犬塚槍
INUZUKA YARI
“There's no better teacher than the wilderness itself.”
Inuzuka Yari
A G E
13
G E N D E R
Female
C L A N
Inuzuka
R A N K
Academy Student
A F F I L I A T I O N S
Konohagakure
A P P E A R A N C E
Yari is a short, athletically built young girl of 4'10 with a healthy, lightly tan complexion. Her grey-ish brown hair - though thick and smooth in texture - often appears unruly and wild, having been hastily cut into many uneven layers. Her round eyebrows are of a similar bushy thickness and her keen eyes are of a similar colour. She leaves very little skin visible, wearing simple kimono-style shirts and matching shorts with leggings underneath, and donning her iconic bear pelt jacket almost every day. Yari has red fang markings painted on both of her cheeks, a tradition that seems to have fallen out of her clan's use in recent decades, as well as elongated canine teeth and nails like most Inuzuka. A few light scars line her legs and arms from the fights her and her ninken used to have during her early childhood. When she's not engaging in any form of combat, Yari will wear a pair of small fang shaped earrings.
C H A R A C T E R I S A T I O N & P R E S T I G E
As a girl who has chosen to maintain the outdated traditions and values of her clan, it's not a surprise that Yari has inherited the notoriously hot tempered and intense personality that ran wild within Inuzuka clansmen of bygone eras. However, it is more her strictly disciplined and fiercely prideful nature that defines Yari as a person. From a young age she has undergone rigorous physical and mental conditioning in order to succeed as one of the last shinobi of her clan, which has brought about a scarily stern persona that obsesses over achieving only the absolute best and rejecting anything gained beneath that. The values Yari has drilled into her head over the years has made her deeply respectful and appreciative towards hardworking individuals and those who call themselves shinobi, especially towards the elderly Inuzuka ninja who pridefully fought in the wars before as an expression of their clan values. Though she is not one to criticise the rapid industrialisation of the village she has been lovingly raised in, Yari has become very protective of the ways of forgotten Inuzuka ninja, despite finding that concerning herself with the affairs of other clans in similar situations to be irrelevant.
But her infamy as a student is more prominent than her respectable drive to be the best Inuzuka kunoichi she can, and so Yari was isn't really seen an easy person to approach. She is harsh and critical towards both herself and her peers, unafraid of the backlash she experiences and using opposition to accentuate her pride and confidence. Although her otherwise polite and rather mature personality has its worth in the eyes of Yari's instructors, her classmates find that her frequent scolding tendencies and intense ambition to reach the top of her class makes her more irritating than likeable. Having become too focused on graduating with the best grades possible, Yari's friend list has fallen worryingly short. She has very few people who she actually gets along with, and so Yari often relies on her ninken partner, Kagemaru, for emotional support. Though extremely self reliant in nature, her refusal to open up about her insecurities has built up nothing but doubt in her capabilities as a ninja, as well as a demeanour that only grows ever the more harsh after each attempt from people trying to break past her tough exterior.
Nevertheless, Yari is still only a young girl not even past the Academy student stage, understandably lacking the experience and maturity of her village's higher ranking shinobi. Thankfully she is not without her warmer, more jovial side when she begins to open up to others; always keen towards learning new things, enthusiastic when practising clan traditions and going out in the forests to hunt, and showing a surprising burst of energy when telling tales about her clan or stories from the history books she reads. Like many Inuzuka, shinobi or not, Yari is extremely loyal to her village and compassionate to her ninken partner, and is willing to protect the things she values against those who choose to threaten them. Her competitive fighting spirit burns with a passionate youthful flame, and it only seems to be growing from here.
O R I G I N S T O R Y
Being one of many born into an era of peace and prosperity had given the young Yari an early life without much worry or strife, being raised into a wealthy household that suffered little financial struggle. Her parents were happily married yet couldn't be anymore different people, her father being a leading fashion designer in his industry and her mother being one of the very few Inuzuka ninja that chose not to retire to a more peaceful lifestyle. Few shinobi veterans like Yari's mother from times of war and tragedy remained, as many modern clansmen saw benefits from turning away from their shinobi paths to pursue other careers; the Inuzuka became more known for their veterinarian and dog breeding expertise, their strong capabilities as ninja quickly being forgotten in recent decades. During her early childhood, it was uncertain as to what path Yari's parents would steer her towards.
It was one of the few things that caused the rare major conflicts between her parents, though it was her mother that would gain more influence over Yari during her early childhood. The woman was a traditionalist to a fault, introducing her daughter to old hunting weapons, animal pelts and faded paintings of a completely different era from a young age, the crowded basement in which all of these objects had been hauled into unlike anything she had ever seen before. Yari was completely engrossed by the stories and legends her mother would tell her, and expressed an honest eagerness to practice the same traditions as her mother had done when she was young. Her mother, not wanting to die along with and to preserve the endangered Inuzuka traditions, wholeheartedly agreed. Her father was obviously against this at first, as he felt doing those ancient practises would do little to benefit Yari in this modern age. What kept him from totally rejecting his wife's and daughter's requests however was his unspoken idea that the shinobi career was now a dying lifestyle, and so he accepted in hopes that Yari would eventually diverge from that prospect once she got older.
