WindoX: Sorry buddy, it wasn't my intention to burn you. I just wanted to explain why I wrote it the way I did. Thanks to all my reviewers! You're all super and motivating and happy making!

The next morning Shiroko thanked both Jin and Shino for accommodating her and left for town again. When she reached town she decided to grab some tea and entered a shop to do so. She took a seat at an empty table and waited patiently for the waitress. That was until she heard a couple arguing.

"Well I don't know! I just heard that he was around here" said the woman.

"But you don't even know if it was him!" yelled the man. "What's with you chasin' after people with nothing more than a rumor to guide you? Stupid bitch, I could be raking in the dough back with my operation back in Nagasaki!"

Shiroko turned her head and watched the couple and realized she knew them: Fuu and Mugen. Fuu was about to continue to defend her reliance on rumors when Shiroko approached them. "Excuse me?" 'Are these the same two Jin had been traveling with?'

Mugen looked up and gave her a sly smile "What lady? This is a private conversation!"

Shiroko could see the recognition slowly appear on Fuu's face. "Shiroko?"

Shiroko bowed in response and Mugen said "Shiroko?" he turned to Fuu and said "Who the hell's that? Do you know her?"

"Yeah, and so do you nit-wit!" said Fuu. "Think back to our journey with Jin. She traveled with us for like a week!"

Mugen's mind was blank "eeeeh?"

"You seemed pretty fond of her then!" said Fuu dryly.

Muge asked casually "Was she less fat back then?"

"MUGEEEEEN!" screeched Fuu.

Shiroko laughed and said "You two haven't changed a bit. I couldn't help but overhear your, um, discussion. Are you looking for Jin?"

"Yes, yes we are! Do you know where he is?" asked Fuu excited her rumor following led them there.

"Actually yes, I just saw him this morning. He is living with his wife out in the farming country."

Mugen nearly choked on his food "Farming? Why didn't he like, I-uh-know, open a dojo or something?"

"I would suspect because that takes a great deal of money, plus, he wasn't exactly bestowed with a respectable title. Who would take lessons from a ronin?"

Fuu said sadly "Yeah, but…but he's Jin!"

Jin decided to go into town that day and buy some fruit for Shino. He had been in a cold mood as of late and felt he had to make amends. Shino was acting strange when he left, but he chucked it up to his recent behavior towards her. He walked to his favorite stand and tried to pick out a peach or pear that didn't look bruised or rotten.

The man who operated the fruit stand came and told him "That one there is fresh, sir."

Jin felt like being picky that day. "No. This one will not due." He put the peach down and searched for a larger one. Jin found another, but was not satisfied just yet. He held two peaches in his hand and tried his best to judge which was better. He put one down and decided to hold onto the smaller one while he kept looking for the perfect fruit. 'the smaller ones are usually sweeter.'

Mugen, Shiroko, and Fuu were leaving the tea house when several men with brandishing swords stepped in. "We're here to arrest the vagrants who stole the ox cart!"

Fuu punched Mugen and whispered harshly "You told me you got that cart legitimately!"

"I did!" he whispered back "I won it fare and square! It's not my problem that he didn't know the game was rigged!"

Shiroko pulled on their sleeves and motioned towards the back door. Fuu was trying to drag Mugen along, but it was too late. He said "Ha! I don't think you could arrest a stray dog who took a piss on your own leg."

"Why the impudence!" said the head of the group. "Get him! He's the one who stole the cart!"

Fuu and Shiroko ran back into the kitchen. Their sudden appearance startled the cook, but not as much as Mugen brandishing his no-name katana barreling through the door. He turned and slit the noren along with a couple of officials that were following them. Fuu and Shiroko ran out a back door and were soon followed by their outlaw friend.

Shiroko looked around one corner and Fuu another. The two women turned back and signaled that there were more officials roaming around the sides of the establishment. Mugen shrugged his shoulders and ran past Fuu right into the group of men who were waiting for him. Their yells caught the attention of the other men and Shiroko and Fuu were going to be stuck in the middle.

"AH!" yelped Fuu at the sight of the officials. Shiroko grabbed Fuu and dragged her up onto a pile of crates that were sitting there. Shiroko grabbed onto over hang of the roof and pulled herself up. She helped Fuu up onto the roof and they ran up and forward.

Fuu peeped over the edge of the roof and saw Mugen bouncing off the walls and taking the officials off guard. He too made it to the roof after he finished his slaughter and asked "What the hell are you doing up here?"

Shiroko said "We had to get out of the way! We could've been killed moron! Why did you have to go and provoke them like that?"

"I don't know. I hate seein' guys like that. Never the less having to listen to them proclaim shit."

"We should get out of here!" said Fuu. "The roof next door looks lower, maybe we can get down from there?"

