Disclaimer: TT I don't own RK

A/N: Sorry about the lateness of the last chapter, but hey at least I updated this one quickly ne?

Kenshin walked on down towards Kyoto, he wanted to pay a visit to the Aoiya first, and maybe calm some of his nerves knowing that the residence where unharmed.

It was late morning by the time Kenshin made his way through the streets, he had only hoped that he wouldn't walk through the streets of Kyoto again, but again he felt himself pulled there once more. Pulled there for a battle he once again could not escape. Soon he stood before the Aoiya drinking in the sight of the inn as he stepped in and was almost instantly greeted by a yell.

"Come back you stupid weasel girl!" It was Sanosuke, what was he doing here? Last Kenshin heard of him he was somewhere off in China.

"No way rooster-head, these are my rice-balls now!" Shouted Misao running headlong into Kenshin, dropping the rice-balls on his head in the process.

"Ororororororo" Kenshin fell into a heap uttering his tell-tale phrase.

"Himura!" Misao shrieked surprised that it was he who broke her fall.

"Kenshin buddy, I was wondering when you would get here." Sano said standing the oroing rurouni on his feet and brushing him off.

"Kenshin?" Yahiko's voice came from the depths of the inn, "Does that mean busu is here as well?" His voice seemed almost hopeful as he came out carrying his shinai with him, obviously he had been training when Kenshin had arrived and didn't even bother to put down the bamboo sword.

"Hey where is Jou-chan, Kenshin?" Sano asked looking around for her.

"She's probably still asleep, I came here alone," Kenshin started to explain "We arrived a few nights ago but we saw that police where stationed near here. We can't take the risk..."

"This isn't talk for the front door," Okina who had joined the small group as well looking anxiously outside the gate, "Come Himura, to the sitting room, and you can tell us exactly what happened. Your letter was a little lax to say the least."

"I am sorry about that, that I am" Kenshin said as he walked away from the door and started toward the sitting room with the small band of friends following in suite.

"So why don't you start by telling us exactly what happened with Jou-chan, the shrimp didn't exactly give us many details." Sano said mussing up the little boy's hair.

Kenshin nodded and started to explain what had happened, but Kenshin thinking first of Kaoru, left out some parts of the story.

"This doesn't make any sense..." Misao said after Kenshin had finished explaining what had happened. "Kaoru, she would never do anything like that, she would never kill people..."

"Not just people, 'high ranking' government pigs..." Sanosuke corrected her with a bitter tone.

"It has to be someone from the inside," Kenshin inferred, "Someone is hiring whoever is doing this, to kill those people and posing Kaoru as the killer."

"Then someone is planning a takeover or something right? So that is why you are here, to talk to someone? And who would that person be?" Misao asked

"I-"

"Battousai..." Aoshi had just walked into the room after a long night of research.

"Lord Aoshi!" Misao bounded up to him "Are you alright? you look exhausted!"

Aoshi didn't say anything but looked at Kenshin for a moment trying to surmise what he could tell the man before him.

"There was another murder last night." He finally said, not being able to think of another way to put it. Kenshin looked up at him not saying anything in return. "This should be discussed in private." Aoshi said looking around at the small group who although protested finally got the message that it was useless, and begrudgingly left.

"What is it that you wanted to tell me?" Kenshin asked.

"Was she with you last night Kenshin? Did she at anytime leave your side?"

Kenshin raised an eyebrow at the question. "Miss Kaoru was with me... Why do you ask?"

"I was there last night," Aoshi said drinking some tea calmly, as if this where a light conversation. "I saw the killer, are you sure that she was with you?"

"Of course she was!" Of all the absurd things... "She would have never killed anyone in the first place! You should know this!" Kenshin felt frustration building, how could anyone think his Kaoru was capable of doing any such thing?

'Yours? When did she become yours battousai?' his rurouni half asked quizzically.

'Shut up.' Now wasn't the time for an inner argument, especially not in front of someone like Shinomori Aoshi who could see straight through his façade.

"Settle down battousai it was just a simple question. I know that she wouldn't by her own free will, but the person I saw was a mirror image of the girl last night wielding a sword, killing a man. Unless she has a twin or something, I have no explanation for last nigh other than-"

"She did not kill anyone!" Kenshin said a little more loudly than he had meant to, he was getting even more frustrated with Aoshi's assumptions. For someone so cunning he can be really stupid sometimes.