But her mother's personality and influence was strong enough to keep her walking down the shinobi path. By five years old Yari experienced the custom of painting red fangs on her cheeks for the first time, and from then she would continue to learn about old practises and delve into the history of her clan. By six she would have her new ninken partner Kagemaru by her side, and was already learning how to hunt in the Konohagakure forests under the guidance of her mother. The woman was an encouraging yet strict teacher, and soon Yari would come to learn of both the beauty and danger of the wilderness, her mindset vastly but gradually maturing with each camping trip. She would enroll into the Academy in the same year, and for the next seven years would be balancing her academic studies with her rigorous physical training in the forest. Over those years Yari has been hardened into the pseudo-hunter/ninja in training her classmates know her to be, having been disciplined by the harshness of nature's forests. She intends to continue her pursuit of the Inuzuka shinobi lifestyle, preserving all that she can of her clan's endangered traditions. But now, at only age thirteen, deep down inside Yari continues to struggle with balancing her modern and traditional lifestyles and values, and is still uncertain about the path she wants to take in life.
C H A R A C T E R D E V E L O P M E N T & C O N C E P T U A L I S A T I O N
Since the overall theme of the RP is largely 'traditionalism vs modernism', I thought it would be interesting to make a character whose main internal conflict stems from them trying to follow the modern and traditional influences they were raised into, and how they cope with trying to balance two vastly different lifestyles together. I'd love to explore the confusion Yari will face when the time comes for her to truly have to decide what path she wants to take in life, as well as how she goes about trying to preserve her clan traditions when she's currently one of the only practising shinobi in her clan. Despite her personality Yari's still at an age where she has a lot of room to grow and change, so I'd like to see how her personality and outlook on the world develops as she matures into a fully fledged ninja and meets new people of differing ideologies along the way. Also, the concept of a ninja that uses hunting based skills is something I've always wanted to try out, and I'd like to develop and perhaps put my own twists on the Inuzuka clan as I think they have a lot of potential to have a deep history and rich cultural traditions that the canon never had. I also wrote Yari to have a more 'difficult' personality than what I'm used to writing, so developing her character along the way as she forms more positive relationships will definitely be satisfying to see!
TL;DR I think the Inuzuka clan deserves more attention and I want to write about a ninja/hunter girl doing cool ninja/hunter things.
T A L E N T S
• Sensor - As an Inuzuka, Yari is able to make use of her extremely accurate senses, especially her sense of smell and sound. Her tracking and monitoring abilities are unparalleled by the rest of her classmates, making her a unique asset to a team.
• Hunter - Her capabilities as a ninja are not limited to the standard use of shuriken and chakra. Yari is able to hunt animals, make traps and survive pragmatically and resourcefully in the wilderness like it's second nature. She is easily able to apply these skills to situations more suited to shinobi, such as using her traps to capture escaped criminals and such. Her aptitude for hunting has also made Yari notably skilled at concealing her tracks and current whereabouts, which she has adapted to suit the 'hit and run' fighting style of her clan.
• 'Beast Human Taijutsu' - As a result of her daily exercises and practise of her clan techniques, Yari has become adept at utilising the basics of the original Inuzuka fighting style. Her skills in both taijutsu and ninjutsu are thus on a respectable level, although it is only her taijutsu that is able to maintain a just above average ranking in her class, while her ninjutsu ranks at simply average.
• Marksmanship - Yari's accuracy using projectile weapons is a notable skill of hers, and is considered slightly above average amongst her peers. Although she can wield kunai, shuriken and even a bow and arrow with reasonable confidence, her current skill level still limits her from being able to use such a weapon outside of hunting for game.
• Well read - Yari loves a good history book, and may spend her free time relaxing in libraries or going through her mother's old books. As a result she holds a great deal of knowledge about her village history and clan history, and can often answer questions concerning such subjects with ease.
• Cooking - The girl sure knows how to cook up a mean pot of venison stew. One of her top three hobbies that rival reading and game hunting.
T O O L S
• Spear - Although not necessarily and expert, Yari is able to use her spear efficiently. She can use it for a variety of purposes, usually for direct attacks or throwing at short distances. One of her most often used tools.
• Wire - Probably Yari's favourite. She finds the possible uses of this underrated tool to be almost limitless, and she thus carries many rolls with her.
• Go, Kagemaru! - Yari's ninken partner. Although they got off to an incredibly rough start when she first got him - she even has the scars to prove it - the two have managed to form a strong and inseparable bond over the years. Kagemaru is an extremely valuable asset to Yari as both a ninja and a hunter, and is seen as not only a lovable companion, but a loyal friend. A very good boi.
T E C H N I Q U E S
C R A N KD R A N K
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