Savin' Me

Sorry this took a few days longer. I was caught up with the other story I am writing, which was held up by unexpected events… But I had some of it written and I finished the rest tonight. I hope I haven’t missed any mistakes, but I might have. I hope I can get to it again this week, but events at work might get in the way, so if it’s late, blame it on that. Thank you for reading, and those that reviewed, many. many more thanks. Not much action in this one, a little H/C though, enjoy, I hope…

Savin’ Me continued…


Iruka awoke to uproar in the house. He quickly pulled himself out of his small bed and got quickly through the cupboard door. Aya was there, looking fearful as she rushed past.

“What’s going on?” he asked, he could hear the sound of leather hitting flesh.

Shingo came up behind him, crying himself. “He’s beating the Bitch. He hurt a client and the boss is pissed beyond belief.”

Iruka felt a shiver up his spine as he pushed through other whores and workers out the back of the whorehouse. There he could see Hirose wielding a belt over the prone body of the whore know as the Bitch. His whole body was covered in welts, and he was trying to curl into himself, but was not able to.

“Oh Gods, why doesn’t he stop. He usually stops by now, he doesn’t like to mark the Bitch up so much.” Iruka heard Shingo muttered.

“He’s bleeding, he’s never made him bleed like that,” another of the girls said.

But it stopped, Hirose was standing there panting with the effort he had put into the beating. He turned and looked at his workers. “Get back inside; this is no show for you all. Or do you want some of the same.”

The girls and Shingo ran. Other workers disappeared, until Iruka found himself being eyed by Hirose. “You, find Masaki and get the Bitch up to his room. You know any doctoring?” Iruka nodded. “Then you clean him up, and make damn sure none of the cuts gets infected. I need the Bitch back working in two days.”

Hirose hurried off without a backward look. Iruka quickly found Masaki and they carried the whore to his room. Iruka could see the tears running down his face, and feel the shivers of pain running through the body. They got him into a very small room that had no windows and only a small narrow bed in it. It’s sheets were dirty, and there were a few equally dirty yukata lying on the floor. The room reeked of stale sweat and more…

Masaki got out quickly. “There’s a bathroom across the hall, you can find everything you might need there. Do as the boss said, then come find me. I’ll lock his room.”

“Is he always locked in here?”

“Here or the box.”

“The box?”

“That small wooden box out the back, the boss locks him in there for punishment sometimes.”

Iruka turned his attention back to his patient. When he turned back, Masaki was gone.

“Oh Kashi, look at the mess you’ve got yourself in,” he said brushing away some of the limp hair that was clinging to the whore’s forehead. He looked around at the filthy room and he felt cold claw over him. This was the conditions his friend had lived under for five long years.

He sighed heavily; he couldn’t let himself fall into pity now. It would not help either of them. He had to care for the wounds that had been inflicted on the whore’s body. He hadn’t even noticed that the whole time, the body was naked and had been naked when he was being beaten. He hadn’t seen this until now as he looked over the many cuts and welts. Hirose had really done a job on him. He got up and moved to the bathroom where he found a small basin and some cloths he could use for cleaning up the blood. He also found an antiseptic cream which he picked up to take with him. Going back into the stale room, he began to clean and dress the wounds he could reach on the side the whore was lying on.

“Come on Kashi; roll over for me, huh? I need to get the other side.”

It took a few minutes, but he rolled, still shaking with pain. There were still tears leaking from his eyes. His heart clenched, he almost wanted to cry himself. But he held it together and went on with the job at hand. Once he was finished he picked up the basin and took it back into the bathroom to empty it and dispose of the cloths. He was about to go back in when he saw Masaki approaching.

“Finished?”

“Yes, but I’d like to clean up the room, it’s filthy.”

“He’s a slave; he doesn’t need his room cleaned.”

“If he is to heal he needs cleanliness. There is no air in there it stinks as you know.”

Masaki sneered, “Fine. Do what you want with the room, you can clean him up when he goes back to work if you want more cleaning to do.”

“What about food, when does he get fed?”

