Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is finally back on Saturday nights, but I still don't own it.

The Secret Kept From Yahiko

Chapter Fourteen

From last time:

Yahiko was launched into the air and before he hit the water and was carried down the river, he awoke to hear Gasuke's voice echoing down the river bank. "Have a nice swim Brat!"

Yahiko struggled in the flowing river, trying to grab onto anything that was jutting out of the water. Not that there was anything to hold on to. Almost everything had been submerged from the heavy rain that had come the night before.

Thankfully, the young samurai knew how to swim, although he didn't know what use it would bring if he was having trouble just staying above the water. He knew that he would not be able to hold out much longer, he needed Kenshin. As that thought was finished, Yahiko was pulled under by the river's strong current, and the last thing he saw was a large piece of wood come sailing at his head before the world went black.

At that particular moment, the trio was nearing the same river that Yahiko had been dumped in. Kenshin halted his mount before the raging waters. It was very high, and the bridge was quite a ways off. The three decided to try their luck and cross by going right through the water.

Kenshin went first, with Kaoru very close behind, both of them making it safely across. Misao was halfway through the river, in the deepest part to be exact, and something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Before Kenshin or Kaoru had even realized it, a loud splash was heard as Misao plunged into the water.

Storm whinnied loudly and plunged to the bank near the duo. All three watched, two waiting for their friend, the other for his master, to resurface. "Kenshin, why did she just jump in? She's going to get pneumonia!"

Kenshin didn't answer, just watched the waters intently. Their was something familiar about the ki being giving off. He knew that it was Misao, but something told him that there was more.

Seconds passed, and then a triumphant shout was heard from Misao, and then a call. "Himura! Get over here! I need some help getting up!"

Kenshin and Kaoru rushed to where the sound was coming from, to find Misao latched firmly onto a branch that was leaning out over the river. And something was tucked under her arm. Something that looked a lot like... Yahiko!

The ex-battousai, being as light and nimble as he was, carefully climbed out onto the branch and held out a hand, which Misao grabbed as Kenshin hoisted her back to safety.

"I saw this kid in the river. Poor thing, I guess he fell in. I don't think he's dead yet though."

Kaoru pushed past Kenshin and took the limp body out of Misao's arms. "Yahiko, speak to me!" she yelled shaking the young boy up and down in her panic. Yahiko couldn't be dead, they had just found him.

Kenshin placed a hand on her arm. "Put him down please Kaoru-Dono. Seesha will take a look at him." Kaoru placed Yahiko gently on the ground , while Misao gaped in the background. She had just rescued the boy that the two companions had been looking for.

The red-haired man leaned over the still form and picked up the boy so that Yahiko was sitting in the crook of Kenshin's left arm. With his right, Kenshin pounded the boy hard on the back, smiling in relief when Yahiko began to cough up the water that he had swallowed.

The boy opened his chocolate colored eyes and met with Kenshin's deep purple ones, which were filled with worry.

"Kenshin?" the boy asked uncertainly, not knowing if he should believe his eyes.

"Hai, Yahiko. It is Seesha." Yahiko gave a small smile and closed his eyes, and Kenshin realized that he had slipped into unconsciousness.

"Shouldn't we get him home, Kenshin?" asked Kaoru. "I don't need him getting any sicker than he is already."

"Yes we should, Kaoru-Dono." Kenshin stood up, the boy tucked securely under his arm, and remounted his horse. "Let's head to the dojo. Then I can go get Megumi-Dono."

About five minutes later, the small party had reached the dojo. Kaoru unlocked the front door and they all entered the dimly lit corridor. Kaoru beckoned, and they made their way to Yahiko's room.

After the young charge had been put into dry clothes and tucked in the futon, with the blankets pulled up to his chin, Kenshin left the dojo, his goal: Locate the foxy doctor and bring her back.

Kenshin jogged along the road, kicking up water from the puddles from the storm the night before. He reached the clinic in record time, despite the fact that he couldn't run at his top speed in fear of hurting himself or others.

