Ninja

by Chris Bradford

  Ninja: First Mission

  by

  Chris Bradford

  For Stella, a little fighter

  All proceeds from the sale of this book are being

  donated to help fight her cancer battle

  www.forstella.org

  For more information on Chris and his books, visit:

  www.chrisbradford.co.uk

  First American edition published in 2012 by Stoke Books,

  an imprint of Barrington Stoke Ltd

  18 Walker Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, EH3 7LP

  www.stokebooks.com

  Copyright © 2011 Chris Bradford

  Illustrations © Sonia Leong

  All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of

  this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

  transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic,

  mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise – without the

  prior written permission of Barrington Stoke Ltd, except for

  inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

  A catalog record for this book is available from

  the US Library of Congress

  Distributed in the United States and Canada by Lerner Publisher

  Services, a division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

  241 First Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55401

  www.lernerbooks.com.

  ISBN 978-1-78112-021-7

  Printed in China

  eISBN: 978-1-78112-059-0

  Contents

  1 Floor-boards

  2 Dragon’s Gate

  3 Black Belt Test

  4 Grandmaster

  5 A Lesson from an Ant

  6 The Scrolls

  7 Black Eagle Castle

  8 A Difficult Choice

  9 The River

  10 Decoy

  Chapter 1

  Floor-boards

  Japan, Year 1580

  I wait under the floor-boards.

  I’ve been hidden here for over an hour, lying still as a stone.

  My name is Taka. This is my first mission as a ninja and I must not fail.

  I hear a door slide open and look through the crack in the floor boards. I watch as a man crosses the room; his feet pass close to my face. He wears a gold silk robe with the crest of a black eagle on his back. He carries two samurai swords on his hip. Across his right cheek is a long red scar.

  It’s Lord Oda – the samurai warrior I’ve been waiting for.

  The war-lord doesn’t know I’m here. He can’t see me under the floor. He sits down on his bed. In his hand, he holds a scroll of paper. He begins to read it.

  “I never dreamed such things were possible,” he mutters to himself.

  After a few minutes, he puts the scroll into a wooden box by his pillow. He lays his swords beside his bed, blows out the candle and goes to sleep.

  Outside, a full moon has risen over the castle. Its pale light shines through a small window and onto the cruel face of Lord Oda. Lord Oda is the sworn enemy of the ninja. My task is to stop him destroying our clan.

  Now is the time.

  I push softly at the loose floor-board above me and climb out of my hiding place. Using my ninja stealth skills, I cross the room without a sound. In the darkness I’m almost invisible. My black clothes and my hood turn me into a shadow. Only my eyes show.

  As I draw close to the samurai lord, I see my hands are shaking.

  Can I really do this? I ask myself.

  I’ve been training to be a spy and an assassin all my life. But I’m still only fourteen. Have I learned all the skills I need for this mission? Perhaps I should have waited for Cho. Can I save our ninja clan all on my own?

  I have to prove myself. Tonight.

  I’m now so close to Lord Oda, I can hear him breathe. As I reach out, my arm blocks the moonlight shining onto his face.

  A small but fatal mistake.

  Lord Oda’s eyes snap open. For a moment, we stare at each other in shock.

  Then he screams, “GUARDS!”

  Chapter 2

  Dragon’s Gate

  The Day Before …

  Holding the silver shuriken in my right hand, I take aim and flick the throwing star at the target. It flashes through the air like a mini-bolt of lightning.

  I’ve been practicing with this weapon every day, but even I can’t believe it when the shuriken strikes the tree trunk dead center.

  “Very impressive,” says Sensei Shima as he walks over to me in the forest. “That’s five out of five.”

  I bow to my teacher and kneel back in line with the other ninja students in the forest. A girl with long black hair smiles at me – Cho. She’s a year older than me, and her acrobatic skills are the best in the clan.

  “Well done, you even beat Renzo!” she whispers, looking over at a large sixteen-yearold boy with strong arms and a shaven head.

  Renzo is glaring at me. He never comes second and he doesn’t like it.

  “It doesn’t count,” he grunts.

  “Why not?” I protest.

  “You’re not a real ninja. You haven’t gone on a mission yet.”

  Renzo loves to tell me this fact, and all my joy at mastering the Five Blades shuriken throw vanishes.

  “You’re just jealous,” says Cho.

  “Taka was lucky, that’s all,” snorts Renzo. “The real test is if he can do it under the pressure of a mission.”

  Sensei Shima claps for attention. “Time for unarmed combat practice,” he calls. “Find a partner.”

  I look to Cho, but Renzo’s already at my side, towering over me.

  “I pick you,” he snarls.

  Before I can react, he grabs me by both arms. I try to shake off his grip, but he’s too strong. Renzo throws me to the ground. I fight to get back up, but he drops on top of me and pins my arm down with his knee. I groan in pain as he presses with all his weight.

  “Just as I thought,” he grins and twists my arm so that the pain is almost too much to bear. “You wouldn’t survive long in a real fight.”

  I’m forced to submit. I tap the floor.

  “Change opponents!” orders Sensei Shima.

