Sarutobi Nisuke watched the Kaki military force approach, a humble 800 men to the Tanaka's 2,000. He shook his head.
"They're going to die."
His companion, Fuuma Kazama, lifted his chin. "Is that…?"
Kaki retainers from the near-bloody meal each sat upon horses to lead the dozens of men under their command - not an unusual sight - and in the centre of the mass of bodies was the Kaki lady herself. She was clad in armour adorned with the Kaki persimmon motif, and between the horns of her helmet were the sprouting Kaki leaves in gold. She had two swords tied to her side, and she sat gallantly on her mount. From afar, no one would have expected a woman in her place, but Fuuma had enhanced his vision with chakra.
"What is it?" Sarutobi off-handedly asked.
Fuuma hummed. "Lady Oichi of Kaki is leading her retainers into battle."
A distant "Charge!" was screamed.
"Wh-huh!?" Sarutobi whipped his head Fuuma's way. Daimyo never dirtied themselves, preferring to send their retainers to do battle and, when the conflict was resolved, send them on the next whimsical war.
"It appears Lord Kaki didn't hand his life over without a plan," Fuuma observed.
"Fuuma-dono, landlords don't fight!" And though age meant little these days, for a sheltered young noble to pick up the mantle's duties so quickly, and without hesitation!?
A roar resounded from another direction in the midst of the shinobi-samurai chaos, and a wave of banners sporting a familiar crest rose from behind a hill. Forces led by Kaki Kentarou and Oichi united to face Tanaka's 2,000.
"We didn't research His Grace's smallest neighbour enough, it seems." Fuuma flared his chakra, and several of his clan members materialised behind him. "We're going to circle around the enemy's back and strike there. Sarutobi-dono, hit the Kaki hard in the front while we do."
It was a common tactic that utilised the Fuuma's infamous stealth and the Sarutobi's strong stamina, yet this time it would be used differently. Sarutobi Nisuke, the Sarutobi family's leader, grimly nodded. "Very well."
Oichi spat out her hair and sliced open the belly of another shinobi.
Give her a break, did the number of enemies never end!?
She was lucky enough for her closest aide, Sanjuro, to attentively fight by her side and handle most of the hard work. Despite all those lessons in chakra, Oichi couldn't make herself mold it during the heat of battle. It was like forgetting to pull the safety before firing a gun; the instant she skipped a step, she couldn't draw up anything but a blank. She felt calm, but was she really? Could anyone be during a mess like this?
A ninja threw fire at her, and Oichi sprinted out of the way while Sanjuro severed the ninja's hands and then neck. Another ninja spun razor wind at her, and Oichi shoved up a log that splintered on impact and hid Oichi's sword from view before it struck the ninja's after-image.
Why on earth were they so fast!?
A blade appeared where the ninja did, and he - no, she - gurgled her last and collapsed. Kaki Kentarou withdrew his sword with a triumphant cry.
"U-Uncle!?"
"I've come to aid my lord!" Kentarou explained, and predicted another ninja's path to stick a sword in that one, too. Who knew giving land could do this? "Men, forward!" Kentarou roared, and his 700 soldiers launched forward and caught the currently fighting shinobi off-guard. "Where is that pile of dung Tanaka!? I owe him a sword for what he did to my brother!"
The same brother whom Kentarou hated for denying him land? That one, uncle?
Regardless of his logic, Oichi was grateful. It appeared that a sense of family pride was still universal.
A wave of victorious cheers rose in the air, and Oichi, Sanjuro, and Kentarou turned its direction. The news travelled to them quickly in the growing pandemonium as the shinobi withdrew.
"Lord Tanaka is dead!" a soldier joyfully exclaimed.
"What happened?" Oichi demanded.
"It appears Lord Tanaka was watching the battle from afar," Sanjuro shared.
The landlord had expected a quick fight and had desired to witness his political victory. Along with him had come his closest aides - not ones to miss on political events - and several servants to provide food and drink. Tanaka had received the bloody meal he deserved.
"It was one of his shinobi," Sanjuro verified. "The Fuuma clan."
