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Jack listened hard for the slightest indication of an approaching assassin, but he could only hear the swish of leaves high up in the canopy and the creaking of bamboo. He retreated back into the tightly knit grove of stems for cover. As he did, there was a tiny phut sound and a thin dart struck the bamboo directly in front of his face.

Jack hunched down lower. Peering between the stems, he desperately searched for the source of the poisoned darts. But the attacker was too well hidden.

Hearing the sound of another bird taking flight, he glanced up and this time saw two dark-green shapes. Dressed in green shinobi shozoku, the ninja blended perfectly with their surroundings as they leapt cat-like between the uppermost stems of the forest to get a better fix on Jack.

Gripping the bamboo with their legs, the two ninja raised their blowpipes and fired.

3

THE THIRD NINJA

Jack bolted from his hiding place as the darts struck the bamboo grove on either side of him.

Keeping his head low, he weaved in between the stems. He heard several more darts pierce the bamboo as he fled.

But he didn’t look back.

He hit the forest track and ran for his life.

Eventually he slowed down, checking the canopy above and behind him. It was difficult to tell but it appeared he’d given the two ninja the slip. Jack hurried back in the direction of the village, worried that Akiko might also be in danger.

Out of nowhere, a ninja dropped like a panther in front of him.

Jack held up his improvised bamboo sword and prepared to defend himself.

The ninja calmly raised his hands.

But not in surrender. Both palms were armed with metal claws. The ninja’s shuko were used to aid climbing, but also proved lethal weapons, their four curved spikes capable of ripping through flesh and lacerating any enemy.

Jack didn’t wait. He struck first.

The ninja didn’t even flinch as the stem cut down towards his head.

Then inexplicably Jack’s arms came to an abrupt halt.

Glancing up, Jack saw that his improvised sword had collided with an overhanging bamboo stem. A long weapon was useless in such confined surroundings.

The ninja hissed and, in the blink of an eye, he swiped with his claws, catching both of Jack’s outstretched arms. Jack grimaced as eight bloody lines were scored into his skin, forcing him to drop the piece of bamboo.

Ignoring the pain, Jack front-kicked the assassin in the chest.

The ninja, not expecting such a powerful and rapid kick from a mere boy, was thrown backwards into a clump of bamboo. Jack followed up with a jumping side-kick, but the ninja leapt above it and shot up the bamboo stem like a monkey.

Jack, recalling his own days as a rigging monkey on-board the Alexandria, grabbed hold of the bamboo as if it were a mast and clambered after the ninja. He pursued the assassin high into the canopy, astounding the ninja with his unexpected agility and confidence at climbing. The ninja fled.

Jack jumped from stem to stem after him.

At this height, the bamboo was green and flexible and Jack swayed towards his enemy. He caught him hard in the gut with a front kick. The ninja lost his grip under the force of the blow, crying out as he tumbled through the leaves to the ground far below.

The ninja lay motionless, sprawled in the thicket, one leg twisted at an impossible angle, and Jack breathed a sigh of relief.

He began to drop back down, when the second ninja suddenly emerged out of the foliage below him, brandishing a sword. Jack heard a sharp crack as the ninja sliced through the stem he was holding on to.

Jack plummeted towards the earth, the wind whistling past his ears. His hands grabbed blindly for anything to break his fall. Somehow he caught hold of another stem, but this bamboo was young and bent under his weight. He continued to fall. The bamboo finally gave way and snapped. Gravity took hold and Jack dropped like a stone for the last five metres.

The impact knocked all the breath out of him.

As he lay