Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin or any of its characters

When Sakura Blossoms Fall

Chapter 8: The Heat of Battle

The look on his face had been priceless.

Chizuru rolled over on her futon and muffled a giggle as she recalled Kenji's expression upon seeing her again. At first she hadn't even recognized him; he had changed drastically. But one glance at the red tufts of hair peeking out of his hat, and she had instantly known the man vacantly staring at her.

She supposed she had changed a lot too, which was most likely the cause of his surprise when Soichiro had called her name. Four years had passed. They weren't children anymore. But where had this strapping young soldier come from? He looked so much stronger and more powerful, and he was infinitely kinder. Where had the bitterness gone? She smiled again and sighed. It seemed as if he was healing. This time in the army had done him good.

Suddenly she was no longer regretful when she thought of his departure.

Still, she was glad she had finally found him after all of this time. It appeared as if he would need her and Soichiro's guidance, especially after that incident at the bar with that other woman. She closed her eyes and smiled to herself. Oh well. At least he had seemed regretful.

Sleep had nearly claimed her when a barrage of footsteps abruptly sounded outside, catching her interest. After only a few seconds of indecisiveness, she pushed her covering aside and knelt near the front of the tent.

The ivory orb in the sky cast a dim ray of light across Chizuru's pale face through the slit in the tent through which she was peeking. She ducked instinctively away from the opening as another soldier sprinted by, but soon pushed one dark eye back to the light to observe the camp's nightly occurrences.

"Chizuru, what are you doing?" an obviously antagonized voice scolded. Chizuru turned to face the tent's other occupant.

"Sorry Ai, did I wake you? I just wondered what was going on. It's usually much more quiet at night."

The geisha groaned softly. "We're probably moving out in the morning. I suppose it was only a matter of time."

"Moving out? Where?"

"Beijing of course, where else—" she paused at the blank look on Chizuru's face. "Wait, don't tell me you don't know why the army's actually here . . ."

The younger woman blushed and shrugged.

"You followed your brother all the way to China without even finding out why he was coming first?"

There was an embarrassed chuckle. "Guilty."

Ai scowled. "Ignorant little—"

"What?"

She cut off the grumbling and turned to face her companion. "Haven't you ever heard of the Boxers?"

"Well, a little . . ."

Ai maintained just enough composure to keep her hands at her side and away from the oblivious Chizuru's neck.

"They're a group here in China that call themselves the 'fists of righteous harmony,' or something like that. They've been trying to rid the place of all foreigners, especially Christian missionaries, it seems. Japan and six or seven other countries sent forces here a few months ago to rescue foreign ambassadors and other high and mighty people like that. We had a victory in Tientsin not long before you got here, and now the international forces have to move on to Beijing to rescue the foreigners the Boxers have under siege there. You really didn't know about any of this?"

"No, I guess not. But that's terrible! How could a group attack innocent people like that?"

"Did you think the army was here because they were being nice to us?" Ai spit out.

Chizuru scowled. "Sorry."

The attention of both women was drawn back to what was passing outside as the tent flap was pulled aside and moonlight flooded onto them. Chizuru squinted at the dark figure in the entryway.

"Soichi? What are you doing here?"

Her brother grabbed her wrist as he attempted to regain his breath.

"Come on Chizuru, we're leaving."

"Are we going to Beijing?"

"The army is, not you."

Chizuru dug her heels into the ground. "What?"

Soichiro rolled his eyes. "Chizuru, we don't have time for this. You're going to be escorted to somewhere where it's safe until we're back."

"But I want to go! What about Ai, is she staying behind?"

"No."

"But—"

"Ai-san is Colonel Itagaki's concern, and you're mine. Come on, we have to move quickly."

She allowed herself to be dragged along for a few more of Soichiro's wide paces until a flash of red caught her eye, and she smiled to herself mischievously.

"Kenji! You'll convince my brother to let me come with you, won't you?"

