A/n Hi everyone! Sorry for the slow update in this story. I'll tr to be on it better.
A Reviewer stated that Shishio has brown hair, not white. And yes I know, but to link his character to the white wolf, I gave him white hair. You may flog me for taking liberties with him…though, it's not like we all like Shishio for anything more than being Kenshin's punching bag.

The story in this chapter is from a movie I saw a while ago, though I'm not sure what it's called. No worries. And this chapter still follows the Cannon movie version. Though, it will go off on its own pretty soon.
Disclaimer, I don't own Kenshin

Grandmother Gensai lived deep in the woods away from most everyone. She was happy that way and most of the people in town knew her and respected her. She was a kindly looking old woman with hair as gray as the clouds and always kept in a tight braid. She was slightly shorter than Misao, and plump in a cute motherly way.

Misao reached her grandmother's home quickly after talking with Aoshi. She couldn't seem to get that man out of her thoughts. She had only seen him once or twice from afar, but seeing him up close had been just a bit overwhelming. In truth he had frightened her when he melted out of the woods like that. He seemed strange, yet friendly. And Misao knew all friends started out as strangers, she gave him a chance and he turned out pretty decent. He even liked to take walks in the forest like she did.

The moment Misao told her old grandmother what was going on, she quickly bustled about the house, taking the basket of bread from her. She took out the bread and loaded it up with various small jars and then tucked the bread back in the basket.

"Come child." She ushered Misao out of the small cottage and she closed tight the door behind her. "We must get back in a hurry. It won't take long for your mother to pry loose the fingers of that evil man and free that poor young man…he'll be hurting."

"How do you know all this grandma?" Misao wondered as the two females started off across the woods. Her grandmother was old yes, but still fast and agile and she moved over the forest floor just was easily as her granddaughter.

"A woman as old as I am just knows these things my dear." She glanced at Misao and smiled. "I saw the look in your eyes my dear…what happened on the way?"

Misao sometimes wondered if her grandmother could read minds. Her mouth hung open for a moment. "I ran into a stranger on the way over her." The words poured from her mouth almost against her will. Her grandmother nodded, as if knowing all along.

"A man." She said simply. Not a question, a statement.

"I've seen him in town before, but never talked to him."

"Did his eyebrows meet?"

"No grandma, that was the first thing I looked for when I saw him."

"Good girl." Grandmother Gensai nodded.

"He was nice…handsome." She added as an afterthought, but it was at the front of her mind. His eyes had been ice blue and intense…so very intense. Though he was kind, his eyes seemed as if they were trying to read into her very soul. Like a large animal staring down at his prey.

"Take care with a good looking man; he might catch the eyes of the others." Grandmother Gensai said as they covered the ground. She wasn't even out of breath and seemed to be in the storytelling mood.

Taking her cue Misao looked over at her grandmother. "The others?"

"Yes my dear. I once heard of a beautiful young woman and an equally beautiful young man. These two young people fell in love and got married. The man took his new wife to a lovely little cottage he had built for them. Now this house was in the corner of their small village, set deep in the trees beside his father's property. On their wedding night as the young woman waited for her love in bed; he excused himself to go outside to relieve himself. I guess the nerves of sharing the marriage bed with his new bride was too much for him, eh?"

"Grandma." Misao could already feel the blush heating up her face. She knew all about what went on in the marriage bed, both her mother and grandmother made sure of that.

The old woman cackled cheerfully and went on with her story. "Well the young man took so long that his new bride fell asleep. When she woke up, he still had not returned. Worried, she got out of bed and glanced out the window. There, prowling all around the house, were wolves." She paused, letting Misao hang on her words. "fearful, the bride didn't venture out of the house even though the urge to look for her husband was strong. She waited until morning, when the wolves had fled and she called for her father-in-law and brothers-in-law and told them what had happened. She feared the wolves must of took him.

The men searched the small bit of land, found the foot prints of the missing husband along with at least a dozen different prints of the wolves that had prowled around the house. There had been whispered going through the village then that the young man must of made a pact with the wolves and ran off with them. But the bride wouldn't hear of it. She knew that the wolves must of attacked him, he never would have left her.

