Author's Note: Than you all very much for reviewing! I love to read peoples' comments and stuff like that  lol, ok I must warn you now though that I haven't watched Rurouni Kenshin in too long. Heck, a day without Kenshin is too long XD and since this is true, I kinda forget how the inside of their houses, dojos, or whatever looks like. Because doesn't that Aoiya have like.. stairs? Gah, I forgot.. So please bear with me.. thanks! Please read and review! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin

Chapter Three: A Girl's Many Challenges

Misao awoke slowly to the rising sun that greeted her through the window with much light and warmth. She lazily sat up and stretched her arms and legs. She gradually stood up and yet again folded her futon correctly before brushing her hair and doing other things that she needed to do to get ready for the day.

She of course remembered her lunch date thing with Hideki and so rushed down the stairs now to eat breakfast quickly after she had fully gotten ready. Once she was done with that she changed into her fighting outfit and trained outside, surrounded by the beautiful morning yet again.

Misao trained by herself in the mornings these days, well, in the mornings when she had time to anyway. She never used to do this, but she decided to make a change in her daily routine. Misao didn't regret it either; she was getting better at fighting, faster. She had to keep that old saying in mind, 'practice makes perfect.'

Well, she didn't expect to be perfect exactly. She just wanted to be very skilled in what she did, and recently proved just that to the thug that attacked her yesterday. This reminded her of when he also dirtied her clothes while fighting him, 'Thank goodness I washed my kimono enough to get the blood stains out. I think if I had waited any longer, the stains would have become permanent.'

Aoshi was up and about also. He had already eaten breakfast and drank his tea that he got himself. Misao no longer served him his tea. They spent more time together and just had tea together at the Aoiya in the evenings. This is yet another routine which has changed from the norm.

He sat relaxed and very still. Aoshi heard Misao outside, her faint battle cries and combat moves out the window. He opened his eyes and watched Misao train. He did this every morning, unknown to her. He admired her more and more as he saw that her skills were improving each day.

Then it hit him again, he remembered Misao's so called date with Hideki. Aoshi could not just let Misao leave with a guy he did not know anything about. People change. There was a chance that this guy could be a very different person than from when he was little.

Aoshi took a breath and fidgeted vaguely. He just couldn't meditate anymore, so he just watched Misao with his full attention. 'Why can I not concentrate like I used to?'

He was considering if he should follow them on their date or not. If he did, and Misao sensed him, he would be forced to explain himself. But if he didn't go, he wouldn't know what the hell those two would be doing... well, besides having lunch anyway. It was Hideki he did not trust. However, Aoshi knew the guy wasn't some scumbag looking for a good time, but nonetheless, he made the fateful decision to go ahead and follow them...from a great distance of course.

Aoshi broke away from his thoughts when he noticed Misao was walking away from the clearing. It looked like she finished.

Misao took a heavy breather and decided that this was enough training for the morning. She walked away from the clearing and headed toward the Aoiya, her soft steps lightly crunching the grass beneath her.

The young woman made hurried steps now and entered her destination. She made quick turns into the halls up the stairs and stopped by her room to retrieve her bath yukata.

After she bathed, she went to her room again and thought about what to where for her d- um… lunch thing with Hideki. Misao kept telling herself, 'not a date, not a date… Why would it be?' The young woman was sure that he would be arriving in about an hour or so she fought to not waste any more precious time.

Misao looked through her kimonos, figuring out which one was best to wear. She looked for something comfortable and not so flashy, like her other special kimonos that she wore on certain occasions. She looked thoughtfully through her clothes and decided on a casual light blue one. Misao sighed with content when she looked at it. The kimono was simple yet still gorgeous, which she loved. She smiled on instinct as she ran her fingers across the soft fabric; blue reminded her of Aoshi's beautiful eyes.

After putting it on, she brushed her hair that she still wasn't quite use to yet. She decided to pull it in a half ponytail once again, letting the rest flow shortly down her upper back. She smiled in the mirror and walked towards her shoji door. She slipped on her sandals that were near, and walked out, feeling more than ready to face the day.

Just as Misao exited her room, she bumped into someone… again. She turned around and looked up to find Aoshi...again. He had pulled his hand away from the door; it seemed he was just about to knock on it the same time as Misao opened it.

Misao began to laugh lightly, "How is it that whenever I leave my room, I almost always bump into you Aoshi?" she said as she smiled brightly to him.

