An update not at night what!? So here's chapter 20 finally some Masamune and Yukimura action right! Hope you guys enjoy it! ~ Verto Strife

Song

Over and over By Three days grace

Chapter 20 - Spending a night at Kia? (Sleepover, Takeda style!)

"Hold up! It's going to get dark soon, and you'll probably get lost on the road. Why not stay, at least till tomorrow morning." Yukimura yelled as Masamune started to ride off.
Masamune stopped and looked at Yukimura with a smile "I'll take you up on that offer Sanada"

"It's the least I can do for you bringing back my baby Date." Yukimura blushed and looked at the ground.
"No problem" Masamune said looking away with a slight blush "It was nice having company on the ride over anyway"

"She didn't scratch you on the ride, did she?" Yukimura asked, looking at Date with a slightly scolding look.
Masamune laughed "No, That was only when I gave her trouble that I let her scratch my hand"

Yukimura looked shocked at Date. "Date! That wasn't very nice!" He gave a small smack to Date's bottom for scratching.
"She's a really well behaved cat, and quite nice." Masamune said with a smile.

"Thanks, I taught her myself. The soldiers are kind of mean to her though, the servants will kick her sometimes." Yukimura frowned as he ran his hands through Date's fur, causing Date to purr.
"Mine only gave her a good run, the doctor was the one who chased her to the castle" Masamune sighed

Yukimura scowled at the thought of anyone chasing his poor cat. Masamune looked at her.
"And she can also get into trouble easily" Masamune said remembering his punishment.

"She's perfect, aren't you Date." Yukimura defended his cat, talking sweetly as he hugged Date to him.
"For the most part, yes" Masamune smiled "Till she got me in trouble with Kojūrō" Masamune mumbled.

"What did she do to Kojūrō? Or what did Kojūrō do to her?" Yukimura growled as he held his cat away from Masamune.
"She clawed his 'precious' plants. And got me to have to spar till I dropped because I defended her" Masamune said

"His plants? How are plants precious to him? And he only made you spar? That's nothing." Yukimura looked genuinely confused.
"Don't know I just knew I couldn't let her get hurt. I had to fight an entire battalion of my soldiers and Kojūrō himself. With new armor and swords. "Masamune said with a sigh

"So that's why I didn't recognize you at first." It seemed to dawn on Yukimura that he was talking to his rival, and sped up his horse to get up ahead.
"You know a necklace isn't that embarrassing, If it had been the tiger I got you, it would make sense but the necklace?" Masamune said questionly.

"Of course, you don't know the meaning of that necklace. Anyway, don't mention the tiger. Not around them." He motioned to the soldiers following them, who seemed to be smirking at their commander's embarrassment.
Masamune realized that is wasn't just them "I'm sorry." He apologized.

"They're not exactly respecting of me. At least i'm nowhere near Shingen when it comes to the respect scale." Yukimura grumbled as he glared at his soldiers.
Masamune tightened his fist at the mention of Shingen's name. "They should respect you seeing as you are there commander and could easily kill them if you oh so felt like it" Masamune said pointing out the difference in skill.

"Your soldiers respect you because you're their lord, and the last in your family. I'm just a stray picked up by Shingen. Massive difference." Yukimura pointed out. "Besides, I couldn't kill them. At least not without Shingen harassing me about my temper, of which is non existent, by the way." Yukimura added grumpily.
Masamune smiled at Yukimura. "Still, any common foot soldier should respect their commander even if they were… picked up by there leader." Masamune said hesitant

"That's the thing. In their eyes, i'm Shingen's pet. To them i'm only here because I've got nowhere else to be, and the fact that Shingen keeps me around."
Masamune growled "You could always join some other army, seeing as you're a Tadaka commander you would happen to be quite skilled." Masamune said with slight praise in his voice.

"I'd never get anyone to follow me. Besides, any army is fully aware of my past with Shingen. They won't say it, but they're scared of me. They're scared of the kind of orders I would give."
"Im sure someone would as long as one follows a lord, more are sure to follow. As long as one man stands your beliefs are still standing."