“When I get around to it he gets fed, even of I have to shove it down his face. Get wise, this man is a slave, he belongs to Hirose, body and soul. He can do what he wants with his slave and no one can say anything about it. You want to keep your little job here, do as you are told and keep your mouth shut. You care anything about this slave, keep him alive or you will pay.”

Masaki walked off and Iruka hurried down to his little cupboard, even it was bigger that the whore’s room. He got fresh sheets and other things he would need and hurried back upstairs.

Not wanting to disturb the hurt man, he dragged him and the dirty mattress out of the room and into the bathroom. The whore didn’t even crank an eye open, he just lay there, tremors intermittently shaking him as he lay there curled tightly now that he had been cleaned up.

Iruka hurried into the room, but he quickly got out again. It was worse since he shifted the mattress. He covered his face and braved the room again and his shoulders slumped. It was worse than he thought. There was a bucket that was filled with waste, barely covered by a piece of wood. It hadn’t been emptied in a while, and it was all the whore had when he was locked up. Another was filled with urine and covered similarly. And right behind it was a rat or mice nest complete with newborns. The floor was covered in grime and dust, and moved in places, bugs. He quivered with imagined crawlies over himself. Kakashi had lived with them for years. It was just plain cruel. He picked up one of the buckets and took it at arms length out the back, then followed with the other one. The found a small shovel and started on the floor, digging out the grime and dirt and whatever else had accumulated there, including the living creatures. Filling yet another bucket with that, it soon followed the others. Then he set to scrubbing the floor. Any clothes there were also disposed of. Finally he was satisfied that the floor was clean; he emptied the water bucket and dried the floor. He knew where there were some more mattresses and he retrieved one and took it to the whore’s room. He laid it and a pillow on the floor, got some clean covered buckets and some bottles of water which he hid, knowing Masaki, he would take them away. He put some rolls of toilet paper in front of them, as well as a small hand towel. He also found some old yukata and folded them up beside the other things neatly. Finally he went back to the bathroom and knelt beside the whore.

“Come on Kashi, you’ve got to get up for me. Get off this dirty thing, I got you a new one, nice and clean, and there’s a yukata in there you can wrap around you. Come on, babe, get up for me.” Iruka hardly noticed what he was saying.

His words however, seemed to have an effect. The whore uncurled and slowly pulled himself up of the dirty bedding. Iruka quickly got his arms around him, helping him up and over to the other room. He couldn’t stand for long and he was shaking hard when he landed on his backside with a grimace of pain. Iruka quickly grabbed one of the yukata and spread it over his shoulders. He helped him get his arms into the armholes and helped gather it in the front and the tie around his waist. His strength gone, the whore lay down on the fresh bed and Iruka draped a blanket over him.

“I’ve cleaned everything; it will help you get better. I wish I could do more… Rest. I’ll try and see if I can bring food to you and check on those wounds.” Again he brushed some hair from the other’s face as his single eye regarded him. “Let me have this, I’ll bring back another, I promise.” He pulled at the scarf covering the eye.

The whore reacted then, wanting to escape this.

“It’s okay you can’t hurt me with that eye, believe me. I’ll get you another to replace this rag.”

The whore stopped edging away and let Iruka take the wet rag from his eye which was tightly closed beneath.

“I wish I could get some more air in here, and I see you don’t let you have a light. But I guess you’re used to that. I’ll be back, don’t worry. I won’t let things get this bad again.”

Iruka pulled back, he was trying very hard to stop himself from touching his friend. It was getting harder to remember that he did not know he was his friend at the moment. He realized that when he recalled using the nickname of Kakashi’s name. He should not have done that, it was too dangerous, but it had slipped out too readily.

He got to his feet and gathered up the things he had used to clean the room and closed the door, leaving it cracked open a little. Masaki would not doubt be along soon to lock it.

Once he had put everything away, disposed of the old mattress, he returned to the kitchen where he found Masaki sitting at the table.

“If he wasn’t valuable property I would have stopped you doing what you did.”

“If he’s so valuable, why did you keep him in a shit heap like that,” bit back Iruka. “I’ve seen dogs treated better.”

“He’s a slave, and a whore. He doesn’t need to be treated any better than a dog.”

