Title: Lessons Learned
Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Brave 10. However, I do own many of the wrongs :D

Word Count: 2,952

Characters: Saizou, Kamanosuke

Summary: In which Kamanosuke discovers that feelings can be sharper than swords.

"It's not fair," Kamanosuke muttered to himself as he walked through the woods on the edge of the Sanada grounds, the weak evening light fading with each step he took. He could hear the noise of the others in the distance behind him, laughing and shouting, and he could heard someone singing faintly; Yukimura probably. Kamanosuke pictured the look Rokuro would have on his face at his Master's inappropriate behavior and began to smile, then frowned instantly. Everything was wrong; he wasn't meant to be here with people. With them. People weighed you down, and ended up as baggage. He didn't need or want any of them.

Except he did.

He sighed noisily as he dropped his head down to his chest. This was all very complicated and confusing, and he really wished he could get it all sorted out and get back to how it was before. The thrill of the fight, of losing himself in the battle – win or lose, live or die; he didn't really care which, as long as it was worth it. As long as his blood sang, it didn't matter. And so far – in his short, violent life – nothing had come close to the feeling he felt when his life was on the line.

Until now. The feeling of Saizou's hand on his head, the warmth that spread through his body at the touch, had made him shiver more than he had done in the height of his greatest battles, and it scared him. The thought alone was laughable - Yuri Kamanosuke, scared of another person. He wasn't scared of anyone, of anything. He courted death. Or so he had thought, but now… When he saw the cautious kindness in Saizou's eyes when he spoke with Isanami, or the hesitant understanding when dealing with the rest of the Braves, even when the words themselves were harsh, the tone and the meaning weren't. Feelings didn't come easily to that man and yet, there they were, and whenever he saw the man talking to the Priestess it made him feel jealous. Of who or what, he wasn't quite sure, but one thing he was sure of was that it annoyed him to no end. He looked up and rolled his eyes in frustration, and that was probably what saved him from death.

The slice of a sharp blade still took him by surprise, cutting open the side of his neck in a blaze of hot, bright pain. It stunned him and took him off-balance, and there was another jab of pain in his side. Masumune's ninja! He thought with some surprise as he let out a war cry and he reached out for his blade, but his hands were too slow and too uncoordinated. Too late, he realized the reason – the knivess had been coated in a viciously fast-acting poison. He could feel it racing through his veins, tracing a path of fire through his body and he reacted instinctively, but the poison already had a hold on him. For the first time ever, he fumbled as he reached for his weapon, and it was his mistake.

He felt, rather than saw, the ninja approach him and there was a small thought at the back of his mind that this was the most unfair thing of it all, that he couldn't even go under the hands of Saizou, with those dark eyes staring into him and releasing him of the weight of his past. The edges of his vision were going black and his legs gave way underneath him. He dropped to his knees and he was just waiting for the inevitable, when he felt the force of a hurricane flash past him, and the last thing he saw before his world went dark was a familiar figure, clad in black with a great sword in his hand.

"Saizou?"

The man lifted his head at his name from the unmoving figure lying in front of him and turned towards the open shoji door to see Isanami standing there, looking uncomfortable and awkward. She looked at him and blushed slightly, rubbing the edge of one sleeve with the opposite hand.

"Yes," he asked shortly, then cut himself off. He took a deep breath and tried again. It wasn't as if he was angry with her. "What's the matter, Isanami?"

The girl looked at him, then at the floor. "I-I just wanted to see how he was doing," she said quietly and her head rose briefly to look at the man curled up in the small futon on the floor. "Is he going to be ok?" She looked up at him, and Saizou all but flinched at the raw emotion in her eyes. The fact that the small girl that had - not so long ago - actually been kidnapped by this crazed man and was now almost in tears at the thought of him being at death's door was just bizarre.

Yep. He was definitely surrounded by the strangest of people..

"He'll be fine." He looked back to the redhead who was breathing quick and shallow but even. "The poison was pretty nasty, but it seems his body is as stubborn as his personality so I'm sure he'll be ok."

Isanami smiled. "I'm glad," she said, as she went to leave the room. "I'll come back with some tea, ok, Saizou." The latter was a statement, rather than a question, and he didn't bother to reply. She probably wouldn't have listened to what he said anyway.

"It's ok. She's gone now." He watched as Kamanosuke's breath faltered, and felt him hesitate before opening one eye, then the other. He blinked in the light of the late afternoon sun coming through the closed door.

