Chapter twenty-sixth - Promise
Yuko quickly rose from the ground, a growl escaped her lips when her broken ribs shot through her body another sharp pain. Man of the Tachibana clan ran up to her, then followed a fight in taijutsu, in which Yuko losing speed as well as strength and dexterity. A powerful kick sent her to the ground, from her mouth spurted blood, Yuko was panting.
"What is it?" He chuckled arrogantly. "Give up already?"
Her body was on fire, her every limb literally suffered in pain, short of breath, sweat blurring her vision and she lacked chakra. She gritted her teeth and slowly climbed back to her feet, she can't give up yet, can't die yet. Yuko still have to do a lot of things, she must learn the truth about her parents, the truth about her origin. And what was especially important, she can't die without knowing what happened with Izuna. She can not leave this world without just once more embracing him, one more kiss, no. It's not her time yet.
The thought of him, breathed a new life into her, new strength. Once more the forest flashed by her sharingan, her last chance to stand against him. If this attack fails, Yuko probably die alone from exhaustion.
She pulled out a kunai from her sleeve and attacked him. Although injuries slows her down, Yuko have benefit now, she seen his every move, she knew where his body will be even before he ever got there. It was clear that he fights for the first time to sharingan user, without fear he looking into her eyes without knowing what to expect. That was her chance to paralyze him.
Three tomoe began to frantically spin when his eyes caught sight of her, his pupils widened, shinobi's body slows until it stopped moving altogether. He fell to his knees, with a faraway look came from him the last word. "Genjutsu?"
A few seconds passed before Yuko explore his memories, when it came to the situation after the explosion, she saw Izuna. Her eyes narrowed when she hissed. "Dust?" 'I must act quickly! Izuna is in danger!'
'My last chakra would be enough.' She already activated her mangekyou, closed her eyes and concentrated all her remaining chakra into them.
"Yosh! Once more!" She shouted and opened her eyes. "Katon: Ejji-en o shÅkan!" The fire shot forward.
Unfortunately, the exhausted Yuko didn't see if she hit her target, she began to lose consciousness and fell to the ground. 'Izuna.' His smiling face appeared before her eyes. 'Wait for me-' Her face hit the ground.
"Captain Kon, her chakra is no longer active." Announced Teru to the men running before him.
"What about the enemy?" The captain asked without looking over his shoulder.
"I can't locate even his."
"Shima-" Kon turned to the saber-tooth next to him. "How much longer?"
Tiger angrily shrugged his yellow eyes. "We're almost there-"
His arms crossed and his eyes closed, Madara could not even express how angry he was. He was waiting in his office, while some of the best medics tried to save Izuna's life. Without result, it took them an incredibly long time. What the hell are they doing?!
It's just that no one would dare to come to the leader and tell him that his brother had died. They knew that Madara would ripped all the limbs of from their bodies and then would ignited them, probably.
Madara sighed when the door to his office opened.
"Is anything new with Izuna?" His wife quietly closed the door. She could see the tension in his face, his eyes were clouded with anger and pain. Although he tried to conceal his feelings, everything was reflected in his eyes as the reflection of the mirror.
Madara shook his head.
Kawa felt a heaviness on her heart, it had to be hard to be a shinobi, especially such as is her husband. Being known as a ruthless and callous Lord of War, the head of his clan, in every situation to keep cool, rational thinking and make decisions without emotion. However, Kawa saw his pain that radiates from him, sadness and pain, the anger that he can not help his little brother.
"Madara."
"Hn?"
"Let me heal him."
"..."
"Madara, I can do this."
"..."
"Say something!"
"How much pain you can bear?" He asked calmly, his wife seemed to be in shock.
"What? "
"What has been the biggest injuries that you ever cured?"
"I- eh-" When she thought about it now, as the the woman and especially as the princess, she was never allowed to heal anyone by using their kekkei genkai Itami o Kyoyu. And then she remembered. "Oh- Yuko!" Wrong answer. Madara was more than unhappy, it seems that her husband hated Yuko more than ever. Probably he blamed her what happened to Izuna.
"Really? What was it?"
"A shoulder?" She said uncertainly with pursed lips.
"Did it hurt?" He asked, his voice sounded somewhat amused now, Madara carefully studied his wife.
"Yes-"
"A lot?"
"Yes, why?"
"Hn, let's see." He folded his arms and walked closer to his wife. "Try to imagine how your whole body is bleeding, injuries are so big that you can see your own guts. The pain is so great that you forget your own name."
This was enough for young lady. She felt disgusted.
"What's the problem? Why they can't heal him?" Better to change topic, she thought.
