Through Time

(A Rurouni Kenshin fic)

CHAPTER TWO

Meeting The New Battousai

1878

Sakama looked at his travelling companion as she walked beside him singing happily, he'd never heard the song before but it seemed more upbeat than the music he was used to hearing.

"I look around at a beautiful life, Been the upper side of down, Been the inside of out, But we breathe, We breathe, I wanna breeze and an open mind, I wanna swim in the ocean, Wanna take my time for me, All me."

"Juri…" He looked at her and she smiled before looking at him smiling. "What is that song?"

She smiled more. "I don't know really it's one of those future visions I get every now and again. One of the reasons I stayed in the Bakufu alliance and helped the shinsengumi in the revolution. I saw the future of this world and it scared me, but I must say some of the music is quite pleasant."

Sakama smiled at her, she was unlike the manslayer he was, she had already done four years of sword and martial art training before he was born, it was no wonder he'd failed in his mission to kill her, but she hadn't killed him in return, just offered him a smile and her hand, he'd accepted it and from there he got a good meal and they'd become travelling companions. She had joined the side of the meji after the revolution was ended, despite of fear and resentment of the visions she got. He'd been told it was her corrupt linage with the gaijin, but from knowing her the year and a half he had, he'd had to disagree. He still didn't understand why he'd been ordered to kill her though, one day he'd ask.

"Tsuki you with us?" Sakama asked turning to Juri's husband and he looked at up at taller man. Who blinked for a moment before smiling.

"Hai… gomen." He rubbed the back of his neck smiling.

Despite the ban on swords in the meji the three of them still wore their swords out in plan daylight, they had written permission of the government as sort of under cover law enforcement. But all three of them shared a similar manslayer past.

Sakama was hired to kill corrupt government officials who went against their own government secretly, planning on taking over the government power from the inside. The government had hired him to kill her off, so he'd thought, but it turned out he'd been tricked by a corrupt member who had discovered him, whose life he'd ended fairly quick smart.

Tsuki became a police chef who had served on the side of the imperialists of the revolution, he'd met Juri after the revolution while she was 'tidying up' Meji mistakes.

While Juri had become a replacement for the shadow assassin because they felt she held a much more calmer cheerier personality, making her easier to control, they just didn't know she was in fact a she and Juri preferred it that way.

"Look at it Tokyo." Juri breathed as they stood on the hill in the distance looking over the city of Tokyo.

"I still say a boat would have been faster especially from Kyoto." Sakama remarked.

"You know how Juri is about boats, she can't stop throwing up." Tsuki smirked.

*DONG*

Sakama cringed and looked at Juri standing there huffing angrily holding her sword by the hilt. A large bump formed on Tsuki's head and his eyes narrowed.

"Why did I marry such a violent woman?" He asked grumpily.

Sakama smiled. "Because you can't control love, that you can not."

"Love… if I knew love was being violently pummelled by a psycho woman I would have changed my mind." Tsuki grumbled.

"Fine you can find somewhere else to sleep tonight!" Juri snapped.

"Fine I will."

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Sakama let out a sigh and looked at Tokyo it was so close but with their arguing it seemed oh so far away.

~*~*~*~

The entrance to Tokyo was just a normal one for Juri her merchant duffel bag slung over her back as she walked in to the town and looked round.

She was warmed by the homeliness of the city. Still she had stalked off on Tsuki leaving Sakama tending to his wounds. Husband or not, he had no right to call her a freak. She looked at the familiar streets and let out a relieved sigh, finally she'd made it back to the town of her birth.

"I'm back grandpa." Juri whispered and looked round. "Now where was his place…" She stood there thinking for a moment scratching her head before a man walked in to her back.

"Hey sorry there kid."

Juri rubbed the back of her neck and smiled at him. "It's okay… I'm kinda lost I don't suppose you could help me?"

"Sure thing." He smiled at her and She looked up at him, he was tall, well taller than her which didn't prove anything she was a short thing anyway. "Where you headed kid?"

"Well there used to be a sword maker round here called Dan Takumi I don't spose you've heard of him?"

"A sword maker. This is the meji era kid, swords are banned you know."

