Chosha's Notes

Konnichiwa and welcome back! I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter up – and after that cliffy too, but I had to get ready for exams that started on the eighth of June, so my time working on my stories was cut short. So, this means that for a little while, my stories will be a little slower on updates, but, as you see, I do have valid reasons, rather than not being bothered or something. However, for now, here I am now with this new chapter (big round of applause!)

Guess what though! RKatPS, the Prequel to this, was nominated for a RK fanfiction Crossover on Meiji Tales! Isn't that cool! I hope whoever did the nominating knows I appreciate the though and accepted.

By the way, thank you everyone who reviewed last time and I'll try to behave with those cliff-hangers this chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own RK or HP in any way, shape or form, so I won't get zilch from doing this but perhaps reviews.

Last time on RKatCoS

Kenshin, Ron and the Weasley twins rescue Harry from the Dursleys and find out about Dobby, but when they get back, their absence wasn't missed and Kenshin is feeling dread as Hiko and Mrs Weasley arrive at the scene, catching them red-handed.

Chapter Five

The Aftermath

Kenshin barely felt the others look over and freeze as they finally saw the two figures stalking towards them, his eyes fixed on the advancing form of Hiko. The Kenjutsu master stopped about a metre away from him, glaring down at him with onyx eyes that held as much warmth as the Antarctic. Kenshin barely saw as Mrs Weasley began to stare down her children (though this would have been something Kenshin would have been amazed at normally, seeing as her children were at least as tall as she was.) His eyes were glued on his master. He wasn't wearing his customary smirk, but wore an expression that made him seem like he was death himself. But then, Kenshin had seen death before and had seen Hiko deal it out like hot cakes. Although he knew Hiko wouldn't kill him – he would say he wouldn't want to find another Deshi – it still didn't lessen the fact that Kenshin felt he was looking into the gates of hell itself.

"Well, Deshi," Hiko said in Japanese, his voice icily calm. Kenshin visibly flinched at the tone. Even being called a Baka deshi was better than this harsh manner. "What have you got to say for yourself?"

Kenshin suddenly found that he couldn't hold his master's gaze any longer and dropped his own to the floor, bowing his head, scuffing a foot against the gravel. "S-Sessha…We…we wanted…to help…Harry-kun." He managed, feeling Hiko's gaze burning on him. "He was in trouble, so we went to get him to safety, Shishou…"

"So, basically, you walked into the unknown without thinking of any sort of consequences at all, even though we already had a plan, which you blatantly ignored. You really are a Baka Deshi - I thought I had taught you better."

Annoyance stabbed at Kenshin and his head snapped up. "Iie!" He glared at Hiko. "We did plan out what we were going to do, but you weren't there! He might not have lasted until Friday!"

"Baka na!" he snapped back, causing Kenshin to recoil at the sound. "What was stupid is the fact that you told no one. If something had happened, however unlikely, No one would have come to help you. You all could have been hurt – you could have put everyone in danger with such a stupid stunt."

Kenshin flinched hard, as if Hiko had struck him, the words stinging like a blow, all his anger dissipating so fast it left him cold. You could have put everyone in danger… his dropped his gaze to the gravelled path, his eyes hidden by his bangs and he shook silently. "S-sumanai…" he whispered. "Sessha… Gomennasai…"

They were silent for a moment, Hiko staring down at the small boy who, just then, seemed smaller than normal. The silence between them stretched; punctuated only by the yelling of Mrs Weasley as she shouted at her own sons, but even that seemed to be muffled by the choking stillness between the two.

Hiko eyed his apprentice a moment, taking in the stance he held himself in that made him seem like he wanted nothing more than to hit him-self. Intrigued, he read the boy's half-concealed ki and was quietly surprised that it seemed to be rather distressed. However, he needed to know something like this: that he couldn't just charge into something at an impulse. Still, the kid would most likely be kicking himself all day about it, then brood even more and that just wouldn't do. He almost sighed. That stupid apprentice was going to make him soft, he thought darkly.

