Chapter 1. Night Rain and Cherry Blossoms

The sun sank behind the city, the cherry blossoms were in bloom. The evening had a nice, comfortable air. Perfect for a night of carousing.

Sanosuke walked into the gambling den, like any other night. He sat down at his regular table with the guys.

"Hey Jin! Ready to lose?" he smirked.

Jin rolled the dice, and produced a winning game for his side. This continued on through the night until Sanosuke decided to leave. Not even a happy birthday.. he scowled in his mind. He recalled the hectic day at the Kamiya dojo, wherein, no one had remembered his special day.

"You leaving so soon, Zanza? We haven't even begun!" Jin called as Sano headed for the door, hands in pockets.

"Yeah, I'm kinda tired...long day. Same time tomorrow night?"

Jin nodded and Sano left the den.

The air smelled of damp cherry blossoms as the rain began to fall, coating Sanosuke's shoulders, arms and back in a fine dew as he walked along the alleys and streets of Tokyo on his way home. After walking a while, he arrived at his humble abode and in a state of slight intoxication, fumbled the door open. Once inside, he pulled his dampened "bad" jacket off of his broad shoulders and tossed it in the far corner of the room. He then carelessly flung himself down on his tatami. "man...I need a woman." he mumbled silently and rolled over. He closed his eyes and barely dropped off to sleep when he heard a noise at his door.

Tat tat tat.

"What?"

"Oi, Zanza! Open up!" the voice of Jin was heard inches outside the door, as well as other muffled laughs.

Sanosuke dragged himself out of bed, stumbled over something he'd left on the floor and slid the door open.

"This'd better be important or I'm gon-" he became lost in his thoughts as his eyes met the sight of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

She was young. This was apparent. And Sanosuke, knowing very well what this was about, shook his head to rid himself of any thoughts he'd had about her within the few short moments he'd seen her. He looked cross at Jin and the other two who were with him. Then turned his attention toward the girl once more.

"Shit, how old are you, girl?"

"Old enough." she replied sweetly with a hint of bitterness at the last syllable. "They call me Amaya Sakura." she flashed a seductive grin, enough to melt the heart of any member of the male sex, young or old, and invited herself into his house.

"So which do you go by, then?" he inquired, his eyes nervously following her as she swayed by.

"Whichever you want me to go by." She winked and sat down at his table.

She wasn't a girl. Sanosuke soon realised she was a woman, aged seventeen he guessed, although she could have been petite for an older age. Jin and the others followed her into the house.

"What the hell are you thinking, Jin?" Sanosuke grabbed ahold of Jin's coat as he walked past and whispered hoarsely into his ear. "Bringing a kid in here? What do you take me for?"

"Happy birthday, Zanza!" Jin laughed nervously, as he realised his buddy didn't find that cheap sake and an under-aged harlot a proper birthday did not make. "Aw come on! Independants are cheaper anyway!" Anger welled up in Sano, but Jin was his friend, so instead of breaking his back in two, throwing his legs through the screen and chucking his upper half out through the back window, Sanosuke gave Jin a gentle shove. He sat between the woman known as Amaya Sakura and the ever generous, Hiroshi (who always had money and was probably the one responsible for bringing the little degenerate over.) Across from Amaya, sat Jin, smuggly and next to him was Eiji, who placidly sipped sake. Eiji usually made sure Jin didn't run his mouth, the voice of reason among the three.

There was much laughter among the men that night. Sanosuke seemed more interested in the girl's life story than what she had to offer him in the way of pleasures of the flesh. She was indeed a pretty girl-a very pretty woman. Her skin was smooth, no blemishes could be found. Her shoulders sloped under a red silk kimono which was wrapped with a white obi. It seemed to have a very slimming effect on the delicate girl. Her eyes were two dark, endless pools in which Sanosuke found himself constantly getting lost in. Her hair was a jet black cascade that rippled down her back as she unfastened her goddy, inexpensive ornament out of it. Her eyebrows had an aristocratic arch to them and her face lit up in the most delightful way when a smile came across her carefully painted lips. Although there was a peculiar air of loneliness about her.