Well…she was a very young woman and just as lovely as ever and it wasn't long that the woman was married again. The years went by and she produced three lovely children and they all lived in that cottage in the forest. Then, one day while she was with child for the fourth time and her husband had gone out hunting, there came a knock at the door. The woman was in the middle of cooking supper, cleaning the cottage and trying to control three young children."

"Well who was at the door Grandma?" Misao pressed.

"I'm getting there. The woman opened the door and there stood her first husband who was long thought dead and dragged away by wolves. He walked in all dirty, his hair a mud filled matted mess and still wearing the nightclothes he was wearing when he vanished. They were dirty and torn and thread bare in most areas. Shocked to see him the woman only stumbled back as the man slinked into the house as if nothing had ever happened.

The two older children took up the youngest child and retreated to the corner of the main room. They were frightened of the man. And rightly so. Crazy, wide eyes scanned everything, yet he seemed to see nothing and he sat himself at the head of the table. 'Is my supper ready?' he asked. The horrified woman scrambled to the stove where supper was waiting and she served him a plate. He ate like a man who hardly remembered how to eat. When he was half done he let his eyes wander about his cottage. Much had changed. What he noticed most where the three young ones in the corner of the house watching him and the large belly of his wife.

"Where did these whelps come from?' He growled.

"Where did they come from?' The woman shrieked. 'From my belly!'

Her grandmother glanced over at Misao. "So the man gave her a long hard look before flinging his plate off the table. 'You bore children of another man while married to me?'

"You'd been missing a year before I got remarried; everyone thought you went off with the evil things!' The woman shouted back, but even then the man snarled and growled like an animal and suddenly his face contorted, stretched and his skin pulled away from his mouth and eyes. Afraid, the mother rushed to her children but they could do nothing but watch as the man before them ripped at his flesh, pulling his pretty face away in bloody shreds to reveal the skinless head of a wolf-man. Bleeding raw muscle and tendons, lidless eyes gazed soullessly at them as she and the children scream in terror."

"Eck…grandma." Misao pulled a face.

"Soon his body contorts, bones snap and grind, claws shoot from his hands and feet. It was right at this moment that the woman's husband, hearing the screams, rushed in. Seeing the monster, the husband swung his sword, cutting off the head of the beast. The head rolled to the feet of the wife and there it slowly formed back into the head of her first husband."

"So he did go with the wolves." Misao stated.

"Not just any wolves, child. Normal beasts are not attracted to the beauty of a human face. No, these were cursed people, evil demons. The husband was so lovely, they had to take him and make him their own. So beware of that handsome face you saw today."

Misao chuckled. "Grandma. I don't think the wolves will come for him."

The old lady paused and Misao stopped as well. Gensai placed her old wrinkled hand on her cheek. "They might of already, and he likes your pretty face." The old woman gave a chuckle and gave her granddaughter and pat on the cheek.

"Grandma." Misao sighed, but smiled anyways.

"Now, look, there's your mother."

Misao blinked and looked through the trees. Sure enough, they were close to home and she could see the bright blue cape of her mother. They could see her and Tae supporting Kenshin between them.

"Goodness." Gensai said calmly as she took the basket from Misao. "Looks like we got here right on time." The two of them rushed from the tree line to the dirt path. Misao gasped as she saw Kenshin half-naked and bleeding.

"What did they do?" she demanded as her mother and Tae took Kenshin into the house. She was about to follow when her grandmother grabbed her by the hood of her cape.

"Oh-no, you stay out here." The old woman demanded.

"What?" Misao stepped back, letting her grandmother walk past her into the house. "Grandma-"

"No dear. You stay out here. The less you know the better. Trust me."

Misao paused, her protest already dead in her throat. She couldn't argue with that, she trusted her grandmother with her very life. If it would be better for her to not get involved, then she wouldn't get involved. Her very nature wanted to argue though, she was stubborn. If it had been her mother she would have bickered…but never with her grandmother. "Yes Ma'am." Misao said, backing up to sit on the whicker bench on the covered porch.

"That's a good girl. Now you stay right there." With that, grandmother Gensai vanished inside and shut the door tightly behind her.

