In terms of information regarding the history of Sensei Karurosa, our last trip to Japan (Part 7) was quite fruitful. The trip to Nakamoto's mansion, along with the discovery of Karurosa's journal provided the information that allowed me to write parts 8, 9, & 10. Karurosa's journal was enormous, it took quite a long time to read through it. The following story details Sensei Karurosa's final journal entry.

Sensei Karurosa had a stunning bonsai garden in his backyard. There was shrubbery everywhere, a beautiful deck, a thriving vegetable garden, and a small pond loaded with gold and white koy fish. Karurosa spent a lot of time in his garden following the death of his wife Melissa. He found it quite relaxing, feeding his fish, trimming his trees. His daughter Melissa enjoyed the garden as well, she played a large role in its development.

Ever since the death of his wife, Karurosa had taken several precautions to secure his home and the safety of his daughter. He carried his wakizashi sword everywhere, even during simple tasks like feeding fish. Karurosa was always prepared. One preparation Karurosa had taken was to litter his property with motion detectors connected to silent alarms. These small alarms were placed in every room in his house, as well as his backyard.

One Friday night, around 9pm, Sensei Karurosa was in his garden, feeding his fish when the several monitors in the backyard started blinking. Karurosa was not expecting any company. He unsheathed his sword and entered his house through the sliding doors. As he made his way to the front door, the door was kicked open. Two men armed with automatic guns entered. Karurosa knew better then to run and they were just too far away to take out. Karurosa was forced to place his wakizashi on a coffee table and was told to keep his other deadly weapons, his hands, buried deep in his pockets.

What happened next shocked Karurosa. For who walked through the door was none other then Akira Akimoto! Akimoto had been sentenced to life in prison and had died in jail many years ago, or so Karurosa had thought.

"Hello old friend", said Akimoto. "It's been what, fifteen years? No wait, it's been fifteen years since I've been in this house, it's been twenty years since I last saw you. I guess you should have killed me when you had the chance, huh? What a pussy you are."

"I thought you were dead?" Karurosa asked.

"I am," replied Akimoto. "BOO! I'm getting an incredible feeling of déjà vu here, only this time there's three of us and we've got guns. And you don't look like you're gonna puke."

"Hey, nice veggie garden", Akimoto smirked, peering out the sliding doors. "Personally I'm a meat man, although your wife was a pretty tasty vegetable. I hear there's another Melissa around these days, why don't you call her out here."

"She's gone for the weekend," replied Karurosa.

"Sure she is" said Akimoto. Akimoto slowly walked towards Melissa's closed bedroom door. He kicked it open but the room was empty. A quick look under the bed and in the closet satisfied Akimoto that Melissa indeed was not home.

"Too bad she's not here," said Akimoto. "At least she'll be the one to find your bullet filled body, huh?

"So what, you're just going to shoot me?" asked Karurosa. "You seem like the kind of guy who'd want to have more fun than that. Why don't you go into my bedroom and grab that katana off the wall. I'll fight you unarmed."

Unlike Karurosa, Akimoto had never trained in the martial arts. He did own quite a weapons collection and occasionally swung a katana around but he was far from an expert. Still, the idea intrigued Akimoto.

"Fine", replied Akimoto, walking into the bedroom and grabbing the katana. (Note this was not THE katana; that one was on Karurosa's dojo office wall since the Big Joe incident).

"Only catch is that if you move, these guys will shoot you," laughed Akimoto.

Akimoto holstered his gun and held the huge sword in front on his body. His armed buddies stood at his side, a few feet away from Akimoto.

"You know you and I were born just one day apart? Yep, I'm one day younger than you. As of tomorrow though we'll both have lived the same number of days," said Akimoto.

With a big smile on his face he swung the katana over his right shoulder. It is at this moment that the lights in the house went out. Karurosa removed his hand from the keychain in his pocket, from where he had triggered the power shutdown, and launched himself forward.

His open left hand smashed into Akimoto's nose as he whirled around him, grabbing the shaft of the katana with his right hand. His left hand grabbed Akimoto's gun and threw it aside. Karurosa continued spinning around Akimoto, bringing the katana above his right shoulder as he spun to his left. His momentum carried him towards the armed man that had been stationed to Akimoto's right. The katana sliced deep into the thug's kidney section. He fell instantly into darkness.

The other man fired in Karurosa's direction but Karurosa had already moved back behind Akimoto who was hunched over holding his bloody face. Karurosa jumped forward, swinging his katana downward, slicing completely through the armed man's right wrist and almost through his left foreman. The small man dropped his gun, stumbling backward as Karurosa drove the tip of the katana into his stomach like a toothpick in a pineapple wedge.

Karurosa turned to see Akimoto running for the door. He chased Akimoto and a well placed kick in Akimoto's lower back drove him forward, smashing his already bloody face into the closed front door. Karurosa grabbed Akira's hair and dragged him back into the living area, pushing him up against one of the living room walls.

