Shuuheki Kurama

Shuuheki had DID, or Dissociative Identity Disorder. This means that he had multiple identities, or selves. The one most often in control of the body will be described first. This personality was somewhat withdrawn most of the time, but can became open if not meeting new people for the first time. This personality would always fight for his allies, but, there is a limit to what he will do. His morals were important to him. This personality was most similar to a more reserved version of Naruto's personality.

The second personality was a laid back fun guy. He was relaxed most of the time, and acted cool. He was also a bit of a partier. He could, however, be quite serious. If he was pushed far enough, he would fight seriously, and would protect those he knew well. His morals were more relaxed than the primary personality, but were still strong. He would not often bend them. This personality was most similar to Chao Xin from Beyblade Metal Masters.

These first two personalities were fairly common to be dominant at any time, and knew that the other existed. Every day, they would ask what date it was, and, if it was a date they were not suspecting, they would ask "what have I done since you saw me last?" They both kept tabs on each other and occasionally took notes for the other to read, in the form of a journal. The former personality would occasionally be embarrassed by the actions of the latter, and the latter would often be disappointed that the former did not try to meet one person that they saw. The journal has notes scattered across the pages, containing conversations between the two, the only way they knew how to communicate.

However, Shuuheki has a third personality, much rarer than the other two. Neither of the first two knew of this third one, until it was too late, but they did have their suspicions. Dates in the journal that are empty, without a note ever being given saying why. This was unusual for both of them, and there are a total of three pages of the journal devoted to discussing these mysterious missing dates, until the pages of the journal stayed forever blank. No one ever seems to have seen Shuuheki on these dates, so they have no clue what happens, or what the personality is like.

This third personality is focused only on his own interests. He rarely cares for others, unless they are required for his plans to come to fruition.

The Kurama clan (鞍馬一族, Kurama Ichizoku) is a clan of extremely skilled genjutsu users. (Their genjutsu are one rank harder to break.) This talent in genjutsu is due to the unnamed kekkei genkai that the clan possesses. However, once every few generations, a member of the clan will be born with such enormous skill in genjutsu that their illusions can actually produce tangible effects that occur in reality (This ONE PERSON AT A TIME’s genjutsu are 2 ranks harder to break.) The genjutsu is so powerful that it causes the brain to make anything that happens to the victim within the genjutsu physically real, allowing the clan member to potentially kill their opponents with genjutsu.

Such frightening power is not without its drawbacks, however. The user can rarely control the full extent of their abilities, and as such their subconscious will often regulate that power, leading to the creation of a second personality in control of that power. This personality then overwhelms the original, turning the individual into a monster that is a danger to everyone around them.

The members of this clan are also able to easily break themselves out of genjutsu, because of their understanding of how it works and their great ability in them, in a similar way that Deidara can. However, they cannot “see-through” genjutsu. This means that, while they can break it, they do not automatically realize they are caught in one.

It had been several generations since the last person to have “it.” “It” is the true power of the Kurama clan, that which is so powerful, it transcends the border between reality and illusion.

The man started as a normal ninja, except with incredible skill in genjutsu. His abilities were so great that all but the strongest of genjutsu users would fall under his spell. However, this also posed a challenge as the most effective genjutsu would also affect his squad. They would have problems in battle with being caught in a genjutsu they could not break, with no time for the caster to break it between the rest of the fighting. As such, the man was prevented from doing any truly hard missions, unless they could be done alone, away from civilization. However, he felt no resentment for this. It gave him something few ninja could say they had a lot of: free time. He did odd jobs around the village, and met the love of his life. She was perfect. Golden flowing hair, the brightest of blue eye is, and a smile that would make the coldest of hearts melt. She was an uchiha, a civilian, but with the Uchiha bloodline flowing through her. They planned to get married, to have a family. They looked forward to their life together. Then “It” arrived.