"Settle down." Aoshi said calmly drinking his tea. "I have one more assumption, I think that whoever this is has been hired to do this, they are going through a line of power that could reach all the way to the top if they are not stopped, there is a rat within the walls of the government building."

"Where did you get this information?" Kenshin wondered.

"I have my sources." Aoshi finished drinking his tea before leaving the room, but before he left he turned to Kenshin and said one last thing, "Keep her close, she is stuck in a web that won't be easy to untangle."

- - -

Kaoru awoke late in the morning as the sun burned through her eyelids. She looked around the hut before dimly realizing where she was, she looked around for a sign of Kenshin but there was none. She dressed into the only clean thing she had left which happened to be some clothes that she had 'borrowed' from a clothes line; the hakama was grey and the gi was black. For some reason, though she didn't know why, she felt that these dark colors fit the way she was at that moment.

She walked out of the hut to be greeted by Hiko sitting on a wooden stump eating a grilled fish. "Come, and join me." he said handing her the other fish that had been roasting over an open flame. Kaoru took the meal and sat on a stump across from Hiko.

"Tell me what my idiot apprentice has been up to since we last met."

Kaoru smiled kindly at him, there wasn't much to tell, but tell she did. It was nice talking about trivial things, it made her block some of the feelings of dread she had.

"And your apprentice? What of him?" Hiko asked sipping his tea.

Kaoru blinked for a moment. 'I don't remember Kenshin ever saying that Hiko was personable...' ((Kenshin: That's because he's not!)) "He is a hard learner, though a bit stubborn...Really stubborn is more like it."

"He sounds like someone I know." Hiko smirked.

Kaoru knew what he meant, 'I can defiantly see a younger Kenshin acting like Yahiko does sometimes...' Kaoru smiled at the thought of a younger Kenshin being brow beaten by Hiko. "Yahiko is strong, and has the heart of a swordsman. I could teach him more than what I have, but I have held back because I don't want strength, and pride to go to his head."

"That is one of the more important things of teaching; knowing the limits of your student's pride; that is probably why I was so hard on my idiot apprentice," Hiko mused, "I didn't want him to have some kind of foolish pride that overshadowed the true meaning of what I was trying to teach him." Hiko grabbed his sake gourd and offered some to Kaoru.

She smiled and declined his offer. She found that Hiko was sharing his thoughts with her odd for some reason. "Yes, that is true what you say, I am hard on my student as well, I don't want him to be overpowered by his pride, but he has it already and it has gotten him in some trouble before. I just want to protect him from, well himself." She laughed a little.

"Hmm..." Hiko smirked at her last sentence. "When was the last time you trained, you look like you haven't held a sword for months." He threw her the bokken that she had purchased some time before. "You know it's not good for a teacher to become out of practice. What would happen if you let your student beat you? His pride would defiantly go to his head, especially if he is as much like my idiot apprentice as he sounds..."

- - -

Saitou walked in the stillness of the early afternoon towards a large waterfall. He could sense her ki for a while now and could tell that she was near, and training. "It is time for us to talk again."

Kaoru gasped and turned around, she had been doing her katas near the waterfall and didn't even hear the mibu wolf approach her.

"Do we now?" she said, "You wouldn't happen to be here to tell me that I am no longer your 'bait' am I?" she mused aloud.

"Hardly" he said harshly as she stared back at him.

Kaoru had a feeling she would be here for a while. 'It is time for us to talk again' wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear especially from a greasy wolf like Saitou. "Cut to the chase, why are you here?" she eyed him suspiciously trying all though fruitlessly to read his stone cold face.

"Things are becoming more and more twisted I suggest that you stay up here in your little 'safe haven' don't go anywhere."

"And why should I?" she really had no intention of going anywhere in the first place, but she was going to milk Saitou for all he was worth.

"It isn't time for you to make your appearance, the lead has not been set, if you were to show now you would be dead, and I would never be able to stop this person."

"Are you saying that you care whether I live or die?" she asked quizzically.

"I don't, you could die for all I care after this is all done, but right now you are more useful to me alive."

"Why me? I want to know what kind of person would the police mistake for me to this extent? And why you even care to get involved?"

"..."

"I Deserve that much at least!"

"That is classified information."

"Classified my ass." Her patients was starting to run thin.

Saitou turned away and started walking Kaoru's anger was bubbling now, "Don't you turn your back! Answer me Damn it!" She was screaming a little more than she would have normally.

