The Ninja Assassin Page

Tonight, that child had become a reckoning.

The first Koga attacked—a spinning kick aimed at Kaito’s skull. Kaito flowed under it like water, driving the spike of his kusarigama into the man’s femoral artery. The second came low, a tanto thrust to the kidneys. Kaito twisted, caught the man’s wrist, and redirected the blade into the third Koga’s chest. In the space of a heartbeat, two were dead, and the third was screaming. the ninja assassin

For three years, the world believed the Iga were extinct, burned out of their mountain stronghold by the rival Koga clan. But Kaito had survived the fire. He had crawled from the ashes clutching his mother’s tanto blade, his ears still ringing with the screams of his sensei. The Koga had made one fatal error: they had left a child alive. Tonight, that child had become a reckoning

Two guards patrolled the eastern corridor, lanterns swaying. Kaito counted their heartbeats. One. Two. The chain flew. It wrapped around the first guard’s neck and, with a flick of Kaito’s wrist, snapped his vertebrae before he could gasp. Simultaneously, Kaito’s free hand threw a shuriken —a plain iron star—that embedded itself in the second guard’s throat. Both men fell in the same breath. Kaito caught the lanterns before they hit the ground, extinguishing the flames between his palm and the rain. The second came low, a tanto thrust to the kidneys

Kaito dropped from the roof. He landed in the courtyard’s koi pond without a splash—feet absorbing impact, body rolling into a crouch. The rain masked his scent; the thunder masked the whisper of his chain-sickle, the kusarigama , as it slid from his obi.

He raised the kusarigama . The chain began to swing in a slow, hypnotic circle.