I'm allowed back online now! ^^ Yay! (yeah) anyway, I still have no clue as to what to write next....... I really don't. So the chapters will be.......er.......short.......until I get a burst of inspiration or something. ^_^

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Chapter 6.......

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Misao sighed and stared up at the ceiling, bored out of her mind. She had her stuffed dolphin to hug, and the ceiling to stare at, not to mention the pain in her back.......

She'd been in bed for approximately four days with nothing to do except sleep and eat. She got up every so often with Omasu's help to go to the bathroom and such, but other than that, she didn't move.

And her leg felt much better than it previously had. But her back.......

It really hurt....... And from what she'd been told, the wounds there weren't near as bad as the one in her stomach, or on her leg.......

So why did it hurt so bad?

And her fever hadn't gone away either.......

How strange. She wasn't going to tell anyone that her back hurt, however....... They'd probably think that she was a sissy or something.......

Even though she had a fever, and she was sick, she couldn't seem to get to sleep at all. Insomnia Ultima....... that's what she called it.

She was too weak to really do anything except lie down, so she couldn't exactly get up and train to cure her boredom.

Aoshi-sama had stopped sticking to her room like glue, and wasn't hanging around so much anymore....... It was kind of lonely sitting by yourself, staring at the ceiling....... but Aoshi-sama probably had better things to do with his time than watch over her.

The doctor had stopped by on the second day of ultimate boredom, and had proclaimed that her leg and stomach were healing up nicely. He'd even said that perhaps she would be able to be up and around as soon as her flu passed on.

There WAS a flu going around town, and Okon had gotten, but Misao didn't think they were the same flu. While poor Okon was busy throwing up her lunch, she herself just had a fever and flashes of heat and cold.

She hated it when she was so hot she wanted the window open, but then as soon as the person who opened the window left, she wanted it closed because she was cold.

She'd become accustomed to sleeping on her side, so that her back didn't hurt so bad. But every so often, in the middle of the night, she'd turn over onto her back and jolt herself awake. Hey, it was one heck of an alarm.

Except one time she'd woken up at 2:00am.......

The shoji to her room slid open, and somebody walked in. Misao turned her head to see Okina waltz into the room.

"Hey Jiya," she greeted, her voice still slightly raspy, but not nearly as bad as it had been.

"Good morning Misao!" Jiya smiled heartily.

"Morning? It's still morning?" Misao whined. "I feel like it's been a month!"

"Maybe you should read something then," Okina suggested.

"Like what? I don't own any books......."

"No, but Aoshi does. I'll see if he'll let you borrow a book or two, alright?"

"You probably shouldn't bother him Jiya," Misao sighed. "He's most likely working on something."

"He's working all right," Jiya mused. "Working on finding out more information about that man that you fought.......what was his name again?"

"Insumi.......I think."

"Yes, well, Aoshi's looking for him."

"Oh....... When's lunch?" she asked, hoping it would be in two minutes or less.

"Not for a few hours actually.......It's only 9:30......."

"Oh," she sighed disappointedly. "Alright."

~*~

Okina returned ½ an hour later with two books, both old and worn looking.

"They aren't about war techniques are they?" Misao asked dubiously. "I'll bet they are."

"Actually, Aoshi said that they were very good novels," Jiya reprimanded. "First there's 'The Backfence Story', and the other one is called 'My Friend Flicka'. They're both about animals, so I think you'll like them."

"Animals, huh? What kinds?"

"Well, 'The Backfence Story' is about cats, and 'My Friend Flicka' is about a horse."

"Oh......."

"Here you go Misao!" he said triumphantly, depositing them in front of her. "Do you need some more pillows?"

"No Jiya, I'm fine......."

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A few days later, her fever went up, and her back started to throb painfully instead of ache, but she didn't say anything, afraid that her friends would think that she was weak.......

~*~

Aoshi was studying in his room, well, studying up on former Oniwabanshuu members, but he still couldn't find anyone named "Insumi" and it was driving him up the wall.

He'd gone through every book in the whole Aoiya, and he'd ordered more from the other stationed Oniwabanshuu members, but he doubted that he would find anything.

Just as he set his book down, Omasu came busting inside his room, nearly taking his shoji off its track. He looked up startled and stared coldly at the intrusion of his solitude.

"It-It's Misao!" she exclaimed. "I knew something strange was going on, and that it smelled kind of strange in there, but I had no idea!" She grabbed onto Aoshi's arm and urged him to follow her down the hall.

Aoshi himself was rather confused. What about Misao?

She ran inside Misao's room where the other members of the Oniwabanshuu were gathered, looking on either with tears in their eyes [Jiya, Okon, Omasu] or with worry etched into their faces[Shiro, Kuro].

"She was having another one of those spells, you know. And she kept saying something about her back hurting. Well, since she hadn't said anything about it before, and she'd been out for nearly a day now, I figured I should check it out."

"My poor Misao!" Jiya cried, wiping tears from his eyes. "How did this happen?!" Aoshi raised an eyebrow questioningly, and Jiya pointed down at Misao.

Aoshi followed his gaze and noticed that Omasu had pulled the top of her yukata down to her waist, and the ninja girl was flipped over on her stomach. Her pale skin was dull-looking on her back, but only on her back. The rest of her skin was dull, but not that dull.

Her back wounds were colored terribly, black and red with puss leaking out around them. The skin was jagged around the wounds, and pink and puffy. He wondered just how this had happened.

He knelt down and pressed two fingers against the largest cut, pushing puss out of the wound.

Misao whimpered and tried to turn over, but Omasu knelt down and held her in place, brushing her hair back behind her ears and running her hands through her hair to help calm her.

"Do you know what it is Aoshi?" Okina asked fearfully.

Aoshi nodded slowly. "I do," he stated.

"Is it.......bad?"

He nodded again.

"I mean, it sure smells bad......." Jiya put a hand over his nose, and Aoshi frowned. He knew what it was, all right, but how Misao had gotten it, he had no idea.

"What is it Aoshi-san?" Okon asked him.

"Gangrene," he whispered. "She has gangrene......."

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WooT! Bet you never saw that coming! ^^ Gangrene is.......

The death or decay of living tissue in the body. Moist gangrene is the result of an injury, a blood clot, or a tight bandage that restricts the blood flow to the tissues. It is characterized by an offensive odor from the affected area. It spreads rapidly to other tissues, and, if untreated, can result in death.

You know what'll happen, right? She'll have so many scars.......poor Misao, I'm so cruel.......OH WELL, IT'S A FANFICTION! ^^;; It never really did happen!

C-ya!

~~Okashira Misao

PS. Review please? And sorry this was so short.......