"You're sharp," Kamanosuke said blankly, then his eyebrows furrowed. "But you didn't have to be mean about me if you knew I was awake." He scowled.

"Mean?" Saizou replied. "You are stubborn. It's a fact."

Kamanosuke huffed and rolled over to face the opposite wall. "I don't know what you're doing here if you're just going to insult me." Saizou rolled his eyes.

"Fine," he sighed and pushed himself off the floor. He didn't know what he was so annoyed about - it wasn't as if he was expecting a thank you or anything, but still…

"Why are you here?"

He barely caught the words as he got up, but they stopped him in his tracks. "Huh?" He glanced back.

"Why are you here? With this lot?" Kamanosuke repeated, and he turned over to look straight at Saizou, his eyes gleaming in the light as he sat up, his hair falling around his face and over his shoulders in a way that the ninja thought was so opposite to it's crazy, chaotic owner.

Saizou shrugged as he glanced away, feeling as awkward as he did when Sasuke had confronted him in the garden not so long ago. There was still that feeling that he was betraying himself deep inside, but he knew now that it was nothing of the sort. He now had people to look after, to look out for, and that was something he had sworn he would never do again and yet, here he was. He looked down at the brilliant green eyes staring back at him. How did he get himself into these situations?

"Do you have siblings?" Saizou asked, as he sat down again, legs crossed over one another as he made himself comfortable.

"What kind of a question is that?" he got as a sulky reply.

"A very valid one." Saizou replied, as he folded his arms in his lap. He had a feeling this was a loaded question. Hell, if anyone had asked him the same one he probably would've sliced them open by now, but he'd noticed something that he'd not seen before. That he hadn't wanted to see before, maybe. The kid was young – yes, a kid – much younger than him, and yet he'd seen so much. Too much. He wasn't exactly a role model but he could tell Kamanosuke had been through more than he could imagine. For his part, the redhead looked wary. Reserved, even. For a few moments, it looked like Saizou was going to be ignored, and then he got a reply.

"I had two older brothers," Kamanosuke started, as he lay on his back to stare at the ceiling, careful not to catch Saizou's eyes, and he noticed the reflection on the ceiling from the small carp pond outside the room. The pattern shifted and changed in front of him, melting from one thing to another, always coming back to the same thing. "I was always the youngest and the weakest..." He trailed off, words left unspoken.

Saizou now understood how Sasuke had felt before. He wasn't the kind of man that would take a flying leap off a roof to head-butt a man into talking – well, ok, maybe he was, but not in this case. He felt as if he were dealing with a wild animal here, one false move and it would take flight and run away. For some reason, he felt a strange kind of affection for Kamanosuke – something that probably stemmed from similar past experiences. "I didn't have siblings, but I had someone I looked up to. He was almost like a brother to me. He taught me everything I know."

There was a pause, and Saizou held his breath. He prayed to any god that was listening that Isanami didn't appear in the next few minutes – not that he disliked the priestess, not really, but he knew that her outwardly carefree personality would make Kamanosuke retreat into his shell again and who knows when he'd get him to open up again. Not that he was entirely sure why he felt it was so important he did so, but he has recently given up trying to understand his own actions anymore. Just being in Yukimura's vicinity seemed to do strange things to people.

"The strongest survive, right?" Saizou carried on. "Those who are weak will die and, therefore, whomever they leave behind must be strong… They left me behind and I survived, I killed and I fought. That makes me strong, right?"

Saizou had no answer to the obvious question. Does killing really make you stronger? He had asked himself that question many times throughout his journey, when he saw those he believed in cut down in front of him like nothing more than reeds in a stream. How could he explain it to someone else when he didn't even know himself. "It depends on what you believe, I suppose. If you believe in karma, in fate, or in youself." Saizou shrugged. "Only you can decide what is important to you." He stood up, straightened his clothes out, and made his way to the door giving one last glance over his shoulder. "Once you're well again, you'll get your fight." He saw the excitement glitter in the deep green eyes before his slid the door shut on them.

"Ah, Isanami – he's resting now so won't need any tea," he said as he passed the young girl outside the room and he gave a small smile as he walked away, leaving her looking confused.

"You're not gonna get away easily!" Kamanosuke shouted as he whirled the bladed edge of his kusarigama over his head, the fingers of his other hand playing with the chain as though he was petting it lovingly, the links running through his palm with ease. He could feel the blood running through him, and for the first time in days, he felt normal, alive, ready. "I've been waiting for this, Saizou. Come at me!" he shouted.

