Uonuma Usui stood motionlessly, listening to the murmur of water and occasional clack of the bamboo water clock in the Daimyo's meditation garden; it wasn't all he heard though.  Using his "Eye of the Heart," he could hear the Daimyo's slow heartbeat and rhythmic breathing as Shibumi sat in the center of his garden.  Usui followed the sounds to their owner.  "My Lord," he said, bowing, but not bothering to hide the sneer in his voice as he heard the Daimyo's heartbeat speed up in alarm.

"Usui, did you capture the escaped prisoner?" Shibumi asked, looking up from the lotus position at the blind Captain of his Guards. Usui heard him deepen his breathing in an attempt to calm his racing heart.

"No, Lord.  He is not in my custody at this time," Usui answered, listening as anger propelled the blood throughout the Daimyo's body in a rush.  Usui knew that the Daimyo's anger was somewhat justified; the escape of the little gutter thief was not only a blow to Aizu's reputation; it was, by extension, a personal blow to Shibumi.  However, the justification did not make it any easier to accept the upcoming tantrum the Captain of the Guards knew was coming.

Usui kept his head bowed in order to hide his scorn.  In his opinion, Shibumi was a fool with no real conception of true power. Before his elevation to Daimyo, he had been a minor, and much-put-upon, functionary in the Emperor's Court whose job had been to see to the trivial whims of the vapid Court nobles.  Usui thus found it pathetic and laughable that when Shibumi had finally got a taste of real power he abused it by trying to emulate and outdo those same insipid courtiers.  The only reason he hid his amused contempt was because it was Shibumi's rise to power that had enabled his own.

"Then why do you invade my garden, unannounced and unwashed?" Shibumi asked scathingly.  "Did you think you'd find him here?"  Usui frowned at the insult, able to tell that Shibumi was pleased with his own cleverness.  He decided to end that state of mind as quickly as possible.

"Saitou Hajime has returned," Usui said simply, secretly reveling in the galloping heartbeat and the acrid smell of fear suddenly emanating from the Daimyo.  No one in Aizu knew the entire story; just that the former Captain of the Guards had taken something precious from Shibumi, and that the Daimyo wanted him dead. "The escapee, Myojin Yahiko, travels with him.  My most trusted men are searching the forest."

"And the eagle?" Shibumi asked, a new smell beginning to rise from his pores.  Usui didn't know what to make of this smell, wasn't quite sure what it could mean, but it was there, underlying the fear.  It didn't make sense, really; that damned bird couldn't be what Saitou had stolen from Shibumi. 

"My Lord?" Usui asked in order to be sure that he was correct about Shibumi's state of mind.

"Saitou travels with an extremely spirited golden eagle.  I want you to bring me that bird.  Kill Saitou if you can," Usui bristled inwardly at the slight, "kill the boy; but the day the eagle dies, the new Captain of my Guards will preside over your execution.  Am I making myself clear?"

"Perfectly," Usui growled, hiding the fact that Shibumi's question was almost literally true.  He knew what was in his Daimyo's heart, but he did not understand why; the smells of fear and anticipation tinged with the scent of lust, were too hard to ignore, however.

"You are my hand among the people, Usui, and my most trusted servant.  I know you will not fail me in this.  You are dismissed."  Usui bowed once again, hiding his displeasure at the man.  "One last thing, Usui, find the hunter, Arundo Akamatsu, and send him to me." 

"As you wish my Lord," Usui murmured, bowing his way out of the garden.

***

They smelled the smoke a long time before they came upon the small cottage and a low shed in a clearing in the woods.  Saitou reined in his horse from a trot to walk. "Why are we stopping now?" Yahiko whined from his place behind Saitou in the saddle.  "There's still plenty of light."

"One, it's going to be rather cold tonight, and personally, I would like to have shelter.  Two, there are plenty of forest spirits just waiting for a pair of unwary travelers to stumble upon their lairs in the darkness, so that they can do some mischief upon them."  The man turned in the saddle, smirking as Yahiko gulped.  "And if that wasn't enough for you:  three, there are wolves about.  I will spend the night here.  You, on the other hand, are free to go on ahead as you please."

"Since you put it that way, I guess those are pretty good reasons," Yahiko said, feigning nonchalance.  Saitou snorted and guided his horse to the little farmstead.  Both the sullen looking peasant and his equally sullen looking wife, who had stopped in the middle of their chores to bow at the passing lord, looked up in dismay when said lord stopped in front of them.