"Sorry Chizuru, it's not safe."

"Kenji—"

She was cut off as two unfamiliar soldiers grabbed either arm and began to pull her away from her brother and Kenji, who watched her depart with smirks.

"Don't worry," Soichiro called, "these men will take care of you."

"Soichiro!" she ranted, "that's not fair!"

Kenji just chuckled as she was dragged unwillingly away.

"Those men will have their hands full."

"I just hope they can keep track of her. She's as stubborn as . . . well, you remember."

In a matter of hours, the troops stood within sight of the capital city of Beijing. Kenji stared at its forbidding walls with awe and pleasure. It had been months since he had seen a city large enough to rival his home, Tokyo, and the sounds and smells of civilization were oddly comforting.

They would attack soon. Kenji felt his heart jumping in his chest with excitement. This was it. This was the moment they had been waiting for for weeks. This whole mess was about to come to an end.

A few harsh commands echoed in his head, and suddenly his feet were moving, his shiny black boots dropping in unison with all of the others around him. His rifle was loaded and rested impatiently in trembling hands.

Cl-click. Cl-click.

Kenji frowned. Someone's footsteps were off. Honestly, after all of this training . . .

He turned his head a fraction to the right and almost immediately caught sight of the culprit, a few down the line. The soldier was actually watching him, but when their eyes met the other man's darted to the ground. Kenji raised an eyebrow. The soldier was shorter than all of the others, and his uniform appeared several sizes too large. But most importantly, he was completely and utterly undisciplined. He continued walking out of step, was constantly fidgeting, and held his gun as if he was afraid of it.

Boom!

The cannon fire drew Kenji's attention away from the misfit for a short moment, but when he looked back the size of his eyes doubled and he swore violently. Thankfully, the pandemonium that had erupted after the unexpected shot gave him ample opportunity to grab the odd 'soldier' and dart out of the ranks before anyone noticed.

The soldier's cap had been knocked off as a nearby man had jumped in surprise after hearing the cannon. Kenji had looked back to see long raven locks spilling over the soldier's shoulders, while the soldier glanced nervously around and frantically tried to retrieve the hat from the ground. He pulled his temporary prisoner as far away from the battle as possible, which happened to be into a small Chinese hut near the outskirts of the city. He whirled on the fake soldier after slamming the door shut, seething.

"CHIZURU!"

The young woman laughed nervously and backed up a step.

"What on earth do you think you're doing!"

"I was . . . curious?"

"Curious? You were curious?" he fumed. "Chizuru, this is a WAR! How could you have done something so idiotic? This isn't a game! You have no training, Chizuru! You could have been killed out there!"

Chizuru crossed her arms and turned her lips down in a pout. "As if you have any room to criticize me about stupid decisions," she muttered. "You're the one that got drunk with a woman strictly forbidden to you."

"This isn't about me, Chizuru," Kenji yelled back, slightly staggered by the low blow. "Do you even comprehend what you've done? Not only have you put yourself in mortal danger, but you've broken laws, you've jeopardized this mission, you've—"

"I could have handled it."

Kenji found himself scowling wrathfully at her counter. He looked her straight in the face, his blue eyes hard and venomous, the same eyes that when used by his mother had cowed even the great Hitokiri Battousai. In retrospect, he would realize that reacting so violently hadn't been the best decision he had ever made. But at that moment, he could think of no other way to get his point across and convince her of the danger she had put herself in.

Chizuru's eyebrows rose in surprise at his expression, and she took a wary step backward as he opened his mouth to speak.

"It's so easy for you, Chizuru!" he practically hissed, his voice low and almost threatening. "You live in your own perfect little undisturbed sphere of ignorant happiness," he continued, his voice dripping with heavy sarcasm and beginning to rise in volume. "You don't know the fear that accompanies living in destitution, or hunger, or loneliness, or any kind of real suffering for that matter. Your hands aren't calloused from the use of a sword or bruised from the use of a gun. You've never lost anything or anyone important to you!" By now he was yelling unrestrainedly, and Chizuru found her back pressed against the wall furthest from him, her eyes wide in shock.

