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"... The ashes descend with no pity..."
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"... The ashes descend with no pity..."
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Name: Chigokai, Koga (Would an administrator kindly change my username to this, please?)
Age: 11
Gender: Male
General Description:
There's something off about this boy... though youthful, his eyes are surrounded by an odd shadow, as if one smeared charcoal around them with artful precision to craft a visage of morose brooding. It is a natural effect of fear and fatigue often sustained by the nightmares that haunt this child. There's a shine of experience in his tired gaze which doesn't belong on a little boy. Any father or mother who sees this boy is saddened; unmistakable hardship has stolen his childhood, and with it, his innocence. His gloomy presence tends to grab the attention of the empathic, as well.
Koga learned a long time ago that self pity would never ease the hunger in his stomach or all the anger and sadness left in him, preferring to play an act of stoicism perhaps to distract himself from the negativity within. But he silently embraces dark feelings... Beaten since youth and abandoned you can't really blame him for being a bit cold and upset on the inside - but he perpetuates the negative feelings and makes the anger he feels for past wrongs worse. He's vengeful, clinging to his grudges because they're all he's got. But what he lacks in cheer and common enthusiasm he makes up for in self-discipline, and a rather rigid code of honesty that does earn him some mild respect from others. Calm and somewhat unpleasantly cool, he has a sense of stable charisma which sets him apart from his peers as well as a determination for ambitions unknown. The boy is still finding his place in the world, and still desires purpose. Koga thirstily seeks a higher meaning in life...
He's a bit big for his age, and not weight-wise; Koga is a full 5'8", and still growing rather readily. His shoulders are broadening swiftly but he's just a bit too slender overall. He does have the makings of a good, strong build... but he definitely looks like he should eat more. It would be a shame if malnutrition robbed this boy of his potential physique. He does have some unique traits, notably incomplete albinism - his skin is a fair, moon-like porcelain white, complimented by his beautiful pale silver hair. His hair is rarely cut, but usually kept above his shoulders. The albinism is incomplete because his eye color is seemingly unaffected, but still irregular - his irises are yellow, bearing pupils that seem faintly slitted in an oddly serpentine fashion. Koga's skin is often cool to the touch, and he seems to despise cold weather in general, indicating his body may have difficulties producing it's own heat.
There's just one other odd feature to the boy's appearance, and one he can use to be quite frightening if he wishes; Koga's front incisor teeth are shaped like snake fangs, though only just a bit longer than normal teeth would be. He is known to smile in moments of vengeance and vanity... it's a haunting, creepy sight to bear, a very foreboding image.
(Image for looks! Wears the coat too)<i></i>
History:
Koga was an "extra"... though born of infamous blood, Koga's parents had no need for another boy. They already had three sons, one of which had already developed bloodline clan jutsu, and only desired daughters to marry off now. They had no need for a sickly, pale-faced infant - and sold the boy to slavery.
Fortunately, Koga was too young to work in "pleasure" or the mining industry, and fell into the care of a miserable old woman who'd outlived her children and just wanted to be a mother again for a little bit longer. She saw him to the age of one, before she was trampled to death by horses in a nightly accident involving a merchant caravan whilst she was crossing the street to beg. She would've had enough money to buy food for a week already, but she was saving up to buy Koga a crib of his own. At the time she'd been keeping him in a rusty bucket wrapped in an old filthy towel.
A day after the woman was dead Koga's crying drew the attention of neighbors. They hadn't even known of his existence - or that the old lady even had any grand children left to raise! She'd cared so tenderly for the young boy he'd never once had to whine or shriek, always giggling or sleeping peacefully in her withered but motherly arms. A warmth that Koga would long for and miss for his entire life despite being unable to so much as recall the elderly woman's face.