  As I get up, I rub my hurt arm. It throbs.

  Cho comes over to partner me. “Are you alright?” she asks.

  I nod. “He’s too strong for me,” I answer.

  My arm’s fine – it’s my pride that’s been hurt. I’ll never gain the respect of the others until I’ve completed my first mission.

  “Everyone has a weak point,” replies Cho. “I may be small, but few can beat me.”

  Without warning, she drives her thumb into the space behind my collar-bone. A blinding pain shoots through my body, my legs go weak, and I fall to the ground.

  “That’s the Dragon’s Gate,” she smiles. “It’s a pressure point that will take down the biggest and ugliest foe.”

  “Will you show me again?” I ask.

  Cho repeats the move. Then she lets me try it on her. I press down and she collapses like a rag doll.

  “Sorry, was that too hard?” I ask as I offer my hand to help her up.

  “No, it was perfect,” she replies. Then she grabs my wrist and, with a quick twist, throws me onto my back. “But that’s the last time I’ll let you win so easily.”

  “Stop training!” commands Sensei Shima.

  Our clan leader, Tenshin, is walking towards us from the direction of the village. He’s wearing his black gi, a ninja uniform with the crest of two hawks on the front. The two hawks are the emblem of the clan.

  “We need all available ninja for an important mission,” says Tenshin.

  At last, here’s my chance! I jump to my feet.

  “Not you, Taka,” Tenshin tells me
. “This is a black-belt-only mission.”

  Chapter 3

  Black Belt Test

  “This will be my tenth mission,” brags Renzo the next morning as the ninja team get ready to leave. “Tell me again, how many have you done, Taka?”

  I ignore him and get on with filling everyone’s water bottles from the village well.

  “You haven’t even passed the Grandmaster’s black belt test!” Renzo sneers. “Are you sure you can even do water duty on your own?”

  My face goes red with shame as the other ninja try to hide their laughter.

  The Grandmaster is the head of ninjutsu, the secret martial art of the ninja. When a student turns fourteen, the Grandmaster invites them to his temple to take a flower from his hand – without being detected. The Grandmaster must feel nothing, must not know they are even there. He is old and blind, but the task is far from easy. There are traps set all through the temple.

  It’s the ultimate test of stealth for a ninja.

  Sensei Shima is the only ninja to have passed the test the first time and that was ten years ago. Once a ninja earns their black belt, they’re ready to be sent on any mission.

  I’ve failed twice already. Am I ever going to succeed and get my black belt?

  As I hand out the water bottles, I watch as my fellow ninja complete their final equipment checks. How I wish I could go too! But Cho isn’t among them. Then I spot her crossing the village square towards me.

  “The Grandmaster has asked for you,” she says.

  I stare at Cho. “Me? But why?”

  “Why do you think?” Cho replies, grinning.

  “Black belt test!” I exclaim. “But I’m not ready for it.”

  Renzo overhears us and gives a cruel laugh. “Those who fail to prepare, must prepare to fail!”

  “Don’t listen to him,” says Cho as we walk away. “I’ve seen you practicing every day. You’re ready.”

  We cross the paddy fields, enter the forest and follow a path up into the mountains. As we draw near to the temple, I get more and more nervous.

  “What if I fail again?” I ask Cho.

  “Don’t worry, it took me two attempts,” she replies.

  “But this is my third!”

  Cho stops and looks at me. “I’ll tell you a secret. As strong and skillful as Renzo is, it took him five attempts to get his black belt – not the two he brags about.”

  This news makes me feel better. But I’m still worried about my chances.

  We climb a long flight of stone steps that lead up to a huge wooden gate. Cho stops before the temple entrance.

  “I’ll meet you later in the village,” she says. “Aren’t you going on the mission?” I ask.

  Cho shakes her head.

  “But I thought all the ninja were going?” I say.

  “I’ve been chosen by the Grandmaster for a special task,” she tells me before she heads back down the steps. As I pluck up the courage to enter the temple, she calls out, “Good luck! And watch out for that second step.”

  Chapter 4

  Grandmaster

  I pass through the gate and into the temple’s court-yard. In front of me is a large open square of gray gravel. On the other side is the temple – a tall wooden pagoda with a spire that pokes out of the top like a spear. To my left there’s a beautiful rock garden, a mountain stream flowing through it and into a pond.

  The place looks empty. But I know the Grandmaster is waiting for me inside the temple.

  As I’m about to step onto the gravel, I quickly pull my foot back.

  I almost forgot. I must be nervous. This was how I failed my first attempt. The gravel is there to test a ninja’s stealth-walking skills. The Grandmaster heard me crunching across the court-yard before I even got close to the temple.

  I take three deep breaths to calm myself and I start again. Just like Sensei Shima’s lesson, I point my lead foot and I place my toes down first. Bit by bit I step onto that foot, letting the side then the heel touch the ground. This way I make no sound.

  Half-way across, I head for the garden.

