Early this evening a messenger arrives.  He insists the message is for your ears only and remains kneeling until you accept.  Once alone, he kneels before you again, placing his katana on his right (making it harder to reach).

He says, "I carry the words of an old friend.  'I light of your new reknown, my secret has become too valuable in your hands even if your tongue is held.  In honor of your vow to keep my secret, I send this message to you.  I now hunt you.  My messenger will carry a reply if you desire.'"

Reply:

" Honorable sir -
I know of no such secret and no such person that you speak of.  Had I the secret of a past friend, I would have no such secret - that part of me which harbored the secret I would cut off and burn.  I would crush the ashes and scatter the dust to the furthest corners and highest mountaintops of China*.  And with sorrow, thus would I also blot out any memory of an old friend to protect them from even the spark of recognition should we meet.  Such is my loyalty to old friends.  And sir, should you still seek me, I entreat you to delay; do not inconvenience yourself yet as my current path verily appears to point to my destruction.
Dutifully yours, Kibagami Kuno."

--
After the messenger leaves, I go and meditate on my childhood.  In particular, I meditate on how i spent it alone - rebuilding my own past such that I was the only one playing and learning amongst the cherry trees.

To augment that, Kuno will sleep with the wakazashi grip in his right hand (he can draw away the sheath with his left, or simply use it sheathed in a pinch), and beneath the covers.  The Wakazashi should lay close along his side such that it isn't visible.  His Katana should lay at his left side, next to the bed tatami and outside the covers such that an assassin might think he had disarmed kuno by moving the katana.