The Sengoku Festival (An Oda Nobuna No Yabou fanfic)

Chapter 16

We reached Watamoto within two days of marching, where the clouds held off their rain until we had reached it. As we slowly set up a camp, just outside of Watamoto, I held Nagahide's tanto blade in its sheathe in my hand as I looked all around Watamoto as I tried to find this "help" Nagahide had mentioned.

I heard the Blue Handed calling out orders to the men and as I looked back, I watched as more tents were being pitched up for the recruits that hopefully Joey and Noble had gotten. Since I hadn't gone with them to oversee them, I was very nervous because even though they were now some of my commanders, I didn't fully trust them just quite yet.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of cavalry and as I instinctively brought up my spear, I turned to see the Yellow Handed as he was galloping over with his men and as I watched them, I could see the horde behind him that took me back.

Joey and Noble had a total of what looked like 20 recruits with some simple spears and card-and-mail armor with hastily painted Bloody hand symbols on them and as they came towards the camp, I was quite pleased with them. I just hoped they hadn't skimped on any expenses and as I watched some of the recruits haul some supplies with them, I managed a small smile behind my mask as I shouted for all to hear, " Joey and Noble have returned and with a large amount of recruits..."

"Oh wow... lets hope we can get some more archers and spearmen..." said the Blue handed next to me as he watched the force approach.

We soon had nightfall upon us and as I watched the recruits slowly become accustomed to life as ashigaru, I did a count in my head of how many we had now. 10 had become normal ashigaru with the jumonji-yaris and had joined the leadership of the Blue handed, bringing the number of yari ashigaru to 60. 10 had went to the archers and as that had brought our archer count to 30 and then there was also the Yellow Handed 10 cavalry that somehow were still alive when I think about the crazy situations we've been in.

Which brought my force up to a total of 100 men strong and as I watched everyone getting ready to hit the night, a guard suddenly approached me and my first reaction besides face him was to put a my left hand on my black katana. He stopped a arms length from me as he bowed before he said, "So... you called for more men? I am honored, much like many others, to be under your command."

"Why is that?" I asked him.

"Many of us near Naramaki, Kurigawa, and the Oda capital heard of your feats of battle and have been eager to join you. Many of us moved to those villages in hopes of joining you all... and now that we are, we are all but anxious to prove ourselves in combat." said the ashigaru.

I thought about what he said before I then said, "Well that may be a while... I was tipped off we would find help here at Watamoto but I don't know what form that would be... Still, I am thankful your high spirits is here... keep it up because our luck may not last..."

He nodded and as he left, I then continued to my tent as I soon entered to find Joey and Noble both talking to one another and as I approached them, they both stood up as Joey said, "You won't believe what we saw marching this way.."

"Takeda?" I asked.

He shook his head as he then went to the map.

"An army of over 300 strong from the Oda capital is headed this way... I don't know which general leads it but we both know its not Katsuie and Nagahide... so we figure its someone else." said Joey.

"There was at least 150 jumonji-yari ashigaru, 100 yumi ashigaru, and 50 tanegashima ashigaru we could see... we wouldn't even last a minute against it..." said Noble.