Honor and Loyalty ch.2
Title: Honor and Loyalty
Chapter 2: Memories
Author: Shartae
Pairing: Saizo/Yukimura
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Putting closer to the past that I created for Saizo in chapter 1.
Notes: Well I decided to post chapter two here, cringes slightly. Hope no one minds.
Honor and Loyalty
Chapter 2: Memories
“ Hello? Anyone home?”
Saizo backpedaled just in time to miss running into Kamanosuke and looked up to figure out where he was and why he was there.
Oh yeah, that was right. Yukimura-sama had told him to do his duties while he went to the woods of Aokigahara. So he was going to secure the area around Kudoyama. He must have gotten caught up in his thoughts again…
“ Man, you’re a mess, Saizo,” Kamanosuke continued.
“ It’s nothing,” he replied absently and tried to get around the other Juyushi, but Kamanosuke sidestepped to get in his way, looking up at his face.
“ Excuse me,” Saizo tried and moved to get around Kamanosuke again, but the same thing happened again.
“ Damn it, Kamanosuke, move!” Saizo growled in agitation.
Kamanosuke laughed gingerly, shifting on his feet almost imperceptibly. “ You know Saizo, we should be able to take care of Kudoyama ourselves.”
“ Yeah, we can handle this place easily,” Jinpachi put in from behind him smirking at Kamanosuke.
“ So why don’t you go make sure Yukimura-sama doesn’t do anything he’ll regret later?” Kamanosuke suggested.
Saizo frowned in irritation and glared at the two Juyushi. “ Knowing you two it would be unwise for me to leave.”
“ Oh, come on,” Kamanosuke whined, moving to put an arm over Saizo’s shoulders. “ It’s been over a week since we’ve heard from Yukimura. What if something happened to him?”
Saizo turned his gaze to the forest floor.
Of course he was worried. He knew that Yukimura-sama had a knack for finding trouble, but Saizo reassured himself constantly. Yukimura-sama could protect himself, he had gotten much stronger after the tournament in Edo, and besides he had Sasuke with him.
But still…
“ We’ll watch over Kudoyama and you can go make sure Yukimura is safe. Kosuke will watch over Sakuya,” Kamanosuke continued.
Saizo paused a few seconds before carefully replying. “ I’ll go…”
“ Great! I’ll let the others know of the arrangement, we’ll keep our ears open for any news and inform you immediately,” Kamanosuke said happily, moving to stand beside Jinpachi.
Saizo couldn’t help but wonder at Kamanosuke’s suddenly cheerful mood, as he turned away from the two Juyushi and began walking down the trail. He looked back only once to see the two disappear from sight in the afternoon sunlight.
“ Were they trying to get rid of me?” he asked softly to himself.
He shook his head before finalizing his decision.
Yes, he would go to Aokigahara and make sure Yukimura-sama was all right. From there… It didn’t matter.
Saizo turned back into the direction he was going and ran, traveling along the forest. He had a long ways to go, but if he moved quickly enough he might reach the sea of trees by tomorrow.
He jumped along the trees using them as stepping-stones between him and his destination and as he ran he thought of how familiar this seemed. Like when he used to run with the former Sasuke at his side.
It reminded him of the first time he met Sasuke after…
-----------
“Saizo?”
“ How are the second and third divisions doing?” Saizo asked, unconsciously worried about his sister as the battle raged around him.
He dodged just in time to miss getting decapitated by one of the enemy samurai and thrust his sword out to catch the man in the gut. The man dropped like a stone and didn’t move.
Saizo’s sword was already coated with blood and he had run out of shuriken a long time ago. His shoulder hurt where a carefully aimed sword had cut through skin and muscle, but he was alive, which was more than many of the other ninja in his division could say.
It was the day of the big battle that he had fought for his former lord and his sister was located in the third division along with several hundred others.
“ The second division has been annihilated and the third is still holding the gate. They’re going to be facing reinforcements pretty soon though,” Saizo’s friend Ruien, murmured throwing his chained shuriken at a pair of samurai. The shuriken lodged into their throats and Ruien pulled back on the chains in his hands and decapitated them in an instant.
“ Our division is finished. Join what’s left of the fourth division and gather at the castle entrance. If the third division falls we’ll be left to guard the castle,” Saizo ordered.
“ What about those that can’t fight?” Ruien asked grimly as he sheathed his chained shuriken and pulled out his daggers to fend off a sword blow.
Saizo moved around to swing his sword up and over Ruien to slam it into the samurai’s skull.
“ Leave them,” he replied.
Ruien was fast to comply with the orders and Saizo shifted through the dead bodies littering the ground and moved towards the gate.
