“It’s pretty obvious. You send me on the biggest contract the Five Families have ever undertaken and Sachi is my babysitter. Who else would she be but your sempai?”

  The old man nodded. Behind him, Sachi rolled her eyes skyward. Yoshi could not tell if she was thanking the gods or him. It did not matter.

  “My daughter is right. You do a lot of speculating and boasting for someone of such low birth. How is it that you have the ear of the Yoshinobu?

  “I am a counselor to the Yoshinobu,” Yoshi stated simply.

  Sachi laughed. “You tell that lie with a straight face.”

  The old man studied Yoshi’s continence. He was looking for some indication of a ruse. He found none. “So what has the counselor of the Yoshinobu come to propose?”

  “That you cancel the contract,” Yoshi said.

  “Are you crazy?” Sachi asked. “We cannot cancel a contract. Then we would be like you, and no one would ever hire us again.”

  “One might,” Yoshi said.

  “Who?” she asked.

  “The Yoshinobu,” her father answered for Yoshi. “Just what do you propose?”

  “The Yoshinobu are no longer country diamyo. They are here to stay. The grandfather and Nagamasa have already matched wits with the bakufu government and won. They are too dangerous to the power brokers to let them go back to Kii. Whether Naga becomes shogun or not is unknown and immaterial to your situation. He is the best man for the job. Castle politics being what they are, who knows what will happen. But even if he does not become shogun, he is currently the south magistrate and may remain so.”

  Sachi maintained strict eye contact as he spoke. “Nice story, Yoshi, but what does it have to do with us?”

  “The Yoshinobu have no experience with shinobi no mono. They do not have ninja and know nothing about them,” Yoshi began.

  “And now they will need an intelligence network they can rely upon,” the old man finished for him.

  “Exactly,” Yoshi said. “Whether to help stay on top of criminal activity as the magistrate or to keep abreast of the bakufu happenings across the country, they will need information that is reliable from the only nationwide network not committed to anyone.”

  “So, you show your true colors Yoshi,” Sachi accused. “You want to lead the Five Families.”

  “You listen, but you do not hear,” Yoshi said. “I have no desire to lead the Five Families. That is your job. Mine is advice.”

  “Yes, but you do recognize that any information we gather would flow through you to the Yoshinobu. It would be like we were working for you,” the old man interjected.

  “I would initially be the contact, yes. But it would not last long.”

  “Why not?”

  “Two reasons. The first is that the Yoshinobu are smart. They will want to draw you out of the darkness and into their light. While they trust my judgment, and will continue to seek it, I hope, they will want to be as close as possible to the intelligence source. You will have a lot of meetings to attend,” Yoshi said, smiling.

  “What is the second?” the old man asked.

  “I believe if you work for the Yoshinobu there will be a close personal bond between them and your daughter.”

  “What is he talking about daughter?”

  Sachi looked perplexed. “I don’t know Father. I have never met the Yoshinobu. Yoshi appears to be talking big again.”

  “Are you really that dumb?” Yoshi asked.

  That made her father chuckle. “Sometimes she is. Sachi, we will not be killed by the government if we side with the Yoshinobu and find and help eliminate the Fox Gang. And we will have perpetual stipends by serving one of the great houses.”

  “Samurai are always treacherous; you have said so yourself,” Sachi protested.

  “I agree Sachi. But I believe the Yoshinobu to be different,” Yoshi said.

  “But you say they know nothing of the shinobi no mono. Our ways will irritate and frustrate them,” she said.

  “That is true. They do things that are very strange at times, but I have adjusted. Besides, Hanzo Yuki will soon marry Nagamasa and Yagyu Jubei is now supporting the second son, Hideki. I am no longer the only ninja on the payroll.”

  The old man took in a deep breath. “I suppose I must accept right away or we don’t walk out.”

  “No, you are free to leave at any time. But I would like to bring in some people that may help you make up your mind.”

  “I guess we have little choice.”