"They stopped the bleeding, but those fucking wounds doesn't want to close." His anger took over him again.
"What do you mean?"
"He's pierced through and through, as if something prevented it to have the wounds closed."
The princess frowned. "My brother."
"Huh?" Madara turned to face her.
"My brother is here, remember? I'll ask him to-"
"There's no way that your crass brother will rescue Izuna."
"Why not?" She asked, slightly annoyed.
Madara chuckled. "Male things."
"There's no doubt about it." Teru said when knelt beside the dead body. "He is Tachibana, Captian." Kon looked around, it was quite decently ravaged place. The ground was torn to pieces, trees felled and burnt, and then his eyes fell on the lifeless body of a red-haired kunoichi.
Shima walked slowly to her body, his keen sense of smell told him that she is still alive. "You little brat." He muttered to himself. "You never cease to amaze me." Then he closed his eyes and remembered their first met.
"What do we do now Oto-san?" Young girl asked. Heiwa bit into the thumb, smeared blood in his palm and formed seals with incredible speed, then slapped his palm on the ground. The scene enveloped in white smoke, when the wind took away the last remnants of clouds Yuko's eyes widened as she stared at the saber-toothed tiger.
"Heiwa-" He said gruffly. "Why have you summoned me?"
"Shima-" Heiwa bowed slightly. "This is Yuko, my daughter. I want her to learn the summoning technique."
"This little brat here?" Snorted Shima, then he turned to the young girl. "How much time you need? A month? A year?" His tone was very arrogant and amused, Yuko felt the anger rising in her.
"Give me one day silly cat!" She shouted with determinationm her finger pointing directly at the tiger. "Tonight! I will summon you tonight, you tomcat!"
And she did. Exhausted, gasping for breath, but with a big smile on her face, she fell to her knees when he appeared.
"I - I told you!" She grinned triumphantly.
Shima chuckled. "Very well. Call when you need me, you little brat."
"Thank you Shima." Kon tore him from his thoughts. "Leave it to us now." Tiger nodded and with a puff of smoke he disappeared. The captain went to Yuko, he noticed a large amount of shuriken that hit the enemy, it was clear that they came from her side.
"What kind of jutsu-" He muttered, then picked up the kunoichi in his arms and turned to his companion. "Teru, any enemies?"
"No,captain. It's clear." Stated Teru firmly.
"Yosh! Let's go!"
"Say it again." Izuna smiled at her while he stroke her red hair. "Say that you love me." Yuko opened her mouth but no sound came out.
"Say it please." Izuna urged on the young woman who tried to speak but could not. "Just once more, please." His voice began to sound disappointed. "You don't love me, you don't care about me anymore,am I right?" Yuko frantically shook her head in protest. Of course it's not true, she loves him, but why can't she speak? She want to shout his name Izuna Izuna Izuna...
"Izuna!" She was breathing rapidly, her eyes quickly traveled around the room in which she was located, a hospital room. She slowly sat up, no pain , she felt much better, except for the headache as if she drank hard last night. She felt that someone's with her in the room, she turned her head to the window and there stood ...
"Shiro-san!" She squealed. The young medic smiled slightly, but his eyes were narrowed.
"My name came out of your mouth as the second one. Again." His velvety voice rolled gently in her ears like the sweetest melody.
"Oh- Of course!" She came back to reality. "Where is Izuna? I need to see him immediately! For how long? How long was I out? Who brought me back? And where is the enemy?"
"Calm down please." Shiro put his hand on her shoulder, but she slapped it away.
"No! I have to see Izuna!"
"He's not awake yet."
"What? How long-" Her voice broke a little when she thought that Izuna is still unconscious.
"Two days."
"I have to go-" As soon as she left the bed, her knees buckled.
"Oi-" Shiro came to her aid, wrapping her arm around his shoulders and carried her weight on himself. Yuko raised her chocolate eyes to him.
"Shiro-san, why are you here?"
"I came for random visit."
"Oh I see. Please take me to Madara-sama." Shiro saw that it is absolutely useless to argue with her, so he nodded.
"Tachibana-" Madara spat venomously in his office when suddenly his door literally burst open and in rushed Yuko with Shiro.
"It's a dust!" She said breathlessly.
"Yuko!" Captain Kon was appalled by her behavior, while Princess Kawa stood with her mouth open in disbelief.
"In his body is dust!" Yuko ignored everyone, her eyes were intensely focused on her leader. "You must first remove the dust."
Madara frowned deeply, quickly stood up from his chair and walked frantically to the hospital ward. "Speak!" He barked at Yuko, she quickly followed him as well as captain Kon and Netto siblings.
