Name: Yori Nishizaka
Nickname: The Nymph Sage
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 95 lbs
Appearance: While most of the Nishizaka clan look like wild children, partially gone feral out in the woods, Yori is a break from the mold in that respect. She has the most gathered appearance of the clan. She makes sure to keep twigs and leaves out of her beautiful mane, and repairs her clothes whenever they tear. It's for this reason her own clan views her as a little bit of a snob, but there is no animosity.
Her hair is constantly changing, so if someone doesn't learn to recognize her face or some other quality, they may not notice her on the street. The Nishizaka clan can control hair length, texture, and color at will, so it isn't unusual for it to be different every time. Yori does love to play with hairstyles, but likes to default to wavy ebony locks that reach halfway down her back, and bangs to frame her face. Her first growth of hair was black, so she feels this is her most natural look. That being said, she's not against showing up with a hot pink pixie hairstyle just because she got bored.
The rest of her is always the same, though. As per her clan, her eyes are sky blue and framed with long black lashes. Her eyelids are naturally tinted with a charcoal smoky eyeshadow-like marking. An inch thick black line permanently marks her skin, descending from her scalp down the back of her neck, splitting at the shoulders to continue down the back of each arm and ending at bands around the wrists. Because of her healthy lifestyle, her pale skin is flawless and healthy, eliminating the need for make-up. Her nose is small and straight, her pout a natural peach. All in all her face is symmetrical, so biologically she's considered attractive.
Her small frame makes her seem even more like a fairy, which she hates being compared to. Her off-duty clothes are nothing special. Black pants with mesh cutouts at the upper thigh/hip area rise to about mid-hip where a peach fabric band keeps them in place, with the typical wrapping and throwing weapon pouch attached to her left thigh. Gray boots rise to mid-calf, though she prefers to be barefoot if applicable. Her middle is left bare, with clothing resuming at her base of her ribcage. Her top is a peach, stretchy tank top with a metal breast plate and mesh sown in for faux short sleeves ending in a ring of gray fabric. Her forearms have basic black bracers strapped on, and her hands are tucked into fingerless gray gloves with metal plates on the backs.
When on duty, she wears the typical garb of her shinobi position unless otherwise instructed or allowed.
Village: Konohagakure
Character Rank: Jounin
Character Tier: A-3
Clan: Nishizaka
Element: Lava Release
Bijuu Roll: N/A
Personality: Like most of her clansmen, Yori's a pretty chill girl. She loves nature and spends a lot of time out in it. She's most at peace in the quiet of the forest, admiring the zen qualities of it all. Conscious of how healthy things are, usually she only uses the most organic and healthy things, and at times chides others for their unhealthy choices. All chiding is done with love, of course.
She is fiercely loyal and prideful in her clan. Her hair is both her strength and her weak spot. Though not much can hurt her hair, even an attempt by someone or something to damage it is a no-no. Attempting to do so is like breaking her clan's most sacred teachings, which is probably why she has hate-hate relationships with hairdressers.
But there is another side of her, one that betrays her inner feelings even when she says she's fine. When things aren't quite right with her, her usual health food obsession and meticulous grooming take a back seat. She may indulge in unhealthy behavior, anywhere from eating junk food to sneaking sips of sake even though she's underage.
It would seem that the hippy treehugger clan would be against everything a shinobi stands for, what with the violence and all, but that's not the case. Because of their versatile and powerful kekkei genkai, the Nishizaka enjoy becoming ninja and being the voice for nature and reason, protecting the environment and others as much as possible. They view themselves as the "responsible shinobi". They take time to consider the overall consequences of actions. Yori shares these views, but she also has a violent streak. Her passionate protection of both her friends and nature brings her to lose her temper when pushed too far. She then gets tunnel vision and will stop at nothing to take the offender down, blinding her to causing damage to nature herself.
Character History: As a child, Yori was the wildest Nishizaka child born to the Konohagakure branch they'd seen in years. She was born without hair, something that had not happened since the time of legend, which sent the whole clan into a panic that Mikami's blessing had waned and the clan would return to being cursed with baldness. However, it seemed to be an isolated case, with others born after her being perfectly normal.
