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It was a peaceful day in Azuchi Castle, for the animals anyway. Haguro, Nobunaga's hawk, perched atop a ceiling beam, watching everyone scramble to get work done. He flew through the hallways once they were, or nearly, empty. He landed in front of the door to the meeting room. He flew up and managed to slowly open the door using his beak. The war council hadn't started yet so he flew around and landed on another roof beam. At the end of the day, Haguro flew up to his spot on the castle roof to sleep.
The next morning, Haguro watched his master and his vassals leave for war. He knew that they'd be gonna for a few days. Masamune ended staying behind, much to the dragon's dismay. Luckily he brought Shogetsu with him. The brown hawk flew into Masamune's room where Shogetsu was playing with some yarn.
"Shogetsu." The hawk called out. The tiger cub looked up from his ball of yarn to the hawk standing in the doorway to the patio.
"Haguro, long time no see! What's going on?"
"Nothing much. My master will be gone along with a majority of his vassals for a few days. We should take this chance and get the others."
"Oh yes! I want to see the others too."
"We'll need to distract Masamune. By the time I come back with the others, I want you to create such a mess that it will take Masamune forever to clean up even with the maids."
"You came to the right tiger! Go get the others. This won't take long." Shogetsu gave the hawk a toothy grin. He pushed the door open with his paws and ran out. Haguro nodded and flew over to Hideyoshi's manor. After flying about for a while, he found Uri, Hideyoshi's pet monkey, in Mitsunari's room with Neko-san, Mitsunari's cat companion.
"Uri. Neko-san." Neko-san woke up from her nap and looked up at Haguro.
"Oh. Hello Haguro. What brings you here?"
"The others are gone and we need to have a council. Shogetsu is busy making a mess to distract Masamune with." Uri looks up at Haguro.
"Last time Shogetsu was put in charge of distractions, Hideyoshi cried in the corner of the room for 3 hours. I don't want him to go through that again and now he'll have to. Thanks, Haguro."
"Well, he was the only one I could count on, regardless of the outcome. I'm sure he'll get a scolding from the dragon anyway. We'll get it cleaned before my master and his vassals return."
"Alright. Let's go, Neko-san."
"The usual meeting place I presume?"
"Yes. I'll see you both there." Haguro spread his wings and flew to the next manor, Ieyasu's manor. A young fawn stood in the flower beds admiring the pretty flowers. Haguro landed on the fence above her. "Wasabi." The fawn looked up. "Didn't the porcupine tell you not to eat the flowers?"
"I was only looking at them. And don't call Mister Ieyasu a 'porcupine.' He's really sweet."
"Right. We're having a council today so meet the others in the yard."
"Ok. See you there, Haguro." Wasabi pranced out of the flower bed and snuck through a hole in the fence Shogetsu made a few meetings before. Haguro watched her sneak out and made a note to himself to talk to Shogetsu about his antics. The final mansion, Mitsuhide's mansion. Haguro flew over and met up with Shin, who was sleeping peacefully in the sun on the patio. Haguro gently taped Shin.
"What is it, Haguro? I was having such a pleasant nap in the morning sun."
"We are having a meeting so hurry on over to Azuchi's courtyard for a council."
"Fine fine. Just give me a few minutes." Being Nobunaga's pet, he's learned to show dominion over the other pets when necessary and knows how to pull off Nobunaga's frightening warlord aura. Sensing this aura, Shin stretched out his body and yawned. "Ok, I'm leaving. I'll meet you and the others there. You can put away your Nobunaga aura."
"Good." Haguro shakes out his feathers and flies back to Azuchi. When he returns, Shogetsu is already in the courtyard, waiting for the others. "That was fast. Do I dare ask what you did?"
"Since Hideyoshi and Uri nearly tore their hair out and cried when I covered the castle walls in food and flooded the floor last time so I decided to take it easy on them this time. This time I covered the floor with my yarn balls. It was really fun."
"That reminds me, we need to talk to you about your crazy antics. It's a little scary how much you take after that dragon."
"Nothing wrong with that. The guy is awesome. And you're one to talk. You have that scary aura you got from Nobunaga."
"Touché."
"We're here, Haguro." All the others came in together with Uri leading them.
"Excellent, everyone is here. Now, let us get down to-"
"SHOGETSU!" The animals heard Masamune shout. They all flinched and looked at Shogetsu.
"You said you just covered the floor with yarn." Haguro glared.
"I may have messed up the kitchen too. Time to run." Shogetsu got up and made a run for it. All the other pets followed him, not wanting to get caught by Masamune or get caught being all together for any reason.
Over at Kasugayama, the other pets were spending their free time in Kenshin's room. Ume was asleep in the corner with her older sisters Matsu and Take on Kenshin's futon. Koro was playing with Muramasa outside while Saizou watched from a branch just like his master would.
"That all you've got, Muramasa?"
"I'll admit, I've been going easy since you're smaller than me."
"What?! No way! Not cool! Give it your all!"
"You asked for it." As Muramasa tackled Koro, Saizou stealthily made his way over to the bunny siblings.
"Matsu? Take? When is Kenshin coming home?" Ume asked.
"I don't know. He's off to war again so it might not be for quite a while." Take answered. Matsu shifted her position.
"I can't wait for him to come back. When he returns, we shall meet him."
"That's a good idea, Matsu." Ume responded.
"I heard he's fighting the Oda forces this time. It might take longer for the others to return them usual." The 3 bunnies jump, startled by Saizou's sudden comment. The huddle together. The bear cub and wolf stop playing to see the commotion. Knowing if their fur was found in Kenshin's room, the God of War would kill them so they sat on the patio.
"Seriously, Saizou, you've got to stop sneaking up on all of us." Muramasa said.
"Sorry. Master Sasuke has rubbed off on me. I don't mean to sneak up on you all, I'm just good at moving quietly."
"That's been made quite clear." Koro replied. "Prepare yourself, Muramasa!"
"Bring it!" The two head back into the grass and began wrestling each other.
"Those two never change." Matsu commented. The bunny trio fell back to sleep while Saizou left to watch the 2 animals play outside.