Post by Spartan on Nov 30, 2017 23:35:49 GMT
HYUGA
Origin: Hi no Kuni
Current Village(s): Konohagakure
History: As with the Uchiha and Senju clans within Konohagakure, the Hyūga clan shares the dubious honor of an incomplete record of their past. Beyond the Warring States era, only fragments of their history remain, largely preserved through oral tradition but little more than rumor and myth than certifiable fact. More recent events, however, have much more concrete roots in history.
Despite possessing a dojutsu during the Warring States era, the Hyūga clan never quite achieved the same fame or power as their cousins, due to a number of reasons. While powerful, the Byakugan failed to give the Hyūga a definite advantage over most other kekkei genkai clans and many more advanced genjutsu users - but, more to the point, unlike other kekkei genkai the Byakugan was quite stealable, and very easily transplanted from one shinobi to another with very little loss or change in ability. As a result, the Hyūga were very heavily targeted during this era, and due to their rather remarkable pale eyes hiding among the general populous wasn't a possibility as it was for other shinobi in a time where it was custom to keep your family name hidden. In spite of their incredible taijutsu prowess and sensory abilities, this fact meant that the Hyūga were always on the defensive during the early years of the era, more concerned with self preservation than taking up jobs with feudal lords for profit and reputation.
It wasn't until midway through the Warring States era, after the clan had been driven nearly to extinction by those seeking their eyes, that a solution, a deterrant, would be found. While by no means a talent that the clan was particularly known for, out of sheer desperation a select few individuals would begin to explore the art of Juinjutsu, or Cursed Seals. Within a number of years and after several failed attempts, an effective counter and deterrant to Byakugan thieves would be made - when placed on the body, the seals would erase the vision of the user's eyes upon death or with a single command before erasing the seal itself, making theft nearly impossible under combat conditions as taking a target alive is far more difficult than dead. This development, however, would create a drastic shift in power within the Hyūga clan. While the seal proved effective when tested, it wasn't long until those who made it would begin to be targeted. As the seal erased itself upon death, this meant that the only way to learn a method of countering the seal would be from those who made it - and, at the same time, hopefully eliminate the source of those seals.
For the Hyūga as a whole, this presented a problem. While the seals would allow whoever wielded them to hold a great deal of power over those they were placed upon, to not have the juinjutsu in place would mean extinction. And so, the lesser of two evils was chosen, with the ancestor responsible for creating the Hyūga juinjutsu becoming the first member of the Main House, along whose bloodline the juinjutsu as well as the pinnacle of the Hyūga clan's techniques would be passed down to. In turn, the rest of the clan would serve to protect the Main House, taking the risks of the cursed seal over constant threat of death from those who sought the clan's eyes. Having taken place over the course of a thirty year period midway through the Warring States era, the world would have already begun to change by the time the Hyūga were ready to stand among the other clans as equals.
By extension, however, the timing of these developments were likely one of the main reasons the Hyūga took to them so readily, and adapted to them so easily. Having long since hailed from the fringes of what would eventually become Hi no Kuni, the rumors of an alliance between the Senju and the Uchiha were alarming bits of news for a number of reasons - first and foremost being that if a feudal lord wished to, it wasn't entirely inconceivable that such an alliance could easily conquer much of the continent with the other clans so scattered and fractured. Having been on the edges of both clans' territory for years and after finally having carved out a place of their own in the final years of the Warring States era, that also meant the Hyūga were liable to be first in line if such a military campaign did begin.
The Hyūga would be among the first of a small handful other clans to seek out the new alliance and offer their own skills and talents, alongside the Akimichi and Aburame, creating the founding clans that would eventually form the beginnings of a fledgling Konoha. And, for the most part, the Hyūga kept to themselves. While accomplished fighters in their own right, the previous era that had just ended had not been kind to their numbers, and by the time of Konoha's founding the number of surviving clan members could be counted with one person's fingers. Even with the juinjutsu to deter those who might steal their eyes, that wouldn't stop other shinobi from attempting to kill them just based on differing ideals alone - and so, for those first several decades within the confines of Konoha, the Hyūga would focus almost exclusively on rebuilding what they had lost. It wouldn't be until over fifteen years later that their services would explicitly be called upon by the Hokage.
