The Ring of Earth Page 8

  For the second time that morning, Jack almost jumped out of his skin. How on earth had Hanzo crept up on him like that? For a brief moment, he thought the boy had cheated. But Hanzo’s trouser legs were clearly wet.

  Shaking his head in disbelief, Jack crossed the brook for his attempt. Sinking into a low back stance just as Miyuki had done, Jack lifted his front foot and took a step. His toes touched the ground, but as the rest of his foot made contact there was a sharp snap of a twig.

  ‘Heard you!’ said Hanzo. ‘Try again.’

  Miyuki gave Jack a sorry shake of the head.

  ‘You need to feel with your toes first,’ observed Soke. ‘Then transfer your weight little by little. That way you can stop if you begin to make a sound.’

  Jack warily tested the ground ahead. He edged slowly across the glade, the other ninja passing in silent speed. Halfway across, his leg muscles began to ache. He wasn’t used to such painstaking movement. As he entered the long grass, Jack lost his balance and his lead leg brushed against the seed heads.

  ‘Heard you!’ cried Hanzo. ‘Last chance.’

  Jack now felt the pressure. Everyone else was watching him. Concentrating on each foot placement, Jack somehow managed to reach the stream without further mishap. But as soon as he stepped into the water, he made a loud splash.

  ‘Heard you again!’ said Hanzo, turning round. ‘You’re not very good for a tengu, are you?’

  ‘Tengu are better at flying,’ Jack retorted, much to the amusement of the others.

  ‘It wasn’t bad for a first attempt,’ said Soke. ‘Shinobi aruki takes time to master. Practise your stealth-walking in the paddy fields every day until you can cross them without making a single ripple.’

  Soke now summoned all the students into a circle.

  ‘However refined your stealth techniques are, sometimes you’ll be discovered. Other times you may need to deliver information quickly. In those instances, escape running is essential. This is where we combine the Ring of Wind and the Ring of Water. Not only must you run fast, but you have to avoid and overcome obstacles. So I’m going to split you into teams of three and set you a challenge.’

  Soke put Jack in a group with Tenzen and Miyuki, much to her annoyance.

  ‘The first team to get back to the village is the winner,’ declared Soke. ‘But you cannot use the road. For the purpose of this exercise, it’s patrolled by samurai. That means your route must be through the forest. You’ll encounter a number of barriers on the way. Use teamwork and jumping skills to get past these.’

  The students readied themselves.

  ‘You’d better fly fast, tengu,’ cried Hanzo. ‘We’re going to beat you!’

  ‘Big talk for a small boy,’ shot back Tenzen on his team’s behalf.

  Miyuki turned to Jack and whispered, ‘I hope you run better than you walk. I don’t like losing.’

  ‘Neither do I,’ replied Jack, her comment rousing his samurai spirit.

  Miyuki scowled at him, but had no opportunity to reply.

  ‘You’ve been discovered,’ announced Soke. ‘Escape!’

  17

  DRAGON BREATHING

  The ninja students charged out of the glade.

  Jack was soon left behind by Tenzen and Miyuki. They flew through the forest, bounding over logs and weaving between trees like young deer. Jack was fit, but not as amazingly agile as these ninja. He had to clamber over a fallen tree his two partners had jumped in a single leap. The dense undergrowth clawed at his clothes, while Tenzen and Miyuki appeared to glide through unscathed.

  ‘Keep up, samurai!’ demanded Miyuki.

  Jack, his heart pounding in his chest, raced after them. He sensed a couple of the teams were trailing behind them, but he needed to prove he was as good as the best of the ninja. Putting on a burst of speed, he pursued his receding team members.

  ‘Ditch!’ warned Tenzen.

  Jack jumped, only seeing it at the last second.

  But he didn’t leap far enough. His foot missed the far side, he slipped and tumbled to the ground. Thankfully, his taijutsu training kicked in. Throwing out an arm to protect himself, Jack rolled to his feet in one fluid motion. He was up and running before he’d even registered the fall.

  Glancing back, Tenzen gave Jack an approving nod at his ukemi skills.

  The next obstacle they encountered was the valley’s river. Too wide for them to leap across unaided, the ninja were using long staves and vaulting it. Miyuki was already on the other side.

  ‘Come on!’ she called, tossing Jack a pole.

