Name: Shiho Kurama
Nickname: N/A
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 120
Appearance: Shiho is on the taller side of average, with enough meat on her bones to give her attractive curves. She has a symmetrical face with large, expressive chestnut eyes, button nose, and full lips. Even when not wearing much make-up, her lips seem to be stained pink from the repeated use of red stain. Her round cheeks are usually tinted with a naturally friendly blush, warming her already sunkissed skin tone further. Chocolate locks cascade down to her mid-back, full of loose waves except for the straight bangs curtaining her forehead.
Her body is hugged tightly by a generic kunoichi body suit, in black of course. It is sleeveless and goes from her neck, down her torso, ending at the upper thighs. Her shoulders and a hand's length of skin on the thighs are left exposed before lengthy gloves and tights cover the rest of her arms and legs with the exception of fingers and toes. Her feet are covered in typical black ninja shoes, toes exposed with nails painted red to match her fingernails.
Over all the tight fitting black is a flowy Yukata in the colors of summer. The silky fabric is orange at the shoulders, slowly darkening to a deep coral as it flows downward toward the hem. Red, pink, orange, and white blossoms gather toward the bottom of each reach of the fabric with the exception of an accent on the under-side fabric of the overlap in the chest area. The Yukata is only long enough to reach her knees, wrapped close and secured with a golden, arch-patterned obi that is extra secured with a thin black tie.
When at home in her native Yukigakure, she wears an insulated white one-piece complete with fur-edge hood and white snowboots. Her clan symbol is printed in the back.
Village: Yukigakure
Character Rank: Jounin
Character Tier: A-3
Clan: Kurama
Element: Fire
Bijuu Roll: N/A
Personality: Shiho is like honey. Transparent in the way that she's easy to see through; her emotions are on display on her face. Amber tinted in the way she sees everything in a warm, optimistic light. Syrupy in the way she never gives up, clinging to goals and ideals even against fierce opposition. Sweet in the her compassion, giving first, second, and third chances to those who might not deserve them.
But also like honey, she toughens up when the environment is less than ideal, becoming difficult and unyielding. She's intense like the nectar-y flavor, needing others to balance her or else she comes on too strong. Sticky in the way she latches onto an enemy and refuses to let go until one of them is defeated.
Honey analogy aside, Shiho's never met a stranger, and oozes hospitality and affectionate pet names where ever she goes. A cheerful someone, she see's the beauty in all things.
She's so artistically minded that her kekkei genkai allows her writings and paintings to bleed into her reality. This leads to seemingly airhead moments when she becomes unaware of actual reality. To make matters worse, she also tends to escape into her "real imagination" world when in denial or upset, but then has trouble coming back and figuring out what is real and what's not.
Interestingly, the innate purpose of genjutsu usage requires a twisted mind. This lends her a startling fondness for macabre that contradicts her usual persona, as well as the ability to unleash quite unpleasant horrors on those caught in her abilities.
However, her normal countenance won't let her push the envelope as far as is possible and sometimes required. When pushed too far, the woman manifests a sour side. Shiho disassociates from her former identity into a sociopath capable of doing the things she cannot.
Character History: A few decades ago, a small gathering of Kurama's main branch settled in Yukigakure, after their clan's infamy started the swift decline. They inhabited an old, weathered estate, sprawled out tattered and dreary on a snowy plateau situated high in the mountains. A scroll containing the clan's history and details of their kekkei genkai was drawn up and placed in the estate's reading room. After that moment, the clan left the past behind and continued living freely in their comfortable isolation.
Over time the family grew to twelve members. Soon after that, it grew once more to thirteen, and that's where things started to get interesting after years of complacency. Shiho was born.
When Shiho was just a toddler, her family was already keenly aware of how vivid and powerful her imagination was. She could occupy herself endlessly, playing and talking as if she was in a completely different place than everyone else in the room. She learned to read, write, and draw very early, preferring these things over toys. Or at least, that's what it seemed, until they noticed her making motions and giggling as if playing with an object that wasn't there. Chalking it up to her imagination, they didn't think too hard about it until her mother caught her eye one day, and suddenly in her previously empty hand there was a miniature dragon. It seemed to be alive and wriggling. Thinking she was imagining it and that her daughter had simply caught a lizard, she was startled when it was dropped and it grew, spewing fire! Shiho giggled and clapped, and as quickly as it happened it was gone.