So great was his power, that his personality was destroyed, replaced by “It.” In the place of his personality grew one of malevolence, hate, pain, and chaos. The man nearly killed the Fire Daimyo in a mission to protect him. This was the first time that his ability with genjutsu became a real problem. Slowly, over time, his actions became darker, more destructive. More chaotic. The girl he wanted to marry grew more and more apart from him, scared of who, no, what, he was becoming. He grew angry, started rampaging through the village, destroying everything, everyone, in his path. It took a long time, but he was captured, those he had once called comrades, now his jailors. Thrown into a prison cell, even this did not stop the genjutsu. Guards would, in the middle of the night, wake up from a terrible dream, just to find out that their bodies were physically wounded in the same way they had been in the dream. This was the first manifestation of the man is true power, the ability to blur the line between illusion and reality, a power many wanted, but few, if any could handle. People had known these jutsu to be hard to break out of. They had never suspected this. Physically manifesting the genjutsu? That is not possible. Right?

He was too dangerous to be left near anyone. They sent the man to solitary. They figured that, without any audio or visual contact, they could prevent him from casting genjutsu. They made the fatal error of providing him with painting supplies, to pass the time. His cell came to be depicted on his canvas, every nook and cranny. There, looking down from the top left corner in the back, he painted. First came the shape of the room. From where he stood, he could see it all; the smooth, straight lines between each wall, the sharp corners where three surfaces met. He painted this all, ignoring what was over them.

Next came the fixtures. The small metal bowl with a hole in the bottom leading into the wall that passed for a toilet was first. He put onto his canvas the way the metal seemed to gleam at this angle, each little detail of it that he could see; the streaks covering its body, the blotches of brown… you know what, even the small little button on the side that would flush it, each detail done incredibly accurate. Next came the bed, with its thin, grey sheets, folded so neatly on the foot of the bed, so perfectly, the type of folding that comes only after much repetition. The small grey chunk of rubber in a piece of fabric that passed for a pillow was the next thing drawn. Finally, he drew the details of the door. With the door, he was incredibly precise, drawing the way the solitary light reflected off the different parts of the food tray space, how the lack of a handle on the inside was so apparent. He noted the window, painted over in black, from the outside, the metal wire running inside the glass still obvious to see. He painted this, and more, how the door sat more than flush. How, when it opened, he could always catch a glimpse of the soundproofing in his room. He imagined painting some of this, but decided to leave the painting for what he truly wanted: freedom, and love.

Then, where there originally lay a painted door on a dark canvas, there now sat a large white spiral. As he had drawn the spiral on the canvas, the white object manifested into reality. The man smiled as the door to his cell left this world, to remain gone until the painting was destroyed. He walked out of the jail cell, the genjutsu pouring off his body. Everyone who turned their attention to him became caught, paralyzed as they looked upon an incredibly horrible visage of the man, holding each person caught with a hand, a cruel smile falling across his half-lit face, the unlit eye glowing a pure white. He left the prison and wandered to the village, his grip eventually loosening on his victims to where they could free themselves, the further he got from the prison.

As he neared the village, warning sirens blared at the detection of him. He was met with a powerful force that could have easily overwhelmed him, had he not been pouring genjutsu off his body. He walked between the people, none of them immune to his will. He was halfway to his destination before a challenge arose, a single Uchiha, one of the strongest in the village. They must have thought that, only someone who could break the strongest genjutsu could possibly defeat a true master of genjutsu. They were wrong. By the time the Uchiha tried to attack them man, he was frozen, paralyzed mind, body, and soul. His body collapsed, the life seemingly drained out of him, as he lost all control of his chakra. It was quick, painless, and simple. He was down. And out. This was one of his few jutsu that were not genjutsu. Of course, there were reasons he did not use this a lot, but that is besides the point. No one in the village could stop him. He kept walking, to the house of the woman he loved, and who once loved him.

