Chapter 6

We'd been on the road for weeks now. Walking on foot, we were leading our horses down the dirt road in the forest when I felt a shift in the air, and I could tell that Len could feel it as well. Stopping in the middle of the pathway, I looked towards the trees. "You can come out now, we know that you're there."

Without another word, 6 bandits jumped out and started attacking us on all sides. We split them in half, I took three of them, and Len the rest. Together we worked like a well oiled machine, and when I was about to cut down the last one with my blade, a terrible feeling struck me in my gut.

It washed over me, filling me with dread.

Taking advantage of the situation, the last bandit tried to use a hidden dagger to strike me through my heart. A blow to the side knocked me to the ground, and out of it's path.

Getting up dazed, I saw the last bandit on the ground, lacking his head, and Len was nursing a wound on his left upper arm. "What happened, Kaguya-hime? You have never hesitated before."

"It was just a bad feeling." I told him. And what are you doing jumping in front of me like that? You could have gotten seriously injured. Come here and let me fix you up." Taking out the healing paste and bandages, I wrapped his wound.

Even when we were younger, Len was always too eager to throw himself in harms way if he ever thought that I was going to get hurt.

"I'll always protect you with my life Kaguya-hime, you know that," he said, looking me in the eye.

Shaking my head at him, I sighed. "Anyways," I said, changing the subject. "I think something bad has happened to Hideo-sensei, so let's get a move on."

Setting out again, this time on horseback, for the next day we sped through the forest as fast as our horses would allow.

Finding the battlefield was easy, but with all the chaos there was no way we were going to find him without getting to the base. So we stole one of the black and red uniforms of Hondo, covered our faces with matching scarlet scarves, and stashed our horses in the woods.

We slipped into the fighting seamlessly, biding our time until we had no choice but to fight. So we dodged blades and evaded friendly fire until we were in the heart of the fight.

We couldn't afford to waste time fighting when there was a chance that sensei was out there.

Wasting no energy in our movements, we barely paid attention to the other soldiers that witnessed the bloody massacre of bodies that were left in our wake. Unknown to us, the moral of the men was boosted when they saw how much of a difference we were making.

Soon enough the battle was picking up momentum again, with the Hondo army pushing the East enemy back until they called for a retreat.

Following them back to basecamp we began our search for sensei again. Unfortunately we didn't get too far until we were bombarded by the younger soldiers asking us questions about where we learned how to fight and introducing themselves.

Thankfully we were saved when one of their seniors officers came over to get their attention.

"Excuse me sirs, the general would like an audience with you." Len gave me a nervous glance which I just brushed off. "Right now," the man demanded as politely as he could.

Following the officer they were lead to a tent. It was larger than it looked on the inside. A large table stood in the center of it with a board used for strategizing on it. Beside the table stood, a tall middle-age man with graying brown hair.

His face was scarred and worn, and he had a tired look in his eye that said he had seen far too many good men die. He was dressed in breastplate armor with arm guards in the traditional Hondo red and black.

"Greetings, I am General Dai. You two must be the outsiders that changed the tides of the battle for us. As much as I want to thank you two, I must ask. What are you doing here? I am certain that I would have recognized your fighting style if you had been in my battalion. So let me ask again... Who are you?" The graying man spoke gruffly.

"It was not our intention to disrupt the battle or cause your forces any harm." I spoke diplomatically.

"Yes, I could tell that much by the uniforms you're wearing and the way you attacked the East army. But I want to know your names, and the reason why you are here. Any while you're at it, remove those masks."

Removing the scarves from our faces, I answered. "My name is Kaguya Ootsutsuki, and this is my right hand, Len. We are here to retrieve Hideo Unami and bring him back to the palace, as we've heard he'd been deployed to your forces."

I wasn't sure that this man was going to believe me at first. After all, what princess would leave her palace on her own accord and go into battle?

I could see General Dai observing my appearance closely, and even under all the blood, grime and dirt my Ootsutsuki heritage was easy to see. My skin was pale and clear of any blemish, sharp, pupiless lavender eyes with long lashed, and silver hair.

When it finally clicked in his head that I was telling the truth, he fell to one knee with a fist to his chest. "I apologize for my harsh words earlier my Lady. But if I may be so bold to ask... Do your parents know that you are here?"

"There is nothing for you to apologize for General, your paranoia is justifiable. And yes, they have been notified that I left the palace walls." (but they never exactly gave me permission to) "Please stand, as I said earlier, we are looking for Lieutenant General Hideo Unami. We didn't see him during the battle, do you happen to know where he is?

Suddenly the general's face expressionless face gained a sympathetic tinge to it. "Lieutenant General Hideo you say..." I could tell that the next few words out of his mouth weren't going to be pleasant. "He was injured very badly in yesterday's battle. I'll escort you to the medical tent right away."

As we walked briskly out of the tent and towards the other, he continued talking. "You know, he always speaks about you, gloating about your abilities." I could feel myself smile at his words. "He said you both were impressive with swords, but I suppose that I didn't believe him until I saw you two fighting myself. I would never have believed that the princess herself would show up find him, but he speaks highly of you, and thinks of you like his own daughter."

"Yes, he's been a constant in my life since I was 5 years old." I said. "His training methods may not be conventional, but he is a good man."

