Dark Side Chapter 4

Declaimers: Rurouni Kenshin does not belong to me.

Listen to some romance music from here to the middle of the chapter where it gets violent. Trust me, listening to music is the secret key to unlocking hidden emotions!

Battousai stood silently in the middle of a battlefield, dark clouds loomed overhead, and bodies of mutilated men lay all around him. He was soaked in blood: his face, his hair, his gi and his pants were all covered in the red stain. He felt as if he was going to drown in the humid air that blew around him. Then, without warning, the warm, suffocating liquid began to rise. He was trapped, there was nowhere to run, just never ending red everywhere he looked. The blood was up to his neck now, and he began to struggle and tipped his face upwards to try to prevent the blood from entering his mouth, but it was no use, he was going to die.

Suddenly, Battousai felt a cold breeze, it was heaven, and the tiny draft seemed to revive him. It pulled him out of his slumber.

Battousai woke up.

His golden eyes glowed in the darkness and they snapped towards the person that stood over him, trying to suffocate him.

An enemy. Battousai thought as he instinctively grabbed his sword handle and dragged the blade out of its sheath and leaped off the windowsill with unmatched swiftness. I'll push him back and cut his throat, His surprise will be his bain. He thought as he pushed the intruder back and both of them became airborne, the sword was at her throat in a heartbeat. Her?

Time slowed

"Kenshin." he heard his prey whisper as her hair flew around her face in single, unorganized strands. That sound, so familiar, who was it?

Reality came rushing back to Battousai, as his sword was about to pierce Kaoru's throat. Kenshin's pupils focused on his captive's face. It was Kaoru, he remembered, Kaoru.

Don't kill her.

He saw the hope leave her eyes and cursed. In the last possible moment, he wrapped his pushing hand around the attacking blade and pulled it back towards himself.

Time seemed to regain its normal pace as gravity began to pull the two back to Earth, Battousai did a log roll in mid fall and twisted around and under his almost-victim and they both landed heavily on the ground with a loud thud.

Battousai felt wetness on his cheeks and brushed a finger over it to discover that it was blood, fresh and warm blood.

Blood…

Could she? Could she be… dead? Could a person that had been so alive be dead?

His question was answered as she squirmed on top of him and groaned in discomfort. She pushed herself off the ground and noticed that Battousai was under her. They stared at each other for a moment and Kaoru began to blush, although no one would have noticed in the dark.

"He, hey," she managed to whimper. She scrambled to try to get off of him but her hand slipped and she fell down, now their faces were centimeters apart. Kenshin could practically feel the blush radiating from her pretty face. The corner of his lip twitched ever so slightly. Her raven hair cascaded around them in a big, black, silken mass.

Yahiko groaned and decided to wake up just then.

"Hey! What's all the racket abou..." he was cut off as the scene greeted him. "Oh." He managed to whisper before he ducked under his covers from embarrassment, he tried his best to not hurl into his futon. But that was unnoticed by neither Kenshin nor Kaoru, as they lay there motionless, staring into each other's eyes.

Finally, Kaoru realized the nothing less than SCANDALOUS position that they were in and quickly rolled off of him, life was laughing at her and she knew it.

"Are you two quiet done yet?" Yahiko's muffled voice came from under his futon. Being the kid that he was, he simply couldn't stand this.

"Yahiko, get out from under there!" Kaoru ordered, regaining some of her usual attitude. "You are being immature AGAIN."

"Are you crazy? I think I'm gonna be sick!" His voice sounded desperate.

Kaoru blushed even more if possible.

"Are you okay?" Kenshin asked, pushing himself off the ground on one elbow.

"Huh?" Kaoru was taken aback and look back at him questioningly. "Um, yeah." she answered. Did he just ask me if I was okay? She gasped upon seeing his hand split open at the palm and blood dripping from the cut.

"Oh, your hand is injured!" She somehow knew that he cut his hand while trying to save her, a smile played across her lips

"It's nothing." Battousai replied. "Go back to sleep." And he turned away, half hoping that she would just shut up and go to bed like a good girl.

"But, I must treat your wound." Kaoru insisted, starting to look for some bandage. "Where do you keep the bandage around here?" She sighed in frustration as she could find no more than piles of book on the ground.

"I can treat my own wounds." Kenshin said forcefully.

