History:One might think the sharp, arid, whipping winds of Sunagakure, and the seemingly endless downpour and humid rancor of Amegakure would feel different. For Tenjin Suzuko, however, they both brought about similar feelings. She had no nostalgia for the sand of her birthplace. Her family migrated from Konoha with some difficulty, Tenjin Teresuke’s expertise with weapons allowing him a place there, on paper. In practice, Sunagakure’s attitudes left them struggling. They had the same money as everyone else, but too often it was ‘no good’. Suzuko grew up an ‘other’, believed to be a compulsive liar, crook, cheat, and degenerate by her peers even before she’d opened her mouth, even though she’d been born there just like them. The brief connections she’d had were by the children who hadn’t known better, quickly pulling away once they found out where her parents were from, or from the occasional adult she’d find in the quieter parts of town, managing a lonely storefront or getting drunk in the day, often being some combination of being too bored, poor, or foreign to shove her away instantly. Perhaps it was Suzu looking for what she wasn’t getting at home: her dad was always away, being too bored, poor, and foreign all at once as he failed to get many contracts, struggling to make ends meet for as long as Suzu could remember.
It didn’t last forever. It couldn’t. Dissatisfied, they left, Teresuke prepared to shamefully return to the home he’s left behind a decade ago, shortly before Suzuko was born. As they left, the sands against her skin only made her think of her loneliness, her heart pounding with anticipation at the idea of what might lay ahead. But a week or so into their travel, Suzu came down with a bad cold. Her parents, worrying for her safety, turned back to the last town they were at, reasoning that it’d be closer, when the vehicle they’d taken themselves and their belongings in lost a wheel. Repairs had taken time, and before they could reach town, a storm they’d been trying to avoid blew in. While crossing a bridge, Teresuke fell into the river trying to remove blockage on the path, and his wife had jumped in to try and save him. Suzuko would see neither of them again. She wouldn’t have even known what had happened, feverish in delusion. Looking back, she always just kind of assumed the wind took them away, as ludicrous as that sounded. At the time she didn’t have anythign to go off but the voices and wind whipping against the vehicle she’d rested in with their possessions as she tried to remain protected. She awoke some days later in a clinic, having been rescued from the abandoned vehicle left in the middle of a common travel route. No one knew what happened, least of all her. Stripped of her home and everyone she’d known in any meaningful capacity, she had nothing. Authorities had been unable to find any relatives to look after her, so Suzuko took matters into her own hands, trying to return to Sunagakure. Going along the road, trying to retrace their steps on her own two feet, she’d gotten lost again rather quickly. The first to find her wasn’t the authorities of the small town she’d ran from, but the Bodagado. En route from Wind to Fire, the small village had been rather close to Amegakure territory, Suzuko stumbling into it unawares. As Suzuko was both lost and a child, however, one with no home or relatives, however, the ensuing confrontation led to four imposing shinobi scaring a small child to tears without even trying. Shinobi as they were, they weren’t monsters, waiting for her to calm down before figuring out the best course of action. They didn’t get much conclusive, just that she had no home or family. As Amegakure itself was born of the remains of other nations, it only felt appropriate for the shinobi to bring Suzu to one of the many orphanages. At her age, there was a way she could contribute and find her place, after all. In a tenuous time where the world was in a strained state of peace, there could never be enough soldiers.
Suzu didn’t have much of a choice: it was either become a shinobi or be forced to fend for herself, and Suzu didn’t want to be alone. She began training, possessing no exceptional ability. But that was fine: though awkward, she wasn’t hated or excluded. Amegakure possessed all types. Even if she wasn’t the most talkative, she liked being around others. Upon being assigned her first team, it got even better. Long periods of time spent together meant closer bonds. And closer bonds meant more pain when they were ripped away. A rudimentary scouting mission to the Land of Earth had led to their sensei being hit by a sneak attack and plummeting off a cliff to his death. Alone and without leadership, the genin were outmatched. They broke into a retreat, Suzu not once looking back. Returning to Ame, she was alone, and none of her comrades joined her. She had been the only one to survive the mission’s failure, and though she took it hard, she couldn’t let her despair crush her if she wanted to eat. Two years after her graduation to Genin, she had to redouble her efforts so that she, one who’d abandoned her comrades, would be accepted by other teams. Living in near poverty, it wasn’t until she became a Chuunin about a year later that she was able to consistently find work. This time, she knew the struggle of shinobi work, and the danger it posed. She or her allies could be dead at any time, so in what she believed to be a wise move, she kept herself at bay. Celebratory meals for a job well done always occurred when she ‘had something else to do’, and meetings outside of work she kept brief. But that too ended in failure. Despite keeping her distance, seeing a comrade in front of her, begging for her help while their legs had been severed by a blade left those cries gnawing at her heart. The muffled scream of another team mate as they were drowned in their mind by a Genjutsu, leaving them to suffocate failed to leave her dreams. The last one had been on her: she, the most experienced one on the squad after the other two died, took charge, not intending to let the mission end in failure again, pressing on. She’d tried to lead the counterattack, to put herself in front of her junior, but in the thick of combat she was only able to cover herself. They had successfully killed the targets: deserters. Ame shinobi whom she could not help but to see an alternate version of herself in, a failed self much like her father who fled because he was unable to find a place in the world. But standing in the rain over the bodies of enemy and comrade alike, she was cold, and once again, alone.
This was Suzuko’s most recent mission. After a period of brief recovery, she requested to be put back on the force as soon as possible. Some had called her cursed. Maybe she was cursed, maybe she’d go through her life the constant ‘only survivor’. Maybe that was fine. If she had one desire, it was to survive.
Personality:✓ Active.Suzu likes to keep busy, any moment spent passively feeling wasted to her.
✗ Tunnel Vision.Suzu tends to keep focused on what’s directly in front of and around her. The past only got her to where she is today, getting to tomorrow is all the present is there for.
✓ Adaptable.Tending to live in the moment, Suzu can be quick to change up plans or tactics depending on the situation.
✗ Non-Committal.Having experienced plenty of loss and failure, Suzu tends not to get attached to people, places, or things. As such she’ll give up on keeping something maintained if it becomes difficult, and tends to bounce back from having something taken from her fairly quickly.
✓ Cautious.Similarly, Suzu is careful of where she puts her efforts. If something seems dangerous she might hold back an attack or keep her distance.
✗ Impatient.Suzu likes to keep moving and doesn’t care to wait on others. If in a particularly sour mood she’ll try to do things as quickly as possible. This can even be at odds with her general caution: for example, in a battle where her caution ends up drawing out a battle she wants over, she might get frustrated, putting her even more at risk.
Desires:ｘ Steady work.
ｘ To never go hungry.
ｘ Family, one day, provided she lives long enough to settle down comfortably, but that’s such a far off thought that it only comes to surface every so often.
Fears:ｘ Losing those around her, or her home.
ｘ Being alone.
ｘ Being wounded, or otherwise unable to fend for herself.
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