Allin656: Thanks so much for the review! I'm trying to introduce Kenshin little by little and from different people's perspectives. I have a pretty good idea about what I want to happen in his past, but I'm not sure when I'll bring it into the story. I want this to be a suspenseful story as well. I have an idea of where I want it to end up, but other than that I'm just going by what I feel will be good for the story. In other words, it's writing itself chapter by chapter.

KAGluvsINU: Thank you so much for reviewing! I'm very flattered that you would put me on any kind of list at all. I'm glad that you are enjoying the story because I was really starting to wonder since I wasn't getting many responses. Please keep reading and I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin

Protector

Chapter 7

Keta had woken up at the usual time of 7 am. She sighed as her body woke by instinct, not needing the alarm that would be going off any second now. When it came on, she reached over and flipped it off.

Forcing her body up, she ignored it's protesting. Her muscles were sore from the torturous workout the previous day. 'I really got Uncle Hiko ticked off with that comment about his age.' She thought wryly. Couple that with sleeping in one of the weirdest positions and you have an aching Keta. 'Pain isn't real.' Keta told herself as she stretched trying to rid herself of the stiffness and aches. 'It's only there to let you know that something's wrong.'

She went downstairs. She could hear her mother's light and steady breathing from the other side of her parent's bedroom door. Her father would have already left for work. He rode his bike to where he worked, preferring to get the exercise. He was a carpenter on the other side of town. It was probably a three mile ride. Her family was by no means, a rich family, but her father made enough for them to live comfortably.

She was cozy in pajamas as she rummaged around in the kitchen cabinets for something to eat. She came up with a box of cereal. Reaching into a higher cabinet she pulled out a bowl and went to the refrigerator to get the milk. Then she sat down on a stool at the counter and blearily began to spoon the food into her mouth. She glanced disinterestedly around, looking for the newspaper before remembering that it was Saturday they didn't get the paper on weekends.

"Are you even awake this morning? Hiko won't be happy if his pupil falls asleep on him." Her cousin's cheerful voice penetrated the early morning fog around her brain. It came from directly next to her. She jumped slightly and sat up from the hunched over position she had been in. She must really be tired if he had been able to get that close to her. Normally she would have been able to sense his ki coming into the kitchen. Kenshin could sense people in his sleep. She had never made it into his room without him knowing instantly.

"Good for him. I'm not exactly worried about Uncle Hiko's happiness at the moment." Was her sarcastic comment. All she could remember was yesterday's workout and she made a face to herself. She had always found it strange that Kenshin called his father by his given name, but she really didn't feel like thinking about that this early in the morning. She dumped her sink and spoon in the sink and turned back to her grinning cousin. "I'm going over to the dojo in a little. Do you want to come?" She asked.

"Probably. I haven't gone lately and I need a good workout. Maybe we could even spar a little and I can see what you've learned." He smiled and ruffled her hair as he walked by in search of his own breakfast. Ever since he had moved in with them a few months ago he always suggested that they spar, but it had never happened. Whenever he did come to the dojo with her, he did his own work out and watched her. She was so envious of the natural grace he had with a sword. She hoped that someday she would be able to wield a katana the way he did.

"Yeah right. Would I want to? I'm leaving after I change." Keta retorted. She was one of the best females to have learned the art of the sword. Kaoru was one of the finest as well. Their sword styles were extremely different, but with the same purpose. Protection of the weak. Not that they would ever utilize the sword that way. The only time they actually fought was at competitions and Kaoru was only allowed to go to a select few because of her father's overprotective manner.

She came out of her thoughts to Kenshin's slightly muffled, "Okay." She went back upstairs to her room. A quick trip into her messy draws resulted in sweatpants and a loose tank top. She pulled the articles of clothing on and went into the bathroom. She yanked a brush through her tangled hair and put it up into a short ponytail. The end of it just brushed the nape of her neck and a few shorter pieces fell out in the front, framing her face. Frustrated she tried again with the same result, so she just left it. She washed her face and brushed her teeth and walked back into her room. There she found her sneakers and put them on before going back downstairs.

"Ready?" Kenshin asked as she came down the stairs. He was already dressed and had apparently eaten and was waiting for her. She frowned. She hadn't thought that she had taken that long.

"Yeah. Let's go." Keta replied. They left the house and jogged the few blocks to her Uncle's dojo. They both set out at a brisk pace and by the time they got there Keta was slightly winded while Kenshin was perfectly fine. "That's not fair you know." She complained. "Why do have such good stamina when you said you haven't had a good workout lately?"

