Name: Tsuetsu Kazushi
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Affiliation: Hikona Monastery, Kazushi Clan
Jutsu Type:
- Blood Manipulation (Physical Enhancement, Self-Healing, Healing)
- Water
Physical Description: Tsuetsu wears black garments reminiscent of a horse riding hakama, with the end of each limb sealed just below the elbows and knees with layers of white cloth strips. His hands and feet are wrapped with similar white cloth, and thin scars spiral upward from each extremity.
A strip of bamboo with a thin slit covers his eyes like a pair of antiquated sunglasses, secured by sturdy strings tied around the back of his head. His chin length hair flows backward, usually tied into a topknot.
Backstory: The Kazushi Clan hails from the Land of Hot Springs, serving as indiscriminate healers of shinobi, civilians, and any who need it. They ensure equal access to the healing hot springs for which their home is named, and use Blood-Jutsu to heal wounds and purge the body of ailments.
The kami Sukuna Hikona blessed the Kazushi Clan with their abilities not for their own sake, but so they could be used to defend and heal those in need. Among such defenders was Tsuetsu, the first born of loving parents in the Kazushi Clan and older brother to three sisters. Tsuetsu was born with an average aptitude for the Kazushi healing techniques, but his true talent revealed itself when he showed the signs of a Hiiro no Kuiaratame inheritor at age 4.
Tradition held that Tsuetsu was to be trained in the techniques at Hikona Monastery, the only bastion of Hiiro no Kuiaratame and the origin of all of the Kazushi Clan’s shinobi, and there he trained day and night for the next 11 years of his life.
The Hiiro no Kuiaratame is a taxing ability, best used by a skilled Taijutsu fighter, and Tsuetsu had countless combat techniques drilled into him before dipping his toes into the Scarlet Repentance. The boy distinguished himself among his peers as an unrelenting fighter, and his natural ferocity was the topic of many a meditation session and lecture.
The chastising never made sense to Tsuetsu in those early days. Why shouldn’t he enjoy a battle when their purpose as shinobi was to fight? He got his answer when a particular Hikona monk explained to him the true purpose of Kazushi shinobi. They were no mere instruments of violence, but defenders of all the people of their realm. The Kazushi were blessed with strength to rival an Uchiha and healing abilities potent enough for anyone caught in the wake of their battles, but the reason they were blessed was to use their abilities in service of protecting life.
He learned the arts of negotiation and de-escalation in conjunction with his lessons in Taijutsu and Jutsu, though his habit of letting his blood boil over during training stubbornly refused to dissipate.
Tsuetsu at first struggled to reconcile his nature with the monks’ teachings, but as he matured he found solace in his role as a peacekeeper. He loved his home, his families, and his clan, and as he grew to love their mission his battle lust slowly ebbed away; a development that was tested for the first time when he was 13.
Tsuetsu’s first taste of true combat came soon after he assumed full shinobi duties, when a nomad clan from the Land of Fire arrived in the Land of Hot Springs. The nomads dispersed throughout the region, carefully placing groups at each of the most well-known medicinal hot springs, and conspired to overthrow the Kazushi and claim the healing pools for themselves.
Tsuetsu was among the shinobi sent to counter them when the uprising occurred, but when his team arrived at one of the occupied hot springs they found healers and civilians of their clan taken hostage. Tsuetsu was sent ahead to attempt a negotiation, and he spent a full day within the nomads’ camp attempting to talk his way into the release of the captives and the nomads’ retreat.
The nomad leader was amused by the boy’s sincerity, in the way a cat may be amused by a struggling mouse. When the sun set, the nomads executed a Kazushi healer right before Tsuetsu’s eyes, and for the first time in a long while the boy felt his blood boil.
Tsuetsu activated his Hiiro no Kuiaratame and [REDACTED]. By the time his fellow shinobi made it to the boy in the center of the camp, he was surrounded by a squad of nomad shinobi, each one impaled through the chest or similarly mutilated.
The young shinobi was exhausted after the battle, but insisted that each nomad received the same burial rights they would afford to a fallen Kazushi. His compassion was recognized after the other hot springs were liberated and the nomads driven off, and he was summoned to the Kazushi clan head’s dwelling where he received the title “Tsuetsu the Merciful”.
When word of a festival of shinobi reached the Land of Hot Springs, Tsuetsu the Merciful was selected to represent the Kazushi clan with the goal of keeping his home’s ideals secure and his clan’s mission unimpeded.
Likes: Relaxing, eating good food, making good friends, sparring
Dislikes: Disregard for life, Nihilism, cold temperatures
Hiiro no Kuiaratame: The Scarlet Repentance, named for the signature tears of blood which flow during activation and prayer sign that finishes the hand signs, allows for a variety of techniques to be used through the control of the chakra in blood. The skin from a user’s extremities to the joints (elbows/knees) splits open in a vertical spiral pattern, indicative of the increased chakra flow and allowing for use of several HnK abilities.
The main weakness of Hiiro no Kuiaratame is blood loss, particularly through the eyes, and assuming the user does not receive additional injuries their general time limit for HnK is five minutes without draining their chakra reserves.
- (Passive) False Wounds: As long as the blood is not disconnected from the body, a user can suck lost blood back into the body and return it to circulation. While the Jutsu is active, blood will not flow from wounds after the initial cut/puncture.
- Overflow: By increasing the amount of chakra flowing in their blood, a user can greatly increase their physical prowess. This includes physical strength, agility, and stamina. Skilled users can concentrate chakra in specific limbs to further increase the mentioned characteristics, along with durability.
- Unwilling Donor: A user can absorb the blood and chakra of an opponent by connecting their own wound to that of the opponent (typically used with the open spirals on limbs). Increases the duration of HnK.
Other Blood Manipulation Techniques:
- Toxin Purge: A user can siphon toxins and poisons from their own wounds or those of a patient.
- Recirculation: A user can flood a patient’s blood with their own chakra, effectively providing full body healing, or can concentrate chakra in a specific part of the body for quicker healing.
- Perfect Transfusion: A user can use their own blood to replenish that of another person. Neither will suffer ill effects from the mingling of blood.