Chapter 4: Unexpected actions and even more unexpected results-Masamune

Masamune woke up with a killer headache. When he opened his eyes he saw his Dad sitting there next to his hospital bed. "Masamune, do you feel alright?" Masamune nodded his head. "Where's Karia?" His dad pointed to the bed next to him. Karia was laying there with bandages on her head and her arm. She had bruises everywhere. They had one of the face masks on her and then he looked down at the bandages on his shoulder. Motochika was sitting in a chair next to Karia and she looked half asleep. "Hey Motochika are you awake over there?" He looked up at Masamune and shook his head. "Yea how's your shoulder?" "Hurt's like hell but I'm okay. How is Karia?" Motochika looked back down at his friend and shook his head. "Not so great at the moment but she will be fine eventually."

Masamune lowered his head. "Dammit! Wasn't the whole point of us being there to protect her! She hurt more than either of us!" He looked over at his shoulder and growled. "I just had to get the brilliant idea to bring out that bat didn't I?" His dad put his hand on his uninjured shoulder, "It's not your fault Masamune. You did you best to protect your friend and that's all you could do. Her dad from what I saw was a pretty big man. And like Motochika said, she might not be in the best shape now but she WILL be fine." Masamune only grunted and looked down at his hands. "How long?" His dad gave him a confused look. "How long will it be until she wakes up?" His dad sighed. "Not for a little while maybe a week, maybe two or three days the doctors aren't sure." He thought that no one saw but with his head still down he shifted his eye to look and Karia. Her dark red hair was spread out all over the pillow and it almost looked like a large blood splatter making Masamune feel a little uneasy in his stomach.

It also made him uneasy to see her so still and quiet. Every time he would try to look at her face all he would see was the face mask that was helping her breath. He remembered seeing her father relentlessly hitting her in the head after she bit his arm. Her eye's forever closed in pain but determination kept her from losing her grip. If that was what her father was like than he did not want to encounter her mother. The pain in his shoulder was a little bit above mild but not extream. The only thing that was making it hurt so badly was that the pain was constant. It didn't fade or get worse but it didn't leave not even for a moment. He sighed loudly and fell back against the pillow. He hadn't meant to but he wound up falling back asleep.

I was dark and early outside and the weather was rainy but he wanted, needed to go outside. Karia wasn't around when he woke up so he thought that maybe she had gone outside herself. He walked over to put his shirt back on and as he put his hand on the sliding shoji door he heard a scream. He knew the voice very well and panicked. He slid the door open and ran outside. Karia was on the ground and an enemy ninja that lay dead on top of her. Kojuro had opened his door as well and looked back and forth between Masamune and Karia. Masamune assumed that he had just woken up since he was shirtless. Masamune snapped out of his state of shock and ran to Karia. He lifted the ninja off of her and stared in horror at the long gash that ran the entire length of her arm. Blood was spilling out everywhere and Masamune at some point couldn't tell the difference between the blood and her hair. He lifted her head into his lap ignoring the blood that now stained his pants. Her hand closed into a fist around his shirt and he just cradled her in his arms. Kojuro rushed over with one of the medics. Kojuro lifted Karia out of his arms and took her into a room to get her wound treated. Even though she wasn't there he was still sitting in the middle of the courtyard staring at the blood on the ground.

Masamune sat up quickly to his dismay at the pain in his shoulder. "Shit!" He apparently startled Motochika who had been drifting off to sleep. "Masamune are you okay man?" Masamune nodded. "Yea just had some kind of nightmare." How many of these nightmares was he going to have? Ever since he met this girl it seems like old memories from some unknown past kept creeping inside his head. Did he already know her somehow? Or was there some strange supernatural for screwing with his head. He had no idea. He looked past Motochika who was still giving him a worried look to the window. It was dark outside! How late had it gotten? How long had he been asleep? So many questions and only two could be answered. "Hey Motochika what time is it?" He looked at his phone and said, "It's like 3:00 in the morning." Shit he had been asleep for over 12 hours!

