Hello again or for the first time, Murayama Tsuru here. Tonight, instead of updating my Naruto story, I decided to start another story. This idea has been pestering me for a while, so I felt the need to write it down before the idea left me. This story will probably be updated on Sundays until the Naruto story is over. Then, once Manipulated Memories is completed, it will either move to Saturday or Friday, not sure which yet. So, without further ado, here's the first chapter of this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gintama; it belongs to Sorachi Hideaki-Sensei…wow, I don't have to add the bit about not owning NCIS this time…I know, that has nothing to do with anything ^_^ just felt like saying it.

Hijikata was running down an alley way chasing after someone with long black hair. At first, Hijikata had thought it was Katsura Kotaro running away from his arrest again. Which wasn't unusual, since that coward of a terrorist seemed to be the king of running away. Why couldn't he and his duck-penguin companion just stop running and accept that they belonged in jail?

But then, when Hijikata finally caught up to the long-haired person, and turned them around to confirm that it had been Katsura he was chasing and not some innocent, Hijikata was shocked by what he saw. The long haired person had Katsura's hair and clothes, but the face was off. The small, slightly stupid yet strangely intense eyes that Hijikata usually had the displeasure of seeing were replaced by the larger, emotionless, reddish-brown eyes of Okita Sougo.

Once the Okita-Katsura combination noticed that Hijikata had realized who he was, he said in a very Okita-like voice, "Well, Hijikata-san, you seem surprised."

The raven haired man gave Sougo a withering look, "Really, I look surprised? What the hell are you doing Sougo?"

"Well," Sougo said with a smirk that didn't seem to fit what Hijikata thought Katsura's personality was at all (Hijikata had always imagined that the former Joui Shishi was incapable of making anything even related to a smirk), "this is your dream. What do you think I'm doing here?"

Hijikata scowled, as usual Sougo seemed to want nothing more than to piss him off by somehow being both seemingly innocent and smug at the same damn time. But before he could say anything further, the Sougo/Katsura combination's smirk grew feral and a gleam came into his eyes that Hijikata did not like at all.

And then, somehow, swords were drawn and the two were fighting each other. But, just as suddenly, Sougo-Katsura managed to get Hijikata's Katana away from him and as he scrambled to retrieve his sword, his opponent's blade came down in a sharp, deadly arc.

Hijikata Toshiro woke up with a curse on his lips and an extremely annoyed look in his eyes. That nightmare he'd just had seemed to ensure that today was going to be a bad day for him. Dreaming that Sougo was being himself and that Katsura was running away from arrest were usual dreams for him. But the strange combination meant that surely today wasn't going to go well for the raven haired vice-captain of the Shinsengumi at all.

And sure enough, once he'd lit his first cigarette of the day and opened the shades in his room, he was greeted by the ominous presence of dark clouds that promised rain. With a sigh, Hijikata watched the clouds as his first cigarette burned down into a small nub.

With another sigh, Hijikata put out his cigarette and then got dressed rather slowly, not really wanting to go on with his day but knowing that delaying wouldn't be any better. At least he was able to have his first smoke of the day in peace. Hijikata then left his room and headed to the mess hall for a breakfast that he would inevitably drown in his beloved mayonnaise.

Which is what he was about to do when Yamazaki Sagaru decided to interrupt his morning ritual. As Hijikata had his arm poised, ready to dispense the delicious (to him anyway) whitish-yellow condiment onto whatever they were being served this morning (Hijikata never paid any attention until whatever it was, was drowned in Mayo) when the badminton playing, Anpan eating spy came up to him and said, "Fukucho, Kondo-san wants to see you right away."

Hijikata turned to glare at the Shinsengumi's spy, making the poor guy flinch violently. But, after holding Yamazaki in his annoyed gaze for a while, Hijikata turned back to his breakfast and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth (realizing that they were having French toast with an egg on top). And, after gulping down a large cup of coffee (also drowned in Mayo), Hijikata stood up and nodded to Yamazaki as 'thanks' for telling him that Kondo was looking for him.

After Yamazaki gave a returning nod that was confused, relieved and scared all at the same time, the vice-captain then strode out of the mess hall, chuckling just slightly to himself that he could still make Yamazaki so nervous. 'Maybe today isn't going to be so bad after all', Hijikata thought as he walked over to Kondo's room.

But when he got there, he learned that today was going to be a bad day after all. When Hijikata had knocked at his boss's door he heard a coughing fit and then a hoarse, "Come in Toshi."

"Are you alright?" Hijikata had asked, even though he knew from the sound of Kondo's voice that the leader of the Shinsengumi was clearly not alright. But, being the slightly (very, very slightly) polite person he was to Kondo Isao, he felt the need to ask the question anyway

So then, after Kondo had said that he was fine, Hijikata opened the door to find his boss lying on his futon, nose red and running, and the rest of his exuberant boss paler than usual, he was reaffirmed in the notion that his boss was most certainly not ok.

Kondo motioned for Hijikata to sit down somewhere and when Hijikata had done so, sheepishly rasped, "I'm sorry to impose this on you Toshi, but can you go to the meeting with Matsudaira-Tocchan for me? I would go myself, but it seems that I'm a little sick…"

"'A little' are not the words I would use to describe how sick you are, Kondo-san." Hijikata said bluntly, "How did this happen anyway? Were you out all night at Shimura Tae's house again?"

