Fuck.
The following is a comment that was too long for the picture I was leaving it on, proving that I a rambly fucktard. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but it's safe to say I apparently don't agree.
My latest Gaara offshoot fascination is with Yondaime Kazekage and his family. He's been getting increasingly less villainous the more attention I pay to him, going from heartless, power-hungry bastard to merely emotionally reptilian, selfish bastard. He's still be no means a good guy, but he's not so one-dimensionally evil.
Following is a massively TL;DR informational ramble about the horrible, horrible backstory I have envisioned, essentially making this post half fanfiction, half crazed doodling. You are, as usual, free to ignore it and just briefly enjoy the pictures.
Name: Ryuga
It means "gracious flow," but I originally chose it because Gaara's mother is Karura, and from my Wikipedia understanding of it, is a giant mythological creature that eats dragons. From my minimal understanding of the Japanese language, Ryu means dragon, so I figured it'd be a fun pairing contrast. Ga was tacked on the end so Gaara would be a mix of the two last syllables of their names. I flip for vaguely symbolic stuff like that.
Family:
Ryuga is the only child of Kata (the man who looks just like Kankuro but so very clearly isn't) and Reiko (the distressed looking redhead who looks just like a female version of Gaara but so very clearly isn't). The circumstances that led to their marriage were not very happy to say the least.
Kata was Chiyo's other son, and as a result was one of the most prominent families in Suna. While they had no bloodline jutsus, they were an important ninja clan for their expertise in puppet jutsus and poisons, as well as being in prominent political positions.
Reiko came from a signifigantly less important family. In the ancient days of Suna, they were revered as spiritual mediums and enjoyed high standing in the village because of their religious importance. With the modernization of Suna came the destruction of their power, and over time led to them becoming the cause of ridicule for their strange and superstitious behavior. While they too lack a bloodline jutsu, they have a heightened spiritual sensitivity and are intimately attuned with the world of the dead and the energies of the earth. They were a dying breed, and Reiko was their last daughter. Hoping to restore their family honor, they enrolled her in the ninja academy. Upon graduation, she was placed under the leadership of Kata.
Despite his mother being a bona fide badass, Kata held a poor image of women (mostly due to the fact that he and Chiyo didn't get along well to begin with), and resented having to train a kunoichi. He raped her within three months of her graduation, and she got pregnant at twelve.
As tragic as the circumstances may have been, what happened afterwards was worse. Kata's family, wanting to avoid scandal, was quick to cover the incident up. Reiko's family, seeing an opportunity for power, proposed Kata marry her, and would deny any knowledge of the rape for a generous dowry. Kata's family agreed. They did, however, distance themselves from him (as even by Suna's rather archaic views of women's rights and the age of adulthood, having a child bride, this was pretty bad), and Chiyo completely and utterly disowned him, focusing all her attentions on Kata's younger bother.
Ryuga was born into and raised in an unhappy household where his mother grew increasingly unhappy and submissive. Seeing Ryuga as his chance to get back into the family's good graces, he pinned all his hopes and expectations on him, putting him under high pressure to succeed. His relationship with his father was strained at best, but he did genuinely want to please him.
Interestingly enough, Reiko was a good mother, who despite the circumstances that led to the birth of her son, did genuinely love him. Whether it was maternal responsibility or the fact he was the only one who made her feel needed is unclear, but she was unfailingly gentle and kind to him when his father was away, and at worst distant (or catatonic) when he was there. Ryuga considered his mother nothing short of a saint, but was reluctant to show affection as he advanced further into his shinobi studies.
They both died during the second great war, along with Chiyo's other son. It's unclear if Reiko died as a civilian casualty or if she took her own life.
While they don't acknowledge the relationship, he is Chiyo's grandson, and therefore Sasori's cousin. The two were not close.
Jutsu/Talents
Ryuga, as his father and countless fathers before him, started off as a puppeteer. The two puppets you see here are his creations, Kurohime and Dervish.
Kurohime is defensive in nature, filled with coils of cable and wire tipped with pointy, pointy things. It's usually used to trap, ensnare, and otherwise trip opponents, but can be used in a pinch to form a shield, or should the situation call for it, slice up opponents. Kata primarily lays the cables into the ground, which then erupt pointy end first to catch opponents by surprise while Dervish zips through to take advantage of their momentary surprise.
