"Do we have to train in this weather?" The young Akechi Yasuhide groaned while looking down at his feet as he walked, carefully avoiding stepping into any mud puddles created by the light rain above.

"And this early, too?" Akechi Mitsutada yawned and attempted to keep his oil-paper wagasa covering him from the rain as he stretched.

"Don't you two ever want to honor our family? We must practice everyday until we can beat Mitsuhide!" Akechi Mitsuharu remarked, trying to act as if he were unperturbed by waking up before dawn, and by travelling through the rain.

Akechi Mitsuhide, who was leading his family, stopped in a large patch of grass, and turned towards them. "Yasu, Tada." He called them by their nicknames affectionately. "Haru is right, this is how my grandfather taught me, and now I'm teaching you all." He smiled.

Tada bowed to his cousin, Mitsuhide, and Yasu followed suit. "I'm sorry, brother." Yasu uttered as he lifted his head.

Mitsuhide sat down on his knees, holding his wagasa over his head. In his other hand, he wielded a bokken, which was an exact wooden replica of his katana that was fastened around his waist. "Alright, let's get started."

The other three spread out in a triangular formation around Mitsuhide; they each dropped their wagasas, and brandished their own bokken. Yasu walked out in front of Mitsuhide. Yasu had wide eyes and a round and chubby young face that was brimming with confidence. His hair was cut short and barely reached his shoulders. He shared the same hair color as his brother, Mitsuhide, dark hair with a purple tint. Yasu wielded a bokken fashioned after an wakizashi, since he was not able to hold a larger weapon. In addition to being the youngest member of the family, just a teen, he was small even for his age. Yasu didn't enjoy combat; although he had been training since he could walk, he still was far too weak and fragile to fight and the other members of the Akechi worried that he would not be able to live up to their family name, especially that of Mitsuhide's.

The second youngest was Mitsutada. A the dark eyed man with short, messy hair was by far the largest and strongest member of the Akechi. Built like a warrior, Tada had broad shoulders and a body composed of well-defined muscles. His strong jawline and scruffy facial hair made him popular among any potential wives. However, Tada's tough look was misleading. Instead of being the proud, confident warrior that he appeared to be, he was actually very timid and shy, and this showed even in combat. When Tada fought, he became nervous and unsure of his attacks; he regularly would not follow through with his movements, which would give his opponents many openings in battle. Tada's bokken was in the shape of an large odachi, although his preferred weapon was the much larger, bone-crushing club, the kanabo. With his inhuman strength, he could even wield his human-sized wooden club with ease.

The oldest of Mitsuhide's three trainees was Mitsuharu, who also went by Haru. who carried honor and duty above all else much like Mitsuhide. Haru had an average build, not large like his younger brother, Tada, yet not small like his younger cousin, Yasu. He had a slim face and all of his facial features were petite. Two qualities that he picked up from Mitsuhide, who acted as his older brother for a while, were always staying clean-shaven and refusing to cut his hair. Instead, Haru wore his sleek, jet black hair in a large and messy ponytail that reached to his lower back.

Since the two were around the same age, Haru was just barely old enough to spend some time training with Mitsuhide and his grandfather while his grandfather was still alive. Thus Haru was already well-trained; his skills with his katana almost rivaling that of Mitsuhide's. However, even with the help of both Yasu and Tada, Haru has never been able to defeat Mitsuhide, but he was determined to change that this dreary day.

Mitsuhide was the patriarch and oldest male member of the Akechi Clan. His father died soon after he was born, and he became the heir and eventual leader of the Akechi after his grandfather passed away a few years after his father. Due to Mitsuhide growing up with his cousin, Haru, they had much in common yet subtle differences between them. While they both had beautiful, silky, long hair, Haru kept his hair messy, Mitsuhide made sure to keep his purple tinged ponytail neat. Mitsuhide and Haru both held honor very highly, but Mitsuhide wasn't as strict in his ways as Haru.

"Alright, I'm ready when you are." Mitsuhide smiled at Yasu who was standing a few dozen feet in front of him, with Mitsuhide on his knees, they were about the same height.

The three stood there in silence, all waiting for Mitsuhide to drop his wagasa. The three surrounding him awkwardly looked at each other for a minute. When it became apparent that Mitsuhide wasn't going to drop oil-paper umbrella, Haru decided to speak. "Mitsuhide... We are waiting for you to put away your wagasa..."

"Is that what's taking you three so long? Don't worry about this old thing. Come at me." The three looked at each other with puzzled faces; they knew that was Mitsuhide's favorite umbrella, given to him by an old friend, yet he called it an 'old thing'.

Yasu shrugged at his two cousins, and then held up his bokken, charging straight for Mitsuhide first. Mitsuhide's smile grew as he watched his naive brother run at him, he lifted his bokken and blocked Yasu's swing at him. At that point Mitsuhide heard sloshy steps behind him, getting closer and closer. Mitsuhide easily pushed the smaller Yasu away, making Yasu stumble backwards before tripping into a muddy puddle, Mitsuhide then hopped to his feet and swung around towards the other two. Tada and Haru were only a few steps away when Mitsuhide stepped back and stuck his wagasa out towards them. Both of them attempted to stop before they ran into Mitsuhide's umbrella, causing them to slip and fall onto their backs in mud.