  Yoshi stood and moved to the door, sliding it open and nodding to someone in the temple’s main room. Then he slid the door completely open, retreated to a far corner of the little room, and kneeled. Through the door, Jii entered in all his finery. He was wearing the kamishino. It consisted of a fine, white silk inner kimono, a grey silk outer kimono, indigo eight-pleated hakama from the waist down, and the kata ginu black silk vest with its exaggerated shoulders tied in the front at the waist. The Yoshinobu mon of a single cherry blossom in white adorned both lapels of the kata ginu. Nagamasa, Hanzo Yuki, Hideki, Musashi, and Yagyu Jubei followed him. Jii sat across from the old man. The rest spread out behind him and knelt. They were all armed.

  Jii bowed slightly. “Yoshinobu Masashige desu. Dozo yoroshuku,” he greeted.

  “Sandayu Momochi,” the leader of the Five Families said, returning the bow.

  “Sandayu Sachi,” Sachi said, bowing behind her father.

  Jii went around introducing each member of his entourage. The old man’s and Sachi’s eyes studied each face. Each bowed an introduction. Just after Yuki had uttered her greeting and Hideki was to be next, Sachi blurted out, “Takezo?”

  Musashi, beside Hideki, answered, “Yes?”

  Sachi looked at Musashi in confusion. “Not you, him,” she said pointing to Hideki.

  Musashi sighed. “Doubtless you’ve met him while he was using my old name. He has a habit of trying to ruin my sterling reputation by borrowing my name.”

  Hideki bowed. “Yoshinobu Hideki, desu,” he said. When he raised his eyes and sought her eyes, she was staring daggers into his soul. Then she would not make eye contact with him again.

  Musashi and then Jubei introduced themselves. Yoshi moved in behind Hideki and whispered. “Benjo, neh?”

  Hideki turned his head to one side and whispered back, “You dung beetle.”

  “Wait a little longer. Dung beetles bring cherry blossoms,” Yoshi whispered.

  “Yoshi came to me with a very interesting proposition,” Jii began.

  “Lord, before we begin our discussions, as a father I must ask my daughter if she knows your grandson,” the ninja leader said.

  Sachi bowed her head before her father. “I did not know he was a Yoshinobu, Father. He introduced himself as Benke Takezo, a ronin.”

  Naga, Yuki, and Jubei could not control their laughter. A stare from Jii stopped them cold.

  “And do you still have feelings for this samurai?” the father asked his daughter.

  “I did when he was a ronin and interceded to protect a fifteen-year-old girl and her old grandfather and myself from four drunken samurai in a noodle shop,” Sachi said. “But how can I, when I know he lied to me and is a samurai of high birth?”

  Jii turned to Hideki. “Hideki, do you know this woman?”

  “Hai,” Hideki said. “Her name was Myo, and she ran a courier service for her father here in Edo.”

  “And do you still have feelings for her?” Jii asked.

  Hideki looked down at the tatami. All eyes were on him. “I guess the best answer would be the one she gave. How could I when she lied to me? But the truth is I have feelings for her and probably always will.”

  Hideki looked up at Sachi and this time she was looking directly at him. The daggers were gone.

  Jii turned back to the old man. “I apologize for my grandson. I cannot believe a samurai would take advantage of a townswoman in this way. I shall discipline him later. What is the world coming to? No one is staying in their class.”

  The old ninja nodded. “It is all upside down now. The young do not honor the old ways.”

  On this common ground, they began to speak in earnest to each other. The old ninja was impressed with the lack of guile he detected in the old samurai. Deception and double speak were the old ninja’s trade. He found no such devices in the samurai’s discussion. He seemed straightforward. Nevertheless, he had not lived this long in his profession by trusting others. However, he had to admit, he was beginning to see what had attracted Yoshi to their banner.

  Yuki looked at Sachi and caught her stealing glances at Hideki. Hideki was engaged in the same endeavor. Naga bent over and teasingly whispered in her ear, “I can attest to the fact that ninja women make good lovers,”

  “I am samurai, just trained as ninja and don’t you forget it,” she whispered back.

  “The best of both worlds,” Naga said.