"Please" Akimoto pleaded, "I've got tons of money…"

Before Akimoto could finish Karurosa drove a wakizashi sword that he had taken off the wall above into Akimoto's upper right pectoral muscle, pinning him into the wall.

"That's for Ayumi!" Karurosa snarled, "and this is for Melissa!" he screamed as he drove another sword through the left of Akimoto's chest.

With Akimoto crying in pain, pinned against the wall, Karurosa turned and walked over to the coffee table. He picked up his favorite wakizashi sword, the same sword that had been knocked out his hand by one of the ninja clan members when he was just a child.

"And this is for me" he coldly whispered as he drove the sword directly into Akimoto's small heart.

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As mentioned in Part 9, when Basho Nakamoto was seventeen he joined the Yakuza, the Japanese Mob, and quickly worked his way up the ranks. When he was just eighteen he already had enough power to help an old family friend out. Five years ago, a former Yakuza member, Akira Akimoto, had been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of another prisoner. Akira had been like Basho's big brother, he had spent lots of time at all the ninja clan member's house but he probably spent the most time with Basho when they were growing up. Basho had hated his father, but he loved Akira.

Through the power of the Yakuza, Nakamoto was able to get Akira freed from jail despite his life sentence. Nakamoto had one condition that Akimoto had to agree to before he would get him released. And that was that Akimoto would not harm Karurosa in any way. Akimoto reluctantly agreed, he so much wanted to kill Karurosa but getting out of jail was worth the sacrifice. Akira "died" in a prison scuffle, his body cremated.

However, very soon after his release, Akimoto was given an opportunity to kill Karurosa without Nakamoto knowing. A new associate of the Yakuza, Big Joe, had a motive. Akimoto was able to convince Big Joe to come back to Japan, partly for business reasons but mainly to kill Karurosa. It was Akira Akimoto who had entered Karurosa's house and beaten his wife Melissa to near death.

He was so disappointed to hear that Big Joe failed in his attempt to kill Karurosa. And he knew he couldn't kill Karurosa himself, if he did Nakamoto would no doubt have him killed.

It wasn't until Nakamoto lost his only son on the fishing trip that he agreed to allow Akimoto to kill Karurosa. Actually, he ordered it. Nakamoto blamed the death of his son on Karurosa, not to mention the death of his father. Nakamoto simply couldn't kill Karurosa himself, but Akimoto was eager to fulfill the task.

Like Akimoto fifteen years ago, Basho Nakamoto was extremely disappointed when he learned that Akimoto had failed. He knew late that Friday night that Akimoto was likely dead, it doesn't take long to fire a gun and then make a phonecall.

Nakamoto knew what needed to be done. Karurosa was responsible for the death of his father, his son, and his best friend. Nakamoto could wait no longer for his phone to ring. He picked it up and dialed. He needed closure and he needed it now. He needed a ninja.

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The Friday night before I was to go back to the United States, my father and I picked up Melissa at around 8:30pm. We were going camping for our final weekend and wouldn't come back until Sunday morning. Sensei Karurosa was out in the backyard as he often was. Melissa wasn't quite ready yet so I went out to talk to him for a bit.

"So I'll see you on Sunday, right?" Karurosa said.

"Yep" I replied. Sunday was going to be my last day at the dojo.

"Come on, let's go!" Melissa jokingly yelled from the sliding doors.

"See ya Sunday!" I said to my Sensei.

The camping trip was awesome, lots of fun. When we got back to Sensei's house that Sunday morning the first thing we noticed was that there was a new rug in the living room. We walked through the living room and went out to the backyard through the sliding doors. It was an absolutely beautiful day, the bonsai trees looked as brilliant as ever, the koy were sparkling under the sun, the vegetable garden was thriving and it looked like Sensei had prepared more soil for farming. Sensei Karurosa was on his deck sitting in a big lounge chair, writing.

"What are you writing?" Melissa asked.

"Oh nothing" he replied, "just taking some notes for what needs to be done today at the dojo." Melissa's father replied.

He asked us about our trip, we asked him about the rug and that was that.

"Remind me, I have something to give you at the dojo today" Sensei had said to me before I left to go home for a few minutes.

"Ok", I replied. "See you tonight!" I said to Melissa as I got in my father's car.

Quite a day that was for me. After spending hours at the dojo and a great night with Melissa I lay in bed for two hours, trying to fall asleep but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I sat up and grabbed the wakizashi sword that Sensei Karurosa had given to me earlier that day. It's odd, I had no intention of going back to the dojo that night until I picked up his sword. It's like it instructed me to go to the dojo. I never imagined I'd be sitting on my bed holding that incredible wakizashi sword. And I certainly never imagined I'd be sitting in that same spot an hour later holding Sensei's katana. Sensei Karurosa's troubled life ended that night. Mine had just begun.

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