The friends of Toshiro gather for his funeral. Homer is crying. Someone goes in front of a huge statue of Budda. Some sees the sword of Toshiro. Someone takes it and gets on a motorcycle. He beats punks and thugs (one wearing an ear ring) up in an alley during some kind of deal (a drug deal?). He stabs one of the men. We see it is Hotachi, not Toshiro. Toshiro doesn't kill the last man, stopping and holding his sword just above his head. Hotachi rides into a secret place with security clearance needed. He uses his palm print. There is an array of guns on a wall. In a bathroom, Hotachi sees scissors. Church: Genña tear falling from her eyes, Homer, Black, Simon crying a lot and wiping his tears, Archie, Prof. Stringfellow, someone I don't recognize, John, Lee with tears, Tuck, Roberts and his daughter. Someone approaches and is let in. Everyone reacts. Hotachi comes in with a buzz cut and totally black hair. A Samurai symbol is behind him.
After the funeral Hotachi removes the sword from the mausoleum where Toshiro's ashes are placed, rides off on a motorcycle and gets into a fight with three armed men, killing two and sparing one (all this is done with no text). He then goes home, blackens out the skunk-like white stripe on his head and then goes to the Splinter headquarters, where I suppose he is going to volunteer to be the replacement for Toshiro. Since there's not a word of text in issue 23 it is rather hard to tell...
Artwork is, well, depressing. No art by Barry that I can detect.