Inori is a wise, stoic person. He is incredibly perceptive and often shows that his intelligence is beyond what his appearance would lead most to believe, as he is often messy and disorganized. And, yeah, he's more than a little lethargic - he's a very laid back kind of guy. Want to wait a few hours before leaving the village on that mission? Sure, why not. This isn't to say that he is a 'slacker', by any means. He works very hard, and stands out amongst the others of his age and rank, he merely enjoys his breaks, which he mostly uses to smoke - but he's seen almost all of the time with a lit cigarette, as if he never actually stops. He typically always wears a look of mild fatigue and relaxation, with his eyes half-closed, but smiles very often.

While Inori is no comedian, he certainly does like to poke fun and joke around from time to time, one may even hear a bad joke (and his jokes are always bad, to the 'T') from him in a tight situation, which shows how easily he can cope with hard, pressing moments. His relaxation and ability to stay clear-minded in intense scenarios is one of his best features, and one of the reasons that he made it this far as a Shinobi to begin with. He takes the utmost of care, though, and never looks at any sort of situation lightly - he is merely good at keeping himself calm when most would be incredibly nervous. One who believes all have the potential to be powerful, he never underestimates a foe or ally alike, and is incredibly respectful. He might have his blade to someone else' throat, but he won't spit on their grave or call them names.

Inori is fascinated with the newer generations of Shinobi. He doesn't consider his to be over, and won't until he's dead, but he knows and understands that they are the future and looks to them as such. Having already trained a group of Genin, Inori has a natural aura about himself that seems to exert seniority. Some might already look up to him, even though he wasn't their teacher, but in all honesty Inori considers himself a mentor to all. No one is his 'specific' student, not figuratively, at least - he will provide his experience for all who need it.

Oddly, one of the things that Inori's trained himself to do is to not get too comfortable with his 'lavish' lifestyle. While he is part of the Shichiyou main branch, he actually doesn't live in the palace - upon his own request, he prefers to live in a more modest apartment complex, although he is sitting on enough money to move out if he so chose. He merely doesn't want to seem like he's above other people. He knows that he is worth just as much as the next guy, and shouldn't be put on a pedestal to define him in a crowd. This ties in with his belief that the youth are the answer to this generation, and puts more faith in them than in his own, regardless of who they are.

In short, he is a very nice guy who likes to lounge around with a cigarette.

   Likes:

Inori has a lot of likes. He has a particular fondness for his smoking, of course - he has little regard for what it may be doing to his body - and he is a rather large fan of being able to relax. He enjoys sitting and watching others, mostly. He could sit on a chair and stare at the village for days, and still not get bored. He likes being warm, which is very ironic, and actually likes the more tropical climates he's been able to visit. When it comes to food, Inori loves smoked meats, and has been seen lounging with cups of hot herbal tea.

Nori simply wants to serve his village. As long as it is still standing, he has a reason to be a ninja and press forward, but there is a much deeper part of that. He is motivated by the fact that when he's long gone, there will be others who will have to stand in his shoes - so he best not try to get any holes in them, if you know what I mean. He wants to lay a good path for the next generation to follow, but he doesn't want to lay it down completely. The rest is for them to pave. He fights because he knows that he is fighting for those who will fight for others someday - that is his ninja way.

Nori doesn't necessarily fear things like you or I would. He isn't internally scared that he'd be destroyed if something happened to those he loves, or that he might eventually die on the battlefield - quite simply, Nori is scared of doing a bad job as a Shinobi. Setting a poor example. He doesn't want to be remembered for being a bad ninja, if he'd remembered at all, and wants others to follow in his footsteps because he knows that he has set them correctly. Allowing himself to fall to certain levels would be hell for him, and he will always try to stay his course.

   Shichiyou

This unique bloodline is the ability to create ice on the whim and to travel through it. They can also perform jutsu only using one hand.

Generations before the rise of Hyougakure, the Shichiyou was ruled by a man, Shichiyou Tenzou with an aptitude amount of knowledge of how water worked. He developed various skills and techniques that involved ice and all aspects of it. He was famous in his power and capabilities for the area was covered by a frozen tundra. He started to built a shinobi village in the Blizzard Country to create place that provided security against enemies. It was going to be a long long road. Unfortunately, he passed away before he could finish his life's goal.

Luckily, he had a son that continued his legacy. There isn't much information about this. Just that he signed a pact with a demon to gain more power, to increase the speed of his work. There was a certain price though. The demon's power shall run forever through the main family's first son of each generation, giving them red eyes. And the demon would be able to use their body's sometimes causing them to have a split personality disorder.

This man gave birth to three children. Three boys. And indeed the first son had red eyes while the other two had regular blue eyes. These three men eventually finished their grandfather's work. They founded Hyougakure together. All the residents of the local villages moved to Hyougakure. It was a beautiful and amazing place, just like a fairy tale. An enormous village that provided security to everyone.