Saitou stopped and looked back at the angry young girl. "It is for your best interest to stay here listen to the battousai and his master, no matter what happens stay here!" he faced her "That is a warning,"

If Kaoru wasn't fuming before she was now. She wanted to throw her bokken at Saitou's retreating head and scream at him some more. 'A warning what does he mean a warning? When did he start to decide it mattered whether she lived or not.'

'Because you are the bait, that's why,' she thought bitterly as she started to do her katas again to calm herself.

- - -

After a very frustrating conversation with Aoshi, Kenshin made his way back to the mountain but stopped when something caught his eye in one of the stands. 'Maybe I should...' he fumbled for a few seconds with his money to see how much he could afford to lose, and after determining the amount he bought the best Sake he could buy with the money that he had. 'Maybe I can figure out what master is up to.' Kenshin made his way back to the mountain, gourd in hand.

"It's not going to work" Hiko said as Kenshin approached him.

"Oro?"

"I am not going to tell you why I have been so generous, that is why you bought me this very nice sake right, to persuade me?" Hiko smirked knowing that was his reason, 'you can't fool your teacher!'

"Where's Kaoru?" It was obviously time for a conversation change, he would try to find out the reason for his masters 'kindness' later.

"Practicing over by the waterfall, you can't expect a teacher of a very interesting style like Kamiya Kasshin to fall out of practice."

"What do you mean interesting?" Kenshin raised an eyebrow 'how much are you not telling me? You know something and I will find out what it is.'

Hiko just shrugged and took the sake from Kenshin and disappeared into his hut and went to work on making some pottery and drinking some of the very fine sake his idiot apprentice purchased for him.

- - -

Kaoru was finding a little peace as she tried to work her body into exhaustion. The mist from the waterfall behind her only seemed to fuel her determination as she worked her muscles and will harder, and harder; she could feel her body start to protest, but she ignored the pain, it only proved that she was still alive. 'I will break past my barriers.' She thought she kept that as her mantra as she worked her body harder.

Sweat rolled down her face and her breath became labored she had surpassed her physical limit and could no distinguish her physical self any longer; she was lost in her absence of thought. This was the first time she had become numb to the feeling of pain inside her own being, and she would hold on to that feeling as long as she could. Tears started to fall as she felt a small pain start to rise from her chest. 'I don't want to feel, please stop.'

'You have to at some point...'

- - -

Kenshin was watching her from a safe distance, and marveled over how she looked as she practiced. Sure he had watched her practice before, but this time something was different. She was near exhaustion whether she knew it or not he figured it didn't matter to her, she was lost within her own mind. Something he knew all to well.

He found himself walking towards her approaching her from behind. He knew it wasn't the smartest thing he could do, but if he didn't interrupt her he knew she would work her body past the breaking point something she would be sorry for later.

Kaoru felt a presence behind her, no it wasn't someone's ki, she didn't know how to sense ki, but she recognized this feeling 'Kenshin.' With this small realization she decided to ignore the urge to turn around and attack the person approaching her. What she didn't expect was the feeling of two strong arms stop her exercise and his voice whisper into her ears.

"I think you have practiced enough for today, Kaoru." Kenshin whispered as he held a hold of her arms so she couldn't swing her bokken anymore.

Kaoru gasped, not only was he being very forward by approaching her this way he didn't say 'Miss.' But she nodded and let her arms drop and she caught her breath she didn't realize how tired she was and how she couldn't even hold herself up anymore. Her knees buckled and she felt her self slip to the ground, but not fall.

"You shouldn't work yourself so hard Miss Kaoru." Kenshin had scooped her in his arms and was smiling his rurouni smile.

'I guess it was too good to last.' Kaoru thought but Kenshin carrying her was fine with her as well, but all her thoughts were ruined by an obscenely annoying voice in the back of her head.

'You shouldn't be enjoying this, you don't deserve be happy! You with your defiled hands, you shouldn't dare feel this!'

Kaoru flinched inwardly and pleaded with herself, 'Please let me have one moment of peace!' Tears of frustration and anguish burned her eye's and she buried her face into Kenshin's shoulder. 'Just one moment...'

Kenshin looked at Kaoru and wished that he could just make all of her fears go away but he knew it was a futile wish. Nothing could change what has happened. Not ever.

To be continued...

A/N: So what did you think? I worked really hard on making this longer than three pages I hope you all enjoyed, until the next chapter ::Waves::