Hidden Skills
Taro lived in a small village in Japan. By day, he worked in his family’s small shop selling tea. He was quiet and polite to everyone. The village people thought he was just a normal young man.
But Taro had a secret. At night, he became someone else. When darkness came, he put on black clothes and a mask. He was a ninja – a shadow warrior. His grandfather taught him since he was a little boy. Now, he was very good at moving without sound and climbing walls.
The village was having problems. Bad men were stealing from shops at night. The police could not catch them. Every morning, more shops found their windows broken and money gone.
Taro knew he had to help, but he could not tell anyone about his skills. A ninja must keep their identity secret. He decided to watch the village at night from the rooftops. He would use his ninja skills to find the thieves and stop them.
Night Watch
That night, Taro climbed to the highest roof in the village. The cool wind felt good on his face. He sat very still and watched the streets below. Most houses were dark. Everyone was sleeping.
Around midnight, Taro saw something move near the big store. Three men with bags were walking quietly toward the back door. They had tools to break the lock. Taro moved quickly from roof to roof, making no sound. He got closer to watch them.
The men broke the lock and went inside the store. Taro waited. He needed to be smart about this. When the men came out with bags full of things, Taro threw small stones at the street lights. The lights broke, and everything went dark.
The thieves were scared and confused. They could not see anything. But Taro could see in the dark – this was part of his ninja training. He moved like a shadow and took the bags from their hands. They tried to catch him, but he was too fast.
Village Hero
In the morning, the village people found something strange. All the stolen things were in front of the police station with a note: “From the Shadow Warrior.” The thieves were tied up next to the items, still looking confused about what happened.
The police were happy to catch the thieves, but everyone wondered who the Shadow Warrior was. The story was in the local newspaper. People in the village talked about it for days. Who was this person who helped them?
Taro listened to their stories as he worked in the tea shop. He smiled a little but said nothing. An old man who came for tea every day looked at Taro with curious eyes.
“You seem happy today,” the old man said.
“It’s a good day,” Taro answered. “The village is safe now.”
The old man nodded and drank his tea. Maybe he knew something, but like Taro, he understood that some secrets must stay hidden. A ninja’s greatest power is that no one knows who they really are.