His eyes searched through the warriors standing ready at the gate entrance and he sighed in relief when he saw his sister, her long mahogany hair flowing out behind her as she took out an enemy ninja.
The braid Sachi had put in his hair was hidden beneath the bandana he wore and he tugged at it lightly to keep it from falling out.
Looking beyond the guards at the gate he already saw the reinforcements coming forth. A line of samurai and ninja all armed and ready were almost upon the gates.
Saizo began running, moving towards the gate quickly. He needed to get his sister out of the third division. She wouldn’t survive otherwise, but just as the thought entered his mind a large explosion suddenly erupted from the gate.
Bombs?
He stopped in his tracks as smoke blew from the gates, behind him dozens of samurai and ninja cheered, but he just stared ahead, eyes disbelieving as his blood seemed frozen in his veins and he waited.
It took time for the smoke to clear up and he saw the bodies. So many dead, so many dying, but he couldn’t seem to see his sister.
He ran forward, tripping over dead bodies as he searched the gate grounds. He found Sachi finally, leaning against the gate door.
“ Brother??” she cried softly as he called her name.
“I’m here,” Saizo whispered grasping her hand in his. “ You’ll be fine.”
But he knew it was a lie. There was no way that she would survive. Saizo saw the burns along her chest and arms. She had been in the direct line of one of the bombs.
“ Saizo, please tell him,” she whispered, writhing in pain against the door as she reached out her free hand to clutch at his shirt. “ Please tell him that I love him.”
Saizo was taken aback as he looked down at her in shock, but she was smiling through the bloody tears flowing down her cheeks, looking expectantly up at him.
“ But he…” Saizo trailed off upon feeling the hand clutching his shirt tighten.
“ Please.”
“ As you wish,” he murmured putting a hand over hers and smiling reassuringly at her, but inside his chest ached painfully and he couldn’t seem to breath.
She smiled past the pain and her hand let go of his shirt. She died moments later.
“ Victory was ours all along!” one of the generals yelled from behind Saizo and he whipped around pushing himself to his feet.
“ Victory? You call using our own men as sacrifices a victory?” Saizo cried in outrage his voice cracking.
“ The orders that our lord gave us were to use the third division as bait,” the general hissed softly.
“ And set bombs under their feet to kill them all off,” Saizo yelled.
The general drew his sword placing it against Saizo’s neck, just beneath his chin. “ A servant does not question his masters integrity, if you continue speaking out of line I’ll kill you here and now.”
Saizo stared silently, before finally closing his eyes and nodding his understanding. The sword was removed and the celebrations began, but Saizo moved away from the other ninja and samurai, choosing instead to walk through the doors of the castle and follow the stairs to the upper floor.
“ Please tell him that I love him.”
Saizo counted the steps dragging himself up when he almost tripped. He was tired and wounded, but there was something he had to do first.
As he counted two hundred and twenty-seven steps he finally made it to the top floor of the castle.
He entered the room that he had left his lord in earlier that day and found the man sipping calmly at the sake in his hands, guarded by two samurai. The samurai welcomed him in and he knelt on the ground before his lord.
“ My lord, the attack was successful…” Saizo reported calmly.
“ What is the casualty total?”
“ Divisions two and three were annihilated and only half of division five remains, my division is left with only a quarter of its people,” Saizo said in the same monotonous drawl.
“ Good,” was the calm reply.
Saizo clenched his teeth and continued. “ My sister was one of the casualties and her last words are to you, my lord.”
Saizo’s lord looked up in intrigue, brows furrowing as he waved for him to continue.
“ She told me to tell you that she loves you,” Saizo finished looking up finally from the blood colored floor.
“ Hmm, and she was one of the casualties you say?”
Saizo nodded.
“ Well then I guess that’s too bad, isn’t it?” Saizo’s eyes narrowed slowly as he took in the words. “ I saw your sister, a pretty young girl, but you should realize Saizo, she was merely my servant.”
Saizo’s eyes fell back to the floor and he swallowed hard.
“ Only a woman born of noble background will bed with me. I don’t care for a dishonorable ninja…”
Saizo didn’t really remember what got into him after those words were uttered, but his hand moved to draw his sword and before he or his lord knew it, the blade was embedded foot deep in his lords’ chest.
There was an audible gasp both from his lord and the two guards and without even think twice Saizo whipped around to throw the last two shuriken he had saved into the guards necks, killing them instantly.
The man on the end of his sword was already dead and he pulled away, sheathing his sword again, before leaving back the way he came.
