Reborn in a Daimyo's court in Naruto

Part 31

"My new wife-to-be, I am afraid," he replied, his voice a whisper, and had it been anyone else apart from him, except Nakiri-san, he would not have answered the same. Yet these two people had raised him and were like family to him.

"Ohh, lady Chiba, I recall hearing good things about her. She was rather famous as a maiko, wasn't she?" the older samurai questioned, and he nodded.

"Ohh, famous she was, yet few know the true reality of her fame," he mentioned as he pulled on the reins.

"Let us increase our pace a bit; we could make it to the castle by nightfall if we hurry," he shouted back, and the order was relayed to the man at the back.

"And what reality is that?" the question from Shinohara-san was drowned out by the sound of horse hooves drumming over the forest, yet not to his ears as he answered into the ear.

'That unlike himself, the whispers around her have a nugget of truth to them.'

0000

IEYATSU GIN

It was good to be back home, for the castle was just that to him. Home.

And he found himself sitting in his room as he was accosted by the only family he knew. Nakiri-san was much older than him and was like a sister to him, with both of them being the hands and feet of their young lord, doing his bidding.

"So, how is she?" she questioned, and there was little need to elaborate on who she was referring to.

She was, of course, asking about the Lady Chiba, Lady Himiko Chiba, their lord's wife-to-be. She was currently having a meal with Lady Miyuki, and giving the Princess her respect for she was of the higher status of the two.

Truth was that Ieyatsu didn't know what to make of the former maiko. The lady Chiba gave him an ominous feeling, the way dark clouds would give one before the storm came calling. And he had felt the sensation familiar and only now realized that being in her presence was similar to how he had felt the first time he had met Lord Akihito, with that gaze looking at him, more like looking through him as if all his secrets laid bare.

"I don't know," he answered before he recalled something.

"Though shouldn't you know about her yourself? After all, she told me that she used to frequent the castle in her youth," he added, and Nakiri-san nodded at that.

"Indeed she did, though that was years ago before she was dubbed as the blessed maiko, and even then, she had been a child," she began as her gaze began to wonder.

"A peculiar child at that, much like our own young lord. She was the only one who seemed to be able to mingle with him," she began, and Ieyatsu could see what she meant.

"Well then believe time has only enhanced her peculiarity, let us hope that she proves to be a blessing for our young lord, I would hate for this to turn into something ugly," he remarked as he sipped the warm tea, letting it soothe him as he closed his eyes.

"You should rest, I will go and see how's the meeting between Princess and Lady Chiba," and with that she was gone, leaving alone.

He would shut his eyes and lean back, resting until suddenly his rest would be disturbed by a loud banging at the door.

"Who is it?" he snarled in rage at being disturbed.

"Lord Gin, I bring troubling news," a servant called out from behind the door, and the words flung the sleep out of him as he jerked up, picked up his blade, and rushed towards the door.

Swinging it open, he found a servant standing outside nervously.

"What happened?" he questioned, for these were times of war, and he had to be prepared for the worst.