The rain had stopped pouring as the samurai ventured to their homestead, the sky had cleared, and the sun was pouring warmth over the land. Natsu stretched his neck to soak up the warmth, he was far more content in the warm and damp forrest than many of the other samurai. Unlike the others, who felt like they were in an oven, Natsu felt relaxed in this heat, granted the immense dampness was annoying. Even Laxus, the allegedly "strongest" samurai, the one that had been ranked as their leader, found that he was bending over for the weather, all of the samurai but Natsu had one goal when they came home, to get out of the oven that was their battle armor. In front of the entire group rode Makarov, ironically on the largest horse, the warriors had disbanded, leaving for their own villages and homes, besides, if they knew that the home of their lord was in the forrest that no-one dared enter because of the bears*, wolves, and tigers*, chances are that word would spread and they would be attacked within days.
They reached the hidden castle* without much effort, animals had learned to keep away from them, it would be much more dangerous for them to even get near the group. The gates were opened and they rode in greeted with open arms, everybody who lived in the village was cheering for their proud warriors who jumped off their horses. Loki was, as always, soon surrounded by beautiful women, whom he flirted with eagerly. Several girls had also flocked around several other Samurai such as Grey and Freed, however those numbers had diminished, Grey because Juvia would murder any woman that touched him with a ten foot pole, and Freed for obvious reasons*. Natsu had also once been the subject of many women's affection, however unlike many other of the samurai he had never returned any flirts or affections that he had been showered in.
Other Samurai were greeted by loved ones, Gajeel with Levy, though the two still seemed to be in the middle of a very heated discussion, one that nobody wanted to get involved in, or really cared about.
The second Grey got off his horse he was knocked to the ground by Juvia who ran into him like a bull hugging him, something he had gotten very used to by this point, and something that didn't really annoy him that much any more.
Of course Erza and Mystogan had disappeared, the young couple had been married for well over a year now, and marriage sure had changed the Erza that had formerly been known as the strictest Kuniochi in history, even Mystogan had begun to open up more, to the point where he would even speak eventually, granted nobody knew how the heck they had hooked up in the first place.
Makarov entered the deepest room in the main building, he was one of the only 4 other people in the entire land that was allowed to enter. The others being the other three leading samurai generals Jura Neekis, the leader of the eastern squad Lamia Scale, Bob the leader of the southern squad Blue Pegasus, and Goldmine the leader of the northern squad Quatro Cerberus. Instead of celebrating like the others, he had job to report to. He walked past two guard into a large open room, in the room sat a large man behind a screen, one could not see any of his facial features, all you could see was how he gently drank from a cup of sake*.
"Good day Makarov" the man said gently, his voice had was kind, but still had a sense of power in it, and revealed that he was a person to show respect, and not one to disobey.
"Good day my lord" Makarov said as he bowed deeply for the man, he sat himself on a single cushion that lay in the middle of the room.
"I expect that the battle was won, if not I wouldn't expect to see you here" his voice suddenly changed from kind, to intimidating, one could clearly see why he was the lord of the entire Oda clan.
"Of course, the opponents general was dispatched by Scarlet as always, and the Samurai defeated the remaining warriors".
"Good" the lord said, gently drinking some of his sake, "Did we loose any of the samurai" he asked gently.
"No" Makarov said firmly.
"Any men".
Makarov sighed and his voice took a depressing turn "They had horsemen as reinforcements, we lost many men, so be precise, 79" he said with remorse in his voice, it was a large number of men to loose, and many families would be grieving tonight.
"That is many" the Lord said rubbing his eyes, "We must hope that their ancestors will accept them amongst their own*".
Makarov did not answer, and stayed silent for awhile, tonight he would pray for their souls by the shrine. After awhile he broke his silence "My lord, if I may ask, how is the battle in the south going".
The lord turned his head slowly, not answering for awhile, "It is not going forward so to say, the last report I received yesterday said that the battle was turning against them, and that they had lost 2 samurai already, by now it could go either way*".
Makarov was saddened, he stood up and bowed deeply, bidding his lord farewell, that night he would pray for all the souls lost by their armies, and for the war to end soon.