He had been in jail for longer than he thought. Time flied when you are painting your escape. Hiding in a dark corner of the farthest room was the woman. With her, there sat a man, holding her tight. She was holding the man just as tightly. But, there was something else. Between the two sat a young girl, no more than two years old. The man walked into this room, the light from the moon lighting only half his face, showing the true insanity that flowed through his veins. The man got up to try to protect his love. But, as soon as he looked upon the man, he collapsed. His body started to burn and he started to scream. The little girl screamed out “DADDY!” in an incredibly shrill voice and ran over to where he laid. The evil man looked down on her as she looked up. A single piece of his true personality shoved the way to the surface. The girl slumped, asleep. She would not meet the same fate her father had, his now charred body past any point of rescue. Then, “It” regained control. The man looked upon the woman who once loved him. She was cowering in the corner, to afraid to even cry. He walked over to her and grabbed her wrist, tossing her onto the bed.

Several minutes later, the windows shattered. Through them, small yellow particles poured in. The man tried to react, but they surrounded him too quickly, right on top of the woman. Another woman walked up to the window, her hand as if she were holding a softball. Then her hand closed into a fist. There was a small scream, a crunch, and a squish. Moments later, red, gooey liquid dripped down through the sand, onto the first woman’s body.

This sparked the movement. People no longer trusted the Kurama. By order of the Hokage, they were hunted, exterminated. Very few survived. In fact, only two families survived. The first escaped the village on the day that the genocide started. They guessed what would soon happen. The other family, is the direct descendants of the man who caused the genocide. Yes, nine months after her husband was murdered, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She grew up, not with the powers of the Kurama, but with a sharingan in her eyes. People thought that this meant the Kurama were truly dead. They did not realize a single family had escaped, nor did they think that the Kurama could make resurgence after a generation without it. They were content. Guilty, but content.

This is where Shuuheki's history comes in. His parents were the one to escape Konoha. Shuuheki was born with an uncommon… oddity. He had Dissociative Identity Disorder. In his early age, this showed in how sometimes he was quite rambunctious, and sometimes he was quite calm. Then again, a lot of babies were like that too. So, it was not until potty training that it was noticed something was off. See, when he was calm, he learned how to go really fast. But, when he was rambunctious, he took much longer. In fact, he seemed to FORGET the potty training he had had as a calm child. At this point, his parents became suspicious. However, once he learned how to talk, people calmed down. In no way was he evil. In either personality. However, he was odd. He would not make a good ninja, since his memory did not carry over between personalities. However, his parents were quite serious about him becoming one. So, they made a deal with the Tsuchikage. He would remain a genin until he developed a method to retain his memory.

This was actually not needed. Just one month before the first chuunin exams after his graduation from the academy, something changed. His rambunctious personality seemed to disappear. For three weeks he never showed up. It was decided that he could compete in the chuunin exams. However, there was one thing that bothered Shuuheki. His other personality, it was gone, but, in the last few days it was around, the journal entries it had been writing had gotten… darker. He was not sure how to tell anyone. No one even knew about the journal. It was their personal way of communicating. It was like he was scared of something. “I don’t know what’s happening. It feels like my grip on the world is failing. I feel myself blacking out for long periods of time, but when I wake up, to everyone else, it is as if I never left. I even remember what was just happening. It is like I am running on autopilot or something, and everything that happened is played back to me. They are getting longer, more frequent. I don’t know what will happen when I am never awake…” There was really no way to handle this correctly. Ignore it, or deal with it? And, how to deal with it? There really was no way. It went ignored.