The three created Shichiyou's Monarch which is Hyougakure's outer wall, the city's thickest layer of protection. The wall was huge. Easily a hundred meters tall and perhaps fifteen meters thick. The wall encircled all of Hyougagakure. It is considered indestructible and is commonly drawn on maps as a terrain feature. It has never been breached. The council mandated that soldiers and sentries would be placed on the wall at all times, with many of them even living in built-in homes inside the wall.

A couple of years later one of the branch family leaders died during the war with Kazangakure. He was leading the a small shinobi squad, nothing more. Kazangakure wasn't a match since they couldn't handle the cold. Heavy winter blizzards constantly pelt the tundra, and unstable ice sheets often gave way under the slightest pressure. The man died with a smile on his face as he crushed several platoons at once saying "You never managed to enter our village." The two remaining brothers were saddened by this tragedy. Shichiyou was left with a main family and a branch family.

Decades later the Shichiyou clan was increased in numbers. The amount of the main family could be counted on one hand. The amount of the branch family was a bit bigger. The main family lives in a palace and are referred to as the royal family of Hyouga.

Not only is Nori one of the lucky few to be born into the Shichiyou family, but he is one of the only ones who can call themselves part of the main family line. Born into the lap of luxury and wielding their renowned Kekkei-Genkai, Nori was pampered exceptionally, and started his training to become a shinobi at a noticeably young age, taking private beginner classes at age five, two years before he entered the Academy. As a young boy, Nori was incredibly closed-in and quiet. He was taught to be respectful and use manners, but even he could see that at a young age he was valued higher than most other children, who he didn't often get to mingle with. Because of this, Nori often spent most of his time focusing on his Shinobi skills, because of the fact that he didn't have anything else to focus on, and not due to actual eagerness to become a Shinobi.

And, in fact, the idea of being a Ninja was not appealing to a younger Nori. He had no actual interesting in throwing Shuriken or practicing is battle-stances - he merely saw them as daily exercises and simply applied himself because he had to, and because it was expected of him. He spent a lot of time with various tutors, and rarely spent much time with his parents, which he could only assume was legitimately normal.

At age seven, he was enrolled into the Shinobi Academy to join the rest of his class.

In total, Nori spent three years in the academy, graduating earlier than usual due to his pre-academy training. He kept a steady grade throughout his years and was typically at the higher spectrum of his class, even if he wasn't the all-time best student or shinobi in training, respectively. Nori's vision of Shinobi changed while he was in the academy, and experiencing the arts of the ninja with other people. He found that he actually wanted to pursue a ninja career, although he didn't know why, himself. The real reason behind this though was that he was happy to socialize, and to move along with other students. Even though he was very out-going and enjoyed having the company of others, he was very much looked upon by the other students as better than them, merely because of his surname. No matter what Nori did, he couldn't actually shake the fact that the Shichiyou title would mark him as part of the higher class in the academy, and his 'circle' of friends was generally very limited.

Even so, he progressed very steadily in the academy, signs of his hidden bloodline starting to peak out yet not actually manifest into a useable art yet. He graduated at age ten, third highest in his class.

All of the judgement he'd received as an academy student vanished when he became a Genin. Knowing that he was on the bottom rung with everyone else who happened to be there with him really helped to even him out with the other Genin, although they were typically older than him, and often took it upon themselves to ignore him or to judge him based on his age rather than his clan. He wasn't assigned to a three-man squad right off the bat, and was instead placed directly into another special training system within his clan. These tutors taught him how to further harness his Kekkei-Genkai, which helped him develop his Ninjutsu, but typically ate up all of his free time. He only managed to preform a few D-Rank missions, but after his Academy days, the first few years of him being a Genin were very closed-in and reserved, which really caused him to build up a desire to see the world outside of Hyougagakure, and to experience things that his private teachers couldn't teach him.

About two years later, age twelve, Nori had finally completed all of his training and was released into the thick of the Hyougagakure Shinobi world. He was grouped into a squad at this point, comprising of himself, two other Kunoichi, and a rather strict Shinobi Sensei. He is incredibly by-the-book, and valued the intentions of the village above all else. He would often accompany them on their missions simply to remind them to stay on course, and their training sessions were hell for the three of them, with taxing physical activity and almost non-stop running. Because of this, the three didn't actually bond very well while 'working', and instead opted to hang out when they were effectively off duty. They became friends very, very quickly - and there were signs of 'romantic' interest between Nori and one of his teammates, Aki, if you could even call it romance at their age. Nori was prone to lazing around about this time. He often had to be awoken by another teammate to make sure he attended their missions and meetings on time, and typically didn't do missions on his own, unless he absolutely had to.

This went on for about two years, when their sensei was abruptly killed in combat, battling against a rogue ninja who was also notably killed in the battle.