"You're welcome." She whispered as she got back into bed. "Remind me to not ever offer any of my good nature to YOU EVER AGAIN." First she almost gets killed for trying to make him warm, and then she gets scolded for wanting to treat his wound that was a result of HIS fault. Sheesh…


The sound of smashing plates woke the occupants of Battousai's room the next morning; Kaoru sat up drowsily and rubbed her eyes wondering what was happening.

Battousai's sharp senses picked up sounds of screaming down in the kitchen immediately jumped down to the ground and raced out of the room.

"Get dressed and be ready to protect yourself." He yelled before he disappeared around the shoji doors.

More shouts and screams flowed in through the now open sliding door; it was obvious that the Inn was being attacked!

Kaoru and Yahiko got dressed swiftly just like in their training sessions and grabbed their weapons quickly and rushed outside the way that Battousai had went. There they saw what was going on, men dressed in black, in other words, ninjas, were every where. They were literally bouncing off the walls killing off the drowsy Ishin shi shi who emerged from their rooms in their nightclothes trying to see what was going on. One made for Kaoru and Yahiko.

Kaoru was prepared, she jumped up as the ninja attacked, and slashed the ninja over the shoulder as she came down, leaning all of her weight into the blow. He was knocked out and fell to the floor in an unconscious heap. Yahiko was fighting off another ninja. He was very strong for a child; he did a false swipe, which distracted the attacker's attention. Then as the attacker's weight was shifted to the left Yahiko did a 360-degree spin around him. He planted one foot firmly into the ground like an axle and carried the power of the spin into his slash as it connected with the back of the ninja's neck, knocking him face forward into the floor.

The hall was cleared, the siblings rushed towards the main foyer, carefully sidestepping dead bodies of some surprised patriots.

There they witnessed Battousai's true power. They looked on on the second floor as he and several other Patriots fought off the intruders. His movement was fluid and quick, he weaved around attacks and made effortless swings. He was disposing of the intruders one by one. Battousai pushed the ninjas back toward the entrance when he leaped back.

"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, DO RYU SAN!" He shouted. He swept his sword barely above the ground and wood and flooring was brought up and rushed towards the attackers, their formation was broken, as most of them were knocked unconscious by the surprise attack. Battousai took a new stance and waited for the next wave of attack.

Suddenly, they all stopped, as if commanded by an unknown leader, and slowly backed away, out of the hotel and made a wall form around the entrance.

"Is it just me or are those logs on the floor?" Yahiko asked. Finally having enough time to look around. Little logs wrapped in black cloth covered the battleground.

"It is a common strategy used by ninjas." Kaoru answered. " They don't really engage in battles, they just pretend to be struck down while putting down a log every time, that way, there will seem to be more of them on the battle field. And that will wear out their enemy mentally." Kaoru continued, "the key is to attack efficiently so their opponent can't see the logs on the ground." But they must be stupid to use a simple trick like that against Battousai, they would only be wasting their energy by trying futily to fool Battousai. She thought gaining an intense look in her eyes.

Kaoru was cut short as a tall warrior with ice blue eyes and a high ponytail emerged from the ranks of the ninjas. He was instantly distinguishable from the rest. He didn't wear the body suit like costume that the ninjas employed, but a long, black trench coat with big collars. He stood tall and menacing with his piercing ice blue eyes threatening to freeze anyone that dares to stare into them. There almost seemed to be a cold barrier around him. And though his trench coat flowed like silk, his body was tense as a tightly coiled spring; the slightest movement will trigger its devastating power.

The room suddenly became very quiet as Battousai and this new intruder carefully measured their opponent.

"I am Aoshi Shinomori, the leader of the Oniwaban group." He finally began to speak after a long pause. Kaoru even flinched. "I am here to challenge you, Battousai. Prepare your self for battle!" he said as he reached into the sides of his trench coat and unsheathed two Kodachis hidden by it around his hips.

"Prepare to battle against the power of the Oniwaban!"

To Be Continued.

Author's Notes: well what did you think? Will Aoshi fight to the death? Read to find out. Since Kenshin already fought against Saitou once, I decided to go with Aoshi. Thanks for reading and I got that ninja strategy thing from yume kazerei's fic in the shadow of darkness, it's in my favourite stories list. And remember to leave a review! Click that button!