Avaki

Avaki (アバキ, Abaki) is a villager of Kusagakure and a former member of Team Takato with Kazō Yakusho and Oda Inagara.

Background
During his childhood, Avaki had the normal life of a villager. As he grew, he spent time helping his father on their farm. He would never have thought of the ninja life, were it not for Takato. The jōnin first saw Avaki when the boy got in the way of a game between Kazō and his friends. Kazō had successfully snatched a scroll from Kentaro and was running back to his team’s base. Avaki noticed this and took off after him, thinking Kazō had actually stolen something from Kentaro. Takato just happened to be nearby and watched as Avaki went so far as to follow Kazō into a tree, the scroll dropping in the process. Kentaro retrieved the scroll as Avaki confronted Kazō. Annoyed that Avaki had interrupted their game, Kazō decided to quit and go home. Takato was impressed by the boy’s determination and integrity, and later chose him to be a member of Team Takato. Unlike his teammates, Avaki had to first learn to tap into his chakra reserves before training could begin. Once completed, he began the rigorous training to prepare for the Chūnin Exams.

Personality
Avaki has a well-mannered personality. He always keeps a friendly demeanor around others and is very kind. He hates the idea of disobeying orders or hurting someone’s feelings. This puts him at odds with Kazō and Oda, who can goof off or make fun of others easily. He usually acts as the conscience of the team, making sure the others don’t take things too far. His good-natured attitude is the main reason Takato chose him to be a part of the team. He saw it as a trait more ninja should have, and felt the boy would do well.

Although he agreed to become a ninja, Avaki isn’t big on fighting and prefers a more pacifistic life. His biggest goal in living the shinobi life is protecting others. With the skills gained through tapping into his chakra, he’s able to accomplish this. He thinks more about others’ safety than his own, and would easily put his life on the line if it meant keeping them safe. This is shown in his fight with the Ishigakure ninja, Ryō.

Hanging out with Kazō and Oda has gotten Avaki to lighten up and have fun from time to time. He can be a bit gullible with some of their jokes, but their easygoing natures have started to rub off on him. Though he doesn’t really participate in their horsing around, he enjoys watching their antics.

Appearance
Avaki is just under average height with black, spiky hair and green eyes. In Part I his outfit consisted of a green shirt with darker green pants and red vest similar in style to standard shinobi flak jackets without the pouches or extra padding. He wore his headband around his waist. While staying in Koubuchi Forest, his attire was switched out with material used by the beetles living there. It was comprised of an open light blue cloak and dark grey pants. Under the attire, Avaki was wrapped in many bandages due to his wounds gained upon entering the forest. There is also the kanji for “sulfur” (硫, ryuu) branded onto his front torso, beneath the wrappings. This was placed on him by the beetles to prevent him from leaking any information he may have learned while staying in the forest. After returning to the Grass Village, he changed his attire to a light grey jacket and dark green pants. He still retains the wrappings over his torso to cover the symbol.

Abilities
Like Oda, Avaki had never attended the Academy. As such, he lacks many of the skills most shinobi obtain throughout their training. Before taking the Chūnin Exams, he was taught the basics by Takato and Kazō. His greatest asset is his skill with wielding chains. After returning to the village in Part II, he no longer works as a ninja. This has caused his skills to remain at the genin level.

Kusarijutsu
Avaki’s most common style of fighting is with chains. Using his chakra, he can manipulate them further. His Serpent Chain Technique allows him to control the chains like living creatures; striking and entangling an opponent. He can also change the length of the chains. Because of this, he only carries a few links of chain hooked onto the inside of his sleeves. Before fighting, he will shake the links out from his sleeves and extend them with chakra. Unlike normal kusari, Avaki’s chains do not have a weighted end. The one end is attached directly to his sleeves while the other end is swung at the enemy. Other techniques include weaving the chains together to make a net or wrapping the chains around himself or an ally as armor. On occasion he will also summon two sickles to attach to the ends of the chains. After returning to the village, Avaki began aiding Rika with her chain techniques.

Chūnin Exam Arc
For the first test, Avaki found he could not answer a single question. He wasn’t surprised, as he hadn’t had any proper Academy lessons. According to the rules, however, a score of zero would fail their whole team. This worried him because he didn’t want to let down Kazō who was getting his second chance to be a ninja. He and Oda had also work hard getting to this point and he didn’t want their first real challenge with other ninja to be a failure. When Avaki heard Oda’s joints cracking, he realized Oda was going to resort to cheating to complete the test. He was completely against the idea, but couldn’t stop him without them getting caught. Looking around, he saw Kazō had noticed too. A while later, the wood from Avaki’s pencil had started changing. Kazō was giving him the answers along with a message. It said not to worry, and that as an unofficial team, they could get away with breaking a few rules and still be considered honorable. As the tenth question was about to be asked, many teams decided to quit. Avaki started contemplating doing the same, when another genin spoke out. Naruto Uzumaki had said he would not give up and that he would still become Hokage even if he failed here. Avaki was one of the many genin who were reassured and stayed to pass the first test.

During the second exam, they had planned on getting the team to the tower quickly by having Kazō create wooden platforms above the tree line, away from the obstacles below. However, they were soon stopped by two shinobi from the Grass Village. When Kazō said he knew of them, Avaki expected to gain the aid of these upperclassmen. This was not the case and the two began attacking them. Avaki started questioning their actions, asking why they were fighting fellow Grass ninja. The two would not listen and continued their offensive. Avaki and his team lost to the two, who were Orochimaru’s henchmen in disguise. Luckily, the two neglected to take their earth scroll, apparently having other objectives to deal with. Avaki and his team continued to the tower with little more opposition. Once there, Avaki went on his own to find a heaven scroll, leaving Kazō and Oda to wait for potential targets at the tower.

For his preliminary match, Avaki faced a genin from the Waterfall Village. His opponent fought mostly with a sword, and seemed an even match against Avaki’s chains. For the majority of the fight, the two went back and forth, striking and countering each other. After they wore each other out, Avaki was able to catch both of his opponent’s wrists and chain his arms up. A few more strikes awarded Avaki the win. He was taken to the infirmary afterwards since he was just as beat up as his opponent.

For the third test, Avaki was to be pitted against the Sound shinobi, Dosu Kinuta. However, as the final exam began, a change was made. Dosu was no longer fighting in the finals and Avaki would pass to the next round to face either Shikamaru Nara or Temari. Until then, he watched the other matches including Kazō’s fight with Oda. Before he could get a chance to fight, the exams were cancelled and the destruction of the Leaf Village began.

Invasion of Konoha Arc
When Sound ninja started attacking in the audience, Avaki found Takato and wanted to help. Takato refused and led him out of the village. On the way, Avaki protested. He didn’t want to let such a disaster happen while they just ran away. Takato explained that it wasn’t their fight. It was Konoha’s problem, and the two of them getting involved would only drag Kusa into it. He continued, saying Kusa was a village that upheld diplomacy as one of its key values. Although helping an ally would seem to abide by this, the fact that Kusa was not even aware of the events happening meant they should retreat and report the findings. As tough as it may be to accept, there are times to just follow protocol and disregard everything else. Avaki still disagreed, but he was willing to put aside his views to follow the village’s decisions.

Trivia

 * Avaki’s hobby is helping his father with farming.
 * Avaki does not wish to fight anyone. He prefers to use his skills protecting others.
 * Avaki’s favorite word is "protect" (かばいたて Kabaitate).
 * Avaki has completed 23 official missions in total: 10 D-rank, 13 C-rank, 0 B-rank, 0 A-rank, 0 S-rank.

Reference
Avaki is an OC created by KusaNin.