Author: Nami-chan.
Pairing : :DateSana, MotoMoto, KoSasu, IeMitsu, and some other I won't spoil
Disclaimers : I think we all would like to have the on right Sengoku Basara, but it's not my case
Dragon Tales Book Two
Part 13
Few torches were casting a sinister light on the great statue that was erected against the wall. The few Japanese candles arranged before it were giving a strong smell of molten wax across the hall. The incense sticks that Mitsunari had planted when he sat to meditate had consumed since a long time.
The statue was a huge bust his lord had ordered some time ago when he was still working on the country unification. Just ... nothing had been done to the end. The wall murals weren't painted, the ornaments weren't arranged properly, the facial details weren't carved at the finest, the room itself wasn't the majestic final resting place that Hideyoshi would have liked to have.
No one could have predicted his premature end. And all of it because of one man. A man in whom Mitsunari had faith, a man he had let approach him. This man had called himself his friend, the man who had claimed to have fallen in love with him ... and he had allowed that traitor to touch him, he had let that traitor mark him ... he had let him reach his heart.
Meditating in front his lord's unfinished statue, Mitsunari bit his lower lip, trying every little suffering that could help him feel less guilty of his crime.
Many times he had cleansed his body, took icy baths and rubbed his skin raw. Nothing helped. He still could feel Ieyasu's lips on him. He could still hear the sweet words whispered in his ear. All these lies ... all this poison.
And he had believed everything. He was so naive.
Enraged to have such a thought in front of his lord, he straightened up.
"Ieeeeeeeeyassssuuuu" he yelled. "Hideyoshi-sama will be avenged, believe me. You can always hide like the vermin you are on Mikawa cliffs... wherever you are on this land I will hunt you down and I'll kill you... you and all those traitorous worms who followed you. "he swore in a growl.
It's been a moment since the man covered with bandage had entered the mausoleum, watching his lord silently and cold as stone. Still sitting on his platform, he had floated toward Mitsunari, waiting to be noticed. Otani watched as his childhood friend sank, the only person who ever meant something for him was now experiencing a suffering like no other on this land.
How a man accustomed to pain as he could hope to help this poor soul?
Hearing Mitsunari pronounce the culprit name with so much bitterness helped Otani to understand what to do.
"Mitsunari-kun." he called with soothing voice.
Mitsunari wasn't surprised that Otani Yoshitsugu had finally found him. The lunar General finally turned to face the strategist. As usual, the strange man was floating on his palanquin behind him, avoiding the torchlight.
"Gyobu." Mitsunari made said calmly, calling him by his childhood nickname.
The man seemed relieved that his master finally spoke to him, he let his palanquin float beside Mitsunari, raising his eyes to look at the lord of the Toyotomi's imposing statue.
"It is a tragedy that the stars brought upon us." He began with his croaked voice damaged by his disease. "They took our Lord Hideyoshi but also lord Hanbei ..." he trailed his sentence, leaving it to Mitsunari to finish it.
But the young samurai had returned to contemplating his lord's image. Considering his comrade's word, everything clearly came back to him now... this had happened after that coward Ieyasu had fled.
The sadness of the loss of someone loved and important to him had left Mitsunari empty and exhausted. It was with difficulty that he still had the strength to hate Ieyasu then and yet it was this rage that prompted him to carry on, all directed toward one man. Mitsunari wasn't an idiot. He knew Ieyasu was too far away to be pursued now.
And there was Hanbei abandoned in Odawara ... how was he going to face the handsome man now ? How was he going to tell him that he had failed miserably?
With the help of the soldiers who hadn't fled with Ieyasu, they transported the giant's lifeless body to Odawara camp.
He had thought he would have found Hanbei where he had left him, beside the bodies of those two presumptuous dragons. Mitsunari was too concerned about Ieyasu's betrayal, too devastated by the Hideyoshi's disappearance to ever imagine that Hanbei could have tried to follow him in his state.
It was underestimated the handsome man's strength of will. For him too, Hideyoshi was his everything and that was one of the reason that forced the respect Mitsunari had for him. Hanbei had held until he finds his protege.. When he saw Hideyoshi with him, he had collapsed.
