Izumi Sumire

[Sumire Izumi]

IZUMI SUMIRE

QUOTE/LYRIC HERE

17

FEMALE

SPECIAL JONIN

KIRIGAKURE

APPEARANCE

At first glance, there are only two things that set Izumi apart from the crowd. Standing in at 5' 10", Izumi isn't at all what most people might refer to as "short". Quite the opposite, a fact only accentuated by her slim yet toned build, kept in shape by constant and rigorous strength and endurance training over several years. Her pale skin, conversely, is a stark contrast to Izumi's jet black hair, worn at a length nearly as long as she is tall - for the most part, however, tied back and coiled around her neck to keep it out of the way during work and movement. Clothing wise, Izumi tends to keep it simple - plain blue/white kimonos when absolutely forced to dress in any sort of formal manner, but otherwise a simple gi and hakama usually suffice.

PERSONALITY

Izumi is a complicated person. There's no getting around that, and where boiling down a single person's essential traits tends to be a fairly difficult endeavor even with the simplest cases that hardly applies here.

The first and easiest traits to cover are two fold. For one, obstinate is the immediate word that comes to mind when people are often asked to describe the kunoichi, for better or worse. Perhaps paradoxically, her father's attempts to instill his own values into Izumi only served to further define her own, a few things are capable of changing her mind once it's been decided. If she thinks herself able to do something, she'll do it. And if she can't do it as intended, she'll find another way. And if it can't be done now in any way, Izumi will wait until an opportunity comes along to change that, or if need be chip away at a problem piece by piece until something eventually changes. Little tends to be off limits for her when it comes to finding solutions, and that only serves to carry on into the next defining feature.

Izumi is smart. Perhaps not in the manner that most might traditionally expect - Izumi will never find herself writing coherent papers on economics or using higher level math - but the girl is downright brilliant when it comes to fighting, edging towards what many might call a savant. What started out as merely a means of stress relief quickly became Izumi's only meaningful method of expression due to a general lack of social skills at the time, and as it quickly came to cement her worth in the eyes of Kirigakure itself it became something that Izumi didn't only enjoy, but applied every fiber of her being to understanding and improving as a skill. Deception and manipulation likewise would come as second nature to her as well were it not for the fact that Izumi loves the thrill that comes with challenge - while such tools can and will be used if needed, more often than not she'll try to tackle most problems head on.

Ironically, though, many of her problems with people have been mitigated after Saiken's implantation. While still coarse, abrasive and just plain crude when left to her own devices, Saiken's influence has actually served to temper Izumi's natural aggression as one of the calmer Biju. That isn't to say that it still doesn't get her into trouble - the kunoichi is still plenty prone to rash action that often causes as many problems as it fixes. The only difference now is that it's usually accompanied by a plan. Likewise, this influence has allowed Izumi much greater control just in holding her tongue. While she may still think poorly of most people until respect has been earned - at least in her eyes - it's a rare occurrence now when Izumi actually speaks out of turn whenever a perceived or ranked superior says something she disagrees with.

SHINOBI INFORMATION

Position: Rokubi Jinchuriki
Chakra Natures:  Raiton (Affinity), Suiton
Specialties: Kenjutsu, Speed, One Handed Seals
Clan: N/A
Bloodline: N/A
Jutsu:

General Skills = *

E Rank:
Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Technique)*
Funyu no Jutsu (Enclosing Technique)*
Kaifu no Jutsu (Unsealing Technique)*
Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique)*
Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique)*
Kakuremino no Jutsu (Cloak of Invisibility Technique)*
Nawanuke no Jutsu (Rope Escape Technique)*


D Rank:
Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique)*
Soshuriken no Jutsu (Manipulated Shuriken Technique)
Manipulated Shuriken Wire Bending
Kage Shuriken no Jutsu (Shadow Shuriken Technique)
Suiton: Mizugakure no Jutsu (Hiding in Water Technique)
Tameshi (Instance)
Bazu (Buzz)
Boueki (Trade)
Dorobou (Thief)


C Rank:
Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Bullet)
Zanzou (Afterimage)
Seido Ken: Hitei (Precision Cut: Denial)
Iaiken (Prepared Cut)
Buki Bunshin (Weapon Clone)
Buki no Henge (Weapon Transformation)
Genjutsu Kai (Genjutsu Release)
Taju Fuinjutsu (Mass Sealing Technique)
Shunkan Kawarimi no Jutsu (Instant Substitution Technique)
Silent Killing
Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)