At the age of fourteen, the three were deemed old enough to participate in the Chunin Exams, instead of being given a new sensei. The three made it past the first few rounds, but were eventually beaten out of the exams. After they promptly failed, the three vowed to stick together, and became even closer. Their goal was to get as strong as they could, and re-enter the exams a year later. And so they did, at which point Nori was incredibly close to Aki, and the two often trained together when they weren't training with their third colleague. Nori considers this year to be the greatest time in his Genin career, as they were all very happy and life was a calm river ride for the time being.

When he was fifteen, they re-entered the Chunin Exams. As the exams had changed, the three were forced to fight once more - but in a very pressing team-fight, Aki was gravely wounded. It was very obvious to Nori and their third teammate that she would not make it through the rest of the exams, but the three finished the battle anyway. When she invariably died between rounds, Nori was incredibly distraught, almost to the point of dropping out. His teammate, though, convinced him that he was to remain in the exams and to not let her have died in vain. Over the course of the battles, Nori began to funnel his sorrow and anger into pure determination, often applying himself more than he originally had and shining brighter than he had before, reaching the peak of his potential. Defeating the last combatant, and showing exemplary skill as a Shinobi, Nori became a Chunin a few months before turning sixteen.

Nori was the only one of his original team to live to be a Chunin. His third teammate did not pass the exams, and seemed to almost disappear from his life - the last he heard, she dropped from being a ninja after her second failure and the death of their other friend, believing that she couldn't handle loss like that again. Her giving up actually had a larger effect on Nori than the death of Aki, because it made him realize something: the Shinobi world is a truly harsh place, and not everyone is equipped to handle it. Because of this, he began to question his own abilities. Although he made it to Chunin, he didn't feel that he deserved the title, and would very often take on low-paying and low-leveled missions in order to appeal to himself. He slipped into a depression, and would have definitely lost his rank if it weren't for the Academy. Hearing that they were looking for Shinobi to help proctor the young students, Nori quickly signed on, believing that it would be a simple job to make him enough money to satisfy himself.

Within a few months, it helped pull him out of his depression. He became enthralled with the children, who were incredibly optimistic. The harsh reality is that most wouldn't become incredibly strong, high-leveled Shinobi - but they didn't seem to care. Nori was special to them because he already was a Shinobi. It didn't matter what he did or who he was, he was a Shinobi, and they taught him a greater lesson than he could ever teach them. While the Shinobi world is harsh, there is always room for hope, and it can come in many different shapes. After his term in the academy was over, Nori pressed forward and began taking on higher-ranking missions. His first solo B-Rank mission was also the first time he'd ever left Hyougagakure.

He loved it. The mission was simple delivery and safe-guarding from bandits, and he can't actually recall which village he was tasked to bring the supplies to, but he remembered being in complete and total awe. After he returned to the village, he had the sudden urge to venture out again. He wanted to see the other lands and experience the rest of the Shinobi world himself, although he wouldn't get to for some time. But other lands were only the tip of the iceberg, no pun intended - he began to delve into the heart of his own village as well. Suddenly, being a Shinobi was exciting again, and he quickly built up a reputation for being helpful and effective as a Shinobi within the village.

At about the age of nineteen, as a Chunin in the later time of his Chunin years, Nori was accepted to take on a group of students in his own three-man squad. He prided himself in the way he taught them, often preforming seemingly-bizarre training methods and often training his Genin mentally as well as physically, with deep, philosophical lessons. It became obvious that he had knowledge beyond his years, and that he saw the bigger picture in the Shinobi world. As soon as he deemed them ready, Nori took the group out of the village to preform inter-village missions. This quickly became a regular occurrence, and after about three years more of their bonding, Nori entered them into the Chunin exams, with high hopes. They all passed.

And for showing exemplary skill in raising and preforming with his students, Nori was promoted to the rank of Jonin at age twenty-one.

This is about the time when Nori started to smoke regularly. After they were all ranked-up, Nori said goodbye to his students and further went to build up a reputation as a shinobi. He spent little time back at the village, and was often tasked with out-of-village missions, most of which were directly sent to him and accepted instead of him simply vouching to take them. But he was always prone to straying from his mission, somewhat. If he was in another village, and a woman asked him to get something for her, he would. If a man wanted help cutting lumber, he would. And he would still get his missions completed. In fact, for the next four years, Nori began to build up a reputation all around the Shinobi world as a very helpful, kind gentleman. He made friends in various villages, and was often rewarded for his hospitality, which only further increased his fame.

When he was about twenty five, he decided to move out of the palace and buy his own apartment in the thick of Hyougagakure, believing it was best to live somewhere that wouldn't put him above anyone else by 'default', simply because of his kinsmen. Even so, his reputation as a Jonin wasn't ending any time soon, and he began to be looked up to for his Shinobi skills rather than his clan title, which he had all but rejected.

