The Gateless Barrier is book two in the Lone Wolf and Cub series. This volume is just as violent and bloody as the previous book, and the adventures the father and son go through make it quite clear that the protagonist is not a hero. Each story can be independently read like the old style TV episodes, so there's no character development.
In one episode, Ogami Itto is asked to kill a Buddhist priest. He tries to do so and discovers that he can't, yet the priest gives him hints that he first has to understand Buddha nature in order to kill him. The guy actually goes and meditates in the mountains for days in order to understand Buddha nature and successfully assassinates the priest. There's of course a bunch of things wrong with this, especially since Buddhist teachings prohibit killing (many Buddhists are vegetarians). In any case, these stories demonstrate something of Itto's character, but ultimately the effects of all that killing never seems to affect him. In another story, he abandons his son in a cave after an avalanche has buried the entrance in favor of his mission, saying that if fate wills his son will live and he will come back to rescue Daigoro.
Definitely a man with dedication to his mission!
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