  Jack hesitated. He’d never done this before.

  ‘I’ll show you,’ said Tenzen.

  Taking the pole, he ran at the river. As he reached the bank, Tenzen buried the tip of the stave into the middle of the waterway and leapt high into the air. He flew up and over, vaulting to the opposite side where he landed lightly upon his feet.

  ‘Your turn!’ he said, throwing the pole back.

  Plucking up his courage, Jack gripped the wooden stave and lifted it off the ground. He charged towards the river, driving the pole into the water. But he hadn’t counted on the pull of the current. As he buried the tip into the riverbed, the pole was yanked off-line. Too late to correct his mistake, he launched himself and hoped for the best.

  Jack soared into the air, then lost all momentum.

  For a moment, he hung suspended over the river. Then, like a felled tree, he slowly toppled sideways into the water with a loud splash. Jack came up gasping and swam hard for the opposite bank. Miyuki didn’t bother waiting for him.

  ‘You’ll never cross a moat like that,’ said Tenzen, dragging him out of the river. ‘Next time, throw your body weight forward as you jump.’

  Bedraggled, Jack clambered to his feet as Tenzen ran on.

  Jack eventually caught up with them both at a small rock face. It was the perfect natural barrier for the village further up the valley. The Ring of Earth in action, thought Jack.

  One of the teams was already at the top, Hanzo waving at him.

  ‘Fly, tengu, fly!’

  Jack couldn’t believe it. The boy wasn’t only an expert at stealth-walking, he was fast too. Then Hanzo disappeared with his team.

  The other ninja groups were at various stages in the climb. Miyuki was halfway up, Tenzen not far behind. Jack realized this was his chance to prove himself. All his years as a rigging monkey would pay off once again. Throwing himself at the rock face, Jack clambered hand over hand with practised ease. He soon levelled with Tenzen and then, to Miyuki’s utter astonishment, passed her too.

  At the top, Jack turned round and waited, taking the opportunity to catch his breath.

  ‘Gruelling, isn’t it?’ commented Shiro, the boy who’d laughed at Jack’s earlier attempt to conceal himself. He was waiting for the last of his team to join him. ‘Soke does this every glade lesson. I don’t know why we can’t just walk back for once.’

  ‘That wouldn’t be any fun!’ said Kobei, clambering over the lip.

  Shiro rolled his eyes at the boy, then ran on.

  Noticing Miyuki haul herself up the last few metres, Jack offered his hand. But she ignored the gesture. Tenzen, however, clasped Jack’s outstretched arm and pulled himself alongside.

  ‘There’s ninja blood in you!’ he said, grinning. ‘I’ve never seen anyone climb that fast.’

  ‘Let’s go!’ interrupted Miyuki. ‘We’ve still two teams ahead of us.’

  Running on, they emerged from the woods and out on to open grassland. The village was now in sight at the top of a long slope. Jack could see the other teams not far ahead. Tenzen and Miyuki broke into a sprint, determined to catch them. Jack did his best to keep up, but he soon lagged behind. He simply couldn’t maintain the ninja’s pace. For every step he took, they seemed to take two.

  Miyuki forged on. But Tenzen, noticing Jack struggle, dropped back.

  ‘Try Dragon Breathing,’ he suggested.

  ‘What’s that?’ gasped Jack.
/>
  ‘It’s a secret cyclic breathing pattern. Follow my rhythm. Inhale – exhale – exhale – inhale – exhale – inhale – inhale – exhale. Repeat.’

  Jack copied Tenzen. It took him a few tries, but as soon as he got the hang of it, the running immediately became easier. More air reached his lungs and the process focused his mind. Now he seemed to fly up the slope. The Way of the Ninja certainly contained some surprisingly effective techniques.

  They passed Shiro’s team and powered on to the village, neck-and-neck with Hanzo’s group. But there was still one more obstacle to go – a high boundary hedge. Miyuki was beside it, ready to boost them over.

  ‘Come on, Jack!’ she cried encouragingly.

  With victory in sight, Miyuki had apparently put aside her malice towards him.

  If we win this, Jack thought, I may just win her over too.

  Jack sprinted up to Miyuki, put his foot in her hands and she threw him high into the air. Only as he passed over the top, did he register the devious grin on Miyuki’s face.