"Did I say that, really? I said that I needed a good workout, but just because I don't go to the dojo all the time doesn't mean I don't practice on my own." He told her, his blue-violet eyes glittering in amusement.

"Haha. You're so funny." She said sarcastically. "Jerk." With that she pushed open the door. Inside they found Kaoru's uncle and Kenshin's father, Hiko. He was a very imposing man and many women swooned at his feet, or so he liked to say. Tall and dark, he looked nothing like his son. Kenshin had apparently gotten his looks from his mother, Serenity.

Keta remembered her aunt. She had died when Kenshin was thirteen. She had only been five at the time, but she knew that her aunt was a beauty. Kenshin had her brilliant red hair and natural grace. She didn't know where his small stature came from because she could remember her aunt being quite tall. The blue that was in his eyes she wasn't sure about either because Serenity's had been a pure dark violet and Hiko's were emerald green. It was probably a cross between the two of them, like in math. You get two negatives and that makes a positive, but then again when you had two positives in made a positive, not a negative. Oh well, she honestly didn't care that it didn't make sense because she hated math anyway.

"You're late." Came Hiko's greeting.

"No I'm not. I'm exactly on time." Keta said mulishly.

"You are a minute late." He said again.

Keta looked at her watch. Exactly seven thirty and forty five seconds. "No. Technically I'm only 45 seconds late. That's not a minute!" Keta stated. "And anyway, it's Kenshin's fault. He took too much time talking to me this morning. I can't get distracted or I get off schedule." She added slyly glancing at her cousin.

"Oro!" Kenshin said in surprise. He hadn't expected her to pin the blame on him. "You little brat. I was nothing but nice to you this morning." Keta was cracking up at his shocked expression and the fact that he had used his trademark expression. She hadn't heard him say it since they were both kids.

"You're both idiots. I want you to start by meditating Keta. We still have to work on your ki sensing. It should be better than it is by now." Hiko broke in. "You may join us too if you want, if you don't want to, then just don't distract us." He addressed Kenshin.

In the end Kenshin joined them in meditating. Now she could sense him sitting next to her as she calmed herself down and sank into the silence. What followed was absolute torture, this time the reason was her not being on time. Then again, he always seemed to come up with an excuse to work her hard. Yesterday to had been the age comment, the day before yesterday because school had finished the day before that and she had been unusually energetic.

Two and a half hours of unrelenting practice later, she was panting. Kenshin had gone through the motions on his own and sat quietly to watch the end of her workout. She had mastered the basics of the technique some time ago and was working diligently on mastering the more complicated ones. She was strong but it was taking some time.

She dropped wearily down on the floor next to Kenshin. Hiko was replacing the wooden sword he had used for the practice back on it's stand. He made her use the wooden sword while she was trying to master a technique before allowing her to try with the actual steel weapon. She could wield a katana with skill and more often than not was allowed to use it in the tournaments and competitions she entered, although it was much more dangerous, especially with this sword style.

The Hiten Mitsurugi style. An almost deadly technique. Her Uncle had mastered it. Only twelve others ever had and she wasn't sure about Kenshin. Her Uncle had never spoken about his son in the time that he was gone. His coming home had bought a whole bunch of new questions that she wanted to ask, but didn't dare. Had Kenshin mastered the technique before he left? Or was his training still incomplete? She sighed but didn't say anything.

"You improved today, but you will be better. Maybe longer practice sessions would work since you have much more free time to work now that school is over for you." Hiko commented as he watched Keta. Her reaction was similar to that of Kenshin's earlier.

"What? You mean more practice time? With you? I don't know if I could take it." Uh oh. Not a good thing to say. At least not in front of her Uncle.

"Good. I'm glad you agree." He told her, smiling slightly. "Tomorrow I want you here at seven instead and then we'll see what happens." Keta just groaned and covered her face. Kenshin smiled at her reaction.

"Okay. We're going now." He said and hauled Keta to her feet.

"Bye, Uncle Hiko." Keta said.

"Be sure to jog home. You need the cool down." He reminded her.

"Okay. Sure." Keta waved and followed Kenshin out the door.

They reached the house to find Keta's mother, Suki, awake. "Good morning. How was did your training go today?" She greeted them cheerfully. Her short brown hair, darker than Keta's curled around her face and in the sunlight some strands of gray were beginning to become visible.

"It was so hard! Uncle Hiko's starting to become similar to a slave driver. How can you be related to him, Mom? I think that you're too nice to be related to him." Keta hugged her mother. "You have to save me from him. Kenshin's completely useless." Suki just laughed along with Kenshin. "Fine when I die from exhaustion I'm going to blame both of you." Keta flounced away and up the stairs to take a much needed shower.