"Good idea" said Shiroko. The two girls ran to the edge and looked across the alley. They took a hold of each other's hands and jumped. Fuu barely made it across. Fuu skidded and slipped off the roof, but Shiroko had a hold of her.

Mugen easily made the jump across and after watching the girls fumble he said "Good thing it wasn't the other way around, Fuu. If you'd have to drag up lardo here you would've fallen over for sure." Mugen scratched the back of his head and said "Oh…I remember now, you're Piggy!"

Shiroko was not amused. She walked up to Mugen and punched him square in the kisser. He lost his balance and slid down the front of the roof taking as many tiles along the way as he could. Then he fell off the roof. The women heard a large crashing noise and ran to peer over the edge.

Then Jin saw a faultless beautiful piece of fruit shining like a beacon to him. He raised his hand to reach out to the perfect piece of produce when something large, smelly and swearing dropped from the roof above. It crashed down and splattered the perfect peach and the cart it was sitting in.

When Mugen hit the cart the peaches that were not squashed under the weight of his body shot out into the street. The cart collapsed underneath him and sent splinters and peach pulp into the air. As the dust settled Mugen sat up, shook his messy head free of peach juice and pulp. Jin looked down with a stern hard look as peach pulp dripped from his brow. Mugen barely had his senses back when he stood and staggered into the street. He shook his arms and legs spraying peach juices on passersby.

Jin looked up from where Mugen and fallen and saw Shiroko yell down "You deserved it!"

Mugen growled and was about to jump back up on the roof when Fuu let out a gasp. She saw him first. "JIN!" Fuu didn't hesitate to jump off the roof. Jin caught her and deposited the petite woman on the ground. "Oh Jin! I'm so glad to bump into you!"

The cart owner began to yell and wave his arms around in the air. Shiroko then jumped down from the roof and landed on him silencing his complaints. She awkwardly stood up and dusted off her kimono as her eyes darted back and forth hoping no one had seen. She looked down at the unconscious stand owner and pulled part of the destroyed peach cart in front of him to hide her doing from the public.

Shiroko walked up to Jin who was still silent with surprise. Shiroko said with a bit of warm sarcasm "Well well, long time no see, huh?"

"Hm" was all he could manage. He looked down at Fuu and her large brown expectant eyes. He said "Hello, Fuu. What brings you here?"

She smiled and said "You! I heard rumors that you had slipped off in this direction. I knew I'd find you again!" Fuu threw her arms around Jin again and realized she didn't know why she had come.

"So you sought me out? What is it that I can do for you?" asked Jin doing his best to delay his reunion with the pungent ruffian.

Mugen would not be ignored. As he shook his body, starting with his head, torso, limbs, feet and hands, the remnants of squashed peaches flung from his person. He stalked over to Jin and said "Well, dork-face you haven't gotten new glasses huh? I shouldn't have complained so much about them since they hid that long ugly face of yours."

Fuu stepped in and said "Oh come on you two! It's hasn't been five minutes and you're already at it!"

Jin said "I wasn't at anything."

"Oh yeah! I saw that look you gave m—" Mugen was interrupted by the shouts of more officials. Mugen was about to draw his sword again, but Jin grabbed Mugen's arm.

Jin explained "My home is not far from here and I would prefer to stay out of trouble. If you draw your sword I too will have to draw mine."

The four accomplices made a run for it. They ran into the woods and lost the officials. Jin begrudgingly invited them back to his home for supper. It was a long walk, and when they returned the sun was setting. Jin went to find Shino to explain that they had guests and she would have to prepare more food for them, but also to give her his gift: the two peaches he was holding when Mugen fell from the roof.

He invited in all three of them and made sure they were comfortable. He thought Shino would have heard them enter and made their guests feel more welcome. She was no where to be seen and Jin was confused by her absence. 'Where could she have wandered off to so late in the day?'

He walked around their humble house and she was no where to be found. He ventured out back 'Perhaps she is gardening or taking in some of the vegetables?' She was not their either. Jin came back into the room where his guests were and offered to make them tea.

Shiroko and Fuu felt awkward about Jin making anything for them, but Mugen did not. He accepted and Jin went to the kitchen to prepare the tea and some kind of food if he could manage.

He stepped down into the kitchen and walked over to the counter. He started boiling some water, and found a piece of paper on the counter.

Dear Jin

These few years with you have been wonderful, but we cannot live a dream just as we cannot live a lie. Goodbye.

Shino

Jin stood thinking about his life without her. He knew why she left. He knew it wasn't anything personal and she felt she had to contribute to the revolutionary cause that she hinted to him about. 'She speaks of things she shouldn't. She is now off doing things she shouldn't.' He toyed with the idea of going off and searching for her. 'No, I cannot. She left me because she knew my heart. She knew I did not believe in what she did.'

His buried his frustration deep down inside himself and continued to make the tea.