Ronin

Ronin (浪人; lit. Wave Man) were independent samurai that operated outside of the nine samurai districts, and thus were not under the rule of the Shogun. Ronin were generally frowned upon in the samurai world as having disowned their countries and decided to live for selfish purposes. Ronin generally gain their status through criminal acts such as treason, desertion, or in rare instances, exile. For all but the latter reason, Ronin would largely be regarded as criminals in the samurai world, akin to the position of missing-nin in the shinobi world.