"Where is your Okashira, boy?" Aoshi asked from the shadow of the dojo's engawa when Kenshin and the ninja boy he fought parted once more, Kenshin somehow the worse for wear.
Here, Sasuke has defected to Orochimaru. Naruto and Sakura are Konoha ninja, their Okashira is Tsunade. The Rurouni Kenshin universe supports the theory of multiple ninja clans sometime late in the series, after the Shishio arc, which is when this is set in the RK 'verse. Sasuke might be a tad out of character. Not sure, because I haven't gotten a handle on post-time gap Sasuke yet. (Which is where this is 'set' in the pseudo-Naruto timeline of this universe.)
Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin and am not making any profit by writing and posting this story.
Warning(s): Oniwabanshu spoilers for the Shishio arc. Slight Sanosuke spoilers, concerning things he learned during the Shishio arc. Also, formal speech. (What? It's RK!)
He recognized the style; the balance, the movements, the weapons. The boy's kisangani clashed with his sakabatou in short bursts, pulling out of reach often and trying to ensnare him with wire or strike him with shuriken. Once he'd caught Kenshin by surprise with a kunai, in a brief moment when their swords were locked, just as Aoshi had surprised him with a kick so long ago. The weapon buried itself less than an inch from one of those spots Kenshin knew to be fatal, and the wound bled profusely when they pulled apart and the child took the kunai with him instead of leaving it. Kenshin recognized the basics of a shinobi fighting style and knew: it was a shinobi that he was fighting, regardless of the boy's age. And it seemed Kenshin wasn't the only one to recognize the ninja-child for what he was.
"Where is your Okashira, boy?" Aoshi asked from the shadow of the dojo's engawa when the two parted once more, Kenshin somehow the worse for wear.
"Okashira?" The boy laughed, a mocking but genuine sound that broke his stoicism. "I wouldn't call him my Okashira, even if he wished it. And I wouldn't give you the name of my Okashira if I had one, Shinomori Aoshi. Do you think me that young and stupid, to be ignorant of the fact that such information could be the death of me, in hands like yours? Then you are a fool."
"Who do you serve then, if not an Okashira?" Kenshin shifted to a more solid stance and waited. He had yet to ask the boy's name, but even if he did, Kenshin doubted it would be given.
"One who wishes to extend an offer to the Hitokiri Battousai." The boy raised the kunai he'd stabbed Kenshin with, as if in example, and moonlight glinted off what little of the blade wasn't covered in blood. "'Come to me, and I will give you power beyond anything you know.'" Then, in a motion swifter than Kenshin had thought the boy capable of, he threw the kunai to his left where it imbedded itself in the Kamiya Dojo's door almost up to the hilt. " 'Fight me, and you die.' "
"And what if this one does not wish to do either?"
"There are others whom he could approach in your stead. A promising young fighter who lives down on ruffian row. I hear he can disintegrate stone with a single punch. A very useful technique – one I'm sure the man I serve would be very happy to have at his disposal. Of course, he may need some convincing. My information says this fighter has a friend who's into some illegal business. It would be unfortunate if the police were informed of that man's activities." Kenshin narrowed his eyes at his opponent. He couldn't shake the feeling that the young shinobi was enjoying extorting him, even though his ki could not be sensed and his face was unreadable. It could have been the tone of his words, but regardless, Kenshin knew the boy-ninja's threats were not empty – not with such anticipation behind them.
"You will leave Sano out of this, that you will." Kenshin left no room for misunderstanding in his words, ki, or tone.
"Oh?" The boy's lips curled upward in a mocking smile and his eyes glinted in the moonlight, red hued as a demon's, or perhaps the Battousai's own amber. "Then I expect your answer to be the right one. You have three days. If that kunai is still there when the time has passed, I assume you pledge your blade." The smile on his face disappeared, but instead of returning to unreadable, his expression became serious. "I also expect Sagara and his slippery friend will not leave Tokyo any time soon, otherwise the outcome of our second meeting will not be pleasant." He spoke the last threat as a promise, from one swordsman to another. The boy wiped the blood off of his sword and sheathed it, seemingly without a care to the threat of Kenshin's own naked steel, and dropped the rice paper cloth on the ground instead of tucking it back into his pocket. He slanted a looked at Aoshi, and Kenshin was sure now that his eyes were red. Eyes like a demon, the wind whispered to him in echoes of the past. Eyes of a killer.
