"Hyakkiyako? " Naruto questioned as he walked down the dirt path to the next village.
Rihan hummed and nodded from where he walked next to Naruto, "Yes. Hyakkiyako. It means 'Night Parade of One Hundred Demons'. My father made one and lead it for centuries. I inherited his parade and lead it for a long time as well."
"Demons?" Naruto scrunched up his nose, "Does that mean the parade is evil?"
Rihan smirked in amusement, "In some cases, yes. But not always. There were many Yokai and Ayakashi in my and my father's Hyakkiyako that were evil, but there were yokai that were just the opposite. There are good spirits out there, created by hopeful wishes and living by protecting others. I know many such Yokai."
"Like who?"
"Hmm… One of my strike team leaders was called Kurotabo. He was an ayakashi created from the stories of children during a war. They spoke of an assassin dressed in monk's robes that would always come to protect them, to save them. It was from the spreading of this tale that Kurotabo was created."
Naruto frowned a bit and tilted his head a bit to one side, "He was born from a story?"
Rihan nodded, "He was. And he wasn't the only one. A long while back there was a popular game of sorts that often created Yokai. It was called Hyaku-monogatari. They gathered a hundred Samurai in a room and had each one tell a story about an encounter with the supernatural. After each story was told, a candle was blown out. After the hundreth tale was told, a yokai would be created. It was quite a problem for my clan for a while. It was difficult to stop the ayakashi clan responsible for such gatherings, even if my clan and I managed in the end. It was how I met Kurotabo, you know. He was tricked into working for the Hundred Tales Clan at the time as an assassin and was sent to kill me. He couldn't, of course."
"Eh…."
AN:
Ayakashi - I often see it used as just another word for yokai and the supernatural. In this fic I will be using it as a term describing yokai with human like appearances such as Nurarihyon, Gyuuki, Kubinashi, Kurotabo, and the like
Hyaku-monogatari - This is an event that was often practiced durring the edo period. It was for this practice that the Hundred Tales clan from the manga was named.