After some months of attempting to track the grandmaster down in Japan through secret ninja channels, the trail went cold. Momoko’s father would eventually discover that his leader had fled Japan and went to the US. Spending the remains of his money, he secured a spot on a boat traveling to America, and when he arrived in Washington with his daughter, they took a bus heading for New Japan in Platinum City. When the two arrived at Danzo’s Temple, Danzo could not believe his eyes as he was under the impression all of his fellow clan members were dead. Momoko’s father told Danzo how he survived: he was in a far-off city when their clan was attacked. When he returned, he found everyone dead. To escape, he assumed another identity he had established in case he needed to disappear. Momoko’s mother was his cover story. She took him in and they lived together as if they were married for years. Danzo was impressed by Momoko’s father’s mastery of disguise, and implored him to stay at the temple. Danzo took them both in, and together Momoko’s father and Danzo watched over her. A little over a month later though, Momoko’s father passed away. From then on, Danzo raised Momoko as his own child.

The grandmaster was drawn to Momoko and could tell that her chi was very strong. Therefore, Danzo began spiritually linking with her through meditation, helping increase her chi energy. As a toddler, she was much more advanced than any other child; mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually superior to her peers. By the time she was 7, she was performing in all areas of ninja training at a higher level than many of the teenage students. By the time she was a teen herself, she was performing at the level of a master. And by the time she turned 20, Momoko had surpassed all other ninjas in every aspect of being a shinobi except Danzo. This led him to continue Momoko’s training separately from the others, teaching her all of his secrets. She learned his mastery of illusions, and was able to harness her spiritual strengths to enhance her physical abilities, including immortality. She perfected pyrokinesis as well. Momoko was Danzo’s greatest student and the elite of all elite ninjas, as well as one of the best warriors in the world, second in the Iga Clan only to Danzo.

However, instead of appointing her to lead the entire clan in his stead as it continued to grow, Danzo kept her close. He made sure she also mastered the ways of the ever-changing outside world. She became an expert in building and operating all forms of technology; in software and hardware programming. This led to Momoko becoming one of the greatest hackers to ever touch a computer, gaining her the alias “Interface.” She eventually began training other ninjas who showed proclivity for computer sciences, and they led the cyber division of the Iga Clan. They were tasked with all forms of financial and corporate infiltration, gathering secrets on their targets – everyone who hired them for jobs, as well as a majority of the major figures in Platinum City – to use as leverage at any time. Momoko was also tasked with the most deadly, important missions from Danzo himself. Often many of them were kept secret, for they were of the most confidential nature. Only she and Danzo knew of them. One such mission was her investigation into the truth behind why the Iga Clan was hired to eliminate members of the Platinum City council and, more importanly, who hired them.

Though Danzo had already assigned a number of his most elite ninjas – including Enzo, Kai, Kiri, Fuji and Nana – to execute the hits, he had developed the feeling that something was just not right. However, the only way to truly uncover what was going on was for him to accept the contracts. So he sent word through one of the Clan’s emissaries that the Iga Clan would indeed carry out the order. Meanwhile, Danzo also tasked Momoko with hacking into the banking systems and files of different corporations. She started with a trace on the account the Iga Clan received their funds from. After weeding through the different dummy accounts from phony entities, she made her first big breakthrough by connecting a mid-tier Yakuza boss to a shipping company that shared a merchant account with one of the fake businesses. From there, she followed the real companies’ merchant accounts and revealed they all were connected to top-tier Yakuza bosses, including Daichi Matsuzaki of the Matsuzaki Clan.