The chuunin exams went by quickly. This year, few people took part. The exam was quick, painless. None of the usual tricks were used. The Forest of Death was sadly the easiest part. Heki and his team quickly gathered the Heaven scroll from a team of Kumogakure nin. They were almost caught in an ambush by these people, but Shuuheki’s genjutsu quickly turned it around. In moment, their enemies were stuck fighting off clones seemingly made of mist, that never died. By the time Shuuheki’s partner made a move on them, they were exhausted. Then, something happened. Shuuheki’s team moved off towards the tower. However, he said he left behind a kunai. When he arrived again, the opposing team was still there. He looked down on them, and made a few hand signs. They continued to lay there. Then the screaming started. Shrill, high. Peircing. Beautiful. This was the first showing of “It” gaining full control. However, it was not the first time “It” appeared. No, the first time was when it slowly killed the now dead personality. “It” was behind that, and now “It” wanted more.

The final round of the chuunin exams was equally painless. No one was prepared for genjutsu of the strengthShuuheki used. They fell quickly, lost in mazes of bamboo, and mazes sometimes literal mazes, untilShuuheki tossed but a single kunai for the win. In only one fight was he met with any trouble. It was with another genjutsu user, about halfway into the final round. He proved a challenge. He broke all of Shuuheki’s genjutsu. And then, something happened. Shuuheki got desperate. He sweated a little. He was not good at hand to hand. His opponent, however, had shown that he was. He had taken down a few of his opponents without making a single hand seal. Shuuheki resorted to hiding behind a tree. He was sweating, nervous. He could not win. Then a single heartbeat stood out from the others. Heki’s face went blank. The sweating stopped. The world, for a single moment, seemed to disappear. Then he blacked out. When he awoke, he knew exactly what had happened. A smile had stretched across his face. He made hand seals. If was his most powerful jutsu, but it had already failed to work. But, now it did not fail. No, it worked. Perfectly. His opponent tried to break it. He could not. He panicked. He acted rashly. He failed. He gave. Shuuheki moved on. He knew all this happened, and yet he had done none of this. The first thoughts that went through his mind “Is… Is this what happened to him?”

Shuuheki did not compete in the rest of the exams. He forfeited his next match before it even began. He had to figure out what was happening to him. And no one could help; he was on his own. The dreams started. “Come on. I can give you power. I can make you the strongest person in the village. I can. And I WILL. The only say you have is when it happens. So, do you want it now, or later?”

Shuuheki ended up passing the exams. Shortly after, he was promoted to Special Jounin of genjutsu. With but a few months of training and missions, uneventful as they were, he ranked to jounin, without any influence from “It.”

Shuuheki delayed the will of the voice, until he was forced out of the village. As he left, Iwa died a final death. Amegakure came to rise in its place. The emotions of losing Iwa caused him to lose the battle with “It.” Shuu and Heki were forever lost to “It” who took on the name of Shuuheki.

Shuuheki wreaked his own trail of destruction. Upon no longer having Iwa, he was declared a “wandering ninja” to the other villages. At first he could come and go as he pleased, going to them for supplies. Then the villages started paying attention. Stories of entire villages, not ninja ones, but still villages, just disappearing, the houses replaced by bamboo forests. Then, as fast as it happened, it would cease. Stories of mountains being replaced by rolling hills, only for a hiker to be unable to climb them, just to find out they were actually on the mountain when they reached the top of the “hill.” No one could make sense of these, nor when people reported Mud Wolves terrorizing people. It was many months before this was all related back to Shuuheki. He was holding Towns up for ransom. To be freed, a village would have to pay him a fine, a fee. Then, they would leave it at the desired location, and the genjutsu would break. This was not enough to grant Shuuheki the rank of S, but it was enough to transfer him from a wandering nin to a missing nin. He was officially in the bingo book.

There was a short period where he worked with the Akatsuki. He was not a member, but more like an assistant for hire. He worked one or two jobs for them. He did not capture any jinchuriki or anything, though, and did not serve long, nor did he bother to find out anything about their motives. However, it was when this connection was made that the world realized his power, and he was promoted to the rank of S. Even so, he rarely encountered ninja, and his bingo book entry commented on his skill in genjutsu. Nothing else. Now he wanders, place to place, hideout to hideout, traversing by night, with himself being the criminal he hides.