The Sengoku Festival (An Oda Nobuna No Yabou fanfic)

Chapter 24

By morning, the whole army was on the move once again but this time I was deciding to take Rear guard for once. With so few of my yari ashigaru with me still, all I could was split the remaining 30 into groups of 10 for the Blue Handed, Joey, and Noble to lead with. I still had my 40 yumi ashigaru, which wasn't all too bad since it was likely we were going to be in need of them for sure. And then there was my 20 yari cavalry still with the Yellow Handed but with only 30 yari men, it was certainly going to be harder to hold a line against an enemy force.

Which is why I was hoping that the "Winged Ronin" appeared sooner rather than with his men, even if it was only 80.

The path we took was the same one we had been on the previous day but as I walked in front of my men, leading them just behind Dosan's forces, I couldn't help but feel like we were no longer in a race against time but now of how long our forces will last.

I watched our flanks from the corners of my eyes when I could while just behind and to my left was Inuchiyo and as I walked along, for a second I realized she had actually gone quiet this time. I glanced back at her and watched as she was simply walking along with her yari on her shoulder as her tiger hood was up still.

I went back to keeping my eyes forward when suddenly I watched as a horseman came galloping over just as the whole advanced stopped and as I looked at the man, he looked down upon me as he told me, "You are needed at the front, Ronin, by the general."

I simply nodded as I quickly made my way past the columns of patiently waiting troops as my sashimono flapped and flittered in the little wind around as I managed to reach the front of the army as Dosan and Nagahide were both standing there already and as I joined them, I looked out past them at what they saw.

Apparently, someone had made a encampment down below us and in doing so, looked like they had attracted some attention from the Tokugawa. Bodies were scattered all over alongside lots of weapons and gear as sashimono banners alongside of the larger nobori, which were the huge variant of the sashimono's, were laying all about and tattered while most not showing who they belonged to allegiance wise. There were also horses scattered about as arrows were just everywhere and in almost everything and as I looked all across the scene, it was certainly a massacre.

"Anyone seen who those sashimono and nobori belong to? I can't." I said to Nagahide and Dosan.

"The colors... I think they might be Date... but it's hard to say for sure." said Dosan.

I thought about the colors of each clan: Oda with black and yellow, the Tokugawa gold and white, Takeda with red and black, Uesugi with blue and red, and the Date with-

Black and white. The same looking colors of the flags and all.

"I'd think those are the Date colors..." said as then I felt something pat my right leg and as I glanced over to Dosan who then, in turn, pointed his gunbai towards our right flank and as I looked  past him, I then saw it too as he then whispered to me, "Move that way.. and try not to get everyone killed."

I simply nodded as I made my way back towards my men and as I did so, I took out my daikyu yumi as I strung an arrow to it just as I reached my men and as Joey, the Blue Handed, and Noble all reached me with the Yellow handed on his horse just behind them, I then said to them all, "We are advancing through the woods here. Get everyone ready."

They all nodded as then, as everyone was preparing their weapons, I knew exactly what moving through a dense part of a forest was going to do. Mainly cover us in the foliage but a possible setback was that the crunching of many feet through such a forest would suddenly alert our enemy to our position.