"My Lord," the man sniveled, "we are sorry we are late with our taxes, but our crops failed, and there is barely enough to feed ourselves for the winter…" Saitou raised his hand to stop the tide of excuses.

"Hn. You seemed to have mistaken me for someone who cares. Your tax situation is none of my concern.  Save your excuses.  My servant and I will be staying here for the night," he said in a tone that brooked no argument.  The farmer's wife tried to argue anyway.

"We have no place for you here," she nearly spat at them.

"We will pay you of course," Yahiko said, flashing his stolen purse at the couple, trying to soften the command in Saitou's voice.  The farmers looked at the purse as if weighing it with their eyes, and began to whisper to themselves.  Saitou raised an eyebrow at Yahiko, but kept his peace.

"You can sleep in the shed," the woman said, still sullen.  Her husband nodded, and they both went into their cottage, and closed the door behind them.

"Even this far from Aizu, Shibumi poisons the land," Saitou murmured to the eagle, as he slid from his horse's back and led it to the low shed.  Yahiko, looking back at the cottage, noticed two pairs of surly eyes watching them.

"Why am I doing all of the work," Yahiko, carrying another armload of firewood into the shed, whined shortly before sunset, as he passed by Saitou who was seated on a stump.  Earlier he had carried the water, curried the rather unimaginatively named 'Horse,' and gathered the hay for their bedding, while Saitou had sat magnificently supervising and sharpening his sword with a whet stone and oilcloth.

"Because our hosts believe that you are my servant," he said coolly, without looking up "and because they have been watching us all of this time."  Yahiko glanced up at the cottage again as a flicker passed by the window.  "Besides," and at this, Saitou stood and walked into their temporary shelter, "I saved you from certain death this afternoon; I think you owe me something."  Yahiko could only curse at his logic, and glare daggers at his back.  Saitou returned moments later carrying one of his saddlebags over his shoulder, and looking nearly naked without his sword on his hip.  He held up his gauntleted fist and whistled between his teeth.  The eagle swooped down suddenly, landing neatly.  He spoke to the bird softly in crooning nonsense syllables, and began walking toward the woods.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Yahiko yelled.

"I'm going to see if I can obscure our trail a little bit."

"But the sun is setting!  You won't be able to see anything!"

"Don't be so sure of that," Saitou said mockingly. "Make a small fire, stay in the shed, and sleep with one eye open.  There are spirits at work on a night like this."  And with that, he disappeared into the forest, leaving Yahiko to wonder if it would have been better to take his chances in prison.

Yahiko watched through one of the numerous holes in the shed's wall as the waning moon slowly rose over the forest clearing in the east.  It had been several hours since the tall nobleman had vanished, and though the boy wasn't really concerned about him, it was rather disconcerting that the man hadn't returned.  As Saitou had predicted, the night had turned bitterly cold, and somewhere off in the distance, Yahiko could hear the lonely howl of a wolf.  'Maybe he's run into a forest spirit,' Yahiko thought smugly as he snuck outside the shed to take a piss.  'Ha! It'd serve him right, making me do all of his work like some kind of slave.'  He found a likely tree, and was starting to wonder if his bladder was full enough to allow him to write his name in the hardening frost, when he heard the whispering voices of their hosts.

"I say we do it now," the woman's voice came from a nearby clump of trees.  "That noble hasn't returned, and killing that runty servant of his will be easy."  Yahiko felt his eyes widen as he realized that she meant him.

"But what happens when that bastard comes back?" the man asked in equally hushed tones.

"You wait in the shed, and surprise him," the woman answered eagerly.  "We take their money, sell their possessions and maybe the horse, and we'll have enough money to set ourselves up as merchants in Heian-kyo."  Yahiko began slowly backing away from the murderous couple.  The crack of the fallen branch that he tripped over was a loud report in the icy darkness, and he hit the ground with a soft grunt.  "What was that?"

"The boy," the man yelled, and the sounds of running steps filled the air, forcing Yahiko to his feet to do some running of his own.  The shed was within sight when he looked over his shoulder to see the man closing in on him with a wicked looking axe, raised to strike, glinting weakly in the waning moonlight.

