Name: Shizuka Yuki
Nickname: N/A
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 115 lbs
Appearance: Shizuka Yuki is of average height and weight, though that's really all that's average about her. Her skin is a warm peach hue, and her cheeks and nose are always gently rosy, as if she has a small fever. Her hair is the color and texture of a frosted ocean, cropped short enough to brush her jaw bones and worn mostly side-parted to curtain her right eye. The one that is usually visible is bright periwinkle, and it's assumed it matches the other.
Unlike most of the fit kunoichi whom like to show off their
assets, Shizuka is more on the conservative side. Whether that is personal preference or necessity, it's unclear. Her usual attire consists of simple garments like wide-collared shirts beneath loose-fitting black overalls. This is modified depending on weather. Her internal temperature fluctuates at random as if her body has a hard time regulating it, leading to odd outfit choices at times. Generally, though, if the weather is warm, she wears flowy, white T-shirts under black overall shorts. If it's chilly, she wears long sleeve shirts under overall pants, and will probably have a black coat complete with purple scarf, mittens, and beanie. Regardless of weather, she wears black boots that fit loosely.
Village: Kirigakure
Character Rank: Genin
Character Tier: D-3
Clan: Yuki
Element: Ice Release
Bijuu Roll: N/A
Personality: The kunoichi's moods are as fickle as her internal temperature regulation, and is seemingly related to her clan's favorite chakra element. It's hard to make a generalization about Shizuka's expected traits. She's complex in nature, though that's only seen close up. Default mood would be quiet. It's the calm before the storm, if you stick around long enough. Not that the storm means something always bad, but rather something unexpected that passes quickly. It's the surface of the ocean crusted with a thin layer of ice and seeming calm, though the tumultuous tide still ravages beneath. She longs for closeness with her peers and village folk, yet holds them at arm's length with fake happy smiles.
She puts out the appearance of being friendly, or at least curiously polite, but beyond a point she'll return to shut down. Her ice castle in her mind is where she likes to stay and where she stashes all her thoughts and feelings away, trying to sort through them on her own but ultimately just piling it all up in various corners. But one can only be in emotional shut down for so long before it blows up. If she's happy, she's absolutely blissful. If she's sad, she's damn near inconsolable as a cloud of gloom. If she's pissed...lord help your soul. Her anger might be the worst of it, since it's the most buried part of her that festers until it takes her over completely. Her wrath is unregulated, seething hot as lava and somehow as chilling as the tundra of her heritage. It's a blow up and hurt something, feel bad about it later. Shizuka can hold a grudge and impressively long time, and finds forgiveness a challenge.
Character History: Shizuka's people hail from the Land of Snow. Her early life was a bit stressful. It was during a time of clan upheaval. The elders disagreed on everything, leading the rest to take sides. As in every group of humans, some took things too far. For the most part things were civil and words could be used, but radicals rose up and chose to use their fists. The only words they used were threats. The violence started when Shizuka was only a toddler. Her father often tried to be the diplomat between the sides, leading him to have the biggest target on his back. While he was away, their home was breached and burned. Her mother had stashed her away in a cupboard in their humble kitchen, and poor Shizuka could only listen as she was assaulted and dragged away. Her mother insisted that her child had gone to town with her husband, lying so they wouldn't search. The screams that followed as the house was torched were the last sounds she'd recall her mother ever made.
Miraculously, only part of the house managed to burn thanks largely to the damp and freezing environment. Two walls of the kitchen and the room beyond it stood. While it had been hot, the cupboard shielded her from the flames and smoke until it was safe and she tumbled out. But now she was alone and unsheltered, wandering in the footprints and drag marks left behind in hopes of finding her mother without yet being able to understand the truth. The cold soon overtook her, and by the time her father learned the news, rushed to his ruined home, and found small feet prints in the snow, she was nearly dead from hypothermia.
Being exposed to the elements for so long had its effects. First was the terrible illness, then the diagnosis that her body would always have trouble regulating its own temperature. Thankfully, it wasn't disabling, so she could live a somewhat normal life.
Shizuka took her mother's assumed death pretty hard. Her father cared for her for a year on his own, and even though he was a good man, the pressures of his status, the loss of his wife, and raising a little girl hardened him into a stoic and impatient person who didn't properly grieve. He was distant most of the time, and even partially delusional that her mother wasn't dead and he'd either find her or she'd return on her own. She never did.
A crucial clan debate and vote was quickly approaching, and despite the tragedy, her father remained the mediating party out of duty. He wanted nothing more than a peaceful end to all of this so the ruthless gang of radicals would disband and the cycle of unrest and violence would end. He took his daughter along this time to prevent a tragedy like before. However, during the proceedings the gang showed up, towing in Shizuka's mother. The woman was in terrible shape. What followed was a very heated debate, with her mother held as leverage for the vote to go the way the radicals wanted. Still, other's fought it, but fear won in the end. After her mother was killed in front of all of them, her father rushed at them in a rage and was murdered as well. The vote, on threat of death, pushed in the gang's party's favor.
The clan immediately split. Those unable to stomach what just happened rushed to flee their homeland. Orphaned and traumatized Shizuka was picked up by her uncle, and away they all went to Kirigakure. Her uncle was still a young man, so raising a damaged child was a challenge he didn't know how to deal with, but he did his best. Once moved into their new home, he enrolled her in the academy, hoping some form of normalcy would help mold her into a normal person.
Shizuka didn't do well in school. She was clumsy and quiet. At first she all but refused to interact, but over time learned how to fake friendliness. She did her best when angry, so thankfully during the ending tests she was sufficiently pissed off to do the bare minimum of what was expected to graduate.
She was placed on a team with two boys, one a jinchuriki. It was a miracle, but somehow Shizuka managed to make friends with the two of them, especially the persistent and rebellious host of the tailed beast. This was perhaps the happiest time of her life, but it only lasted for a year. The jinchuriki boy quit. He quit being a ninja altogether. Their team was missing a person, and though they were only genin, it proved to be deadly. A mission didn't go as planned, and the lack of manpower resulted in the death of her other team mate. To lose a friend on top of having already lost her parents, the young Yuki girl quit being a ninja as well.
She and the jinchuriki continued to be friends, and she continued to seek comfort in him. With age, their friendship matured into a relationship between teenagers. But, while growing up, they had changed as most do. After a bad breakup, Shizuka found herself alone again, quite bitter and uncomfortable.
Shizuka returned to the ninja life, resentful of her set back, but more determined to become strong so she'd never need anyone again. Now grown, she continues to search for her place in the world.
Mon Jun 29, 2020 7:12 am by 
