The sun blazing down on my face, through the crevasse of a window, and a curtain, the shine sparking my eyes, as I groggily wake up the blurriness making me a equivalent of a blindman. Crawling my way out of the futon, I push myself up off the floor, wobbling as I push myself up. I make my way over to my door, and on the floor neatly folded the house servants laid out my kimono and hakama for me, freshly cleaned. I put them on, this black and red, kimono with the crest of the Oda on the chest. The kimono fits perfectly and just how I like it too, baggy almost everywhere showing my chest, with my pendent my mother left me, with a crest belonging to my mothers family, a radiant sun. After getting dressed, I start feeling a bit better but still a throb here and there from my head caused by the drinking from last night most definitely. "Damn old man and his drinking problems, not like I'm much to talk though." As soon as I turn around, a obnoxious storm rushes through my room, the man himself my father, the old man barges into my room. "WAKE UP BOY THE DAY DOESNT WAIT FOR YOUR HANGOVER!!!" almost as soon as the roar came out his mouth its met with sudden disappointment. "Oh well it would seem your already awake I'll be waiting for you in the courtyard." He mumbles obviously disappointed he didn't get to scare me out of bed.
I look back into the mirror and grab one hair tie, putting it onto my wrist and moves my hand up to my forehead, pushing my hair back. Scooping up all my hair into one handful, I put the hair over my knuckles and use my middle finger to hold it down and then I squeeze making a knot, pulling the hair tie off my wrist, tying it up making it a top knot. Showing off my eyes, and my face shows true confidence, as I pick up my gourd, and hang it off the side of my sash. I'll have to fill this up with some water from the river, perfect cure for this headache. I start heading out, moving through the door, and making my way down the hallway, turning to the right entering the main hall, which the walls have multiple art and paintings depicting the ancient teachings of the gods, of course out of respect for my mother, the main deity in this art is the goddess Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun. The story of the art we have here is that even after all the havoc, her brother Susanoo caused, she forgave him. They have their battles and it got so bad that she hides in her cave blocked by a boulder, but that didn't fix anything, it just made it worse. She realizes that her people need her to live on this world, and that she needs her people, because without them she would've never realized the power she had, being a deity. She's the main worship for my family, my mother is a shrine priestess for her, lives up at the temple, I never really saw her in my previous life time couldn't hurt to go see her.
Moving along to the courtyard, a temporary peace it seems like after the battle, spring is in season and the cherry blossoms are coming in. The bright pink blossoms swirling around each other in the cool breeze, feels like a spirit guiding your forward. A beautiful sight indeed, as I see my large stature of a father, standing in front of the trees waiting for me, I approach him with my arms crossed. "What's the plan for today father?" I ask as I look up at him, his face looking rugged as ever, long grey hair, it use to be black. He's standing at six feet tall, a large build, rugged face with a scar across his face over his lip, long beard and brown eyes. "Today were visiting a old friend of mine, he lives up in the mountains on the outside of Owari, close to the Mino areas, a sage of a kind, but I promised him when you completed your rite of passage, I'd take you to see him." He explains as he starts loading up the horses, and a recently made friend of mine also appears with the horses. I walk up towards this new friends, and run my hand through his blonde mane, my new buddy Akio is still around, thinking on it I didn't meet Jizu until I made my way to the capital. I start putting all the gear on the Akio, this is indeed a beautiful steed however it doesn't fit me but it would make a perfect gift for someone whos flashy. Grabs onto the saddle of Akio and pulls myself up and grab onto the reigns, whipping the reigns making him gallop and move forward next to my father. "Akio and I are ready to go when you are father, I say lets make haste the day isn't gonna live itself." I say trying to mimic him from earlier in my room. I see him mount his horse and lead the way, we follow the path out of the compound, and go into the main road, the light of the sun overlooking the trees on the path. Out in the distance you can see the rice paddy farms following the course of the river, and the villages seem to live in peace even with the constant threat of war. trade is booming in these villages people have full freedom over what the trade and we only tax rice, however people from the merchant guild outside our jurisdiction, we tax them Ryo. Surprisingly there's many astounding establishments, seems like business is booming in a certain dango shop.
Its amazing to say the least, I think I even saw a brothel, I guess before I never realized how bustling our nearby villages were. We continued on the open road, I admired the views my father have seen these a hundred times over, and recently too, however for me it feels like a long time ago. "You never told me how long it would take to get there father." I say to him riding along side him, and I turn to look at him awaiting a answer. "The travel time should have us there by the afternoon, and with that in mind we should be back at evening or right before nightfall depending on how long we stay there, why does it matter, you hate being around your old man that much?" he explains and then looks over at me and then breaks out in laughter "HAHAHAHA if you do I cant blame you, I mean hell even your mother couldn't stand me and she's more patient than a turtle!!" He says loudly and obnoxiously. I just smirk and laugh right back at him, "Not at all father, I appreciate the time we have most people because of war, don't have what I have I wont take it for granted." I say out loud to him but deep inside its not what I'm thinking. Everything that went on in my life I suppose I just forgot about these moments because everything was thrust onto me after his death, but I wont take these for granted any longer, just like with everyone else. Fumikage, Zexis, Kagashi, Waibo, Iruwa, Gakusai all you guys all my retainers I took you guys for granted without realizing it and for that I apologize I promise one day I'll explain everything and make it up to you.