'Please, please, please,' Yahiko begged whatever forest spirits were in the area with every panting breath and each time his feet touched the ground.  The farmer actually roared as he came within striking distance.  "SAITOU!" Yahiko screeched in the dim hope that the man was near enough to hear him.  A scream that was not his own reached his ears, and he turned around in time to see what must have been the largest black wolf ever, clamp its jaws shut over the farmer's throat and shake him.  The man was dead before he hit the ground.  The wolf let out a fierce growl, and took off in a run toward the forest where the farmer's wife was hiding.  Yahiko ran to the shed and slammed the door.  A gurgling squeal proclaimed that the woman had met her fate.

Peeking out of a hole in the wall, looking for the wolf, he saw what appeared to be a tall young man dressed in white clothes stroll nonchalantly into the clearing.  Yahiko, not wanting to draw the attention of the rampaging beast, hissed as loudly as he dared: "Oi, stupid, didn't you just hear all of that noise?!  There's a wolf out there!"  But it was too late; the wolf stalked back into the clearing, licking blood from its muzzle.  Yahiko closed his eyes as he saw the wolf gather itself for another spring, unwilling to watch another death.

"Hey! Ouch! Will you stop that!  Bad wolf!  No fair, that tickles!" and laughter were not exactly the death screams that Yahiko was expecting to hear.  He opened his eyes and stared out of his hole in the wall.  The young man in white and the wolf were rolling on the ground, not in a death struggle, but like any boy playing with a puppy.  A very large, very dangerous puppy.  The wolf suddenly stopped the game and loped toward the shed.  Yahiko let out a yelp, and began frantically searching for something with which to bar the door.  He found Saitou's sword and clumsily pulled it out of its sheath as the door swung open and the young man and the wolf walked in.

"Stay where you are," Yahiko said through chattering teeth.  The white-clad youth, who was brushing dead leaves out of his wild hair, gave him a bemused look.

"Put that down before you hurt someone, most likely yourself," he said pushing past Yahiko without concern, and going straight for Saitou's remaining saddlebag.  Yahiko did not dare turn to watch what the young man was doing, as the black wolf was studying his every move.  "I knew it!" came the young man's deep, triumphant voice from behind him.  "He lied about that rabbit!"  The wolf heaved what could only be called an exasperated sigh.  The young man came back into view, still ignoring the fact that Yahiko was holding the sword, and began preparing to roast the rabbit over Yahiko's small fire.  "You hungry?" he asked Yahiko over his shoulder, the ends of his red bandana fluttering over the word 'evil' embroidered on the back of his white jacket.

"No, I don't think I could eat anything right now," Yahiko said, not lowering the sword.  "Who are you?  Are you a forest spirit?"  Although the young man didn't look like any forest spirit that Yahiko had ever heard of, Yahiko had to admit to himself that he did look rather fey in the red-gold firelight, with his unusually brown, spiky hair and his wide brown eyes.  And of course, there was the wolf, which heaved another exasperated sounding sigh.  The young man raised an eyebrow, and then flashed a disarming grin.

"My name is Sagara Sanosuke, and if I said yes, would you put the sword down?"

"Are you crazy?  There's a wolf in here!" Yahiko yelled, not truly believing the situation.  The young man rolled his earth-brown eyes.

"The wolf won't hurt you, Yahiko," he said calmly, turning to watch as the fire cooked his meal.

"Try telling that to those farmers," Yahiko snapped.  "Your wolf did more than hurt them!"

"And this is a bad thing, how?  Weren't they trying to kill you?"  Yahiko didn't have a good answer for that.

"Well, yeah, but…" he said, lowering the sword a little; he had prayed for a forest spirit to come and save him after all.  The wolf padded past him to sit next to the fire and its master, watching at Yahiko with amber eyes.

"Ch'. Try to help some people, these days…you're sure you don't want any?"  The rabbit was just now forming a deep brown crust. Yahiko just shook his head; he really didn't think his stomach could handle food at the moment.  "Your loss," the young man said, as he began to tear into the rabbit like he hadn't eaten for days.

"Shouldn't you feed some of that to your wolf?  I mean he might get hungry in the middle of the night or something…" Yahiko trailed off as the wolf began watching the young man and the rabbit intently, licking its chops.

"Nah, he can go out and catch a mouse or something."  The young man just ignored the wolf as it began growling softly at him.

"Hey wait a minute! How did you know my name?  How did you know that there was a rabbit in Saitou's saddlebag?  And where is Saitou, anyway?  You are a forest spirit, aren't you?  Am I dreaming this?"  The young man laughed at him, wiping away the rabbit grease dripping down his chin with his sleeve; even the wolf seemed to grin.

"Yes, Yahiko, you're dreaming," he said with a wink.  "Go back to sleep."