"Oh I know he's my grandfather I was taken from here when I was four, this is the first time I've managed to come back to Tokyo since the end of the revolution."

"Well I'm sure I can help you out kid." He looked at the bag. "You're a merchant huh? Is that a good line of work?"

"Oh it's propitiable that's for sure." Juri smiled. "My father was a merchant after he hung up his samurai sword."

"Well I'm Sanosuke Sagara."

Juri opened her mouth to offer him her name when she realised anytime she said the name Juri they looked at her like she was crazy and Juri sighed. "Jun Dan." She nodded.

"Jun huh? Well we can ask around, starting at the Akabeko. I'm sure Tae would of heard of the man."

"Great."

"And for my good deed…" He looked at her and grinned.

"It's no problem I can pay for a meal I am pretty hungry after all." Juri smiled.

Sano looked at her and blinked. "Wait how'd you know that?"

Juri looked at him and blinked for a moment. "Oh the spooks told me." She smiled again.

"Spooks?"

"I'm a merchant it's well a western way of saying intuition I guess." Juri rubbed the back of her neck.

The two walked in to the Akabeko and Tae looked directly at Sano and she sighed. "Have you come to pay your bill or do want me to add this one on to your tab too?"

Sano slapped Juri on the back. "Nope this young man's shout right here. A merchant. Looking for his grandfather."

Tae smiled at Juri. "Welcome to the Akabeko."

She bowed and Juri gave her a bow back. "Thank you. I don't suppose you've heard of a Takumi Dan by chance have you?"

"Oh that lovely old man in the hills, he was a sword maker wasn't he?" She asked.

"Hai." Juri replied and smiled.

"Well he hasn't been down for nearly four years." She looked at Juri. "You're his grand son?"

"Uh." Juri smiled sheepishly not wanting to correct her, after all she'd given Sanosuke a man's name so she just nodded. "Yeah."

"Oh he was really ill he moved there not long after, word had it his grand daughter was killed just after the revolution."

"Killed?" Juri blinked.

"That a sister of yours?"

Juri looked up at Sano her face falling.

"You're taking life Juri! What would your mother say?!" Juri could still hear his words in her head. "If I hear you've taken even one single life during this war then you are dead to me! Dead!"

Juri let out a sigh. "Yeah."

"You didn't know your own sister was dead?" Sano looked at her.

"I felt it… she died a long time ago." Juri looked sad. "Since my… our mother died, she just wanted revenge on her killer."

"And your father?"

"Lost at sea, Merchants during and before the revolution weren't looked upon kindly due to their participation in the evolution of Japan you know. But now… we haul in quite a bit of cash… it's nothing though without family."

"Well Sanosuke Kenshin and the others are here do you and your new friend want to be seated with them?"

"Sure why not. Lead the way."

They followed Tae as she led them to the booth and Sano peeked in and grinned.

"It figures you'd show up." The young child of the group looked at him through narrow eyes.

"Don't worry Jun here is gunna be paying for me, all I gotta do is take you to your grandfather's am I right?"

"Right." Juri smiled up at him.

"Jun… it's so nice to meet you." The only girl there smiled at her.

"Jun this is Kaoru, Yahiko and Kenshin."

"Pleasure." Juri smiled then paused as she looked at the one called Kenshin seeing the scar on his cheek.

"You are to go to Japan under the guise of a merchant find Kenshin Himora the Battousai and dispose of him you understand?"

"I understand."

"You are doing this for the good of Japan…"

"Kenshin." Juri looked at him. 'This is the guy I fought for only a few moments in Kyoto.'

He looked up at her and he blinked as he looked at her. "You look familiar." He remarked.

Juri smiled. "I travel a lot. You were in Kyoto during the revolution were you not?"

He looked at Juri shocked and she smiled. "How'd you know that?" He asked.

"The famous Battousai bought one of my father's famous recipe books for his travels. I remember you. That scar." Juri smiled.

He then nodded. "I remember that." He smiled. "Small world."

"Small Japan more like it. I hope you don't mind but I used your name to help sell more of my father's recipe books."

He smiled. "Not at all. It is a new Japan after all. That it is."

Juri sat with the group eating with them politely, while they chatted away. She hadn't expected to find the Battousai so easily.