Hanbei state had worsened, but Mitsunari still refused to believe that the Toyotomi's strategist wouldn't recover.
The young man had rushed toward the oldest when he saw him fall face first on the ground. Soldiers had preceded him and had already put Hanbei in a more comfortable position when he joined them.
The look on Hanbei's face suddenly stopped him. The red color of blood at the corners of his lips contrasted with the pallor of death on his face. But still, the handsome man was smiling with the most beautiful smiles Mitsunari had ever seen on anyone. He dared not tell him what had happened.
Hanbei had reached out to him and Mitsunari had hesitated to take the offered hand because in a sense he too had betrayed Hideyoshi, he had also the trust Hanbei had in him. The young man stood frozen, staring at the handsome man while he retreated his hand, laying it on his chest, becoming weaker with each new second. Hanbei's expression didn't chance after Mitsunari reject, his lavender eyes staring blurringly at him like he couldn't see him, his irises reflecting another world.
"You did it. You ... saved Hideyoshi." he said under his breath.
Mitsunari wanted to shout that it was wrong, that he had done nothing of all this. He was weak, powerless when facing a treason he had thought impossible. It was useless because Hanbei had already joined Lord Hideyoshi in the other world.
Mitsunari found himself alone in the dark. Lost. He was unable to say what had happened next. What he did, how they returned to Osaka. Everything was darkness and suffering from then. He remembered the pain. In fact that was the only thing he could recall to have felt.
"Grief is another trial ... but as long as our enemy is still breathing the time to regret our dead will not be granted to us." Otani's somber voice brought him back to the present.
Mitsunari turned to his companion. The only one who stayed with him. How long before he would also leave him? It didn't mattered that the man was eaten away by leprosy, Mitsunari wouldn't let him go away, not as long as Ieyasu still live.
"Only you could avenge the memory of Lord Hideyoshi and preserve the glory of the Toyotomi." the man went on, seeking to motivate Mitsunari. "A leader who doesn't eat and doesn't sleep will soon be good for nothing. Shouldn't you bear Lord Hideyoshi's legacy ?"
So that was like this? He had come to give him a lecture. How his health was more important than avenging Hideyoshi's death?
"Hideyoshi was made to rule over these lands, not me. I won't find rest before the traitors are bathing in their own blood." Mitsunari roared.
"Ieyasu his back on Mikawa cliff, and other clans already joined him. We should-"
"Ieyasu! Ieyasu! Ieyasu! Stop pronounce that traitor name within these walls! I don't care how you will do it, I don't care what I will have to. you could use me as you see fit as long as this pig and all those who follow him are destroyed. "Mitsunari exploded, releasing his anger on his last ally.
Otani's mask hid his distorted smile. "All for you, my lord. Hanbei had already prepared some plans, we will start from the south to regain strength and soon your wishes will be satisfied." he said, bowing. He couldn't restrain a slight sneer.
Mitsunari seemed to regain a semblance of calm. "Well, come to my room later to discuss it. I'll go make myself clean."
Otani stayed behind, watching his lord's back as he descended the steps of the mausoleum. He gazed for a moment at the stars through the open roof.
"Soon every person on this earth will experience the same pain as my lord. Ieyasu ... this man who is responsible for your misery ... what fate the sky hold for him?
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Kai soldiers were marching in formation, heading for the battlefield with discipline and conviction. All men were standing uprighted,, fallowing their new general to a battle that veterans had already experienced several times. No one doubted Yukimura's ability to direct them, if there had been any doubt before, it had been cleared when the red demon had claimed loud and clear :
"As long as my heart beats, no one will bring dishonor upon the brave of Kai today!"
Maybe they weren't supposed to have heard that, since the young tiger had addressed to his fellow ninja. But Yukimura's voice had always been strong. Still, he was surprised when the soldier responded together in a stimulating clamor. So he contented to smile at them, continuing to make his mount advance before them to guide the army through the land.