"I'm no lord. I'm Shingen's guard dog. A good guard dog, and well trained, but a guard dog. Nothing more." Yukimura grumbled, spurring his horse faster as the castle came into sight.
Masamune growled when he heard Yukimura talk down about himself. "you're still a good warrior and any lord would be glad to have you in there army, if they were willing to look over things." Masamune said catching up to Yukimura.

"You're praising me to be something i'm not. I'm here to bark and show teeth where needed, at Shingen's say. OPEN THE GATES" Yukimura yelled at the castle wall as the reached the gate. He spurred into a gallop through the gate into the small village before the castle. "Keep quiet. Nobody knows you're just a visitor." Masamune nodded following behind him and letting the soldiers cover each side.

"Hello Master Yukimura! back so soon? And I see you brought a friend!" a random villager yelled, waving to Yukimura.

"Hello. And yes, i'm back. This one decided to hop the border thinking he could get by unnoticed. No worries though. He was alone. Now we just have to figure out what he thought he could do, hopping our border." Yukimura replied, trotting by up the familiar path and waving goodbye to the villager. "you can talk, you know, Masamune. I didn't say you had to act all gloomy there." Yukimura gave a little laugh.
Masamune smiled. "It's not like I have anything to say to any villagers in Kia."

"You're allowed to say hi, you know. The villagers are quite charming, even if the servants are much less so." Yukimura smiled, but glared slightly at the mention of the servants.

"Well if I have time to tomorrow I'll say hello to some of them on my way out." Masamune said. Yukimura dismounted as they reached the stairs up to the castle and led the way up. Masamune dismounted and petted his horse before letting her go with the soldiers. The soldiers left as well, heading off in separate directions. "It's good you came at dinner time though. The food's usually good here."
Yukimura grabbed his hand and pulled him up the stairs, with Date leaping up the stairs ahead of both of them. Masamune followed not knowing what to expect.

"Master Yukimura? Who is this?" a soldier asked as the two reached the top of the stairs, looking curiously at Masamune.

"He's a guest of mine, and will be treated as such, understood? Tell one of the servants to get a room ready. Also is there still dinner?" Yukimura ordered in his best commanding voice.

"There's enough dinner left, yes. Shingen asked that a plate be set aside for you when you want it, just go to the kitchen and get it." The soldier nodded, running off to find a servant.

"Come on, Masamune. I'll split my plate with you." Yukimura dragged Masamune along towards the huge castle. The yard was much bigger than anything at Masamune's castle, and everything seemed to have a theme of being red colored.
Masamune followed along looking around. "Thanks for the offer" He said with a smile.

"No problem. You brought Date back, and that's big to me." Yukimura shrugged, smiling slightly. "Besides, you're the only one that shows Date here any kind of respect."

"Well she kept me company at night so it wasn't that hard to respect her"

"Yukimura, lord Masamune. It's good to see you both. Especially you Lord Masamune." Shingen came around the corner, nearly running into the two teens. He gave a polite smile to Masamune, and ruffled Yukimura's hair playfully.
Masamune held back his wanting to yell at the older lord for stealing Yukimura from him all that time ago. "Long time no see, Lord Shingen." Masamune said politely with a smile.

"You've grown, lord Masamune. The last time we met you were barely up to my hip. You have an exact likeness to your father as well!" Shingen smiled wide, patting Masamune on the head as well. Masamune looked surprised at the older lord's actions. "Glad to hear that i'm anything close to my father" Masamune said

"I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true! I'm glad to see you again. Also, Yukimura, I need you to come see me later. We have some things need discussing. I'll leave you two together." Shingen turned to Yukimura, whispering something to him, causing Yukimura to nod at whatever was said, and Shingen waved to the two as he moved on. Masamune narrowed his eye at Shingen when he left and then looked at Yukimura with a smile. Yukimura saw the narrowed eye and gulped, but kept up his smiling appearance.

