Author's Notes (12/17/04):First off, let me make one thing perfectly clear: seahorses don't have lungs! Get it straight, Kenshin! Geeze. :P Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to everyone who'sbeen waiting to read this fic and specifically toFiruze Khanume, "you asked for it and here it is!" 8D

Disclaimer: I recently discovered that I AM in fact the owner of both Rurouni Kenshin and Fruits Basket. Praise me!

Juunishi Part 9

It had finally happened. He finally had a chance to prove himself. His illustrious family members had screwed up. Big time. And he was the only one left they could turn to.

"We only have until tomorrow evening. You must not fail."

The words rang in his ears, bringing with them a sense of urgency. So what if they didn't deserve his help? They'd made their plans without bothering to include him. Not that he would have expected them to. He'd always been the outsider.

"Complete this task for us and you will finally be accepted as an honorable member of this clan."

Acceptance. It was more than he could have hoped for.

And with that single thought in mind, he ran a hand back through his unruly flame-orange hair, and pulled his black ninja mask into place.

After all, what were the lives of twelve strangers worth when compared with the joy of finally being considered 'a part of the family'?

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It was easy enough to ignore the other inhabitants of the house when they were so busily ignoring him. He'd managed to avoid being dragged along to the drinking party mostly because no one had bothered to invite him. Not that he cared. He could tell they didn't want him there, and he sure as hell had no intention of letting his guard down for an evening of uninhibited socialization. He wasn't here to enjoy himself. He wasn't here to 'make friends' or 'play nice'.

And frankly, if it wasn't for a certain pesky little age old curse he'd have left the city the minute he'd completed his task.

Why he had agreed to help the murderer of his beloved sister...he had yet to determine.

Of course, it was getting quite boring in the Outcast Village. It had been a long time since he'd had a worthy opponent for his most excellently crafted Chinese Sword. He'd been pleased to discover that his skills with it hadn't decreased as drastically as he would have anticipated.

Perhaps that was the reason he'd agreed to help his former archenemy? To test himself?

That had to be it. Except... While it was nice to know that he hadn't allowed his physical body to wither along with his mind, the presence of fighting ability or the lack thereof made no difference to his current situation. All the fighting prowess in the world meant nothing when the driving force behind the need for that power was gone.

"Gone." He murmured to no one in particular. He was alone after all. Completely. Utterly. Alone.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind when the whole house seemed to shake in disagreement, reminding him forcefully that he was NOT, in fact, alone. The house was full of people, and at least one of them was filled with enough rage to shake the very rooftop where he had chosen to hide himself away.

It would have only been a slight irritation, a minor disturbance in an otherwise relatively peaceful night. Unfortunately, the shaking continued, picking up in intensity like an earthquake.

He lost his purchase and tumbled forward, rolling once along the slanted roof before he reached the edge. He managed to twist his body around but his fingers slipped off the edge of the gutter as he tried to catch himself.

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Kaoru's rage could not be controlled. Even Megumi had dove for cover when she realized she was in the enraged kendo instructor's path. Now that Kaoru was back in her guestroom, her anger was no less contained. And worse, she had no way to vent her frustrations. She realized, only vaguely through the haze of her fury, that she would probably be pissed off for an indeterminate number of hours. There was nothing to break in sight.

Nothing and nobody. Nobody... except for Enishi.

Enishi?

"Enishi?? What the hell are you doing hanging outside my room?"

The white-haired psycho killer guy was dangling from the second story balcony of her and Kenshin's guestroom. Why exactly, she hadn't a clue. But it seemed a rather fortunate turn of events. For just moments earlier, she had been bemoaning the fact that she had not a single person or thing to rage against in all her frustration.

And who made a better candidate than the man who had personally plunged each member of the dojo family into a living hell?

After all, wasn't it he who had kidnapped her and made Kenshin believe that she was dead?

Her poor rurouni had been devastated. The dojo family had split apart at the seems, leaving her imprisoned with the crazy man on a secret island with no hope in sight.

When Kenshin had finally come to save her, this white-haired psychopath before her had fought with her champion. He'd hurt Kenshin and caused pain to everyone she loved.

If anyone deserved to suffer her wrath, it was definitely Enishi.

But somehow, seeing him gripping the edge of the railing with a grimace of pain or annoyance on his fairly handsome face, Kaoru couldn't think of him as anyone other than the young boy who had watched the most important person in his life die tragically. Also, she found his current position kind of humorous.

Her anger evaporated.

"What exactly are you doing?" She approached the mentally unstable man with only a hint of wariness. Enishi didn't seem too threatening, dangling there precariously. She suppressed a smile.

Apparently, he didn't think her questions deserved a response. Enishi silently glared up at her as he nimbly pulled himself up. He threw one leg over the railing and Kaoru unconsciously reached out to give him a hand. He stopped her with a single piercing look that seemed to say, "Touch me and die, woman."

Kaoru could take a hint. Enishi had a personal space bubble the size of Tokyo.

"I was just going to help." She muttered. She wasn't sure why she felt the need to justify herself to the man.