"Well, Zanza, Sakura, I don't mean to cut the night short or anything," Jin chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "but I think we're gonna head out." He stood up and stumbled about trying to find the door. Once he made his way toward the thin screen, he fell forward and if it hadn't been for Eiji's quick, strong arms he would have torn right through it and found himself face down in the wet earth outside. Eiji gave Sanosuke a small smile and escorted his drunk friend out the door. Hiroshi followed with an envious expression directed toward Sanosuke, for he wished to be spending the evening with the young Amaya. He felt he parted with hard-earned yen for not, because he knew as well as the others that Sanosuke was too caring, too good to try anything with this girl. No wonder he'd never had a woman. Hiroshi smirked, slid the door shut and followed Eiji and Jin down the dark street.

"So...uh." Sanosuke attempted to make conversation with her. "What do you do when you're not, uhm. You know? When you're not..." he found himself lost in her gaze once more and was unable to speak. After a moment of awkward silence, Sano began to speak.

"So are we gonna..."

Sakura pursed her lips, stood up and began to unfasten her obi. "I mean, we don't have to!" he started.

She continued to undress until Sanosuke stood up and held his hand to hers. He looked again into her eyes. She looked at him with a small amount of disdain.

"Look, your friends paid me." she spat. "You think I want to do this?"

"Why do you do it if you don't want to?"

"I have to-" her bottom lip quivered in the most adorable fashion Sanosuke had ever seen as her eyes closed. "I have to take care of my son."

Sanosuke gently held her in his arms as she cried softly into his chest. "Sakura, you must go to your son. " He held her face in his large hand and looked upon her angelic beauty once more. Her eye make up began to bleed. "He must miss you." He smiled and wiped her makeup from her face with his thumb.

They walked down the street, Sanosuke entertained her with the story of his last fight. She had the most quiet, bright laugh in all of Japan. Sakura stopped in her tracks.

"There's someone following us." she whispered.

Sanosuke placed his hand on her shoulder and looked behind them. She was right.

"Here, stand over here." he instructed as he gently nudged her in the small, empty space between two buildings.

"Can't you see I've got company?" Sanosuke shot off impatiently as he turned toward the stalkers.

Four young men were silhouetted before the moon.

"Company or no, Zanza, we're kicking your ass for last time!" The tallest one shouted as he drew a wooden sword and charged toward Sanosuke. Amaya Sakura watched with great anxiety. She heard the stories of Zanza, the fighter-for-hire, but they seemed too unreal to her. She watched the man approach Sanosuke with agility and great speed and shut her eyes, waiting to hear Sano cry out in pain.

Sanosuke held up his left arm and overpowered the kid with ease. He turned around and the oncoming attacker's jaw was met by Sanosuke's foot and he fell to the ground. The other two looked on in shock and disbelief.

"Tell Katsuro he's gonna have to do better than send some scraggly little street rats after me!"

Sanosuke laughed as the other two ran away, one tripping over his own feet and the other yelling at him to hurry up.

Sanosuke walked over to Sakura, whose eyes were still shut and her clenched tight in her sleeves. He put his hand on her shoulder, startling her and causing her to jump.

"Do whatever you want! Just let me live!" she cried.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! No one's gonna kill you, Kitty!" Sanosuke laughed a little at what he had just nick-named his new acquaintance. She opened her eyes and blushed, she was rather embarrassed.

They continued on their way to Sakura's house, it was a long walk but they arrived soon before dawn. Sanosuke got to know her a lot in the little time they had become friends. She was 18 years old, her son, Kiyoshi, was born when she was 14 years old, and her name wasn't "Night Rain Cherry Blossom" at all. It was Junko, for she was a "pure child" at one time. She said she stopped calling herself Junko after her first client.

"..because I'm not pure." she looked to the ground and bade him goodnight. She slid the door shut and turned a lamp on. Sanosuke stood, in awe of her, outside her house. Moments later she would open the door to see if he was still there, for she would ask if he was cold, hungry, tired or just wanted to visit a little longer, but he was gone and the night rain had begun once more before the sun would start to shine over Tokyo.