Dervish is offensive, armed quite literally with interchangeable weapons tipped with poisons of varying lethality, as well as some fun stabby surprises hidden around it's torso and abdomen. In addition to being built for speed (Kata does secretly want to be able to do impressive looking taijutsu, but lacks the brawn, so he lives vicariously through his puppet), Dervish also releases a gaseous neurotoxin. It's nonlethal, but does have the effect of greatly slowing his opponents without immunities reaction times and ability to think clearly, which worked well in tandem with the variety of Genjutsus he would use to further confuse his opponent.
However, he found that he was unsuited for combat. While he could certainly handle himself as well as an any shinobi, he had a distaste for it. This, in combination with his growing resentment that Sasori so thoroughly outclassed him at ten years his junior, inspired him to hang up his puppets and move into the wonderful world of espionage. He excelled. He truly excelled, using his talents in Genjutsu to disguise himself, his presence, and his intentions, as well as the fact he is a natural born liar. Naturally, the next logical step was a career in politics.
Other Random crap you probably don't want to read by now:
- Ryuga and Minato were totally BFF. For reals. I imagine they had a seemingly one-sided friendship in which Minato was unfailingly bright and friendly and nice, and Ryuga grudgingly allowed it to be aimed in his general direction. Secretly though, he totally considered him to be his best, and probably only, friend. He's kind of a cranky jerk unless you happen to be pretty and blond.
- Ryuga's parents designs aren't so much blatant unoriginality as it is me trying to keep in mind Kishimoto's parents don't so much breed so much as clone themselves. As a result, Ryuga blatantly loves Temari more than Kankuro. It's not so much that Temari resembles Karura as it is that Kankuro resembles Kata. Naturally, he has issues with Gaara for completely different reasons.
- I like giving Ryuga an eyebrow piercing. He's self conscious about his thin eyebrows (inherited from his mother), so he figures putting metal there will hide his lack of hair.
...This has gone on too long.
The dude with orange hair is supposed to be Sasori's daddy. He's trying to understand what on earth is wrong with his brother shortly after the Reiko incident. It was horrible, but he doesn't want to believe his big brother is a bad person. He starts to shortly after the ensuing confrontation.
My latest Gaara offshoot fascination is with Yondaime Kazekage and his family. He's been getting increasingly less villainous the more attention I pay to him, going from heartless, power-hungry bastard to merely emotionally reptilian, selfish bastard. He's still be no means a good guy, but he's not so one-dimensionally evil.
Following is a massively TL;DR informational ramble about the horrible, horrible backstory I have envisioned, essentially making this post half fanfiction, half crazed doodling. You are, as usual, free to ignore it and just briefly enjoy the pictures.
Name: Ryuga
It means "gracious flow," but I originally chose it because Gaara's mother is Karura, and from my Wikipedia understanding of it, is a giant mythological creature that eats dragons. From my minimal understanding of the Japanese language, Ryu means dragon, so I figured it'd be a fun pairing contrast. Ga was tacked on the end so Gaara would be a mix of the two last syllables of their names. I flip for vaguely symbolic stuff like that.
Family:
Ryuga is the only child of Kata (the man who looks just like Kankuro but so very clearly isn't) and Reiko (the distressed looking redhead who looks just like a female version of Gaara but so very clearly isn't). The circumstances that led to their marriage were not very happy to say the least.
Kata was Chiyo's other son, and as a result was one of the most prominent families in Suna. While they had no bloodline jutsus, they were an important ninja clan for their expertise in puppet jutsus and poisons, as well as being in prominent political positions.
Reiko came from a signifigantly less important family. In the ancient days of Suna, they were revered as spiritual mediums and enjoyed high standing in the village because of their religious importance. With the modernization of Suna came the destruction of their power, and over time led to them becoming the cause of ridicule for their strange and superstitious behavior. While they too lack a bloodline jutsu, they have a heightened spiritual sensitivity and are intimately attuned with the world of the dead and the energies of the earth. They were a dying breed, and Reiko was their last daughter. Hoping to restore their family honor, they enrolled her in the ninja academy. Upon graduation, she was placed under the leadership of Kata.