Ruien greeted him from the bottom of the steps, but Saizo kept walking past the cheerful warriors and out the door, stopping only once at the gates to the castle, to pick up his sisters’ cold body as tears fell down his cheeks.
The samurai and ninja wouldn’t notice their lord’s death for another few minutes giving him just enough time to walk in the direction of the Koga region and enough time to bury his sister along the way…
---------------
It was only a few weeks after his sister’s death that a strange man came with an offer.
“ I’m looking for someone to join the Juyushi, Sanada’s guard… We’re short one person,” the tall dark haired man said sitting behind Saizo on the forest floor.
“ You’re looking for someone to guard the Sanada? Then I suggest you look elsewhere,” Saizo replied absently trailing his hand over the bandana he wore.
“ I’m looking for someone to guard Sanada Yukimura. Tokugawa’s men are trying to off the Sanada family including him. I need someone with at least a little experience in battle to help protect him,” the tall stranger continued.
“ I do not care to serve any lord,” Saizo murmured.
“ I’ve heard rumors that you killed your former lord,” the man said.
“ Then you should have known better than to come here asking me for help,” Saizo replied.
“ Your former lord also happened to be sided with Tokugawa.”
Saizo’s head turned to look around his shoulder at the man sitting behind him. A curious look came over his face and he frowned at the stranger.
“ So you came here with an offer you knew I wouldn’t be able to resist. To get revenge for my sister,” Saizo marveled.
“ Yes. Your former lord was taking orders from Tokugawa, so the order to kill your sister was most probably delivered by Ieyasu himself,” the ninja replied, “ Yukimura-sama will one day face Ieyasu. If you want your revenge to come full circle then you will have to kill Ieyasu as well.”
“ Yukimura-sama…? Fine, I shall fill the empty seat of the Juyushi, as you wish,” Saizo murmured softly. “ Who are you?”
“ I am Sasuke. Sarutobi Sasuke,” was the reply. “ And you are Kirigakure Saizo.”
“ Heh, any suggestions on how I should act around my new lord?” Saizo asked jokingly.
“ Remember to smile,” Sasuke replied and Saizo blinked a few times at the man before shaking his head in disbelief.
“ Saizo of the Juyushi…”
----------
Looking this chapter over I felt like as if I was a little out of character with Saizo.
>_<; I hope it’s not that bad… Anyways this chapter was mostly there to put closer to the past I made for Saizo.
Chapter 2: Memories
Author: Shartae
Pairing: Saizo/Yukimura
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Putting closer to the past that I created for Saizo in chapter 1.
Notes: Well I decided to post chapter two here, cringes slightly. Hope no one minds.
Honor and Loyalty
Chapter 2: Memories
“ Hello? Anyone home?”
Saizo backpedaled just in time to miss running into Kamanosuke and looked up to figure out where he was and why he was there.
Oh yeah, that was right. Yukimura-sama had told him to do his duties while he went to the woods of Aokigahara. So he was going to secure the area around Kudoyama. He must have gotten caught up in his thoughts again…
“ Man, you’re a mess, Saizo,” Kamanosuke continued.
“ It’s nothing,” he replied absently and tried to get around the other Juyushi, but Kamanosuke sidestepped to get in his way, looking up at his face.
“ Excuse me,” Saizo tried and moved to get around Kamanosuke again, but the same thing happened again.
“ Damn it, Kamanosuke, move!” Saizo growled in agitation.
Kamanosuke laughed gingerly, shifting on his feet almost imperceptibly. “ You know Saizo, we should be able to take care of Kudoyama ourselves.”
“ Yeah, we can handle this place easily,” Jinpachi put in from behind him smirking at Kamanosuke.
“ So why don’t you go make sure Yukimura-sama doesn’t do anything he’ll regret later?” Kamanosuke suggested.
Saizo frowned in irritation and glared at the two Juyushi. “ Knowing you two it would be unwise for me to leave.”
“ Oh, come on,” Kamanosuke whined, moving to put an arm over Saizo’s shoulders. “ It’s been over a week since we’ve heard from Yukimura. What if something happened to him?”
Saizo turned his gaze to the forest floor.
Of course he was worried. He knew that Yukimura-sama had a knack for finding trouble, but Saizo reassured himself constantly. Yukimura-sama could protect himself, he had gotten much stronger after the tournament in Edo, and besides he had Sasuke with him.
But still…
“ We’ll watch over Kudoyama and you can go make sure Yukimura is safe. Kosuke will watch over Sakuya,” Kamanosuke continued.
Saizo paused a few seconds before carefully replying. “ I’ll go…”
“ Great! I’ll let the others know of the arrangement, we’ll keep our ears open for any news and inform you immediately,” Kamanosuke said happily, moving to stand beside Jinpachi.
