Weeping brokenly, it was some time before Satomine became aware of the world around him, his sorrow such that he could think only of returning the head to the family of Yoshinobu in Oyasippuri. The fortress of Oyasippuri was built four centuries prior during the age of Heijo-kyo, during the reign of Tensen-tennou with the first lord of the keep a member of the Tahara-clan, with Yoshinobu's ancestor at that time little more than an enforcer for him. That man's great-grandson was to prove himself both as a bushi and as a loyal servant, in the Second Wars of Darkness so that he was the castle and its surrounding lands. This warrior was to expand and improve the original estate a great deal, such that he was to triple the castle in size.
Startled from his stupour by the sound of one of the guards, Satomine looked all about before he took the head and put it away into the salt container he had stolen from the monastery to the south. Nimble though he was, the bushi was to make his way in the opposite direction of where he had heard the sound, desperate to find his way once more to the ground before he was discovered.
Satomine kept to the shadows cursing the fact that he was no longer dressed in his armour, prayers falling from his lips, not unlike rain from the skies in the middle of autumn. Waiting with bated breath, eyes on the wall-walkway he had crossed during his quick dash to and from where the skull had been placed.
Expectation and apprehension mingled together into a poisoned ball deep within his chest so that he was to grip the hilt of his katana with fingers that soon became white as snow, such was the tension that gripped him in turn. To the surprise of the man pressed against the watchtower wall there was no warrior who passed him by. It was simply the wind. The sentry was to hurry along back to his previous post without ever taking notice of the missing head, having turned away and gone back the way he had come.
Heaving a gusty sigh of relief, Satomine was grateful the other man had turned away. Passing back through the guard-tower, past the corpses of those guards he had slain upon first arriving in the tower, intent upon reaching the ladder that he had climbed but a few minutes prior. When he had climbed it, it was to find the pair of guards preoccupied by a game of dice, with neither of them having noticed him as he drew himself up to his feet whereupon he slew them as quickly and as silently as could be imagined.
Climbing down the ladder in the same manner that he had despatched the guards with, at this time the youth sparing nary a glance in any direction so intent was he upon his duty came very near, to having his heart leap into his throat and choking upon it. Quite what it was he ought to do next he did not quite know, he only knew to return the salt filled bag to the Takimoto. Or perhaps he ought to seek vengeance? He knew what Yorinaka, Yoshinobu's heir would do: Eight years his senior the other bushi would surely have left already for Oyasippuri with nary any hint of hesitation, unlike Satomine.
"You! Guard!" Someone called startling the disguised bushi.
It was Yorinaga the head of the Haraguchi family. Recognizing him at once, Satomine froze unsure of what to do.
Full of indecision he turned about to face him, with the sight of the powerful Emishi chieftain and his dozen guards dressed in their raiment which though similar to the kimonos and haoris of the south, were different, made of fur there were few points of comparison between them, with this serving to knock the air from his lungs. No longer certain and full of fright, he was to stutter a broken reply that died as quickly as it had come to his lips.
"Why are you not thereupon the wall, keeping watch?" the feudal lord demanded of the youth who shook in what he thought fear at having been caught. It was when he drew near to him that the heir of Shirojo had a flash of realization. "You? Who are you?"
"I-I come from-" Satomine whispered weakly.
"That accent… You came north with Hidemasu did you not?" Yorinaga guessed at once.
Stricken as he was caught betwixt fear and his allegiance to the code his father and Yoshinobu had instilled in him since his earliest childhood. A bushi as he had been taught was sworn to the truth and therefore could not lie outright. Thinking it hardly an untruth, he chose to nod his head if hesitantly, hopeful that none of his doubt showed on his face.
Looking him up and down, the general's so dark at first soon became bright with amusement, so that he slapped the shoulder of the youth after a moment's thought. "Checking up on those still on duty are we? How very dutiful of you!"
Breathing a little more easily when he realized the other man did not recognize him, which meant that his taking up the raiment of the first Emishi he had come across near the fortress after days on the road, had succeeded in disguising him. When he had first donned the fur clothes of the northern-people he had not expected that it might fool one of the generals of the enemy army. Yoshinobu had always gone out of his way to memorize the faces and names of those in his army, and also to know from whence they came.
Directed towards the palace by Yorinaga, he was after a short moment of hesitation to ask him, "If you have finished with bothering the men thereupon the walls, do hurry back inside as the walls are not your concern," Yorinaga pointed to the high citadel his mien serious and furious as that of a charging bull.
Doing as bidden the bushi with a worried glance over his shoulder at the general, stepped away towards the house of the King of the Emishi, his teeth sinking into his lip until he very nearly drew blood grateful also that he still had the bag that held his lord's head. Once past the gates, and within the courtyard he was to glance all about in every direction. The exterior hallways were long and where the sides were concerned exposed to nature, with the courtyards long and in possession of magnificent gardens full of trees and small ponds. The Emishi did not believe in pruning their trees quite in the same fashion in the south, so that some were wild and thus grew all throughout the small enclosed area. As to the hallways they had the tiled roofs of the southern halls and covered the hallways as was custom, yet with some of the corridors snaking about into interior places the corridors adopted an oppressive air about them and a gloomy air that seemed haunted.
Carving a path through the palace hallways he was to avoid as best he could those servants and guards who expressed the most curiosity about the sack he carried. He was to explain to a number of those he came across, "This is a gift for the Lord, where is he?"
Pointed in the correct direction by a number of them, he could not help but feel a sense of unease. He knew only that his path had been set for him from the moment Yorinaga had approached him.
The further he made his way thither into the fortress, the more lost he soon felt as he moved from hallway to hallway, from courtyard to courtyard. It was only as he made the same turn for what was the fifth time that he was to realize he was trapped.
Espying one of the nearby wooden beams that supported the wooden pagoda roof, Satomine looked all about to ensure no one was nearby that might see him 'misbehave'. Once he had made certain that he was truly alone, he took up his katana and slashed at the column.