The rurouni knocked and entered, and found Megumi wrapping a patient's arm with a thick bandage. That patient happened to be none other than Sagara Sanosuke.

"How many times must I tell you, Sano, to stop getting into fights over ever little thing?"

"I do not get into fights over 'every little thing'," Sano retorted. Then noticing the red head standing in the doorway. "Oy, Kenshin! When did you and Missy get back?"

"Just now, Sano." Turning abruptly to the doctor Kenshin said, "Megumi-Dono, you are needed back at the dojo immediately. We found Yahiko, but he is not looking very good, Seesha fears."

Both Sano and Megumi gasped, and Megumi nodded. She quickly grabbed her doctor's bag and hurried out the door with Kenshin, Sano on their heels.

When they reached the dojo, they were met with a very distressed looking Kaoru. "Oh thank goodness you are here Megumi, Yahiko has started tossing in bed and Misao and I can't get him to stop. He also has a very warm forehead, I'm afraid that it could turn into a fever."

Megumi brushed past, with a call over her shoulder of, "Let me take a look at him Kaoru."

The young doctor reached the boy's room to find a strange, petite girl, trying to hold Yahiko down, with no avail. The girl looked up, and Megumi noticed that she had aquamarine colored eyes. "Oh you must be the doctor! I'm so glad you're here! Kaoru and I don't know what to do."

Megumi nodded and sat down on the floor next to Yahiko's bed. Placing her cool hand on his forehead, she shook her head sadly. "He has a fever again. See," she said pointing to two bright pink splotches on Yahiko's cheeks, "you can see that he is warmer than he should be."

Misao took off all the blankets. "Will this help?"

Megumi shook her head. "No, I'm going to need some of the thinner ones, but I do have a question. Why in Kami's name is he wet? Kaoru didn't give him a bath, did she?"

"Oh no," said Misao. "We found him in the river. I jumped in and rescued him," she added proudly. "I didn't even know that this was the same kid that Himura and Kaoru were looking for until I pulled him out of the water."

"Well, Miss..."

"Just call me Misao, please, Miss. Everyone does."

"All right Misao. Please go get me a rag with a bowl of cold water. And call Ken-San and Kaoru, Sano too, in here, please."

Misao quickly got up and exited the room, and alerted the three other occupants of Megumi's message. They all stood up and disappeared into Yahiko's room. Misao hurried to fetch the water as she had been told.

When she arrived back, she found Kenshin and the man named Sano both holding Yahiko down, Kaoru holding his hand and whispering words that she couldn't quite distinguish, and Megumi was in the process of administering medicine to Yahiko, who did not seem to want to swallow anything.

"Hurry Misao, bring that water here." Misao rushed the water to Megumi, who dipped the rag into the cool water and wrung it out, and then sponged Yahiko's face with it.

Yahiko made a valiant attempt to get loose of the hands that were holding him as Megumi tried to feed him the medicine again. He was actually successful in shaking Sano off of one of his legs.

"It's going to be okay Yahiko," whispered Kaoru, "we want to help you, let us help you."

That message seemed to make it through to Yahiko, and he stopped his struggling, giving Megumi the chance to get the medicine down the boy's throat.

"There," she said, sitting back on her heels, "that medicine should help to fight off the fever and any diseases that he could have gotten from being in the water. But I would definitely keep a wash cloth on his head until the fever breaks."

"Thank you so much, Megumi-Dono," Kenshin said, smiling at the sleeping child, now peaceful.

"You are very welcome, Ken-San," the doctor replied. "I should best be heading back to the clinic, I left it in a bit of a rush."

Megumi left, with a note of to get her if Yahiko took a turn for the worse. The panic over, the four elders went to the kitchen and three sat down while Kenshin made some tea. During this time Misao and Sano met.

"So you are Sano," Misao commented. "Did you know that you look like a rooster?"