Being the oddball at such a young age was tough. The other children, being normal little shits, made fun of her. It was the classic ugly duckling story. Her early days were spent praying in the shrine for hair, meditating in the forest, kneading chakra into her scalp, and washing under the waterfall. Just like her hairless ancestors. She didn't get much chance to play with the other kids, and when she did they ended up leaving her behind or making fun of her. Her parents didn't want her to enter school at such a disadvantage, but Yori didn't seem worried about it. She insisted she wanted to go, and they gave in.
In the clan's shinobi preschool, she had to fight twice as hard to keep up. She had access to none of the benefits of the clan, so she had to train her body instead of relying on hair. This made her seem wild, coming at them with her body and wits, relentlessly showing she was fine without hair and too chill for them to get under her skin. However, she was very not fine on the inside, feeling inadequate and monstrous for being hairless. As if her hair issue wasn't enough, because she felt worthless, it bled over into her self-treatment. Her clothes were always torn and dirty from spending all her time in the forest, and she took comfort in junk food to feel better. Always hiding behind the "I'm fine" smile.
Thankfully, it turned out she was just a late bloomer. Just before academy started, her hair sprouted. That was all it took. She blossomed into a new person, always looking her best. Her hair seemed thicker and healthier than the other kids'. Just like that she was as strong as her peers, if not moreso since she was forced to train her body. It was no surprise when she became genin a little early. It felt like justice was served, leaving her bullies behind in the dust.
She was placed on a team with two older genin, who were pissed because they aspired to enter the chuunin exams as rookies and thought little Yori would hold them back. To their surprise, she agreed to enter with them. Her calmness in the face of stress and her affinity for senjutsu caught the eyes of the judges, and after she won her battles she was the only one from her team to become chuunin that year.
Yori had a rough start as a squad leader. She was still younger than most of the members she lead, which often caused teamwork problems. She grew tired of having to prove herself over and over again, especially on missions that didn't lend themselves much to impressing others. Fortunately, with time she at least made friends with those she was in charge of, especially the twins Jo and Bo, and Tsumi.
As fate would have it, the peaceful missions would come to a sudden halt. While leading the team of her friends charged with escorting the maker of a special food pill from Yukigakure to Konohagakure, a band of missing-nin attacked near The Valley of the End. Jo lost a leg, Bo's spine was snapped, and Tsumi was put into a coma. Seeing her friends go down so quickly sent her into a rage. By the end of it, three of the four attackers were dead and the area was left smoldering under hardening lava. The environmental impact was significant, shocking Yori. She'd never known herself to harbor such destructive and deadly abilities. She kept it together, getting the food pill maker the rest of the way home while also pulling her comrades behind her on stretchers attached to tendrils of hair.
All the reasons that Yori hated that mission only earned her praise. It was confusing to process. She felt guilty about causing so much damage and ending the lives actual people, but she had saved her friends and completed the objective. She was told she was super effective. Her destruction earned her the much longed for respect, yet she returned to that place to plant seeds to replace the forest for months. Yori wrestled with the price paid. Saving her friends was worth it, yet it didn't make it okay. There had to have been a way to keep her friends safe
and not damage the area. Yes, trees could grow back and lives could not, but it still hurt. She had damaged the very thing that made her strong. Nature.
The incident also spurred her to learn ijutsu to better serve those she's in charge of. Jo received a prosthetic leg and more or less recovered, but the other two weren't so lucky. Bo was paralyzed and bound to a wheelchair and Tsumi never woke up. In Yori's eyes, she'd failed nature and her friends.
In the eyes of the village, though, she'd earned her place as jounin. It'd been a while since anyone from the Nishizaka clan had reached this level, so they were pretty happy. Yori was conflicted about it at first, but in time she came to terms with the past and is eager to move on and prove she can find a better way.
Mon Jun 29, 2020 7:12 am by 
