Hitoyoshi: If you are not a ninja, then what are you?
Shinobu: Just an average girl.
— After Shinobu used a smoke bomb, climbed a wall, and was seen carrying a kunai.
Shinobu is just your an average girl, who throws shurikens and smoke bombs, leaps between houses and trees, and uses secret hiding techniques. In other words, an ordinary girl, and totally not a ninja. However, Hitoyoshi Takuma is convinced that she is, in fact, a ninja, despite her persistent claims to the contrary. Over the course of the story, the two start to keep running into eachother, becoming closer to one another in a light-hearted romantic comedy manga... but with a few ninja hijinks.
Written by Yuzuchiri, the series (whose title roughly translates to "Ninja Shinobu's Pure Heart") ran in Monthly Shonen Sunday from November 12, 2014 to April 12, 2017. It was collected in 5 volumes with a total of 30 chapters.
This manga shows examples of:
- Abnormal Ammo: Taking out a crow by throwing a scrunchie. Tsukushi asks Shinobu to teach her and she complies.
- Action Girl: Shinobu, as she is a ninja, although she denies it. It is downplayed though, since the manga does not focus on action, and such moments are rare.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Ultimately subverted, when Shinobu tries to make the move, Hitoyoshi gets nervous, and she doesn't have what it takes to go through with it. They end up handholding instead.
- Blatant Lies: Every time Shinobu-san claims she is not a ninja, because of how obvious it is.
- Ceiling Cling: If Shinobu does not wish to be seen by whoever is in the room, she throws a smoke bomb and pulls off this trope.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Although Kazumi is interested in Hitoyoshi, and Shinobu becomes jealous for a while, the trope is averted and Kazumi does not make a move towards Hitoyoshi.
- Crush Blush: Shinobu, just about every time she makes some progression with Hitoyoshi.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Very much Sakakibara, who screws up most of the time and can't get across a hallway without tripping, but gets through by sheer positive energy.
- During one chapter, Shinobu tries to invoke this trope, and fails, because she can't make it seem cute due to her awkward forced smiling, or even seem believable since she can't act.
- Masquerade: Ninjas are not allowed to let anyone know they are ninjas, otherwise they wouldn't be ninjas. However, they usually fail at properly hiding this fact. While Shinobu would claim she is not a ninja, it is dead obvious to Hitoyoshi and the reader. The same goes for Kazama, another member of the clan.
- Oblivious to Love: Numerous people, mostly Shizuka, lampshade this aspect of Hitoyoshi, who does not realize Shinobu's feelings for him. Near the end, he reveals it was dawning on him for a while, but he didn't know how to act on it.
- Smoke Out: Does Shinobu need to disappear quickly? No problem!
- Stalker with a Crush: Shinobu towards Hitoyoshi. Usually, she "coincidentally" walks into him, but other times, she's hiding on the guy's rooftop. After a while Shizuka begins to call Shinobu out on her behaviour, since it won't progress their relationship.
- The Stoic: Especially early on, Shinobu barely emotes, resulting in rather deadpan reactions. When it involves Hitoyoshi however, she becomes more emotionally expressive, although she does not want to show him.
