Ninja (4 page)

“An ant never gives up,” I reply. “
You
of all ninja should know that after
five
attempts.”

It takes Renzo a minute to work out what I mean but then his face goes red. His friends turn to him and it's clear they can't believe what they have just heard.

As Renzo tries to explain away his lie, Cho and I cross the court-yard to the temple. The Grandmaster is standing outside. We kneel before him and I hand over the Scrolls. He takes the precious box from me and puts a black belt in my hands in its place.

“But I didn't pass your test,” I say.

“The Scrolls were the test,” he answers with a smile. “And you passed.”

“But what if I'd failed?” I say. “Lord Oda would have all our secrets.”

“I knew you wouldn't fail,” the Grandmaster tells me. “This time you
believed
you'd pass. That is sometimes all it takes.”

The Grandmaster laughs. “Anyway, they weren't the real Scrolls.”

I stare at him in shock. “We risked our lives for fake Scrolls?”

The Grandmaster shakes his head. “Your mission was very important. I knew Lord Oda wanted the Scrolls. So I let him find them. However, I replaced the real ones with fakes.”

“So why send us to get them back?” I ask.

“If we didn't try to steal them back, Lord Oda would guess they were fake,” he explains, and I start to understand his cunning plan. “Now he thinks he knows our secrets. He thinks what he read in the Scrolls is true!”

The Grandmaster begins to laugh. “Lord Oda will think ninja can pass through walls like a ghost, transform into spiders, and even fly like a bird!”

Cho and I look at each other, and laugh.

“But
we
did!”

The End

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