… . . …

Aoshi inched from his hiding spot in the decorative bushes just yards from the farm house. He could just see Misao take a seat on the bench as the women vanished inside. Just what was it that they didn't want the girl to know? His thoughts were interrupted with a soft rustle and a large white-grey wolf nosed under the bushes to wedge himself beside Aoshi. A moment later that wolf was a man and Shishio eyed the girl and the now silent house.

"We gotta find out what's going on in there." Shishio insisted.

"Good luck with that." Aoshi whispered back.

"That window right there is wide open, if I could just get close enough, maybe I could hear what's going on. I just gotta distract that little chit over there."

A low growl rose deep in Aoshi's throat but he swallowed it down. "Don't look to me for help. I just ran into Misao in the forest not long ago. I'm going to try and establish a friendship with her. I'm not going to press my luck."

"You…a friendship …with the girl?" Shishio's laugh was like steam hissing. "You can hardly smile without having to think about it first. I wish I could have seen this first meeting."

Aoshi shot Shishio a deathly glare. And the other man raised his hands and backed down.

"Stay here then, I'm going over there." And with that Shishio moved from the bushes, moving in a crouch like an animal.

Aoshi let his swallowed growl escape past his teeth as he watched his white-haired counterpart vanished around the side of the house. He wondered just how he was going to distract Misao. His question was answered almost instantly when three ducks wandered into the front yard where a small flock of chickens were scratching at the ground. Aoshi rolled his eyes. "The dolt." He hissed.

It worked though, the racket from the birds caught Misao's attention and he could see her lips moving as she talked to the animals as she stood and slowly stalked down the steps so as to not startle the birds.

"Come on now, back to your pen, how didja get out?" He heard Misao say, she crouched down and Aoshi couldn't help but watch the way her lean body moved in such a position. She was steady, like a coiled spring, but she was also young for when she finally attacked, she was slow and she did nothing but startle all the birds into a mess of noise and feathers. She grabbed for the ducks and got nothing but flapping wings in her face as the birds bolted. "Hey! Get back here!" and the chase was on. Aoshi chuckled, it was a strange sound coming from him, for he had never really laughed before, but watching the girl chase the ducks and chickens seemed to lighten the heart that hung heavily in his chest.

At once he could see Shishio sneaking onto the porch as the girl ran after the birds. Aoshi watched as he edged himself on to the small stone ledge against the house. He plastered himself against the stone and wood of the cottage and slowly inched his way closer to the open window.

"That son-of-a-bitch is going to do it." Aoshi said to himself, unable to believe that one of Shishio's ideas was in fact working.

… . . …

Megumi watched as her mother-in-law pulled small jars of salves from the bread basket she had given Misao. Kenshin was stretched out on the table that they had pulled a clean sheet over. His torn gi was un-tucked and Megumi pulled it free and tossed it. It was nothing but bloody rags now. Tae stood at the head of the table, her gentle hands petting Kenshin's hair as she tried to comfort her wounded brother. Other than a hiss or two of pain, Kenshin voiced no complaint. But the angry red welts, many that were split open and bleeding, spoke of the pain he was holding back. Gensai's wrinkled old hands gently applied the salve to the open wounds.

Kenshin jerked at the first touch and he sucked air through clenched teeth. He grunted low, his lips pressed to hold back the flow of curses that rose up.

"Hey now." Tae cooed as she tried to keep his head still and his hair from the wounds.

… . . …

Shishio stretched as far as he could. The stone ledge gave away just before the window forcing him to balance and stretch to look inside. He could only lean so far and so he could only look from the corner of his eye into the room. He couldn't see much, the three women and the farmer stretched out on the table. The old woman had a small jar in her hand and was rubbing its contents onto the ruined back of the farmer. But that was all he could see, because at just that moment the flock of ducks and chickens rushed past. Shishio knew that the girl would be right behind them. Not wanting to get caught the man jerked away from the window. But his move was too sudden and he felt himself falling backward. Twisting, the man tried to grab for a nook, a cranny, anything to keep him from falling, but there was nothing that his scrambling fingers could find.