At that, Kondo turned an even brighter pink than his runny nose. Shaking his head fervently (and then stopping suddenly as he became dizzy), Kondo said, his voice even raspier than before "N-no, I wasn't standing outside Otae's window singing to her until she came out and dumped water onto may head saying that the water in the bucket was stale and it was time to get more from the well…"

Hijikata sighed tiredly, thinking 'And that is exactly what you were doing, wasn't it Kondo-san. When will you learn that that gorilla of a woman doesn't like you back? I really should talk to her about making you sick; it messes up the schedule around here…'

Noticing Hijikata's increasingly annoyed look, Kondo's eyes took on the look of an abandoned puppy as he said, "I know I should have come back to dry off right away Toshi, but I just couldn't let her go to the well alone…so I followed her and then after walking for miles I lost her and realized that I was lost was forced to wander around in the dark for hours until I finally made it back…but if you don't want to go to the meeting for your foolish boss, I understand…I'll somehow manage on my own…"

As Kondo went on, Hijikata ran and irritated hand through his hair and thought about lighting another cigarette, but ditched the thought when he realized that that might not be the best thing for a sick gorilla (ahem, excuse me, I meant to say person) and said, "You're not going anywhere, Kondo-san. You just stay here and I'll go to the meeting. I'll make sure that Yamazaki knows that he's to take care of anything you need."

After some thank yous and apologies from a happy Kondo, Hijikata left the room thinking that fools actually can get colds (despite a usually high opinion of his boss, there were certain moments when Hijikata could only think of Kondo as an incredible idiot). The Vice Captain then returned to the mess hall where the bland Shinsengumi spy was. Once there, he made sure that Yamazaki knew he was to keep everyone in line today so that Kondo would be able to recover soon.

Once Hijikata did everything he thought he needed to do (this was one of the many times that he felt relieved that Sougo liked to stay in bed until late afternoon, it made things much easier for everyone), he left to meet Matsudaira Katakuriko for whatever meeting they were going to have.

As he left the Shinsengumi complex, the sky finally decided to open up and let out the rain that Hijikata had known was coming earlier. He should have taken this as a sign that it would probably be a bad idea to go out and do anything, but he didn't have the time to think about that, so he put up his umbrella and kept walking, the smoke from his almost too wet cigarette wafting into the sodden air.

Of course, the meeting with Matsudaira was just the old man ranting about how his daughter wouldn't speak to him for some stupid reason or another and how he needed to get the Shogun out to some cabaret club. Hijikata wondered why Kondo's boss needed him, or Kondo-san for that matter, present for this one-sided rant, but didn't voice this question aloud. Unfortunately, though, Hijikata was forced to pay attention through this whole rant as he felt he had to take notes for his boss (in case Kondo had to follow up with Matsudaira later).

Once the interminably long meeting was finally over, Hijikata left the meeting place lighting two cigarettes at the same time, to relieve the stress that inevitably came with a meeting with Matsudaira Katakuriko. But as soon as he was out of the room, his radio buzzed to life with a static-y voice saying urgently, "Attention all Shinsengumi members, earlier today, a Joui Shishi member or unknown origins bust into the complex this morning and stole some important blueprints. All members on active duty must be on the lookout for this man."

Then, as Hijikata started looking for this person as the rain began to pick up, the message proceeded to describe the perpetrator as a tall man wearing a black cape and a Sugegasa. Hijikata groaned internally, the description wasn't very good, since it was raining at the moment, there were bound to be plenty of people wearing cloaks and rain hats.

But then, Hijikata spotted a Shinsengumi uniform in an alley way and decided to see what was up with that person. When he arrived he asked the guy (someone he didn't remember the name of), "What are you doing here?"

The man, without looking at Hijikata said, "I saw the guy who stole the blueprints run out of the Shinsengumi complex so I followed him. I thought I lost him for a while, but found him again just now."

Hijikata nodded and drew his sword, facing the person who the man had cornered. The guy in the black cape and the sedge hat didn't look scared that he had been cornered by two Shinsengumi members, but he didn't look particularly happy about this situation either.

When Hijikata yelled at the guy to either hand over the blueprints and turn himself in quietly or be prepared for his execution right there, the man said nothing and Hijikata and the other Shinsengumi member charged, their swords poised for the kill.

When Hijikata and the other Shinsengumi member were close enough to the man, Hijikata distracted the man in the sedge hat when the other Shinsengumi member somehow managed to locate the blueprints.

Then several things happened at once. The other Shinsengumi member grabbed the blueprints at the same time as Sugegasa man managed to rip Hijikata's Katana from his grasp. The man then used Hijikata's sword to kill the other Shinsengumi member, but he didn't make a move to retrieve the blueprints again.

Then, in a move that stunned Hijikata, the Sugegasa man handed Hijikata back his Katana and growled in a deep, rumbling voice, "Don't think you won't regret interfering with our plans Hijikata Toshiro. I'll be back soon enough and then you'll be sorry."

Before Hijikata could say anything in response, the Sugegasa man scaled the walls and landed on the roof without missing a step in the rain. As the man turned to leave, Hijikata saw a flash of angry, blue eyes.

Hijikata was about to chase after the man when he heard footsteps close behind him. Knowing it was other Shinsengumi members, Hijikata was almost relieved until he realized that the other Shinsengumi member was now lying in a pool of his own blood and Hijikata was holding the evidence of what had just occurred.

With a sinking feeling, Hijikata heard the footsteps grow closer and then the voice that he knew he'd head drawled, "Hijikata-san, what are you doing here?"

And that is the end of this chapter! Yay, we're starting if off with cliffhangers! As I said before, this story will probably be updated on Sunday starting next week. And for those of you who were expecting the Naruto story tonight, don't worry I will update that on Sunday. So, as always, if you'd like please leave a review, I love to know what you guys think ^_^ see you on Sunday guys.

-Murayama Tsuru