"Well, I'm outta here," Kentarou declared, and bellowed orders for his men to follow him out. A common amusement between servants was the idea that Oichi had inherited Kentarou's stronger blood through her lord father.
"Tanaka-dono's retainers…betrayed him?" Oichi repeated. "They might not share the honour of lords or samurai, but they have a code. They respect contracts!"
Sanjuro saw familiar figures approaching, and thinned his lips. "We shall see."
Oichi sat nervously on her clan head stool in the dirt, still within view of the recent battlefield. Kentarou had abandoned her to her lordly duties, selfish jerk. To her right and left were a row of her retainers facing each other on their own stools, and kneeling down the middle were Tanaka's retainers, aka the leaders of their soldiers - their families - who together had comprised the 2,000-strong army.
"I'm supposed to believe you killed your own lord," Oichi deadpanned. "You could have easily killed us, if you so desired. We were 1,500 to your 2,000."
"Ah, but then Lady - excuse me, Lord Kaki would have wept from her grave for her retainers," one of the shinobi remarked.
Oichi stammered at the reference to her own words. "Huh?"
Another ninja rose his head. "We could not serve Lord Tanaka any further, and your words at the near-bloody meal showed us that. We are not landlords, however, so we aren't going to claim Lord Tanaka's lands for ourselves."
"Instead you choose to hand them to me on a platter."
"Lord Kaki or anyone else may squabble over them," the ninja corrected. "Lord Tanaka's possessions are no longer our concern. We shall mourn our dead and make home in another nation. We shall move on."
Oichi internally winced. The shinobi must have had it rough for them to go so far as to trade their sliver of honour as mercenaries for freedom from Tanaka's rule.
"Don't bother," Oichi refuted. "It's only appropriate that traitors make residence in a traitor's home. My late brother's property might be tight in comparison to what Tanaka-dono had offered you, but I extend them to you regardless." Oichi laughed. "Fancy that. I only start crying when I tell myself not to. Say what you will of Ken, but he was family, and I loved him."
Her retainers turned in their stools to her. "Your Grace…."
Oichi sniffed and wiped a tear away. Her retainers respectfully pretended to not see it. "I lost a father and an enemy because of you and my brother. Ken has received the justice he deserves and now rests in peace with my father, and you have lost family in this skirmish with me and my men. All that's left now for you is a reward. Please accept it."
She was met with shocked stares. It appeared that modern kindness was foreign in the feudal era.
A ninja shook himself free of his deep shock and shared looks with his fellow former retainers, before turning back to Oichi and inclining his head. "We gratefully accept. What are the conditions?"
"Please, most of you look ready to retire," Oichi waved off, drawing on her informal nature to regain her composure. At the word "retire," she was met with more disbelief. "What I'm saying is, I'm not hiring you. I, Lord Oichi of the Kaki clan, invite you to take residence in my lands and be a citizen of my nation. Heed the laws, dig into soil and trade, yadda yadda, you get the gist."
One of the shinobi burst in tears.
Oichi's own heart suddenly felt crushed. The shinobi must have been really miserable. She could see why the Uchiha and Senju would unite and found a village beyond simple friendship. The feudal era was rough, but it couldn't have been rougher on anyone but the shinobi. Where citizens in the wrong time and place were collateral damage, ninja were essentially cannon fodder. Most if not all of them must have given up on the concept of retirement or long life. Their only purpose and bright centre of their existence was maintaining a ninja sense of honour, to the point of religion.
"Musacchi," Oichi called, and a bewildered Musashi eventually inclined his head. "Help them settle in Ken's old lands. They can have claim to anything but properties of Ken's former retainers. Those samurai stayed true to their duty to their lord, and their living family shouldn't suffer for it."
"But Oichi-sama," one of the late Lord Kaki's previous retainers cut in. "Ken'ichi-sama's retainers participated in the failed coup! Those who turned their blade on us were struck down but not without losses among your father's own!"
"The traitors who turned their blade have paid with their lives and honour, and those who didn't turn their blade fought alongside us against an army of 2,000," Oichi returned. "Or I should say, the one who didn't." Her gaze fell on the samurai on the farthest stool to her right.