"So a merchant huh? Do you make a lot of money?" Yahiko asked.

Juri smiled at the young boy. "Enough to keep me travelling, but I was born in Tokyo, this is my home I want to stay here now."

"Well I've heard of the Dan family, Your father Hiro wasn't it?" Kaoru asked.

Juri looked at her and nodded. "Yes Hiro was my father. He disappeared when I was very young."

"Oh well he came back, but vanished only a few months ago again, they found his place empty, he lived in your old house where your mother was killed for nine years and he didn't clean any of the blood away, he was such a conflicted man." Kaoru looked at Juri.

"My father was a samurai." Juri looked off to the side. "Something like that is hard on the soul, I believe he gave it up when my grandfather stopped making swords, instead my father began travelling as a merchant, and I just took over when I was old enough."

"From a line of samurai's then, you must be skilled with a sword." Sano looked at Juri.

She smiled at him. "I get by well enough, I was told my father was dead. My sister was only three when he vanished at sea…"

"And you must have only been a few months old at that time then?" Kenshin looked at her.

Juri smiled. "Do I look that young Kenshin? I'm flattered."

"So you're older than our sister? Really? I always thought Hiro and Elizabeth's first child was a girl." Kaoru asked.

"Oh yes." Juri nodded. "There's only a few months between us, fourteen to be exact."

"So at least a year old then." Kaoru nodded.

Juri just smiled at her she seemed really nice. "It's hard to explain but I remember the exact outfit my mother wore the day we saw my father off, and where she hid me before she was killed."

"You witnessed your mother's murder?" Yahiko blinked.

"I saw several people die in a span of those two days, a majority were my mother's kills she was protecting me, I sat by her side as she died and she told me never to pick up a sword."

Kenshin smiled. "Your mother was a wise woman then, that she was."

"But I sell them it's still picking them up isn't it?" Juri looked at him.

The group looked at Juri.

"It's illegal to carry them, so why do you sell them?" Sano looked curious and Juri opened up her duffel bag and pulled out a Kodachi in it's sheath.

"Do you think this sword could kill?" She asked.

Sano opened it up and looked at it. "There's no blade side…"

Juri smiled. "Correct I sell them to foreigners you see like the western food and clothing is becoming popular our culture to is becoming popular over there. So I sell them a little bit of Japan to take home with them, it's purely ornamental. When I was in Scotland I got to sell some of my grandfather's dull bladed swords to this collector, he had all sorts of swords an entire wall dedicated to various swords from various cultures. It was amazing to see designs from other cultures displayed as art and something to represent the people and their weaponry." She explained.

"You see it as art?" Yahiko looked at Juri strangely.

She smiled and rubbed the back of her neck. "I've been drawing since I was little, my mother told me I could be an artist." She pulled a scroll out of her bag. "The bottomless pit that is my merchant bag, a little bit of something for everyone. Here this is something I did." Juri handed Sano the scroll he opened it up and watched as it unrolled and looked at the picture.

"You did this… it's… actually really good." He turned it round and showed the group, who just looked at it.

"Well Master Jun it seems you are true to your word that you are." Kenshin smiled.

~*~*~*~

When the meal was over Juri paid for her and Sano's meals. The group of them were standing outside and Juri looked at the stalls before walking up to one where her mother used to buy her fish and looked at the young lady behind the stall.

"Hello, did a Mr. Yuie used to sell fish here?"

"Oh you mean my father? Yes, he still does, I'm just filling in for him while he's catching some fish for tomorrow."

Juri smiled giddy. "I can't believe it I finally came home." she let out a relieved sigh.

"Excuse me?" The lady looked at Juri.

"My mother used to buy fish from this very stall nine years ago." Juri paused for a moment. "That seems like a lifetime ago."

"Would you like one?"

"Me oh no I've been living off fish for too long I'm not really a fan of fish anymore besides I just ate... but thank you can you tell him when he gets back that the Dan granchild of Takumi is back?"

"Sure I will."

Juri smiled bowed and headed back over to the group.

"You've been away a long time then?" Kaoru looked at me.