Aoshi just shrugged, "Lucky, I guess."

She laughed more. Aoshi could be funny sometimes, even when he didn't mean to be. She knew this because he had his usual serene look on his face when he said it. But then he smiled as well when Misao was laughing. He felt a calm feeling take over when she laughed genuinely and freely like she did often.

Aoshi at first was confused at her laughter, but only inwardly shrugged it off, he was happy that he made her laugh, and as he looked at her kimono, was also glad that she didn't do so much to dress up for Hideki when they went to their lunch date... thing.

Aoshi walked behind Misao as she led the way down the stairs and into the kitchen of the Aoiya. They both right away saw that Hideki was already there. He turned around to find Aoshi and Misao walk in.

"Oh, hello Hideki. Is it time to go already?" Misao asked as she looked around to see if she could spot Okon and Omasu around anywhere. "Yeah just about, let's go." He said courteously and they both walked outside after Misao said goodbye to everyone and that she would be back in an hour or two.

Aoshi sighed inwardly at their departure. Before Okon or Omasu could tease him about the situation though, he had already walked out of the room. Oh he knew those girls meant well, but teasing him wouldn't work on him as it did on Misao… But he didn't even want to risk it anyway and so left in a hurry.

Aoshi walked out of the temple wearing a different change of clothes. He wore a dark cobalt gi and white hakama. As he walked down the steps, he thought about talking to Okina about this matter. About lovely and innocent Misao going out with another man that Okina did not know either.

Aoshi had a slight thought that the man would in fact agree with him on this. But he would bring up when he came back; he just wanted to know more about this Hideki guy first. Something regarding the twenty-two year old just wasn't right, why else would Aoshi feel the need to follow him? And usually when he had a bad feeling about someone, he was usually right about it.

But then he just stopped dead in his tracks, 'What am I doing?' He couldn't help but ask his mind. He shook his head, he suddenly felt like he was entirely invading Misao's private life or something. He shouldn't be following them like this, it wasn't like him. What Misao does is up to her. And if she wanted to go out with this other guy, then it should be ok for her to. She did not need permission, nor approval…

However, Aoshi just could not shake this feeling in his gut that something wasn't right with Hideki. And Aoshi was going to do anything in his power to find out exactly what wasn't right.

He left the Aoiya and silently followed Misao and Hideki while he blended in with the crowd moreover. They went inside a restaurant that Misao had never been in before, and sat at a table. They began to talk about their childhood and funny stories about it. Aoshi slipped in unnoticed by either of them and sat a few tables away from theirs, which were blocked by other people sitting between them and talking happily about their own lives. He did not want to be seen, but also wanted to hear them, so he tuned out all the other people except for Misao and Hideki.

Misao seemed to be having a good enough time. Aoshi made himself as unnoticeable as he could and listened closely to their conversation.

He heard Hideki laugh and then, say "Remember how we always use to play together Misao?"

She smiled, "Yes, those were the good old days."

"Yeah, I miss them." Hideki replied as he closed his eyes and thought of all the good and sometimes bad days they shared.

I a soft voice now, Misao spoke, "We were so young back then, weren't we?" She thought aloud. Hideki nodded in agreement, "Yeah."

The bustle of people moving about and talking in the restaurant filled the room thankfully, and for a second Misao felt that she was in the Aoiya, but now knew different.

They were silent for about half a minute, still waiting for their food. Hideki thought of something and looked at Misao. "You're really close to Aoshi, aren't you?" He asked with a light and knowing smile.

Misao perked her head up and smiled brightly at this, "Oh, yes. Aoshi and I are good friends, we're very close. We almost do everything together, like, spar, eat, travel, read, and other stuff like that." She said counting her fingers each time she named an activity. There was so much more, but she did not have enough fingers to name all of them. She thought that concept to be quite humorous.

Hideki nodded and took a sip of his tea, "That's good, so you guys have known each other for a long time? I mean even longer than when we were kids? Because I remember him from when we were young too. He didn't talk to me much back then either." He laughed lightly at that. Aoshi certainly hasn't changed.

Misao brightened. She didn't realize how much she would love talking about Aoshi. She also felt kind of strange though, she had usually always gone out to lunch with Aoshi, or with her girlfriends on other days, not someone else like him.