  Yuki smiled at him. It was his reward for being chivalrous.

  “I suppose if we were to refuse the offer that my daughter and I would be killed,” the old ninja said to Jii.

  “No, Yoshi made it plain that your safe release was a condition of this meeting,” Jii said.

  The old ninja looked at Yoshi behind Hideki. “And do you always take the advice of an upstart ninja?”

  Jii followed his gaze to Yoshi. “I am not a good judge of ninja. I am a good judge of men. I will always take the advice of good men.”

  The old ninja nodded. “He is a surprising young man. He respects the old ways but sees the changes ahead.”

  “I find him irreplaceable. To find an honest man who is both smart and visionary is an extraordinary combination. I do not know what I would do without him,” Jii proclaimed.

  “I suppose he will act as liaison between our families if I accept this offer?”

  “I would have thought so until you discovered the relationship between your daughter and Hideki,” Jii said.

  The old ninja sighed. “Yes, troubling but strangely reassuring at the same time.”

  “Yes, isn’t it?” Jii seconded.

  “Let’s you and I hammer out the details of this alliance and let the young folk walk the temple grounds,” the old man said, reaching for his pipe.

  Jii pulled out his pipe and offered the tobacco pouch from his obi to his new partner. “Good idea.”

  As Nagamasa stepped through the large wooden doors of the Zojoji out into the darkness of the porch and steps down beyond, he paused for Yuki to catch up. “Not exactly the woman I’d have chosen for my little brother.”

  “She is a little different,” Yuki said. “But I can tell she likes him.”

  “How, she seemed to ignore him?”

  “That’s how,” Yuki said.

  Naga’s commander of the guard presented himself and bowed to Naga awaiting instruction. “Commander, keep the guards in place. See that they are alert and have water,” Yuki directed. “We may be here for some time.”

  The commander bowed to Yuki and then glanced at Naga. Naga nodded slightly and the commander departed to see to the orders.

  “You’ve grown very good at ordering my guards around,” he said. “They take orders from you as if you were part of the family.”

  Yuki bowed slightly to Naga. “Sorry, Lord; it is my job as your yojimbo.”

  “Come, let us go down to the bell. I have something to ask you.”

  Hideki wandered out onto the porch in time to see Naga and Yuki reach the bottom of the steps headed down the pathway. His first concern was for their safety. Then he saw several of the Yoshinobu guard move to surround them from several paces away. He smiled. Yuki’s ninja would also be somewhere where they could respond. He need not worry. He felt someone at his back and turned to find Myo standing behind him. She looked annoyed. He started toward her as she turned and moved to the waist-high, wooden rail of the porch.

  “Is it safe to talk to you?” he asked with a little nervous laugh.

  “Who is asking? Is it Takezo or the great Lord of the Yoshinobu?”

  “They are one and the same,” he said.

  She turned and stared directly into his eyes. “You should be ashamed of yourself. I fell in love with a dashing young ronin who tries to protect young girls, old men, and unescorted women. Now I learn it was all a sham.”

  “Very interesting accusation coming from Myo, the girl who runs a courier service for her sick father … no wait—it’s Sachi who runs an assassination network for her powerful ninja father.”

  She continued to look into his eyes. He had the same innocent but strong face, the same slight, wiry build she had enjoyed so much. Nevertheless, his dress with the kamishino with its expensive kimono, hakama, and kataginu was now like a bridge between them.

  “Oh Takezo, what are we to do?”

  “Well, first of all, I hope you don’t kill me. Beyond that, I do not know. I do not want to lose you.”

  “So your appearance in my life was a circumstance of the great lord slumming?” she asked.

  “No, ever since I was little I have always explored new places on my own. New things and new people intrigue me. The night I met you I had had a hard day and was searching for a dojo for a workout. But I became lost and hungry. I passed up several noodle shops before I went into Hana’s place. Maybe it was destiny that you were inside.”

  “You lied to me,” she said, with a slight pout.

  “Looking back on it, if I’d used my real name what would you have done?”

