I know it's been awhile since I updated this story (despite it technically being done), but if you are reading Of Sake and Cherry Blossoms then you know why I'm slowing on updates (moving two time-zones over across the country so lotta anxiety). But! Good came of this as I had a chance to re-read this chapter twice and thanks to that I actually made some modifications to it that I feel improved on it greatly (though it's also much lengthier).

Hopefully ya enjoy and I thank you for your patience :D

Chapter 11: Bitter Tides: Bee vs Wolf

A peaceful neighborhood that got quiet at night. No one was out on the street this rainy night.

No one except two captains fighting.

Kenshin went sliding down the street, trying to stop himself on reishi rather then the street itself to prevent damage. His action kicked up puddles of rain water, sending the small waves flying across the street to either side. The bottom of his hakamas and haori were soaked, his hair already matted to his face.

With his momentum brought to a halt, he let out a heavy pant of frustration and pushed forward off the reishi under his feet, causing a puddle beneath him to blow into the air like a mini geyser.

Just as his blade came flying in for a strike, she disappeared. Knowing his mentor well, the captain spun his nodaichi about then swung it up behind him, stopping the tip with his left hand and in the process blocking the strike from behind.

"You think that's enough?" She growled at him.

There was no point in responding when she got like this. He knew she wasn't actually speaking to him, but rather was just asking and stating rhetorical frustration.

Shifting about on his right heel, Kenshin pushed away the stinger of Suzumebachi then shifted his grip on the hilt to quickly swing left. Soifon back-flipped away from the attack with ease then used the momentary opening to come in for a strike again. Her new strike came in from below, aiming upward to catch the man that was the focus of her rage in the gut.

Shifting the angle of his blade mid-swing, Kenshin brought it down diagonally, intentionally missing his mentor but allowing himself to push up off the blade and flip over his mentor's attack. Now behind Soifon, Kenshin dragged Tetsu Kiba left then spun the hilt in hand to allow for a diagonal slice up toward his right shoulder.

Having seen the dodge, Soifon planted her left hand on the ground, twisting over it to spin herself around. She deflected the first swing then leapt away from the second. The two knew one another so well; they knew how each other fought so it was easy for them to constantly counter whatever the other person threw out.

Soifon faded from sight and appeared just above Kenshin. Gripping his right arm between her shins, Soifon swung herself around his outstretched arm and hooked her left arm around his neck. Sensing the danger of being struck with that deadly weapon, Kenshin leapt backwards toward a wall and slammed Soifon into not once, but twice.

The impact and rattling forced her off Kenshin's back and left her open for his next attack. Kenshin drove his foot under her and kicked her up just above the height of the wall before leaping up to meet her. Using the backside of his blade, the captain of Fifth Division brought it crashing down into the side of his mentor, knocking her back into the ground.

He flipped his blade back around and grunted, moving to sheath it, but stopped midway. "Overly stubborn…" He managed to bring his blade back out in time to block the attack, but with the speed Soifon came up at him from the ground he found himself skidding back in the air.

"Back-stabbing bastard!" She cried out as she appeared behind him much to his surprise. He felt the cold steel graze his neck and knew what it meant. It wasn't the cut itself that mattered but the mark left behind. One more sting to that same spot and he'd be dead instantly.

Soifon grinned as she watched the blood fly from the gash across the side of Kenshin's neck, having only barely missed the artery, but it still left a beautiful black butterfly behind that signaled a fatal strike point. How strange it felt aiming to take the life of the man that had protected her own life for almost a century. Perhaps that's how it was always meant to be, his life being hers to take away.

Soifon's grin faded as she flash stepped in front of her student and drove her right foot into the side of Kenshin's head. The impact sent him crashing toward the street below and into it, sending debris, dust, and water flying skyward.

She held her Suzumebachi up in front of her and in a mocking tone called out, "what's the matter Kenshin? Is the guilt of your lies catching up to you? Is it finally weighing you down, or is the mutt finally learning his place?"

Her grin faded when she heard the sound of the wind being cut and then felt the flat backside of Kenshin's blade smack into her side before flipping about in front of her gut. Kenshin pushed her backwards towards him and drove his knee into her back, causing her to cry out in pain. Bringing the blade up along his mentor's body, Kenshin caught her under the arms with the flat backside.