Natsu walked down the halls to the living quarters, he had just left the baths, and his body was still steaming with heat. The Samurai barracks were built so one could open ever room to an open garden that all the samurai shared. It was a large garden with a big tree and pond, small koi swimming around in it. He slid open the door to his room, like all the other rooms it was a simple box shape, a single futon laying in the right side of the room, and a small table on the left, in one corner of the room lay all kinds of junk he had gathered over the years. He pulled on his red Yukata*, suddenly he noticed that something was missing. He looked around, his cat Happy was nowhere to be seen. He looked under his pillows and under the boards in the floor, he even looked through his large pile of different souvenirs he had gathered throughout the years, daggers, paintings, different pieces of cloth and even some animal teeth had bought from the market. The cat was nowhere, but Natsu was not worried, the tomcat would often run off into the hallways if he had forgotten to close the door, however he was sure that he closed the door.
He slid the door to the garden open, everybody else was still either greeting their loved ones, or they were in the baths. Natsu looked instinctively at the large tree in the middle of the garden, Happy would often go up there with Gajeel's cat Pantherlily and Carla, the doctors apprentice Wendy's cat. Since he was not there he turned his head to the koi pond, however there was no trace of the cat there, at the relief of the koi. To his surprise, he heard a loud purring sound, that he instantly recognized as Happy's from the room right opposite to his. There wasn't any separate area where the female Kuniochi lived, however they're rooms where generally opposite to those of the mens, and stood side by side. He followed the noise to Mirajane's room, she was among the strongest Kuniochi in the entire clan, however she had never allowed any cat's in her domain, so this sounds came as a surprise to him.
To his even bigger surprise it was not Mirajane that had opened up to the cats, but it was a completely different girl. She had the same shade of white hair as Mira, but it was shorter. Not to mention the fact that unlike her sister ,that would generally wear her kunoichi uniform constantly, this woman was wearing a pink kimono with a floral pattern, that identified her as a person who's family that had considerable wealth. Happy lay gently and purred on her lap as she stroked him, Natsu sent her face a glance, she was quite beautiful. The girl looked up and he snapped to his senses.
"Good day" she said gently as she looked up at him with a small smile on her face.
Natsu smiled at her with his normal wide smile, "I see that you've found my cat" he said.
She smiled and nodded at him "To be more precise, I think he found me" Happy purred gently as she stroked his back, as Mirajane entered the room through her room.
"Natsu, I didn't expect to see you here" she said with he normal smile, side by side, the two girls looked almost identical in body and face, only their hair was different. She sent Happy a slight look and it ran off, remembering her strict rules about no cats in her room.
"I was just looking for Happy, and he ended up here, he seems to have taken a liking of you already" he said sending the girl a large grin. "It was nice meeting you" he said passing her a hand to shake.
She smiled at him and blushed slightly, "It was nice catching up with you Natsu" she said shaking his hand gently.
Natsu shook it, briskly and with his regular grin and walked back to his room. As he walked back her heard how the door to Mirajane's living quarter slid closed. As he walked in he saw how Happy was already curled up on a pillow in the sun. Natsu sat down, his stomach growling, he felt like he could eat a horse. As he walked to the dining halls something the girl had said came back to him, "It was nice catching up to you Natsu" she had said, had he ever met her before, he couldn't seem to remember, though he felt that her smile was familiar to him.
To his surprise, not only were most of the samurai in the dining halls, but also most of the women that resided in the castle had come to dine with them, generally they were only allowed on special occasions such as weddings New Years and other celebrations. He sat down beside Elfman and Loke, who sat beside Gajeel and Grey respectively. The meal consisted of steamed rice, a slice of pike, and a small pickled plum, the general and slightly boring meal, the only thing that really sufficed any flavor was the large amount of sake that had been laid out, which they drunk eagerly. Natsu practically swallowed his meal, his need for food only just fulfilled. Suddenly
Makarov lifted his glass and roared into the room "Today my fellow clansmen*, is a day, OF VICTORY AND CELEBRATION" the samurai cheered, "Tonight we will celebrate not only our victory as a squad, BUT OUR VICTORY FOR THE ENTIRE CLAN" the group cheered, "But tonight is also a night of mourning" silence fell over the group, "We will all pray for the men that have fallen in battle, but it is thanks to their sacrifice, THAT WE HAVE ONCE AGAIN DEFEATED OUR ENEMIES" the group cheered more than ever, "AND FOR THAT WE CHEER" the room was filled with cries of joy and applause.