Fortunately, the woman had been prepared for death and left a note explaining that the infant in her care was not her own blood. She included a rather sad story of all her children dying in quarantine after disease struck, and her only surviving son abandoned her years ago to leave the country with a girl who'd stolen his heart, leaving the widowed elder deprived of all her bloodline. But in the short time she had with Koga she found purpose again... there wasn't much to leave behind, but there was a bit of payment, and out of sympathy a shoe maker who'd stumbled upon the baby Koga brought him to an orphanage with a modest sum of cash as a donation. The tithe ensured the child's acceptance - though, the orphanage said nothing of what would come afterwards.
The land was still upset at that time, still feeling the scars of the Hitokage's failed invasion and the conflict amongst the country's nobility and rulers. It fell hardest on the lower class - who happened to be Koga's caretakers, unfortunately.
Koga was raised to the age of four and sold again. That was it - he didn't even know how to read or write, but the lack of capacity for children and the unlikely chance anyone wanted to adopt a pale, sickly boy drove the orphanage to desperate measures, and by selling the boy the orphanage could feed the kids it was able to afford.
Technically, Koga was sold to the military, being handed off to a recruiter for a local Daimyo. This particular lord was a portly imbecile amongst the minor nobility desperate to impress his peers - with no successors and old age coming upon him, his estate and fortune would perish with him, and all he wanted to do was be remembered. His last desperate scheme to live on in someone's memory was to have his own personal assassin - a famous shinobi in his possession, to strike fear in his rivals! He was sure it would work. But he wanted Koga to have an advantage, and he was too young to send in anyway, so the Daimyo paid a retired Chuunin-rank shinobi to give the boy some training. This elderly ninja had numerous injuries on his body from fighting against the Hitokage's legions years ago, and had become bitter since losing the ability to become a Jounin, eventually forced to retire because of his ailing condition. He was not good for much any longer...
... Except beating children. He just loved doing that! This job was like play for him, and he just loved forcing the four year old Koga to do all kinds of physical exercises. Sometimes he felt like forcing Koga to learn basic martial arts, just so he could punish the boy by whacking him in the back with a bamboo stick if his motions were not absolutely perfect. He constantly reminded Koga that he was nothing, telling him he was worthless until he could perform correctly... which, the retired Shinobi made very difficult for him to do purposefully.
You're probably anticipating something like "but koga was a really special prodigy and surpassed the old man's expectations and earned his respect", right? Hahaha... not a chance! This bitter old "teacher" had too much fun ruining the kid's day every day. It really did make him feel a lot better about himself... but...
Three years of whipping changed Koga. He realized, at some point, that he wasn't being whipped because he deserved it - every now and then he would actually fulfill the tasks given to him, only to be given a task impossibly difficult immediately afterwards. He was set up every day so that the Daimyo's sadistic instructor could have a laugh and get in the beat-down, and then call it a day. Koga seethed with hatred - he hated that scum bag. The old scrooge even dug into Koga's past and would harass him from dawn to dusk about how he was trash unfit to live amongst his own family, and that the closest thing he'd ever have to a mother perished because he was such a needy, pathetic child.
He didn't learn any special martial arts, and a little boy can only gain so much from exercise at that age. But Koga did learn patience, perseverance, and endurance. And most importantly he gained the lesson of vengeance.
Koga's cruel instructor was taking him to the same crowded street where his elderly surrogate grandmother had passed on, to berate him and maybe inflict some more trauma on the kid when he met an unexpected end. Bearing a terrifying grin on his pale face, Koga shoved the old man into the street from an alleyway, where he was trampled to death by a speeding carriage... it was horrifying, and gruesome, and Koga loved it all. And the best part?
He could just act like a poor little boy and say it was an accident.
Koga hated lying, he hated poor character in general, because of how fowl that old man had been to him. But he didn't mind telling that one white lie, because he'd rid the world of a very bitter and mean person...