Ken'ichi's sole living retainer fell from his stool and prostrated himself before Oichi. "I am ashamed to have participated in a rebellion against the clan head! I, Inui Toyoharu, shall apologise with my life!"
Another retainer who had been close with Inui rose and grimly unsheathed his long sword. "I shall help him."
Inui undid his armour and tunic and turned his short sword inwards in his hands. He rose the blade high before swinging it in, when a firm grip on his wrist stopped him.
Wide sets of eyes turned to Oichi.
"No more deaths," Oichi commanded, having risen and rushed over from her stool. "Throwing your life away won't make me happy."
"Your Grace!" Inui cried. "I've lost my honour as a samurai. Let me repent!"
"Then stop being a samurai!" Oichi roared. "Consider yourself without honour, and without obligation to pay for your sins with your death! I've had my fill of losing the people around me." Her cheeks were wet. "Darn it. Everyone! Let's go home!"
Oichi pivoted off, leaving Inui, the retainer close to him, and several others frozen with shock while everyone else stumbled to follow Oichi off the battlefield. Eventually, the rest slapped each other out of it and helped Inui up on his feet.
Everyone headed for home: the Kaki nation.
"Your Grace!" A retainer materialised at the council room door and hastily slid it open. "A letter from Lord Hino has arrived. It might be a declaration of war!" The ninja approached and handed the folded paper inked LORD KAKI over to Oichi.
Though most of the late Tanaka's shinobi had chosen to retire to farming or craftsmanship, 200 of them had trouble dropping their ninja lifestyles and had expressed the desire to serve the land's lord as retainers. It was a large step up from mercenaries to official servants, and an even greater plea for grace from traitorous mercenaries. Oichi allowed it - much to her current retainers' grief - causing two more men to join her group of officials: Sarutobi Nisuke, who represented the Sarutobi clan and sat among Musashi and other seniors, and Fuuma Kazama, who represented the Fuuma clan and was handing the letter over now.
Oichi unfolded the paper and parsed the archaic penmanship. "Publicly declaring Lord Tanaka's lands for my own wasn't enough, as expected," she murmured to herself. "Lord Hino is the third daimyo to challenge me."
The first two had each lost a battle to Oichi's 800 samurai and 200 shinobi — not because of Oichi's numbers or warriors, but because no one had expected anything from the small Kaki nation. Tanaka's bewildered neighbours were using the failure to plan their next engagement with Oichi's forces that she was spreading as quickly as possible to be able to physically solidify her claim to the land. She had also been spending time with the local peasants to grasp the lord-less nation's conditions.
Oichi glanced up at the silence. She cocked a brow. "Inui," she addressed, "usually at this moment, you'd shout, 'where shall we march to!' Where's that enthusiasm?"
"M-My lord," Inui stammered.
"Lord Hino is the most ruthless daimyo on the Great Continent," Musashi explained, his own voice trembling. "Only the foolish are not struck with fear by his name. His armies are as strong as the tip of his pinky."
Didn't the saying go differently!?
Everyone was sweating.
"W-Well, Lord Hino only invited me to meet with him," Oichi shared. "He might just want to ask about the state of his rivals on the other side of Kaki nation."
"Mayhaps," a senior retainer proposed, "Lord Hino wishes to kill Lord Kaki with his own hands, and be done with it."
The air chilled.
"Gosh, no one can be that scary!" Oichi suddenly laughed. "His image must just be the product of exaggeration. You guys were scaring me."
"Your Grace," Sanjuro solemnly said, "Lord Hino once snapped a man's neck with one hand. Without chakra."
Oichi rubbed her neck and gulped.
"Hino-dono," Oichi greeted with a deep bow from where she sat cross-legged. It was a male's position as opposed to a woman's sitting with tucked legs, but if Oichi was going to deal with the troubles of being clan head, she was going to be comfortable while doing so.
Not that it seemed she'd live that long.
In front of her, cross-legged on his dais, frowned Lord Hino. He was bald and leaner than she expected a veritable demon to be, but when he splintered the fan in his hand without even grunting at the effort, Oichi realised that his opulent clothes must have been disguising his true figure.