"He was a doton user." Said the kunoichi, gasping for breath. Leader was certainly fast as a hurricane. "Using his chakra he could control the soil as he pleased, as a shield or bullet. He used these bullets on Izuna-sama and he left the dust with his chakra in his body, just to make sure that we couldn't save him."
Nothing more was said, Madara bursted into the room like a tornado full of anger over the inability of the Uchiha doctors. He started to scream but Yuko lost all his words when her eyes fell on Izuna's motionless body. He was lying naked on a cold metal table in the middle of the room, a small towel covering his intimate parts. He was so pale that Yuko could not see his lips, he looked like a dead. In his body was numerous small holes left by bullets from the Doton bastard.
Yuko fought the urge to leap up to him and hug him, kiss him, use whatever to warm his body. Several medics stood around the table with their arms outstretched, their hands glowed green, to keep him alive and stop bleeding, sweat running down their cheeks, certainly they were already exhausted.
Madara get hold of one of the men by the collar and threw him to the ground. "Why the fuck you have sharingan when you can not even really use it?!" He was furious and grabbed another man by the collar. "Use your fucking eyes and look carefully! If not, I will pluck them out of your head!"
"Madara-sama!" Kon interrupted. "They have to keep Izuna-sama alive."
Madara calmed down when he felt Kawa's hand on his shoulder. Yuko walked over to her mistress.
"Kawa-sama." She bowed deeply. "Save him please!"
"Unacceptable!" Spat Madara. "She's a woman!"
"Then you! Shiro-san!" Yuko turned to look in his lillac eyes.
"Yuko." Shiro replied quietly. "Why should I?"
Yuko could not believe her ears. "What? And why you shouldn't?!" This is perhaps a bad joke. No one try to help him, what are these people? Anger swept across her body, the agony in which she had drowned her grief had to be released. Without realizing it she activated her sharingan.
"How dare you-" She hissed, her fist clenched. "How dare, compare your personal complexes to saving a human life!" She looked directly at Shiro, but his face remained calm.
"Enough!" Madara's eyes narrowed. "Everyone out!"
"No." Yuko protested. "He may save him, make him to do it!" She could no longer hold back tears, Madara silently watched her.
"Yuko-" Kawa wanted to touch her but Yuko shook her head with narrowed eyes.
"This is not the way to ask someone for help." Shiro spoke to the violent silence.
"What do you want?" Madara asked, one could tell that he would like to kill him but Madara knew it would not take effect.
"She know." Shiro point his head to Yuko.
"Say it-" Her voice broke in resignation. Shiro stepped confidently forward.
"I'll save him if Yuko marries me." Several medics began to whisper, Kon looked absolutely shocked and Shiro's sister smiled faintly.
"Unsatisfied hormones?" Hissed Madara.
"If she marries me and swears that she will forever be my, only mine, then I will save your brother."
All eyes fell on Yuko. Her heart was pounding in her ears, she was weak in her knees and she was sick. How could she ever decide? Of course she wanted to save Izuna, she don't want to let him die, but... swearing allegiance to another man?
Never again be allowed to touch Izuna, never kiss him again, to be in his arms? After all it's the same as if one of them was dead. Can she do something like this? Or. Can she live with the feeling that she let him die even when she had a chance to save him? No. Never.
She gulped. "If I promise you-"
"You never touch him again. " Shiro jumped into her speech. "You'll be mine. I want your word that between you and him never be anything again." Then he turned to Madara. "And I want your word too Madara-san. Your brother never touch her again."
Madara frowned and looked at Yuko. "Your answer!"
The floor spun under her feet, when she said those words. Like it wasn't her voice when she spoke. "If you save Izuna, I promise...I'll be yours, Shiro."
Madara looked at the red-haired woman for a while, then he closed his eyes and nodded. "You have my word. Izuna never touches her again."
His cold words darted into Yuko's heart like a knife, when the tears rolled down her cheeks. Never? Seriously? No, that can't be...
"Fine." Shiro smiled slightly and rubbed his hands. "Back off now, so I can save his esteemed ass."
A/N: Just to let you know, Next update will be up in a week. Tomorrow I get to the hospital, there's waiting for me a minor surgery, nothing big or bad, but I do not know if I can write in a hospital. So I will try my best and see what I can do. Doctor said it will take about 3 to 5 days to recover.
So thank you everyone who reading my story and please wait for next chapter. Izuna will wake up and find out about deal that Yuko and Madara made with Shiro, so I promise it would be interesting :)
Thank you and wish me a lucky :))))) Please review! Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeee!