Shinobi Koi Utsutsu 忍び、恋うつつ ~ Kuroudo Kirigakure

Kuroudo Kirigakure (CV: Takahiro Sakurai) is a top class ninja who strives to be perfect. He works his butt off enough that he can just sleep in class because he’s just that amazing. When his meromero jutsu affects him he gets all prince-like and spouts out all this hime dialogue.

On the first day of class lot’s of mean rumors about Kaede spread because of jealous bitches. They even bully her during class and steal her textbook. Kuroudo lets her use his though cause he’s so smart he memorized the whole damn book. He compliments her and then she gets nervous and activates her meromero jutsu. So then he gets real prince-like and spouts out all this mushy stuff about her being his princess and all that. When he goes back to normal he gets embarrassed and then says he has to go and then she bumps into Sasuke. He ask him his favorite food which is daifuku and goes to buy it at the store for him as thanks for letting her use his textbook. She gives it to him and apologizes for activating her jutsu yesterday. She also gives back his textbook because apparently she copied it all down in one night. Anyway they train in the dojo for Kaede’s meromero jutsu.

They eventually all go out together for a training camp practice. Kuroudo works along with Kaede and finishes early. He tries to take a nap after but Sanada-sensei forces him to go shopping with him. It’s silent at first cause Kuroudo doesn’t feel like talking with him and accidentally slips out that talking with Kaede is easier. So Sanada-sensei assumes he wants to be alone with her. He blushes in embarrassment obviously and then once they arrive Sanada-sensei leaves to get a melon and when he gets back he hands it to Kaede. Kuroudo tells her to hand it over to him since she’s too weak to carry it but she tells him she got muscles cause she’s a ninja. He then feels her arms and says they’re too skinny. Kaede get’s nervous and of course, activates her meromero jutsu. After saying all this embarrassing stuff he gets embarrassed and goes on ahead.

Kaede meets up with Kuroudo back at the hut. They do their special practice again while they cook a meal. Kaede compliments him for being perfect at pretty much everything. He says he hates lying but whenever he practices with her and says these fake love phrases it always sounds like he’s being genuine and she finds it pretty amazing. He says he feels weird and doesn’t realize he’s getting ドキドキ feels over what she’d just said. Anyway, they go back to cooking and Kaede compliments him on how he’s great at chopping and all that. She then notices a hole in his kimono and apparently he’s not great at sewing so he can’t fix it. Kaede then asks him to take his kimono off and he’s all “HAH?” she obviously corrects herself and says she just wants to sew his sleeve hole back up. But he’s like screw that I’ll just come over to you and hand you my arm so you can sew my sleeve. So he’s all impressed that she did a great job and thanks her saying he owes her a great debt (as if it was a huge ordeal xD)

Anyway after the training session with the teachers and all that, Kaede is training hard for her midterm exam. One day in the dojo she’s training with shuriken and cuts herself on one. She screams out loud and Kuroudo comes barging in wondering what the heck happened. He immediately notices she’s bleeding and uses his hand towel to stop the bleeding. As he’s treating it Kaede gets nervous and activates her meromero jutsu. After all that princess talk, he quickly avoids talking about it and asks how she hurt her hand in the first place. She shows him the shuriken and apparently it was crafted by someone. Kuroudo is pretty pissed off about this though Kaede stays strong about it. Even if she’s still being harassed, she wants to do her best and won’t give up. It sucks for her not being able to train efficiently but it sucks even more if she can’t become a full fledged ninja. She tells him her mother & father were killed and she was saved by one and so yeah that’s why she’s so determined. Kuroudo is pretty much moved by her words and is quite impressed. She finds her more unique than most whom would just give up after reaching their limits. He finds it “beautiful” apparently and Kaede thinks he’s training with her at first cause he can hardly believe he’d compliment her like that.

Anyways, he accompanies are her during lunch and they do their special training together. He notices she’s improving and she intends to practice more after school. So afterwords she’d tried washing the towel Kuroudo let her use but it’s not completely dry and still has a bit of blood on it. She goes to tell Kuroudo this and she encounters him talking with his younger brother named Tadahito. He greets her all energetic like and Kuroudo tells him to not bother her. She tells him about his towel but he says she shouldn’t worry about it so much and Tadahito is all surprised to see Kuroudo speak to her in such a kind manner. He blushes but ignores him and tells his brother they should go. So she goes back to the dojo to train and notices that the towel is gone. There’s footprints too which leads her to believe someone stole it. She doesn’t see why someone would steal it but she goes around looking for it. Unfortunately she can’t find it and heads back towards her room. She feels really tired so instead of studying she goes to sleep.