The air had begun to get colder as the troops came closer to the battlefield. Echigo's mountain in the distance seemed to shine in their whiteness. The more they advanced towards their destination, the lower the temperature seemed to descend and soon their cheeks and exposed body parts were turning red from the cold.
The soft trickle of the river reached their ears, no sound other than their horses steps could disturb the place. Yet, the Uesugi clan's men were there on the Kawanakajima plain, separated by a ford. They waited patiently, the Lord Kenshin on his white horse watching them approach and get into their formation, his eyes never leaving Yukimura's fiery form.
Thick and heavy snow flakes began to cover the ground and an amazed whisper spread between the men of Kai. Rare was the snow in this season, few were the men who had grown old enough to experience a year cold enough to see the snow fall before winter.
"Is it some kind of magic?" wondered one of the senior officers posted beside Yukimura.
The young general couldn't answer him. His gaze was still fixated on Kenshin, and only Sasuke knew Yukimura enough to know about the non-verbal exchange between the two men. What they were saying belonged only to both of them.
Some men began to slightly show their fear when some of the river began to be covered by a thin transparent layer of ice.
"He brought the cold of the mountains with him!" a soldier blurted out.
Yukimura silenced the murmurs and exclamations, raising his hand up in the air. Glancing at them over his shoulder, he reassured his men.
"The War God challenges us brave of Kai! Many times with your my lord has succeeded in holding him! It's not today that Uesugi would make us tremble with fear!" Yukimura exclaimed.
Sasuke remained speechless after listening to Yukimura, a few hours before he was confiding his fear and now here he was motivating his troops as a great general would. The ninja had always had faith in Shingen, but this time was different, it was to risky for Yukimura ... if the young man failed...
He feared what Kenshin could do to test his young master.
The hesitation was quickly replaced by a new supporting clamor for Yukimura. The men got ready as they were waiting for their orders, eying the other army from the other side of the river.
"Hey," Sasuke said, "Is it really you, Yukimura? Or did the other one came back?" Sasuke asked with a teasing tone, unconsciously seeking to evacuate his own uncertainty and his own tension.
He was expecting for Yukimura to denies him with a sulky expression, but against all odds, the general gave him a small smile.
"I can't feel it in me anymore, Sasuke. Maybe that thanks to you I finally managed to make it go away." Yukimura said with confidence.
The ninja seemed skeptical at first , then he folded his arms behind his head. "Yare, yare." He said.
Then further down, he whispered. "I didn't know one could get rid of a possession this easily."
Kai's men were not so used to fight in such weather conditions while men from Echigo lived in the mountain snow. When spring came, Echigo was a beautiful green and flowery land ... but otherwise the temperatures were rough and hard, it was a welcoming land only in appearance. A land that accommodated only those who used to live there.
Kawanakajima was between Kai and Echigo, a land near Ueda and which since long ago was granted to the Sanada, so Yukimura was proud to defend it today, not only for his lord. Kenshin was an honorable opponent, his lord's estimated rival and somehow Yukimura knew he couldn't have hoped for a better opponent for his first battle without his Oyakata-sama's support. Well, of course he had often had to act alone with his own squad but ha had always acted to match a strategy, always with the shadow of Shingen behind him.
Today he wouldn't have this protection.
As he had reminded his brave, it wasn't the first conflict between Shingen and Kenshin at this very place, from a mere skirmish to a full battle, no one had ever really emerged victorious. Yukimura showing confidence toward his men because it was what Shingen had always shown him, but deep down he was afraid of not being able to reach their expectation.
No, it wasn't quite that. Rather, he knew he could do it, but at what price? Without his Oyakata-sama to guide him, the young tiger of Kai felt like a cub in his first hunt, left alone by his parents. The baby tiger had no choice but to fight and rise if he wanted to live trough this. Yes, it was exactly what Yukimura had to do, if he was beginning to doubt himself, it would be his death.
The snow continued to fall while none of the two generals seemed ready to give the first order to advance. Each armies remained on their side of the ford, not leaving the adopted formation. Yukimura was getting impatient as his hot blood tended to rush his choice. Meeting Kenshin's icy stare helped him cool down, but as time went on, the young tiger was beginning to wonder why the man persisted in showing no sign of hostility.