No. Eyes of a Hitokiri.
Kenshin understood now why his own unnaturally colored eyes had struck fear into so many. They said something about the soul, eyes like those. Like his. They were eyes that showed a person their death – no matter if they were red or amber.
"And you. Shinomori." Kenshin shifted to the side a bit, to cover the former ninja. Aoshi was still quick and skilled without his blades, and the man could hardly manage to make noise when he walked like normal people did instead of being silent as a shinobi, but Kenshin had fought the boy. He was fast, terribly fast – and he was holding back. Kenshin himself was unsure of who would have the greater speed, if they were both to cut loose. Their styles were so different that it would hardly matter in the end, though to whose end Kenshin was unsure.
As he moved, careful to watch the boy watching him, he realized Misao was just inside the door on Aoshi's other side, ki soft and flowing as if asleep, though he could almost feel the sharp tang of metal and knew it was a ruse. She was aware, most likely partially meditating to create the illusion of her ki, and she was armed. Protecting, observing, from the shadows. Kenshin almost couldn't believe it. With Aoshi involved, he would expect her to be brazen in her protection. But no, the small girl he knew had grown up into a young woman, the Okashira of the Oniwabanshu. He was proud to call her friend, ally, and even happier that she and Aoshi were visiting now, as this ninja-child of unknown origin appeared at their dojo with demands of allegiance from an even more unknown and shady figure.
"This affair is no business of the Oniwabanshu. You can tell your Okashira that. She is not to interfere, unless she wishes war." The shinobi's expression was once again unreadable, his tone flat. "I will tell you that it was a great pity to loose skill such as yours. I would have enjoyed fighting you, before. However, the man I represent cares little for those who wield sword and shadow and break from it. I care not at all." Red eyes flared, fire-bright, and lips pulled back to reveal teeth in a parody of a smile. "Disgraceful. If you can not hold a blade again without going mad, then you should take your kodachi with you to your knees."
"That is enough!" Kenshin told him sharply, appalled by harsh words and what they were suggesting. He was only a boy, no older than Yahiko. And yet he fought like Shinomori Aoshi and had the eyes of a Hitokiri, and the words falling from his lips –threats and ill suggestions– were with knowledge and glee.
This was no child.
The intruder laughed, quietly. He fingered the hilt of his blade and rolled up onto the balls of his feet. "Three days, Himura Kenshin, Hitokiri Battousai. Don't forget." And then he bent his knees and was gone, Kenshin's eyes almost sliding off of him as he jumped over the dojo wall and then into the trees. He was out of sight in moments.
Kenshin sighed.
Somehow it always seemed to surprise him when he stumbled upon situations like this, or when they stumbled upon him. He should be used to such things by now.
Sasuke's reference to Aoshi being on his knees, that's in reference to seppuku. Samurai committed ritual suicide on their knees. Sasuke is saying that it's a disgrace that Aoshi went mad with grief and had to give up being a ninja, and he should kill himself because of that. This also hints that maybe the Sasuke of this story has Samurai ancestry, because ninja are hardly bound – like Samurai are – to kill themselves once disgraced, in an attempt to regain their honor. (Kakashi Spoilers: This historical fact is also why I believe that Kakashi's father was disgraced in death after committing seppuku, even though ritual suicide is supposed to regain the honor of the disgraced. Such rituals only applied to Samurai, and didn't to ninja, and thus a ninja society would react much differently. End of Spoilers.) So Sasuke could hardly expect Aoshi to follow Samurai code when he's a ninja, which makes it very strange that he would suggest it. Am I sparking ideas yet? And jeeze. That sounds like a review of my own work.
TS