  She thought about it for a minute. “I see your point. I would have been honor bound to kill you.”

  “I was going to tell you the morning after we slept together, but you left in a hurry.”

  “Yes, I had errands to run. I’ve been visiting Nichi’s every day to see if you’d returned.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really; so what are we going to do now?”

  “It is my hope that your father will support the Yoshinobu and we can continue.”

  “Won’t your grandfather object?” she asked.

  “He might if he knew. What of your father?”

  “Oh, he’d kill me if he knew.”

  “So we keep it from them,” Hideki said.

  “Sounds good to me,” she said.

  Chapter 17: The Bird Woman

  The woman made whistling sounds to the caged bird. Her outer robes were of the same brown and white as the bird’s feathers. Even the outer garment’s weave reflected the bright red marks of the bird’s wings. Her calls to the bird were quite good, good enough that on the third attempt the bird answered with the same distinct call. The only satisfaction the woman allowed herself was a slight smile.

  The bird was the only physical reminder of her humble beginnings which she willingly retained. The birds had been abundant when she was a girl. She remembered running free in bare feet through the forest and listening to their distinctive whistle. It was far from the prettiest of the birds found in the forest, but the Izu thrush was numerous on the island where she grew up, and the farmers revered it. Her people had believed its presence during childbirth would portend a special future for the baby, and her mother had kept one in a cage in the kitchen portion of the old, thatch-roofed house where she grew up. Her little village was able to communicate using codes created from its whistles and chirps, which was a handy talent in their line of work.

  Now the Izu thrush was harder and harder to find. Invaders and predators overtook them, like the people who revered them. If she were successful, that would change.

  “My lady, how long must I wait? I have pressing business,” the seated samurai said.

  The woman turned toward him in a wide motion using her hands to steer the outer robe in the right direction, allowing the many layers to move in a circular pattern and fall into position around her. The movement revealed an ample amount of ankle. She held her head to one side. In her youth, she had landed a shogun with that practiced move. She was too old for it now and her figure was no longer an hourglass, but she was happy that she could still do it, even if it no longer achieved the original effect.

  She had been a young girl when the promising young warrior Inaba Masanari had taken her as wife, and she had borne him several children. Her fortunes changed when the great Tokugawa Ieyasu picked her as a wet nurse for his grandson, Takechiyo. Some speculate that the reason she received this plum position was due to the old warlord’s roving eye and appreciation for a shapely female. Others theorized it as payment to her husband for convincing Kobayakawa Hideaki to join Ieyasu’s army at Sekigahara. If Kobayakawa had not deserted the Toyotomi and thrown in with Ieyasu, the Tokugawa shogun would not exist. Kobayakawa had deserted and changed to Ieyasu’s side in the crucial moments of the battle, securing the Tokugawa future.

  Whatever the reason, the woman’s husband now enjoyed a twenty-thousand koku fiefdom and copious amounts of sake and serving girls. She had not seen him in years and did not expect to ever see him again. While he worked on populating his fiefdom one serving girl at a time, she had been busy raising a future shogun while amassing power by staying close to Ieyasu and the men of power in the Tokugawa government. The old warlord was dead now, and his son Hidetada, the current Tokugawa shogun, never really liked her. However, it did not matter. By the time the old warrior had died, she knew everyone’s secrets and was in a position to make or break powerful men. One such sat on a tatami mat at her feet, listening to her make birdcalls.

  “I know what your pressing business is Naomasu-san. It involves pressing a young girl in the Yoshiwara into the tatami mat. Such behavior got you into trouble. If I had let the ometsuke continue their investigation a year ago, you would have had to slit your belly in apology. How old was she, Naomasu? She could not have been older than thirteen. However, look at you now. Instead of being dead, you put your career in my hands and you are no longer a lowly magistrate in the shrines and temples division; you are a member of the Roju.”

  Naomasu Nagai, the latest member of the Roju, one of six in the land to wear the title of Elder, bowed from his seated position on the tatami floor. “I thank you for the honor you’ve bestowed upon me and my house.”