Disclaimer: I do not own either Inuyasha or Rurouni Kenshin.

Chapter 4.

Sanosuke stood in front of the temple praying. I really, REALLY, need to get some good rolls today. Please let this be my lucky day. If I don't Tae's going to kill me over the tab I've run up. Sanosuke stood up suddenly as he felt something. It felt like someone had just walked across his grave. He wasn't any good at reading chi like Kenshin, but he could pick up things occasionally.

Not knowing exactly what to think after sensing something like that after a prayer, Sanosuke walked around the temple and stopped dead in his tracks. Two young women were climbing out of the old dry well on the temple grounds. They had their kimonos lifted up so they could climb over the edge, showing off some VERY nice legs.

Sanosuke smiled, maybe today WAS turning out to be his lucky day.

He pulled himself back from the wall for a moment to make sure he didn't startle them and walked around the wall just as they were smoothing out their kimonos. "Excuse me, what are you ladies doing here?" He said sauntering up to the two attractive young women.

The two of them looked at him startled for a moment and then looked at each other before one of them replied. "We just came by the temple on our way to the market. We're not from around here, so we were a little bit lost."

"I'll say; what are you doing snooping around the old well?" Sanosuke asked suspiciously. He wasn't the brightest star in the night sky, but he'd been around the streets long enough to pick up on a blatant lie.

"We were looking for herbs. My family sells medicines and I was looking for some rare herbs down in the well." The young woman looked at Sanosuke with the largest, please believe me eyes he'd ever seen. Oh well, no sense pressing them where they didn't want to answer. After all, they looked harmless enough.

"Who are you anyway, I've lived here for a while but I don't remember seeing you two." And believe me, with a cute couple of young ladies like you two I'd remember.

"My name is Kagome. Kagome Higurashi, and this is my sister Sango." The other one looked startled for a moment but then turned to Sano, "Pleased to meet you."

Sanosuke nodded to the two young girls and then introduced himself. "Sanosuke. Sanosuke Segara. Pleased to make the acquaintance of two pretty young ladies such as yourself." Well, at least they blush like normal girls.

"Can you help us please? We're looking for the marketplace and we don't know our way around very well. We need to find someplace to sell our medicines. We'd be happy to pay you once we sell them." Kagome asked.

Sanosuke nearly bit the fishbone in his mouth in two. It WAS going to be his lucky day. "Sure I even have a pretty good idea where to take you." Kagome and Sango followed Sanosuke out of the temple as he headed down the steps and headed out for the clinic.

Kagome looked across the desk at the old man that Sanosuke had called Dr. Gensei. The old man looked at he medicines before finally setting the last package of herbs down. "Amazing. Some of these herbs are very hard to get nowadays. How did you come by them young lady?"

"My teacher, Kaede-sama grows some of them." Kagome said truthfully. "The rest we gathered out in the forest."

"Indeed, I'd like to see what this woman has in her garden," Dr. Gensei said merrily. "These are some very good herbs. I'm sorry, but I can't even pay you as much as these are worth."

Kagome decided that she liked Dr. Gensei. He was kind and had a sweet disposition. "That's alright. Whatever you can give us will be fine."

Dr. Gensei nodded and wrote out something on a sheet of paper. "Megumi, will you take these ladies over to the new bank and have them pay these young ladies?"

"Certainly Dr. Gensei," the older woman promised. "If you girls will follow me."

Megumi lead the three of them down the street to the new bank. Kagome had to choke down a startled yelp when she saw the building. She recognized the 'new' bank immediately. It was not far from her home in her own time. She even remembered the large concrete cornerstone that said '1875'. It was a historical landmark to her though.

The four of them walked through the front and Megumi quickly had the money brought out to them. Kagome remembered that money was exchanged differently as she saw Sanosuke nearly choke on his fishbone. In her time, this wasn't very much money. Sango didn't even know what money was.

"Thank you Megumi-san," Kagome said happily. "You've been a great help."

"You might want to keep this freeloader with you while you're walking around in Tokyo with that kind of money. He may not be too bright, but he can take care of the street trash that might try to harm two young women." Megumi said looking at Sanosuke with narrowed eyes.

