Name: Chikamatsu Ayaka
Core Ability: "Medical Prodigy" (Celestial Heritage)
Age: 10
Physical Description:
Ayaka is small for her age, standing shorter than most of her classmates with a thin frame that makes her look almost fragile. The first thing people notice about her are her bright golden eyes, which are very unusual especially amongst the Chikamatsu. Her blonde hair falls past her shoulders, usually kept in a simple braid with a white flower tucked behind her ear. She's paler than most kids in the village, probably because she spends more time indoors with plants and books than playing outside, though being subterranean now probbaly doesn't help any.
Her clothes are always neat but some of the other kids say that her clothes are plain, almost always white and light blue robes with the Chikamatsu symbol of the yurei orchid stitched on the sleeve. She moves carefully, almost like she's afraid of taking up too much space, and has trouble making eye contact with adults. When she's nervous—which is often—she fidgets with her sleeves or the flower in her hair. The only time she really seems comfortable is when she's in the Arboretum, surrounded by the medicinal plants she's spent years learning about.
Mental Description:
Ayaka is painfully shy. Getting her to speak up in a group is nearly impossible, and even one-on-one she struggles to say what she's really thinking. It's way worse around authority figures... teachers, clan elders, anyone who seems important. She just freezes up and agrees with whatever they say, even if she knows they're wrong. Growing up as Chikamatsu Maho's niece meant everyone expected great things from her before she even knew what "great things" meant, and that pressure turned her into someone who'd rather disappear than risk disappointing anyone.
But there's more to her than just being timid. She genuinely cares about people, maybe too much. When someone's hurt or sad, she feels it almost as strongly as they do. Medicine and healing make sense to her in a way that social situations never will... there are right answers, clear solutions, plants that help and plants that harm. In the Arboretum, with her hands in soil or mixing remedies, she actually feels capable. Sometimes she wishes she could be braver, could speak up like the other students, but mostly she just wants to be good enough at healing that maybe words won't matter as much.
History:
Ayaka doesn't remember a time before the Arboretum. Her parents, both Chikamatsu medics, noticed early that she had the gift that many families within the clan wished their child would have, being a medical prodigy (Celestial Heritage). At four years old she could identify poisonous flowers by smell, at six she was helping prepare simple antidotes. While other children played ninja in the underground caverns, her mother walked her through the greenhouse naming plants: moonblossom for fevers, ghost orchid for infections, bloodthorn for... well... she learned early that beauty and danger often grew on the same stem.
Being Maho's niece made everything harder. Her aunt is one of the Inner Court, one of five people bound soul-to-soul with the Kazekage himself. Whenever Aunt Maho visited to check on her progress, Ayaka could barely breathe, let alone demonstrate what she'd learned. She'd freeze, forget everything, feel stupid. So she started studying twice as long, three times as long, memorizing everything she could so maybe next time she wouldn't embarrass herself. It never really helped during the visits though.
The civil war was terrifying. Learning that Chikamatsu Wei—someone from her own clan—had betrayed the entire village made her physically sick. What if people thought all Chikamatsu were traitors? What if they were right not to trust them? She never said any of this out loud, just spent more time in the Arboretum, helping transplant the medicinal gardens into the new underground facility. Plants didn't judge. Plants didn't betray anyone.
When the village went mobile, moving through the ancient sandworm tunnels, everything felt unstable. But the new Arboretum in Omni Prime became her refuge. She knows every plant there by nickname now, talks to them sometimes when no one's listening. They're easier than people.
Now she's finally old enough for the Academy. Her parents enrolled her, Aunt Maho gave her an approving nod, and everyone expects her to excel at medical ninjutsu. She probably will, she won't deny that, as she's good at studying, good at following instructions, good at healing. But she's terrified of everything else. Combat training, speaking in front of the class, making friends, being noticed.
Still, she knows the Chikamatsu motto: "The life of service is more noble than royalty." Maybe if she can just help people, heal them, make their pain go away... maybe that'll be enough. Maybe she doesn't need to be brave or special. Maybe being useful is enough.
