1 The Meet

The sun was setting on the village of Katso. People were hurrying back to their homes as the nights were not safe under the constant threat if bandits and demons who roamed the streets of Katso at night and preyed on anyone they could get their hands on.People asked Shinto's blessings and strength to get through a night.

Eiako Matashi sat on the rooftop of his palace and enjoyed the evening.To him the scurrying of people to their homes was as amusing as the scurrying of birds from a hunter.In fact it was he who was the real demon of the town.He was a shogun and ruled the village by orders of the grand Emperor.But he was not there just to enjoy the evening.He was there to meet someone. Someone he had business with.

But that someone was late.He should have been here fifteen minutes ago but there was no sign of him yet.Eiako yawned and was about to leave the rooftop when suddenly a hand grasped him from behind and before he could react,a sharp blade slices across his eyes and just like that he had lost the top half of hos head.The assassin stuffed something in his mouth and swiftly and professionally tied his hands behind him.Eiako did not die at once.The assassin had left his lower brain intact to let him perceive the pain and then left him to die from bleeding.He know it would hours before he would be dead.He cut the shogun's legs with two whips of his silver katana to save him the trouble of tying them up.Then he left.The whole fiesta tool no more than three minutes.Assasim jumped from this rooftop to the next without making a single sound and then disappeared in the dark of the night.

The assassin was Kao Kashio,the run away ninja from the Lii tribe of ninjas.Eiako was to meet a Lii ninja but to his misfortune,Kao got there. before the ninja.Kao sat there behind a boulder on the next rooftop and waited for the Lii ninja to arrive.He waited for about an hour when he he heard the whooshing of a ninja jumping from rooftop to rooftop.Ninja wore special shoes which made their footsteps so quiet they were not audible but whooshing sound of air as a ninja cut through it was always a sign of ninja presence but it was a secret only ninja knew.

The newly arrived ninja landed on Eiako's rooftop and the whooshing on the air silenced.Kao leaned and saw the ninja standing over the shogun's writhing body.He grunted as if asking the ninja for help.But Kao knew the ninja wouldn't help him.It was against the ninja code to help a dying man.The ninja were to kill when ordered and not save lives.

Kao expected the ninja to leave and give the news to the Lii genins,the chiefs of the ninja tribes.He leaned again to take a look and was surprised to see the ninja sitting beside the dying man.He was puzzled.What is this ninja doing?Then he saw a sai glitter in the moonlight.The ninja put Eiako down with a sudden stab of sai in his heart.Kao was so immersed in watching the ninja that he didn't hear the group of ninjas sneak up on him from behind.