Almost out of instinct he looked over at Karia's arm. There was a cast on it but reality stuck him and reminded him that it was because it was broken. There wasn't some long bloody cut underneath the bandages just a broken arm. He saw his phone sitting on the bedside table next to him and decided to check for any text or missed calls. He did have several missed calls almost all but two were from Kojuro. The others were from Magoichi and little Itsuki. "Hell Kojuro's probably tryin to figure out where I am. And it looks like Magoichi and Itsuki are thinking the same." Even though it was early he decided to text Kojuro since he probably had his phone off anyway. He told Kojuro that he was in the hospital but he was okay and to tell Magoichi and Itsuki but make sure they didn't worry too much.

Much to his surprise his phone vibrated and Kojuro had texted him back. Kojuro asked why he was in the hospital and he told him that he would make sure that the girls knew. He also sent a second text saying that he didn't have to answer the first one because he would be coming over to see him in a couple hours since it was Saturday and he didn't work today. Masamune sighed. He knew Kojuro would wind up yelling at him and that Magoichi would be worried about him although she'd never admit it. And he also knew that Itsuki would be upset. Sure enough a couple of hours later there was a knock on the door. Motochika had fallen asleep in the chair he was sitting in Masamune called out, "come in." Kojuro walked in with Magoichi, Sasuke, Yukimura and Itsuki. Kojuro shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry but Magoichi and Itsuki insisted they were coming with me and Sasuke read the text I sent Magoichi so naturally he called Yukimura. Sasuke looked past Masamune and saw Karia. "Whoa I knew you were here Masamune but I had no idea Karia was in the hospital to! She looks terrible what happened to you guys?" Everyone was now looking back and forth between Masamune, Motochika who was still asleep, and Karia.

"Karia's dad broke his way into her apartment and basically kicked our ass. Motochika's okay just a little bruised, and me well I had the brilliant idea to try using a softball bat that got turned against me shattering my shoulder but Karia got the worst of it. I'm sure she has one hell of a concussion since her dad pounded her like 50 times. She has a broken arm and several broken ribs. As you can probably tell from the face mask her ribs are making breathing a bit difficult as well." Yukimura and Sasuke walked over to Karia as Magoichi, Itsuki and Kojuro came to him. For the most part everyone just started talking. Masamune was only paying half of his attention to the conversation. For some reason he just couldn't seem to keep his eye off of Karia. He kept expecting her to open her eyes in the next second. He expected her to sit up smiling and tell him she was okay. Every time he looked at her she would just lay there still and quiet.

Everyday Sasuke, Yukimura and Kojuro would come in after school and hang out. Masamune was told by one of the nurses that he would be going home in a few more weeks. It was working on a month since the night Karia's dad had come and Karia still hadn't budged. But today was different. It had been about an hour since everyone left including Motochika who finally decided to quite skipping school. Masamune was just laying there with one hand behind his head. He heard a noise and looked over to see Karia attempting to sit up. Masamune carefully got out of his hospital bed and put a hand on her shoulder to gently push her back down. She opened her eyes and they looked up at him. He had been waiting nearly a month to see those amber eyes again hoping they would be shining like fire the way her hair did when the light from the sun hit it in just the right way. The amber eyes looked at him with a kind of sad dullness instead of the fire he was looking for.

"M-Masamune?" She blinked a couple of times and then looked around the room. "I'm in the hospital?" Her voice was still groggy with medicine and sleep. He smiled at her just glad to hear that voice again even though he hadn't heard it much since she was still someone new to him. They still hardly knew each other but Masamune couldn't help feeling like he knew everything about her. "Yea we've been stuck in the hospital for almost a month now except I get to go home soon and you'll have to stay a while longer." Her eyebrows knit together and she looked at him with a confused look. "We? You had to stay in the hospital to?" She looked at the bandages on his shoulder and reached over with her good hand and touched it lightly. "Oh Masamune I'm so sorry this happened. I'm so sorry my dad hurt you. I-" He put a finger up to her lips. "Don't it wasn't you fault. And I'm the one whose sorry here. I'm sorry that you've had to grow up with that son of a bitch for a dad. And I'm also sorry that I didn't protect you well enough."

She was about to protest but he placed his finger back on her lips. Without thinking about what he was doing, without it even registering in his brain that he was doing something, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. Those amber eyes of her were now wide with shock. Suddenly he began to panic. Did he really just do that? Did he really just kiss a girl he hardly knew? How was she going to react and what was she going to say? He panicked and panicked waiting for her to respond. She looked up at him and gave him a weak smile. "Thank you." Was all that she said.