27. Many Samurai Were Ninjas
According to the best available historical evidence, ninjas did not go around in black outfits as part of a group uniform getup. They had no greater predilection for black clothes than the average Japanese people of the period, among whom black clothes were extremely common.
What we consider ninjas were simply scouts, spies, and mercenaries, hired by various armies in feudal Japan. To carry out their tasks, they blended into the local population. They did not use throwing stars – that is plain myth. However, they did throw poisoned darts known as bo shurikens. They did not have a blood feud with samurai. Indeed, there was nothing to prevent a samurai from being a ninja, and quite a few ninjas were actually samurai.