"You made me wait," Hino said flatly.
"Your letter arrived later than I could prepare and travel my way here," Oichi quickly shared, and lowered her head deeper until it touched the ground.
"Tsk." Did he just click his tongue at the acceptable excuse!? "I invited you to my castle because you're a daimyo who has given land to avoid conflict before. I'm willing to spare you from my army if you give me your mountain."
And lose both the Tanaka land and a chunk of the Kaki nation!? Oichi sat up quickly. "I've only given land to my uncle, who had a rightful claim to it."
"Weak!" Hino suddenly roared, and Oichi's closest aide Sanjuro flinched while Hino's aide - his oldest son - didn't bat an eye.
Besides the two aides, Oichi and Hino were alone, as was traditional in official meetings. Any retainers Oichi had brought were waiting for her in the antechamber, whose connecting doors with the council room were closed.
"Your excuses are pathetic," Hino continued, "and you have no backbone to address the central matter! Give me land, or I'll feed you my army!"
"If I give you my mountain, you'll take my nation, too, and the Tanaka land I've been claiming."
"Your Grace!" Sanjuro whispered, shocked at Oichi's disrespectful bluntness in the face of the infamous Lord Hino.
"For what reason could you possibly desire Tanaka land?" Hino zeroed on. "You attract opposition this way."
"Peasants have lives, too," Oichi declared. "They didn't ask for their lord to die and leave them to the wolves. I also can't afford to not expand Kaki territory. War ravages the lands around me, all the males of my main family are dead, and I've decided to house shinobi who've broken their contract. Make no mistake, my honour is without blemish, and I likewise expect the same from others while in service to me. But I can't negotiate with daimyo who won't speak to my family unless they want something. In these times," she admitted regretfully, "might is right."
"Hm!" Hino scoffed. "You Kaki have held land so long as you've been useful! None of us important landlords have wanted the other to grab a slice of Kaki's fertile farmland and a territorial advantage on us. Your ambitions to claim Tanaka land upset this balance!"
"Respectfully," Oichi deadpanned, "my job isn't to be your or anyone's wench."
There was a gasp. Sanjuro fainted with a thud.
Hino's face coloured. "You—!" He rose, and his throat unpeeled before spilling blood.
Hino's son grabbed his sword grip and was immediately discouraged with a blade to his neck. The blade was still slick with his father's blood. Hino's hand that had been on Oichi's neck fell, and the clan head collapsed, gasping like a fish.
Oichi shakily rose, caressing her neck, and drew herself out of the room. "Fuuma-kun, carry San-chan out, please."
The ninja nodded, retreated from his position over Hino's son without breaking eye contact, and picked up the unconscious Sanjuro. The council room's door slid closed with a dull wooden thud.
They rode back to the Kaki castle silently.
"You didn't have to do that, Fuuma-kun," Oichi murmured.
Fuuma materialised next to her mount. "My lord's life was threatened."
"I would have fought Hino-dono myself."
"It had to be done."
"Because I'm a woman?"
"…I'm sorry."
Ninja clans held no reservations regarding gender, and were forward-thinking in that regard, but the same couldn't be said of everyone else in this era. Oichi couldn't just do the impossible and kill Lord Hino when he tried to kill her - no, she as the female landlord had to also walk away without a scratch on her. Hence Fuuma's actions. They were a swift and merciless response to the one who dared touch a hair on Oichi's head. If she couldn't be as strong as a man in muscle, there were other ways to radiate strength.
After a pause, the ninja leader confirmed, "…A strong response from the beginning would send a message to the lords who covet the late Lord Tanaka's land."
Oichi, who valued Fuuma's input as Tanaka's former retainer, mutely nodded. "…Thank you, Fuuma-kun."
"Your Grace?"
"I now intimately understand Hino-dono's reputation." Oichi's voice steadied. "You saved my life."
Fuuma watched the back of his landlord's head, her bangs concealing her eyes from his position. Her knuckles were white around her reins.
She was a scared young noble.
No, Fuuma shook his head. She was their scared young noble.
"Gladly, Your Grace."