He lingered a second, staring in silence as his mentor cringed in pain while being hung out over the cold steel. This was a pointless fight that he couldn't really begin to figure out the point of, but he had no interest in dying. He had too many people counting on him and too many people that would kill him once-over if he let himself die. With a heavy sigh of reluctance he spun about in the air and drew his blade away, allowing Soifon to go hurling toward the concrete below.

"Guilt only exist when one has something to be guilty of." He ran his fingers through his dark locks of hair, brushing them back out of his vision. "And this 'mutt' always knew his place…questions is, do you know what it is?"

Soifon groaned as she tried to recover from the impact of the ground, her vision both blurred and spinning about. She thought she saw something coming but it wasn't until she felt the faint reiatsu that she knew Kenshin was coming down at her rapidly. Rolling to the side, Soifon just barely dodged Kenshin's stab; a stab that blew apart the ground around it.. She stared in shock at her reflection of the blade and the rain drops still clinging to its surface.

Was that a sight so many had seen before they met their end? A cold steel blade coming at them and then….nothing?

Pulling the blade out quickly and seeking to keep his mentor pinned down, the calm Captain Takeda continued to thrust at his mentor who could only deflect and roll out of the way of the flurry of attacks.

An opening presented itself when she managed to kick his blade away from herself. With such a wide opening, Soifon pushed off the ground enough to spin herself about and sweep-kicked Kenshin off his feet. As he fell he felt the sting of Suzumebachi on his left shoulder and then on the right side of his rib cage.

Kenshin rolled back up onto his feet but was caught quickly with a kick under his jaw that sent him tumbling back a few feet. With a chance to catch her breath, Soifon made a walk towards the man she was enraged with, keeping her shikai down low. "I trusted you Kenshin…I trusted you just as I had trusted her. I thought you would be different because you and I shared the same pain from when she left the Soul Society with him."

Kenshin sat up slowly, rubbing at his jaw while blood dripped from the left corner of his mouth. His vision was a bit shaken and his hearing was rattling, but it wasn't anything he wasn't familiar with. Just as he was moving to get back to his feet he glanced up to see Soifon running toward him and felt everything go black for a second after taking a knee to the jaw.

Soifon gritted her teeth as she slammed her foot down into Kenshin's chest, snapping him back from the blackout and knowing the wind from his lungs. "Except you betrayed me as well! I saw that tattoo and you didn't answer why you had it! I didn't think anything of it…but then I remembered how you became so distant from me after Yoruichi came with Kurosaki and his friends during their attempt to save Rukia Kuchiki…it all made sense…you and her…"

She slammed her foot into his chest again, this time getting a sickening crack to echo out. Kenshin struggled to recover while he was left coughing up blood that had pooled within his mouth. He knew his ribs were broken, that was without question from the intense pain in his torso. What was now of concern was if he could even fight.

Soifon's left fist trembled as she stared down at the man she saw as a former student and friend. So much…she had shared so many personal things with him out of trust for the man who's very name meant dedication.

"I thought I could trust you…I told you things I never would tell anyone, things I couldn't confess to Yoruichi herself!" Again she slammed her foot down, digging in her heel. Kenshin gasped for air, his lips covered in his blood that was trickling down the sides of his face and into his matted hair.

"I told you these things and you turned against me…you played me for a fool!" Soifon tried to fight back tears that were burning in her eyes as she moved her foot off Kenshin's chest. She hated him. She hated that he had the Shihöin crest on his body, like some sort of mark left by Yoruichi on something she claimed as her own.

Slowly she knelt down and grabbed at his throat with her left hand, letting her fingers squeeze ever so slightly to constrict his wind pipe and further interrupt his breathing that was likely at risk from his broken ribs. Her right hand moved up to the side of her head in a striking position, a killing position.

A single rain drop slid down the back of the stinger and fell off the tip of Suzumebachi as it lingered by its master's head, ready to do what it was meant to as a tool of an assassin; kill. "I gave you the name Kenshin because I thought you would always be devoted to me…to be truthful…"

He wheezed as he grabbed at Soifon's left wrist, trying to pry her off. "You really are just a mutt…a lone wolf that only fends for himself…" The tears stopped and once more she felt her anger rising. Even now with death looming in front of him, Kenshin wasn't showing her the fear she would have expected. She always hated how calm he was able to be in the face of death. "To hell with you Kenshin!"

With that pain-filled scream she thrust her right hand forward.