B Rank:
Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hiding in Mist Technique)
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)
Kyo Shunshin no Jutsu (Void Body Flicker Technique)
Bazuken (Buzzblade)
Muto (Block)
Nikawa Bunshin (Glue Clone)
San Bunshin (Acid Clone)
Ryouyou (Prepared Cut: Dual Cut)
Raimei (Thunderclap)
Shuunenbukai (Juggernaut)
Kutouten (Punctuation)

A Rank:
N/A

S Rank:
N/A

HISTORY

Huh. First time for everything and anything I guess, but not usually the greeting I tend to get. Most people tend to be more reactive to reputation rather than bother asking the "how" and "why".

That said, what is there to tell? It'd be easy enough to blame all my problems on issues with upper management or some other bullshit along those lines, but to be honest that'd just be an excuse more than anything else, and I'm anything if not honest. Usually. Okay, no, but what the fuck's the point in lying to yourself? And it's not like there's any point in complaining what you can't change.

It's not an easy road to take, having things decided for you before you're even born. Not if you ask questions whenever you can, and I'd always been told I was smart in all the wrong ways growing up. The shinobi lifestyle isn't exactly well suited to people who can't just blindly listen to things or just accept the world as it is without asking why. People like that tend to be frowned on at the least, beyond that.... it's not pretty. There's a reason that Kirigakure's got the reputation it does, and sure, it's gotten better, but some things never change. I'm not old enough to remember what it was like during the "olden days" when people with kekkei genkai were treated like lepers and something to be eradicated, but there was very good reason I was kept inside as a kid. Wasn't old enough to understand it, but old enough to give my parents hell about it and a run for their money trying to keep me where it was safe, either inside or within line of sight.

So, go figure when policy suddenly gets reversed and I start getting carted back and forth between the family home and my grandfather's place whenever the parents weren't home. For all of the mixed feelings I had for dad at the time, I liked his father just as much to offset it. Kind of weird in hindsight, though. His father was a lot like my mother - who I had an equal number of misgivings about before I actually understood the situation - and probably why they got along so well. Both were Kiri Jonin in their prime, but grandad's style was completely different. Much more "In your face!" than a lot of the on duty village shinobi ever are, and I guess part of that is because most of the people who try it now are probably dead because of the risk involved or survived long enough to retire. You don't see many of history's Seven Swordsmen older than forty, to give you an idea. Whatever the case, it was the kind of thing that had me really wondering for a while what had happened with dad, why he'd decided to chase after fortune than stick with the family tradition.

Well, regardless. Loved the days spent there, and grandad pretty much served as the parents that I actually liked. Didn't lock me up but more made a point of following me around like an overgrown guard dog. By that point it was already pretty clear that I'd be going the route of a shinobi like granddad and mom unless I could figure out a way to get by simply living out of my parents' basement, and that last option was pretty much an embarrassment even by my standards.

Yes, you heard right. Standards. What are those? Are they tasty?

Okay, off track there for a bit. Anyways, people figured out pretty quickly where I was going career wise as a kid, especially since most people in the family business tend to fare best when they nab an early start. So I was.... six? Five? Somewhere around there when I got punted off to the Academy, memory is weird at that age. Not that it stopped grandad or mom from teaching me on their own whenever they were around or in between days spent at the hell known as Kirigakure's Academy, and oh did they teach me things. In between reprimands, anyways. I didn't exactly "get along" with most kids my age, and it was one of those things that the adults weren't really sure how to handle. On the one hand.... beating your opinions into others bad. On the other, getting a kick out of fighting and showing a definite talent for it in what's effectively a military academy good.

Especially when they tend to treat you with kiddie gloves. Kirigakure's Academy doesn't exactly go easy on their students even in the modern day. It definitely wasn't the Bloody Mist as it used to be known as, but by that point I was old enough to figure that something was up when the teachers seemed hesitant to get in and break up a simple fist fight.

In the end they seemed to settle for a compromise, additional homework for every punch thrown. Which, considering that said homework usually involved just teaching me how to more efficiently beat the other guy's face into a pulp in new and ever more fascinating ways? Not really sure where the deterrent was in that strategy, but eh. When I'm older I'll see it? Maybe. Either way I didn't mind it at all, and that type of intelligence that people didn't particularly care for served me pretty well at the Academy. Picked up most lessons within the first day, took them home, began expanding on them with mom and grandpa almost immediately. By the time a week was gone I usually understood the coursework enough that I probably would've been able to teach it to any of the classes behind us. Three years of that and- oh. Right, then, six, graduated when I was nine. Go figure.