“The whole place is a whore house. Why not treat the others like him?”

“Why the fuck do you care anyway?”

“He is still a man, even if he is enslaved. If you keep him in conditions like that he will die on you eventually. Does Hirose know how you house him?”

Masaki’s eyes narrowed and he threw a hand down on the table. “Shut your fucking mouth.”

“I thought so,” said Iruka.

“You bastard,” Masaki got to his feet and got in Iruka’s face. “This is none of your business.”

“I’m making it my business.” Iruka faced him without fear. He was a Ninja after all.

Masaki backed up at Iruka’s tone, then changed his tune. “You just want to fuck him now you’ve seen him. Everyone does eventually.”

“I do not want to fuck him, even if I am inclined that way.” He saw Masaki back up another step. “I just want to see him treated like the human being that he is. I’m sure Hirose doesn’t want to lose his property.”

“Fine, you feed him, but I’ll be up in fifteen minutes to lock the door.” Masaki kept backing up until he was out of the room, and quickly gone.

Iruka at first smiled, then he leaned on the table in relief. He wasn’t sure how far Masaki was going to push it and he didn’t want to have to use any Ninja skills to help him while he was there. He had to stay there if he were going to be of any help to Kakashi. Because he still didn’t know the full layout of the place, or how far the security went.

He turned with a jump; he had fifteen minutes to get some food into the whore before he was locked up again. Iruka wasn’t sure when or even if, he‘d be allowed to help him again.

There was a pan of broth on the stove and he stirred it before tasting it. It was warm; he wouldn’t want it to be too hot. He found a bowl and ladled some into it, grabbed some soft biscuits and hurried back upstairs. He knelt beside the whore, and gently touched his shoulder. “I’ve got food. Can you sit up and lean against me, I’ll help you. You gotta eat, come on now.” He began to lift him up and let him lean against him. He reached one handed for the bowl and was able to manage it, resting the whore’s head against his left shoulder while he freed his other hand to lift the spoon from the bowl and push it up to the whore’s mouth. The mouth however, did not open.

“Come on. You have to eat. You need to get you strength back.” He could feel the tremors from the other shaking his own body. “Come on Kashi.” Again the pet name, but it seemed to do the trick. The moth opened and the broth was sipped from the spoon.

Pleased, he kept feeding the other man, occasionally leaving the spoon in the bowl while he dipped the biscuit into the broth and feeding him that too. It took a long time for him to get even half the bowl down and he knew Masaki would be along soon. But the mouth had stopped opening for him.

“Okay, you’ve had enough,” he gently pushed him forward and let he lay down. Then from his pocket he pulled out a piece of dark cloth. “Here, let me cover your eye for you.”

The head lifted to allow him to tie the cloth over the left eye and around his head. He sighed as he lay his head down and closed the other eye. Iruka realized that he had dropped off in exhaustion. He gathered the bowl and got to his feet and just stood there looking at his friend.

“He’s beautiful isn’t he?” came a voice from just outside.

Iruka jumped, but was glad to see it was only Shingo.

“Oh sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I’ve watched him sleep a few times when he was in a work room before Masaki dragged him back here… You cleaned up in here didn’t you?”

“It was horrible.”

“Masaki doesn’t care for him. He’s only here for the money. You must have scared him to get him to let you do this.”

“No one deserves to be left like that.”

“I chose this life,” said Shingo, “It was all I was good at. I don’t know what his life was like before this place, but he didn’t chose to become a slave, I’m sure of that. He fights too much. Don’t get fired, Iruka. We need someone like you here. All the girls like you; the place has never been cleaner. I like you… no I’m not hitting on you again, don’t worry… He needs you too.”

They both heard someone coming up the stairs. Shingo smiled at him before disappearing.

Iruka watched as Masaki came up to him glaring. “He eat?”

Iruka nodded.

“Good, get lost. I’m locking him in now.”

Iruka moved slowly off, listening as Masaki closed the door hard and the key turn in the lock. Masaki passed him on the way down, but he made sure he didn’t touch him. Iruka smiled. He liked having that bastard scared of him.

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