Okay... This might work... then again, it might not... please tell me what you think? Please?
Hope you all like it... I think I do. I'll have to read it when it's not four am, and I'm not dead tired... Happy reading...




Kenshin headed in the direction of the river until he was out of sight of Kaoru. Then he headed north. He had to do something, get this tension out of his system. She was driving him mad, her unending comments driving a spike right into the core of him. She hurt him. She really had. He had thought that it couldn't be done any longer, but there he was, the tear she caused within him still raw.

The past twenty-four hours had been a constant struggle between the Battousai and the rurouni. Whenever Kaoru had said something that pissed him off, the violent half of Kenshin's nature threatened to take hold, and even surfacing. It had surfaced too often, too much. He didn't want to show that side of himself to Kaoru, fearing she would think even less of him.

Sighing, he did the only thing he could think of to pass the time. With a soft click, he pulled his sakabatou from it's sheath, slicing it through the air, feeling the weight of it in his hands. At least some things remained the same, he thought, as he began to practice, something he hadn't done in a long time.

He had to focus just on what he was doing. If he focused on anything else, he knew hed lose it, the will, desire to practice, and he'd go back and beg Kaoru for... Focus! he commanded himself.

But at the same time, his battle with the Battousai wasn't over. The use of the sword, even for practice, was calling to his favage half, calling him to the surface. He just couldn't win.

He stopped moving for a moment, trying to calm himself. Taking deep breaths and relxing his shoulders, he sat and thought. There was no use, he would think no matter what he was doing.

He tried thinking of Yahiko. He knew they were heading in the right direction because he had seen signs of him, had sensed that someone had been headed in their direction. Foot prints, broken branchs, and trampled plants were all signs that this person with a swordsmens ki had been there recently. And it wasn't someone with extensive training. It it were, there would be no sign other than the sense of someone there. It all added up.

He also knew they were gaining on Yahiko bit by bit. Yahiko, while determined, was still undisciplined, and would most likely rest whenever he felt he needed it. That would likely be his downfall.

Finally, after completely thinking through his plans for catching up with Yahiko, he stood and headed back towards the makeshift camp he and Kaoru had created.



Kaoru had sat staring after Kenshin for a long while, wishing he hadn't left, wishing he would have done anything but leave. Yell at her, be silent, talk to her, ignore her, anything but walk away.

She knew that it was easier for him to walk away and take his own time, but whenever anything bad happened, he always did that to her.

Feeling guilty, she added the thought, Alright, I know, I do it to him too. Perhaps that was their problem. She had as good as told him that she loved him. Had basically told him that she wanted to marry him. But Kenshin was not a subtle man. It took blunt speaking and a frying pan to get her point across often times, and she knew it. Why couldn't he occasionally appreciate a bit of subtlety? Couldn't he understand she love him? Not just the rurouni in him but both sides, good and bad, night and day? She had told him, so many times already, but he refused to listen.

Turn that pointing finger back upon yourself. Kaoru thought, Have I missed something too? Has Kenshin told me something that I missed, that I didn't want to hear, or that I wanted him to come right out and say to me?

But the little voice of insecurity in the back of her mind kept telling her that if he wanted her, if he loved her, he would have told her, would already have asked her. Since he hadn't yet, why not? Perhaps he liked someone else? Megumi, for instance?

The doctor was brilliant, beautiful, and talented. But she would be so much better suited to Sano! It was easy to think, but Megumi was so flirtatious with Kenshin it made Kaoru uneasy about assuming anything. Best not to think too deeply about it.

She looked up and towards the river, hoping to see Kenshin weaving his way back through the trees, coming back to say that he was sorry for arguing with her, but he was worried about Yahiko.

"Kenshin!" She cried, as she saw a figure coming towards her. But her excitement died down when she realized it was not Kenshin, nor was it even a single man, but four men, drunkenly winding their way through the forest.

She tried to duck out of the way before they saw her, but she wasn't fast enough, and they were on her in seconds. Blindly, she kicked at them, trying to get away.

"Hold on there, little missy. I'd bet you've got some money to give us and we'd let you go. You do, don't you?" She shook her head.

"I don't have any money. I've only my pack with me, no-" She let out a gasp as his fist flew into her stomach, and all she could to was stare at the man and flinch. She couldn't even scream - he had knocked her breath away.