"I don't need your help." He stated matter-of-factly, as his feet touched the balcony. He brushed imaginary dust off his Chinese style pants.

"So what were you doing, anyway?" Kaoru asked, regarding the white-haired man skeptically. He'd ignored the question twice, but she felt she deserved an answer. It seemed kind of strange to find him suspended outside her guestroom. "Wait a minute!" There was only one logical conclusion to be made. "You were spying on me weren't you!?"

Enishi regarded her with as much incredulity as he could muster. "Please. Now why would I do that?"

"Because you think I'm your sister?" Kaoru answered with a question that she didn't really want answered.

Enishi sputtered. Kaoru's fears were at least partially confirmed.

"That's why you're here isn't it? That's why you even agreed to help Kenshin in the first place." Once the idea had sprouted in her mind, there was little either of them could do to stop her from vocalizing her suspicions. "When I went with Kenshin to visit you at the Outcast Village, I had a feeling that the only reason you agreed to help him was because I was there. I was right, wasn't I?" She finished with a mix of triumph and trepidation.

"Most certainly not." Enishi had regained a semblance of his composure. He studiously avoided making eye contact as he brushed past Kaoru into her guestroom. He looked like he was going to make a fast escape.

"There's no other explanation. Why else would you agree to help us? I know for at least a few moments, you did think I'd become your sister. Have you totally forgotten or what?"

The question stopped the white-haired man in his tracks. "No, I remember that day very clearly." He turned to face her. "That was the day my life lost all meaning."

He sounded so deflated and sad as he spoke that Kaoru couldn't help take an unconscious step toward him. She'd comforted him before. She'd comforted him when he definitely hadn't deserved it. She'd let him cry in her lap and she'd hugged him like the big sister he'd lived his life for.

"You're wrong, Enishi." Kaoru said. She spoke evenly and kept her eyes locked with his. "That was the day that you were given a choice. I know you know that what you were doing, the way you were living your life, it was all wrong. I don't think you ever wanted to let yourself become what you became for the sake of vengeance. Your sister certainly didn't want you to live your life that way."

Enishi scoffed. "Listen woman. You don't know me and you certainly never had the opportunity to get to know my sister, seeing how it was your husband who murdered her." A chill breeze drifted inside the room.

Kaoru broke the tension with inappropriate laughter. Enishi turned on his heels and was about to throw open the shoji door when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Kaoru smiled up at him, and for the briefest of moments, Enishi could see the resemblance between the woman before him and his dearly departed sister.

Her smile carried not a single trace of hatred or loathing or blame or spite or any other negative emotion she should have harbored for him.

"If anyone in this room understands how your sister truly felt, it's me." Kaoru's statement was free from condescension. "We both read her diary. I'm not sure how you can claim that I don't understand her when I'm married to the very man who changed her life. I understand that you feel a certain amount of betrayal and hurt because your sister loved someone other than you. But seriously Enishi... here's a piece of advice from me to you." She gave him a humorous grin. "Get over it."

If anyone else had issued such an order to him, he would have swiped their head from their body without hesitation. Instead, all he could do was stare at her in amazement.

There was a long pause as Kaoru continued to smile up at him. The whole situation was completely unheard of. Enishi tried to remember a time when anyone had dared be so informal and friendly, albeit slightly rude, to him. She told him to "get over it" as if all the years of pain and hatred from the day his sister died to today could be forgotten as though nothing happened. As though he could actually go about living a normal life! And suddenly he could see his sister, imposed over Kaoru's visage, somehow smiling the same goofy smile with her inherent elegance.

"You know..." He began slowly. "That's probably exactly what my sister would have told me if she could."

"Like I told you before." Kaoru commented casually. "I understand how she felt. Hell, with everything I've been through I could practically be her."

Overcome with emotion and the strangest other feelings, Enishi reached out to embrace the woman who could truly be credited with saving his unworthy soul. Through a funny trick of his sanity, Kaoru still even looked like his sister.

The very quiet, seldom used, voice of reason in the back of his mind screamed something about an age old curse, but Enishi had never had any trouble ignoring the pesky little voice before.

"I love you, sister!" He lunged.

Kaoru sidestepped. Enishi stepped through the shoji door. He paused in the hallway, coming to his senses, relatively speaking.

Kaoru peered through the Enishi shaped hole in her door. "I said 'practically'! I could 'practically' be your sister. As in, I am 'not' and would appreciate it if you stopped mistaking me for her."

"Sorry." He replied sheepishly. "Old habit."

"No problem."

There was a slight pause as Enishi replayed the scene in his head. A wave of something that he could only identify as embarrassment passed over him and he quickly decided to make like a tree and get the heck out of there. "Well, I should probably be going."

"You don't have to leave Enishi. And if you want a hug, I'm here for you as long as you don't mistake me as your dead sister again." Kaoru said with another endearing smile. It actually felt kind of good to be kind of good to someone who was less fortunate than her. Her earlier pain and frustrations with Kenshin paled in comparison to the mental anguish and instability she could sometimes see in Enishi's eyes.