Saizo couldn’t help but wonder at Kamanosuke’s suddenly cheerful mood, as he turned away from the two Juyushi and began walking down the trail. He looked back only once to see the two disappear from sight in the afternoon sunlight.
“ Were they trying to get rid of me?” he asked softly to himself.
He shook his head before finalizing his decision.
Yes, he would go to Aokigahara and make sure Yukimura-sama was all right. From there… It didn’t matter.
Saizo turned back into the direction he was going and ran, traveling along the forest. He had a long ways to go, but if he moved quickly enough he might reach the sea of trees by tomorrow.
He jumped along the trees using them as stepping-stones between him and his destination and as he ran he thought of how familiar this seemed. Like when he used to run with the former Sasuke at his side.
It reminded him of the first time he met Sasuke after…
-----------
“Saizo?”
“ How are the second and third divisions doing?” Saizo asked, unconsciously worried about his sister as the battle raged around him.
He dodged just in time to miss getting decapitated by one of the enemy samurai and thrust his sword out to catch the man in the gut. The man dropped like a stone and didn’t move.
Saizo’s sword was already coated with blood and he had run out of shuriken a long time ago. His shoulder hurt where a carefully aimed sword had cut through skin and muscle, but he was alive, which was more than many of the other ninja in his division could say.
It was the day of the big battle that he had fought for his former lord and his sister was located in the third division along with several hundred others.
“ The second division has been annihilated and the third is still holding the gate. They’re going to be facing reinforcements pretty soon though,” Saizo’s friend Ruien, murmured throwing his chained shuriken at a pair of samurai. The shuriken lodged into their throats and Ruien pulled back on the chains in his hands and decapitated them in an instant.
“ Our division is finished. Join what’s left of the fourth division and gather at the castle entrance. If the third division falls we’ll be left to guard the castle,” Saizo ordered.
“ What about those that can’t fight?” Ruien asked grimly as he sheathed his chained shuriken and pulled out his daggers to fend off a sword blow.
Saizo moved around to swing his sword up and over Ruien to slam it into the samurai’s skull.
“ Leave them,” he replied.
Ruien was fast to comply with the orders and Saizo shifted through the dead bodies littering the ground and moved towards the gate.
His eyes searched through the warriors standing ready at the gate entrance and he sighed in relief when he saw his sister, her long mahogany hair flowing out behind her as she took out an enemy ninja.
The braid Sachi had put in his hair was hidden beneath the bandana he wore and he tugged at it lightly to keep it from falling out.
Looking beyond the guards at the gate he already saw the reinforcements coming forth. A line of samurai and ninja all armed and ready were almost upon the gates.
Saizo began running, moving towards the gate quickly. He needed to get his sister out of the third division. She wouldn’t survive otherwise, but just as the thought entered his mind a large explosion suddenly erupted from the gate.
Bombs?
He stopped in his tracks as smoke blew from the gates, behind him dozens of samurai and ninja cheered, but he just stared ahead, eyes disbelieving as his blood seemed frozen in his veins and he waited.
It took time for the smoke to clear up and he saw the bodies. So many dead, so many dying, but he couldn’t seem to see his sister.
He ran forward, tripping over dead bodies as he searched the gate grounds. He found Sachi finally, leaning against the gate door.
“ Brother??” she cried softly as he called her name.
“I’m here,” Saizo whispered grasping her hand in his. “ You’ll be fine.”
But he knew it was a lie. There was no way that she would survive. Saizo saw the burns along her chest and arms. She had been in the direct line of one of the bombs.
“ Saizo, please tell him,” she whispered, writhing in pain against the door as she reached out her free hand to clutch at his shirt. “ Please tell him that I love him.”
Saizo was taken aback as he looked down at her in shock, but she was smiling through the bloody tears flowing down her cheeks, looking expectantly up at him.
“ But he…” Saizo trailed off upon feeling the hand clutching his shirt tighten.
“ Please.”
“ As you wish,” he murmured putting a hand over hers and smiling reassuringly at her, but inside his chest ached painfully and he couldn’t seem to breath.
She smiled past the pain and her hand let go of his shirt. She died moments later.
“ Victory was ours all along!” one of the generals yelled from behind Saizo and he whipped around pushing himself to his feet.
“ Victory? You call using our own men as sacrifices a victory?” Saizo cried in outrage his voice cracking.
“ The orders that our lord gave us were to use the third division as bait,” the general hissed softly.
“ And set bombs under their feet to kill them all off,” Saizo yelled.