  I don’t want to make the same mistake I made on my second attempt. As the Grandmaster is blind, his sense of smell, as well as his hearing, is more sensitive. Last time he smelled the rich fertile earth of the paddy fields on my feet. This was another lesson in how to be invisible – a ninja must remove or cover up any smells that might give him away.

  I stand in the mountain stream to wash the dust off my feet. Beside me I see there’s a juniper bush. I remember the Grandmaster likes to burn juniper wood in the temple, so I pull off some leaves and rub them on my body. The plant’s woody smell hides all traces of my scent. Once my feet are dry, I stealth-walk across the rest of the court-yard.

  So far, so good.

  I enter the temple. Inside, the main hall is cool and dark. A polished wooden floor leads to steps and a platform where the shrine is. At the center of the temple, a bronze Buddha glistens in the light of two candles.

  In front of the shrine, on the platform, sits the Grandmaster.

  He is cross-legged on a cushion and his hands rest in his lap. He is so still he could be a statue. His face is old and wrinkled with a long gray beard. His eyes look straight at me, but see nothing.

  In the palm of his right hand is a blood-red flower.

  I creep across the room and am almost at the shrine’s steps, when I remember Cho’s warning.

  Watch out for that second step.

  I look closely at the step. There’s a row of pins sticking out of the wood. They weren’t there the last time.

  I climb onto the raised platform, jumping over the second step. In just a few more paces, I’ll reach the Grandmaster.

  I’m so focused on getting to him without making a sound that I almost don’t see the second trap. But a glimmer of light, like a spiderweb caught in the morning sun, alerts me to the danger. A thin cotton thread stretches across the room at ankle height. On one end is a little bell.

  I’m now glad for all Sensei Shima’s training. In lessons he’d make us walk through the forest looking closely at everything we passed to spot any traps – rocks we could trip over at night, or bushes and trees in which the enemy might hide. He’d tell us, “It’s not what you look at, but what you see.”

  I step over the thread with great care and approach the Grandmaster. I can almost touch the flower and the Grandmaster still hasn’t moved.

  I stop for a split second. I can’t believe I’m about to earn my black belt. There must be another trap. But I can’t see one.

  Just as I reach for the flower, the Grandmaster grabs my hand and pain rockets through my body. My body freezes as he presses a nerve point in my wrist.

  The Grandmaster turns to me.

  “Never assume a man with no eyes cannot see.”

  Chapter 5

  A Lesson from an Ant

  “I’ll never be a ninja,” I say, and I hang my head low.

  “Your life is an unknown road,” replies the Grandmaster, as we walk along a stone path through the temple garden. “How can you be so sure?”

  “But without my black belt, I can’t go on a mission.”

  The Grandmaster turns his blind eyes upon me.

  “A black belt is nothing more than a belt that goes around your waist,” he says. “Being a black belt is a state of mind. When your mind is ready, then you’ll be a black belt.”

  “But I’ve failed three times,” I sigh.

  “Failure is success if you learn from it.”

  “So what did I do wrong?” I ask. “I avoided all your traps.”

  The Grandmaster smiles. “That you did. But you made three mistakes.”

  “Three!” I blurt out.

  “The first mistake was coming in through the door. A ninja must always never do what his enemy expects. Come from a different direction – the window, the roof, from behind or below. When you came through the door, your sound shadow gave you away.”

  “My sound shadow?”
I ask.

  The Grandmaster points to the sun, then to my darkened outline upon the ground. “Like the sun makes a shadow of your body, so it is with sound. As you passed through the door, you blocked the noise of the mountain stream. For a moment, the sound of running water became softer and I knew you had come.”

  “You noticed that?” I say, amazed.

  The Grandmaster nods. “Close your eyes. What do you hear?”

  “I hear the stream trickling and birds singing.”

  “Do you hear your own heart-beat?” he asks.

  “No.”

  “Do you hear the ant that is at your feet?”

  “No,” I reply. I look down and see an ant carrying a leaf across the path. “Grandmaster, how can you hear these things?”

  “Taka, how can you not?”

  I understand now the Grandmaster is teaching me an important lesson in how to look and listen. I must watch and listen to everything around me.

  “Your second mistake was not to match your breathing to my breathing,” the Grandmaster says.

  I don’t understand. “How would that make a difference?” I ask.

  “I could sense you as you got closer. You need to be in harmony with your target,” he explains. “Remember, for a ninja, a small error is as deadly as a big one. When you jump over a canyon it doesn’t matter if you get half-way or miss by an inch, you still fall to your death.”

  The Grandmaster drops his blood-red flower into the stream.

  As I watch it float away, he goes on, “Your third and final mistake was to let doubt enter your mind, to become unsure. At the last moment you stopped for a split second, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, Grandmaster,” I admit, and I bow my head in shame. “But I just didn’t think I could do it.”

  “Always believe in yourself,” the Grandmaster says firmly.

  “How can I, when I keep failing?”

  “Take your lesson from the ant,” replies the Grandmaster. He points to the insect still trying to drag the leaf across the stones. “Whatever the size of the task or the things in its way, the ant never gives up.”

  With a last tug, the ant pulls the leaf off the path and carries on with its journey through the grass.