When she wakes up the next day her body feels heavy and she feels sick. But she tells herself she can’t afford to miss class so she forces herself to go. Once she gets to class to try and study her whole vision gets hazy and she falls unconscious. Kuroudo calls out her name but then she wakes up back in her room with Sanada-sensei in front of her. He tells her she had a fever and collapsed. Kuroudo found her and carried her to her room. So Kaede rests for today and later that night Kuroudo comes to her room to check on her while she’s asleep. She wakes up and he gives her something to eat & drink. Though she’s just too sick she can’t do it herself so he has to feed her himself ((≧艸≦*)) So one she finally falls asleep he watches her and notices he has a strange feeling in his chest when he looks at her. ヾ(*´∀｀*)ﾉ

The next morning Kaede feels better enough to attend class. Kuroudo tells her to make sure to take better care of herself. During the test of courage test they go on, Kaede gets lost and Kuroudo scares the shit out of her when he appears out of nowhere. They meet everyone at the temple and that’s when all these ninja attack them out of nowhere. Kaede fends herself off one and then Kuroudo comes to help her. They beat the ninja together and he notices that she cut her finger. So he comes up with the great idea of licking the blood off her finger.　(ヾﾉ･∀･`) So her meromero jutsu activates cause she gets nervous and it doesn’t affect him because her blood can prevent her jutsu from affecting them. After the principal takes in the ninja that attacked them he leaves and tells them not to say anything about what happened.

Kuroudo walks Kaede back to the dorm since it’s late and they practice on the way so Kaede can prevent her meromero jutsu as much as possible. After that they continue to walk back and Kaede nearly falls over. Of course, Kuroudo supports her and grabs her hand. He asks if he should keep holding her hand so she won’t fall but she says she’s okay leaving Kuroudo looking slightly disappointed. He then suddenly clenches his chest (like he’s having a heart attack) but it’s actually just the ドキドキ feels that he can’t quite grasp yet. Kaede is all worried and wonders if he feels ill but he says he’s okay and walks ahead. He says he chest hurts and he doesn’t like this feeling and has no idea what the heck is. ლ(╹ε╹ლ)

It’s finally summer break but Kaede still trains hard and doesn’t waste any time. Kuroudo then offers to help her train and take her on as his apprentice to work on some judo moves. Kaede manages to knock Kuroudo down but he reverses the situation and knocks her down instead. Whereas he’s pretty much hovered over on top of her.　（*థ౪థ）

Kuroudo: “…You can’t escape me like this…”
Kuroudo: “…You’re close.”
Kaede: “Huh?”
Kuroudo: “…This distance between us is close. This is the first time of done something like this before.”
Kuroudo: “…….”

He stays silent for a bit and then he tightens his grip a bit. Kaede tells him it hurts and asks if he could let her go now. He refuses and tells her he doesn’t want to let her go. He just tells her to stay like that quietly and let him look at her. (*ﾉ∀`*) She tries to escape but he tells her she can try all she wants but it’s useless. He says he won’t lose to anyone, and that includes her as well. He starts talking about how he’ll do whatever it takes to reach his goals and to get whatever he wants including her. He has no idea but had some sort of urge and finally gets off her. He suggests she train some more and associates with her confirming the fact that he wants nothing more than his goal of becoming the top class ninja there ever was (dattebayo). Back at home with Kuroudo and his brother he notices that Kuroudo’s been acting strange since summer break started. He says he’s worried about him but Kuroudo brushes it off as if it’s nothing and leaves to go outside.

After summer break Kaede goes back to class and starts studying in the morning with Kuroudo sleeping next to her. Or so she thought he was cause apparently he was watching her but pretends he was just sleeping. So during class Kuroudo is clearly distracted when the teacher calls on him. And during a ninjutsu demonstration practice he messed up for the first time. During lunch Kaede went to go train in the dojo and met Tadahito there. He asks about Kuroudo to her cause he noticed he’d been acting strange lately. They promise to try and cheer up Kuroudo and pinky promise. It’s then Kuroudo appears and notices the two. His brother leaves and he tells her he came to come get her to go back to class. He more or less grabs her hand and drags her along but she mentions how he’s holding her hand as he’s about to enter the classroom and he immediately lets go and apologizes. She then tries to cheer him up and says that if he has something that’s troubling him, he can talk to her about it. Though he says there’s nothing wrong of course.