"I can…" Sango started to say until Kagome poked her in the ribs. "That would be wonderful. So you're a street fighter?"

"Uh, yeah." Sano said scratching the back of his head.

"I guess that explains you having 'bad' written across your back."

Megumi snickered, and Sano actually looked abashed for a moment before nodding.

Megumi went back to the clinic and the three of them started back towards the temple when Kagome turned to Sango. "Hey Sango, it's nearly lunchtime. You want to go get something to eat? I know we brought our lunch, but we may not get a chance like this for quite a while."

Sango nodded and Kagome turned to Sanosuke. "Do you know of any good restaurants around here?"

Sanosuke looked sheepish for a moment before answering, "Well there is a pretty good restaurant up ahead called the 'Akabeko', but I'm not allowed to go there for the moment." Sanosuke said with a sheepish grin trying to laugh.

"Oh, why not?" Sango asked looking at Sanosuke suspiciously.

"Well, I'm a friend of Tae, the owner, and I seem to have run up a little bit of a tab. I'm not allowed back in until I pay it off."

Kagome smiled at Sanosuke's thinly veiled look of pleading. She liked him too. He might be a freeloader, but Kagome could tell when someone had a basically good heart. "Well, we did offer to pay you for helping us. It sounds like an even trade." Kagome could see Sano light up as she told him.

Kagome looked at the food they had ordered. She hadn't realized how different the money worked between her time and this one. She had given Sanosuke money for helping them. It wasn't much as far as her time went, but his eyes had nearly jumped out of their sockets. He had insisted on paying for lunch, and the owner had been overjoyed to be paid. Kagome looked at the food in front of her stunned. It was a feast. Sango was similarly impressed.

"We need to bring Kaede's medicines here more often." Sango said over a bowl of Miso soup.

Kagome nodded. A girl might actually be able to make a living at this. Maybe they could visit the marketplace and bring some things back to Kaede after they were done. It was then that Kagome remembered why they were there. Pulling out her book she flipped to the part about the Meiji Era swordsmen. She looked at the first name on the list. Apparently, he was considered the best.

"Sanosuke?" Kagome said innocently.

"Yeah little missy, what can I do for you now?" Sanosuke said as he drank some sake.

"Do you know where I can find a man called Kenshin Himura?"

Kagome did not expect the reaction. The man sat up and barely managed to turn his head from the two of them before spraying sake everywhere. A young waiter was unfortunate enough to have his back to Sanosuke serving one of the other tables and as a result got a dousing.

"Hey Sano! What's the big idea?" The young man turned on Sanosuke and looked ready to clobber the tall man.

"Sorry Yahiko. These ladies just asked me where they could find Kenshin."

The young boy looked over at the two of them and regarded them coldly for a moment. "You better not. Kaoru would be unbearable." With that the boy turned and headed for the back of the restaurant to dry off.

"I take it you know Himura-san?" Kagome said hopefully.

"Yeah, I know him." Sanosuke didn't look happy and didn't look like he was going to offer any information.

"Is something wrong?" Kagome asked, confused.

"Nobody comes looking for Kenshin unless there's trouble involved. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to know what you want with Kenshin before I even think about telling you where he is."

Sango looked at Kagome and then looked back at Sano. "I take it he has a lot of enemies?"

Sano was looking at Sango like she was stark raving mad. "Yeah, something like that."

Kagome shook her head in frustration. "Look, we don't want any trouble with Mr. Himura. We need his help is all."

Sango looked at Kagome and shook her head. "I don't know Kagome, if he's got a bunch of enemies, we may not want him helping us."

Sanosuke looked at the two of them. It was obvious they had no idea who they were asking about, but people who came looking for Kenshin generally knew exactly what they were looking for. The two of them still looked like harmless young ladies though. They probably weren't going to try to kill Kenshin on sight, but if they were spies Kenshin might be able to find out who had sent them.

A dark little plan started forming in the back of Sanosuke's mind. They wouldn't be able to hurt Kenshin, they weren't even armed, but he imagined the look on Kaoru's face when he showed up on the steps of the dojo with two pretty young girls asking for Kenshin. He could follow them later to find out whom they were spying for.

Finally Sanosuke reached a decision, "OK I'll take you to him."