Chapter 16 | deja vu
The barracks
It was still early after his chat with lady Kato. He decided to take a look around the barracks hoping he could do something with his free time. After all, he was a guest with no obligations assigned.
He could see some of their youngest sparring with blunt swords, a man in a lion helmet was correcting them.
It was different from the style he used, sword and shield instead of a two-handed sword. He got near to have a better look. Older soldiers where training unsupervised not far from the beginners.
They trained for a couple of minutes until an older soldier came to the men in the helmet and gave him a small paper, a message presumably.
The helmet looked in his direction. Tobirama looked at him through slit eyes and the man started walking towards him. He was too close when Tobirama could see his eye color and realize it was Kuren no less.
"So, whom do we thank for the honor of your presence?" - Kuren took off his helmet and also swelled up his chest and chin.
Tobirama just arched his eyebrow and raised his chin. It seemed the reprimand lady Kato mentioned was not enough to low this young brat's airs.
"Why aren't you entertaining your wife? Or is it you enjoy more watching sweating young lads?"- he talked with a wolfish grin, mocking him.
Tobirama normally wasn't short-tempered, but this brat exasperated him easily. It took a lot of his self-control not to punch him right there in front of his men. But he knew better. Those men did not belong to Kuren, but Lady Kato. If he humiliated him that will only decrease the household military authority.
"If that's your first thought, then I understand why you train weaklings."
"Excuse me?"- that erased Kuren's grin quickly. He was still a lad after all, short-tempered and self-conscious.
"You heard me, lad. Don't mind me, keep playing with your sticks"- Tobirama began to make his way towards the old soldiers.
The reprimand lady Kato gave him this early morning was still fresh in his mind, but not the way the lady pretended. Her words only intensified the idea of taking Tobirama out of this residence and Makoto's life. He swallowed too many words when Tobirama pushed him against the wall that first night. Now, every time he saw him and his blood boiled just with thinking of him sleeping with Matoko. He didn't deserve her.
"Big words for such a pretty man, so hairless and pale. You are prettier than half the women here!" - the rest of the rookie soldiers laughed in unison at Kuren's bragging. He was going to make it impossible for him every second he spent here.
Tobirama turned, his eyes daring and angry. Kuren achieved what he wanted, an excuse to hurt him physically.
"You don't have to beg so much for a duel with a real warrior, lad."- Tobirama said begrudgingly- "but I don't play with sticks. I'll bring my sword."
Kuren shortened the distance between them and talked only centimeters from his face- "First blood, is it? I´ll wait in the sparring arena."
"I won't do less than that."
-o-
Sparring arena
Tobirama went back to his borrowed room, took off the haori and picked up his only baggage, his katana. He planned and survived many battles with her until now. He will see that that brat remembers the first blood he was going to get from this blade.
He tried not to be seen by Lady Kato or Makoto, he knew they would try to stop this. When he reached the arena all the soldiers, rookies and elders were there making a circle around it.
"It took you some time. Were you powdering your nose, my lord?"- More laugh.
They resemble mandrills shouting from their save place in the branch of a tall tree. Disgusting. He will shut their silly mouths immediately.
"A true warrior lets his actions talk for him, a disciplined soldier doesn't brag."- Tobirama chanted as he went to position and unsheathed his weapon.
The comment erased Kuren's facade- "You are not the only one trained and aged in battle, you fool."
"Then be silent and fight."
His words were the signal to start. Kuren fights with a longsword and a medium shield. It was a plain defensive style for a very sturdy man. They sized each other up walking in circles around the arena, pondering their opponent's possible first move.
Kuren reached first, he was younger, impatient and trusted his shield arm too much. Tobirama, of cautious nature, saw this during the first seconds of their match and was determined to use it against him. It could have been easy for him to damage his shield hand, making him drop his defense, but that would spill blood and he wanted to make a major injury.
Tobirama limited himself to block and parry Kuren's advances, collecting his mistakes in his mind's eye.
Kuren, on the other side, wasn't so inexperienced himself. He had fought all his life as well, but his temperament was different, less cunning and more guts. It was reflected in his fighting style. He threw different attacks and tried a variety of angles to see his rival openings and flaws while Tobirama just observed.
The fight was intense, aggressive and sweaty. They seized each other for several minutes but both grew impatient, they wanted to make as much physical damage as they could without spilling blood. The used contuse blows, pommel and shield hits, a knee to the gut or in articulations which they knew that didn't bleed immediately but were extremely painful after they swell.
Until Kuren noticed an opening in Tobirama's defense. It was small and difficult to notice as if he had been hurt in recent battle. He relayed too much on his left leg. When he changed his parry stance that leg was a second slower than it should be. If he succeeded in his blow, he had a high chance of a fatal wound - if the blade reached the femoral artery- that bastard will have the luck of a quick death.
