Temporary alliance

"Sorry about that." Osaka replied sheepishly. "I am usually much more balanced on my feet, but the ice patches today are -"

"Osaka, what are you doing here?" Lord Hiroshi asked as Yuki rolled her eyes. "You were tasked with guarding Yoshi while he was in the bathhouse."

"By Raiden! That's right!" Osaka suddenly gasped, a look of guilt coming to her face as she bowed. "A thousand thousand apologies, Lord Hiroshi! I was guarding The Prince as you instructed when three masked women scaled the walls. I tried to fight them off, but a fourth one had entered the bathhouse while I was distracted and kidnapped Prince Yoshi as he was bathing! They all had the tattoos associated with your sister's group."

"What?!" Lord Hiroshi asked in horror as the rest of the village gasped. Yuki was tempted to raise the prince, but decided not to push it. "First the clothing of my village's women, now my son? Her own nephew?! You have gone too far, Asuna!"

"I am sorry, My Lordship!" Osaka stated. "I have failed and dishonored you as my master. I shall go to the village square and commit seppuku at once."

"Not so fast, Osaka!" Lord Hiroshi said, "You have known my son since you were both children, and you are the closest thing I have ever had to a daughter. I will give you a chance to redeem your honor! You will accompany Hana Yuki on her task to bring Asuna in, return the clothes, and rescue my son!"

"Understood, My Lord."

Yuki didn't like the look of this. Not only did this Onna-Musha seem... 'Incompetent', she believed would be the best word, but if this bumbling samurai somehow managed to rescue Prince Yoshi before she did, she could kiss all her fortunes goodbye!

"With all due respect, My Lord," Yuki began with a bow, "I am much more successful on my own. I do believe that your Onna-Musha may unintentionally slow me down."

"That man is very insistent, I'll give him that..." Yuki muttered, now dressed in a floral print kimono and sandals as she walked down the path with Osaka at her side.

"I swear by my ancestors, Prince Yoshi, I will avenge my honor and rescue you from the clutches of - WHOA!" Osaka yelped as she slipped on an ice patch and fell into the snowbank face first. The Onna-Musha emerged from the snowbank and shook the snow off her before carefully getting to her feet.

"Can I give you some constructive criticism, ... 'Osaka', was it?" Yuki asked.

"Yeah."

"I have fought several samurai in my career, but you are by far the most incompetent samurai I have ever met. You are the reason a majority are becoming ronin."

"... That didn't seem very constructive."

"Point is, I may have been **** to drag you along on this mission, but stay. Out. Of. My. Way." Yuki ordered as she punctuated each word with a jab of her finger to the Onna-Musha's armor. "Now make yourself useful and help me find any clues to which direction the kidnappers went."

"They went that way." Osaka said as she pointed to the tree line of a nearby forest at the foot of a mountain.

"And how could you possibly know that?!" Yuki asked with an annoyed frown...

Only to don a look of surprise as Osaka pointed to four sets of foot prints in the snow leading towards the exact direction that Osaka had been pointing. Blushing slightly, Yuki gave another annoyed frown as she walked off while saying, "Lucky guess."