"I understand that you were doing it for your friend's sake," he said, causing Kenshin to look up at him shyly, almost disbelieving. The man glanced at the sword clutched in his hands. "And at least you actually thought about taking your sakabato with you." Hiko paused for a second, then permitted himself a dark smirk. "But that doesn't mean you are getting out of punishment."

Kenshin flinched again, but this time, Hiko was pleased to note, his ki wasn't leaning towards depression any longer. Though still distressed, it was now more focused on what his punishment would be. There, my work here is done, he thought smugly.

"Hai, shishou," the boy said meekly.

"I want you to run to the paddock, then run 100 laps."

"Hai, Shishou"

"Then you must run through kata ten times. After that, we are going to spar, to make up for the practice you lost gallivanting off in that interesting car of theirs. Then you are going to start on the new kata."

Kenshin's head snapped up and he stared at Hiko in horror. "NANI!" he gasped, before he suddenly realised that he was in fact in trouble and wasn't meant to be having a light time out of it. He winced. "Hai…Shishou…"

Hiko looked down at the boy for a second, before bopping him on the head.

"Oro!"

"Well, what are you waiting for, Baka Deshi? Get running."

"ORO! Sumimasen!" and he bolted as if his life depended on it towards the Weasley's paddock.

Hiko smirked, resisting the urge to laugh out loud at the boy. He glanced over at the Weasleys, where the mother was now running out a long stream of things to yell at the cowering boys about and was becoming rather hoarse in the process. He chuckled slightly, before turning to the boy they had brought back with them. Kami, he was almost as titchy as Kenshin! The kid all but cowered at his gaze. Perhaps the kid thought he was going to be in trouble too. Hiko flashed him a small smirk, before turning on his heal and heading off after his apprentice to make sure he wasn't about to slack off. Not that he thought he would, but because it would be funny to watch. Behind him, he could feel the boy stare at him, before his ki flickered to unease again. Hiko chuckled.

o0o

Kenshin all but fell on the bed in the room he was sharing with Ron, and now, it seemed, Harry, in complete exhaustion. He could hardly even feeling the rumble of his stomach from hunger or the aching pain in his limbs from the hits he had taken from Hiko's sword, his back was stiff and throbbed like fire, but he was just too tired to move. All he wanted to do was sleep. Better yet, how about finding a nice place to just curl up and die. That sounded good…if he could just find the energy to actually find said place to curl up and die. He groaned pitifully into his pillow.

"That bad, was it?" Ron asked sympathetically as he fed a fat grey rat – Scabbers - that was sitting on the end of his bed. However, Kenshin was sure he heard a little humour in his words. Kenshin levelled a half-hearted glare at the other boy, but decided not to grace him with an answer.

"You missed breakfast," Harry, who was sitting on a camp bed that filled up the remaining floor space in the room, said, "Mrs Weasley was saying that it was a little harsh of Mr Hiko to make you do training without eating first."

Kenshin managed a feeble smile. "Daijobu. I'm…sort of used to training before breakfast. It doesn't matter."

"It's a shame – you missed de-gnoming the garden." Harry said enthusiastically. "I never knew tossing gnomes could…well, be so fun."

Kenshin managed to lift his head. "Tossing gnomes?" he asked, confused. "Wouldn't it hurt them?"

Ron shook his head with a laugh. "Nah. You just have to make them really dizzy so they can't find their way back to their gnomeholes."

He tried to picture it. Really, he did. But right now his head felt like it was about to have brains dripping from his ears, so he gave up and let his head thump onto the pillow again. "Hn…"

"Oh no you don't," Ron said with a laugh. "Mom'll chew you out if you don't eat some breakfast." He put on a high pitched, poorly executed feminine voice and began to imitate Mrs Weasley. "You can't skip breakfast, Kenshin. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I will not have you missing meals under my roof young man!"

