Disclaimer: I don't own Kenshin…is anyone here surprised to hear that? No? Didn't think so…

Chapter 9

Meetings & Secrets

Kaoru, Sanosuke and the others all sat around Aoshi's western style redwood desk while Aoshi pored through some papers getting them in order for their meeting.

While the others waited, they discussed Kenshin and Kuro's conditions. Misao informed the worried group that Kuro had regained consciousness almost an hour before, but after having his internal organs swell as much as they had due to the water puppet, he would be unable to move unaided for at least a few days.

After expressing her relief at Kuro's condition, Kaoru found herself staring unseeingly at the intricate carving that bordered Aoshi's desk, her thoughts upstairs with Kenshin. She wondered how long it would be until she could go back upstairs to watch over him, her fingers began tracing the wattle blossom pattern edging the desk automatically, her eyes glazing over even more as she sighed.

A slight cough caused the young teacher looked up guiltily and she saw everyone in the room had been staring at her. Now that she was more aware of her current surroundings, she realised that no one had spoken in quite a while and were waiting for her to snap out of her thoughts so they could begin.

'Sorry.' She muttered, looking at her feet in embarrassment.

Aoshi nodded in acknowledgement, and now he certain that he had everyone's full attention, he sat down on the large, leather chair that matched his desk and began.

'The things I am about to tell you all today, I would like to remain a complete secret from anyone outside this room.'

. 'What about Kenshin?' Yahiko objected before he could stop himself.

Aoshi simply looked at the boy, his intense stare conveying everything he needed it to. Yahiko faltered, 'Y…you mean we can't tell Kenshin?'

Aoshi nodded gently. 'You will understand why I have set these precautions when I have finished. I would not want to influence any possible outcomes.' Yahiko looked at him, intrigued.

The ex-okashira turned to the group, his eyes suddenly even more intense. 'I will need you all to make the promise that what I am about to say will stay in this room.' The tall ninja looked at each person in the room in turn waiting for each to nod their acceptance of his terms.

When Yahiko hesitated slightly, toying with the idea of walking out of the room as a sign of his allegiance to Kenshin, Sano nudged him in the back. The boy hesitated further, he was of samurai descent, and the thought of keeping something so obviously important from one of his allies was enough to make him feel physically sick and tear at his loyalties. After all, from the way Aoshi was acting, Kenshin was a main player in this game, he justified to himself that if he didn't know where the danger was hiding, he couldn't help to protect Kenshin if he was needed to. At this the young man sighed softly and nodded, his eyes downcast

Apparently satisfied, Aoshi continued.

'As you are all aware, we seem to be in the midst of a rather unusual event in history at present.'

Everyone nodded slowly, all eyes focused solely on the ninja.

'While researching the Tora-kiri tribe and their accomplishments in history, I learnt something that I find slightly disconcerting.' He leant his elbows on his desk and tented his fingers. When he spoke again his voice seemed to come from far away, he appeared to be speaking automatically even though his words gave the impression of being carefully selected.

'The Tora-kiri tribe as well as being more than adept in the arts of fire and water manipulation, appeared to have another significant talent I was not previously aware of. Apparently, they were also quite skilled in the area of soul manipulation as well, although this particular aptitude was not possessed by many.'

'Soul manipulation?' Misao asked, her face scrunching up slightly in confusion.

He nodded faintly, resting his head on his hands, his usually sharp eyes still slightly clouded over in thought.

'Some of the more talented members of the tribe were able to manipulate other people's movements, and occasionally, even the souls of themselves and others for various reasons.' He blinked, clearing his eyesight and continued in a voice that was a little stronger.

'Now, as a soul is a very limited resource, these manipulations could only be attempted once on each individual soul. Also, there were great dangers involved, as you can undoubtedly imagine. For example, if the person attempting the manipulation were to repeat the incantation even the slightest bit incorrectly the soul being wielded would be unrecoverable and lost for eternity.' He paused momentarily.

'It is for this reason that each soul manipulation was therefore only attempted as an absolute last resort. In fact, from my texts I have learned that it is predicted that only twenty to fifty attempts were ever made to manipulate a soul. It is not said how many were successful.'

Dead silence filled the room, as Aoshi raised his head from his hands and allowed his gaze to sweep the room.

'What really caught my attention was this.' He stood and walked to his bookshelf, reaching to the top shelf with ease and pulling a large blue-bound book with silver gilded edges from near the centre. He flicked it open to a marked page carefully as though afraid the ancient pages would crack as he sat back down on his chair. He turned the book upside down so it faced the others in the room and sat back as they looked at the pictures.