Funny how they make a big deal out of what's basically a celebration of mediocrity.

Parents usually make a big deal of their kids graduating the Academy and mine weren't any different. Strange to get any sort of compliment from dad, don't get me wrong, but as expected it was something that made mom way happier than I'd have thought. Only one that really didn't seem to be overly impressed was grandpa, and that probably should've been the first clue along with the sword he gifted me, way too big for my reach back then. Had me wondering at the time, but looking back on things now? They don't tell you that finishing the Academy just puts you on the starting line. All they do is give you the tools you need to either succeed, fail or make an ass of yourself. Guess which one I did?

Ah, yes. Those initial starting teams? They don't tell you in advance who you're going to end up with. And it usually doesn't occur to you, brainless little shit stain you are on enrollment, that all of those people in that classroom? They're going to be your team mates when you get separated into squads. All that showboating, all those horrible first impressions you made so many years ago, that reputation you've either built or enforced? That is your life. That is your hell. So of course I end up with the two other knuckledraggers that I'd get into fights with the most. One of 'em wasn't so bad, just had a habit of saying stupid things about as often as I did, other one was just a guy who'd taken a rather personal disliking to me after planting a foot rather firmly somewhere between his lungs and colon. Then you had me, an aggressive loner type who liked to fight just a little too much. Sounds like a perfect set up for a punchline, don't it?

It was. Pretty much those entire first two years were just one enormous punchline for anyone watching from the sidelines with their snack of choice. Oh, we were the cream of the crop when it came to fighters from that year's graduating class, make no mistake. Takashi wasn't the fastest but he knew how to take a hit, and on top of the Academy's training and the stuff our sensei taught us you'd be hard pressed to find another brawler able to outlast him, usually more than enough to tank his way into punching distance with most opponents or set up for a hard hitting ninjutsu technique. Shiro was made of glass by comparison, but the jackass made up for his lack of physical prowess with planning - definitely the genjutsu type, but had a bit too much love for flashy finishes. Then you had me, that annoying little shit you'd never land a hit on in a fair fight who would dance circles around the other guy until they went down.

Personal performance? We couldn't be beat by our respective age class at the time. Team plays, though, that was another game entirely. Bluntly put, we sucked. Could never time things right, could never cover each other to save our own skins, hell, we probably knocked each other around more than enemy teams did during sparring matches. Wasn't exactly a wonder that we were skipped over entirely for the first Chunin Exam to come up a year after we graduated, nor the two years after that. Three years until we started getting sent on anything approaching actual missions outside of the village proper, and only reason we even made it back half the time was because the bo- sensei had enough skill to offset our combined suck. Kind of defeated the point of most of those missions being training exercises, but then again would rather have my skin intact than be able to say I have some uber awesome one shot kill jutsu because "Insert dramatic mission conclusion here".

Granted, things just got a lot more complicated after I found out about Saiken. It wasn't hard to piece together what people had been saying behind my back over the years and to eventually figure out why mom and dad had kept me inside as a kid. Hell, if they'd been able to they probably would've figured out a way to avoid sending me to the Academy and just taught me at home. Even by the point of graduating the Academy, though, it was just rumor and hearsay to me by that point. It hadn't had any sort of impact on my daily life, so I didn't care and I didn't try to dig deeper. Haters were gonna hate, and if it got me the fights I wanted and provided the intimidation to avoid those I didn't it wasn't like I was gonna complain.

At the same time, though, kind of feel like they ought to explain the whole "Jinchuriki" thing in advance and in much greater detail than they did, not treat it as taboo by default. Sure, the writing was on the wall with how carefully people treated me growing up, but I think it was maybe about four and a half years into the first team? Somewhere around there, after I turned thirteen but before I hit fourteen. I mentioned us always getting back safely because of our sensei, right? Wasn't a lie, not by a long shot, but things did go south every now and then. Murphy's Law, no plan survives intact and what can go wrong will go wrong. C rank missions are normally a cakewalk even by genin standards - or at least they should be - but the thing about mission rankings is that they tend to be focused entirely around impact and the chance of contact with enemy shinobi. What they don't take into account are that the average person can be pretty fucking clever if they put their mind to it, and that you don't need ninjutsu to jam a knife into a person's side or to overwhelm with traps and numbers alone.