During a demonstration in class Kuroudo messes up again in front of the class. He then runs off somewhere and Kaede spends forever looking for him until she finally finds him in the forest. He summons a shadow clone of himself and tries fighting it but struggles in doing so. Kaede wants him to stop but he says he needs to be perfect. Kaede thinks he’s perfect as he is though apparently he wants more perfect in order to take revenge on Tokugawa. Anyway Kaede manages to defeat his shadow clone. He tells her about his past and that he and his brother were born from a Kirigakure princess and a Tokugawa man. They were enemies though and so the princess or his mother was driven out of her home. Kuroudo and Tadahito made it out alive but with the cost of their parent’s lives. So he bore a grudge for Tokugawa killing his parents and Kirigakure for driving out his mother from her own home. So he continued to keep his Kirigakure name and took care of his brother with no support but his own. He intended to surpass the Kirigakure clan. And he made a vow to graduate from the ninja Academy as the best and destroy the Tokugawa with his own hands. Kaede realizes she wants to be like him and wants to catch up with him a little. Kuroudo says she’s amazing and he realized how he’s “lost” to her so to speak. He’d only thought about revenge until now but she taught him about the feels and his own emotions. Apparently he learned his shadow jutsu from his mother cause it was some jutsu that was passed down from generation to generation. Kaede then leaves him alone for a bit and he thanks her for helping him out.

The next day after training and Kuroudo leaves the dojo he comes back in a hurry saying Tadahito has gone missing. They both split up to go look for him and Kaede finds him with a suspicious ninja. They try to capture him and just before one of the Ninja tries to whack Kaede, Kuroudo appears all like “don’t you dare touch her w/ your dirty hands”. He beats the shit out of them and makes them tell him what their true purpose was. Apparently they wanted to sell Tadahito for war funds or something. Anyway, more of his men comes so they run away until night time and go to Kuroudo and his brother’s house. It’s not fancy at all and it reminds her of herself cause she lost her parents and never had much money growing up. She then talks about how their situation is similar to hers because she didn’t want to overwork her grandmother while she was living with her and now Tadahito is the same with Kuroudo. He wants to help his older brother cause he feels like he’s a huge burden on him. And because Kaede’s grandmother died she couldn’t repay her the way she wanted to. Tadahito starts sobbing and apologizes to Kuroudo. He says he won’t act rashly again but makes him promise he’ll let him support him more since he’s always taking care of him. So moral of the story is, let your otouto-chan help you! ლ(･ิω･ิლ)

So they decide to have dinner together and invite Kaede to eat with them since she’s their first guest to eat with them…ever. Kaede realizes how amazing Kuroudo really is cause the reason he worked so damn hard was to support himself & his brother when they started off with nothing. She thinks he’s amazing and strives to be more like him. Anyway during dinner Tadahito flips out over Kaede’s miso’s soup and acts so adorable (I don’t mind him being my brother-in-law I mean come on). After dinner Tadahito cleans up and gives Kaede and Kuroudo some alone time to chill. Kuroudo thanks Kaede for her help today in finding Tadahito. She tells him she was really happy having dinner together with him and Tadahito cause it was like they were a real family which she’d never had. So Kuroudo says if she ever feels lonely she can come over whenever she likes. (*´ω｀*)

Kuroudo says he’ll send her home and so when he leaves Tadahito is all “holy shit I’ve never seen onii-chan look at a woman like that” she must be special to him (hell yeah). (｡◕ฺˇε ˇ◕ฺ｡)ﾉﾞ While Kuroudo takes Kaede home she thanks him for helping her with that jutsu cause it helped her find those ninja guys who tried to capture Tadahito. After she thanks him though he Kuroudo gets his sexy time on and gets gradually closer to Kaede until he 壁ドン her. He just can hold back any more and starts kissing her neck.( #●´艸`)

Unfortunately the sexy time doesn’t last long cause Kaede gets really sentimental over the fact that he’d always helped train with her and feels like she’s just always been a burden on him. (TBH I felt like this was out of nowhere but whatever gotta have drama I guess) Anyway, she feels like he’s being forced to train with her but he gets pissed and tells her he’d never felt forced to. So the mood is pretty much ruined and he goes off and leaves. щ(ﾟДﾟщ)

It’s the day of the midterm but when Kaede gets to class everyone is acting like a zombie. The rest of the guys are normal though and Sanada-sensei explains it’s somesort of forbidden jutsu that can control people. Sanada-sensei tells them to leave it to the teachers and so he dismisses everyone from class. Kaede goes to the dojo with Kuroudo to discuss things. They figure it’s the Tokugawa behind all this and when she lost Kuroudo’s towel it was actually stolen. Since it had her blood on it they could use her blood for the forbidden jutsu since she’s clearly a genjutsu user. So basically the Tokugawa want to start a war. So they must put a stop to this madness! After discussing with Sanada-sensei they’ve realized the mastermind is in the Academy itself as teacher. Anyway, Kaede and Kuroudo decide to take on this exam together.