Tobirama thought much more as a warrior. He had to admit this lad was actually very good in his own style, he was neat and precise. He tried to save most of his strength in order to maintain his stamina. Still, even then, -Tobirama saw his opening. Kuren was right-handed while Tobirama mas left-handed, that left an unprotected area under his elbow easy for him to reach, a wound there will be incapacitating and painful but not fatal, Tobirama decided to use that point.
-o-
House main balcony
"Did you call me mother?"- her mother was resting her weight on the balcony rail, looking toward at the training grounds with some amusement on her face. She knew her mother was going to sniff her nose in this issue with Tobirama, she was planning something. Anyway sooner or later, she will have to face him to tell him to go away or make some kind of agreement to go back to the valley with him. And her mother seemed to want her out of this place.
"Yes dear, although things have turned interesting this day in a different way than I expected."
"Is that so?"
"Come, here. Take a look yourself."
The main balcony of the house allowed a view towards the front of the household, the training grounds, the soldier's space and some of the stable that was beside the house, the back of the house was part of the cliff facing the sea.
There was a commotion around the biggest arena, in the beginning, it was difficult to see who was sparring since the soldiers were stacked up in the perimeter of the arena. She looked at her mother confused they were her father's garrison, she had nothing to do with them. Her mother rolled her eyes and insisted. She tried again, it just took a glimpse of white hair to understand why her mother was so amused. But who was he fighting? She didn't have falcon eyes, it was difficult to see from here with all those men cheering and moving, blocking her vision.
She focused on trying to see who was. It could be no one… or it could be Kuren. In the back of her mind, she hoped Kuren not to be stupid enough to challenge Tobirama to fight.
Her but clenched with anxiety, Tobirama's opponent used a shield, just like Kuren. But many of the soldiers used it, right? She still couldn't see any peculiar feature on the other man, until she saw a man on the multitude raising up his signature lion helmet in a cheering way.
"Why are you letting them?!"
"My dear, you should be flattered. Not all days you have two men sizing each other for you."
"They don't fight for me, mother. They fight for their own pride. Don't try to dress this up!"
"Sometimes the only way out is to let them, my child. Men are what they are. They always spar, as long as it stays like that I don't see the wrongness you try to suggest."
"They are not sparring, they want to hurt each other."
"They have just crossed a couple of words, my dear. Why would they want to spill blood already?"
As conjured she hears a groan and the men suddenly fall silent. She turns back towards the arena only to see Tobirama stabbing Kuren on his side with his concealed sword. She knew it!
Makoto gives her mother an "I told you" look and leaves quickly towards the arena. Her mind runs a hundred per second, trying to guess what internal organs could have been hurt and the measures she will have to take.
Because, of course, she was going to heal Kuren. Who else would? She always did it. He had been her main guinea pig, not that he complained too much. She always studied deeply the subject theoretically and on animal models. She did a good job every time.
When she reached the first floor she ran towards the arena, it was easy since at home she always wears pants and espadrilles.
Kuren was already being moved to a stretcher carefully, but Tobirama didn't let anyone touch him. He was inclined forward as if regaining breath after a long run. When the soldiers noticed her presence they made some space immediately. She wanted to go with Kuren, that was her first impulse. But it would look so wrong with all the soldiers looking, witnessing how she neglected her husband in favor of Kuren.
She watched from afar how they took Kuren towards the nursery. She was going to take care of her husband. It was the correct choice, the one she always wanted to make.
How relieved she was of her resolution when she approached Tobirama's front. He wasn't regaining his breath, he was trying to pull out the sword that Kuren had stocked on the left side of his groin. Her heart pumped hard with horror.
"Stop it! Don't push it out, you will bleed out!"- she tried to stop him taking his bloodied hands, Tobirama just looked her in the eye, half smirking, half in pain.
"I won."- he said trembling, she didn't know if it was because of the adrenaline or the pain.
"What?"
"I won… the first blood."- still trembling
"Don't be stupid, that's a horrible wound. Let me take you to the nursery."
She tried, she really tried to put his hands away from the sword, but Tobirama was gripping it from the blade, making it difficult to take them away without cutting him anymore.
He looked at her with something akin to a grin, took a deep breath and pushed the sword out with his strength.
"Don't!"- she screamed before he hit her ribs with the pommel of the sword unintentionally when he pulled the weapon. It hit the air out of her lungs but Tobirama staggering and used her as support. The soldiers around just gazed with awkward stances.
"What are you waiting for! Bring another gurney! Now!"- if he died here things would turn horribly wrong for her family.
The soldier brought it quickly and helped her to move him in. She wanted to check his wound here but he didn't allow her to remove his clothes. The hemorrhage won't stop. She removed her short embroidered haori and used it to apply pressure. They moved quickly towards the nursery.
They moved him to the bed and then asked, just a few of them she knew, to stay and help her with restraint.
"Give him a dose of poppy milk, please."- she asked the nurse of the barracks. The family doctor was checking her father, so this was on her. She never sutured any vessels before.
