Mugi's life has changed in ways he never could have imagined. A high school kid, Mugi now lives with Yuu, the girl of his dreams. It almost seems too good to be true... Then Yuu's mother shows up unexpectedly. At first it seems like just a normal visit, but when Yuu and her little sister, Tsukasa, fall asleep, their mother tells Mugi a secret that may mean the girls will have to leave him.

When Mugi's strapped for cash, good ol' Tetsu-san comes to the rescue. Tetsu sends Mugi to help out at a friend's restaurant for a week, but Mugi's new boss isn't what he expected. Hana Hanayama is a super-cute high school girl who runs the restaurant with her father.

Mugi can't find the courage to confess his love to Yuu. So, he does the next best thing: he tells her sister, who then hatches a plan to bring them together. Her idea? Lock the two in the bathroom in their birthday suits and force Yuu to wear sexy cosplay outfits. With friends like Tsukasa, who needs enemies?

It's finally time for Mugi to act on his crush for Yuu, but wishy-washy Mugi is helpless on his own, so his friends concoct a simple plan for success. Step One: Hold Yuu's hand. Step Two: Hug her. Step Three: Kiss her! But Mugi has a secret weapon. Yuu has given Mugi a special birthday gift certificate that grants him any favor he desires. Whoa! This could be the best birthday ever!

Path of the Assassin, called Hanzo no Mon in Japan, is the story of Hattori Hanzo, the fabled master ninja whose duty it was to protect Tokugawa Ieyasu. But before he could do that, he had to grow up and learn how to love the ladies! As the secret caretaker of such an influential future leader, not only does Hanzo use vast and varied ninja talents, but in living closely with Ieyasu, he forms a close friendship with the young shogun.

Ieyasu is both fighting for his life and looking to the future. First, a couple of eerie and mysterious ninja try to take his life, but find themselves foiled by the increasingly able ninja Hattori Hanzo. Then, a nation's tribes face off and spin through intrigue and tactical webworks.

Hanzo, the heroic ninja for the future shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa, has been in some tight situations before, but nothing like the trap set for him by a ninja from a competing warlord's clan! And to settle this trickery? A sexy battle of wits and weapons. Meanwhile, Tokugawa is moving across the battlefield on his way to Japan's future.

The march continues as Japan's future shogun moves to the center of Japan to claim it as his own. But along the way he'll have to deal with intense and complicated politics, strange and sometimes perverted fighting techniques, and a rapidly changing samurai culture in old Japan. And often the history of Japan all rests on the wiles of shogun-to-be Ieyasu's clever and loyal ninja, Hattori Hanzo.

In the politics, struggles, and battles that lead to the birth of a nation, sometimes even good people must die at the hands of allies. Now it's down to only a few warlords of Edo-era Japan. History already tells the story of the victor, but the real guts of Path of the Assassin lie in the characters behind the scenes - the ninja warriors doing the dirty work. Theirs is a story of families and war and intrigue, only far more mysterious and untold.

From the most intense sword fight to a silent poisoning, no job has been too much for the infamous Hattori Hanzo. Now the stage is set for Tokugawa Ieyasu's destiny to be fulfilled, and with Hanzo watching his back, can anything stop him from uniting Japan?

Koike and Kojima's tale of how the ninja Hattori Hanzo helped Tokugawa Ieyasu become the shogun who united Japan is in its fifteenth and final volume. But before Ieyasu can claim his position, there will be much misery, murder, and tragedy on this already blood-soaked road. The path to the shogunate is a long and arduous journey, made easier by such a vassal as Hattori Hanzo, but in this last volume, Koike and Kojima will tell us just how difficult that journey can be.

It's not easy being Hattori Hanzo. If he's not teaching Leyasu, the young future shogun, how to love, then he's behind the scenes, teaching Leyasu how not to die in case of a momentary lapse of protection. If you thought you had a tough job, try taking a pudgy, protected youngster, and making him into the leader who will unite Japan under his single rule.