled and kicked the man with fury before following the stench of blood. Sanosuke's blood.

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Sanosuke woke up to an empty room. His eyes scanned the room. It looked like a jail cell. The bed was thin and stiff, the walls were bare, and on top of it all, there were no windows. Just a bare, empty room with a hole in the floor that Sano assumed was the bathroom.

Sanosuke went over to the door and turned the knob... it wouldn't budge.

"Shit!" Sanosuke banged his hand against the door, causing the room the echo.

The loud noise made his head hurt and he grabbed it in the pain. His hand felt wet. 'Why?' he thought. He took his hand out of his spiky brown hair and found blood. Why was there blood on this hand?

The latch to the door opened. The person standing there was dressed in all black. She had long brown hair tied in a braid and big lavender eyes.

'Heh... her eyes are kinda like Kenshin's' Sanosuke mused.

"Well... are you just going to stare at me, or eat?!" She pushed the food platter into his chest.

"Well... I am hungry! I'll eat any kind of food!" He patted his stomach and took as much food as he could and shoved them into his mouth.

"I guess after 2 hours, you get hungry." She went to walk away.

Sanosuke grabbed her arm, "First, you have to tell me something!" She nodded, "What's your name, and why am I here?"

"Didn't think you'd be smart enough to ask that just yet."

"HEY!!" Sanosuke was offended.

" – Anyway, my name is Erica. I'm an American, just born in Japan, that's why I have the American name. Now for your second question; how the hell am I supposed to know?! All I can tell you is that Aoshi brought you here, and told me to keep you in this room until said otherwise."

"Okay. Where is he anyway?" Sanosuke wondered.

"He's still knocked out, sleeping in a way. You must have hit him really good." Erica said, "Need to know anything else, ask the other people. I might be really busy." And the brunette walked out of the door.

"Well... she was weird. Wonder why she only wore black? Maybe she's a ninja..." Sanosuke was talking to the wall as he trailed off with his thoughts and questions.

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"YAHHHHH!" Battousai yelled as he trekked though the forest. He was getting sick of tripping over tree roots and getting his hair caught in branches. 'Why the hell would Aoshi keep Sano in such a dense forest?!' he thought.

Battousai's eyes went innocent and big again. "I hope Sanosuke's okay." Kenshin thought aloud.

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-ACHOO!- Sanosuke sneezed.

"This place must be dusty... Shit! I've gotta go!" He got up and walked around his small cell. He went up to the metal door and banged on it as hard as he could, "Someone get me outta here!!" The brunette yelled at the top of his lungs. "I'm NOT going to the bathroom in that hole!!! GET ME OUT OF HE---" he stopped as the door opened abruptly and fell over landing on his face.

"What the hell was that for?!" Sanosuke yelled.

"I thought you wanted to get out of here, so I opened the door." It was Erica, "You can go now... if you dare."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Sanosuke was still yelling.

"Why should I tell you? You could always go find out for yourself." She was taunting him. (AN: AHHHHH!! DIE ERICA! DIE! –sweatdrop- oops. On with the fic!)

Sanosuke was getting really mad now. He got back up on his feet and took hold of the doorknob, she was still laughing rather loudly to herself. He cringed at the sound, and slammed the door right in her face. (Now remember boys and girls... the door is made of metal -evil smile-) he heard Erica scream in pain as she fell over. He laughed to himself.

He sat back down on the bed again. He had one leg hanging off and the other straight across the bed, hands behind his head.

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Back at the Kamiya Kashin dojo:

"Yahiko, have you seen Ken-san or Sano-kun?" Megumi asked.

"Can't say I have. I wonder where they are. Karou's getting mad." He looked over at Karou.

"KENSHIN! Where are you?" Karou had big watery eyes (like when she was drunk that first time, and was too embarrassed to tell Kenshin something... -sweatdrop-) Megumi and Yahiko sweat dropped.

"This is going to get annoying." Yahiko stated the obvious.

Karou took out her bamboo sword and ran towards Sanosuke's head.

"Where's she going?" Yahiko asked.

Megumi shrugged. "Let's find out."

So they went after Karou.

