with the hiring and use of ninja, genin ninja became especially sensitive, always suspicious of all persons, jonin, chunin, and lord alike, and became extremely watchful of all personal contacts, even within their own group.
Ordinary townsfolk considered the ninja as social outcasts, and Samurai warriors looked down upon them as traitorous cowards. Since they were regarded as a pariah class and considered as something less than human, ninja who were captured by warriors usually suffered a horrible death. They might be boiled alive in oil, or have their skin slowly peeled from their bodies.
One particular method of killing a captured ninja was designed to produce a lingering pain and slow death. It consisted of suspending him, having been tightly bound on a wooden frame, over a sharpened bamboo stake. The victim was positioned as though seated in the air with his legs straight and widely stretched; the frame kept the victim from changing his position. The entire load, ninja and frame, was made to hang directly over the stake. When the rope holding the load became wet it elongated and the ninja would slowly be inched downward, anus first, onto the sharp point.
At first a clever ninja might somehow oscillate himself so as to avoid the stake, but as hunger and fatigue set in, his struggles would prove useless. Morning fogs, rains, and heavy dews served to wet the rope sufficiently, but if such natural phenomena did not occur, the ninja's captors would apply water.
Such barbarous treatment helped to make it a common practice for ninja to kill themselves when capture was imminent by taking virulent poisons or stabbing themselves with their own swords. The ninja also disfigured their faces so that they might not be recognized and the source of their ninjutsu traced. A ninja who had been bound would take his own life by simply biting off his tongue, thus producing a fatal hemorrhage.
NINJA OPERATIONS
Ninja could be dispatched to operate in one or more combinations of five ways: (1) native, (2) inside, (3) living, (4) doubled, and (5) expendable.
The “native” agent was a person of the enemy's regional area who had full knowledge of the customs and geography of that area. Such a ninja was most difficult to sustain inasmuch as his features were well known by the local folk and the enemy warriors. Inside agents were ninja recruited from among the enemy's own officials and personnel. These traitors were chosen from among those who had been deprived of wealth or title, or those who were overly desirous of gaining immediate wealth.
“Living” agents were ninja expected to penetrate the enemy's area, complete their missions, and return to the lord employing them. These men were the most highly trained and clever of ninja. They usually had access to the enemy's area and were not known to be ninja.
The “doubled” agent was an enemy ninja whose loyalty had been switched, by bribes, to a new lord. While they continued in the service of their original lord, they were traitors to his cause. “Expendable” agents were sent, usually unknown to themselves, with false information on their person and into missions which ensured their capture by the enemy.
Not all ninja were known for changeable loyalties. Many were devoted to one warlord and served him with distinction. These ninja were indeed men of courage and though they did not enjoy the social status of the privileged aristocratic warrior, in many respects they equaled the latter in bravery, loyalty, and fighting skill.
CHAPTER 2
Training and Skills
A child, either male or female, born into a professional ninja family was expected to carry on the family tradition. Training began at the age of five or six years and was carried out for the remainder of the person's natural life. Five kinds of exercises characterized this training: those of balance, agility, strength, stamina, and various special skills.
One of the first exercises given to youthful trainees was designed to develop a keen sense of balance. A small tree was felled and its branches cut off. The remaining log was placed horizontally about two or three feet off of the ground. Trainees were made to “walk the beam”, to turn around on it, to lower themselves, to sit, to rise, even to jump and turn around on it, all without losing balance and falling to the ground.
As skill in maintaining balance grew, the trainee was made to repeat the exercises at greater heights until no fear of high places was felt and he or she was capable of performing incredible feats of balance. One day such a skill would serve the ninja well as he inched his way along narrow areas high on walls, roofs, or in trees.
Balance training in youth.
Training for agility began by making young hopefuls leap over a kind of rope which was suspended between two uprights in full view of the trainee. The nature of the material from which the rope was constructed made this exercise a bit more difficult and dangerous than simply high jumping over a slack rope. A kind of hemp vine that was covered with prickly thorns was used as the rope. Should the rope be touched in flight over it, its thorns would cause severe lacerations and profuse bleeding.
At an advanced level of skill with this exercise, trainees would in the course of other exercises suddenly come upon this rope, which had been stretched in dark or hidden places. Mastery of this exercise laid the basis for the ninja's skill in clearing obstacles that could not be avoided except by jumping over them.
One of the most classic training exercises used for the development of stamina was one that also produced the ability to run swiftly. Ninja had to be superior runners, not only to elude pursuers, but to carry important intelligence, which they had gathered, back to their superiors. All young trainees became familiar with both speed and distance running before they reached their teens.
A special type of straw hat was used to indicate the proper speed of running, simply by placing the hat on the chest as the runner sprinted along. If the runner's speed remained sufficient, the hat would remain stuck to the runner's chest by the force of the wind. A trainee who could maintain this level of speed for long distances developed great stamina. It is reported that ninja were capable of running as much as 50 miles without stopping. Longer distances were usually covered by a series of runners who worked in relays. To some extent stamina determined the ability of ninja to run and walk silently. Terrain conditions also affected this, for it takes different techniques to move silently on surfaces such as loose sand, leaves, wet grass, and hard-packed dirt areas. But breath control entered all methods of running and walking and a ninja learned to hold his body in a peculiar “shoulder shrugged high position” which allowed the optimum intake of air and lessened fatigue and heavy panting.
If a ninja combined walking and running techniques it was possible for him to cover in excess of 100 miles per day, a great tribute to his stamina.
All ninja were aware of the necessity of developing maximum body strength. Training for strength began early and one basic method required a trainee to hang suspended from an overhanging bough using only a double-hand grasp to do so. The older the trainee, the higher he would hang, some 30 to 50 feet being common. A fully trained ninja was expected to hang in this fashion, motionless, for about one hour.
To every intent and purpose the exercise was also a mental one by which a strong will, resistant to pain, could be developed, though physical benefits centered on the strengthening of fingers, wrists, arms, and shoulders. This ability later gave the ninja confidence in his ability to hang motionless among dense foliage even while his enemies camped directly below him.
Endurance training in youth.
SPECIAL SKILLS OF THE NINJA
It was the category of special skills that marked the ninja out as a near super-human person. No training or technique that might prove useful to him in his profession was overlooked.
In his youth the ninja made special preparations to develop a unique body. Then, when bones were soft and ligatures and tendons pliable, he learned to stretch and manipulate his joints so that he might dislocate them, under control, from their normal positions. This strange skill came into good