/\/\/\/\

Time seemed to slow as he saw the spirit of his zanpakutö standing behind Soifon, his eyes masked under the wolf's head of the pelt he wore. Even so, Kenshin could see the look of disappointment and disgust on his face.

Think of your pack…

Those words echoed out as the rain came down slowly, each drop that hit him or the ground around him exploded in his ears like the crashing waves of the sea. So many times he had come close to dying, and each time he had pulled through out of sheer determination. That determination was simply to protect his mentor; but his mentor was now the one trying to kill him.

What then did he have to live for?

My pack…

As the stinger of Suzumebachi drew closer at its sluggish pace he continued to try and think over just who his pack might be.

My pack is…

That's when faces began to appear before his mind's eye. Yoruichi, the first person he smiled before. Rukia, the first person he truly considered a friend. Shunsui and Jüshiro, two fellow captains who he considered close friends and enjoyed speaking with and drinking with. Momo, his vice-captain who kept him on his toes and he had fun frustrating just to see how she would react. Even Soifon who he still respected despite her misguided anger at him.

And….Tatsuki. Even if she never spoke to him again; she had saved his life and opened up his heart.

My pack is all of them. They are the pack I protect and care for.

A pack can not survive without its alpha. Get up. Fight!

/\/\/\/\

Time picked up its pace once more as he let out a deep throated battle cry. Soifon's eyes widen as she heard his blade come scraping across the asphalt towards her. Choosing to not risk being beheaded, Soifon pushed up and off Kenshin, landing a few feet from him.

Slowly, Kenshin pushed to his feet. He was weary from having his chest stomped on and the blood on his mouth was drying even with the pouring rain. His vision was blurred from taking rain drops to the eyes, but he had enough sense around him to keep fighting.

Stabbing his blade into the ground, Kenshin tossed off his haori, letting the very symbol of his rank and division fall into a puddle. Slowly he drew his blade back out, holding it in front of him so it sliced the very drops of rain that collided with the edge of the blade. The angle perfectly caught the reflections of the few lights around, sending shimmers off each individual rain drop on the blade.

"You want to talk about truth, Soifon? You want to talk about devotion? I never, never broke from my duties! I have remained dedicated to everything I've done no matter what."

Soifon felt herself frozen in place as the gaze in her pupil's eyes changed the slightest, taking on the unsettling calm he was capable of. He neither seemed fazed by the pouring rain nor paid any mind to the drops sliding down the strands of his hair. His was a calm that could break storms.

"You want to know the truth of the Shihöin crest I bear? I got that when you were but a little girl still stumbling over yourself to impress Lady Yoruichi. I got it because she asked me to, she invited me to be apart of her family because I had none. I am the wolf. I lived my life alone while you had your family and traditions to push you. I had nothing, not even a name!"

Kenshin faded from sight and to Soifon's shock he came at her from the front rather then behind. She barely had time to raise her limiting weapon to block his overhead swing but realized all too late that it was nothing more then a distraction meant to open up her midsection. Her pupil did not disappoint in taking advantage of that opening and drove his knee into her gut, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to stumble backwards before loosing her footing to a rain-filled hole in the ground.

The next thing Soifon knew was she felt something crack across her lower spine and with it her knees buckled, dropping her down. It only took a second before Kenshin was before her, his face almost masked by his matted hair and the falling rain that blurred her vision. Her head drooped with fatigue and shame at being bested so suddenly; albeit, she wasn't surprised that he could. He was trained by the former and present force commanders of the Onmitsukidö, after all.

"But I stopped being a lone wolf a long time ago, Soifon. I swore to fight for you and protect you with my life; or have you forgot about this?" Kenshin pulled open his kosode, revealing the scar that trailed over his torso.

Soifon looked up slowly and trailed the scar with her eyes, remembering well the day that scar was made and how close Kenshin had come to death because of it. He had earned that scar protecting her when she was still learning the ropes of being the captain of Second Division.

Kenshin pushed Soifon's chin up with the tip of his blade, forcing her silver eyes to meet his gray-blue ones and in them she saw so many emotions running rampant. "I never touched Lady Yoruichi in the manner you suggest you impudent child…I never would dare touch her in such a disrespectful manner. How dare you even imply that I'm some sort of perverted bastard that would do such a thing to his mentor and dear friend. What's more, how dare you suggest I would betray your trust. I have never betrayed the trust of anyone that has placed their faith in me!"