'These pictures are a little difficult to make out.' Tokio told him.

He leant forward again. 'Yes, that book is rather old.' The ninja apologised, pulling the book back towards him. 'I'll read the captions underneath for you.' He narrowed his eyes to sharpen the focus of the tiny print and worn letters of the English written text. Translating for them as he read, he began to read it aloud.

'The blue casing, green crystal and staff need to be brought together for the resurrection of the soul to occur successfully.' He read. 'Historians believe that at least one other object and an incantation was needed for the transition to be completed, however with soul manipulation being incredibly rare, even during its peak in the Uwasa wars, never in recent history has such an event taken place. This means that there are no records outlining that the missing item/s could be and how they join together to reunite the soul with a living body.'

Aoshi looked up to see varying expressions of understanding. 'We already have in our possession the staff and the green stone, also I believe that Himura-san and possibly Saitoh-san are involved in this either indirectly or directly judging from their recent changes in character and attitudes towards each other. It is mainly for this reason that I ask you not to inform either of them of our discussion' He told the silent group quietly.

'Whoa, there!' Misao half-yelled, shooting to her feet. 'Things like this don't just happen. What you just read had to have been a legend. Legends aren't real someone makes them up, right.' She turned to the others in an appeal for support, Sanosuke nodded, fervently agreeing with her.

'The Hitokiri Battousai was said to only have been a legend.' Tokio's smooth voice cut in effortlessly. 'Yet, I believe he now lives in Tokyo with Kaoru-san does he not?' She glanced over to smile slightly at Kaoru, who looked away blushing slightly.

Misao sat back down with a thump, before looking back to Aoshi imploringly. 'It can't really be possible.' She stated. 'People's souls just can't be removed and played around with? People can't just come back to life after being dead for hundreds of years…it just isn't possible… is it?' She asked the room in general.

'It isn't exactly correct to say that they will come back to life.' Aoshi told her. Her head snapped back up to look at him hopefully. 'It would be more accurate to say that the soul's body at the time of separations will rematerialize for a time to complete the purpose it was originally separated specifically for.'

'But, why did it need to be separated in the first place?' Sanosuke asked, leaning back against the closed door and folding his arms. 'What can you achieve as a soul that you can't as a solid person?'

'The person may have believed that they needed more time to accomplish their goal than their own natural lifespan.' Tokio answered with great insight, while they all looked at her in slight surprise. 'As a soul they have the ability to work on an astral plane as well as the physical, meaning that for hundreds or even thousands of years, as each individual case may be. The freed soul is able to delve into the subconscious of every man, woman and child who has lived or died since their soul was separated in order to search more efficiently for whatever it is they are searching for that required such a large risk. Am I right?' She asked Aoshi with a small smile.

'Wow.' Misao muttered, her eyes wide.

He nodded, a little dazed. 'Yes, very well said.' He complimented.

'So that would mean.' Kaoru began slowly. 'That this Tora-kiri member has completed their search and is now in the process of being reborn?'

'So it would seem.' Aoshi confirmed.

Tokio leaned back in her chair and opened a fan, which she had pulled from her obi. She began to wave it slowly in front of her face; a small, inscrutable smile was firmly in place. 'Interesting.' Was all she said.

Everyone stared at her nonplussed as she stood and excused herself, as always the epitome of social and physical grace.

'What did she mean by that?' Sanosuke wondered aloud as the door closed quietly behind her.

Before anyone could answer, a loud yell and then a dull thud from the room directly above theirs made them jump, a small cloud of dust, released from a slight impact above, showered down on them from the ceiling.

'Kenshin!' Kaoru yelled, wrenching the door open furiously and running out into the hall.

'Kenshin!' Sano ran behind her down the narrow hallway and overtook her on the stairs when the pathway widened. She felt a gust of wind and caught the slight scent of lemon and pepper as Aoshi dashed past Sano to reach the landing first, she could hear Yahiko and the others thundering down the hall behind her. A dull crack sounded ahead, as Aoshi reached Kenshin's room and flung the shouji back so hard the frame splintered.

Silence followed the mad dash as everyone caught up to the ex-okashira and stood staring into the room.

A helpless 'oro.' Floated out of the room and into the hallway. More silence followed. Finally Kaoru couldn't take anymore, after the magnitude of the meeting, the secret she was now expected to carry and the sudden panic of hearing her friend's yell, she simply flopped to the floor and began to laugh, the sound of her laughter bouncing heavily from the enclosed walls of the hallway and wafting down into the street.

