Shojoji: The Ghost of the Mujina Bandits

Konoha knows his name, not his face. Shojoji ranks among the first names in the village's Bingo Book, yet his identity is never established there: his kinjutsu keeps it hidden. His men fail at the Konoha bank against Konohamaru's team, and he himself, who thinks he is in Orochimaru's league, takes his absence from the collectible ninja card game as an insult.

A yokai name and an epithet

Shojoji (ショジョジ) is a missing-nin known first by his nickname: " Shojoji of the Corpse Clone " (屍分身のショジョジ, Shikabane Bunshin no Shojoji). He leads the Mujina Bandits and ranks among the first names in Konoha's Bingo Book, without his identity ever being truly established there: his kinjutsu keeps it hidden. The character enters the Naruto sequel in chapter 11 of the manga, where he is only partly seen - a dark silhouette, an irezumi on the left shoulder and across the back.

His name comes from folklore, as does his gang's. Shojoji Temple is the setting of a tale in which a tanuki tricks monks by turning into a teapot; it also gives its title to a children's song, "Shojoji no Tanuki Bayashi" (證城寺の狸囃子). The mujina, for its part, is the badger, another shapeshifting yokai. Shojoji, his gang and a third Boruto criminal, Tanuki Shigaraki, belong to the same naming family.

The moral portrait is blunt: an indifferent, selfish and remorseless man, who kills those he finds inconvenient. He thinks he is in the league of Orochimaru and takes it as an insult not to appear among the cards of the ninja collectible game. He is also lazy: rather than improve, he relies on the handful of techniques that serve him as a shortcut.

The kinjutsu that steals faces

The technique fits in a single image. The Corpse Clone (屍分身の術, Shikabane Bunshin no Jutsu) forces its user to open his mouth wide, snake-like, and then to devour the living brain of his target. He takes on its memories, abilities and appearance, with no visible flaw. It is classed as a kinjutsu, in the clone technique category, supplementary in use, and only one user is known for it: Shojoji.

Two details set it apart from an ordinary transformation. The body physically changes, without the puff of smoke that usually accompanies taking a form and dropping it. And the return to his original appearance follows no stable rule: while wearing Yamaoka's features, Shojoji pulls out a hair, which seems to turn him back into himself; while wearing Tsukiyo's and Kokuri's - two forms unique to the anime - he does nothing of the sort.

The kinjutsu finally explains the character's cannibalism, since he needs a living brain: Shojoji develops such a taste for it that he tells Boruto Uzumaki he would season his before eating it. The technique appears in chapter 13 of the manga and episode 147 of the anime, two chapters after the first partial appearance of the man whose nickname it ends up forming.

The Mujina Bandits, a gang without a face

The Mujina Bandits (貉強盗団, Mujina Gotodan) form an international criminal group of missing-nin from different villages, all lined up behind Shojoji. The manga introduces them in chapter 11, the anime in episode 141. The arc that bears their name runs from chapters 11 to 15, that is volumes 3 and 4, and from episodes 141 to 151: in the manga it follows the Versus Momoshiki arc, in the anime the time travel arc.

Three missions are listed for them. The assassination of Kokuri, a rogue ninja - content unique to the anime - ending in partial success. The burglary of the Konoha bank, entrusted to a three-man cell, unique to the manga and stopped by Konohamaru's team: a failure. And the taking hostage of the son of the daimyo of the Land of Fire, a failure as well, which sends the whole gang to prison.

The anime does not keep the bank cell: it replaces it with three ordinary thieves, unconnected to the group. It does, however, widen Shojoji's goal, as he intends to climb the chain of identities up to the daimyo himself in order to establish a lawless world, where anyone would be free to commit the worst. Off screen, the gang is mentioned in the novel Shikamaru Shinden, devoted to Shikamaru Nara.

Amegakure, the burglary that taught him the name Kara

Before all of that, his past holds a decisive episode. Shojoji breaks into a secret facility in Amegakure intending to rob it. In the basement, he stumbles on the members of an organization he does not know. He listens to them discussing the Karma seals, realizes the group is too dangerous for him, and leaves the place without being spotted.

