Author's note: ok sorry for the delay on this story… my sister and I were complaining about who Kirara should be with… of course I said Kambei and she wanted Katsushiro. So I told her I would give Kirara a small scene with Katsu to shut her up! But this is a KambeixKirara story! Im not changing that… I just think those two need a story of their own for once.

Oh and fro here on out in changing the point of views so no more character POVs… blame my sister for that.

Here we go…

chapter 6: the truth

the day was long Katsushiro wonder alone after the scene with his former teacher and the women he once loved… well at less he thought he once loved. But the pain in his chest lingered long enough to realize what he was feeling. With a long sigh of frustration the youngest of the 7 samurai went about his business.

Kanna village had truly changed from when he was last here. Home were rebuilt and they were larger than before, the dirt paths in the villager were similar to the roads of a city… and a there was one house that truly caught his attention, A large mansion like home in the center of the village. " when did they put this here?"

"amazing!"

Katsushiro turned to see Gorobei and Heihachi as they came up behind him. "Heihachi-Dono Gorobei-dono, what bring you two here?" with a bow he greeted the two.

They returned the bow with a slight nod of their head. "well I guess the villagers have been busy since we left." Heihachi said with a smile.

"tell me about it. I wonder who lives here?" Gorobei moved from his place behind Heihachi's wheelchair to take a better look at the building.

And as thought reading their minds Rikichi slip opened the door only to see 3 of the former samurai standing at the entrance of his home. "great samurai what brings you all here?"

"Rikichi you live here?!" in disbelief all 3 samurai felt their jaws drop to the ground.

….

" here, you all must of had a long journey. My apologizes, to trouble you all with another problem Kanna village now faces." Rikichi said as he lead the samurai deeper in to his home.

"ah, its ok Rikichi. Coming here this time was a lot easier seeing as we weren't being hunted by the Nobuseri." Rikichi chuckled to Heihachi's remark.

" that was one journey I will never forget, be sure." Rikichi finally opened a door that lead into a room with a table and hot tea waiting.

Katsushiro was the first to walk in. "Rikichi-san this is amazing." Heihachi followed in by Gorobei stunted by the room. The large living quarters was the size of four of the houses they saw when coming into the village.

It took one look at the samurai for Rikichi to understand what they were thinking. "yes the house was big enough… but when we looked around it was ridiculous!"

"geez Rikichi it must be nice to live in a place like this." Gorobei strolled Heihachi to the near table and helped the former engineer to the floor to sit beside him and the others.

Katsushiro took his place next to Rikichi " so tell us Rikichi what is going on here in the village? With so many samurai why do you need us to come. Why is there even other samurai here?" his patients were running low, Katsushiro need to know just WHAT was going on.

With a heavy sigh Rikichi pouring a cup of tea for each samurai including himself. "you're not going to like it Katsushiro, after all it does involve lady Kirara and…" he was cut off a slam on the table, the cup that were filled splashed hot tea in the surrounding area.

"I don't care about lady Kirara I just want to know what happened here." Katsushiro's voice was stern.

Gorobei and Heihachi both looked over to one another, "Katsushiro let the man talk if it involves Kirara we should know more about it."

Heihachi agreed. "Gorobei-dono is right. We need to know about this from beginning to end."

With that Katsushiro huffed and turned his head. He wasn't in the mood to talk about the former water priestess now.

Rikichi felt the tension grow in the room. Surely the topic of the woman would only farther increase the young man's ideals of the leader water priestess.

"I think I know what it is." With intension in his eyes Heihachi looked at the young man he had fought side by side with against the Nobuseri. He knew about Katsushiro's affections for the lovely Kirara, but he also knew about the girls high affections for Kambei. And remembering the scene between the two back at he said woman's home, he was sure that left Katsushiro with mixed feeling yet again.

" its about what happened with Kambei-sama and lady Kirara right, or am I mistaken?"

All four looked up to see a formulary face leaning on door. "Shichiroji-dono?"

The former pilot walked over and crouched down next to the young man with green hair. Facing him face to face. "your mad because you think lady Kirara is still in love with Kambei-sama aren't you Katsu." It was more of a statement then a question. All Katsushiro could do is sigh and look away without saying a word. "look kid if we want to know what is wrong we have to know every detail of whats going on from beginning to end, whether we like the story of it all or not." Shichiroji took his eyes away from him to look over to Rikichi giving him a nod to tell the story.

With shirchiroji's approval Rikichi began the story.

TBC

Well there is chapter 6. Things have changed from chapter one like to format and text… but all in all I think its alittle better.