While their ability to fight during the previous era had been limited at best, when placed within squads composed of several different clans the Hyūga would truly shine in a way that few others still adjusting to the shift in warfare did. Utilizing their dojutsu to the fullest extent, Hyūga clansmen gave Konoha a significant advantage in the field, particularly where unfamiliar terrain was concerned. Able to easily avert ambushes, track enemy movements from remarkable distances while remaining hidden and serve as solid taijutsu fighters, the formerly lackluster clan proved to be a formidable presence in field operations, enough to turn the tide of several key fights that Konoha might have otherwise lost. Following repeated successes the Hyūga clan as a whole would have gain significant level of recognition and prestige that had been afforded to few even during the previous era.
Not, however, without a price. While many other clans within the village had come to realize that warfare had significantly shifted with the change in times and that no single clan would have managed to survive in the new era, most of the families came to that realization with a degree of humility. While the Hyūga clan was never particularly one for gloating, having garnered a reputation for their stereotypically reserved natures even then, their new place within the village would instead bring to them a certain degree of arrogance. Many within the clan understood exactly how instrumental their kekkei genkai had become to the village, possessing sensory abilities that outshone even that of the celebrated Uchiha, and felt fairly secure in the knowledge that the rest of Konoha knew it, too.
What this would largely mean was that while the clan had been content to merely live among many in the village and mingle with the rest of the populace the Hyūga clan would begin to become increasingly secluded and isolated. While their loyalty to the village was never called into question in large part due to their very efforts in helping to build it and the clan culture that had developed concerning authority following the inclusion of the Cursed Seal into their everyday life, it did end up creating significant distance between the Hyūga and the village's numerous other clans in the following years.
This was a pattern that would be maintained for a another fifteen years as the Hyūga came to be considered almost an entire community unto itself within Konoha's walls. While very much willing to offer their services and talents to the village, almost to the point of eagerness, it would make dealing with the other clans within Konoha difficult at best, and for those that didn't explicitely belong to an organized clan as more and more people were absorbed into the community, nearly impossible at worst. This would even extend to the point of many Branch families taking up the same practices as the Main House, privately teaching their potential shinobi and directly passing down techniques rather than enrolling them in the village's Academy. It wasn't until the newer generation began to see active service that the damage done became apparent, however.
Where the first years of the village had been nearly a showcase of the Hyūga clan's ability to contribute to Konoha's efforts in a military sense, the new period would come with significant cost to the clan. To say that it was a rocky start would be an understatement - unlike before, nearly all of the villages involved had developed a general idea of what to expect from one another. Had conditions been similar to the past things might have been different. With the identification of the Hyūga as a sizable threat after the last conflict, however, things changed. Within the first several months the abilities and limits of the Byakugan had been analyzed enough to begin formulating rough - and not always consistent - counters to the dojutsu, but that on its own would only be compounded by the facts that the Hyūga lacked the unit cohesion they had been known for, as well as that their reliance on taijutsu created a number of weaknesses. Between a lack of communication and additional problems resulting from lack of unit cohesion, the Hyūga would see an overwhelming number of casualties as their shinobi were specifically targeted by enemy forces with the intent of blinding and disorganizing Konoha's mission groups.
Despite the clan's relative resistance to change, even those in the Main House currently leading the Hyūga understood almost immediately that the clan had lost something integral over a relatively short period of time. The Hokage of the time likewise agreed - and following on the shared conclusion, efforts would be made to begin integrating Hyūga shinobi into Konoha's units from as early as their initial training, something that hadn't been done since the previous generation. It was a drastic shift and one not entirely popular with the clan as a whole, but one that at least marginally began to improve the survival rates of clansmen over the course of the conflict.While not as bad as it had been by the end of the Warring States era as Hyūga shinobi began to be recalled from the front lines as their numbers dwindled, practically only the Main House and three Branch Houses remained of a legion that used to occupy a fair portion of Konoha on their own.
