Hattori Hanzō

Hanzō Hattori (服部 半蔵, Hattori Hanzō) is Motoyasu Matsudaira's shinobi subordinate.

Appearance
Hanzo has a fairly young appearance and voice, but he usually hides his face.

As a shinobi, he wears all black.

Personality
Hanzo is cold and efficient when killing his targets and refuses to listen to them when they try to negotiate with him, except when the negotiation benefits his master and proves to have no possible cons to his side that is. He is very confident in his abilities as a Shinbo and boasts that before Yoshiharu nobody has ever evaded so many of his attacks, which leaves him with a profound respect for the man. Hanzo also has a philosophy against the use of poison and is loyal to his master before anyone else, regardless of who they are, whether they be the powerful Yoshimoto Imagawa whom his master serves or Yoshiharu Sagara, whom he was ordered to protect by his master herself, although Motoyasu implied that Hanzo actually wanted to help Yoshiharu and requested to be given the job. He has the potency to become a general, but instead leads the Imagawa ninja.

Hanzo is also somewhat of a battle lover as he enjoys meeting worthy opponents, such as when Yoshiharu proved to dodge his attacks or when Inuchiyo managed to fight him on equal ground for a moment of time.

He also seems to have a rather subtle sense of humour, as he refused to let his men transmit information of Nobuna's army advancing back to Yoshimoto because that large black clad army was "a dragon" and therefore none of their business. He also told Yoshiharu to die rather bluntly when bringing up a way to get his troops out alive when in fact he meant "fake your death".

Background
Hanzo is a servant of Motoyasu in replacement for his father and like her came into the service of Yoshimoto Imagawa, however he does not value his service to the latter and is willing to betray her for the sake of the former, his only true master.

Arrival in the Sengoku Period Arc
In the Anime, Hanzo appears early to report to his master and Imagawa Yoshimoto that Nobuna has recruited a "saru" into her ranks.

On his way back from discovering Yoshimoto's camp in Okehazama, Hanzo attacks Yoshiharu, and repeatedly assaults him with shuriken, knives and techniques which are aimed to eliminate "the Oda Spy", however, as Yoshiharu continues to evade his attacks with only light wounds Hanzo realizes that they're getting too close to the Oda camp and decides to resort to poison, despite his philosophy against it. Yoshiharu is then saved by the return of Inuchiyo, who, due to now wearing a tiger skin and entertainer's red makeup, he does not immediately recognize. Inuchiyo manages to fight Hanzo on equal ground, but is ultimately forced down by her shorter stature, Yoshiharu tries to interfere, but it only makes Inuchiyo even more vulnerable as she now has to protect him as well. Finally, remembering Hanzo's role as Motoyasu's shinobi, Yoshiharu convinces Hanzo that letting them go is to his master's benefit as it means she can defect from the Imagawa when Nobuna wins. Seeing as even if he loses Hanzo just has to kill Yoshiharu, Hanzo allows the two of them to get away.

Later on he witnesses Yoshiharu making good on his promise by leading Nobuna's army towards the Imagawa camp. Under the darkness of the thunder clouds they go unnoticed and the image of a black dragon can be inferred from their shadow, as such Hanzo claims that it's a dragon and none of their business when his men try to report back to Yoshimoto.

Etymology

 * Hattori means "clothes" (服) (hatto) and "part, department, category" (部) (ri).
 * Hanzō means "half" (半) (han) and "warehouse" (蔵) (zō).