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'It's been a couple of days now... How come I can't find this place?' Kenshin thought.

There was a loud boom vibrating throughout the forest making the trees shake, little droplets of dew slipped off the leaves and fell onto Kenshin.

"Could that be..." Kenshin wondered.

He walked a little further into the woods where he thought the bangs could be coming from. There stood a man who was really tan from walking around and working outside. He was also very muscular. Dark circles around his eyes.

"Anji." Kenshin was talking to him.

Anji turned around to see who had said his name, "Battousai. What brings you in this far?"

"I thought you were in prison." He changed the subject.

"I got let out for good behavior. So, why are you here? I don't see that many people wandering around here much." He questioned Kenshin.

"If you must know, I'll tell you. Sanosuke was taken by Aoshi Shinomori, took him off into these woods. Would you happen to have seen some sort of house or place to live?"

Anji had a questioned look on his face, "Can't say I have. But, there's a good chance that I might be able to help you. Sanosuke has helped me become who I am, instead of being the man full of revenge that I used to be."

"Would you really want to come with me? You should know that trouble seems to follow me wherever I go by now. After all, I did end up with Shishio."

"No. I can not leave just yet. But, I will be able to point you in a better direction." Anji suggested.

Kenshin nodded and smiled.

"Try over there," he pointed to his left, "I heard some noise coming from there that didn't sound like a wild animal. I heard guns."

"Yes," Kenshin nodded, "thank you so much for your help Anji. Maybe I can bring Sanosuke back with me and meet up with you again. That is if I can find you."

Anji nodded as well and went back to his never ending training.

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Sanosuke's house didn't have anything. No Sanosuke, no Kenshin, no people. So they left.

"KENSHIN! WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO?!?!?!?!" Karou was still yelling for her lost loved one.

"Karou, calm down. You're over exaggerating! Kenshin has been gone a couple of days. He'll be back, he ALWAYS comes back." Megumi was trying to comfort Karou.

"But every time he leaves, he always leaves for a long time. I can't take it anymore! I want Kenshin back!" Karou was still crying.

"..." Yahiko's mouth hung open.

"He WILL come back, give him time!" Megumi was starting to raise her voice.

"I don't care I want him now."

"Well you'll just ha – Yahiko? What are you staring at?"

"G... girl." Yahiko muttered.

"Huh?" Karou looked to where Yahiko was staring, "AHH! Who are you?!"

"My name is Kinoshi. If you want to find Kenshin, I can tell you where to go." She smiled at them.

"B... But... You're FLOATING!" Yahiko stammered still in shock.

"Yes, but that is beyond the point. He went off into the woods follow me." She starting walking... er... floating away.

Karou just stood there, her mouth wide open as Kinoshi, Yahiko and Megumi were all moving away from her, "HEY! WAIT FOR ME!!!!" she ran to catch up to them.

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Kenshin was still walking through the forest. He found a person dressed all in black standing next to a mysterious building.

'Aoshi must have Sanosuke here.' Kenshin thought to himself.

A man walked up to Kenshin. He wore, black pants and shirt, a long red coat, black hair with a red bandanna tied in it and brown eyes, "You must be Kenshin."

"Wh... who are you?" Kenshin stammered. 'He wears the Sekihotai bandanna!

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This looks like a good time to end it. Now, try and tell me you don't know who that is.

And you still don't know who Sanosuke picks! Muhahaha! I might enter this in a fanfiction magazine called faniac (go to ) anyone thinks I should (when I finish) just say in the review.

Well – yeah... now I forgot what I was going to say.

Sanosuke: Good. Can I go now?

No. I remembered. I just got Samurai X reflection! The animation kinda sucked and Sano's hair was down... not normal. Damn new animators couldn't draw Kenshin at all! I don't want to give anything away, so I won't say anymore.

Sanosuke: You ruined it for your friend.

SO? I was hyper. Meep. Leave me alone!

Sanosuke: Be glad to. -walks out-

Oops. I didn't mean to do that. -Chases after Sanosuke.- WAIT! I DIDN'T MEAN IT THAT WAY!

Yahiko: Well – REVIEW!!!!