N A M E
Kikai Ro

P E R S O N A L I T Y

B A C K S T O R Y

C H A K R A

A B I L I T I E S

E Q U I P M E N T

The Kikai clan has a disturbing reputation around it for its members being more machine then man in both body and mind. There is a vast degree of truth behind the reputation and has been since the early days of the clan.

In the bloodstained pages of history before the foundation of Konohagakure, the clan that would become the Kikai were a minor player who survived largely by taking the low stakes, low paying jobs that the major clans didn't bother to muddy their prestige with. Without the techniques or power to stand their own against power houses like the Uchiha and the Senju, they simply scavenged what living they could while competing against other minor clans.

This changed when the recognized founder of the modern day Kikai, Baraba was treating some of his wounded kin after a bloody clash. A well practiced medical ninja at the time, the struggles of the clan were only worsened with each missing limb or crippling injury and there was very little that standard medical knowledge at the time could do about it... so Baraba started looking into alternative methods of dealing with those problem.

While the Kikai speak of Baraba's efforts to outsiders with a veil of myth, legend and mysticism, the actual truth that is known by the clan is that it was all trial, error and experimentation... through the exact details of what those are is known only by elders of the clan. Regardless, the end result was finding his answers in what the Kikai would become known for; Machinery, and the fusion of it with biological components (IE, the human body).

At first this boon was limited to the replacement of lost body parts or senses, but as his patients went back into the field interesting advantages were discovered. While the physical advantages of having metal body parts were figured out fairly quickly (much harder to damage, didn't deal with aches and pains, poisons attempting to enter via the limb were pointless, the major improvements to Taijutsu, ect) the discovery that changed the course of the clan forever; Those who had sensory parts (Eyes, Ears or Nose) replaced were suddenly immune to genjutsu that targeted the respective sense.

There were two reasons this and why both actually rather complex in understand the how, there are simple explanations for both. The first was that while chakra would passively into the replacement part like a normal limb, the replacement part did something to the chakra to turn it into a different kind of life energy to power the machine parts. When this 'machine life source' cycles back around to the organic, it changes back into chakra. How the Kikai were able to make their machine parts do this is one of the clans most deeply guarded secrets and it isn't above killing allies to keep it.

The second was the fact that the connections between the brain and the replacement, artificial sensors were 'tighter' and more direct then their organic counterpart. Since Genjutsu worked by injecting the 'illusion' into the chakra in the gap connecting the sensory organ in question and the brain to feed the latter false information, having what is effectively two different kinds of chakra that change from one to the other and lack the traditional connections for a genjutsu to plant itself anyway basically stops all but the most powerful, brute force genjutsu from having any effect at all, let alone stick for long.

This did come at the price that those with the replacements would find their ability to use ninjutsu waning with each new addition, since the constant flux stopped genjutsu from having an effect also interfered with the ability to channel energy into ninjutsu... however, many deemed it a price worth paying since few of them knew any ninjutsu that outweighed the benefits. Many started implanting weapons or tricks into themselves in order to make up for the lack, in a similar manner to the puppet masters of Suna.

The art of combining metal and flesh in the manner they did would literally remake the Kikai into a major clan worthy of respect. One able to stand toe to toe with many of the other great clans of the era... with two notable exceptions: The Senju and the Aburame. An encounter against the Aburame required a great deal of preparation for a Kikai to survive the encounter, since the Aburame's chakra draining insects did... terrible things to the Kikai. As for the Senju, the fighting styles the Kikai were developing around their strengths and weaknesses were simply at a disadvantage against the wood users.

Rather then fight the two clans that they were at a disadvantage against, Baraba instead opted to ally with both Senju and Aburame instead. This turned out to be a naturally easy alliance to form, as while the Senju were the only true rivals for the Uchiha, the Kikai and Aburame clans were well suited to the task in their own ways and good allies to have during larger scale conflicts where the stronger Senju couldn't be everywhere.

The success of this alliance has often been considered by historians to be a factor in the Senju clans decision to reach out to their long time rivals the Uchiha to found Konohagakure. An invitation to join that the Kikai were happy to accept.

Since those early days, the Kikai clan has evolved for better and worse. While the clan goes to great lengths to appear united to outsiders, the truth is that within the clan are a number of sub-sects and ideological differences. The three major and known sub-sects of the Kikai's that the powers of Konohagakure are aware of are the Balanced, the Biological Purists and the Extremists.

The Balanced as they are labelled are rather moderate in their augmentics. They believe in having the upgrades to themselves they require to be great shinobi, but that there is an ideal balance of metal and flesh to be found.

The Extremists as they are often called have largely decried the weaknesses of flesh and seek to transform themselves fully into living machines; To this end they have a list of organs that cannot be replaced with machinery at this point in time that they strive to make smaller, but the great hurdle towards immortality via replacing those fleshing parts when they wear out they haven't been able to overcome yet is the brain.

The Biological Purists could be called a young sect of the clan, through they do argue that their core ideals have been around since Baraba. The Purists believe that the human body is the greatest machine of all and through medical jutsu, strive to improve it to the point of peak performance and even perfection. To maintain the chakra control they need for their medical jutsu, they do not augment themselves with machinery.

Despite its internal disagreements, only once has the Kikai ever suffered a schism that resulted in bloodshed and violence; During the darkest days of the Third War, when Konohagakure was suffering heavily losses and was being pushed back, a sect of the Kikai with a focus on Humanity being the highest form of life on the planet rolled out powerful, chakra fueled weapons of war and sent them into the most deadly of the battlefronts. These engines of war were incredibly effective, each one able to kill half a dozen squads of enemy shinobi easily before being cut down, a powerful explosion destroying them in defeat to destroy the evidence of how the engines worked while taking down a few more enemies.

They stabilized the front and saved countless lives in the process... but the rest of the Kikai didn't know what this strange sect had done to create these weapons of war and sort to find out with the quiet support of the Hokage. The truth was terrifying.

The Human Supremacists had discovered a means of summoning without a contract; They couldn't control what was summoned, but their method meant they could control around about how strong the random summon was going to be. This unfortunate summon would they be bound via methods both agonizing to the summon and very much against their will to the war engine, where they would serve as fuel until the engine they were bound to was destroyed, in which case they would die with it.

The rest of the Kikai were horrified by this discovery and felt that this practiced need to stop, now. With many highly ranked shinobi of Konohagakure with summoning contracts (not least of which was the Hokage themself), it was felt that if the clan didn't act first to stop this vile practice themselves, there would be serious consequences for the entire clan if it seemed like they were tolerating it.

The Supremacist sect disagreed with the verdict of the rest of the clan and when violence broke out, they turned what remaining war engines they had on their kin. The fighting that followed killed a sizable number of Kikai, damaged their compound badly and spilled out into Konohagakure proper where a number of innocent people were killed. The Kikai loyal to Konoha abandoned pursuing their traitorous kin as they fled in order to focus on stopping the rampaging war engines and limiting the destruction and bloodshed. The traitorous Supremacist sect survives to the modern era as rogue shinobi, selling their twisted engines of war to whomever is willing to pay.

While the Kikai have rebuilt since the third war, the incident still lingers in the public memory... and the memory of the clan itself. Enough of the Kikai themselves died in the incident and their heroics to try and limit the damage of their traitor kin served to limit the bad blood such an incident could have caused, but years later there is still lingering anger and sorrow because of it. The Kikai have also fallen in status as well that still hasn't recovered, through they are striving to rebuild their standing once more.