Did you know...ninjas use aconite?

I borrowed a book from the local library called "Secrets of the Ninja" by Hiromitsu Kuroi to do a little research for my post-DH plot bunny where Snape runs off to Japan to try and forget about Lupin. He would be staying with the tengu shapeshifters who had a small role in my Always series, and I had a vague idea that a tengu patrol that Snape was accompanying would be attacked by a band of ninjas.

Yeah, I know--Snape fighting ninjas; sounds like crack fic, right? ;) The scene might or might not make it into the final draft, but I was doing the research mostly to amuse myself, and I was reading the section on ninja weapons when I came across the entry for the "fukiya" ("blow pipe"):

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