"Things couldn't be any better for you, could they?" he continued. "No matter how much you believe it, you can't handle it. Because you haven't been here. You haven't experienced the training or pain or hardships the rest of us have, and until you have there's absolutely no way you can comprehend what it takes to be in a war and survive!"

He paused, his chest heaving from yelling at her. Slowly he turned away from her, not wishing to view the look of annoyance on her face. He shook his head. No, it was more than mere annoyance. It was bordering on abhorrence.

"Kenji, why are you doing this?"

"Because you need to hear it, Chizuru," he said, his voice controlled and quiet again. "You know nothing of the real world. You're still just a naïve, weak little girl, no matter how much you hate or deny it."

If he had been facing her, he would have seen tears spring to her eyes as a result of his stinging words. But he was left to wait to hear her reaction, which he soon did, as she quickly regained composure and walked toward him. To say that he was surprised at her reply would be a severe understatement.

At first she said nothing, but as she reached him, she grabbed him impulsively by the shoulder, pushed him around so he was facing her again, and punched him squarely in the side of the face, harder than she had ever struck something before. He fell back a step, staring at her in wide-eyed awe, one hand involuntarily reaching up to touch his stinging cheek.

"I'm not as inexperienced as you think," she whispered lividly. "I've known pain, and loneliness, and trials, and hardships. But unlike you, I don't use such experiences to put myself on a mental pedestal and pretend to be better than those around me."

Her eyes were completely wet with angry tears now. She whirled around, but got in one more thing before storming out of the room.

"I really hope you're proud of yourself." And she exited, undeterred by the sounds of the raging battle outside, leaving Kenji perhaps the most dumbfounded he had ever been in his life.

The skirmish didn't take long to reach an end. Kenji sat lazily against the wall in the hut he had insulted Chizuru in, eyes closed in frustrated rest.

Remembrances of the long-faded past of his childhood unexpectedly rose to the forefront of his mind. His face took on a look of calm pleasure as he mentally relived the games he, Chizuru, and Soichiro had played as adolescents. They had run through fields like carefree toddlers without a single concern in the world. The biggest problems in his life back then had only arisen when Hiko was angry with him. How he longed for those days again.

"Kenji!"

His tense muscles relaxed as he continued reminiscing. A bittersweet smile touched his lips as he almost heard his name on the wind, as she would have said it when insincerely cross with him.

"Kenji!"

Wait, that was too real to be a memory . . .

His eyes shifted open. But it hadn't been Chizuru calling his name. It was Ai. She stood in the entryway of the hut, and as she drew closer he saw deep anxiety in her countenance, more than he had thought she was capable of expressing.

The rest of the world seemed to come to an oddly disconcerting standstill as she reached him, and all he could hear was her heavy breathing and his own increasing heartbeat. It was then that he noticed the tears threatening to overflow from the corners of her eyes. Her usually teasing expression had been replaced by one of poignant pain and confusion. Where was her stubborn resolve?

Kenji stood swiftly and stepped forward to grab her by the shoulders.

"Ai, what's wrong?" he demanded.

"Kenji, where have you been?" she got out, despite the fact that she was obviously struggling to retain her composure.

"I'm sorry, there was an emergency," he said quickly. "Now tell me what's going on!"

His thoughts immediately shot to Chizuru. Had something happened to her? He had let her run off into the battle again, after all. He had thought she would be safe, unless she had attempted to fight again . . .

He turned his attention back to Ai, only to see her staring sorrowfully up at him, a single tear carving its way down her pallid cheek.

"It's Soichiro, Kenji."

Well, there you go, chapter 8. Thanks reviewers! Next Chapter: Her Crimson Scar