Osamu stared at me with narrowed eyes, his hand tightening on his katana hilt. "It's been years, Naoki. What are you here for now?" he asked.

It irritated me that he refused to address me properly, but I pushed the old rage down and focused on the old lesson that the ninja master had taught me. "You cannot affect the actions of those around you. You must stop trying to and instead learn to work with the reactions of others. When you master this, you will master your fear, doubts, and anger, because there will be no reason for any of those emotions."

"I want to fight Oda. He does not deserve to be in power and I won't let him gain power uncontested," I answered softly.

"Others are fighting, hai? The Hojo clan need not get into the war. You are Ronin now, why do you not find someone to hire you to fight instead of coming here?"

"I will not work for someone who I do not know."

"So you come to me? You may know me, hai, but you have displayed your hate for me many times. You clearly have no desire to be anything but a Ronin."

"Maybe so, but there is a time to fight and a time to wander, and right now it is time for me to join the fight. But you don't plan to let me walk out of here alive, hai?"

"I've hunted you for too long, Naoki. I will not let you slip through my fingers again. It was stupid of you to try to get me to hire you in the first place."

"Īe, it was stupid of you to think I came here to ask you to hire me."

Seeing no reason to wait any longer, I attacked him without replying, jumping high into the air and bringing my katana down in a hard strike. The clash of steel rang through the air as Osamu blocked my strike and retaliated with a quick sideswipe. His katana glinted in the lamplight of the room as it flashed towards me.

My own katana was blocking his strike before I had time to think about it. It didn't take long for me to fall into the fight and soon I was fighting completely on instinct.

We both dodged back and forth, attacking and blocking in complicated patterns. One of us would have to make a mistake soon, but Osamu was an excellent warrior and I knew that my skill didn't match his. However, I had skills he didn't and I fought with a completely different style than he did. If I played my cards right, I could win against him.

Osamu's katana flashed down towards my head and I sidestepped it, reaching out with my katana to block his sword. He came around again, his weapon heading for my left side. I went to block it and he switched sides almost instantaneously, nearly stabbing me. Falling into a deep crouch, I let the katana fly over my head and sprang to my feet again, blocking the follow through just in time to avoid getting killed.

Watching to make sure he didn't attack me, I moved away from him to get some space. Crouching, I held my katana out in front of me and waited for Osamu to attack again. Using my spare hand, I reached into the guard's uniform that I'd stolen earlier and pulled out a shuriken, hiding the movement with my sword hand.

"You're fighting styles have changes, Naoki-kun," Osamu said. "You fight like a ninja would now."

"Hai. Does that scare you, Osamu-san?" I asked.

He yelled out, bringing his sword flashing down towards my head. Carefully blocking his view of my other hand until the last second, I moved my katana to block him and flicked my shuriken up. It buried itself into his exposed throat and his eyes opened wide as he tried to draw a breath. Moving away from him, I watched as he collapsed, struggling to breath. Then I finished him off quickly so he wouldn't suffer too much. He didn't deserve to be in pain any longer than necessary.

The guards arrived just as the fight ended and they watched me to see what I would do next. Leaning down, I carefully took back my shuriken and used the guard's uniform that I'd stolen to wipe it off.

"I need an army," I said to the guards. "Someone has to stop Oda and I want to help. But I need an army to do that. That's why I came here."

The guards watched me, their dark eyes narrowed as they assessed the situation. They wouldn't gang up on me because they didn't believe that was right, but they would certainly attack if they felt they needed to. The one in front stepped forward.

"Oro! What have you done?" he asked.

"I'm here for an army. I'll be leaving when the war is over. But until then, I'm here to lead you. Will you contest my claim?"

"Hai! You cannot be the Hojo daimyo! We do not know you or what you could do to us," the second samurai said, stepping up to join the first. The other three joined them, spreading out in a half-moon shape, their hands on the hilts of their katanas.

Reaching up, I pulled off the helmet hiding my face. "Īe, you do know me."