And so, another cultural shift was needed. While the Hyūga still clung to the core traditions of their clan, the remaining Main and Branch Houses would begin to move things back towards how they had been during the initial founding of Konoha. Rather than reclaim the buildings and the remainder of the neighborhood left empty by their fallen kinsmen, the clan would instead begin to encourage others to take up the available living spaces. Practices that had been taken up during the Warring States era to try and alleviate casualty rates would be kept in place, with Hyūga children intending to take up the shinobi lifestyle attending the village Academy, including even the progeny of the Main House. In the 10 years since this shift the clan would manage to rebuild a meager portion of what they lost, much as they had before during the village's founding.
Chakra Nature(s): Any
Bloodline:
Byakugan: One of the Three Great Dojutsu and the second one in Konoha alongside the Sharingan, the Byakugan carries with it a very different set of abilities. While lacking the Sharingan's ability with genjutsu or attention to detail, the Byakugan instead grants a different set of powerful abilities, and is normally usable from birth. Those using the Dojutsu are instead able to see through solid objects, and perceive objects, people and events from great distances away - although the range of this perception varies from person to person depending on natural talent and ability, the average range varies from 50 meters in genin level users to an impressive several kilometers in Jonin level users. While able to see chakra while active, much like the Sharingan, the Byakugan also allows the user to perceive and view an individual's chakra network, something that the former Dojutsu is completely incapable of. Finally, the Byakugan grants the user the ability to see 360 degrees of their surroundings, bar a small blind spot above the first thoracic vertebrae. Unlike the Sharingan, a transplanted Byakugan can be activated and deactivated at will.
Jutsu:
Gentle Fist: A fighting style unique to the Hyūga clan, and heavily dependent on their kekkei genkai. Without the Byakugan, utilizing it is impossible. Relying on pinpoint chakra control and using the Byakugan to guide their strikes, Gentle Fist is characterized by a reliance on precision and technique over brute force - the vast majority of strikes are finger jabs and open handed, with closed fists almost never used. The goal of most strikes is to directly attack the opponent's inner organs, completely bypassing external defenses to deliver jabs and blasts of chakra into the target on being struck. Despite the outward lack of force, this makes it one of the deadliest forms of taijutsu in the world, capable of easily killing nearly any opponent with a well aimed strike to the heart or other vital organ. It should be noted, however, that chakra resistant metals and similar materials can lessen or even completely negate damage from this style of fighting, and its usefulness on puppets, nonhuman opponents and more unconventional forms of defense is limited.
Gentle Fist - Eight Trigrams: A far more advanced tier of techniques, and the most powerful ones that the Hyūga clan has ever created. Unlike the basic Gentle Fist style, Eight Trigrams techniques are the sole province of the Main House, and it is forbidden to pass it down to Branch House members. While this doesn't stop individuals from potentially stealing or copying the techniques with their own Byakugan, the level of skill and talent required is a heavy deterrent, and with the only source of instructions for learning the techniques passed down orally from one Main House member to another, theft is nearly impossible. Techniques falling under this designation are unique in that their either directly target the opponent's tenketsu, robbing them of the ability to utilize chakra, or expel chakra from tenketsu rarely used by other shinobi to generate unconventional effects and techniques. Unlike the basic Gentle Fist, the Eight Trigrams school is also incredibly demanding on the practitioner's body. This demand along with requiring nearly inhuman levels of chakra control impossible for even most Jonin only serve to further ensure that the techniques aren't able to be stolen, as witnessing it in use once and being able to physically perform the jutsu are two entirely separate things. This does come with a risk, however, in that even members of the Main House can be incapable of performing these techniques - where that does happen the heir is usually cast aside for the next youngest in the hopes that they will be strong enough to inherit the Main House's mantle.
Notes: All Branch House members are to possess the Curse Mark - this isn't an option. Additionally, no Branch House member may start with any Eight Trigrams techniques, nor app any until taught them ICly by the Main House. Finally, all Eight Trigrams techniques and associated Gentle Fist techniques require Chakra Control as a specialization before the techniques can be learned.
Current Clan Leader: N/A
Current Clan Members: N/A
Accessible: Main House requires permission. Branch Members can be made at member discretion.
MADE BY ★MEUL