He continued to leave the village on high-level missions for a few years, but now believes that it's time for him to take up another Genin squad, and is awaiting the village to deliver them to him.

The ground shook, the trees fell, the animals - well, the animals had left long ago. They could feel it. The eventful clash of two storms coming together, two elephants charging at one another, two bombs exploding at the same time. There was a loud boom, a quake, and the skidding of black sandals on a section of recently-carved Earth, which had been forced into a crude crevasse by a massive, ethereal sword, held in the hand of a gigantic aura. The massive Susano followed Hashirama with its glowing golden eyes as he slid down, down into the crease of the valley. When he stopped, the two enemies made eye-contact yet again.

"This is ridiculous, Madara. Please, stop this nonsense and return to the village! The Uchiha need you!"

Madara, a man of very long, dark hair, stared at him unchanging through the purple haze of the Susanoo. Hashirama knew that he would not simply stop his attack and sincerely go back to the village. But what good would come from not trying? He wasn't exactly comfortable with this to begin with. Any of this. But he'd had enough with this clashes. This would be the last one, if he had anything to say about it. Madara stayed silent for many moments, then tilted his head.

"You are a fool, Hashirama. An idealist. These visions of yours, theories, they will not lead to anything but pain. I must defeat you, and take my clan out of your ignorance."

Hashirama scowled.

"Dammit! If you won't see that what you're doing is destroying our dream, then I will have to destroy you first!"

Madara moved to attack, but Hashirama was faster. With his hand moving at blinding speeds, rapidly forming hand-seals, the sage markings appeared on his face. There was a green aura that blasted forward from Hashirama's body, and the Earth shook once more. Something surfaces from the muddy tread that Hashirama stood upon, something fierce, and something that Madara did his best to stop. But it was too late. Moments later, a land was destroyed as the gigantic wooden structure rose from the ground, it's amazing proportions easily dwarfing Madara's aura and shaking its many thousand hands with the mountains that lined the backrop.

And, atop its head, stood Hashirama. His hands were clapped as if forced to close them, and sweat rolled down the sides of his face as he stared down at Madara.

"Sage art! Wood release: True Several Thousand Hands!"

The buddhist statue, looking almost like half of the sun with its gargantuan, thousand arms sprouting from it, seemed lifeless. But it was very much moving. Its arms seemed to peel in, down, towards Madara. It was as if Hashirama was always looking down at Madara. Whether it be after a friendly skirmish, and Madara was face-down in the dirt, or after a long, tiring battle, and he was face-down in the mud. Somehow, Hashirama always came out on top. Somehow, Hashirama was always better.

Normally, he would feel bad. But not today. Not right now.

"Prepare yourself! Top Transformed Buddha!"

By the time Madara's protective Susanoo raised its mighty shield, it was too late. Again. He was always too late. Always. Suddenly, each of those thousands upon thousands of hands became fists, and they rained down upon Madara like a storm of falling trees. He tried to hold out, but it was futile. Within moments, his defense had been broken. But that wasn't all. Each fist, breaking off and falling limp as it collided with the ground, dug chunks out of the Earth. As the technique finished, the statue armless, there was a brand new crevasse. This one, deeper than the last, was filled not by debris but by water.

It crashed over the side of the sudden drop and ran forward. A waterfall was left in the wake of the battle. And, floating on his stomach, was Madara, drifting until he could find a rock to cling to. Hashirama was already descending the side of the waterfall when Madara was regaining his balance, standing atop the water. Hashirama stood ahead of him, he, too, balancing on top of the gradually-calming waves. Hashirama casually walked forward, never taking his eyes off of Madara. This fight was ending soon.

"Have you had enough of this pointless fighting yet? We don't have to continue, you know. We can stop."

Madara looked at Hashirama, not showing any signs of defeat. He was still filled with vigor, pride, and a small sense of excitement as Hashirama approached him. But nowhere in his gaze was there a flicker of regret or redemption.

"I couldn't protect my brother, and my clan has ousted me. There is no returning for me, Hashirama. All that remains is for me to destroy the village. And you along with it!"

Suddenly, he lunged forward, drawing the sword at his waist and sliding it into Hashirama's chest, who didn't even try to evade it. A satisfied expression filled his face, but just then it vanished as another blade pierced his chest from behind. The Hashirama that Madara stabbed hardened, turned to wood, and fell apart - but the Hashirama standing behind him with his blade in the Uchiha's back was very much the real Hashirama.

Madara coughed, and fell to his knees, rippling the water.

"There is nothing I won't do for my people, Madara. You may think I am soft, but there is a line, and I must draw it here. I am sorry. But it is for their protection."

He sheathed his blade, and walked away. He peered over his shoulder only once, but nothing but a floating body remained.

From there, he returned to the village, a weight removed from his shoulders.