  But by then it was too late.

  18

  BLOWING ZEN

  ‘Always look before you leap!’ said Miyuki, peering over the hedge with an expression of utmost innocence.

  Unable to stop his descent, Jack had landed face first in the village manure heap. As he floundered in the rotting compost, he heard the arriving ninja teams burst into laughter. Jack was fuming – though more with himself at trusting a ninja like Miyuki. Now he was a laughing stock.

  Tenzen nimbly jumped over the hedge, suppressing a grin as Jack wiped dung from his eyes.

  ‘Every new ninja falls for that old trick,’ he said, offering Jack a helping hand

  Jack swallowed back his pride. He couldn’t allow Miyuki to think she’d got under his skin.

  ‘An old and rather dirty trick!’ he replied, to which Tenzen laughed good-naturedly.

  ‘Think yourself lucky,’ shouted Miyuki, her face creased with amusement. ‘I was going to put thorns in, just to make a point!’

  ‘I don’t think Miyuki likes me very much,’ commented Jack through gritted teeth.

  ‘It’s not you,’ replied Tenzen under his breath. ‘She just doesn’t like samurai. Being born in the winter, she was named “Beautiful Snow”. But sometimes Miyuki can be as cold as her name. She’ll thaw given time.’

  ‘I hope so,’ replied Jack, taking a look at his manure-covered clothes with disgust.

  ‘Miyuki taught you a good lesson. Another time it could be a pit, a moat or even some samurai’s spear. You’ll never make that mistake again.’

  Jack had to agree. He’d also be far more wary of Miyuki in future. Flashing her a breezy smile to show he could take a joke, he headed back to the river to wash himself down, while the other students returned to their homes for the day’s chores.

  Despite immersing himself several times, Jack still couldn’t shift the acrid tang of manure from his hair. He reckoned it would be a day or so before that faded, though the embarrassment of the prank would linger on far longer. He’d already heard Miyuki nicknaming him ‘the Smelly Samurai’. Not that the name-calling bothered him that much. He’d suffered far worse at the Niten Ichi Ryū. His class rival Kazuki, along with his Scorpion Gang, had taken particular pleasure in persecuting him for being a foreigner. But at the samurai school Jack had had his friends to turn to. Here, among the ninja, he was alone.

  As he made his way back to Soke’s house, Jack heard a haunting, soulful sound drift through the air. His curiosity roused, Jack followed its plaintive song across the open grassland and into the trees that bordered the valley’s mountains. Reaching a steep slope, he found a narrow pathway winding up the valley side towards the sound’s source.

  Jack climbed, rising above the treeline, until he arrived at a cave that looked out over the valley in the direction of the village. Inside he found Soke, cross-legged before a Shinto shrine, playing a long bamboo flute. A slow languid melody rose and fell in time with his breathing, echoing off the walls to create a never-ending waterfall of sound. The old man’s eyes were closed and he appeared lost in meditation.

  Jack sat down at the cave’s entrance and waited patiently for Soke to finish. He studied the old man, his wrinkled timeworn features at odds with his role as a deadly ninja Grandmaster. Yet again Jack wondered why Soke was so committed to helping him.

  The Grandmaster put down his flute. ‘This shrine is in honour of our mountain god, Yama-no-kami,’ he explained, as if he’d been expecting Jack. ‘I play to appease him.’

  ‘Your god should be very happy then,’ replied Jack. ‘It sounded like an angel singing.’

  ‘I appreciate your compliment, but there are far better players than me,’ said Soke, humbly bowing his head. He held up his flute. ‘This is a shakuhachi,’ he explained. ‘Komusō, the Monks of Emptiness, use it as a spiritual tool to attain enlightenment. Have you practised meditation before?’

  Jack nodded. ‘Sensei Yamada taught us zazen.’

  ‘Well, this is the art of blowing Zen. Instead of sitting and contemplating a koan riddle, you focus on the playing of a song.’

  Soke reached behind and produced a second instrument. ‘You look like you’d benefit from some suizen.’

  Passing Jack the flute, he taught him to hold it vertically like a recorder. Then he showed Jack how to position his fingers over the five pitch holes.

  ‘You blow across the top of the flute like this,’ he instructed, placing his lips at right angles to one end of the bamboo. A clear note sang out. ‘By changing the angle, you can also change the sound.’