"Sasuke," Yukimura finally called out his aide.
The ninja tensed as he waited for the orders.
"I'm going to meet Kenshin, alone." Yukimura stated.
"What, but-" Sasuke protested, there was no way he would leaves Yukimura alone. "If he just want to parley, just send me or another messenger!" all this inspired him no good.
"No, it's between him and me. I would never inherit the tiger spirit if I do not know how to act on my own."
The ninja didn't even have time intervene, the young man gave a kick to his horse, heading towards the big red bridge that connected the two sides of the river. A surprised murmur passed among the soldiers.
"Stand your ground." Sasuke ordered .
The soldiers stopped their movement, now looking with worried eyes at their general who was heading straight to the enemy. Sasuke growled for a moment, muttering after this airhead who wouldn't listen to his advices. He didn't really like disobeying direct orders, but he hated even more the idea that he could find himself without an employer because he had failed to protect him ... it would be not good on his resume.
Damn, he missed the stupid and naive, he missed their futile conversations, he missed their peaceful moment ... he missed Kojuuro a lot too... Yukimura was selfish to go to fight alone, Sasuke needed to let of some steam too.
Moreover, he had a very bad feeling about Kenshin intentions. And he couldn't really understand what he should fear the most ... well it was too late to stop things anyway, so he could only support Yukimura's decision.
A dark shape stopped short Yukimura's progression. His horse reared and protested after being forced to stop so abruptly. The black form straightened up with grace and sensuality, revealing the Kasuga's slender figure, her long blond bangs fluttering in the wind. Her face was troubled by a murderous expression, her amber eyes accentuating it.
Yukimura's hand instinctively sought his spears at his side.
"Since he learned the fall of the tiger he changed ... I can't let you approach him while in this state. Even if it mean disobeying."
The Kunai she threw at the young tiger was arrested in mid-flight by a large Shuriken, the shock causing a deafening clang. Each weapon returned to its owner and the young woman's resentment became even greater when she found Sasuke before her.
"Always so quick to react Kasuga" he said.
"Sarutobi! Go away, I don't want to fight against you." the young woman yelled at the other ninja.
However she contradicted herself when she went after him, trying to hit him with a kick to go past him and reach Yukimura. Sasuke had to make little effort to parry her. Didn't she noticed that her current state of mind made her too predictable?
"I'll be your opponent if you will. You should understand what he is feeling, right? Your lord. You can go ahead general, I'll take care of her."
Yukimura nodded, jumping from his horse he grabbed his spears and tried to cross the bridge.
The Kunoichi rested on the wooden edge of the bridge, she raised her arms above her head, she had five kunai in each hand and it was like those were now attached to glowing strings between the falling snowflakes.
"No way!" she threw, trying to block Yukimura again.
"I told you I'm your opponent!" Sasuke said while he launched an air attack to disrupt the young woman.
Forced to return her attention back to the other ninja, she angrily when Yukimura gave her an apologetic as he got behind her. Sasuke wriggled to keep her focused on him, but whatever he does, she always tried to return to Yukimura. He had no choice but to use words to finally get a rise from her.
"Kasuga! Did You forgot what Oyakata-sama asked from your lord ? It's up to Kenshin to impose this ordeal to Yukimura! You wouldn't betray his trust too, huh?"
"My Lord is... my lord is ... he shouldn't answer to that man every whim !" she protested angrily.
She could not quite formulate what she felt. It was like the little world she had built around him would collapses anytime now, more than ever she felt Kenshin was in danger and she didn't know why.
"Jealousy is an ugly vice." he said, teasing her.
Sasuke dodged the attack with a back-flip. He contented to avoid her attacks as long as Kasuga wouldn't prevent Yukimura to go to face his trial anymore.
Yukimura slowed his pace when he came near Kenshin. Echigo's soldier stood up when they saw him coming near their lord, but the beautiful man gave them no orders, not even when Yukimura stopped a few meters in front of him. He quietly dismounted from his white horse. His footsteps crunched in the snow as he raised his hand towards the veiled sky, collecting the flakes in his gloved palm.