When Momoko revealed this information to Danzo, his unsettled feelings were confirmed for he and the Matsuzaki have a sordid past. They are the same Yakuza family that was responsible for the annihilation of the Iga Clan in Japan, and they hired them to take down the city council members. Momoko grew enraged upon finding out the people they were working for were the ones who killed her ancestors. She wanted to go after Daichi herself, however, Danzo wouldn’t allow her. Even though Daichi was the overlord of all the Yakuza families, Danzo knew he had no direct connection to the city council members, meaning there had to be someone much more powerful pulling the strings. Danzo tasked Momoko to dig deeper. She hacked into all of Daichi’s networks. Nevertheless, she could not find anything that raised a flag. That was until she discovered a charge on a company credit card for one of Daichi’s businesses. It was to a gas station in a part of Platinum City that the Yakuza never venture to: New China. With all of the industrial buildings in that area being owned by the Chinese Triads, the sworn enemies of the Japanese, Momoko immediately knew whatever business they had in New China must be part of something much bigger. Upon hacking into the Platinum City Chamber of Commerce database, Momoko found out that some of the industrial buildings in New China near the gas station were also owned by the ruthless businessman, Edgar Lockhart – and furthermore many of the other crime families including the Italians, Mexicans, Colombians and Russians all were silent partners for the import-export warehouses in the area. Momoko informed Danzo of this immediately, and all the pieces were finally put together for him. Edgar Lockhart appeared to be at the helm of a secret organization that included every major crime family in all of Platinum City!

Danzo asked Momoko to call all the Clan’s elite team leaders together so he could share the information they discovered. He was prepared to give them the greatest mission they would ever undertake: the complete destruction of the Matsuzaki Family. However, when Momoko went to gather everyone, she realized Enzo, Kai, Kiri and Nana were missing. Danzo quickly came to the conclusion that four of his most elite warriors had disobeyed his orders and gone after the super samurai hero, Musashi, who had battled and killed team leader Fuji during one of the council member assassination attempts.

Danzo and Momoko tracked the foursome of team leaders through New Japan and it was not long before the two greatest living shinobi were able to find the rogues, and when they located them at an abandoned underground subway station, they found the team leaders in an all-out battle against Musashi, The Platinum City Knights, led by Black Jag, and the City Watch hero squad, led by Liberty Star. Without hesitation, Danzo and Momoko rushed into battle. They shot pyrokinetic fire streams in between the heroes and the ninja, forcing everyone to immediately retreat apart. As the flames cleared, Danzo and Momoko seemingly materialized from thin air through the smoke. The heroes were confused at first, but immediately moved to attack once they saw two more ninja in front of them. Danzo imposed a wave of illusion though, causing the heroes to see nothing but smoke once again. Meanwhile, he and Momoko swiftly disarmed them. With their weapons gone in a flash, the heroes stopped in their tracks, dumbfounded. Enzo, Kai, Kiri and Nana celebrated as they believed the grandmaster and Momoko came to their aid. The shinobi leaders advanced, but were forced back again by more bursts of fire. They now were at a loss as well. The wave of furious fire and power injected into their battle caused the heroes and the ninjas to freeze in trepidation.

Once everyone was still, Danzo and Momoko materialized once again through the fading smoke. Now that he had everyone’s attention, the supreme ninja leader asked his warriors why they disobeyed his orders. Angrily, Enzo stepped up and proclaimed they were bound by honor to avenge the death of their brother, Fuji, and so they tracked down Musashi and engaged him. They were surprised to also find themselves in battle against the Knights and The Watch. However, they were prepared to do whatever it took to take down Musashi – and if they meant cutting through some other superheros, then so be it.

Danzo told them they were misguided, as the Iga were unwittingly serving the needs of the Yakuza who was responsible for almost making their clan extinct. This caught the ear of Black Jag, who soon approached Danzo to ask what the grandmaster was referring to. Momoko explained that they accepted contracts for assassinations that were issued in secret by Daichi Matsuzaki, and they believe it was on behalf of Edgar Lockhart who appeared to be the head of a syndicate, including all the criminal family organizations.

Naturally, Musashi, the Platinum City Knights and The City Watch were ready to investigate. Momoko used the CPU on her wrist module to send them all the information she uncovered, and told them to review it when they returned to their bases. Then, before the heroes could ask how in the world the ninja hacker had obtained all of their contact information, an explosion of fire occurred and Danzo and the other members of the Iga Clan all disappeared.

Upon returning to Danzo’s Temple, the rogue ninja leaders apologized for their transgressions and sought forgiveness. Danzo quickly absolved them and accepted them back into the fold. A few days later, a traditional shinobi burial was held for their fallen brother Fuji. Just minutes after the ceremony ended, the CPU unit on Momoko’s right wristband lit up. She read the notifications and smiled —

The Platinum City Knights, The City Watch and most importantly, the samurai superhero, Musashi were ready to join forces with the Iga Clan. It was time to take Edgar Lockhart and his crime syndicate down once and for all.

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