The Character Mix (CNH)

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Of these three approaches, each one is the best choice for a different type of campaign.
If most of the players are very competitive and their characters do not mesh well as a team, you'd be best off following choice #1. (The ninja's secrets are kept from the other characters and from the other players.) This keeps them from becoming anxious about what other players' characters have or know that their own characters do not.
If the players are good at role-playing, are trustworthy, and do not let their characters act on information that the players have but the characters don't (a common problem with novice roleplayers), you'll probably find that the most satisfying approach is choice #2. (The ninja's secrets are kept from the other characters but not from the other players.) This will allow you to play out "secret" scenes in front of the players, not excluding them from the campaign's story line, and be safe in the knowledge that they won't use the information they receive in an unfair way.
Choice #3 (the ninja's secrets are known to the other player-characters but not to the world at large) is best used at a later point in one of the other campaign approaches. Characters may gradually learn that one of their party members is a ninja; eventually everyone knows. If they allow the ninja to remain in the party, choice #3 becomes the campaign structure. Starting out from the beginning of a campaign with choice #3 deprives the characters of the opportunity for discovery, and for interesting role-playing as various party members try to keep secrets.
==Ninja Passing==
A campaign involving ninja PCs can include any of several different types of PC groups. The three different types of character mixes we'll discuss here include one or two ninja passing as normal adventurers in a larger party, a party made up of nothing but ninja, and the rare solo ninja campaign.
==Ninja Group==
In this campaign, one or two PCs are ninja adventuring with a normal group of heroes. Most or all of the non-ninja are unaware of the backgrounds of the ninja characters, believing them to be ordinary fighters or thieves.
===Typical Adventures===
Even with ninja added, the campaign's adventures do not have to change.
The ninja PC is ordered by the clan lord to accompany the heroes and participate in their adventures, making regular reports back to the clan. From time to time, the PC ninja will receive special orders pertaining to the current adventure.
: Example: The PCs have been hired to clean out the abandoned Tsuburaya Temple, which is now inhabited by ghosts. The ninja clan lord, learning of this, sends a secret message to the ninja PC: "Find out if one of the ghosts is that of Kagabu, a member of our clan who disappeared there 10 years ago. If so, before your allies destroy him, you must ask him privately if he obtained the Sword of Clan Hayata. Perhaps he will recall enough clan loyalty to answer you. If possible, obtain the sword and send it to me. If not, find out what Kagabu remembers."
Such an approach gives the ninja character individual goals pertaining to his clan background without interfering with the goals of the PC party. A task like this one forces the PC to do some solo actions, such as entering the temple alone the night before the others perform their raid.
Naturally, all these little missions must eventually add up to a big result. Every so often, the message from the ninja clan leader should explain what the ninja PC has been up to for the last several months.
: Example: "Your delivery of the Sword of Clan Hayata, the powder of the mountain goblins, and the information concerning Hayata Sho have given us the edge we need in our struggle with the Gushiken daimyo, Eizo the Unkillable.
: "Eizo now besieges Castle Hayata. Persuade your friends that, despite Eizo's promises of great wealth, greater honor is to be found in aiding the Hayatas.
: "On the hill overlooking Castle Hayata is a dead cherry tree. Buried beneath it on the east side is a box in which rest the sword and powder you retrieved. Obtain them and then sneak them through the Gushiken lines. Present them to Hayata Sho with the information that by sprinkling the powder on the blade he can enchant his weapon to kill Eizo the Unkillable. But before he challenges the daimyo, you must return to the outside and kill Eizo's champion, Sawao, who would otherwise fight the match for him.
: "Because the actions of our clan cannot be recognized in this event, you must make these actions the goal of your band of famous companions. Make up whatever story you wish to account for finding the Sword of Clan Hayata. I recommend you tell the others that the spirit of a long-dead ancestor told you where to find it and what to do with it."
To the other PCs, this looks like a help-the-underdog adventure initiated by an encounter between a member of the party and a helpful spirit, while the PC ninja knows that it is the culmination of several months' worth of planning the elimination of an enemy of the clan.
If the campaign takes place at a great distance from the ninja clan, such as when adventurers return to distant lands and the ninja PC accompanies them, the ninja clan leader will be unable to direct the actions of the ninja PC.
In such a case, before he departs his homeland, the ninja character must be given a goal, something he can accomplish by himself over several months or years while adventuring in the lands of the foreigners.
It's best if the goal is a nebulous one, such as discovering the meaning of a prophecy or investigating a faint trail of clues leading to those distant lands.
: Example: The ninja clan lord has learned from a priest that the survival of his clan is bound up with the survival of one of the foreign friends of the PC ninja, but that's the only detail available. The clan lord assigns the PC to protect his friend, but surreptitiously, and to find out what forces are conspiring against the friend and why the fate of the friend is tied up with the fate of the clan. This is a nebulous goal that, as the PC ninja uncovers clues, will resolve into a clearer picture, eventually leading the PCs back to the lands of the Orient for the final chapter.
===As the Campaign Ages===
In such a campaign, the PCs will eventually begin accumulating followers, building strongholds, and doing all the other things that high-level adventurers do, as will the ninja PC.
If the campaign is destined to return to foreign lands to stay, the ninja PC has several options.
He could be commanded to plant a branch of the ninja clan in that foreign land, a hedge against the possibility that the main clan will someday be destroyed. This is easier to do if there is already a community of Orientals in that foreign land. If there is not, the PC might have to disguise the clan resettlement within a larger migration of his countrymen.
He could be permanently exiled for some crime against his clan, effectively becoming a Lone Wolf ninja and choosing to return to his friends' foreign home. He would probably have to abandon his followers, who are still subject to the clan lord's wishes.
Or, the ninja could bid his old allies a reluctant farewell when they make their final return to their homelands, with the ninja leaving the campaign or the campaign splitting into two.
If the campaign's future is to be in the Orient, different options become available.
Foreign heroes electing to stay in the Orient could achieve the status of samurai and attain great political power through alliances with the daimyos of the land. Meanwhile, the ninja PC will be rising to prominence in his own clan, perhaps becoming its lord. He will have to direct the actions of his ninja in the field (a task handled in behind-the-scenes correspondence between the DM and the player) while engaging in the politics of his land. He will use his resources to strengthen his clan, to aid his friends, and to promote causes he considers just, while keeping his clan's ninja background a secret and covertly working against the clans who oppose him. Such machinations requires political alliances, so the ninja's old friendship with other PC lords is particularly advantageous.
===Notes===
In a campaign where the ninja PC leads a double life, every character should have the opportunity for a private interest involving occasional role-playing and solo missions. These undercurrents will add to the complexity of the campaign, resulting in more work for the DM, but will also add to the richness of the campaign setting.