Entering the med-tent I stopped, and for a moment I feared for what I may see. What if sensei was in worse condition than I thought? What if he was already dead?!

Before my thoughts could get any more out of hand, I felt a gentle grip on my shoulder. Following the hand up to Len, I gave him a shaky smile. I put my hand on his, gave it a squeeze, and walked into the tent.

The tent was well lit since the sun was shining high in the sky. As we walked further into the large tent, we passed many wounded men. The doctors were scuttling about and doing what they could for the poor men (and some of them were just boys). Some of them were bleeding out, others were getting stitches. Sometimes the beds were passed held bodies that had their faces covered with their bloodied white sheets.

When we made it to a closed off area I took a breath and pushed back the curtain.

Sitting up on his bed, looking almost the same as the day he left, was Hideo-sensei. When he saw us enter the area his eyes were filled with surprise, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing, a moment later it was replaced with worry.

"What are you doing here? War is no place for a princess to be! What if you died! What if-" he was caught off guard when I suddenly lunged at him with a hug. He let out a pained grunt, but I ignored it for the moment so that I could put my head to his chest to listen to his heartbeat. It was slow and weak, but it was there.

"I haven't gotten a letter from you for months. I got worried so I went looking for you. Don't worry, I'm not alone, I brought Len with me." I raised my hand to where Len was standing at the end of his bed.

Leaning back so that I could get a better look at sensei, I noticed that he was very pale looking, and had a sheen of sweat on his face. Something was wrong with him. Observing him from head to toe, I saw what the problem was.

"What happened to your arm! It's missing!" I yelled as I stood up from the bed. His entire right arm, from the elbow down was gone. The bandages went up what was left of his arm and covered most of his chest. "And what happened to your chest!"

"I lost it... and I'll never hold a sword again," he said sadly. "The bastard took me by surprise! And just as I turned around to face him, he-" He cut himself off as he coughed wetly. Putting his good hand in front of his mouth, blood leaked from it.

The wound on his chest opened and started to bleed through the bandages. "Sensei! Len, go get a doctor!" I ordered. Len ran from the room, and soon after doctors followed him back in. One of them came to our side to talk to us.

"My Lady, the injuries that General Hideo sustained are very extensive. The medical facilities we have available to us are not advanced enough for us to perform the surgery he needs. I'm sorry but with how quickly he is deteriorating, I would say he has less than 24 hours left," the doctor said somberly.

A sob left my mouth and I looked over to where the doctors were treating him. They were still hovering by his bedside but he seemed to be stable for now.

I shoved the doctors out of my way as I made my way back to sensei's side. Grabbing my hand I gave it a squeeze, more for my own comfort than Sensei's.

"Hey kido," he said weakly. "I guess you heard the news, sorry about that."

"You shouldn't be sorry about that. What you should be sorry about is not getting that girlfriend you promised me you would get. What about my dream of becoming an aunt!? Now the only people you're going to be leaving behind are Len and I! How could you be so... so! Selfish!" I yelled historically as Len held me back from throttling Hideo sensei's neck.

Thrashing wildly I continued yelling "How... How could you just leave us?! Leave me?! Aren't we worth more than that?! You've been with me for 11 years! And len for 6! Doesn't that mean anything?! Don't WE mean anything to you?!" Eventually I just broke down sobbing into Len's arms as he rubbed my back soothingly.

"Hey..." Sensei started . "Of course you mean something to me. Hell, I think of you like you're my daughter. And maybe I never got around to getting married or dating, but to me, both of you are enough. And even if it will only be you two who are going to miss me, that's more than I could ever ask for. But one thing I don't want you to do is to not regret my death, because that, to me, would be an insult. My death will be honorable, and while it may not have been on the battlefield, it will still be one of a true warrior. Please, do not disgrace that." His voice was quiet, but strong and clear.

I sniffed ungracefully, and turned back to sensei. "You're right. I'm sorry sensei, forgive me." I bowed my head in remorse.

"There's nothing to be forgiven. Now come here and give this old man a hug."

We spent the next 12 hours joking around and sharing stories from our youth. The mood had an underlying bittersweet feeling to it, but the air was light.

"And then, just when they thought they had me... they ran head first into the glass! The maids had cleaned it so well that they couldn't even tell that it was there!" The three of us laughed loudly as Len finished his story about the time he outran shopkeepers he stole from.

"That's my boy," Sensei spoke with a proud gleam in his eyes. His eyes closed for a second longer than a blink and his head drooped for a moment. It was obvious he was forcing himself to stay awake for us.

"If you're tired you can sleep you know. We'll be here when you wake up in the morning." Len said. As much as I wanted to object with what he was saying, I knew that it was true. Sensei was only staying awake for our sake. And even though we'll be here in the morning, I know that he won't be there with us.

"He's right." I agreed. "You can sleep now, we'll be fine."

Sensei fell asleep that night and didn't wake up the next morning.

There you have it, my next chapter.

I had some free time this week and ended up writing down a rough outline of what was going to happen in this story. Of course there is not much detail, but there is at least something for me to go off of. When you're writing though, things are bound to change and not be exactly the way you planned it.

If you could leave a review, that would be great. Reviews are the redbull of fanfiction writers