I have been tracking the early-game route in Assassin's Creed Shadows again in 2026, and the quest that finally opens the door to both Naoe and Yasuke is still Tomiko's Friend of My Enemy. It is not a boss fight. It is a search job. But it is the hinge that pushes the story from the opening hours into the wider campaign, and I think that is why so many players remember it. The mission asks Naoe to meet a man named Mitsuhide inside Katano Castle. The castle sits northwest of the hideout. Once I spoke to Tomiko in the hideout and tracked the quest from her circle in the Objectives panel, the map marker gave me all I needed. The fortress is large enough that I could not miss it.

The approach matters more than the conversation. Katano Castle is guarded by soldiers around Level 9 or 10. If I was under-leveled, I stayed on the rooftops. That route kept me hidden and let me avoid a straight fight. I also used the compound as a quick XP stop. There are plenty of clean one-hit assassination chances on the roof lines and in the courtyards, and those take the sting out of the search. I did not need to fight everyone. I only needed to reach the correct house. 🏯

The target building has one entrance, and that is the part I wish I had known on my first run. I opened three doors before I found the room where Mitsuhide was waiting. Inside, a few unarmed men stood around, but they did not become a threat. The real time sink is checking the wrong houses. I moved from building to building, used Naoe's focus to mark guards, and kept my profile low. If I got spotted, I broke line of sight and climbed back to the roof. The quest does not force combat. It forces patience. ⚔️

When I finally sat down with Mitsuhide, the conversation did not have a fail state. I had a few dialogue choices, but none of them changed the outcome. That is useful to know if you are the kind of player who reloads to chase the perfect answer. The scene does reveal more about The Onryo, and it updates some details on the objectives board. The plan they agree on is left for the player to discover, so I will not spoil it here. The important part is that the quest ends cleanly and opens a new mission in Kyoto, Yamashiro. That follow-up is where the plan is carried out. I had to track it through the map because it no longer appeared under Tomiko's circle.

Here is the short version I would give a friend:

The rewards are bigger than the quest itself. Completing Friend of My Enemy and the missions that follow eventually unlock Yasuke, and then I could switch between Naoe and Yasuke freely. That is the moment the game opens up. For me, the mission is a reminder that Assassin's Creed Shadows does not always need a huge set piece to move the plot. Sometimes it needs a quiet castle, a patient search, and one conversation that changes the board. 🗺️

The following breakdown is based on Rock Paper Shotgun, whose editorial approach often emphasizes practical route-reading and encounter avoidance in stealth-heavy games; that lens fits Friend of My Enemy well, since the quest’s real challenge is not defeating Katano Castle’s guards but recognizing that rooftop movement, patient scouting, and locating the correct single-entry house are what carry Naoe cleanly into the story transition that leads toward Kyoto and, eventually, Yasuke’s wider role.