Reborn in a Daimyo's court in Naruto

Part 36

Chapter 36

KENSHIRO OUGI

Pain. Pain that he had not felt for years rippled through his being as his grip on his sword loosened and the taste of metal filled his mouth.

"KUGH!" he coughed blood as his knees gave out, and he fell to the ground as the older samurai stood there behind him, bleeding from his shoulder, yet the wound much shallower than the one he had suffered as he huffed.

"How?" he questioned as the old man walked up to him.

"The world is much bigger than what we realize," the old man said, and Ougi was surprised to see him sheath his blade. He was weakened, yet the wounds would not kill him, the old man could have used this opportunity to kill him yet he was sparing his life.

Ougi was the commander of the forces. If he were to fall, their victory would be certain.

"There was a time when I believed that I knew everything, that the world was wrong. Lords ruled over peasants, and because of some divine powers, I believed I was better than them. So, I thought, why must I swear my allegiance to them," the old man's thoughts were much like his own.

"I was stronger than them, my blade much sharper. Yet only when I met our lord did I see the fault in my thinking," the old man said as Ougi listened on.

"This land is filled not just with samurai. It is filled with farmers, smiths, servants, beggars, criminals, ninjas, and all sorts of people. A true ruler is not either, yet he understands them all and uses them all to maintain balance, for without that, we would be just like animals," he said, and Ougi could see the truth in that world.

"We, the samurai, swear our oaths to this balance and trust our lords to maintain that balance so we can be better men. Not all lords are like that, and not all samurai like me, yet I think that you and I alike in this sense," he said as he turned away from him and began to walk away.

"Why are you sparing me?" he questioned, as he coughed out another blotch of blood as he tried to find out the reason for this pity he never wished for.

The old man stopped and looked back at him.

"Look around you, young Ougi," he said and Ougi's heart thumped as he realised the deafening silence he was surrounded by and his head snapped towards the sides as he saw his army, kneeling down on the ground. All his men there, kneeling down swords on the ground in front as the white flags of surrender were raised.

The samurai were still alive, and he saw some of them kneeling down as well, yet that could only ever happen at his command.

"The war is over," came the voice of the old man, and his eyes landed on one person walking towards them, his sigil raised behind him in victory. The face matched the various pictures he had seen of the man, it was the jito of Shinoi.

The man whose technique had felled him down, the man who had taken his honour from him by killing Watashi Masamune, Akihito Shirahoshi.

He walked, through the crowd, his own men kneeling down for him as he rode past them, and only the samurai sworn to him remained standing.

Kenshiro Ougi looked towards the old samurai, and then he looked down at his blade and with his mind made he picked up his blade, and fought through the pain as he began to walk towards the path besides him, and found himself standing face to face with the young jito of Shinoi, blade in hand, ready for a final battle.

0000

AKIHITO SHIRAHOSHI

The battle was over. The succession wars over with the swing of his blade, and now he walked back towards his main camp as men both his and the Third Prince's knelt down for him. With their claimant gone, the battle was won, and so they had no cause to fight anymore.