So, we get sent out to clear a particularly annoying bunch of shitheels that have decided to set up shop near our borders. First clue that they were going to be a problem should've been that they'd been out there for years. Bouncing along borders on the mainland before moving out to the hundreds of small islands off the continental coast. Never remained in one place long, but kept up a steady stream of raids and highway robberies during all that time - whenever anyone came looking for them they'd made rather liberal abuse of national borders. Skipped to the other side as soon as they knew someone was coming for them, force them to make a choice between potentially pissing off the neighbors or chasing out a few bandits without "formal" training or shinobi skills. When that wasn't likely to work, pick up and move shop entirely before trouble got there.

It was enough to earn them a reputation of sorts among local governments, and the moment someone got word that they'd moved into Mizu no Kuni's borders a local official jumped at the chance to sic a few hired shinobi at the group with the intention of wiping them out for good. Were enemy shinobi involved? No? How many hostiles could be expected? Twenty? Thirty? A bit much for a single squad, let's throw two genin teams at it. Good? Good. Break for lunch.

Again, it's funny how often shinobi think that their skills give them something of an instant I Win button against normal people. All it takes is a handful of mistakes and that advantage is gone, and oh, were mistakes made on this.

I won't go into the long and boring details any more than I already have, but suffice to say that they were prepared. They knew we were coming, knew where we were going to land on the island they'd set up on and had taken account of the potential routes to their camp. More to the point, they weren't shinobi but they were smart, and they knew how to fight, well enough that not all of us made it out of there. No casualties from my team at the time, but a couple of bad enough injuries from explosive traps that the sensei had to send his other two students back to the boats rather than risk further fighting. A few more good calls on the bandits' part and a number of equally bad ones from the assault group ended up with my teacher and I separated, and things got hairy quick.

Chakra reserves aren't the best, and control can only stretch it so far. Skill only carries you that much further when you're exhausted. My first face to face with the Saiken- no. Not face to f- it's weird. Not exactly something I can really put into words or explain to someone who hasn't experienced it themselves before. Regardless, it was the first time I became aware of the Rokubi as something other than myself or a name I'd inherited from someone before me. An introduction of sorts, if you could call it that when one half of the conversation knows everything there is to know about you and you've only heard of the other guy's title, not even his name. Go figure, Biju have names. No one seems to know where the hell they came from and they always seem to get talked up as these mindless forces of nature, but that story fell apart pretty damned quick for me once I realized that he could talk. More importantly, that he had a sense of self and identity every bit as solid as my own and that he wanted to live just as much as I did at that moment and he was offering me the one thing that could help me accomplish that.

Probably should've realized, if something's too good to be true...

His little intervention helped keep me in one piece long enough for the squad's sensei to get back and help pull me out of there. Mission itself was a bit of a mixed bag - plenty of casualties inflicted on the defenders, but we'd taken a pretty solid hit ourselves. Four genin laid up for weeks with burns and lacerations from traps sprung, and the other Jonin pretty badly wounded from pulling the other remaining genin out of there not long after I'd been yanked to safety.

Long story short, we sucked, sensei didn't, fuck the need for teams and fuck the Academy for springing that little revelation on graduation. If there's any one upside to the entire ordeal, though, it's given me a lot of time. Far more time than most genin get to work on their basics between the Academy, my old sensei and both grandpa and mom. A lot more before having higher tier shinies shoved on them for both the sake of convenience and firepower, and what a lot of shinobi my age can do with sheer firepower I can usually pull off with speed and precision now. Not that it really matters in anything outside of one on one training fights. Still, for all the advantage that gives me it doesn't mean I wasn't happy with having our team split up. It's been... four years since then? Two new teams. First didn't work out, second finally did and got us into the Chunin Exams right under the line. That was about a year ago, promotion from that even should pretty much paint a picture of how well that went.

As for Saiken... that's not quite as concrete or tangible. In a way we seemed to get off on a very good foot out the gate, or at least I think so. It's difficult to tell what a massive slug is thinking from his expression alone, and it's not that often he reaches out to me. Not to mention that it's the only way we ever seem to communicate and the only circumstances it happens under. Still haven't figured out how to start those little talks from my end, and still haven't quite figured out why everyone seems to be so damned scared of him. Closest incident that comes to mind is frankly one I can't remember, although it was a big enough event to warrant staff change again - old squad leader booted to bring my original one back to keep an eye on me in a professional sense.

Guessing only time will tell as far as that's concerned.