"Well not as long as the first time." Juri smiled at her. She was a lovely woman so far. "I came back two years after the revolution started. That when I felt something was wrong with my grandfather he moved not long after I left, he didn't want to make swords anymore you see and during a revolution you can image how much in demand he would have been, he sent me away so I wouldn't be used against him. I haven't seen him since then. I've been travelling and sell goods to earn my way back home to see him I heard he moved back you see."

"DAN!!" Juri blinked and looked over her shoulder she let out a defeated anime breath as Tsuki and Sakama jogged up to her.

"Jur-nnn Juuuuuun." Sakama remarked. "Where have you been Tsuki has been worried."

"I have not." Tsuki huffed.

Juri raised an eyebrow. "Tsuki, Sakama, meet some new friends I made, Kenshin, Sanosuke, Kaoru and Yahiko."

"Kenshin!" Tsuki grinned.

Kenshin smiled at Tsuki. "It's been a long time Tsuki."

"You two know each other?" Sakama looked from Kenshin to Tsuki and back again.

"We fought on the same side during the revolution. That we did." Kenshin smiled.

"Don't worry you two would have been too young to remember." Tsuki added.

"Whhhhhhhy you…." Juri growled.

"No!"

*WHOMP!*

"Oro…" Sakama hit the ground.

"Saka-san!! Gomen! Gomen! Gomen!" Juri began apologising. "Chibi why'd you jump in the way like that?"

Oro…" Was the only reply she got and she bit her lip.

Tsuki sighed. "Don't mind JUN his violence is just that damn Samurai blood. Makes HIM so stubborn."

*twitch*

Juri glared at him. "See if I pay your bills again! You freeloader!"

Kenshin smiled. "I see you've made friends since the revolution."

"Who needs enemys when you have friends like mine." Tsuki grinned.

*THUNK*

"Hey!" Tsuki glared at Juri and the Kenshin group looked at the sword. The sword still in it's sheath. "Give me that!"

"No! Mine!" Juri hugged the sword.

Tsuki looked down to where his sword had been at the side of his waist. "You little pick pocket give me back my sword!"

"It's my sword now."

"Why do I let you follow me round I'll never know!"

"Naaaaaah!" Juri pulled down one eyelid and stuck out her tongue at him while still holding the sword.

"You brat give me that! If you don't I won't lead you the way to your grandfathers."

"Oooooh meanie meanie! I hate you."

Sakama sat up and he held his head and let out a sigh. "This is what I have to put up with, it's not normal for someone my age to feel like he's forty after dealing with those two."

"You don't sound excited to see them." Sano laughed.

"Do you blame me? I get clobbered too much."

Kaoru looked at him. "You poor guy."

"Jun, I'll take you to your grandfather's okay? I promised after all." Sano looked at her.

She smiled at him. "Thanks. You're a lot nicer than Tsuki."

*Twitch*

"Disrespectful brat, I saved your life back in Kyoto."

"Actually I though Ju-"

*WHOMP*

"oro…" Sakama flopped on to the ground and Tsuki placed his sword back on and Juri looked down at her arms and her eyes narrowed.

"Hey that was my sword."

"No it was my sword. Once a street brat always a street brat."

She glared at him. "I don't need to take this… I'm going!" She began to stalk off and Sano cleared his throat.

"Uh Jun… it's this way."

She turned round and headed in that direction. "I knew that." She mumbled.

"Uhhh…" The Kenshin group sweatdropped.

"Not quite right again." Juri was grabbed by the wrist by Sano as he pulled her in the direction where he'd just motioned. "You don't have a good sense of direction do you?"

"Heh you noticed huh?" She smiled.

~*~*~*~

Tsuki sighed as he sat at the Kamiya dojo next to Kenshin. "I try to help Jun, it's hard on him, but you know, he's conflicted since the government tried to kill him."

Kenshin blinked, he sat next Tsuki outside in the garden. "Why would the government want Jun dead?"

Tsuki shook his head. "Its not my place to say Kenshin, but he gets these future visions, and used to receive visions of his future death and saw the world and what's it's going to be like over two hundred years from now. That world scared him and scarred him, when I came across him he was huddled in the back of an alleyway holding his mother's sword… he was so close to insanity."

