Arai Ryuichi

Time:	8:20 pm.
Mood:	awake.
Music:	wasteland, 10 years.

Character Name: Arai Ryuichi
Age: 18
Birthday: October 3d
Rank outside ANBU: Chuunin
Affiliated with which ANBU branch: Hunters
Registration Number: 11094

Physical Appearance

Height: 170 cm

Weight: 64 kg

Blood Type: A

Hair: His hair is straight, black, reaches down past his shoulders, and is always worn in a simply ponytail, secured at the nape of his neck. A few stands hang over his eyes. It is usually done in a small white bow. Comment on the fact, and you’ll find yourself missing a few teeth.

Eyes: Deep-set and dark blue eyes complete his face, though a thin scar cuts through the right one. He likes to claim he can still see out of it, but it’s a complete and utter lie.

Skin: Ryuichi tans when there’s sun, is pale when there isn’t. He’s got a ton of scars, and several noticeable ones on his face.

Facial Features: With sharp, hawkish features, he might be considered handsome if he stopped scowling long enough for people to notice. As far as scars go, he’s got a fair amount, the most notable of which is the thin line slicing through his right eye at a ninety-degree angle. You can probably guess what it did to him. Ryuichi doesn’t like to talk about how he got it, often muttering, “was stupid,” and then clamming up on the subject.

His usual expression is a tight scowl, which tends to make people thinks he’s a jerk, arrogant beyond redemption, or a nasty combination of the two. When he does smile, it’s light and easy, often following an enjoyable conversation. Or it’s dark and softly curving, following an enjoyable combat.

Other Physical Traits: Ryuichi is very aware of the fact that he’s quite a bit shorter than average. But while he’d probably slap an explosive-tag on your face if you teased him about it, in truth he enjoys the advantages of being smaller than most (so much easier to slip under an opponent’s guard and gut them). With a tight, compact build, he’s in excellent shape, and quick on his feet on top of it.

Long, thin fingers stretch out from his strong hands. He’s broken his right wrist once, and the left one twice, and they occasionally get sore.

Handedness: Ambidextrous.

Voice: Low and smooth. Has a tendency to slip in a growl or exceptionally foul curse when he’s angry or in pain. Never tried singing and wouldn’t be good at it if he had.

Identifying Marks: Bow in his ponytail, scars, ANBU tattoo.

Usual Clothing: Ryuichi wears the standard ANBU uniform when on duty, though he flat out refuses to wear the sandals, opting instead for a pair of sturdy boots. It has something to do with his desire not to get his toes hacked off. He always carries more weapons than the average agent, though it’s likely you won’t see half of them unless you really, really concentrate

Off duty, he’s all about practicality. He favors cargo-pants over jeans and doesn’t like shorts. Preferring short-sleeves to long, most of his shirts are a bit threadbare around the seams, though few of them have actual holes. He wears his forehead-protector tied to his belt, and dips his dogtags in wax so they don’t jingle.

ANBU Mask: A fox, with a pointed muzzle and leering snarl, done in blue and black.

Living Situation: Apartment on the second floor of ANBU HQ, room 205, next to Hagane Kotetsu.

Ninja Skills

Fighting Style: From all the weapons he totes around, it’s not hard to guess Ryuichi’s specialty. Weapons are his passion, armed-combat is his skill, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a fighter who would be as comfortable using just about any weapon you could think of, and a great many you wouldn’t. You name it; he knows how to use it.

With dual slashing weapons, one in each hand, he relies more on speed than power, though his kicks can shatter bone, if he puts his mind to it. Fire and water-style Ninjutsu is his fallback option; Genjutsu is used only when he finds himself with no other options.

Usually, he’ll select three weapons before the start of the mission (two to use, one to carry), not counting his kunai and shuriken, and sticks with those, but he always takes a weapons summoning scroll with him. For those few instances when things change for the worse. Better to be prepared than to be occupying a body bag, in any case.

His weakness is in his defense (or lack therefore of). Ryuichi tends to rely more on his ability to shrug off blows than actually putting his mind to dodging.

Preferred Weapons: Favorite weapons? Well, it would take a very long time to list each and every one of them. Ryuichi loves anything that can be employed effectively in combat, and if you name a weapon, there’s a good chance he knows how to use it.

