During his long rule over the Azuma Ninja, Azuma Shiunsai performed many covert missions for the father of Gohda Matsunoshin, many sensitive and political in nature. One was killing a treacherous samurai. While leaving the man's castle, Shiunsai took the dead samurai's infant son to be trained as a ninja. This boy would later grow to become the Gohda spy Rikimaru. It is known that Shiunsai also killed Tatsumaru's father; whether it was under similar circumstances to Rikimaru is unknown.