Kenshin looked at the garden. "Something happened to him during the revolution didn't it?"

"Yeah. It was something alright." Tsuki sighed.

~*~*~*~

It was about half an hour till the two reached Juri's grandfather's place and Juri stood at the gate looking in she felt her heart pounding. He'd disowned he after he found out she was the Jun'dai. Would he want to see her again?

"Nervous huh?" Sano looked at Juri as he opened the gate and walked up the pathway and she followed him, he knocked on the door but it was silent. Juri looked round him since he was too tall to look over his shoulder.

"How odd." She mused. "He always answers the door." Juri peeked inside to see that the place was being lived in, but no one was home.

"Well what are you going to do?" He asked.

"I guess wait for him, thank you so much Sanosuke. You can go back to your friends I won't keep you here."

"Sure." He waved as he walked off. "See you later Jun."

Juri walked in to the house and out through the back door. "Grand pa it's me Juri… I'm home. Like back in Tokyo home."

She stopped when she saw a group of men sitting outside round a fire talking. "Can you believe we got stuck in this stupid place… this really bites, we're stuck in a peaceful era of Japan waiting for Shisho's word to contact the Jun'dai. Lord Shisho has a stupid sense of humor." One was complaining.

"Can you believe it we'll be killed by him if we don't keep training. I agree with the new Japan era, but how can one train when there is no where to train where that Saitou guy won't find us."

"Hello?" Juri looked at them.

They all looked up at Juri and saw her merchant bag. "Hmmm a merchant huh? We're not buying anything kid, go home."

"This is my grandfather's home." Juri raised an unimpressed eyebrow, she knew how her grandfather thought about swords now.

"The Jun'dai." One looked at Juri, then they all looked.

Juri watched as they began to huddle and whisper among themselves and Juri's brow lowered as she let her merchant bag slide from her shoulders, the duel swords well hidden under the merchant clothing. Juri could feel it in the air they were going to attack her, kill her.

Standing there Juri waited and then it was seconds later they charged at her and she blocked and defended herself using her sheaths before flinging them off the swords and began to fight the group of men using the tKaorud Nito Kenjutsu style of swordsman ship she learned for eight years of her life.

It wasn't long till they were just bodies around her and Juri looked down at the blood on her clothes and let out a sigh. She pulled the top off tossing it on to the fire letting it burn.

"I don't know who this Shisho is but that doesn't matter, you won't meet him again." Juri stripped down burning the clothes before changing in to her manslayer clothes. "You ruined a perfectly good outfit. I'm upset. Western clothes are not cheap." She remarked talking to the corpses before strapping two swords to her side and pulling most of her hair off her face with a bandanna tied back like a headband and she looked down at the scar on her arm.

"Well then if they know I'm here, I'm going to be hunted that's for sure, might as well let the Battousai remember me properly before I kill him." She picked up her merchants bag and walked out it slung over her shoulder.

Juri went to a local inn and rented out a room, after she killed him, she'd just stay in Tokyo it was her hometown afterall she refused to leave now that she was back. It'd probably take her another ten years to get back again and Juri didn't want to be old by the time she got back.

~*~*~*~

One Week Later

Juri was in the market buying food for herself, and some clothes, Sakama she's seen before he'd headed back to Kyoto on a special mission, she assumed Tsuki went with him, she couldn't understand why she was so attracted to him, she let out a sigh, he was so mean to her, overly mean in a nasty kind of way, name calling and every so often he'd conk her on the head calling her stupid.

Juri was buying some rice at the stalls when she heard the whispering of two women near by.

"Did you hear they found a group of bodies up by Takumi's place, they think that the Jun'dai is in town."

"The Jun'dai… don't be stupid, the Jun'dai is still in Kyoto cleaning up that shadow assassin's mess."

"I heard the Jun'dai was hired by a corrupt government official to kill the battousai."

Juri smiled at the lady behind the stall before placing the bag of rice in to her basket and walking past the two women they looked at her as she passed.

"Was that a woman?" They asked.

"Such weird clothing for a woman, he's definitely a man, or a young boy." Juri walked away from the two women and walked in to the familiar alley way she stopped when she felt it, someone trying to sneak up on her, and there was more than one.

