When they arrived the sun was slowly starting to come up above the horizon in colours of brilliant red, pink and light yellow. She had been peacefully resting sitting up, propped up with pillows when the carriage shuddered to a stop and the sound of men yelling loudly outside.

She grumbled something about imbeciles and opened the royal purple curtain to the carriage in a mere gesture of the hand as the curtains were made of quite light material.

"My lady..." Three of her ninja corps bowed deeply when they saw her open the curtains, the black of their garments dull in the dawns light with the slight accents of the grey shoulder, arm and shin pieces.

"Good morning..." She yawned, hiding the sound behind her furisodes sleeves as she closed her eyes. The journey had been long and bumpy, she couldn't wait until she could change into something more comfortable as she opened her icy blue eyes and was helped out of the carriage.

"Lady Yakedo! It is an honour, welcome to Lord Hideyoshi Toyotomi's humble home." She almost sneered at the deeply bowing captain, although it had been years since the last time she was here it was still the same huge building that she remembered from her childhood. And she found the man amusing, he must have been recently promoted with how his voice was as loud as the Tiger cub of Kai's was. She vaguely wondered how Leyasu and Mitsunari were doing before she was walking towards the entrance of Lord Hideyoshi's castle.

The doors were opened before she even stepped foot on the black cobble stones of the castle. Her presence here seemingly making all the servants go into overdrive, as her father had been one of Hideyoshi's greatest allies.

She walked into the brightly lit interior of Hideyoshi Toyotomi's throne room, several torches securely attached to the walls of the room.

"Lady Kaze Yakedo... It is always s pleasure to see such a face in my castle." Lord Hideyoshi sat in his throne, the dark burgundy colours barely contrasting with that of his armour.

Mitsunari had grown, his hair still the brilliant platinum white she remembered although now it was less unruly as it had once been and he was still that lanky kind of skinny that she had always known even though she also knew of his speed and the strength of the man, he was a frightening adversary and even greater ally.

He sat on his knees in his armour with his hands around a cup of steaming tea, just barely held up to his face as if she had walked in on him just about to take a sip while his eyes peered over the edge of the cup at her. Recognition flashed across his features for only a brief moment before it was gone once again.

Leyasu had also grown, she could see the muscles peaking out from between his armour of brilliant yellow as well as the tanned skin.

He too sat on his knees with his hands held in his lap with his tea carefully placed in front of himself so as to not accidentally knock it over.

She remembered calling the childhood friends the sun and the moon, the brightly contrasting yellow against the muted silver of the moon.

"It is always my pleasure my lord Hideyoshi, although I do bring grave news from my home." She gave a small sad smile, knowing how it must had looked to the lord of her fathers untimely absence and his daughter standing before the lord instead.

"I was expecting your father, is it news of his absence? Please have a seat." One of the lords hands motioned to a tatami mat on the floor and she smoothed out her furisode before kneeling with the grace of a fox leaping at its prey.

"It is my lord...he...is not able to come to these meetings anymore, I will be in his place." Lord Hideyoshi sighed, a deep sigh that told her he understood even as the eyes of both Mitsunari and Leysu flicked to hers as if to ask what had happened.

"I told the old fool that he couldn't just run straight into the fray. That he had to wait for only a moment before joining himself." The lord shifted, leaning slightly on his knees with hid armoured elbows. She looked down at her lap, looking at her hands that she had clasped in front of her as the lord talked so endearingly of her father.

"How did it happen?" She looked up, peering into the red cornea's of Hideyoshi's eyes, it was a wonder why people wouldn't run away just at the sight of the man let alone from his prowess on the battlefield.

"The arrow hit his left shoulder at the angle where it could knick his lung at the slightest movement..." She took a deep sigh as she remembered the men carrying him off the battlefield, she had shoved one of the enemy riders off of his horse just to follow them back to the camp. The blood, along with the gore, as she had walked into the tent she had seen what could not be unseen.

"The poison that caused the infection made it spread quickly, too quickly to follow. A servant had given him a numbing herb. He felt nothing as he passed." The lord nodded and stood, both his retainers as well as herself following suit.

"Which clan was he battling at the time?" She gave a grim smile, clasping her hands once more in front of her as the light danced along her features causing her to look slightly narrow faced. Like a foxes as her eyes seemed to flash from the natural colour to white and back to blue again.

"Hiroto."