But she had to admit, it was a bit of a good change from the norm. Misao wanted to meet new people and make new friends after all, "Yes, he even helped take care of me when I was a baby. He is about ten years older than I am so he's known me all my life." She sighed thoughtfully, "He was there for me." Misao said softly. She caught herself almost saying 'always there for me.'

'He wasn't always there.' Misao thought sadly. Hideki could tell something was bothering her by the way she said that last part. But he decided not to ask, not wanting to bring up anything, if there was anything bad to bring up, he really didn't know and so kept on the safe side.

Aoshi knew what Misao was thinking and felt terrible. He knew he wasn't always there for her. There was a time when he almost turned completely evil. He hated thinking about that awful time and just wanted him and Misao to forget it once and for all. But it wouldn't be so; he knew they'd always remember that time, for as long as they lived.

When the food arrived at Hideki and Misao's table, they stopped talking and started eating instead. Talking here and there every minute or so and getting more comfortable with each other's company.

When they were finished eating their food they talked for a little while longer and then exited the restaurant, walking around for a short time.

Misao had placed her hands politely behind her back and smiled as she looked at the sky. 'I wish it was Aoshi whom I was spending this time with.'

Both she and Hideki walked around a small lake for a while and brought up fond memories that involved Misao pushing Hideki in the water when they were little. Aoshi smiled faintly upon hearing this, Misao was certainly the strongest and toughest eight year-old girl there ever was.

After about an hour, a lot longer of a time Misao had expected to be with Hideki, they looked at the sky and noticed it was almost evening. 'Have we been out together this long?'

Hideki noticed this and turned to her, "Shall I walk you home?"

Misao nodded and they began to the walk to the Aoiya on the same small pathway she and Aoshi took the day before. It brought up the memory of that guy that had attacked her. Misao was suddenly having second thoughts about taking this certain route home from now on.

The ninja leader followed them very cautiously. At one time Misao whipped her head to look around for the familiar ki she sensed. Aoshi was proud of her keen senses yet nervous at the time and was more careful to follow them.

Aoshi couldn't figure this guy out. It seems that he wasn't after anything; he just liked to spend time with Misao. This unknowingly brought more burden to Aoshi's heart than he could have imagined. He thought now it would have been so much easier to deal with this guy if only he was evil in any way. But he's not.

Misao and Hideki walked toward the Aoiya with sun shinning above the trees ever so brilliantly. Misao just loved strolling around like this; she was not one to take the beauty of the day for granted. It was like a different painted picture in the sky each time of the day. So beautiful and flawless, no matter what it looked like.

As Misao continued to gaze at the silver clouds that would soon bring rain, she felt a sudden strong pulse of energy. It felt like a tidal wave of worry overcame her. She froze in her spot, and a second later Hideki did too. They both didn't move.

"We're...being watched." Misao said in a hushed voice. She noticed Hideki nod his head from the corner of her eyes and the both tensed, preparing for the worst. This energy, they felt so much of it. There were several people watching them.

All of a sudden, arrows flew out of the trees so fast; they had made a light whistle sound. Misao and Hideki heard the deadly noise just in time and dodged them the best they could.

Misao darted away from them with ease and expected Hideki to have the same result, but it he did not. When no more arrows were coming at them, Misao still kept her guard up and took this chance she had to glance at Hideki and make sure he was ok. But when she did, she saw he had had three cuts, two on his right arm and one on his left. He stood scared; he had not expected to be hit at all.

Misao jumped in front of him and tried her best to go into fighting stance, but her damned kimono can only let her do so much physically.

Just then, this time daggers flew toward them just as fast as the arrows had. Misao dodged them, making sure none hit Hideki.

Aoshi watched from afar as he contemplated on if Misao needed his help yet or not. From the looks of it, she was doing just fine, but that other guy she was standing in front of. Hideki was the one that had to be protected. Aoshi found this rather humorous, despite the critical circumstances. He continued to look on, readying himself for the right moment to jump in and assist Misao.

The young ninja woman decided that this cowardly act had gone on long enough. She stomped her foot and clenched her fists, "Hey! If you wanna fight me then get your pathetic asses from hiding right now and stop throwing stupid crap at me!" She shouted to the intruders that still hid in the shadows of the forest.

At her wish, they came out, there was about ten of them. Misao narrowed her eyes at the large men that had come out of hiding, 'Bandits.'