Basilisk

For generations, the Iga and Kouga ninja clans have been locked in a ruthless feud—until the warlord Ieyasu Tokugawa commands a ceasefire, forcing both sides to stand down. In the calmer years that follow, Gennosuke of Kouga and Oboro of Iga, each the heir to their clan, fall in love and plan to marry in hopes of ending the bloodshed for good.

Their fragile peace collapses when the old rivalry is deliberately rekindled as part of a political struggle: Ieyasu’s two grandsons both lay claim to the shogunate. To settle the succession, the Iga and Kouga are each ordered to field ten elite fighters in a lethal contest, with two scrolls recording the names—each to be stained with blood as combatants die. With the Tokugawa’s favor promised for a thousand years to the victors, Gennosuke and Oboro are pulled between devotion to one another and loyalty to their clans, knowing their choice will decide who survives.