They emerged from the shadows: three of them, clad in dark shinobi shozoku , their faces wrapped in crimson scarves. The leader, a hulking brute named Kuro, carried a nodachi—a greatsword no ninja should have been able to wield silently.
He slid the door open.
Kaito’s heart became a stone. He had trained for this moment ten thousand times. He had starved himself on mountaintops. He had meditated beneath frozen waterfalls. He had killed forty-seven men to stand here. And yet, the words still cut deeper than any blade. the ninja assassin
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. They emerged from the shadows: three of them,