Core Ability: "Medical Prodigy" (Celestial Heritage)
Age: 10
Physical Description:
Ayaka is small for her age, standing shorter than most of her classmates with a thin frame that makes her look almost fragile. The first thing people notice about her are her bright golden eyes, which are very unusual especially amongst the Chikamatsu. Her blonde hair falls past her shoulders, usually kept in a simple braid with a white flower tucked behind her ear. She's paler than most kids in the village, probably because she spends more time indoors with plants and books than playing outside, though being subterranean now probbaly doesn't help any.
Her clothes are always neat but some of the other kids say that her clothes are plain, almost always white and light blue robes with the Chikamatsu symbol of the yurei orchid stitched on the sleeve. She moves carefully, almost like she's afraid of taking up too much space, and has trouble making eye contact with adults. When she's nervous—which is often—she fidgets with her sleeves or the flower in her hair. The only time she really seems comfortable is when she's in the Arboretum, surrounded by the medicinal plants she's spent years learning about.
Mental Description:
Ayaka is painfully shy. Getting her to speak up in a group is nearly impossible, and even one-on-one she struggles to say what she's really thinking. It's way worse around authority figures... teachers, clan elders, anyone who seems important. She just freezes up and agrees with whatever they say, even if she knows they're wrong. Growing up as Chikamatsu Maho's niece meant everyone expected great things from her before she even knew what "great things" meant, and that pressure turned her into someone who'd rather disappear than risk disappointing anyone.
But there's more to her than just being timid. She genuinely cares about people, maybe too much. When someone's hurt or sad, she feels it almost as strongly as they do. Medicine and healing make sense to her in a way that social situations never will... there are right answers, clear solutions, plants that help and plants that harm. In the Arboretum, with her hands in soil or mixing remedies, she actually feels capable. Sometimes she wishes she could be braver, could speak up like the other students, but mostly she just wants to be good enough at healing that maybe words won't matter as much.
History:
Ayaka doesn't remember a time before the Arboretum. Her parents, both Chikamatsu medics, noticed early that she had the gift that many families within the clan wished their child would have, being a medical prodigy (Celestial Heritage). At four years old she could identify poisonous flowers by smell, at six she was helping prepare simple antidotes. While other children played ninja in the underground caverns, her mother walked her through the greenhouse naming plants: moonblossom for fevers, ghost orchid for infections, bloodthorn for... well... she learned early that beauty and danger often grew on the same stem.
Being Maho's niece made everything harder. Her aunt is one of the Inner Court, one of five people bound soul-to-soul with the Kazekage himself. Whenever Aunt Maho visited to check on her progress, Ayaka could barely breathe, let alone demonstrate what she'd learned. She'd freeze, forget everything, feel stupid. So she started studying twice as long, three times as long, memorizing everything she could so maybe next time she wouldn't embarrass herself. It never really helped during the visits though.
The civil war was terrifying. Learning that Chikamatsu Wei—someone from her own clan—had betrayed the entire village made her physically sick. What if people thought all Chikamatsu were traitors? What if they were right not to trust them? She never said any of this out loud, just spent more time in the Arboretum, helping transplant the medicinal gardens into the new underground facility. Plants didn't judge. Plants didn't betray anyone.
When the village went mobile, moving through the ancient sandworm tunnels, everything felt unstable. But the new Arboretum in Omni Prime became her refuge. She knows every plant there by nickname now, talks to them sometimes when no one's listening. They're easier than people.
Now she's finally old enough for the Academy. Her parents enrolled her, Aunt Maho gave her an approving nod, and everyone expects her to excel at medical ninjutsu. She probably will, she won't deny that, as she's good at studying, good at following instructions, good at healing. But she's terrified of everything else. Combat training, speaking in front of the class, making friends, being noticed.
Still, she knows the Chikamatsu motto: "The life of service is more noble than royalty." Maybe if she can just help people, heal them, make their pain go away... maybe that'll be enough. Maybe she doesn't need to be brave or special. Maybe being useful is enough.