Lately, he’s taken to using the combination of a hatchet and katana, liking the way he can confuse an enemy by shifting the range on them. For long-distance, he can use a hunting bow, though with only one good eye, his accuracy is chancy at best.

Special Jutsu: Several water and fire-style attacks, both offensive and defensive. He has no family jutsu or summoning contract. There is that one illusion of his late sister’s that fakes death, but Ryuichi isn’t skilled enough to apply it as effectively as she did in combat.

Service Record: Graduated the Academy at ten, made Chuunin on his third attempt at age thirteen with the rest of his team, and joined ANBU not long after his eighteenth birthday. Lost the sight in his right eye when he was fifteen, on a mission that went too wrong to casually discuss.

Personality

General Personality Traits: Stubborn, laid-back, and calm until something sets him off, Ryuichi fades into the background until something (or someone) jerks him out of it. He doesn’t go out of his way to be noticed, but doesn’t deny his presence, either. Straightforward and blunt to the extreme, Ryuichi says exactly what he thinks and doesn’t mince words, no matter the consequence. He rarely gets angry but takes any excuse to fight, off duty or on.

His personality tends to grate against others, getting him into fights often, about half of which he has no chance of winning. Even when it’s smarter to run, Ryuichi never does. On missions, he’ll fight until something knocks him out or kills him. Contrasting, however, is his tendency to procrastinate and avoid problems in his social life, from seeing medics to talking with superiors when he knows they’re going to end up lecturing him. Ryuichi can get through almost any mission assigned to him alive, but the non-combat aspects of the shinobi life confuse him.

Though he doesn’t make friends easily, the ones he has, Ryuichi protects. He’s lied to protect friends, almost up to the point of insubordination, and, if asked, would do any favor for them, no questions asked.

Quirks: Far more respectful to women than men, chain-smokes when off duty, and tells his teammates off for doing the same things that get him in trouble. Avoids medics like the plague for no apparent reason and finds a way to dislike anyone in the Intel department, no matter their personality.

Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual.

Gifts/Talents: Cooking. Coming back from missions, usually in one piece, despite his combat style and apparent lack of self-preservation. Disappearing when somebody’s mad at him. He’s got a fast recovery time with injuries, and it probably has something to do with how he’s learned how to force his body to do what he wants it to, no matter the damage.

Flaws: Flat-out refusing to admit he’s wrong or hurt even when there’s significant evidence to the contrary is defiantly a flaw. Ryuichi has been known to refuse medical treatment when he’s got kunai sticking out of him. He’s also got less tact than a thrown brick and is known to say socially unacceptable things to just the wrong people.

He also loves fighting more than is healthy and would do anything to win, up to and including stabbing himself and taking Speed to dull the pain. Utterly unafraid of injury and reckless enough that it borderlines on suicidal, Ryuichi doesn’t give up. Ever. He gives his teammates far too many headaches.

Religion and Philosophy: Doesn’t care for religion, but believes in finishing the things he sets out to do, and honoring his promises. It’s close enough to a philosophy to keep him going through the day.

Likes and Loves: Missions, combat, friends. Dogs, horses, and booze.

Dislikes and Hates: Medics. People who drag him to medics. Being lectured, being forced to take non-combat missions. Seeing friends get hurt.

Fears: Failing his friends, and, despite all his actions to the contrary, dying.

Dreams and Ambitions: Figuring his life out is first on the list. Making jounin is second, and after that, he’s not really sure. Life isn’t something Ryuichi has ever been good at predicting, and so he’s content, for the most part, to just let it come as it will.

Relationships

Family: The Arai family and Ryuichi have an interesting relationship. Predominantly a merchant clan, few members choose to become shinobi, and the profession is not always looked upon kindly. Ryuichi entered the academy at the encouragement of his older sister (a kunoichi at the time), and the despair of his parents. After the death of his sister, Arai Saiyuri, Ryuichi found himself drifting further and further away from his parents and cousins. They rarely speak to each other now, though he’d like to think they’d let him crash at home, should something regrettable happen.

His parents are Arai Renji and Momoko. He doesn’t get along with his mother.

