Ryouichi Shinobu - A Wanderer

Name: Ryouichi Shinobu

Gender: Male

Age: 23

Appearance: He is quite short, standing at only about 5'7 and is very slim and lean. He has short brown hair and a large horizontal scar going across his face from about the bridge of his nose. He wears dark robes for concealment at night. Sometimes he wears a face mask that looks like the mouth of a tiger to intimidate opponents.

Personality: He is a very uncaring attitude about things and is often pessimistic. He has a dry sense of humor and doesn't usually get along with people firsthand until he knows them well enough. Despite being a ninja, he is fairly outgoing.

History: Ryouichi was born into the Shinobu family of hired ninjas in the town of Kyoto. They worked for any side as long as the pay was good and, as a result, gained many enemies. When the Revolution started in Kyoto, their dojo was burned down and his family was killed. He was only thirteen at the time. He barely escaped, killing a couple of the assassins in self defense using his father's ninjato and tanto as he had been trained to use. After running away from Kyoto, he learned that the attack was formulated by none other than the Imperialists as they were a threat to the modernization of Japan and had helped forces against them during the chaos in Kyoto. Ryouichi hated Imperialists with a passion after this, though there was not much he could do about it. He was young and untrained, so he escaped into the forest by himself and trained on his father's teaching for three years, gaining many skills. He went on a few unsuccessful assassination attempts and soon became hopeless on his life. He spent the next seven years traveling around, aiding the weak and the poor against the strong. He wasn't really sure what to do with his life, and decided that he could use his skills against the Imperialists as much as he could, but keep the people they were affecting in mind as well, using all of his power to save them from his fate.

Weapon: A ninjato and a tanto. He wields the ninjato in his right hand in a horizontal fashion and holds the tanto in his left upside down. He also has four kunai on his belt for quick kills. Whenever he is traveling he wears a white kimono with dark hakama.

Fighting Style: Akuma Nakami-ryu. It is a fighting style that is passed down through his family. It focuses on fast strikes and defensive maneuvers. It is a very fast style and most enemies don't ever see the attacks coming unless they are good fighters. It is a dual wielding attack style that normally professes in using a short blade and a dagger.

Tragic story... check. (Bonus points for occuring during childhood!)
Slightly improbable fighting style... check.

Fits the Rurouni Kenshin idea well, so...