"So, what has Kojūrō been teaching you, since we've been apart?" Yukimura tried to change the subject.
"He had taught me how to wield six swords. And archery, and the way's of the battle field. I can now stand my own pretty well I could take on mostly everyone who would dare challenge me." Masamune said proudly placing a hand at his side. "I'm still not as strong as I would like to to be so I won't be getting into big fight's, yet"

"Cool! Shingen's been having me improve on my spears, and Sasuke's been teaching me to use a sword better. Maybe we could fight each other sometime? In practice, I mean!" Yukimura offered, adding the last part when he realized what his offer sounded like. Masamune smiled "I would love to see how strong you've gotten"

"Great! It will be so fun! Though Sasuke's been dragging me to English lessons. It's too hard!" Yukimura whined slightly. "He's also been taking over in lectures, and is making me learn french too. 'Just in case' he says."
Masamune smiled "Glad to hear. Really so has Kojūrō for me" Masamune laughed.

"At least Sasuke has a slightly more interesting voice to listen to. No offense to Kojūrō of course." Yukimura laughed.
Masamune laughed "I definitely agree with you there"

"Here we are. Guests first!" Yukimura grinned as they reached the door to the kitchen.
Masamune nodded, and walked into the kitchen. Inside were a few soldiers still sitting at tables, with said plate for Yukimura out on one of the tables.

"Wonder what's tonight's meal." Yukimura commented, following Masamune into the dining room. Moving over to the plate, he lifted the lid on the plate a little and grinned. A lot of soldiers stiffened in the room when noticing Yukimura's presence, and a couple of them left the room.

Masamune took note of soldiers leaving and stiffening up. 'scared huh more like frightened to not do what you say'
"So what's to eat Yuki?" Masamune asked changing his mind's subject. Yukimura stiffened at the nickname, but kept a smile as he showed a plate of spaghetti. "Wait here, i'll get you a plate!" Yukimura smiled as he left to find a plate in the connecting kitchen.
Masamune waited and looked around the dining room. 'He's still the same Yuki I know,'

"Here you go, take a portion and eat up!" Yukimura came back with a plate and took part of the spaghetti for himself. One soldier came up and whispered something to Yukimura, whose eyes widened, but resumed being all smiles over the meal. Masamune dug into the spaghetti but kept a close eye on everything going on around. 'wonder what all this fuss is about, but I doubt that anyone here will tell me' Yukimura was a little more twitchy, and kept looking like he was eagerly awaiting something. 'I hope he likes my gift. Don't know why Shingen wants me to follow him around and keep him busy though.' Yukimura thought as he thought of things he could do to keep Masamune busy. Masamune finished obviously hungry from his ride over to Kia.

"Shingen got me a gift, you want to see it?" Yukimura said suddenly, smiling widely at whatever gift he'd gotten from his lord. Masamune looked over at him "Sure Yuki" Masamune smiled. Yukimura reached into his pocket and pulled out a red headband, with long ends that went around the back.

"He said since my hair was getting long, and I was refusing to cut it, he figured I might as well have to keep hair out of my eyes. It's been super useful!" Yukimura showed the headband off with glee. "What do you think? Does it suit me, or no?" Yukimura put the headband on and showed it off. Masamune smiled "Looks great on you Yuki." 'wonder how well it would look in blue for him?'

"Thanks! You know what you should get?" Yukimura said, a suggestion suddenly popping into his mind. "You should have an blue eyepatch, that kinda looks like a dragon eye! It would suit you so well!" Masamune blushed slightly from the suggestion. "I'll see if I can" Masamune said with a smile.

"What do you want to do now? There's a ton of stuff to do here, if you want!" Yukimura asked, keeping a bright smile on his face. "We can go for a ride, or I can show you around the library, or we can go around the village. Or we could spar, if you want." Yukimura listed his ideas of activities.
Masamune smiled "I wouldn't mind a spar"