The Iga clan and the Kouga clan have been sworn enemies for more than four hundred years. Only the Hanzo Hattori truce has kept the two families from all-out war. Now, under the order of Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa, the truce has finally been dissolved. Ten ninja from each clan must fight to the death in order to determine who will be the next Tokugawa Shogun. The surviving clan will rule for the next thousand years. But not all the clan members are in agreement. Oboro of the Iga clan and Gennosuke of the Kouga clan have fallen deeply in love. Now these star-crossed lovers have been pitted against each other. Can their romance conquer a centuries old rivalry? Or is their love destined to end in death?
Thanks to the machinations of the Ieyasu Tokugawa, the ageold truce between the Kouga and the Iga clans is no more–and now a fight to the death will decide which clan reigns supreme. Oboro has blinded herself in order to avoid having to kill Gennosuke, her lover and her rival. Meanwhile, Gennosuke has urged the Iga clan to join him on a journey to Sunpu to find out the real motives behind Ieyasu Tokugawa’s orders to fight. But the Iga has other plans. The hirsute Nenki and the butterflywielding Hotarubi rush to assassinate Gennosuke, while Tenzen has sinister intentions for a defenseless Oboro. The epic battle of blood and betrayal continues! From the Trade Paperback edition.