Akodo Shunsuke was a precocious boy, and began learning the bushi arts at a somewhat earlier age than most, though this mostly consisted of watching his father practice forms and attempting to imitate them with a stick.
Shunsuke is neither the eldest child in his family, nor even the eldest son, but it soon bore out that his crude imitations of swordplay became refined, and sticks gave way to practice swords. Inducted into the dojo years early at age 9, Shunsuke found himself and his true art. His teachers recognized this as well, dubbing him a prodigy of the dojo, teaching ever more advanced techniques at a greater pace than his peers. Studying for five years and devouring everything taught to him at a voracious pace, he achieved his Gempukku at 14, and though his first assignments were nothing truly important, he excelled at each of them.
Shunsuke has gained a reputation among his kinsmen as being one who notices everything going on around him, even when seeming otherwise occupied. Throughout his 11 year career he's caught more than one unscrupulous person attempting something criminal merely by noticing things or actions that were out of place in their environment.
His keen eye has brought him enemies, however. Most notable among them Mirumoto Jirutaro, a Dragon Shunsuke met two years after his Gempukku. A hostage of the Lion, Jirutaro was caught stealing money by Shunsuke, but was able to escape confinement and flee before justice could be brought down upon him. Ever since then, Shunsuke finds himself frequently on the receiving end of attacks both physical and character oriented, always from people later found to have associated with Jirutaro either before or after his flight from Lion lands. Shunsuke worries that this issue will hang a dark cloud over his coming marriage, and wants to end the enmity between himself and the Mirumoto...if only he could find him.