When she reached the top of the stairs though, she remembered something much more pressing that she needed to do; call Kaoru and find out all the details of yesterday's escapade. Rushing back down the stairs, she grabbed the wireless phone and dashed back up to her room. There she dialed Kaoru's home phone number which not many people knew. When no one answered she frowned. Somebody always answered. She tried Kaoru's cell phone, but no one answered that either. Giving up, she called Misao. She could get the details from her.

The phone rang and Keta heard a groggy voice say, "Hello?" She snickered to herself. She must have woken her up. 'What a lazy bum,' she thought.

"Good morning, Sunshine!" She said as brightly as she could in her best imitation of Misao. All she got in response was a muffled groan. Keta laughed to herself. "Wow. You must really be tired. It's not like it's that early. What happened to bouncy Misao, my little weasel girl?" Keta grinned at the weasel part, knowing full well the whole time she said it that Misao absolutely detested the name. "Stayed out too late last night?" There was silence for a few minutes and Keta knew that Misao was trying to process what she had just said. Here it came, she could hear Misao take a deep breath.

"WHAT?! WEASEL? Don't call me that! Geez, how many times have I told you that?" Her friend was outraged. "It doesn't make sense anyway." She mumbled the last part. "And it is early! Ten o'clock in the morning constitutes as early in my book!" Keta couldn't hold her laughter in any longer.

When she had calmed down enough, she said, "Okay. Whatever. You know I get up early to practice every morning. You know my Uncle Hiko. Discipline is an essential part of becoming a good swordswoman and so on. At least you're on your way to waking up. So, how did yesterday go? Nobody answered at Kaoru's house or her cell when I called." The phone was silent for a minute.

"Oh God." Keta heard her friend's voice. It was slightly panicked.

"Hey? What's the matter? Misao?" Keta asked, concernedly. Her voice seemed to wake Misao up and she started talking.

"It was horrible." She said slowly. "She was yanked away from me and I had no idea what happened. I realized that she was gone and saw a man dragging her through a side door and then her bodyguards followed them. I ran for security and told them that my friend had been kidnapped. We found one of the bodyguards dead, no perpetrator and the other bodyguard was holding Kaoru bleeding in his arms. She looked at me and then passed out. She's in the hospital right now. I wasn't allowed to see her and her father sent me home."

"Oh my God. We have to go see her. I know that visiting hours start at twelve, so I'll meet you there in two hours. That should be enough time for you to get your lazy butt out of bed, right?" Keta couldn't believe what had happened. "I'll see you there." With that, she hung up the phone. She sat down on her bed heavily and buried her face in her hands.

Kaoru had been Keta's best friend since they were seven years old. Kaoru had gone to public school then and they had met outside on the playground. Even then Kaoru had been very protective, even to strangers like Keta.

FLASHBACK

A miniature Keta was sitting on a swing. She had been pumping her legs for the past few minutes trying to see how high she could go. Her Uncle Hiko had told her it was good exercise for her arms and legs and she needed the arm and leg strength to be a good swordswomen one day. That was all she wanted to do. She wanted to be exactly like her older cousin Kenshin. But he had left a little while ago. He had left and he hadn't even said goodbye to her. A single tear fell down her face to be followed by another and another. She had idolized him and now he was gone.

"What's the matter? You don't know how to swing? Look guys, the little baby's crying." The mean voice broke through her tears and she looked up. A group of older boys surrounded her. There ringleader spoke again. "Do you need some help?" With that she was pushed in the back and sent sprawling forward off of the swing. All of the boys laughed and Keta had just sat there shocked and breathless from the fall.

Then a voice broke through the boys laughter. "Leave her alone you big jerks!" Another girl came running into view. Keta vaguely remembered her from her class. "Go away! You hurt her!" She stopped, her small hands in fists.

"Yeah? And what is a scrawny little girl going to do about it?" The ringleader laughed causing the other boys to go into hysterics.

The only answer he got was, "This!" The other girl had somehow gotten a stick in hand and whacked it over the boy's head. The rest of the boys were shocked into silence as their leader sat down heavily, a big bump forming on his forehead.

The girl ran up to Keta and helped her up. "Come on, let's get out of here before they can get back at us." She said and pulled her across the playground to where they were in full view of the teachers. Kindly she wiped away at Keta's tears. " My name is Kaoru. What's yours?"

"My name's Keta." She replied.

"I like your name. We'll be good friends." Kaoru told her and Keta knew that it would be true.

END FLASHBACK

Keta sighed as she remembered that day. True to her word they had become best friends. Then Kaoru had introduced her to Misao and the three had become inseparable.

