| abstract
| - Shortly after his appointment to Head Ninja of the Mumonkan, Kagemori ran across a severely injured Hyūga woman in a wooded area just outside the walls of the Southern border of the Land of Whispering Bone. He quickly retrieved her and took her back to Homeji Honjin's hospital. The medical nins were able to save her and return her to good health. Upon her recovery Sessai personally handled her debriefing. The woman's name was Hyūga Nijika, a medical nin and member of the Hyūga branch family. She had survived an attack by Hunter Nin, using a technique she personally developed to temporarily abate the effects of the caged bird seal. She and a group of 99 survivors of the infamous Saki Rebellion, as it would soon be known, had fled Konoha with Hunter Nins in hot pursuit. In an effort to lead them away from her group, Nijika split off as a decoy. She managed to kill her pursuers using booby traps, but only after being severely injured in the process. Kagemori quickly became enamored with the feisty kunoichi's indomitable will that had led her and over a hundred Hyūga to defy their clan conventions and seek personal liberty. Using the fuuinjutsu medical knowledge she developed to facilitate their escape, Sessai removed the caged bird seal, freeing her and her clan-members from their burden and forever breaking their ties with the Hyūga Clan. He offered her clan asylum in exchange for becoming his wife. She agreed readily as she too had developed feelings for her rescuer. They were married in a secret ceremony with only Kagemori's and Nijika's closest allies. As Sessai was held in high favor by Yondime Oyabun, his marriage and promise of asylum were upheld, even at the cost of some political capital with their neighbors in the South. As part of the agreement, the clansmen took up the family name of their benefactor and eligible members married into the tattered remnants of the Kagemori clan, which at that time consisted of less than two dozen members. Together they vow to protect the nation that gave them sanctuary as members of the Mumonkan.
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