Kaoru had to hide her face behind her teacup to keep from laughing out loud. Sano was always referenced to as a rooster, but never to his face by a complete stranger.

Sano's face turned red at the insult, and glared at Misao. "And who might you be, Weasel?"

"Don't you dare call me a weasel, you chicken head! No one calls Makamichi Misao a weasel and gets away with it!" The young ninja leaped up from the floor, and pounced on Sanosuke. For a petite girl, she was doing pretty well against the bigger man, who hadn't even had time to react before he had been tackled.

Misao didn't even punch, kick, or do anything that Kenshin thought Misao would have. And yet, Sano was still begging her to stop. You guessed it, the little ninja was tickling (and succeeding) the great Zanza .

"Stop it kid!," Sano gasped, his face turning a light shade of blue from not getting enough air into his lungs.

"Not until you say I'm not a weasel," Misao responded sweetly back.

A few more minutes later, Sano couldn't stand it anymore. "FINE! YOU ARE NOT A WEASEL!"

Misao smiled happily and climbed off the fighter's stomach. Kaoru was rolling on the floor laughing all of her mirth out.

Sano got up, very red in the face, and sat back in his seat with a pout. "Now Sano," said Kenshin, "let's get over this. Misao-Dono was just being defensive, that's all."

"And you were lucky that we weren't doing a real fight. My kunais would have kicked your butt."

"Kunais? What the heck are those?"

Misao pulled out her pack of throwing knives and showed them to Sano. "These are kunais, and trust me, they hurt a lot."

"What kind of martial arts group uses little knives?"

"I'm an Oniwaban Ninja. Leader to be exact." Here Kenshin and Kaoru exchanged glances, both knowing that Misao was not the leader, she was one of the lower ranking members, although she was still very talented. But both bit their lips and decided to let the young girl have her fun.

"They put a pipsqueak in charge of a ninja clan," Sano scoffed. "I hardly agree with you. You are being a little weasel."

Misao fumed and jumped at Sano, but this time he was ready. As Misao lunged, Sano caught her wrists, and flipped her over so that she staring up at him. "And besides," he continued, "if a leader was this quick to anger and jump at whatever made her do so, that clan would have been gone a long time ago."

Misao and Kaoru gaped at Sano. Kaoru had never known the man who 'lived' at her house to use so much intellect to deduce the truth of Misao's words.

"Maybe you aren't such a chicken head after all," Misao mused. "But, you still look like one."

Sano just shook his head and let Misao back on her feet. "You know," he said, "you're not too bad, Weasel-Girl."

"Neither are you, Rooster-Head." And that, was how Makamichi Misao and Sagara Sanosuke became friends.

Author's Notes:

Hey everyone! I know that I haven't updated in a pretty long time, and I am very sorry. With school, projects, homework, scholastic bowl, band, private lessons, karate, my birthday (December 16th), Christmas, shopping, and all those other issues, I got backed up.

I certainly got a lot of reviews for this chapter! I am thinking that it might be because Cartoon Network put RK back on the air n.n

Well, I'd like to wish everone a belated Merry Christmas, and a Happy Early New Year! I will see you all in 2005!

Reviewer's Comments:

IcyPanther: Hehe you are a goo guesser... (is that a word?) I don't think I made any mistakes this time (snd if I did, don't point them out) I want Inu and Wolfs Rain back, but not on the weekdays, I'm not allowed to stay up!

Terra89: Raven is my fave on Teen Titans n.n To create a story, first type it. Then go to document manager and upload. Then go to Edit Story and vlick create. Fill in all the info and submit. Your story has been made. n.n And the second review that you left, made me feel very warm and bubbly inside! Thankies so much!

ladedada10: Well I updated... not soon, but I still did n.n

anime fan: So do I, I just don't know why. Hope to see you again!

smilingcheerios: Clarinet and trombone? Seems like a weird combo.... but then again I have a friend who plays flute and tuba....

Yakiko4: Hehe, well here it is. Too late for Christmas, but in time for New Years!