Free Ninja by Chris Bradford Page B

nervous.
    â€œWhat if I fail again?” I ask Cho.
    â€œDon’t worry, it took me two attempts,” she replies.
    â€œBut this is my
third
!”
    Cho stops and looks at me. “I’ll tell you a secret. As strong and skillful as Renzo is, it took him
five
attempts to get his black belt – not the two he brags about.”
    This news makes me feel better. But I’m still worried about my chances.
    We climb a long flight of stone steps that lead up to a huge wooden gate. Cho stops before the temple entrance.
    â€œI’ll meet you later in the village,” she says. “Aren’t you going on the mission?” I ask.
    Cho shakes her head.
    â€œBut I thought all the ninja were going?” I say.
    â€œI’ve been chosen by the Grandmaster for a special task,” she tells me before she heads back down the steps. As I pluck up the courage to enter the temple, she calls out, “Good luck! And watch out for that second step.”

Chapter 4
    Grandmaster
    I pass through the gate and into the temple’s court-yard. In front of me is a large open square of gray gravel. On the other side is the temple – a tall wooden pagoda with a spire that pokes out of the top like a spear. To my left there’s a beautiful rock garden, a mountain stream flowing through it and into a pond.
    The place looks empty. But I know the Grandmaster is waiting for me inside the temple.
    As I’m about to step onto the gravel, I quickly pull my foot back.
    I almost forgot. I must be nervous. This was how I failed my first attempt. The gravel is there to test a ninja’s stealth-walking skills. The Grandmaster heard me crunching across the court-yard before I even got close to the temple.
    I take three deep breaths to calm myself and I start again. Just like Sensei Shima’s lesson, I point my lead foot and I place my toes down first. Bit by bit I step onto that foot, letting the side then the heel touch the ground. This way I make no sound.
    Half-way across, I head for the garden.
    I don’t want to make the same mistake I made on my second attempt. As the Grandmaster is blind, his sense of smell, as well as his hearing, is more sensitive. Last time he smelled the rich fertile earth of the paddy fields on my feet. This was another lesson in how to be invisible – a ninja must remove or cover up any smells that might give him away.
    I stand in the mountain stream to wash the dust off my feet. Beside me I see there’s a juniper bush. I remember the Grandmaster likes to burn juniper wood in the temple, so I pull off some leaves and rub them on my body. The plant’s woody smell hides all traces of my scent. Once my feet are dry, I stealth-walk across the rest of the court-yard.
    So far, so good.
    I enter the temple. Inside, the main hall is cool and dark. A polished wooden floor leads to steps and a platform where the shrine is. At the center of the temple, a bronze Buddha glistens in the light of two candles.
    In front of the shrine, on the platform, sits the Grandmaster.
    He is cross-legged on a cushion and his hands rest in his lap. He is so still he could be a statue. His face is old and wrinkled with a long gray beard. His eyes look straight at me, but see nothing.
    In the palm of his right hand is a blood-red flower.
    I creep across the room and am almost at the shrine’s steps, when I remember Cho’s warning.
    Watch out for that second step.
    I look closely at the step. There’s a row of pins sticking out of the wood. They weren’t there the last time.
    I climb onto the raised platform, jumping over the second step. In just a few more paces, I’ll reach the Grandmaster.
    I’m so focused on getting to him without making a sound that I almost don’t see the second trap. But a glimmer of light, like a spiderweb caught in the morning sun, alerts me to the danger. A thin cotton thread stretches across the room at ankle height. On one end is a little