Here he is credited with a survival instinct: he sizes up the threat and leaves before being seen. Above all, he comes away with a stock of information. The day the mark on Boruto's palm flares up before his eyes, he will be able to put a name to the organization, to describe its seals and to confirm to Konoha that it exists.

Tsukiyo sacrificed, then Hozuki Castle

The prison stretch belongs entirely to the anime. A shinobi team sent after the Mujina Bandits eventually corners Shojoji and his second-in-command, Tsukiyo. Rather than let his capture be made public and dent his gang's reputation, Shojoji devours Tsukiyo and takes on his face. It is under that name that he enters Hozuki Castle, and under that name that the guards, the inmates and soon a Konoha team will know him.

The kinjutsu seems to hand him, in passing, the dead man's arsenal, the techniques Shojoji then uses being attributed to Tsukiyo. The anime gives him Lightning Release (Raiton) - bolts thrown from his fingertips, able to kill outright and split stone, in a pink that recalls Kumo's Black Lightning without being it. It also gives him shadow manipulation techniques, tendrils, swords and clones, close to those of the Nara clan, and seals performed with a single hand.

Hozuki Castle (鬼灯城, "castle of the demon lantern"), also called Blood Prison, is held by Kusagakure and had already served as the setting for one of the eleven feature films. Its warden, Mujo, marks every inmate with a Fire Release seal (火遁・天牢, Katon: Tenro): the Heavenly Prison blocks chakra and sets ablaze anyone who strays too far. Rule 23 punishes any escape or disturbance with three days in solitary, and its clause 6 raises that to five days, a week, then permanent confinement.

Running his gang from solitary confinement

In the anime, Shojoji runs into Kokuri by chance, a former accountant of his own organization, who fled it on discovering its nature and now trades his information for Konoha's protection. Kokuri recognizes "Tsukiyo", injures himself and accuses him: the leader goes to solitary, the rogue ninja moves to the medical wing, under protection. Isolation changes nothing, however. Shojoji has contacts among the inmates and sends a man to finish Kokuri off. The attempt fails.

He then moves on to the head guard. Benga is venal, openly despises his superior and sells favors to the inmates: Shojoji buys from him Kokuri's placement in a poorly protected cell. When Sarada Uchiha approaches him presenting herself as a journalism student come to investigate the Mujina Bandits, he sees through the act without flinching and asks her why she is playing reporter.

His next maneuver targets a transfer: sending Kokuri to Hozuki Castle No. 2, where several Mujina Bandits would take care of him. Benga answers that he does not have that authority. Then Mujo, who has just dismissed him for his abuses, is struck down by his heart: Benga pushes the medicine away, watches him collapse and takes back full power, never having been officially removed. He then agrees to the transfer in exchange for the money Kokuri stole.

The escape under Kokuri's face

One detail makes the whole thing singular: Shojoji carries out all these maneuvers while marked by the Heavenly Prison, and therefore cut off from his chakra. A hypothesis about the kinjutsu follows from this - in the anime, the transformation seems to require no upkeep once done, since he keeps Tsukiyo's face despite the seal. The rest rests on nothing but corruption, contacts and talk.

Benga ends up lying about Kokuri's death; Shojoji understands that the rogue ninja has escaped. He convinces the guard to remove the Heavenly Prison from him by promising to catch the runaways, then kills him. He catches up with the group outside the castle and puts the genin in trouble with his shadow techniques, until Kokuri spots their weakness - light - and gives Mitsuki and the others what they need to bring him down.

The defeat is only apparent. Shojoji grabs Kokuri, drags him underwater out of sight, devours him and takes his place, then tells the genin that "Tsukiyo" has drowned: he walks out of the prison a free man. To hold the role, he has to hand over everything the real Kokuri knew, a notebook entrusted to Boruto making the account verifiable. It is that notebook that badly damaged the Mujina Bandits' secrecy.

The ransom of the daimyo's son

The manga knows nothing of the prison episode: there, the bank burglary and the kidnapping follow close on each other. The daimyo of the Land of Fire, Ikkyu Madoka, comes to Konoha with his son Tento. Shojoji devours Yamaoka, the boy's steward, takes his place and abducts the child. The demands sent to the father fit in two lines: five hundred million ryo and the release of every prisoner in Hozuki Castle. The ransom is only a pretext, the plan being to take Tento's form and then supplant his father.