  Jack wet his lips, placed them against the flute and exhaled. The instrument squealed like a strangled bird.

  ‘Don’t blow so hard,’ said Soke, suppressing a grin. ‘Gently, as if trying to move a feather.’

  Taking another breath, Jack tried again. This time the flute gave out an unsteady but tuneful note.

  ‘Good. I’ll teach you a basic honkyoku. This song is called “Hifumi hachi gaeshi”. It’s a favourite of the Komusō. They play it when begging for alms.’

  Settling himself into a comfortable position upon the cave floor, Soke began a simple beseeching melody. Having performed the whole song, he then repeated the opening phrase several times, showing Jack the finger positions of each note.

  ‘Now you try.’

  Jack made a faltering attempt, but soon ran out of breath.

  ‘Focus on breathing from the belly, not the chest,’ advised Soke, ‘just as in normal meditation. The melody should flow as effortlessly as the air from your lips.’

  Jack spent the remainder of the morning practising the introduction to the song. As he played the tune over and over, his breathing extended and became more natural. He began to float with the melody. By the end, his mind was as calm and still as the midsummer day.

  ‘You’ve made excellent progress,’ Soke commended. ‘I’ll teach you the whole piece over the next few days.’

  ‘Thank you,’ replied Jack. ‘But what does this have to do with ninjutsu?’

  Soke raised his eyebrows, as if to say You tell me.

  Jack thought for a moment. ‘The Ring of Wind?’

  Soke smiled. ‘Exactly. Learning the flute has other advantages besides meditation for a ninja. As you’ll have discovered, it helps you control and extend your breathing. Which is what my next lesson is about.’

  On cue, the other students began to turn up. They sat in a semi-circle at the entrance to the cave, overlooking the valley.

  ‘There you are!’ exclaimed Hanzo, taking his place beside Jack. ‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere.’

  Miyuki sat as far from him as possible, on the opposite side of the semi-circle. Next to her, Shiro began to sniff the air and wave his hand in front of his nose. This encouraged a round of sniggering. Rather than ignore it, Jack played along. He sniffed the air too, then pointed at Hanzo and held his nose, grimacing at the supposed stink. This caused more amusement. At this point Ha
nzo farted and the whole class erupted into laughter.

  Soke, grinning too, held up his hand for silence. ‘A good laugh is like manure – it doesn’t do any good until you spread it around. But we should make a start. Now that Jack’s been initiated, I trust you’ll all support him in his training.’

  The gathered students gave a courteous bow in Jack’s direction. His good-natured acceptance of the joke seemed to have won him some support. Miyuki, however, kept her eyes on Jack as she bowed, challenging his presence. She wasn’t so willing to accept him.

  ‘This morning we focused on concealment and escape,’ Soke continued. ‘But hiding isn’t only about not being seen, it’s about not being heard.’

  ‘Or smelt!’ Shiro added.

  Soke shot him a disapproving look and the boy offered a half-hearted bow of apology in return. ‘On occasion, a ninja must be able to hold their breath for a long time. You might have to conceal yourself close to your target and the sound of your breathing could give you away. Other times you might be forced to stay underwater, or even feign death. Breath control is a subtle but crucial ninja skill.’

  Jack listened intently. Having experienced the power of Dragon Breathing, he was eager to learn other ninja tricks.

  ‘In order to hold your breath for a long time, begin by breathing in and out slowly and deeply from the belly,’ explained Soke, demonstrating a long drawn-out inhalation and exhalation. ‘Clear your lungs completely, then take a large gulp of air and hold it.’

  A few of the students copied Soke, Shiro looking as if he was about to explode.

  ‘How many times have I told you?’ said the Grandmaster despairingly. ‘Don’t take in so much that you’re straining.’

  Shiro let out his breath in one big whoosh.

  Soke, ignoring the boy, continued with his instruction. ‘You need to relax every muscle in your body. Combine this with meditation, slowing down your heartbeat, and it’s possible to hold your breath for several minutes.’

  Jack was astounded by this revelation. When he and Akiko had escaped Osaka Castle by swimming through a well tunnel, he’d barely managed a minute and had almost died drowning. Only Akiko’s kiss of life-giving oxygen had saved him.