The general drew his sword placing it against Saizo’s neck, just beneath his chin. “ A servant does not question his masters integrity, if you continue speaking out of line I’ll kill you here and now.”
Saizo stared silently, before finally closing his eyes and nodding his understanding. The sword was removed and the celebrations began, but Saizo moved away from the other ninja and samurai, choosing instead to walk through the doors of the castle and follow the stairs to the upper floor.
“ Please tell him that I love him.”
Saizo counted the steps dragging himself up when he almost tripped. He was tired and wounded, but there was something he had to do first.
As he counted two hundred and twenty-seven steps he finally made it to the top floor of the castle.
He entered the room that he had left his lord in earlier that day and found the man sipping calmly at the sake in his hands, guarded by two samurai. The samurai welcomed him in and he knelt on the ground before his lord.
“ My lord, the attack was successful…” Saizo reported calmly.
“ What is the casualty total?”
“ Divisions two and three were annihilated and only half of division five remains, my division is left with only a quarter of its people,” Saizo said in the same monotonous drawl.
“ Good,” was the calm reply.
Saizo clenched his teeth and continued. “ My sister was one of the casualties and her last words are to you, my lord.”
Saizo’s lord looked up in intrigue, brows furrowing as he waved for him to continue.
“ She told me to tell you that she loves you,” Saizo finished looking up finally from the blood colored floor.
“ Hmm, and she was one of the casualties you say?”
Saizo nodded.
“ Well then I guess that’s too bad, isn’t it?” Saizo’s eyes narrowed slowly as he took in the words. “ I saw your sister, a pretty young girl, but you should realize Saizo, she was merely my servant.”
Saizo’s eyes fell back to the floor and he swallowed hard.
“ Only a woman born of noble background will bed with me. I don’t care for a dishonorable ninja…”
Saizo didn’t really remember what got into him after those words were uttered, but his hand moved to draw his sword and before he or his lord knew it, the blade was embedded foot deep in his lords’ chest.
There was an audible gasp both from his lord and the two guards and without even think twice Saizo whipped around to throw the last two shuriken he had saved into the guards necks, killing them instantly.
The man on the end of his sword was already dead and he pulled away, sheathing his sword again, before leaving back the way he came.
Ruien greeted him from the bottom of the steps, but Saizo kept walking past the cheerful warriors and out the door, stopping only once at the gates to the castle, to pick up his sisters’ cold body as tears fell down his cheeks.
The samurai and ninja wouldn’t notice their lord’s death for another few minutes giving him just enough time to walk in the direction of the Koga region and enough time to bury his sister along the way…
---------------
It was only a few weeks after his sister’s death that a strange man came with an offer.
“ I’m looking for someone to join the Juyushi, Sanada’s guard… We’re short one person,” the tall dark haired man said sitting behind Saizo on the forest floor.
“ You’re looking for someone to guard the Sanada? Then I suggest you look elsewhere,” Saizo replied absently trailing his hand over the bandana he wore.
“ I’m looking for someone to guard Sanada Yukimura. Tokugawa’s men are trying to off the Sanada family including him. I need someone with at least a little experience in battle to help protect him,” the tall stranger continued.
“ I do not care to serve any lord,” Saizo murmured.
“ I’ve heard rumors that you killed your former lord,” the man said.
“ Then you should have known better than to come here asking me for help,” Saizo replied.
“ Your former lord also happened to be sided with Tokugawa.”
Saizo’s head turned to look around his shoulder at the man sitting behind him. A curious look came over his face and he frowned at the stranger.
“ So you came here with an offer you knew I wouldn’t be able to resist. To get revenge for my sister,” Saizo marveled.
“ Yes. Your former lord was taking orders from Tokugawa, so the order to kill your sister was most probably delivered by Ieyasu himself,” the ninja replied, “ Yukimura-sama will one day face Ieyasu. If you want your revenge to come full circle then you will have to kill Ieyasu as well.”
“ Yukimura-sama…? Fine, I shall fill the empty seat of the Juyushi, as you wish,” Saizo murmured softly. “ Who are you?”
“ I am Sasuke. Sarutobi Sasuke,” was the reply. “ And you are Kirigakure Saizo.”
“ Heh, any suggestions on how I should act around my new lord?” Saizo asked jokingly.
“ Remember to smile,” Sasuke replied and Saizo blinked a few times at the man before shaking his head in disbelief.
“ Saizo of the Juyushi…”
----------
Looking this chapter over I felt like as if I was a little out of character with Saizo.
>_<; I hope it’s not that bad… Anyways this chapter was mostly there to put closer to the past I made for Saizo.