Shinobi Life

Shinobi Life (シノビライフ) is a Japanese shōjo romance manga written and illustrated by Shoko Konami. It has been serialized in Princess since the October 6, 2006 issue. The individual chapters are collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Akita Shoten. The first volume was released on May 16, 2006; as of November 2009, eight volumes have been released.

The manga is licensed for an English language release by Tokyopop, which published the first volume on November 11, 2008. The manga is licensed in Taiwan by Sharp Point Press.

Characters

 * Kagetora (景虎) is a ninja and bodyguard of Princess Beni (Red Princess). He went to the future when a bomb exploded beneath his feet and he fell into the lake with the Red Princess because of pursuers, at the beginning of the manga. There, he meets a girl with the same name as his princess who shares the same face as the princess he had sworn to protect. Time and time again he proves his loyalty to the highschool girl who has no idea why he's protecting her with such loyalty. He refused to hurt Takezaki (Beni's father's secretary), who had suppousedly kidnapped Beni, only because Beni had told him that she did not want to see Kagetora kill anyone. Kagetora's self restraint shows when he is tazered by Takezaki but still does not fight back until allowed by Beni. While on a roof with Beni, where they had first met, Beni trips and falls off, he jumps over and the next thing they know, they're back to the past. He eventually realizes that he time warped into the time of her descendant, who looks very similar to her, and that he must love and protect Beni Fujiwara.


 * Beni Fujiwara (ふじわら べに) is a high school girl who is a distant descendant of the Red Princess. Due to her rich family background, she gets kidnapped often. Throughout the story she mentions to Kagetora that she just wishes to die in a way that would be her father's fault -- disturbing Kagetora quite a bit. Although she feels that Kagetora's loyalty is rather eccentric, she eventually falls in love with Kagetora, as he does with her. Later on, Kagetora discovers that she is not the Princess, rather her granddaughter look alike. Beni finds out that she is betrothed to another guy (Iwatsuru Rihito) whom she wishes not to marry. She even goes through extreme measures to try to exit the marriage.


 * Red Princess (紅姫) is a princess of a country. While being pursued, an explosion happens and she falls into a lake, losing her right hand as well as her memory. A passerby finds her in the lake, confused and scared, so he takes her in. Soon, she marries that man and was pregnant with his child. When seeing Kagetora again, she remembers everything about her past. But even then, she refuses to return to her palace of riches for she loves her husband. So she tells him to leave and tell her subjects that Beni-hime is dead.