He seemed to consider her offer. "I think I'll pass on the hug right now. But... for whatever it's worth: Thanks."

Kaoru accepted his thanks with a nod and gestured him back inside her room. "So Enishi, there's something I want to ask you. Since you're kind of a man and all."

Enishi wasn't sure he liked where the discussion was heading.

Kaoru plunged ahead. "What does it mean, exactly, when a woman wants to have sex and the man jumps out the window?"

Enishi didn't feel completely qualified to answer the question. Plus, he wasn't exactly sure he had heard her right. He did have a tendency to hear and see strange things at inappropriate times. He knew he was just a little bit crazy, but he'd learned to live with it.

"Um, excuse me?"

Kaoru sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you that. The last thing you want to hear is stories from the failed love life of Himura Kenshin."

A feral grin burst across Enishi's features. "Actually. You'd be surprised."

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Soujirou skipped through the Aoiya garden with the happiest little smile plastered to his face.

Life was good. Life was grand. He'd been turned into a bunny man and he couldn't think of anything more enjoyable. If possible, he thought he would try and convince the others to let him keep his spiffy new curse.

It could certainly make life entertaining.

He turned and decided to take a skipping tour around the Aoiya grounds, for absolutely no particular reason. It wasn't like he had a whole lot else to do, with all the other warriors drinking their brains out. Soujirou liked to think that he had better things to do with his life than lose it in a bottle.

"I'm a bunny. I'm a bunny." He sang to himself tunelessly.

Rounding the corner, he spotted a forlorn figure dangling her legs over the edge of the Aoiya's raised walkway. She looked so lost and lonely that there was only one thing he could possibly think of doing.

He raced towards her with all his God-like speed, pouncing at the last minute. The two went flying and were surrounded by a fluffy white cloud. When the poof finally cleared, Misao found herself the proud owner of a fuzzy little bunny.

Soujirou wiggled his nose and nuzzled her face, making imaginary bunny noises since he couldn't actually remember what kind of noises bunnies made.

"Soujirou??" Misao's brain had finally caught up with the situation. She wasn't exactly famous for her quick-thinking. "What do you think you're doing??" She shoved him away gently and set him down on the landing beside her. It was not physically possible to be mad at the adorable little fluff ball, but she wasn't in the mood to deal with more crazy antics.

"You just looked so sad I thought I'd cheer you up." Soujirou hopped back into her lap.

Misao tried to restrain herself, but he was just so gosh darn cute. She squeezed his bunny body in a close approximation of a hug. He hugged her back as well as he was able to with his little bunny paws.

"Thanks Soujirou." She squeezed him again briefly and then pulled him back so she could look at him when she talked to him. "But, you know, I'm really not sad or anything. Really."

"Really?" Soujirou sounded skeptical.

"Really." Misao nodded reassuringly. "I was just thinking, that's all."

"Ahh..." Her explanation made plenty of sense to Soujirou. Sometimes when he spent too much time thinking to himself, he got all quiet and depressed too. That was why he'd decided to avoid serious thoughts as much as possible while he wandered the country.

"Hey, guess what?" She put on her best cheerful expression and adopted her most peppy voice.

Soujirou could play games with the best of them. "What?" He asked with equal enthusiasm.

"Aoshi and I are going to go on a date!"

It was indeed a point of celebration. Soujirou clapped his bunny paws together and kicked his feet happily. "Yay for you!"

Misao glomped the bunny. "It's like a dream come true!" She could feel tears of happiness welling in the corner of her eyes and she nuzzled her face into Soujirou's fluffy bunny tummy. "Oh Soujirou, you have no idea how happy it makes me! I'm the happiest girl in the world!"

Little did Misao realize that a certain special someone had chosen that very moment to come and find her. Aoshi had witnessed some of the exchange between the two of them and he had overheard just exactly enough to be more than a little confused. For some reason, Misao and Soujirou were hugging like crazy and Misao was suddenly, "the happiest girl in the world."

His eyebrow twitched.

Aoshi liked to pretend that he was a levelheaded, rational man. He knew there was probably some very silly explanation for what he had seen and heard. However, it required every ounce of self-restraint he could muster to keep himself from busting up the disgustingly adorable scene and chopping the offending rabbit into stew sized chunks.

The rational part of his brain told him that there was no way in hell that Misao would ever fall for another man. She was too loving and trusting for that kind of betrayal.

But even so, there was something about the scene that just really really irritated him.

He knew what the problem was. No matter how close the two of them had even been or could ever become, he knew that she would never look so happy... or comfortable... with him.

She needed a man who could make her laugh, someone more relaxed and loving. She needed someone, for lack of a more perfect example, exactly like Soujirou.

Aoshi spun on his heels and quietly headed back inside the Aoiya's dining area. There had to be something he could do to get the unhappy thoughts out of his head.

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Author's Notes Part 2: Here's a friendly reminder! R.O.D.! (Review Or Die!) cough cough I mean, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Believe it or not, but there's actually some PLOT in store for this fic. If you feel that I am neglecting a certain character, please let me know and I will do my best to give them some time in the spotlight. That's all for now folks.