Mitsuhide laughed as he stood over his family members, each of them now covered in mud. "This is why I brought you to train in the rain. You must always be aware of your surroundings, and use them to your advantage." Mitsuhide waited for the three of them to get back onto their feet. "Now, let's try this ag-" Suddenly, a young girl shrieked and began calling out for help.

The four of them quickly looked to the sound of the scream, Mitsuhide dropped his bokken and began running in the direction of the girl's cries, unsheathing his katana while he ran. "Come on!" He ordered, and the three others followed him. They ran through a group of trees, and on the other side, a small girl kneeled over a body on the floor. She was sobbing loudly as the four Akechis approached.

The girl gasped as she heard their footsteps and turned her head just enough to see who was approaching. When she saw their swords, she crawled over the body and tried to stand up before Mitsuhide called to her. "Wait! We're not here to hurt you!" She stopped and turned to the Akechi men, she was shaking and her dress was covered in blood.

Haru looked down at the body that the girl was kneeling over just moments before. He discovered a motionless male corpse with multiple splotches of blood all over its clothes. The three others watched as Haru stepped up to the body, checking for any vital signs. "Dead..." He uttered as he looked back to the rest of his group.

That single word conclusion caused the girl to burst into tears. "Oh no! Please no!"

Mitsuhide slid his Katana back into its sheath and slowly walked over to the girl, who couldn't have even been a teen, placed his hand on her shoulder and kneeled to get eye level with her. "What happened to your father? We will make sure that he gets justice." He spoke softly to the trembling, sobbing girl.

"Wh-What good is justice when he's dead!?" She cried out shakily.

"Please." Mitsuhide insisted, but continued in a gentle tone. "We don't want anymore good men like him to die for no reason."

The girl took a deep breath and rubbed her wet, red eyes. "Th-There was some soldiers..." She paused and looked at Mitsuhide, who gave her a comforting smile. "They got in a fight with daddy... They argued and yelled to each other... And then... Then..."

Mitsuhide could see she was about to break down again, so he intervened. "Argued about what?"

She tried drying her face with her sleeve before talking again. "They wanted him to join them... They said they were gonna go take down Lord Saito, but my father wouldn't do it..."

Mitsuhide involuntarily squeezed her shoulder in surprise, she let out a small whimper but Mitsuhide payed no attention as he was deep in thought. The Saito Clan that Mitsuhide served had recently been in turmoil since rumors began circulating that Saito Dosan, the lord of Mino, had decided to name one of his younger sons as heir instead of his oldest son, Saito Yoshitatsu. This worried Yoshitatsu, who quickly took action and murdered a number of his brothers, and began plotting against his father. Now it seemed that Yoshitatsu had finally made his move and rallied his men to attack Dosan in an attempt to overthrow his father and gain control of Mino. Mitsuhide knew that Yoshitatsu was very cunning and must have amassed a large number of troops to finally attack Dosan.

Mitsuhide stood up and hugged the girl reassuringly. "Go home to your family, we will take care of your father's body." The girl quickly disappeared into the forest. Mitsuhide motioned for the others to follow him and began walking away.

"Hey brother! You said we were going to take care of the body!" Yasu ran next to him and started walking beside him.

Mitsuhide looked up at the darkening sky, the rain had stopped but the sky was now becoming dense with black clouds. "Yasuhide." He spoke somberly. "Soon there will be thousands of more bodies we will have to take care of."

"You don't actually think... That Yoshitatsu is after Lord Dosan's head?" Mitsuhide nodded before Tada finished.

"Mitsuhide." Haru spoke up as they walked on with Mitsuhide leading them. "Where are we going?" Mitsuhide didn't answer, so Haru persisted sternly. "Mitsuhide, where are we going?"

Mitsuhide sighed. "Home."

Haru knew this answer was coming and responded sharply. "You know we should be going to battle instead. We cannot abandon Lord Dosan!"

Mitsuhide stopped walking and quickly turned around, the other three were caught off guard as they all flinched. Mitsuhide spoke to Haru in a hushed, yet harsh tone. "Mitsuharu! I'm not having this argument with you right now! We will get our family to safety first, and then help defend Dosan!" Haru's face turned red and his breathing got heavy, yet he nodded to Mitsuhide, who turned and continued walking. It was not uncommon for the two of them to argue, but Mitsuhide had never snapped like that before; he was in no mood to mess around in the face of an impending crisis.

Finally they arrived at Inabayama Castle, Saito Yoshitatsu's castle, also near where the Akechi family lived. The castle and surrounding area was in a frenzy when they arrived. Troops were lining up and marching. Civilians and soldiers were being rounded up and executed, the sole reason being that they supported Saito Dosan. Mitsuhide feared that this was the fate that awaited him and his family as well, so he rushed to the Akechi mansion.