Post by Hiko on Apr 7, 2010 23:34:08 GMT -5
NAME: Oketsu Takako
AGE: 49
GENDER: Female
RANK: No shinobi rank; leader of the Oketsu clan
APPEARANCE: Takako stands at 5'5" (167cm), with silvering slate-coloured hair that falls mid-back, and the common red eyes of the clan. She has an almost overly-thin form, with little in the way of curves. Takako has the beginnings of crow's feet and laugh lines appearing on her face. She can usually be found in more traditional clothing.
PERSONALITY: The best one can say is that Takako means well and tries hard. First and foremost on her mind is the security of her clan and its inhabitants. Takako’s morality relies heavily on the traditions and protocols of those who have come before her, and it is upon these decisions that she moves foreward.
A shrewd negotiator, she maneuvers well within the politics of the village and outward with foreign clans.
Where her daughter Ayana is concerned, there is no length to which she will not go in order to insure the girl’s safety. Her niece, too, falls under this same scrutiny, but Takako’s pride has kept her from fully articulating the feelings she holds for the woman. More often than not, attempts at indicating this affection comes out as criticism, or worse, manipulation.
WEAPONS: Long daggers, needles
CHAKRA ELEMENT: Earth/Water
JUTSU:
-Chimamire Mai (Bloody Dance) Taijutsu. With two long daggers laced with Shiketsu, Takako can can quickly evade and defeat a medium-sized group of attackers.
-Naimaku no Tantou (Inner Daggers) Ninjutsu. This technique can only be used within the Oketsu main house. Takako keeps daggers hidden throughout the main house of the clan compound, and can force them to literally fly out of the woodwork when need be via strings of chakra.
-Hari Daisanji (Needle Holocaust) Ninjutsu. This jutsu resembles Fukumi Hari in performance, but at a greater magnitude. Instead of developing the senbon in her mouth, Takako forms them with the chakra in her hands and lets them fly in great amounts. However, unlike Fukumi Hari, she cannot combine this technique with her Shiketsu.
BLOODLINE: Furuchi. Only the females in the Oketsu line may carry the kekkai genkai trait. Furuchi allows for Takako's bodily fluids (spit, blood, etc.) to act as various poisons.
Drawback to Furuchi: With each use, Takako's immune system weakens. Unlike others in the clan, hers does not return to its natural effectiveness.
(Coloured - Effects on Takako. Italics - Effects on victims. The following are the effects using Takako's posions only. Other Oketsu may have longer or shorter timespans and effects on their person.)
Shiketsu (Death Blood). Lethal - Lethargy, high fever, minor hallucinations, and/or flu symptoms.
Effects on victim - Stomach cramps, paralysis, fever, jaundice and/or hypothermia and heart arrhythmia. Can take anywhere from thirty minutes to one day to kill, depending on the height and weight, and stamina of the victim.
HISTORY: Takako was born the eldest daughter to the last head of the clan. The responsibility of the future of the Oketsu rested heavily on her shoulders, and as she aged with no sign of an emerging kekkai genkai, the displeasure of her clan also began to take roost.
As her mother, Hotaru, began to decline in health from overuse of her own abilities, Takako began to take on more and more of the official duties without the title that came along with them. While it was known that her mother preferred Takako’s younger sibling Kotone, she officially never gave a name to her heir. The clan, as a result became divided after Hotaru’s death, with many believing Takako to have poisoned her mother before Kotone could be named as heir to the clan.
It didn’t help that Takako’s kekkai genkai emerged on the same day as her mother’s passing.
Eventually, Takako gained the majority approval of the clan, weaving alliances with the noble houses of Konoha. During the first years of her leadership, the clan saw a progression of rank within the village. No longer did they live in the shadows of the noble houses of Hyuuga, Akimichi, Aburame, and Uchiha. Instead, favors were bartered between them, marriages officiated, and secrets kept. It seemed, with Takako at the reins, the Oketsu would in time become a noble clan in its own right.
And then Hotaru’s youngest daughter married a Noiru. Pledged to a man within the Uchiha, Kotone had broken the betrothal to marry a man from the Oketsu’s ancestral clan. It shattered the goodwill Takako and her elder council had been building for years, and more over, cast a shadow over the clan as a whole for accepting the fruit of that union.
In the hopes of quelling fears of Takako’s own lack of a child, she named her niece heir, should the girl’s kekkai genkai ever reveal itself. This too was met with division. Some within the clan approved, recalling Kotone’s own skills. Others, however, deemed the infant Akemi to be little more than an inbred mutt.
For a time following, there was a quiet tension, albeit a peaceful one. The clan’s status remained beneath the houses it worked with, and friendly ties to the Uchiha were lost. However, even this tenuous peace would not last, as the heir to the clan’s kekkai genkai blossomed. Takako, knowing the risks of an untrained Oketsu attempting to thrive outside of the clan, argued for the girl’s training to be under family observance. She could, after her newfound abilities were under control, return to the Noiru. Kotone refused, claiming that she could see to the girl’s needs. Clan doctrine clashed with motherly doting. Eventually, Kotone and her husband threatened to leave Konoha, with the latter wanting to cut ties completely with the Oketsu. No daughter of his would bear their name – or their bloodline.
This would mean the girl’s deterioration.
Her death.
For Noiru pride.
Takako could not allow it, and with her hand forced, orchestrated the man’s death.
For the efforts, her sister and niece came back into the embrace of the clan, and again there was peace for a time. However, as Kotone’s daughter began to thrive under the care of her elders, the kunoichi’s own mind began to fray. Takako watched as her sister became paranoid, accusatory, and even spiteful toward her own child. When she abducted the girl in order to take her away from the clan, she put Akemi’s life in danger.
And Takako, seemingly barren, could not allow this. Oketsu met Oketsu, and Kotone fell. Takako brought Akemi back to the clan and raised her as her own for another handful of years, before finally becoming pregnant. With a bloodborn daughter, she could no longer claim Akemi as rightfully named heir, and set the girl’s tutelage aside to elders that could better care for the her as Takako dealt with a troublesome pregnancy.
After Ayana’s birth, it became apparent that Takako was growing frail in health, not unlike her own mother. Takako’s realization of this compounded with every new day that her own body could not tolerate the kekkai genkai she bore. If she were to lead her clan into a brighter future, she would need to take great care to avoid activating Furuchi in the future. She worked once more to strengthen alliances. In the fall of the Uchiha, Takako saw an opportunity: She would make her clan a noble house, or pave the way for it to happen under Ayana’s leadership. This success for her daughter, above all else, drove Takako’s interest.
And as she felt herself grow weaker, she pushed away from loved ones, opting to offer them nothing more than detachment. Tradition. Doctrine.
They would not mourn her passing, that way.
OTHER:
- Mother of Oketsu Ayana, aunt to Oketsu Akemi.
-Takako's Shiketsu is based off of the lethal dosage of the poison found in the nightshade family, called Solanine.