Greetings, I am a japanese practicioner of the martial art of Ninjitsu. I am taking risk in making this post, as it is forbidden to reveal what I will, and obviously Natsuke is not my real name. However, there is so much disinformation on the internets about Ninjitsu, that things must be made clear for you all.
Martial arts you learn in a dojo and practice in simulated fights called sparring are not anything like the real world. I see you people argue about the best art to fight on the street, but let’s face it: only a stupid man gets in a street fight like those in your fantasies. There is no honor, in the real world. There are important fights every day, and those are fights to the death.
Striking and grappling are last resorts. Yes, I am very skilled in combat, but the first goal of a modern ninja is to accomplish his mission to kill, to spy, to disable or to maim. Only real missions and experience can prove the worth of a ninja. Fighting is but a small part of the art: stealth, motion, tactics to be unseen are more important. And one is rarely empty-handed, in the real world. Fighting with the proper weapons grants one a decisive advantage.
You say there is no one-strike killing technique, but that is wrong. See, the ninja will not fight fair; he will get behind his opponent, unseen and disable him in one strike. He may not be dead after that single strike, but once unconscious it will not take long for his neck to be broken. We avoid the use of sharp weapons and firearms, for that they are messy. We prefer blunt weapons, which can be easily concealed and increase strike power.
Now, why is Ninjitsu so much more powerful than other arts ? And I am not talking about the fake american versions or even the joke taught in our japanese dojos. It is so strong because its few practicioners have real-life experience with it. There are no belts, but there is an informal grading system and the number of kills is a factor. Ninjitsu is an underground art. We modern ninjas worthy of the name serve various Yakuza organisations; we are their eyes and hands. We settle disputes that demand the ultimate punishment.
Yes, real ninjas work as assassins, and while they are few in number, they are the best. It is said that you cannot be a real ninja before you have killed a dozen men. And hits aren’t hard to find. So often, in the underground, people make foolish mistakes. They must pay with their lives. Now, this is Japan, and most people in the underground train in martial arts. I have faced and killed masters of many different arts. Most of them were not even aware of my presence until the moment of their demise. Those that were, did not last long in combat. Their arts do not teach to kill; they are trapped within their forms and moral codes, and they’ve never fought for real: for death.
I laugh at the ‘death strikes’ taught by McDojos. They claim that their strikes can kill instantly, but have never attempted to do so. They’ve never tested the validity of their claims, unlike the users of Ninjitsu, who frequently attempt those. And those strikes certainly don’t work all the time, which is why we tend to prefer disabling strikes followed by death strikes.
I once put an end to the miserable days of a drug dealer who had double-crossed us; he was quite tall and probably weighed 300 lbs, all muscle. He was a good striker, but way too slow for me. So, I took the fight as a challenge: I would only use death strikes on him. It was risky, but I had something to prove. I first seized his gun and knive, and threw them away. I kept on myself a dagger, but did not intend to use it. He went mad and started trying to strike at me with powerful punches, but I dodged.
I fooled him into giving me a clear shot to one of his vital points (sorry, I just can’t reveal much details here…) and gave him my best death strike. He certainly didn’t like it, but he didn’t keel over and die, either. Big guys like him are well protected by their thick muscles. I had to fight for two more minutes and strike him three more times in the same place before he croaked. So death strikes aren’t the ultimate technique, they actually put me at greater risk. But for sure, against a small opponent, as I have often faced, the death strikes do not forgive.
Put me up against the strongest fighter you can name, no matter his art (well, except real Ninjitsu or Russian Mafia Sambo) and I can kill him without problem. Not in a ring, mind you, but I would never, ever get in a ring fight. He probably wouldn’t see me coming, and if he did, he wouldn’t survive for long.
So Ninjitsu really is the world’s most powerful martial art. If you add laughable rules to a fight in hopes of saving life, you make the fight worthless. The only real combat is to the death, and ninjas are the best at it. They have taken life many times. Don’t double-cross a ninja, or you’ll be sorry you did.