Gradually the others joined in, and their mingled laughter was so loud that passer-by's stopped to look at the Aoiya from the dusty street.

Kenshin's mind had finally decided to click back into action.

He groaned and slowly opened his eyes as he looked around quickly his amber eyes taking in all the details of the room. He sat up slowly and froze.

He had just spotted the sleeping Saitoh, and stared silently for a long moment, before the last of the fog in his sleep clouded brain melted into a new clarity.

He yelped loudly on instinct and backed himself quickly against a wall, putting as much distance between himself and the sleeping wolf as he could.

He heard a flurry of panicked voices in the room below him and from the frightened ki, knew they were responding to his yell.

The ex-assassin sweatdropped at the thought of being found in the situation he was currently in, he decided drastic measures were in order, using his legendary speed he ran towards Saitoh and began desperately trying to wake him up, the much smaller man tried shaking him furiously by the shoulders and slapping him gently in the face before deciding he would have to resort to harsher methods quickly, as he could hear his friends running down the hallway.

Desperately, he reached behind him, groping blindly and grasped the corner of something quite soft, he looked over his shoulder quickly to see he had a hold of his pillow. Perfect. He thought wildly, swinging it in a large arc towards the older man's head. As the pillow made contact with a dull thud, the shouji slid open and splintered against the wall with a sharp crack.

Kenshin froze staring straight into Aoshi's ice blue eyes, which were widened slightly, one eyebrow slightly raised, the pillow in his hand was still resting on Saitoh's head when Sano and then Kaoru and the others all piled into the doorway and looked into the room for any sign of danger. The rurouni felt the pillow move and looked down to see it had slid down Saitoh's face and was now in danger of suffocating the man. Clicking back into motion the young red-head stood and pivoted quickly, attempting to hide the pillow behind his back as he faced his friends, grinning cluelessly.

He looked down as he felt something tickling his feet and saw that his pillow had sprung a leak in protest of being used as a weapon and was now leaking white fluffy feathers all over the floor like mutated snow.

He decided to place dumb, he looked at the still silent group innocently. 'Oro?' he asked his amber eyes wide.

For one brief, delusional moment, he thought he had gotten away with it. He began to smile his rurouni smile only to have it turn into a sheepish grin as Kaoru flopped against the doorframe and slid down to the floor laughing.

After a few moments of laughing alone, the others joined in one by one, until laughter was bouncing violently off the walls, Kenshin was a little surprised to see that even Aoshi was chuckling quietly his blue eyes twinkling as he looked at the ruined pillow. Kenshin was not sure whether he should feel annoyed or gratified that the usually serious young man was laughing, even if it was at his expense. He settled for feigned annoyance and placed his hands on his hips while he waited for them to stop.

Still laughing slightly Kaoru managed to bring herself under control enough to climb to her feet and run into the room, throwing her arms around her friend.

'Kenshin!' she exclaimed. 'I'm so glad you're alright!'

'Aa…' he said blushing slightly at her closeness and his previous predicament. 'I'm sorry to have made you worry.' He said in a low voice.

'Don't be silly, Kenshin!' she told him, giving him a heartening whack on the arm. 'If I woke up to find Saitoh watching me, I think my reaction would be even more extreme.' She chuckled again as she looked pointedly down at the ruined pillow still clutched in his hand. 'If that's possible.' She added with a grin.

Then Aoshi spoke from the doorway. 'Himura…' he began in his usual quiet voice, all traces of laughter now gone. 'Why does he have your sword?'

Everyone in the room turned to look silently at the sleeping man's right hand, noticing with some alarm that the rurouni's reverse-blade sword was indeed unsheathed.

'Don't tell me!' Kaoru screeched, as she turned and pointed a finger at Kenshin. 'You actually defeated him when he had your sword and you only had a pillow?'

Kenshin sweatdropped as Sano and Yahiko looked at him in instant admiration.

'No, I…' The young ex-assassin shrugged. 'He was like that when I woke up.' He shrugged again looking at the wolf. It's strange that he had my sakabatou when I was sleeping, but the strangest part is I know he did not take it for maliciousness against me. He thought in confusion.

He walked over to Saitoh and gingerly removed his sword from the man's grasp. He straightened up and then lifted the sword to his eyes to inspect it, as much as he knew Saitoh and he were in the midst of a truce, his old habits told him that when a previous enemy had your weapon, you always check it for signs of sabotage.

'Oro?' He exclaimed as he noticed a miniscule chip about 4 inches from the tip of the blade. He looked quickly around the room. 'Oro?' he said again before striding to the hole in the wall Saitoh had created barely an hour before.