Kenshin laughed a little, but it hurt even to laugh. Kami-sama… and this was when Hiko was still holding back – at least enough not to kill him anyway. Then with all that running and training old and new kata, he had to wonder how he was still alive.

However, Ron, being as unobservant as he was, didn't notice the slight hitch in his breath when he laughed and crawled over his bed to him. "Come on, wakie, wakie!" and he shook his shoulder.

He froze when Kenshin's entire body stiffened and he hissed in pain.

"Kenshin?"

Kenshin managed to pull himself up stiffly, flashing them a small smile. "Its okay, de gozaru."

Ron and Harry looked at each other with unreadable expressions, then dived at Kenshin, who, due to his stiffness, couldn't move in time and they all but stripped the gi from his back.

"Oro!"

The two boys stared, both drawing in a breath as they caught sight of a bruise the size of a palm spreading across his side. Two welts, still quite red, were easily seen and formed a small finger length bruise across his right arm and a longer vertical line across his back. They stared at Kenshin, who shifted uneasily.

"Was your master really that mad? You know, about coming to get me and everything?" Harry gasped. "Did he beat you?"

Kenshin spluttered indignantly. "What? No! Shishou wouldn't do that, even if he was angry…It was from training."

"Training?" Harry said, incredulously.

"Hai, training," Kenshin said. "I know it looks bad, but…it is a kenjutsu – a sword arts style – that I'm learning. And the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu is a very deadly kind of sword arts indeed, so its only natural I get a few bruises if I don't get out of the way in time."

"Yeah, but…" Harry pointed to the palm-sized bruise. "That one looks like he threw you into the floor or something."

Kenshin winced a little in remembrance. "Actually, that was part of a Doryusen I didn't fully manage to avoid…"

"A what?" Ron asked, still staring at his bruises.

Kenshin blushed at the attention and pulled his gi back on his shoulders again to stop the boy's stares. "A Doryusen," he explained, trying to think how best to explain it. He remembered when he used it in the fight against the mountain trolls last year. "You remember when I made the tiles fly and hit the troll using that pipe in the bathroom when we went to save Hermione-dono? That was a Doryusen."

"You said you used your wand…" Ron said, looking even more confused.

The shorter redhead shrugged. "Well, I was trying to keep the whole swordsmanship thing a secret then, de gozaru," he pointed out dryly.

"Oh…er…right." Ron rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, while Harry looked ready to bang his head against the wall at how stupid he was being.

Finally, Harry just let out a breath and turned back to Kenshin with a frown. "Well, he could have held back…"

Kenshin smiled. "But that's the point – he did."

"What!" the two boys cried in unison.

"Well, he's not the current master of the style for nothing. If shishou hadn't moderated his strength, he would have killed me." He narrowed his eyes a little, becoming serious. "And I don't mean figuratively."

Harry and Ron stared, then looked at each other, gulping audibly. Ron looked at Kenshin, suddenly worriedly, as if he was going to drop dead on the spot. He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. After a moment, Ron said, "Maybe you should get mom to have a look at those bruises…"

Kenshin smiled, but shook his head. "No, that's alright. I don't want to worry her over a few bruises. Besides, It'll remind me not to do any more stupid stunts, ne? Sparing with Hiko after running 100 laps of your paddock, and running through kata ten times, then starting new kata, isn't something I want to try again any time soon."

Ron choked at that. Of course, Ron hadn't heard what Hiko had made him do (he had been a little busy with his mother's yelling.) Plus Hiko had spoken in Japanese, so it wasn't too surprising. Harry just looked at him doubtfully; making Kenshin shifted uncomfortably under the attention. Now would be a good time to change the subject…

"Anyway, I'll be fine, but I'd better go and get something to eat now I'm up, otherwise Weasley-dono will be after my head, de gozaru yo!" He grinned cheerfully at them as he pulled himself from the bed, hiding a wince. "Are you coming?"