Her mother, rattled, shook it off as sleep depravation. Mothers of small children don't get much sleep, after all. But as she and other members of the family started to think they were collectively losing their mental faculties with all the ridiculous things they were seeing, they realized the common denominator was Shiho.
Though odd, it was decided that it was ultimately harmless, so the family became used to being pulled in and out of a toddler's nonsensical imaginings. They assumed she'd grow out of it, but that wasn't the case. If anything, her skills increased with each passing year, to the point that she'd created her own mental world that seemed as real as the one everyone else was living in. Opening the door to her room occasionally earned them a glimpse into an endless meadow full of warm sunshine, cushion-y soft grass, cherry blossoms, and honey combs. Shiho kept paintings of places in her mind she loved, just so she could visit them as well as bring others when she wanted.
Things changed when Shiho was around ten years old. She and her older sister, Nanako, got into an argument over the ownership of the family pet. It was a classic sibling argument of possession, both unwilling to share. Nanako wouldn't back down or let the puppy go, enraging Shiho. They met eyes, and suddenly both girls went silent for a moment. Their parents thought nothing of it until they heard the thump of the puppy landing on the floor and dashing away, promptly followed by horrific screams.
Nanako's body started spontaneously bleeding in huge claw and bite marks on her whole body. Both of her ears were bleeding as well, but there was nothing physically harming her. Even more eerie was Shiho, standing there with a delightly crazed expression, starting to laugh as blood from her sister spattered onto her face.
Luckily, their grandmother was nearby and rushed in while everyone else was too stunned to react. She knocked Shiho aside and whisked Nanako out of the room. It was such a shock that no one knew what happened until Shiho's grandmother started searching for answers to find out. She remembered her own grandmother mentioning something like this, but had thought it was just a story. She spent the night going through books and scrolls in the dusty old reading room, eventually happening across the tattered old scroll of family history.
Now that the clan was aware that Shiho had been born with an intense and rare kekkei genkai, the head of the clan saw this as a way for the Kurama clan to come back into its former glory. While Shiho's parents weren't totally on board with that goal, they did agree that their daughter needed to go to the newly reinstated shinobi academy to learn to control her gift so she wouldn't hurt anyone like she had Nanako.
Shiho was more than happy to go to the academy. There weren't too many children in the clan's estate, so meeting new kids was exciting! She was quick to make friends and did alright in her studies, though often frustrating both her teachers and peers with her lack of focus. It was hard to keep her out of her imaginary world, making her appear air headed and silly when she didn't know what was going on or would run into things she didn't see and vice versa. Ultimately she learned it was important to stay present in important situations, leading her to easily become a genin.
Her genjutsu skills lead to many nearly effortless mission victories with her team, though they did notice that under pressure she would almost go too far. It wasn't a problem because someone was there to stop it.
The chunin exams were a different story. Yukigakure held it's first exam in many, many years once it had enough genin to do so. Paired against a strong opponent from another village, the fight became too stressful for Shiho. He had been warned about her genjutsu and used a sandstorm-type move to block her vision. She was beaten and bloody and close to losing. Using her blood, she painted what looked like a gruesome body on the floor of the arena, then lured him to walk over it. When he looked down, he was caught. He nearly died from the burns of a fire that never happened, narrowly saved by the intervention of the proctor. Most of her friends became scared of her after this, even though she didn't remember anything about it. It did, however, earn her the attention of Yukigakure's leader.
Within a few years, her especially potent genjutsu lead her to become a jounin, much to her clan's delight. The village leader, aware of the recent upsets in the peace between some of the big villages, decided it may be time to take preemptive action to decide what sort of position Yukigakure should be in, should the conflicts worsen. The Land of Snow had been peaceful, uninvolved, and uninterested in outside political happenings for a long while, but it could be quickly approaching an impasse. Understanding what a strong asset she is, Shiho has been sent to gather information in the other villages so the leader can decide the best course to take.
Mon Jun 29, 2020 7:12 am by 