"This snow is even colder and frozen since my heart has stilled after hearing the news of his fall." he said.
Yukimura for a moment was confused by the man's words, then he pointed his spear towards Kenshin.
"Lord Kenshin! I am honored to confront you in the name of Oyakata-sama, I-"
"Oh?" Kenshin interrupted him, "Did the young tiger had finally earned its stripes?"
"I-I am no longer the young tiger of Kai! I'm now an adult tiger and I'll prove it today!"
Kenshin found a semblance of a smile, his hand fell slowly over his sword scabbard and drew it without further delay. His battle stance was familiar to Yukimura, but the tiger couldn't help but be intimidated facing the man. He just did everything he can no to let it be seen.
"Show me what you have been taught by that man!"
Kenshin's blade split air creating a flurry of snow. Yukimura's fighting instinct instantly wakened and he answered with his spear's fire.
Kenshin was an opponent that rivaled Yukimura's speed, the range of his long sword canceling the advantage that the red general had with his spears. It was difficult to reach the man ... and really different from what Yukimura was used to after so many duels with Masamune.
Had he been lazy, getting used to fight against only one opponent ?
But he knew by hearth the attacks, the parries and the counter attacks that man inflicted on him, even if he always had only been a witness to it.
Once or twice, Yukimura felt like he had the upper hand, only to systematically be rejected back. The spears in his hands had become heavy and difficult to carry, it was as if something prevented him to handle them with as much precision as he would have wished.
Yukimura came to nothing. Snow disturbed his field of view, the fire of his soul wasn't hot enough to prevent the cold from bitting him. Yukimura was losing the fight.
Kenshin's blade suddenly passed his guard, slashing his arm. Yukimura blood spread on the white snow, the crimson drops contrasting with the immaculate purity that had covered the ground.
The tiger froze, his eyes remained locked on the red spots.
"You seem to have lost yourself somewhere, young tiger." Kenshin said, emphasizing on the young, "In the past your eyes, like mine, reflected that rival you aspired to surpass... but now..."
The religious man seemed to have reached Yukimura's heart, and when the youngest looked up to him, his eyes shone with a new splendor.
"Oyakata-sama has faith in me!" Yukimura roared, brandishing his spears again.
"But ... you did go in battle without thinking." Kenshin sheathed his sword. Turning his back on Yukimura, he slowly returned towards his soldiers.
Yukimura found himself shocked by this gesture, wounded in his ego that his lord's estimated rival would refuses to fight him, but as he tried to fallow him, his foot sank into the ground. A sudden crunching sound made him look at his feet.
Another almost sickening crack sounded when he noticed that the fragile ice was slowly breaking under him.
Sasuke had always kept an eye on the battle that opposed Kenshin and his young master, a difficult task considering the fact that the blond kunoichi wasn't going easy on him. Each taunt he threw to destabilize made her stronger and more determined, and he had to admit that the Kasuga of his childhood, the tomboy who brawled all the time, had indeed changed.
Everything happened in a second, he too hadn't noticed how much Kenshin had pushed Yukimura toward the river. He too couldn't only hear the sharp crack of the ice.
"Yukimura !" He threw when his master fell into the freezing water.
Kasuga let him go when he rushed to help his master, herself unable to be realize that it was her sweet lord Kenshin who pushed Yukimura into the icy water, maybe sending him to death. She refused to believe what she had just seen.
The falling snow was more and more abundant and reduced visibility but Sasuke was sure about something, Yukimura should already have come out to the surface! There wasn't much ice and his armor pieces weren't heavy enough to drag him to the bottom, something was wrong ...
Yukimura saw the gray sky through the cold and glazed surface above him. He felt the darkness swallow him but he didn't want to fight against it. It reminded him of the warmth he had felt when Oichi, Oda Nobunaga's little sister had tried to drag him with her in here eternal night.
More than ever he felt the urge to give up taking over his body, like the water that filled his lungs gradually. Once again he was more than tempted to leave everything behind him, to forget everything that brought suffering upon him and he was given the chance to let it go. Shingen disappointment, his disgrace, the beast that lurked within him and waited with him unable to know about his true intention... the broken heart he was struggling to pick up the pieces ... if he died as a warrior, all of this wouldn't be mattering anymore, right?
