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  For half an hour the battle raged. Kingyo-Sama kicked, Buta-Sama flipped, but always the thief was too nimble. Until suddenly, seeing his enemies tire, Akira stopped and knelt. He held up his sword, signalling surrender.

  ‘I am defeated,’ he said.

  Akira took off his mask. Long dark hair tumbled to his shoulders. Kingyo-Sama and Buta-Sama gasped.

  He was not a he … but a she!

  ‘The Lady Kiko,’ whispered Kingyo-Sama. ‘The shōgun’s secret sister!’

  ‘Yes.’ Kiko nodded. ‘It is I.’

  ‘But why?’ asked Buta-Sama. ‘Why steal his cuddly teddy?’

  ‘Because once it was mine,’ said Kiko. ‘I’d had it since I was a baby. But when my brother became shōgun, I became his slave, and my possessions became his. All I had left was my teddy. But my brother wanted it for himself. So he banished me to the Desert of Shi (death) and left me there to die.’

  A single tear tumbled down her cheek.

  ‘And now you have come to take it back to him.’

  Buta-Sama and Kingyo-Sama hesitated. Finally both kowtowed.

  ‘I cannot take this bear from you,’ said Kingyo-Sama. ‘The laws of Bushidō forbid it. It is against the samurai code.’

  ‘I cannot take it either,’ Buta-Sama said, yawning. ‘My tummy’s rumbling and I need to have a nap.’

  Kiko looked up. She nodded. ‘You are both honourable men. Of course, if you do not take it, my brother will dangle you by your dongles in his deepest darkest dungeon. But men as brave as you will have no fear of that.’

  There was a moment’s pause. A bat scratched. A drop of water dripped.

  And then Kingyo-Sama and Buta-Sama dived for the bear.

  ‘It’s mine!’

  ‘It’s mine!’

  ‘It’s mine!’

  ‘It’s mine!’

  They bit, they kicked, they poked, they flicked, they scratched, snatched, scraped and scritched. Until finally, clothing ripped and topknot twisted, Kingyo-Sama grabbed the bear and raced out of the cave.

  ‘Noooooooo!’ shrieked Buta-Sama, panting in pursuit.

  Kiko watched them leave. ‘Idiots,’ she breathed. She had planned to lose the battle.

  ‘It’s over,’ Buta-Sama whimpered. ‘Kingyo-Sama cannot be caught. He runs too fast. His belly is too small.’

  They had been chasing the samurai for many hours. ‘You must get there before him,’ urged Little Pig.

  ‘How?’ wailed Buta-Sama. ‘He is many miles ahead!’

  Little Pig whispered in his ear. Buta-Sama grinned.

  ‘NINJA!’ he commanded. ‘LEND ME YOUR UNDERPANTS!’

  Kingyo-Sama staggered up the steps of Edo Castle. He crawled past the hatamoto and collapsed in front of the shōgun. ‘I have brought you back Oguma-za,’ he croaked.

  ‘Yippee!’ squealed the shōgun. ‘My snuggle-wuggles, my cuddly-wump, my fluffety wuffety scruff!’ He reached out to take his tiny teddy. ‘Kingyo-Sama of the samurai,’ he squeaked, ‘I hereby make you ruler of the –’

  ‘NOOOOO!’ shouted someone high above.

  Everyone looked up. There was something flying through the window. Was it a bird? Was it a plane?

  No. It was Buta-Sama, pinged by a stretchy Pant-a-Pult, all the way from Ku fu Canyon.

  He crashed to the ground, rolled to his feet and grabbed the bear’s left leg.

  ‘I found it too!’ he cried. ‘The prize belongs to me!’

  ‘You filthy fart-breathed fool,’ snarled Kingyo-Sama, tightening his grip. ‘The race is over. I won!’

  ‘It’s not over till I say it is!’ growled Buta-Sama, tugging on the teddy. Kingyo-Sama tugged right back.

  Oguma-za was torn in two.

  Everyone froze.

  The bear’s insides burst open.

  It was filled with stuffing and dust and …

  ‘ITCHING POWDER!’ screeched the shōgun.

  The shōgun was right. Itchy-scritchy powder sprayed across the room. It went up everyone’s sleeves. It slid down everyone’s underpants. Eyeballs bulged, cheeks went red. The hatamoto howled.

  ‘Arrest them!’ screamed the shōgun. ‘Tie them up! Burn their bums! Tickle their tiniest toes!’

  Kingyo-Sama and Buta-Sama raced from the room, a hundred hatamoto hot on their heels.

  They sprinted through the city. They scampered into the hills. ‘We didn’t do it! It wasn’t us!’ they whimpered as they ran.

  High on the castle battlements, a lone figure watched Kingyo-Sama and Buta-Sama run away. It was Kiko, dressed in black, a teddy tucked under her arm (the real Oguma-za).

  She watched them trip each other up. She watched them fall. She watched the hatamoto dive on top of them. She smiled. Then she rose to her feet, silent as the wind, and disappeared into the night.

  Deep underground, beneath the walls of Edo Castle, was a dark, dank dungeon.

  The walls were wet. Rats and spiders scurried in the shadows.

  It was cold and black and scary.

  In the centre of the room, two dirty figures swung from side to side, dangled by their toes from the ceiling.

  One was a ninja. The other was a samurai. Neither one of them looked pleased.

  The samurai turned to the ninja.

  ‘I will get you for this, brother Buta,’ he croaked. ‘Mark my words. One day soon, I will have my vengeance.’

  Glossary

  baka idiot

  Bushidō samurai code of honour

  buta pig

  Edo Period a time in Japanese history between the years 1603 and 1868

  fuan fear

  hatamoto shogun’s personal guard

  kamishimo a traditional outfit worn by samurai during the Edo Period

  kemushi hairy caterpillar

  kimono traditional Japanese dress

  konnichiwa hello

  ku fu terror

  mink-u-i buta ugly pig

  ninja a covert warrior from ancient Japan

  nodo no kingyo thirsty goldfish

  sama a mark of respect put after someone’s name, normally used for a person of great importance

  samurai Japanese warrior or knight

  sayonara goodbye

  shi death

  shinobi shōzoku traditional ninja outfit

  shōgun supreme military ruler of the Edo Period

  shuriken small-bladed weapon

  sumo a Japanese wrestler

  zetsubou despair

  Want more battles?

  Check out Samurai vs Ninja 1: The Battle for the Golden Egg

  OUT NOW

  Watch out for Samurai vs Ninja books 3 and 4 in July 2015!

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  Version 1.0

  Samurai vs Ninja 2: The Race for the Shōgun’s Treasure

  Copyright © Nicholas Falk 2015

  Illustration copyright © Tony Flowers 2015

  The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted.

  A Random House Australia book

  Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd

  Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060

  www.randomhouse.com.au

  Random House Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com

  First published by Random House Australia in 2015

  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry

  Author: Falk, Nic
holas

  Title: The race for the shōgun’s treasure [electronic resource]

  ISBN: 978 0 85798 637 5 (ebook)

  Series: Samurai vs ninja; 2

  Target Audience: For primary school age

  Subjects: Samurai – Juvenile fiction

  Ninja – Juvenile fiction

  Other Authors/Contributors: Flowers, Tony

  Dewey Number: A823.4

  Cover and internal illustrations by Tony Flowers

  Internal design by Tony Flowers

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