Friends: He’s close friends with Hagane Kotetsu (no one knows exactly why) and sees mostly eye-to-eye with Gekko Hayate. He’s got some comrades (mostly older) who look in on him from time to time, and a few sparring partners who are willing to overlook his savage style. Ryuichi has been dating his genin teammate, Ise, since they were fifteen. She asked him out first. They beat each other bloody on a regular basis, and no one quite gets their relationship. He burns incense for his other teammate, and tries not to think of him overly much, or, more specifically, the mission that left him dead and Ryuichi half-blind. Natsume Kaede, his jounin-sensei, looks in on him occasionally.

Lovers: Kurosuki Ise, his girlfriend and former genin-teammate.

Hero: His sister, Arai Saiyuri, and jounin sensei, Natsume Kaede. One is dead and the other is crazy, which says a few too many things about him.

Enemies: None, currently, though Ryuichi tends to get into fights far more than is healthy for him.

Personal History: Born into a powerful, though non-shinobi clan, Ryuichi could have easily chosen a different career, even if he wanted to play with sharp objects all day. The Arai family specializes in weapons, anyways. As one of Konoha’s top arms merchants, the family name is well known, even if it’s sometimes spoken a little harshly (Ryuichi’s uncle, the current Clan Head, is not known for his generosity). They buy (or steal, if you believe the rumors) weapons from anywhere and everywhere, and then redistribute them, after cleaning them up enough to make them presentable. Though Konoha and her shinobi are not their sole customers, the Arai family favors them over their other clients, and decided to settle the family down in the village after the beginning of the war with Stone.

Both Ryuichi and his big sister (by five years), Sayuri, lacked the natural talent for negotiating, and found they liked practicing with weapons far more than they liked selling them. Their parents’ profession held no attraction to them, despite Renji and Momoko’s attempts to make it interesting for them. So they did what any child who lives in one of the Hidden Villages and has an acute love of weaponry did—they entered the academy, first Sayuri, and then Ryuichi several years later.

Sayuri wormed her way up to the top of her class, even so much as to graduate a year early, and make Chuunin at twelve. Mixing Genjutsu with physical techniques, her fighting style was often a source of delight for her instructors, and even her parents, who, despite their misgivings, couldn’t help being proud of her.

But then the war came, and Ryuichi’s sister was sent to the frontlines. He entered the academy, and saw less and less of her. At age ten, he graduated, and was placed on a genin team. Sayuri came to congratulate him, though he could see coldness in her eyes that he didn’t recognize. She then went on a long-term assignment, and he didn’t see her again for nearly ten months. The actual mission only took six.

At age thirteen, he made Chuunin and Sayuri entered ANBU, Hunters division. Her dog tags were delivered to Ryuichi’s parents one year later, along with the information that their daughter had committed suicide and wouldn’t be coming home again.

Ryuichi, not knowing a better way to deal with it, threw himself into his shinobi lifestyle, taking more difficult and dangerous missions, and drifting further and further away from his family. It seemed, at least to him, that they had less and less to say to each other, until it got to the point when they simply stopped speaking.

And then, of course, was the mission that ended with the death of a teammate, and left Ryuichi half-blind. But he doesn’t like to talk about that.

His fighting style became progressively more savage, and his temper shorter, effectively building himself an emotional shield against the forces that had driven his big sister to slit her wrists in the ANBU showers with all the taps running cold.

When ANBU offered, Arai Ryuichi accepted, with the intent of trying to figure out what had happened to his sister and proving himself (he wasn’t quite sure to whom, exactly), joining the Hunters not long after his eighteenth birthday. During that time, he met Hagane Kotetsu and the two became sparring partners and then friends. Missions happened. Life happened. So far, Ryuichi has avoided dying.

He plans on leaving in a few years, if he doesn’t die before then, and making Jounin. After that? Well, he’ll cross that bridge when he gets there.

Special Notes: With his temper, fights with his fellow agents are inevitable. But hopefully he’ll find some who can see past his scowl and make some friends.

Comments: Add Your Own.

InsaneJournal for fallen_ryuichi.

View:	User Info.
View:	Friends.
View:	Calendar.
View:	Memories.
You're looking at the latest 5 entries.