Chapter 13: Love dashed a thousand fold

It had been a couple of weeks since Hiroshima's ambush. Takeshi had taken minor, but still painful, injuries. As it turned out, the shuriken he was hit with were poison-tipped. He had recovered and it was the day of Nagasaki and Keiko's wedding. Takeshi was standing next to Nagasaki, he had been chosen to be the best-man, as had Tatsuki the maid of honor. Takeshi thought he could almost hear Nagasaki's heart racing. He thought of when he was semi-conscious in the infirmary.

-one month ago in the infirmary-

Takeshi could hear bits and pieces of what was going on around him. Tatsuki's crying, Keiko assuring her that every thing was going to be all right, that he was strong and would pull through.

"But what if he doesn't make it?" Tatsuki said through her sobs.

"Don't say that Tatsuki, he's going to be okay," Keiko said trying to calm her down.

Tatsuki rested her head on his chest, tears soaking him. She lifted her head enough to look at his face.

"Don't leave me, please Takeshi, don't leave me!" she sobbed. Her tears began to mix with Takeshi's blood on her face, she had been in such a rush to get him to the infirmary she had forgotten to wipe it off.

"Don't worry Tatsuki, I said I wouldn't leave you, and I won't," he replied through the pain that was flowing through him. "I love you, more than anything else in this world," he managed to work out.

"I love you too," Tatsuki replied. Her tears began anew and she rested her head back onto his chest.

The doctor came in with three nurses by his side. "I'm sorry ladies, you'll have to leave the room now." He said to Keiko and Tatsuki.

"What, why!" Tatsuki cried.

"Listen doctor, these two are pretty close, do you think you could let her stay?" Keiko asked.

"She'll have to calm down," he replied, "We can't have her sobbing the way she is right now, we can't be distracted or your friend here might lose the ability to use his lower body. And I don't think you want that."

"Okay, I'll tell her," she assured the doctor. "Tatsuki, you have to calm down now so the doctor's can fix Takeshi."

Tatsuki stood up straight, "Okay," she sniffed, "I'll try." She sat down in a seat next to Keiko as the doctors cleaned the blood and tears off of Takeshi.

"Ok, let's begin," the doctor said.

"Wait, aren't you going to use some anesthetic first?" Tatsuki asked worriedly.

"Unfortunately, we've confirmed that these shuriken are poisoned, we can't figure out exactly what kind of poison it is until we remove these blades. The poison might not react well with the anesthetic so we can't use it." The doctor replied.

"He'll just have to deal with the pain," one of the nurses said as they put a piece of wood in his mouth so that he would have something to grip with his teethe.

Tatsuki looked scared for him but let them begin anyway.

A sickening crunch sound could be heard as the first kunai was pulled out, then Takeshi let out a bloodcurdling scream of pain. Tatsuki tightly closed her eyes and looked away, trying not to cry.

Another crunch, another scream, Tatsuki cringed at the sound of her loves pain.

A third time they took out a shuriken, but this time Tatsuki cried out and she ran to Takeshi's side, moving the doctors out of the way. She fell to her knees and cried on his chest.

"Nurse, Get her out of her!" the doctor commanded one of the nurses.

"Come on sweetie, you have to go now," one of the nurses said gently.

"No, I won't leave him!" Tatsuki screamed.

"Please, you have to leave. You can't stay here," she said again, though not as comforting.

"No! I won't leave!" she screamed again.

"That's it, that's enough!" a male nurse said angrily, wrenching her off of Takeshi.

"NO! I won't leave him! NO!" she screamed as she was violently pulled from him.

She lunged at Takeshi again, but failed as the nurse was still holding her. She struggled some more, until she angered the nurse even further and her shoved her to the ground. Just as he did, Nagasaki walked in, looking particularly depressed. Nagasaki looked around and saw Tatsuki on the ground and the male nurse over her. His eyes flashed fire, nostrils flared, and his frown turned to a snarl.

"Get off of her!" he roared. He kicked the nurse in the stomach, the nurse double over, holding his stomach. Then Nagasaki pulled him to his feet and slammed him hard to the ground. Next, he jumped on top of the nurse and started punching him in the face and slamming his upper body against the ground.

Keiko was helping Tatsuki up from the ground, when she saw the damage Nagasaki was doing to the nurse. Tatsuki and Keiko both had to pull Nagasaki from the nurse.

"Nagasaki let him go! He's had enough, you're gonna kill him!" they kept on repeating to him until they finally pulled him off the nurse.

One of the other nurses escorted the now bleeding man away and two more replaced them.

"Are you okay Tatsuki?" Nagasaki asked.

"Why did you do that! Takeshi's having the shuriken pulled out of him with no anesthetics and you beat up one of the nurses!" she yelled at him.

Keiko had to calm both of them down to help the doctors do their job without distraction.

The situation was explained to Nagasaki and he told them of his brother's defeat, leaving out many details so they got the raw story. Such things were his sorrow, the jutsu he used, and the grave he erected.

"You did the right thing my love," Keiko said holding him in her arms, "I'm sorry things had to be ended this way."

"I did what had to be done," he said.

"Why did he attack Takeshi?" Tatsuki asked her eyes still a little watery.

"He wanted to kill you, for attacking him the way you did during our duel. Those shuriken were meant for you, Takeshi used his body as a human-shield to protect you from them," he explained.

Tatsuki's soul seemed to fall from her body; she sank to the floor and began to softly cry again.

For the next few minutes, Takeshi's screams and the crunching sound were all that could be heard.

-back at the wedding-

Keiko was walking down the isle in her beautiful white wedding dress. The clan leader, Hotsuma, was walking her down the isle; sadly none of them had parents: Takeshi had run away from his defected parents, Tatsuki and Keiko were orphans, and Nagasaki's parents had died on a mission three years ago. Hotsuma was going to be the minister.

They reached the end of the isle and she stood opposite of Nagasaki.

--end chapter 13 (part-1)--