Despite his mother being a bona fide badass, Kata held a poor image of women (mostly due to the fact that he and Chiyo didn't get along well to begin with), and resented having to train a kunoichi. He raped her within three months of her graduation, and she got pregnant at twelve.
As tragic as the circumstances may have been, what happened afterwards was worse. Kata's family, wanting to avoid scandal, was quick to cover the incident up. Reiko's family, seeing an opportunity for power, proposed Kata marry her, and would deny any knowledge of the rape for a generous dowry. Kata's family agreed. They did, however, distance themselves from him (as even by Suna's rather archaic views of women's rights and the age of adulthood, having a child bride, this was pretty bad), and Chiyo completely and utterly disowned him, focusing all her attentions on Kata's younger bother.
Ryuga was born into and raised in an unhappy household where his mother grew increasingly unhappy and submissive. Seeing Ryuga as his chance to get back into the family's good graces, he pinned all his hopes and expectations on him, putting him under high pressure to succeed. His relationship with his father was strained at best, but he did genuinely want to please him.
Interestingly enough, Reiko was a good mother, who despite the circumstances that led to the birth of her son, did genuinely love him. Whether it was maternal responsibility or the fact he was the only one who made her feel needed is unclear, but she was unfailingly gentle and kind to him when his father was away, and at worst distant (or catatonic) when he was there. Ryuga considered his mother nothing short of a saint, but was reluctant to show affection as he advanced further into his shinobi studies.
They both died during the second great war, along with Chiyo's other son. It's unclear if Reiko died as a civilian casualty or if she took her own life.
While they don't acknowledge the relationship, he is Chiyo's grandson, and therefore Sasori's cousin. The two were not close.
Jutsu/Talents
Ryuga, as his father and countless fathers before him, started off as a puppeteer. The two puppets you see here are his creations, Kurohime and Dervish.
Kurohime is defensive in nature, filled with coils of cable and wire tipped with pointy, pointy things. It's usually used to trap, ensnare, and otherwise trip opponents, but can be used in a pinch to form a shield, or should the situation call for it, slice up opponents. Kata primarily lays the cables into the ground, which then erupt pointy end first to catch opponents by surprise while Dervish zips through to take advantage of their momentary surprise.
Dervish is offensive, armed quite literally with interchangeable weapons tipped with poisons of varying lethality, as well as some fun stabby surprises hidden around it's torso and abdomen. In addition to being built for speed (Kata does secretly want to be able to do impressive looking taijutsu, but lacks the brawn, so he lives vicariously through his puppet), Dervish also releases a gaseous neurotoxin. It's nonlethal, but does have the effect of greatly slowing his opponents without immunities reaction times and ability to think clearly, which worked well in tandem with the variety of Genjutsus he would use to further confuse his opponent.
However, he found that he was unsuited for combat. While he could certainly handle himself as well as an any shinobi, he had a distaste for it. This, in combination with his growing resentment that Sasori so thoroughly outclassed him at ten years his junior, inspired him to hang up his puppets and move into the wonderful world of espionage. He excelled. He truly excelled, using his talents in Genjutsu to disguise himself, his presence, and his intentions, as well as the fact he is a natural born liar. Naturally, the next logical step was a career in politics.
Other Random crap you probably don't want to read by now:
- Ryuga and Minato were totally BFF. For reals. I imagine they had a seemingly one-sided friendship in which Minato was unfailingly bright and friendly and nice, and Ryuga grudgingly allowed it to be aimed in his general direction. Secretly though, he totally considered him to be his best, and probably only, friend. He's kind of a cranky jerk unless you happen to be pretty and blond.
- Ryuga's parents designs aren't so much blatant unoriginality as it is me trying to keep in mind Kishimoto's parents don't so much breed so much as clone themselves. As a result, Ryuga blatantly loves Temari more than Kankuro. It's not so much that Temari resembles Karura as it is that Kankuro resembles Kata. Naturally, he has issues with Gaara for completely different reasons.
- I like giving Ryuga an eyebrow piercing. He's self conscious about his thin eyebrows (inherited from his mother), so he figures putting metal there will hide his lack of hair.
...This has gone on too long.
The dude with orange hair is supposed to be Sasori's daddy. He's trying to understand what on earth is wrong with his brother shortly after the Reiko incident. It was horrible, but he doesn't want to believe his big brother is a bad person. He starts to shortly after the ensuing confrontation.