Ron opened his mouth as if to agree, but Harry beat him to it, clamping a hand over Ron's mouth. "No, that's okay. We'll be down in a bit. You go ahead."

The redheaded Japanese gave them a side-glance, wondering just what Harry was thinking of this time. After all, Kenshin recognised that tone in the boy's ki as a warning Harry was up to something. However, he let the matter drop and, with one last look, left the room.

Harry watched as he left, until Ron began spluttering behind his hand from lack of breath. Harry jumped and, blushing, pulled his hand away. "Sorry."

"What the bloody hell was that for? I couldn't breath!"

"You'll get over it."

Ron glared at him for a moment, while Harry laughed, before saying. "Why'd you stop me?"

"Well, I need to ask you something about Kenshin."

Ron frowned. "What about him?"

"Well…" Now, how was he going to say this without seeming rude? "Have you…have you ever seen him and his master practising this Hiten Mitsurugi thing?"

"What? Oh, no I – don't you dare!" Ron said, pulling Scabbers from his bed as the rat attempted to eat the sheets again. "No, he always gets up way before the rest of us while he's been here." He continued. "They even beat mom sometimes. Shame really, I'd love to watch. I mean – Woah. If it can do that while holding back…"

Suddenly, two identical heads appeared in the doorway. "Ooh, are you talking about that fancy work with a sword Kenny can do?" George asked, his eyes sparkling mischievously.

"And without us too." Fred continued, shaking his head sorrowfully.

"We feel-"

"So-"

"Unloved!" they wailed over-dramatically. Harry had to smile, but Ron just rolled his eyes.

"What do you two want?" he sighed.

"Why does us being here have to mean we have to want something?" asked Fred, looking hurt that Ron would think such a thing.

"We just happened to be passing by when we overheard you talking about our dear guest." George added, innocently.

"Oh yeah? You were passing by when your room is the floor below? Riiiiiiight, I believe you – what do you want?" Ron growled.

"But it's true!" George insisted.

"It's so bad when your own brother is accusing you of false accusations, isn't it?" Fred sobbed playfully. "if we're not careful, he'll end up turning into Percy!"

"Oh the horror!" George wailed. Ron just rolled his eyes and let the matter drop.

"So," said George as he threw himself on Kenshin's now vacant bed. "What's all this about Kenny and that sword thing of his?"

Ron looked as if he was about to argue, but thought better of it. Harry was glad – he didn't want to waste time arguing over something stupid like that. "Well, we were on about Kenshin and Hiko when they practice. They always get up really early, don't they?"

"Yup."

"Very true."

"They're always up before us." George added, thoughtfully.

"Oh, wait, dear brother, we did see them up once," Fred interjected. "About two days ago, it was. We were sort of busy and needed to get up early and we saw them then, going to the paddock where we play Quidditch. Remember, George?"

"Oh yes, I remember," George nodded. He grinned at the two younger boys. "Why, you thinking about going to watch?"

"That's unfair," said Fred. "You two have already seen him in action before…how about we all go see?"

"What?" spluttered Ron, "Oh no, you're not getting me in trouble with mom again! That was bloody scary – I never thought she could scream so much!"

"Come on, we wont get in trouble." Fred said in a dramatic stage whisper. "We wouldn't be doing anything wrong."

"Mores the pity…" mumbled George.

"We'd have to get up really early, though, wouldn't we?" Harry said.

"Then we might have to do it without them knowing…" Fred said thoughtfully. "You know, just so he doesn't get embarrassed or something" he added quickly, seeing the incredulous look on Ron's face, waving his hands.

Ron snorted. "Fat chance – Kenshin seems to notice everything – and Hiko is worse! He'd notice if you had a tiny smudge on your face half a mile away from him."

Harry thought for a moment, then grinned a little nervously. "Well…we could use my invisibility cloak…" he said hesitantly. "Kenshin said he didn't notice anything 'til I was shaking him awake…You know, that night we went to find the mirror of Erised."

