Mirai Ninja/Stage 7

Once the background has reappeared behind Mirai Ninja and the stage title has appeared on the screen, start running to the right as three Kappa jump out of the water and land in front of you; once you have thrown a shuriken at each of them to kill them, you will come to a Bomb Gate that is blocking your way forward with an electric barrier while counting down from 7 to 0 in Kanji numerals. Once you have waited for it to fall down and explode, continue running to the right as three more Kappa jump out of the water and land in front of you - and once you have thrown a shuriken at each of them to kill them, you must drop off the edge of the bridge into the water as two more Kappa jump out of it and land in front of you. Once you have thrown a shuriken at each of them to kill them, you can either jump up onto another bridge or run under it through the water; if you chose to jump up to it, you will first come to another Bomb Gate that is blocking your way forward with an electric barrier while counting down from 7 to 0 in Kanji numerals. Once you have waited for it to fall down and explode, four Karasu Tengu will come flying past from the right side of the screen and detach themselves from their hang-gliders before landing in front of you and making their way towards you - and once you have thrown a shuriken at each of them to kill them, you must continue running to the right as two Han Guraida appear above you and try to drop bombs on you. Once you have jumped up and thrown enough shurikens at them to kill them, you will come to a third Bomb Gate that is blocking your way forward with an electric barrier while counting down from 7 to 0 in Kanji numerals; once you have waited for it to fall down and explode, continue running to the right as four Hanzou Hattori come running towards you while two more Han Guraida appear above you and try to drop bombs on you. Once you have thrown enough shurikens at each of them to kill them, you must drop off the edge of the bridge into the water again - however, if you chose to run under the bridge, you will have bypassed all of these enemies. You can now either jump up onto a third bridge or run under it through the water; if you chose to jump up to it, you will first come to a fourth Bomb Gate that is blocking your way forward with an electric barrier while counting down from 7 to 0 in Kanji numerals. Once you have waited for it to fall down and explode, you must continue running to the right and throw a shuriken at each of four Karasu that are coming down on top of you to kill them before dropping down off the edge of the bridge into the water - and once again, if you chose to run under the bridge, you will have bypassed all of these enemies. Continue running to the right through the water as four more Kappa jump out of it and land in front of you while two more Han Guraida appear above you and try to drop bombs on you; once you have thrown enough shurikens at each of them to kill them, you can either jump up onto a fourth bridge or run under it through the water. If you chose to jump up to it, you will first come to a fifth Bomb Gate that is blocking your way forward with an electric barrier while counting down from 7 to 0 in Kanji numerals - and once you have waited for it to fall down and explode, you must continue running to the right until you come to a sixth Bomb Gate that is blocking your way forward with an electric barrier and counting down from 7 to 0 in Kanji numerals. Once you have waited for it to fall down and explode, continue running to the right as four Domu approach you from the front; once you have thrown enough shurikens at each of them to kill them, four more Kappa will jump out of the water and land in front of you while two more Han Guraida appear above you and try to drop bombs on you. Once you have thrown enough shurikens at each of them to kill them, you must drop off the edge of the bridge into the water - and once again, if you chose to run under the bridge, you will have bypassed all of these enemies. The holographic image of the Evil Master Shikinami Kurosagi will now appear in the background; this means that it is time for another boss battle after a one-stage absence. Two medium-sized Nekko will emerge from the surface of the water in front of Mirai Ninja and start making their way towards him - however, they will stop moving once they are a certain distance from him. They will also move away from Mirai Ninja if he gets too close to them in order to maintain this distance, which is unusual for a boss character. Once you have thrown enough shurikens at each of them to defeat them, they will submerge beneath the water and two more medium-sized Nekko will emerge from the surface of the water beneath Mirai Ninja's current position; once you have jumped out of their way and thrown enough shurikens at each of them to defeat them, they will submerge beneath the surface of the water and two more medium-sized Nekko will emerge from the surface of the water beneath Mirai Ninja's new current position. Once you have jumped out of their way again and thrown enough shurikens at them to defeat them, they will submerge between the surface of the water and a large Nekko will slowly emerge from the surface of the water in front of Mirai Ninja and start making its way towards him. As with the six medium-sized ones, it will stop moving once it is a certain distance from Mirai Ninja, and it will also move away from him in if he gets too close to it in order to maintain this distance. Once you have thrown enough shurikens at it to defeat it, it will submerge beneath the surface of the water and Mirai Ninja will then proceed to the eighth stage - which, like the second, fourth and sixth ones, has a multitude of paths that can be taken through it. Also, if Mirai Ninja defeated the large Nekko while he was standing on top of the fourth bridge mentioned earlier, he will run off the edge of the bridge and through the air (for a third time if he ran off the right side of the roof after defeating Oda Nobunaga at the end of the second stage and the right side of the battering ram's tank treads after defeating the last copy of Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the end of the third stage)! By this point, his gravity-defying will have become a regular thing.