The Daimyo later examined Koga himself now that the assigned caretaker was gone. He seemed very surprised with the boy's condition - Koga was embarrassed and ashamed, but most of all surprised. He had believed he really was weak and inferior somehow... but the Daimyo's praise, and comparison to other boys confirmed that Koga wasn't genetically inferior at all. He was much taller than average and well toned - he wouldn't swell with muscle or anything, but he definitely had future potential. Koga then heard from the feudal lord himself how the retired ninja had said the boy couldn't even manage three push ups, that he could scarcely throw a punch. All lies so he could keep inflicting misery on Koga... it made the young lad livid, but he contained his rage in the presence of the Daimyo.
The Daimyo furiously declared the old ninja was lying about the boy's condition the entire time and seized all the possessions he left behind, most of which had been squandered on frivolous furniture the old freak collected. Koga requested to train himself and stated that he had been doing it anyway, and further claimed the old man did little to train him. Impressed with the young boy's initiative, the feudal lord allowed him to do exactly that, granting him a modest shack to live in and letting him train in a secondary courtyard towards the back of the lesser noble's estate. Definitely below middle class, but it was a palace to the young boy. He was finally free - and well cared for, too. At least by his standards.
Solitude gave Koga a lot of time to think. There was a great deal of negativity in him, made harsher by the tyrant scrooge who'd ruled his life for three years with a bamboo stick and cruel words. He found himself meditating often; he saw a monk doing it in the streets once. Koga had sat next to him and tried to imitate the serene practitioner with all the prowess his meager eight year old self could muster, but to no avail; fortunately however the monk was very amused with the child's display and taught him the calming art. Koga continued to meditate from then into the present, often using it to focus on a clearer state of mind in order to ponder purpose and meaning. And while he had been taught to hate self pity, and trained to ignore it, he couldn't help but ask; why did all this happen to me? Why have I been shown cruelty?
Koga eventually understood the old man. He trained himself by day, and meditated by night - exercise kept his mind more organized. He was tempted in his first days of pseudo-freedom to lounge around and relax, but found that he fell to anxiety and restlessness if he did, and he was too used to physical training by now to stop. The scars on his back from lashings shrank... and inversely, as they faded, his understanding and confidence grew. It was pain that had caused the abuse, the suffering and loss of heart in a ruined old veteran with no one to care for him. He was relieved by the knowledge it wasn't just something wrong with himself, but bothered that he had taken a life with such hate in his heart now. It was like the old man had taken something from him, made him just as bitter as he was, if for but a short time. Eventually Koga felt quite bad for sending him to his end...
And that brought him to question why he had enjoyed it so much. Two years passed, and Koga came to realize how good those dark feelings had been. How... satisfying it had felt, how free he became, how he gained this fine lifestyle by that one act of revenge (although he really was just living in a shack now and eating low quality food, not a substantial upgrade by any means). He began to channel his negativity into training, and found that his physical efforts were greatly enhanced by anger. He used it for driving purpose, initially uncomfortable with it but oddly attracted to the darkness within.
Koga's solitude and training were both interrupted on his eleventh birthday, however. It came as a surprise with a hearty dinner of meat and vegetables - with the Daimyo himself! And it concluded with "okay, you're ready now, time to go to the academy". Koga cringed; he imagined yet another old man beating him into the ground, devaluing himself, and truly felt terror at his fate. He was sent to the academy to the Village Hidden in Clouds - but when the Daimyo received money the next day, he came to a terrible realization; he wasn't getting this boy back and would never have the assassin he'd thought, because the paper he had signed without so much as reading was for selling the boy, not just having him trained; something they wouldn't have done for one lesser lord anyway. Another disappointment amongst his many failures...
But, Koga on the other hand was not disappointed. In fact he was pleasantly surprised! As he arrived at the academy, it was nothing like the shacks and slums he'd been accustomed to, and he did not feel nor even see any bamboo sticks, much less old men wielding them in spite and cruelty. He faced his new future with confidence, eager to explore a path of opportunity in life, with many questions in his heart yet to be answered...