"Idiot!" a voice yelled at hims suddenly.
Yukimura couldn't remember when he had closed his eyes, but the sudden warmth that wrapped around his frozen body helped him to open them.
He was surprised to recognize the silhouette eying him from the other side of the surface, brown hair were partially hiding his face but the two antler on his head and the blue scales on the hand that was reaching toward him could only belong to a person.
Only bubbles came out of Yukimura's mouth when he tried to call the man above him. He hadn't realized that he had swallowed so much water.
Then suddenly, the reaching hand plunged under the water, its sapphire claws closed around the six pieces pendant that adorned Yukimura's neck.
"You don't have the right to give up! You have to keep your promise, too!" the man voice growled.
Yukimura was pulled out of the water and he painfully coughed out all the water he had swallowed. He coughed and spat, the cold already shaking his wet body with uncontrollable shivering.
"This is madness! Did you wanted to kill him?" Sasuke's voice seemed muffled in his ears even though he could tell the ninja was screaming.
He felt the other snuggling against him, trying to bring him as much heat as he could provide.
"That was his test and he passed. You didn't give up life so easily."
Yukimura blurred vision recovered enough to see Kenshin put a blanket around his shoulders, a small smile playing on his lips.
"You don't need to inherit the tiger spirit, Sanada Yukimura, it has always been in you. You aren't weak because you are alone without your master, but It's not a weakness to ask for help too ... Echigo would provide assistance to Kai. "he stated, crouching beside Yukimura.
The youngest was beginning to understand what the other wanted to show him, what the other had wanted to do ... everything had to do with his will to live? ... still, Yukimura was ... so confused.
"Kenshin-dono?" Yukimura asked, his voice a little hoarse.
But then, Yukimura suddenly rose up, rejecting Sasuke's arms and trowing the blanket away, he held up Kenshin eyes.
"I thought you would have been able to get rid of this good for nothing host God of War, and you as a new host would of been more helpful. But I guess that in the end you wouldn't have been able to satisfy me if you aren't capable of it taking a single, worthless life. Well, it seems that I'm stuck with that idiot with a too pure heart ... "
"Yukimura !" Sasuke yelled trying to seize his arm.
The young man didn't let the other do as he pleased and viciously twisted the arm that was trying to touch him. Sasuke cried out.
"Shut up! Be patient ! I'll give back your idiot master in due time !" He yelled at Sasuke, a slight southern accent in his voice while he rejected the ninja back on the ground.
"Who are you?" Kenshin whispered menacingly, stepping back, his hand on his sword.
Kasuga placed herself immediately before her lord. "It's a demon !" she stated.
"Thank you for the obvious," Yukimura rolled his eyes, "These lands were mine before ... I can say that I hate what you've done to it. But be warned that soon, my kinds will come together and you all would be powerless against Orochi. "
"Orochi". Kenshin spoke as if the word was poison on his tongue.
Sasuke tried to reach his young master again, taking advantage of the fact that he was turned toward Kenshin, he rose up and tried to encircle him with both his arms.
"Yukimura." he shouted again praying for the youngest to hear him.
"You annoy me!" the other exclaimed.
.
He pushed Sasuke down with a simple gesture, preventing any movement by blocking him with his foot, the pressure he exerted made Sasuke's bones give a crushing sound. Kasuga uttered an exclamation of surprise.
"I won't let you! Yukimura isn't your puppet" the ninja grumbled between moans of pain.
"Um, you think so? But everything has already begun." the other stated.
Then his murderous went back on Kenshin and lightning seemed to pass between the two men.
Yukimura's features relaxed and his eyes closed when he fell heavily to the ground. Sasuke barely had the time to caught him in his arms before he hurt himself, he somehow felt more at ease when he heard Yukimura's steady breathing.
"Don't consider yourself victorious too soon, Orochi demon ..." Kenshin whispered.
TBC
Thank you for reading, feedback will be appreciated.