"Then you'll have to pay for your passage another way." He said, and started ripping her clothing up the center.



Something was wrong. Kenshin sensed it immediately, dreading it. It the Battousai tried to come out this time, he might very well lose to him for some time. Taking off at his running speed, he headed back towards the camp, towards Kaoru. When he came upon the small clearing they had made into their campsite, he saw four men. One appeared to be a simple fighter, fists only. Two carried swords, and the other... Damnit, he couldn't see the other. He knew his senses weren't as finely tuned as the Battousai, and he would have better reaction time-

One of the men shifted positions and he could see Kaoru, naked and shivering, wrestling with all her might despite being held down but two of the men. It was the final straw.

His eyes turned the amber color of the Battousai, and his entire demeanor changed, from the way he held his sword to the way he stood. His entire stance was different, his entire persona and ki. Even his face seemed harder looking.

Quicker than light, he simply knocked the first one out, dragging the criminal with him before the other three even realized what was going on. In fact, they didn't even notice him gone. But Kaoru saw, and struggled even harder to get free.

"Let me go, damnit, before you get hurt!" She yelled at them.

"Oh, now we're scared." The tallest of the three left said. The one not holding her down bent down slightly and was touching her breast before he too was dragged off by the quick flash of the Battousai.

"Eh, Goro, where'd the boss go?" The man named Goro turned to look, then was gone. But before Kenshin could get back, the fourth and final man grabbed Kaoru and held his knife to her neck.

"I will kill her." He yelled it to whoever had downed his friends. A trickle of blood ran down Kaoru's chest. This one wasn't kidding.

"Ken..shin.." She could only whisper his name, speaking would have pushed her throat against the knife, and cut her even more. She didn't even dare swallow.

"You shouldn't have done that." Kenshin's voice sounded vicious. There wasn't even a shadow of the rurouni there. He crept up from behind the man, and, giving little care to the rurouni's vow, sliced the man's throat and grabbed Kaoru away from him. The man was dead before he hit the ground.

"You're bleeding." Kenshin's voice was cold, and Kaoru shivered, despite the warmness that was coursing through her body from being pressed to Kenshin like she was.

"Hai." She raised a hand to her throat, feeling the small cut in her skin. Kenshin picked her and her pack up and headed back towards the river with her.

"We'll get you cleaned and clothed." So straight forward. So matter of fact. Not at all even a hint of the rurouni. His eyes glowed amber, seemingly boring a hole deep through her skull. She nodded to him.

He didn't speak the rest of the short trip to the river, just walked, carefully holding her still naked body against him.

When he reached the river's edge, he sat down, holding her in his lap, and wet his gi, using it to rinse the blood from her neck and the valley between her breasts. He seemed completely disinterested in what he was doing, as though cleaning a naked woman was something he did daily.

She closed her eyes against the sight of the Battousai who had taken her rurouni over, and just let him wash her.

Battousai was looking at Kaoru, watching the way she reacted to him. Though he knew she preferred the gentle rurouni, she still trusted him. He found it ironic that she was letting him, the Battousai, see her naked, while the rurouni had barely seen a glimpse of her before.

The blood was washed away now, so he dried her off with another portion of his gi.

When she didn't move from where she was, he lightly touched her collarbone, tracing the delicate bone from neck to shoulder and back again. He didn't lift his finger off of her, just dragged a finger down, between her breasts to just below her ribcage, and back up again, then laid his hand at her heart.

Her pulse was wild, uneven and fast. He hadn't expected that. He had expected her to be repulsed by him, even disgusted. "Why aren't you disgusted by me?" He asked her, his voice betraying his surprise.

"You and the rurouni are the same man. I trust you both. You're both Kenshin. Two halves to equal the whole." She paused and looked up at him, opening her blue eyes to look into his contrasting amber ones. "If I were disgusted by you, shouldn't I be by the rurouni? After all," she repeated, "you are the same man."

Battousai had never considered that. He had always considered himself and the rurouni to be seperate people living in the same body. A body meant for one, he liked to think.

She lifted a hand up to cover his. "Now, since I answered a question for you, you will for me. Why did you break your vow, Kenshin? Why did you kill?"




Well? What do you think? It was one of my longer updates... so...

And if you're just skipping to this chapter, cause you've read the other ones, I updated chpts one and two... just a little FYI...