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Naomitsu Momoji 百地 尚光 Наомицу Момодзи | Naomitsu Momoji | 百地 尚光

Momoji is the lone successor of his family's craft, one of the three influential branches of the Iga ninja. He had lost his parents and siblings when he was barely old enough to comprehend his surroundings. Despite his personal hardship, he braved his ninja training when he was six years old and, after several years of training and missions, matured to be the finest shinobi of his home. He can use any ninja technique, but Momoji prefers to be an expert with hand-to-hand combat. When he was twenty-one years old, the village had to lay two of their own to rest. Their lone daughter, Hotaru, wept uncontrollably by their grave. Momoji stood over her and patronized her to cease her crying as the dead won't come back to life. He left her when she insisted on wailing her sorrows until an order from the village elder brought him back. The elder gave him the responsibility of looking after the orphan and teaching her in her parents' absence. Momoji bluntly offered her the choice to either stay there or live as a shinobi. Hotaru stood and chose the latter. As he trained her rigorously through her protests, the pair soon bonded as they lived together. He would be called away for an occasional mission, but Hotaru would always anticipate his return to their home. Six years later, a lower class shinobi stole an elite ninja scroll from the village treasury. Momoji was the only shinobi who had the expertise of catching him, evading the boy's traps within the forest. He fought the boy and wounded his arm. Before he could retrieve the ninja scroll, an explosion and smoke back at the village halts his movements. Fearing for Hotaru's safety, Momoji reluctantly gave up the chase. The village elder informed him that it was a smoke screen and the boy's final ruse. The elder understands the reasons for the boy leaving and privately requests for Momoji to keep an eye for the scroll's whereabouts later. Punishment for the runaway would have to wait until he finds him again. As per her instructions, Momoji stays quiet about the incident to Hotaru. In the same year, on his way back home from a completed mission, Momoji experienced déjà vu when he happened to spot a young man crying at a grave. The young man was a samurai noble yet strangely alone and unattended. When Momoji subconsciously came to chide the man to stop his tears, the youth broke down and confessed his every worry to him. As he listened, it didn't take long for Momoji to learn the youth was Nobuyuki, well aware of the Oda's meanderings near their village. The shinobi was compelled to stay near the lad and silently observed his supposed followers turn against him. When Shibata threatened to kill Nobuyuki, Momoji was prepared and had secured measures for Nobuyuki's immediate escape. Upon seeing Nobuyuki dumbstruck by the sudden betrayal, Momoji was frank and thoroughly explained Shibata's change in judgement for him. The truth struck harder than the shinobi had expected when Nobuyuki became obsessed with murdering Nobunaga. The youth recognized the shinobi's usefulness to him and offered to pay for his services. Momoji accepted the proposal and returned to his village once to report his new mission to the elder. He chose to go without telling Hotaru, not noticing that the girl had tried in vain to chase him when he left. The shinobi serves as Nobuyuki's secret confidant and has lived in a hidden hut near Azuchi Castle. He wears a mask when he is on active duty. Momoji is a perceptive and rough shinobi who has no delusions about his profession or the era. He should be an unquestioning machine driven to completing the mission and his contract. His employers are not interested in his opinions or his means; only the results matter to them. Death comes to everyone so it's futile to doubt when taking another's life. Breaking a contract and going rogue means a future of being hunted and silenced by the people of his home. Accepting these simple absolutes shaped him to be the seasoned and soft-spoken master of his village. The shinobi knows his place in the world and has long lost his youthful viridity to change it. He focuses on remaining faithful to his teachings to survive the land's wars. In order to accomplish this, the shinobi actively stifles his emotions to concentrate on objective reality. Even so, he may occasionally answer people with deadpan sarcasm. Hotaru's sympathy and good cheer exasperates him. On one hand, he commonly associates her natural reactions with his failure to teach her the essentials of being a heartless ninja. He barks at her with unfaltering nicknames such as "Spoiled brat", "Sap" or "Doormat" (甘ったれ, amattare) as a means of berating her sloppiness to her duty and her immature dependency on him. Aware that her emotions could possibly cost her her life, Momoji seeks the steady and logical deconstruction of her ideals. On the other hand, many of her innocuous observations and comments perfectly mirror Momoji's hidden emotions. He tries to keep his deepest thoughts to himself or ignores her, refusing to sound hypocritical or adolescent whilst disciplining her. Hotaru remains mostly oblivious to this trait until she reaches adulthood. When they first met, Momoji acted as the strict and annoyed mentor. She would cry in his arms whenever she remembered her parents, nag at him to do the housework, try to pull pranks on him and whine in her training. Yet he gradually grew attached to her quirks and was happy fostering his pupil. Parting from her was harder for him than he thought; he thinks he was only successful because he didn't say his farewells to her. Momoji still considers her the same "pushover" from six years ago when they reunite again. The shinobi is compelled to keep protecting and disciplining her like he did in their past. It is therefore conflicting for him when he becomes romantically attracted to Hotaru's adult determination and convictions. Her ability to speak against him on equal ground surprises him. Nobuyuki is his master, so Momoji composes himself with subservient formality before him. His first meeting with the Oda lord reminded him too much of Hotaru; his decision to reveal himself before Nobuyuki was a rare impulse. Momoji feels partially responsible for causing Nobuyuki's emotional collapse after Shibata's betrayal. The shinobi is aware that the noble is much softer than he claims and is inwardly pained to see the young man forcing himself. Yet his contract prevents him from voicing these thoughts aloud to his master. While he claims otherwise, Momoji mainly accepted his servitude to Nobuyuki in order to provide the lonely lad some form of comfort and companionship. He wants to help free Nobuyuki from the traumas of his past. Momoji believes Nobunaga's death will likely not save Nobuyuki, but acting upon the desire can at least fulfill one of the nobleman's strongest regrets in his life.