RP SAMPLE

It was all bullshit.

Okay, but look. He goes into a footrace and isn't allowed to use it, what then? I'm not saying he isn't fast, but-

You're jealous.

Bite me. Hiraishin's neat and all, but it's a loophole. A cheat. A space time jutsu, not physical movement. There's going to be people out there actually faster than him without what amounts to a Get Out Of Jail Free card.

Today of all days. Generally speaking, Izumi was not a people person. That was something that people in Kiri understood, and thus they tended to fall into one of either two groups. Well, three. The first were people like Haku and her old mentor. Those who understood and accepted her, flaws and all, and they were individuals who were in very short supply. The kind of people who Izumi would willingly go out of her way to spend time around since she didn't have to watch what she said or pretend to be someone else. Then there was the second group - family and other people who got about as much choice in the matter as Izumi herself did. There were often rough patches there, but things generally worked out. And then there was everyone else - people who tended to be offended by Izumi's personal sensibilities or lack thereof, those who her rather blunt attitude just tended to rub the wrong way. That group and her had an unspoken understanding in that regard - she kept her distance from them and didn't create problems, and they returned the favor for her. Everybody wins, and some people got to avoid trips to the emergency room.

And then there was the fourth group that normally didn't factor into everyday life. Only comprised of a single individual, but an individual that was being painfully talkative today as Izumi moved through Kirigakure's streets towards the village gates, long hair coiled around her shoulders and clad in her work attire - a white gi and hakama, katana held by the cloth belt around her waist.

Does it matter how he does it if he gets there before the other person?

Yes. Yes it does when you can only go to locations prepared in advance. It's not going to do anything if- fuck it, no. Why are we even debating this? You don't start these conversations unless you want something, so what is it?

And then there was silence.

....

Saiken, out with it.

Saiken-sama.

Funny. I'm not in the mood for this today, what do you want?

And then this time there was no reply, with seconds dragging on into minutes before a frustrated growl would begin to build in the Jinchuriki's throat. That explained why the Bijuu hadn't yanked her into his mental realm as was typical for most of their conversations - no where for him to run with her right there, but this way he was free to ignore her whenever things didn't go the way he wanted. Although Izumi was still more than unclear about what it had all been about in the first place. He knew better than to ask for anything when she was in a bad mood, and that had been the standard for the day on being yanked out of bed and told to get ready for an incoming delegation. Which was yet another thing that didn't make any sense. Saiken finally speaking directly to her after weeks of silence and not to ask for a favor was strange enough, but politics?

The rumors had been all over the place since Terumi either resigned or disappeared - rank and file like Izumi herself were still being left rather unclear on that point - from her post as Mizukage, and even if certain ones were true it made zero sense for Izumi to be involved in any way. Mizukage aside, the village elders knew her temperament well enough to know that she was far from the best option for meet and greets. Especially ones that were unannounced and left even the village veterans on edge.

Speaking of....

Rounding a corner and finally bringing the village gates into view, Izumi saw the visitors. Unwelcome in the sense that Izumi was not happy about being woken early and thrown at complete strangers because someone up above thought it would be funny, but for the moment the village wasn't turning them away. Izumi was surprised that they had been allowed to get this close to begin with, though. Normally the village's defensive measures would've made the place impossible to find for outsiders even if you knew where you were going, but someone had either shut them down or guided the Hokage and his escort in. That seemed to be about where the courtesy ended, though - Izumi was far from the first one there, with at least two other Chunin standing to bar the path ahead and into the village and several more watching from the gates up above.

Much as Izumi wanted to simply ignore the orders she'd been given and avoid interaction entirely, she was already there. Might as well get it over with. Moving ahead to approach the pair from Konoha, Izumi more than understood the look of surprise from both of the other Chunin she passed.

"Someone thought it would be funny." Izumi muttered, finally coming to a stop a respectable two meters away from the Konoha shinobi.

Huh. Odd - for some reason Izumi would've thought at least the Hokage to be a little taller. Izumi knew she was tall but it felt weird to have at least a centimeter on a person of his reputation.

"Probably safe to say none of us are comfortable with it, let's just get it over with. Been sent with orders to confiscate weapons, particularly any of the Hokage's. You're free to keep one each so long as they're visible and not marked with the Yondaime's ninjutsu." Izumi said, voice level and calm - a personal best for keeping irritation hidden.

She was going to find whoever thought this would be a good joke and kick their teeth in before the day was over.

[Key]

Approved!