She washed her hands and picked the equipment. If he was still alive the artery was probably fine. She tried to remove his clothes, he got tense and removed her hands.
"I don't need to be restrained like a child. I'm familiar with the pain of flesh wounds."- he muttered, still trembling.
She gave a signal for them to leave, only the nurse stayed. The least she could do was to protect his pride.
She proceeds to disrobe him again, leaving him in his fundoshi, the white cotton of it was half red already. She remembered by a fraction of a second -like a deja vu- the first time she disrobed him. It also was because of a medical condition. She drank the beauty of his pale skin. This time she was quickly diverted towards the source of blood, she retrieved her haori and waited for the jet of blood, instead, it was a low and pulsatile flow. It was venous blood. She exhaled the air she didn't know she was holding.
She examined the incision. It was vertical and just touched some veins, high in caliber but fixable. It seems Kuren was stabbed first and he lost the direction of the thrust.
The doctor came just in time, called by one of the soldiers. He washed and stitched the main vein injured. He let her suture the skin and muscle since he had to attend to Kuren now.
She gave him another dose of milk of the poppy to work calmly. She must do her best if she wanted to let a thin scar. No matter how mad Tobirama made her sometimes, her work must always be the best… And she didn't want a thick and deep scar to compromise his movement in future battles, or so she said to herself. It wasn't related at all with preserving his fair skin and nicely shaped thighs, at all.
She continued with his hands. He had an ugly cut on them from holding the sword, she cleaned and debrided them. He was a lucky guy, he didn't damage his tendons. She wrapped them carefully.
She proceeded to wash him. The dried blood was painful to remove. The nurse (which was male) offered to do so. But she rejected him politely. It was her husband, after all, it would be weird. Besides, there was something cathartic in healing Tobirama. She felt close when she did it, it was a strange feeling, to have his life in her hands. When he was asleep he gave her the impression of being in need of nurturing, protection. Not because he is weak, not at all. She felt like he needed, cause he never had it. Diametrically different when he opened his mouth to talk shit.
She gave him a sponge bath, cleaned the dirt out of him, removed all the blood from hair to toe. She found she would actually like to wash his hair, thin and slightly long after a while without a cut, and so pleasant to the touch.
She cleaned him methodically leaving the dirtiest are (his groin) for the end. She did it without thinking too much of it. Removed his fundoshi soaked in blood and wiped all the blood. Only then already clean she gave herself a moment to actually give his member an appreciative look. It was only fair after his numerous intromission into her baths, or that's what she repeated to herself in her head.
He was slightly erected after the sponge bath, thick, not absurdly long, but short wasn't a word she would have used to describe him.
The superficial veins under his navel showing deliciously, marking the way down almost uninterrupted if not for the few short, light hairs. She had to admit if it weren't for his temperament and her pride, she wouldn't care to suck him occasionally. The thought made her bite her lips.
The poppy milk was losing his effect on him, a light growl took her out from her daydream. She covered him quickly putting a clean cloth on top of his groin and proceed to dress his thigh. Pretended she didn't just drool looking at his cock. Such a hypocrite woman she was after all.
He stiffed when she wrapped the soft cotton under his thigh, focusing his gaze on her for the first time. He looked doped, he tried to incorporate himself only to fail when his head spun, probably.
"What did you give me?"- he spoke slowly and low. She kind of liked him like this.
"Opium, it was better and safest for you that way."- she said like it was obvious.
"You drugged me, woman!"- he sounded annoyed -tch- she didn't care, it was a medical resolution.
"I saved your ass again. You better open an account on my name."
"...you- my ass?"- his tongue was still numbed, he spoke funny.
"Yes, again. I-sa-ved-you." - she came close and spoke slowly so his numbed brain could process it.
"Now?"- he said confused
.
"Yeah, just now"- she replied quickly, a little exasperated.
"Will you... mount me?"- he said, his tone skeptical.
"What?!" - When had he concluded that?!
"I can't move so…"- he threw his head back exposing his neck after he said that, his hands clumsily moving over his chest, not noticing his bandage… as if touching himself. She stopped him when it was obvious he was going down.
"You misunderstood!"- as always… it seemed opium made him horny, more than normal at least. She placed his arms on his side. "Don't move!"- she barked as an order.
"It will be… difficult, I'll try."- was that a sly grin on his face? She called the nurse.
"I need a somniferous, he won't stay still and his wound could open."- she said quickly. The nurse understood her urgency and worked swiftly.
She didn't want to use the somniferous, it caused a heavy migraine and nausea when the patient awoke, but he was helpless.
The nurse couldn't manage the administration, Tobirama was wary of him so she had to give it to him. He accepted it from her but not without sucking her index finger in the process when she approached the small cup to his mouth.
She laughed awkwardly when the nurse gave her a knowing look. Inside she was mortified, disgusted and just a little aroused.
they were crowded together in his mind
Fuck!
They want to see who has the biggest cock!