Kenshin moved the blade away but replaced it with his knee, rattling Soifon's jaw and sending her crashing backwards.

For some reason, Soifon found herself not believing his words. Perhaps it was the blows he had delivered to her or perhaps it was her own emotions taking from her her focus. She had felt such joy after having mended the wounds that had been born after Lady Yoruichi disappeared a century ago, but new wounds seemed to suddenly open when shortly after the Ryoka Invasion she found herself being forgotten as the Flash Goddess was asking if not demanding that Kenshin be given over to her so she could train him.

She cried out as she kipped back up onto her feet, her eyes burning with raw anger as she remembered being practically ignored by both her pupil and mentor during those two months Kenshin was in the human world. Was she nothing to Lady Yoruichi?

The two vanished from sight and reappeared a few feet in the air; the steel of their weapons colliding in a symphony of sound of ringing steel mixed with the grunts and gasp as fist, feet, and shins met with body parts. Finally they drew back to the ground with plenty of space to spare between them as they each panted heavily. Fatigue was setting in rapidly.

They each knew that this fight was winding down and that they likely only could manage one good last offense before they had to surrender to the anguish their bodies were in. They knew that the other knew it as well by the look in their eyes.

Kenshin lifted his blade up next to his right ear, the edge pointed toward the sky and both hands gripping the hilt tightly. Soifon kept low with her left foot leading and her right arm cocked back, the tip pointing up toward the sky like the stinger on a hornet that was about to strike.

As the rain fell around them, as their breath came out heavy, and as their cuts bled the two stared coldly at the other person standing across from them. The Bee and the Wolf, masters of their respective arts and yet so opposed now to end a fight that was born from misunderstandings. It had stopped being about right and wrong and now seemed to be just about proving who was better.

One last rain drop fell and was split over the edge of Kenshin's blade before he and his former mentor charged towards one another, splashing the puddles that had formed on the ground between them. As they closed in, Soifon began to thrust her right hand forward, her wrist twisting as she moved for the kill. Opposite of her Kenshin arched his blade backwards into a circular upward swing.

The wind shifted and a clatter followed along with a whipping of cloth. The two stood speechless at the interference lingering between them.

Soifon's eyes widen in shock while Kenshin gritted his teeth and looked away. His blade was pinned to the ground while Soifon's shikai was wrapped up in cloth, held tightly by two hands pulling away from one another. "That's enough you two…I'm very disappointed in each of you…"

"L-Lady Yoruichi…" Soifon uttered out. Finally her emotions washed over her and with them a weakness came as she collapsed onto her knees. Why did she always bow before this woman, why? She had done it the day they reunited near Sökyoku Hill when Soifon realized she just couldn't win, and now she was doing it again despite how furious she was with the woman she so deeply admired. Finally all those tears she had been holding back in front of Kenshin broke loose and she bit her lip as she cried in silence.

Yoruichi sighed softly before glancing over her shoulder at Kenshin who kept his gaze averted. She didn't need a reaction from him to know how much pain he was in physically, mentally, or emotionally. His eyes betrayed everything with the exhaustion they showed, the frustration, and the personal grief.

Knowing she had defused the two, Yoruichi loosened the cloth and pulled it off the stinger of Soifon's shikai and moved her foot off the nodaichi she had pinned to the ground.

Finally giving in to his exhaustion, the captain of Fifth Division let his blade drop from his hand with a noisy clatter before sinking to his knees. Yoruichi moved to ease him down before drawing both of her pupils against her, holding them close while trying to calm Soifon down.

For some reason she knew this day would come; a day when these two would fight. She was only grateful she had been able to intervene and prevent it from ending horribly.

As she comforted them and herself, she heard someone approaching. Turning her golden gaze from the two she was holding tenderly, she felt a smile spread over her lips as she looked up at the young woman staring at the trio.

"Can you fetch his haori then head over to Urahara's Shöten?"

The girl nodded meekly and walked back toward where the haori lay in the pouring rain, the number five facing toward the sky.

Mmm, I never do like writing nor necessarily reading fight scenes (just harder to picture what is going on), but hey, things will be better next chapter! :D

Well, some reviews are always nice *hint-hint* and hopefully I pleased you enough to not get killed by you all. I will try to get the next chapter up before my move (as there will be a week of down-time for me while driving to my new home).

NEXT TIME!

Chapter 12: The Comforts of Girl Talk