Tento refuses to serve as leverage. He grabs the shuriken Boruto gave him and tries to kill himself; Shojoji, fast despite his bulk, stops him cold and decides to use his kinjutsu on him. A kick from Boruto interrupts the move. The gang's men are swept aside in moments, and the fight comes down to two: a genin, and a man who calls himself invincible.

His defense is called the Wind God Shield (風遁・風伯楯, Fūton: Fuhakujun), a wind barrier formed with a single sign, the Bird, which sends the incoming attack back with equal or greater force - shuriken as well as Rasengan. It holds until Tento plants a shuriken in Shojoji's back; anger makes him forget Boruto, who lands his blow. The criminal survives it and gets back up, then the mark on the boy's palm flares up: terrified, he asks whether he belongs to a certain organization.

The interrogation by Ibiki, and the aftermath

Held down by Mitsuki, knocked out by Sarada, Shojoji is brought back to Konoha, where the interrogation falls to Ibiki Morino, head of the Torture and Interrogation Force, assisted by Sai. The prisoner starts by bargaining: he has nothing to gain by talking, so he will not talk. Ibiki promises he will regret it. The arrogance holds as long as the room contains only those three men.

It collapses all at once at the entrance of Sasuke Uchiha. Without a single threat being spoken, Shojoji turns docile and answers. He says he knows little, since he gave up his burglary as soon as he sized up the group: they called themselves Kara, they bore marks similar to Boruto's, and those marks vaguely recalled Orochimaru's juinjutsu. In the anime, Sasuke also probes his mind and draws from it Kara's last known position, hidden in Amegakure.

The anime grants him one last scene. To test Boruto's progress before his duel against Deepa, Kakashi Hatake asks Ibiki to bring the prisoner out and make him a training partner, his wind defense serving as a wall. Shojoji agrees in exchange for a reduced sentence, provided he wins. The shield absorbs everything up to the Compression Rasengan, which gets through; without that barrier to cushion it, Kakashi notes, the blow would have killed him.

Summary Table

FAQ

• Does Shojoji belong to the manga or only to the anime?
  He comes from the Boruto manga: he debuts there in chapter 11, is defeated, arrested and then interrogated. The prison arc - Tsukiyo, Kokuri, Benga, the exit from Hozuki Castle - exists only in the anime, however. The manga limits itself to mentioning the castle in the ransom demands of chapter 13.
• How does the Corpse Clone work?
  Its user opens his mouth wide, snake-like, and consumes the living brain of his target. He then inherits its memories, abilities and appearance, his body genuinely changing shape instead of vanishing in the smoke of a classic transformation. It is a kinjutsu, and no other user is known for it.
• Why did Shojoji devour his own second-in-command, Tsukiyo?
  In the anime, a shinobi team had the two men cornered. Making the leader's capture public would have damaged the group's reputation: Shojoji prefers to consume his lieutenant and appear under his face. He serves his sentence at Hozuki Castle under that identity, which guards and inmates take at face value.
• What exactly does Shojoji know about Kara?
  Little, by his own admission. He had meant to burgle a secret facility in Amegakure and overheard, in the basement, a conversation about the Karma seals, before giving up and leaving. Interrogated in Konoha, he gives up the organization's name and describes marks close to Boruto's, faintly reminiscent of Orochimaru's juinjutsu. In the anime, Sasuke probes his mind and finds the group's last known position there.
• What is Hozuki Castle?
  A prison controlled by Kusagakure, also found under the name Blood Prison and whose Japanese name translates as "castle of the demon lantern". Inmates there are marked with a seal that prevents them from molding their chakra and sets them on fire if they go beyond a certain radius. A feature film in the franchise already took place there.
• What becomes of Shojoji after his arrest?
  He is imprisoned in Konoha at the end of the interrogation. In the anime only, Kakashi then has him taken to the village's military police premises to face Boruto in training, his sentence to be reduced if he won. The Compression Rasengan goes through his barrier: he loses.

In summary

Key takeaway: a kinjutsu in place of a career. Shojoji borrows everything - identities, memories, the dead man's techniques - without ever improving himself; it is as a prisoner of Konoha, facing Sasuke, that he finally gives up the name Kara.