'What's wrong, Himura?' Misao asked, confused by his odd behaviour.

'Was this here before?' He asked pointing while he turned to face them.

'No it was NOT!' Omasu yelped indignantly as she strode into the room. She walked right over to Saitoh and picked him up by the shirtfront. 'Wake up Saitoh-san' she said in a deceptively honeyed voice as she began shaking him. 'I'd like to have a word with you about the new ventilation you have taken it upon yourself to install.' He angry tirade was stopped as she stepped in something wet. 'What?' she asked quietly, dropping Saitoh with a thump, seemingly unconcerned as his head hit the wall with an audible thud. Everyone else in the room winced in sympathy.

'Liquid?' she asked no one in particular as she bent down to inspect it. She gasped. 'Don't tell me…' she said, smothering a grin. 'Whatever happened here had Saitoh-san so scared he wet his…'

'It's water.' A cool voice broke in suddenly, successfully halting Omasu's 'investigation'.

Everyone turned to see Saitoh sitting comfortably with his back against the wall, from where he was standing Kenshin was the only one who could see the large pink lump where Saitoh's head had, had the unfortunate and short-lived meeting with the wall.

Omasu dusted her hands in satisfaction as she stood. 'I knew that would wake you up.' She told him with a wink. Without another word she strode out of the room, calling Okon and the Shiro from the hallway to help her cook dinner for the other hotel patrons.

Kaoru sweatdropped.

'She can be kind of ruthless can't she?' Sanosuke asked while Yahiko gulped and nodded at him.

Kaoru turned to Saitoh. 'Hey…' she halted in her speech when he turned his head slowly to look at her. She gathered her courage and started again.

'Hey, eeer… why did you have Kenshin's sword?'

Everyone turned to gage his reaction.

'Tsk.' Saitoh muttered as he slowly stood, the cloak still grasped in his left hand as he leant slightly on the wall for support with his right. 'Another puppet.' He quickly filled them in on what had happened during their improvised meeting. 'And that's it.' He finished, gesturing slightly with his left hand.

As Saitoh gestured, Kenshin noticed something small and white flutter from the pocket of the cloak, he bent forward to pick it up.

'What's that?' Sano asked as Kesnhin flicked it open with a snap of his wrist.

Kenshin gave him a 'How should I know.' Look, something he ordinarily would never have done, and while Sano began to fully realise what Aoshi had meant by Kenshin's character change, the uncharacteristically sardonic Kenshin turned back to the paper, reading it aloud with a slight grin on his face.

'Well done for defeating another of our puppets, next time it will not be so easy. Where and when that next time is will depend on you. Meet us tomorrow afternoon at the Imaechizaku shrine, lateness will not be tolerated. If you are not present when the mid-day gong sounds, we will assume you are not coming and will decide the time and place for you, be it at night when you are sleeping, or during the day when you are shopping in town.'

Kenshin scrunched the note up violently while keeping his face impassive.

'I will NOT tolerate innocents to be hurt,' he hissed suddenly, causing Yahiko to jump. He turned to face the rest of them as he made a snap decision. 'I will be going to that shrine.' He informed them, his amber eyes glinting dangerously and sending shivers down Kaoru's spine. 'And, I will make them sorry for ever threatening me.' The scrunched up paper that was clutched in his hand, suddenly caught ablaze with green flames.

Everyone watched with wide eyes as Kenshin calmly dropped the paper to the floor, the flames extinguishing as soon as he released it.

'I take it you will all be coming with me.' It was not a question.

Each person in the room nodded slowly, most eyes still on the curled and charred paper that lay on the floor. Kaoru however was watching Kenshin's eyes, noticing now that the dark humour of a few minutes ago was now replaced with an unfathomable anger.

What's happening to you? She thought to herself. These wild changes of mood are not like you at all. Could it really be connected somehow to the Tora-kiri member who is regenerating their body? She shook her head slowly. We have to defeat this enemy as fast as possible. She thought. Kenshin's character changes are becoming even more frequent, we have to find them before the changes become irreversible, and the Kenshin we know is lost.

A/N- next time! A big fight between kenshin and the puppets, and does the Tora-kiri member realign with their soul? You'll just have to wait and see! wink

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, once again they really kept me on track. Any suggestions/ comments would be greatly appreciated.

The next chappie is pretty much completed but it really needs some fine-tuning, those battle scenes are hard to write! Hopefully, it shouldn't take me too long to churn out, but comments and tips would be more than welcome! It's my first battle scene so it is a little boring to me at present. sigh