Kuroda Shintaro

Kuroda Shintaro was a member of the Kuroda family and one of the most talented assassins of the Tribe, feared by many throughout the Three Countries. While a member of the Kuroda, he inherited the sleep-bringing Kikuta gaze through his Kikuta mother. Muto Seiko, the wife of Muto Kenji, was infatuated with him in her youth, but could not marry him because it did not suit her family.

In Across the Nightingale Floor, Shintaro was hired by Otori Shoichi and Otori Masahiro (the joint heads of the Otori Clan) to assassinate their nephew and the former clan heir, Otori Shigeru. Shintaro successfully killed two of Shigeru's guards and their dogs, but as he was climbing the side of Shigeru's house he was detected by the enhanced hearing of Takeo (who was also a descendant of the Tribe). As he entered the second floor of the house Shintaro was seized by Shigeru and Takeo; in the struggle, all three of them fell backward through the window and into the garden. After striking his head on a rock, Shintaro fell unconscious and soon died, but was quickly identified as a member of the Tribe. On investigating, Shigeru found the remains of a poisonous aconite pellet in Shintaro's mouth, which he had crushed as he fell to keep from being captured alive. Takeo later heard Shoichi and Masahiro discussing the attempt, including their disbelief as they had not expected Shintaro to fail.

Shintaro demonstrated comparatively few of the Tribe's rarer powers, though he was said to have been a "master of the Kikuta sleep". He could move in almost total silence (only Takeo's enhanced hearing managed to detect him) and was skilled with poisons and the garrote. He usually wore body-hugging black clothes for stealth and had an unremarkable face with cropped hair. His back was marked by a large scar and a Kuroda tattoo.