"Jun'dai…" It was a low voice. "You betrayed the Bakufu and joined with the Meji government how could you?"

Juri turned round and looked at the solo man standing there she placed her merchant bag down. "I'm just a merchant, that's all."

"A red headed half gaijin half Japanese merchant with a red bandanna. You are the Jun'dai." Juri saw the sword pointed at her and she sighed.

"Please the Jun'dai is a man, I'm a woman."

"What? You lie."

Juri undid the sash round her waist and pulled open her top to show him her white Singlet and the obvious womanly chest.

He blinked and then smiled at her. "I see." Juri closed her top and did the sash back up and picked up the merchant bag.

"You know you're not bad looking for a woman." Juri looked at him, he smiled and she blinked for a moment.

"Wait… I know you don't I?" Juri looked at the man.

He smiled at her and she recognised the smile, even from within the shadows. "Forgotten me already Jun'dai?"

"Tsuki!" Juri exclaimed "I thought you went back to Kyoto?"

He smiled at her walking up to her pushing some of her red bangs from her eyes. "Juri… I'm staying where you are."

She jumped in to his arms as he wrapped them around her and she smiled as she felt herself pinned up against the wall they shared an intense passionate kiss.

His brown eyes were warm and friendly and his black hair was as floppy as normal and the natural red highlights gave him the half European look, but he wasn't. "I told Sakama to tell you I'd come back for you, I've been following you this entire week you know."

Juri rubbed the back of her neck and smiled. "I'm here on business you can't put yourself in danger like this."

"You don't have to do this job you know the man is corrupt I can talk to Saitou…"

"No don't talk to Saitou, he makes things messy." She sighed.

"Sakama has headed back to Kyoto anyway to have a talk to him." Tsuki looked at her.

"He has… but my mission…" Juri trailed off.

"You kill the Battousai and the government will have you killed off."

"You don't understand. I need this money to retire on."

"I'm the man of this relationship, I'm suppose to provide for you." He brushed some hair from her face.

"Please Tsuki, don't make this hard. Go back to Kyoto where you'll be safe."

"I want a family with you Jun'dai, I want you to hang up your sword join the government help make Japan better like your parents wanted."

"Only cause you said so, but I'll be hunted still."

"I'll meet you back at the Inn."

"Tsuki…" Juri watched him walk off and let out a sigh. "This is the reason I pretend I'm male, they've got it easy." She turned round and picked up her bag again and walked through the alley then stopped seeing a figure standing at the end.

"Hello?"

He smiled at her. "The Jun'dai is a woman… who would have thought."

Juri let her bag drop as she stared at the figure he then drew his sword. "Someone needs to make you pay for double crossing the Bakufu alliance!" he charged and she let out a cry and drew her hidden sword spinning round him she attacked from behind brining the sword on an angle downwards slicing through his right shoulder and exiting through his left side and he fell to the ground in two pieces, she looked at the body.

"Murderer!" a voice shouted and Juri looked at the end of alleyway.

"He attacked me!" Juri exclaimed.

"Murderer!" The woman screamed again.

"No it's not like that!"

Then she saw the look on her face the horror as she recognized the trademarks that made people attack Juri for the sake of it.

"The Jun'dai!"

"Oh hell." Juri groaned and grabbed her merchant bag and raced out off the alleyway and round the corner running in to a tall figure.

"HEY!" Juri snapped, then looked up at Sano he looked down at her, his hands on her shoulder her chest pressed against his and she blinked for a moment and then he blinked. "Sanosuke…" She breathed.

"You're a woman…" He remarked.

Juri saw he had a clean view down in to her top and she pulled back then pulled her top round her chest before running off.

"Hey Jun! Wait!"

"Stop him stop him!" Sano looked down the alleyway at the body. "The Jun'dai is here in Tokyo!"

"Jun Dan… Jun Dai… Then the rumours are true she's come to kill Kenshin…" He raced off after Juri.

~*~*~*~

To Be Continued…

R & R -.-v

My first Kenshin Fic so be nice… but critical nice… that's cool with me.

Disclaimer:

I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, or the characters in the show, but I do own the ones that you don't recognise okay? Okay good.