Fred and George looked at each other, then at Harry with an awed look. "Wow, you have an invisibility cloak? Those things are really rare!"

Harry blushed a little at that and shifted uncomfortably, once more reminded of the Weasley's money status – or lack of. However, the twins didn't seem to be bothered at all.

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that," Ron said, eyes gleaming. "This'll be really cool!"

When the time came, however, Harry decided that this wasn't one of his better ideas. He groaned when he felt someone shaking him awake and attempted to bat him or her off weakly, before turning over and yanking the covers over his face. However, the person wouldn't leave him alone and began to poke him in the side with a rather sharp finger.

"Come on, Harry, or we'll miss them training!" He heard one of the twins whisper dramatically. Harry's eyes fluttered open and he blinked up at Fred (or was it George?), who ginned back at him toothily. Blearily, he glanced outside the window to see that the sun was barely even peaking over the horizon. Surprised, he pushed himself up and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. 4:01 it said. He stared. Kenshin got up this early every day! Did that boy ever sleep?

Harry pushed off the bed covers and began to change, looking over as Fred went to join George in trying to wake Ron up, which Harry knew was a task in itself.

Harry heard as Ron rolled over, pulling the pillow over his head, but the twins prodded him and told him to get up in an annoyingly cheerful voice that made you want to strangle them, especially when you heard it first thing in the morning. The youngest Weasley male moaned and began to mumble incoherently, something about the Twins, and irony and something very painful with blowfish spines. Harry chuckled. After what seemed like half an hour (though the clock told them it had only been a few minutes), they finally managed to drag Ron out of bed.

Harry looked round. "Where's Kenshin?" he asked.

George nodded in the direction of the paddock. They headed of to the paddock a minute before we got you guys up." He glanced at Harry with a grin. "So, you got your invisibility cloak?"

Harry nodded, holding it up. It flowed like silvery silk over his hands. "Yeah."

Fred looked at it, his eyes sparkling with interest. "Will it fit us all underneath it?"

"Sure it will," Ron said. "We managed to use it all right when we went to the third floor, didn't we?" Harry nodded in agreement.

Harry grinned. "Come on then, or they'll have finished practice before we even get there." And with that, he threw the cloak over their shoulders and in an instant they vanished.

TBC

Chosha's notes

Well, what do you think? A few things to say about this chapter.

Towards the end there, I made reference to another fic of mine – the Prequel to this called RuroKen and the Philosophers stone – about the troll fight and the mirror. Though both were in the Harry potter books, I did change things a bit to get the Kenshin-Gumi into the action. So, if you haven't read that yet, I'd suggest doing so, as I might make reference to the previous story again in the future.

One thing I noticed in book three was that Fred and George were able to find Harry trying to go to Hogsmeade, even though he was wearing an invisibility cloak. But, don't seem surprised, so I though this would also be a good place to show everyone just how they knew Harry owned one, but If it seems wrong, please inform me.

Also, near the beginning, Kenshin did have a bit of an outburst at Hiko, even though he was in trouble. I dunno if it was in character or not, but you have to remember that Kenshin is only twelve, so he's aloud to act childish every now and again – plus it is based in a more modern setting than the anime or manga. I know that I used to do that a hell of a lot as well when I was that age. I call it foot in mouth syndrome (winces as she remembers all the trouble that got her into…)

Ahem…anyways… I wasn't too happy with this ending, so I'll really try my best on the next chapter, as I didn't actually get to the spying thing as I promised last time…er…gomen…? That was why the chapter name was shoved back. Never mind though, ne?

Oh, one last thing. Fading Futures should be updated soon, so if you read that, I hope you won't hit me for taking so long with it…again.

Next time on RKatCoS

Ron, Harry and the twins go to spy on Kenshin and Hiko, but good god, I don't think they were expecting this! Next episode: Speed of the Sword

But, till next time – Ja ne!

Chosha Kurenai xXx