They start their exam w/ one of the hypnotized teachers. When they start their first mission they encounter Tadahito controlled by the jutsu. Kaede tries to go find the mastermind behind the controlling and she finds the principal who’s actually the Tokugawa boss. He wants to use Kaede’s blood for his wicked plans. And he enrolled her to the school for the very purpose of using her. She makes futile attacks at him but it doesn’t do much. Back with Kuroudo, he’s still fighting his brother but he gains control for a moment and tells him Kaede’s in danger fighting the principal. He falls unconscious and Kuroudo goes off to find her. Once he does he lectures her for going off on her own and tells her that he should rely on him more and let him help her. It’s true that he was reluctant at first being her partner and all, but while being with her it all changed drastically. He then hugs her (which I honestly find weird cause like you’re in the middle of a battle rn!?) Well anyway he tells her that he’d be devastated if she was killed. So they get back to fighting but the principal activates the forbidden jutsu and gets an advantage on Kuroudo. Thankfully though Kuroudo and Kaede team up for a badass jutsu of their own and beat him.

It’s then the Sanada defence corps show up congratulating them on a job well done. And once they graduate they’ll allow them to join the corps at Osaka castle. Anyway, Kuroudo tells Kaede to consider his feelings more and to not put herself in such a dangerous situation like that again. Kuroudo then notices she’s bleeding on the cheek and licks her wound. ( #●´艸`) He says he’ll treat it for her and he hold her hand as they walk back to the Academy.

Soon Kaede gets her results back for her entrance exam but wants to look at it together with Kuroudo. They go into an empty classroom so she can cry if she’d failed lol. I laughed when she looked at her results cause the music got dark and she was all “Kuroudo….I….PASSED!” then the music got happy again, haha. So now she’s an official student of the Academy. Kuroudo encourages her some more by saying she’s one step closer to her dream. He wonders about the harassment that she had and she basically says screw them cause she’s aiming towards her dream and she doesn’t care about whatever the hell they do. Kuroudo thinks she’s amazing and tells her to rest assure that he’ll protect her and her dream. He also assures her this is for his quest for perfection but also in order to obtain her. ｡ﾟ+.( °∀°)ﾟ+.ﾟ

He tells her he doesn’t mind when she does her meromero jutsu cause it’s proof of her feelings for him. He then kisses her and tells her this isn’t the effect of her meromero jutsu and he’s doing this all of his own will and calls her by her name. ( ´艸｀) He confesses that he loves her and that she’s precious to him and he wants to protect her forever. He wasn’t interested in her at first but gradually fell in love with her. He didn’t understand feelings of caring for someone other than his family. And so he started getting urges to hold her and touch her cause he was going gaga over her. So basically he didn’t know how to react to these feels of his. Kaede says she loves him too and her meromero jutsu is sealed up because they both love each other. He says he wants them to stay together forever as ninja and husband & wife.　((≧艸≦*))

In the epilogue Kaede stays over at Kuroudo’s and his brothers place.  She falls asleep and says all this lovely dovey stuff. He secretly kisses her while she’s still asleep and calls her his hime.　ლ(╹ε╹ლ)

Thoughts: I couldn’t play his route w/o thinking of Saitou from Hakuouki. They’re both serious enough and don’t understand feels all that well cause they’re so obsessed w/ training to get stronger. Though Saitou is more shy I think and Kuroudo is much more hung up on being perfect. Cause unlike Saitou, when Kuroudo falls for Kaede he wants to tap that shit like it’s his but Saitou is just more…careful. And his relationship w/ Chizuru was pretty subtle at times. But still like they look so much like each other sometimes like in this one CG I kid you not they look almost exactly alike just different styles.

Anyway, his similarity to Saitou is probably another reason why really liked him (Saitou is my Hakuouki bias). But like holy shit he was steamy as fuck. Takahiro Sakurai’s voice was perfect for him because it’s smooth as fucking butter. His type of voice reminds me of Makishima from Psycho-Pass and while I’m glad he’s not a psychopath killer, he’s got one sexy voice. (｡◕ฺˇε ˇ◕ฺ｡） Some of his CGs did feel out of place though but for the most part they were great. His brother Tadahito was adorable too. I can see why they made him a route in the Vita version. If I didn’t know he was gonna have a route I’d totally be pissed about that.. I mean yes I want to date your otouto-chan.

But come on, revenge, he has a brother, he’s a ninja, wants to be perfect…sounds somewhat like Sasuke Uchiha tbh. Though Kuroudo’s relationship w/ Tadahito reminds me of Itachi & Sasuke. He’s very protective and idk Tadahito reminds me of young Sasuke before Itachi slaughtered the clan. Idk why I’m bringing up Naruto but I mean when you think of ninjas, naruto is gonna come to mind one way or another.