Soon the sake was flying, and it didn't take long for most of the Samurai to get drunk, and an even shorter time for a large rumble to commence, only for it to be stopped seconds later by a booming voice, "HEY, YOU BETTER NOT BE FIGHTING IN THERE" the voice roared, not surprisingly, from Erza, nobody had noticed that she had entered the room, generally the kuniochi would eat in a separate room, for reasons even they did not know. Natsu watched as she entered the room with the other kuniochi, Cana, and Mirajane, if Bisca had not become a mother recently she would have joined them, and then the girl from before came in, was she a kuniochi?
Erza sat and the group sat down beside her husband, a stern look on her face, "Mirajane has an announcement to make" she said slamming her hand into the table, making the entire table shake, causing everybody to sit up straight.
Mirajane cleared her throat, "My father will be leading some of the forces together with Blue Pegasus in the south, until the war is over my younger sister Lisanna will be residing with us, unlike me she is not a Kunoichi, but I hope that you will show her just as much love".
Lisanna sent them all an innocent smile, gently bowing down, "Please take care of me*" she said with a soothing voice.
As he heard her name and her voice, a memory suddenly sparked in Natsu. When he was younger he and Lisanna as little girl, were playing in a large garden, when they heard a meow from the bushes, and they found a small kitten, he realized that this was Happy, how could he have forgotten about this, he wondered. He looked at her smiling face, it really was beautiful.
TBC
Shorter Chapter this time, and I apologize for the late update, I had a hard time because of my new job and all that. So not that much to say about this, I wanted to start their relationship up and I found that this was the best way. And 7 reviews, that is AWESOME, so I'll be replying to all of you, all reviews will be replied to, either displayed here or by PM, so let's get started:
Fire Girl 108: First of all glad to see that you've decide to read this despite not being something you ship. Thank you as you can see I already corrected the mistakes, and I will be calling him Loki. Lisanna is not, and will not be a Kuniochi, the reason for this being that Kunoichi training started when the girls were as young as 4, and she never went through that training, exactly why she didn't will be revealed later.
Nickraptor730: Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it
AIIR: Don't worry I will update, glad you like it as well I really do try my best
XxShyxX: I'm glad, and don't worry LaLu is on the way
Maiden Warrior: THANK YOU. The reason I chose this time period was because nobody seemed to have done it before, and because samurai are AWESOME
Guest: Sure of course I will, every 7 days from now on
casey10rock: Yay I have my first hardcore fan, I'm glad you like it, more on the way
And now onto word explanations and thoughts:
Bears and Tigers: Yes there was Tigers and Bears during the Edo period, and while the tigers have been extinct for a long time, there are still Asian Black Bears as well as Brown Bears in Japan today.
Hidden Castle: Okay two things, First. It is a castle but basically works like a large village composed of one building where the samurai and noblemen reside. Second. There are castles like this however they would not be built before Nobunaga's time, who was first born over 100 years later.
Obvious Reason: H to the E to the S to the G to the A to the Y, what's that say HE'S GAY
Sake: A very strong japanese beverage generally made from fermented rice
Ancestors: In edo, and modern Japan, the main religion is Shintoism, which involves many hundreds of gods each with their own shrine all over Japan. However unlike most other god there are no definitive good and evil gods, each god has good and bad parts and change depending on how you treat them. Therefor there is no conception of heaven or hell, and you are believed to join your ancestors in the spirit world to guide your descendants through their life.
Could go either way, yet no reinforcements: You may be wondering about this, but here's the thing a samurai lives by a code called Bushido, it's a collection of rules that samurai's must follow throughout their entire service, and it put's heavy weight on their honor, something that the japanese during Edo japan held above all else, sending reinforcements to a battle where another group of samurai were fighting would only dishonor them.
Yukata: A summer garb worn both by men and woman
Clansmen: NOT THE KKK KIND, that kind of goes without saying but whatever.
Okay so that's it see ya, remember to follow and review my friends, and I'm open for suggestions, if you really want to see something I might include it =D