The ninja widened his stance, one foot slightly behind the other, bent his knees and reached behind him to unsheathe his sword. He wasn't entirely sure he'd made the right decision here. He wouldn't put it past the kid to be crazy enough in the heat of bloodlust to defy Yukimura's orders and actually strike the killing blow, even though Saizou was quite sure he didn't really want to kill him. He closed his eyes briefly, listened to what was around him, shifted his weight slightly then opened his eyes and attacked with a cry of intent.

It was apparent from the first few blows that their styles were leagues apart. Kamanosuke relied mostly on surprise and his wind attack and threw himself into every battle with everything he had. Saizou had learnt early on in the fight that if you took the element of surprise away from him, his strength diminished considerably, and if you made sure he was on the defense all the time he didn't have the time to call the wind. Saizou took advantage of this knowledge and moved quickly and deftly in and out of Kamanosuke's space. The kusarigama only worked if you had the space to spin either the blade or the weight at the end of the chain and he worked to deny him this, darting in close to force a reaction, then coming in from the other side, or behind, or in front, constantly pushing him into reacting rather than acting.

Kamanosuke didn't know what had happened. When the fight began, he was confident, full of energy and focused on enjoying the fight, but the other man stopped every move he tried to make. His attacks shortened each step and cut off each swing, and soon he began to get impatient and frustrated. He began to lose his timing, his throws and attacks off-balance and he was constantly half a step behind the other man. He shouted in frustration, lunged in for an attack, and that's when it happened.

Saizou saw his chance, stepped in and sliced upwards with his sword, catching the blade of the kama underneath and, with one last blow, separated the blade from the chain. The two men watched as it spun off into the trees at the edge of their battlefield then they turned back to face each other. Kamanosuke looked back to where his blade had fallen, then down to his hands.

"But… I don't…" He sunk to his knees, still staring at his now-empty palms, and then brought them up to cover his face. "I don't understand." He wailed in confusion. Saizou felt a rather surprising stab of pity in him, and he wondered if he'd been too harsh in his teaching. He knelt down next to the fallen man and reached out. "Go away," Kamanosuke shouted as he waved the other man's hand away, and Saizou blinked, then snorted.

"I didn't know if you would understand the lesson, but I know you have."

"Don't patronize me, you bastard!" he got in response, and Saizou waited a few more minutes until the sobs had subsided before he spoke again.

"I'm not patronizing you, I'm trying to help - and I know you know this, because if you didn't then you wouldn't care. So shout at me all you want."

Kamanosuke sniffed and wiped his nose surreptitiously on the back of his sleeve. "No", he said, almost pouting and Saizou couldn't help it. He threw back his head and laughed.

"Oh, thank god. I thought I might actually have broken you there, but then where would the fun be in that?" he smiled at the kid glaring at him through the loose hair that had covered his face. "You know why I beat you, don't you? It's no use relying on things like strength and surprise when you can't read the opponent. Relying on the same tricks over and over again makes you complacent and predictable - and in a battle, predictable means dead. Yeah, of course you're strong, but strength means nothing if you can't react to a situation."

He got a sniff in response. "But if I can't fight, what am I meant to do?" Kamanosuke said in a quiet voice, his eyes focused on the ground. "What else can I do?" he looked up suddenly, and Saizou saw the very real look of fear in his eyes, which made him feel a little guilty – but lessons like this had to be learnt the hard way, especially with guys as headstrong as him. Words didn't mean anything unless they were accompanied by actions – preferably those with sharp, pointy blades.

"That depends," he said, as he walked over to the fallen man, arms crossed in front of him. "You can stay, or you can go. Of course, I can't promise that Sanada wouldn't hightail it after you if you chose the latter – he seems to have seen something interesting in you, that's for sure." He bent down and reached out his hand.

Kamanosuke hesitated, and Saizou could see the inner struggle, one that he'd gone through himself not so long ago. He was lost for a moment inside his head before he was interrupted.

"If I stay, can we play again soon?" Kamanosuke asked, as he reached up to grasp Saizou's extended hand and got to his feet. "Can we?" his eyes were shining brightly in anticipation.

"You really are crazy aren't you," Saizou said with a small smile. "Fine, ok, whatever you want," he replied and reached out the tousle the kid's hair. "Who am I to refuse such an interesting offer?"

Kamanosuke grinned and went running off to pick up his broken kusarigama which was still lying in pieces in the grass. "Next time, I'll beat you – just you wait and see!"

Saizou watched the small figure run off into the distance. I don't think I'll be bored for quite a while, at least, he thought with a small smile.