Except for a few light burns Nobunaga as well as Harumi were fine. Something Harumi didn't think would be possible. Now that all the adrenaline had left her body she realized what she had done. Did she really run into a burning building?!? Flabbergasted she kept staring at the burning castle while she still sat in the creek.
"We have to get out before we get hypothermia." Nobunaga said while she lightly shook her shoulder.
"Yes, your right." Harumi answered him still in a daze. "I completely forgot dry clothes." She remembered while she stood. The cool wind that was blowing gave her a freezing chill due to all the cold water her clothes had absorbed.
"It's alright. We can dry ourselves with the fire." Nobunaga joked as if he didn't nearly escaped death.
"Why didn't you jump before I arrived?" Harumi asked while they walked a little bit closer to the castle. They were far away enough to be safe but close enough to feel the heat and let their clothes dry.
"I was planning to commit seppuku before you barged in." Nobunaga answered.
"But why? You didn't need me to jump." Harumi asked while her brain slowly started to function normally again.
"I don't know, When the building caught fire I though that that was it so I was meditating so I could preform the seppuku." He explained. Harumi still found his story very strange but decided to let it go for now. She put her head against his shoulder while they watched Honno-ji burn side by side.
Harumi had remembered some of her history lessons correctly. Soon after she had arrived and saved Nobunaga the auxiliaries arrived and managed to push back the rebelling army, slaying every single one. The only problem that they had was that they had no idea who was behind the coup d'etat. Harumi knew from her lessons in the 21st century that Nobunaga had been betrayed by one of his warlords, but she had no idea who. But she was sure that they would find the culprit. Nobunaga was very smart and she was sure he already had thought about a plan to lure out the rat. As soon as Nobunaga was safe Harumi finally could think straight again. Making her once again terrified of horses. She still had no idea how she managed to ride a horse all by herself. On the way back Nobunaga could move heaven and earth, but Harumi would not ride the horse. Instead of bickering Nobunaga helped her on his horse and made sure someone took his wife's horse with them back to their castle.
Nobunaga's horse walked in a slow and steady paste so Harumi soon felt extremely tired. It was not only the middle of the night, but the event from last evening had drained her completely. She nestled herself against Nobunaga's broad chest and fell asleep fast. Nobunaga put the extra blanked he received from one of his warlords protectively a little bit more around his wife while Hideyoshi came up to him on his own horse. When Hideyoshi was beside Nobunaga he made his horse slow it's speed so the two of them rode next to one and other.
"Did you find anything?" Nobunaga asked quietly, he didn't want to wake Nohime.
"No nothing. I'm sorry my lord but we have no idea who cooked this up. We have taken some prisoners from the higher ups and we will interrogate them as soon as we reach Azuchi castle." Hideyoshi explained. Nobunaga sighted angrily. He hated not knowing things, and not knowing who your enemy was, was one of the most dangerous things in this world.
"Did you find anything else?" Nobunaga continued asking.
"No, we are just very happy Lady Nohime-sama arrived in time." Hideyoshi said. Nobunaga looked with a puzzled expression to one of his most trusted warlords. There was something a miss and Hideyoshi didn't want to tell him.
"What is it?" He asked in a threatening voice, putting pressure on his warlord.
"Well, It's just strange. Lady Nohime-sama had left before the army departed...." Hideyoshi began.
"You know as well as I do it takes longer to mobilize an army in comparison to one person." Nobunaga rationalized.
"Apparently she had left before the news of the fire reached Azuchi castle." Hideyoshi continued.
"Maybe they had told her first, she is the lady of the castle." Nobunaga defended his wife.
"Of course." Hideyoshi said quickly, noticing the hostile answer of his lord. "But the time difference was to much..."
"What are you thinking about?" Nobunaga asked thoughtful.
"Well, and please lord these are only my speculations. This sneak attack could be orchestrated by the Saito clan..." Hideyoshi began his explanation. "If that is the case, lady Nohime-sama would have known about their plan."
"But why would she save me?" Nobunaga asked, more rhetorically than really expecting an answer.
"I don't know. Maybe they planned it that lady Nohime-sama would be just in time to save you so you will trust her even more." Hideyoshi said slowly. Nobunaga wanted to punch this man. How dare he question his wife. But he knew Hideyoshi could be right. The relationship with the Saito clan wasn't good, even after the arranged marriage. He knew that they would try to overthrow him eventually and this was a very good moment. It was perfectly planned, to perfect. They could only do something like this if they had someone on the inside... Nobunaga looked down to the face of his sleeping wife. He couldn't imagine she would do something like this, but at the same time he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong. Something that has been bothering him for a while now. He couldn't put his finger on it but there was something with his wife.
"I'll ask her tomorrow." Nobunaga said.