They all pulled back some and studied my face, surprise showing on their faces. "Hai, we do, Naoki-san. Why have you come back when you know our orders are to hunt you?" the first guard asked.

"Takeo-san, wait," the guard on my far right said. "Hear him out. We do not have a leader, as of now. Maybe it would be best to let him lead us until we find another leader. He cannot possibly do that much damage during his leadership if he's leaving after the war ends."

"You may think that, Ryo-san, but I do not!" Takeo said, rushing forward.

His katana flashed out of its saya and he attacked, coming at me with the standard batoujutsu attack. Flipping backwards and out of his katana's reach, I landed softly, using my right palm to steady myself and putting a hand on my own katana's hilt, ready to draw it when he attacked again.

"We do not have to do this, Takeo-san," I told him.

He ignored me, attacking again. Whipping around in a tight circle, he brought his katana down in an overhead side sweep. Ducking, I dodged in and slammed the hilt of my katana into his stomach and then moved back as he doubled, fighting for breath. I stood there, waiting for him to recover and try again.

Ryo went to grab him and pull him away, but one of the other samurai guards pulled him away. "Īe, Ryo-san. You cannot interfere now. Wait to see the outcome of the fight."

After fighting against Osamu, I knew I was too tired to fight anymore. It would be easy enough to kill them all, but I wasn't going to fight with the intent to kill. I had to find a way to make them allow me to be the daimyo; something that they would believe and would make sense, if I did things right.

Takeo recovered and came for me again, anger glinting in his eyes. He was a good warrior, and he could probably beat many other samurai, but I wasn't a normal samurai anymore, and I knew I could beat him if I had to. But I didn't want to kill him. Killing Osamu had been necessary. Killing Takeo or any of the other samurai would be a waste of lives.

His sword came down and I blocked it, countering with a series of attacks the he barely blocked. Finally, I disarmed him and kicked his sword out of reach. He faced me angrily, crouching to fight me barehanded.

Dropping my own sword, I went into a ninjitsu stance that I'd been taught early on and raised an eyebrow, beckoning him towards me. He charged, kicking out with his leg. Catching his leg, I used it to flip him over.

Springing to his feet again, he let loose a punch towards my torso. Sidestepping it, I quickly unsheathed my kunai and slammed the hilt into the back of his head. He dropped to the floor, unconscious.

The others moved forward, prepared to attack me, but I held up a hand. "Matsu!" An idea came to me, suddenly, as I looked at Takeo's crumpled form and Osuma's dead body. I looked enough like Osamu to pull it off. "I am Osamu's son! I am rightfully to heir to his title."

The samurai in the back stepped forward. "You lie!" he said angrily. "Osamu hunted you. You were raised by the traitors that he killed. You just look for a way to stop us from fighting you."

"Īe! Didn't you ever wonder why Osamu wanted those who raised me killed? It was because they wanted to reveal that he had a son."

"Osamu had no wife," another samurai said.

"Why do you think he kept me a secret. He wanted to kill me as well, because he knew that I could one day come and take over the clan in his place and because I had found out that I was his son. He didn't want me to tell anyone," I argued back, slipping into the story.

If I could tell it convincingly enough, anyone would believe it. All I needed was one person to sway the others in my direction.

Ryo nodded. "I believe him. His explanation makes sense. After all, his family didn't do anything that was truly traitorous. There was no reason to kill them unless Osamu was keeping a secret."

Takeo stirred and one of the guards helped him up. He glared at me. "I will finish you, Naoki," he said.

Ryo laid a hand on his shoulder. "This is Naoki-san, our daimyo. You would do well to pay him respect, Takeo-san. He is Osamu's son."

The other guards nodded, seeming to be convinced about it now. Smiling at Takeo, I asked, "Will you serve me, Takeo-san?"

He glared for another moment before looking at the floor and nodding. "Hai. I will serve you, Naoki-san."

"Good. Someone send word to the ninjas. Tell them that Naoki sent you and ask them to come help us. I suspect we might need their help."

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