Keta looked blankly at the phone in her hands before she put it on her bedside table. She walked over to her dresser and pulled out clean clothes. She then headed for the bathroom. She was still a little shocked about what had happened so she took longer than normal in the shower. She didn't even register the hot water turning her skin a bright red.

She slid back the shower curtain and stepped out, wrapping a towel around herself. She rubbed her body dry before putting on the tank top and jean shorts. She vigorously rubbed at her wet hair and combed it out. She took out the blow dryer and within minutes it was dry. She hung up the towel and paused looking at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were mostly blue this morning and the gold was very dim.

She turned away and walked back to her room. It was eleven. She then walked downstairs, rubbing her left shoulder. On it was the dragon tattoo she had gotten when she was fifteen. She had always associated dragons with the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu and she decided she wanted a way to show that she was a pupil to it. No one else knew of the symbolism besides Kaoru and Misao although she suspected that Uncle Hiko and Kenshin could guess. Her mother on the other hand had gone completely insane when she saw it. Keta smiled wryly, there had been nothing her mother could do about it besides grounding her for almost a year.

Suki was in the kitchen washing dishes.

"Hey Mom, I need the car today." Keta said, knowing that she would have to put up a fight.

"No." Was the immediate response.

"I really need it. Kaoru's in the hospital and I want to go visit her. She was almost kidnapped yesterday and Misao and I are going to see her at twelve. She needs us to be with her." Keta said, appealing to her mother's compassionate side.

"Oh no. Is she alright? It wasn't too serious was it?" Suki turned immediately, very concerned.

"No, I don't think it's anything too serious, but I have to see her. One of her bodyguards died and I she's probably going to blame herself. Me and Misao need to cheer her up." Keta begged.

"It's 'Misao and I' and I didn't say that you couldn't go, just that you can't drive the car. It's brand new and at the speeds you drive you'll probably be in an accident before you reach the end of the block. I want Kenshin to drive you. Even if he doesn't have his license he is a much more sensible driver than you are." Suki said, finality in her tone.

"Fine. I'll go ask Kenshin right now." Keta muttered and left to go find her cousin.

She knocked on Kenshin's door. "Hey, Kenshin, can I come in?" She called.

"Sure." He answered. Keta opened the door and walked in. He kept the room plain and neat. Only a few things of his personal things were scattered throughout the room. Without them, the room would have looked like a guestroom.

Kenshin was reclining on the bed reading a book. He looked up as she came in. "Did you want something?" He asked, draping the book on his stomach and putting his hands behind his head.

"Yeah. One of my friends is in the hospital and I want to go visit her. The only thing is, she won't let me drive the car and she can't bring me, so my last resort is you. Will you drive me?" She asked hopefully.

"Of course. Which of your friends is in the hospital?" He said.

"Kaoru. She was almost kidnapped. Her father is a well known politician and it happens at least once a year." Keta told him.

"I remember her. You said that she also practices swordsmanship. Right?" Kenshin said.

"Yeah. She's also beautiful and smart. She's practically perfect. She just has so many difficulties in her life, but she's my best friend and I want to help her every way I can." Keta told him.

"You're pretty too, brat." Kenshin told her. "Let's go then, shall we?" He stood up and put the book down next to his bed.

"Thanks." Keta mumbled and they walked out of his room. Kenshin stopped to get the car keys from Suki and let her know that they were leaving. Walking out to the new car they got in and Kenshin pulled out of the driveway.

"So," Keta said a few seconds later, "When we get to the end of the street, do you want to let me drive?"

Hey everyone! My computer is so annoying! It keeps trying to change my name to Kate behind my back. It has only succeeded once so far that I know about though! As always I hope that you are enjoying the story and I hope that you like this chapter. I left behind some extremely subtle clues in this chapter about Kenshin's past. I'm not expecting anyone to pick up on them quite yet, but if you do then good for you. Personally I would have read them and never even noticed.
I am messing around with facts and such, just to warn you if anything seems off. Feel free to as about anything you want and I'll do my best to explain. I wasn't sure if I should use Kenshin's "oro" or not since I haven't used any Japanese in the fanfiction yet and I don't speak the language at all. Everything I know is just from reading it in other stories. I decided to put it in because it's just too big a part of him to leave out. I don't think that I will have him say it that often though. I updated so quickly because I have my annoying midterm tests this week and I have to do some serious studying. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a snow day so that I an get an extra day of studying in. This snowstorm hit New York last night and yesterday. Also, the fact that I got reviews makes me happy and it gets me get all inspired. I hope that you'll read the story, enjoy it and hopefully leave behind a review!