He fell, and landed behind the small animal pen where he landed in five inches of thick, stinking mud. Shishio was about to curse but Misao, still in her flaming red cape, bolted past. She didn't see him behind the fence in her rush to catch the birds.

… . . …

Aoshi snickered. He couldn't help it. His counterpart struggled to get free from the strong suction that the mud had caused and twice he had to duck down as Misao rushed past in pursuit of the birds. Finally Shishio was on his feet and Aoshi watched as he quickly inched behind an ivy curtain that was growing against the house. It was just in time too, for Megumi popped out from the window.

"Misao! Are you causing all this noise?"

"Sorry!" she called from around the corner. "The ducks got out. I'm tryin' to get them back in!"

"Just leave the pen gate open, they know there's food in there. They'll go back when they get hungry."

Misao rounded the corner and growled. "Alright mom! Jeez." She hissed turning back to vanish around the corner.

The smiled had just started to fade from Aoshi's face when Shishio slid back beside him. "At least your stench matches your personality."

"Shut up." Shishio hissed. He nearly snapped his jaws in retaliation. "I couldn't see a damn thing anyway. The women were right in my way. All I could see was that old grandma rubbing some sort of paste on his back."

"Nothing different than any other sort of treatment." Aoshi said unnecessary as he watched Shishio struggle to wipe the mud and other foulness from his clothes. "We should just go back."

"Takeda won't be happy that we didn't find out anything." Shishio said as he turned to eye Misao as she rounded the corner once again with a branched stripped of its leaves and bark and polished smooth. She was using it to practice basic sword fighting stances. Aoshi watched as well. She was back to being that coiled spring of energy. He almost ached to see that spring explode. He forced his eyes away and back to his companion. "There was nothing to see anyway. She was just doing what every grandmother does…" He shrugged. "Nothing to find." He felt eager to leave. Though he knew he could crouch there and watch Misao for much longer, he didn't want Shishio around her. And deep down in the blackness inside of him, he knew he didn't want Shishio to find out anything to use against the family and ultimately Misao. It was the first time he didn't want to throw everything he had into a mission.

But Shishi didn't seem to notice. In fact he seemed to agree with Aoshi's lack of interest. "Yeah…that old man is just getting paranoid."

It was common for Shishio to blaspheme against Takeda. He was the man that had given both of them life. But even Aoshi had to agree that their creator was becoming more and more obsessed with making sure his secret was safe. The two glanced at the farm one more time before they turned, and silently slinked away in wolf form.

… . . …

Both Megumi and Tae held their breath as Gensai held up her wrinkled old hands and took a half step back from the table. "There," she said in a voice hardly a whisper, "how does that feel?"

Kenshin had his eyes screwed tightly closed and he slowly allowed his body to relax as the stinging of the salve worked its way deep into his wounds but the moment he opened his eyes the stinging turned into numbness and slowly the feeling returned. But… "It feels good." Kenshin said, looking up at his sister who was still petting his head to comfort him. "I feel no pain in fact." He felt no soreness or aching. Slowly the women helped him sit up and he swung his legs over the table. He reached back and ran his hand across the smooth skin on his back. The wounds were gone, replaced by slightly tender and pink slashes of skin, as if they had healed and scared over and faded all at once.

"You're amazing Gensai, that you are." Kenshin said.

"Hardly." The old lady waved his compliment away as she turned to pack the jars back into her bread basket. She dug out a small cloth satchel tied with string and held it out for Kenshin to take. "Here, steep this in hot water for ten minutes and have Kaoru drink the tea. She can make many cups with the amount that's in there, it should help her feel better."

Kenshin took the tea and held it close with both hands. "Thank you Gensai. This means much to me, that it does."

Again the old lady waved his words away. " I expect new chicks this spring from that wonderful flock Kaoru's been caring for."

It was the only form of payment the old woman would accept, and Kenshin nodded grateful to the old woman.

A/n Yay Kenshin is all better now. The old lady seems to be keeping a secret eh? And Aoshi is being a bit of a spy, (though, that's what he is) at least he's not a peeping tom like some other shape-shifters lol. Thanks for reading. Reviews are loved!