Now that I'm thinking about, The first time I met Fumikage should be coming up soon, I don't really remember the details but for all the times he brought it up while drunk you'd think id remember. He was one of my loyal retainers I could trust with my life, and I don't really know if he ever knew, but I appreciate the contribution he made to our clan. He put so much faith into my abilities I feel like I let him down, he once said if they world was gonna be taken over by demons he'd trust me to drive them back, he sure is a funny one that's sure. That's enough reminiscing, I guess a big part of me cant wait to reunite with my old crew. We found ourselves passing this large bridge that covers the whole distance over the river, and the separate entrances have tori gates. Bright red gates that stand out seems like it was freshly built, and it leads a staircase up to the shrine, apparently our path goes past here into the mountains. The stairs seem to go on forever and where as the bridge looked brand new, these steps were covered in moss, and plants. Our horses were still able to go up them, as we travel through these ancient aged steps, images flash through my mind. I've been here before, I just don't know when but it does seem familiar to say the least. The light of the sun is curving a bit now, it must be a little past noon now.
We gallop our horse up this path, and follow these stone lanterns that seem to lead to a large house, the steam coming from the back seems to suggest the have a pretty large hot spring, along with training dummies in the front. The dummies have holes that look like a Yari was used to pierce them, and some of them still have kunai in them. Were in front of the wooden post and we hitch our horses up to it, as we walk up to the front door. My father slides the door open and walks in "Anybody home WAIBO!!! FUMIKAGE!!!" He roars out shaking the whole goddamn house damn near. My eyes widen as I hear their names, that's right that's where I remember this path from, this is where I meet Fumikage and Waibo! Suddenly a feeling of anxiety, and suspense fill my body, I have to play it smart, I cant let it slip I got sent back somehow, that would make me look like a madman, one of those crazy sage magician people you hear in stories to frighten children. Two smoke bombs immediately drop from the ceiling and the smoke rises. Two figures in the smoke appear, a outline of a taller one, and a shorter one about four inches separate in height. Before the smoke can clear the make poses, one in the shape of a crane and the other in the shape of serpents mouth with fangs. Almost as soon as the smoke clears I hear an unearthly cluster of noises. "WHAAAATAAHHHHHH WOOOOOOOO!!!! WELCOME TO THE ORUSHU BROTHERS HOME!!!!" The Taller one screams out, and that one would be Waibo, probably one of the biggest jokers and pranksters in this land. I almost forgot how energetic they could be. "THE GREATEST NINJAS TO EVER ROAM THE LAND WE WELCOME YOU GREAT LORD DAIMYO AND SON TO OUR ABODE!!!" He screeches again god I almost want him to shut the hell up already but a part of me misses this. Amongst all the noise you hear a sigh, and pure agitation along with it the smaller one smacks him behind the head that would be, Fumikage. "Damnit man do you ever know when to shut the hell up, your gonna scare his son off, he's probably not use to it." he says calmly but you can feel the irritation building up. "Nice to meet you two, you probably already know but the names Ishi, the great daimyo's heir and if I do say so that was a interesting... entrance." I say as I start walking towards them and I bow my head quickly to both of them, and then I extend my hand "Its a pleasure to meet you Orushu brothers, Waibo and Fumikage." First Waibo shakes my hand his shake was very loose and lax someone confident in their abilities. Fumikage then shakes my hand and his was firm someone whos a hard worker, wants to prove to others he's just as good as anybody else.
I do feel bad its like I'm some how lying to them, but there's not much I can do on these first impressions. Perhaps one day we will be able to drink and laugh this off without me sounding bat shit crazy. Only time will tell whether or not that is possible, there's still a large journey ahead of us. I am happy that I got to see them again, now that all the crazy entrances are done I get a good look at their faces. Fumikage light brown hair and blue eyes, same thing goes for Waibo in that department, They both have skinny frames, Waibo has facial hair, Fumikage doesn't, they both have angular jaws, compare and contrasts from the future, Fumikage's face gets wider in the future, and he has a goatee. Waibo has no comparison because he wasn't in my future, he was one of the many sacrifices along the way, Fumikage blames himself for it, and always exerted more energy to doing better, tearing himself down in the long run. Waibo's energetic personality was surely missed but he also gave everything one hundred percent, and was a good person, this time I need to make sure he's able to make it to the end, and along with my father if I can. I imagine there's only so much I can do, I don't know what will happen if I change the future I just pray that everyone who is important to me will converge in this time, and well be able to push through to that world of peace we wanted. Only time will tell but for now we just need to make sure, that we enjoy the company we have, Waibo and my father kept whispering to each other, about what I have no idea. If they're planning something it cant be good, and apparently Fumikage was thinking the same thing because almost instinctively we look at each other and then right back at them. "I think its time to put them to the bet we made a long time ago, they both passed their coming of ages. Lets draw the battling circle!" My father exclaims excitingly. Apparently what they had planned was for us to have a friendly duel between each other to see who has the stronger martial prowess. We take some ash from incense that's been burning inside the house, and pour out into a circle forming a large ring in the front yard. After all is said and done with the combat ring finished, I take off my kimono, just the top and keep my hakama on, and use bandage wraps to cover my arms, of course I borrow a gourd from their collection, that has liquor in it might as well test my technique theory. Fumikage enters the ring next shedding his garb, wrapping his hands up next, and getting inside his combat pose, we touch fists and I take a chug of my gourd, my father puts his hand in the middle and yells "Hajime!!!"