Okiku Satō

Okiku Kusaki (くさき おきく, Kusaki Okiku), née Satō (佐藤), is a kunoichi from Konohagkure. She belongs to the Satō Clan and is a member of Team Riku.

Background
Okiku grew up together with both her parents, her little brother Akio and her uncle Yutaka. When she was a young child, she always listened eagerly to her uncle's stories. Especially fascinated by one of them, a story about how he saved his friend from certain death, she became inspired to become a shinobi as well. However, when she learned one day that her uncle had to let the person he loved die in order to save that friend, she was shaken and, while feeling deep sympathy for her uncle, began to fear that she could be confronted with a similar situation one day as well.

Okiku attended the Academy where she befriended Keiro and Kaname. Spending time with them took her mind off things and made her relax in between studying. She was a diligent student, studying in her free-time and, as a result, graduated successfully from the academy at the age of twelve.

Personality
Initially, two of Okiku's most prominent characteristics were her tendency to be strict with others and herself as well as her cautious and matter-of-factly behaviour. She learned from her uncle at a young age that, although most likely worthwile in the end, her career as a shinobi also had the potential to be filled with pain and regrets. As a result, she stopped idealizing the shinobi life like she used to before, calling herself "naïve" for having done so, and became a more serious, yet somewhat doubtful person upon entering the academy, later on being extra careful on duty and worrying deeply for her teammates. She was determined not to make any mistakes, fearing that they could have fatal consequences, to the point were she second-guessed her actions and ideas in dire situations, preferreing to go along with other people's plans instead. Over the course of the chūnin exams, getting through many difficult situations and learning from her peers and teammates alike, she began to gradually gain more trust in her abilities and judgements and grew more into her role as a shinobi while retaining her reflectiveness and rationality as the essence of her character.

A sensible and insightful individual since childhood, Okiku typically acts as the voice of reason when in a group of people. Her patience and competence are what enable her to help her little brother with his studies and training on the one hand and teach the children at the academy as an adult on the other. While thorough by nature, she also isn't opposed to winding down sometimes when off-duty. Although she is a well-meaning and cooperative person, she will distance herself from those she deems untrustworthy or unpleasant, unless the person in question is a student of hers. Okiku isn't someone to be easily influenced by others and is confident in her judgements, but she can be swayed by those she has a close connection with.

Okiku usually keeps her thoughts to herself, but she doesn't mind giving her unfiltered opinions on subjects when asked to do so. This can makes her come across as callous, either in a comical way or not depending on the situation. Still, she is considerate, as seen when she suggested a joint walk through the village to Ino and Chōji in an attempt to lift their spirits after Asuma's funeral.

Okiku shares a strong loyalty to Konoha with her peers and believes in the will of fire. She is concerned about the safety of her loved ones and is willing to protect and support them in any way she can.

Appearance
Okiku is a fair-skinned girl of average height with round honey-brown eyes. She has straight black hair, tucked behind her ears on both sides. She changes the length of her hair three times over the course of the series: during Part I and II, she keeps it at chin-length, proceeding to let it grow out long enough to almost reach her shoulders during the blank period before wearing it at ear-length in the epilogue. Her bangs are slightly parted to the left. Due to her eye and hair color, she has been mistaken for a member of the Nara Clan in one episode. She usually wears a neutral, arguably a bit hard to read facial expression.

In Part I, Okiku sported a sleeveless grey top with a zipper down the middle and a mesh midriff shirt underneath. She combined it with dark brown pants which reached slightly over her knees. Additionally, she wore regular navy blue sandals and placed her headband on her left hip, fastened on by two steel buttons. Okiku also wore a shuriken-holster on her right thigh and a brown weapon pouch.

In Part II, Okiku wears a simple short-sleeved blue jacket with pockets on the lower part of each side and the same mesh undershirt as before. She also sports black pants reaching down to her knees. She continues to place her headband on her left hip, however only the metal part is visible, apparently sewn onto the pants themselves. Her sandals are now brown and reach more above her calves. Okiku has started to carry two cream coloured weapon pouches instead of the previous single brown one. Additionally, Okiku has started to wear a pale green bangle on her left wrist, a gift she received from her little brother during the time-skip.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, she shifts her clothes, replacing them with the standard uniform of the Alliance and a regular Konoha flak jacket.

In The Last, Okiku wears a blue vest-like top with uniquely shaped short sleeves, kept closed by three square-shaped metal buttons running down the middle. She also sports a pair of high-waisted, black pants and brown sandals. She has stopped wearing her forehead protector at this point.

In the Epilogue, Okiku sports the regular Konoha flak jacket over a black sleeveless shirt, three-quarter length black pants and black shoes.

Abilities
Okiku is a fairly talented kunoichi who generally utilizes ninjutsu. Like the other members of her clan, Okiku has specialized in the use of Barrier Ninjutsu and creating shields. As a result, she usually has a supportive role in fighting, protecting her comerades from attacks and detecting or restraining enemies. When engaging in combat, Okiku usually attacks with kunai and shuriken, sometimes also resorting to basic taijutsu to fend off attackers. She also makes use of smoke bombs on numerous occasions to block her opponents' view before or while attacking and has been shown to use explosive tags to blow up opponents trapped inside her barriers during the war. Overall, she is more of a defensive than an offensive fighter and prefers to keep some distance to her enemies.

Ninjutsu
Out of the three main kinds of jutsu, Okiku is most talented and proficient in ninjutsu. Along with Ino, Okiku was among the female students with the best ninjutsu skills in her academy class.

Barrier Ninjutsu
Okiku has focused on learning Barrier Ninjutsu over the years, following her clan's tradition. Depending on the situation, she creates different types of barriers to support her fellow fighters. As its name suggests, one of her clan's techniques, called "Omniscient Dome Technique", allows her to create a dome-shaped barrier with a range of up to four kilometres and enables her to detect all people who enter, leave or are inside of it, given that the enemy doesn't surpress their chakra immensely well. She can also trap enemies inside of smaller barriers, the exact amount of time depending on her chakra reserves and the enemy's abilities, and can even prevent the enemy's jutsu from exiting the barrier.

Nature Transformation
Okiku's chakra affinity is Earth Release. She has mastered techniques mainly for creating defensive shields and walls, some examples being Earth Release: Practice Brick Technique, Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall or Earth Release: Rock Shelter. She has shown to be proficient in Fire Release as well in the Fourth Shinobi World War, at one point eliminating several enemies with Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique.

Other skills
Similar to other clan members, Okiku is exceptionally good at noticing enemies. Like the other members of her clan, she mainly does so utilizing her naturally good sense of hearing.

Relationships
Being generally easy to talk to, Okiku has not much difficulty building friendships if she wants to, however some people might be turned off by her honest and sometimes seemingly insensitive nature.

In her years at the Academy, she befriended Keiro and Kaname. The three frequently spent the breaks together playing and chatting and ended up becoming best friends over time. It made Okiku visibly happy to be placed in a team with them at the beginning of the series. Due to their long friendship, their teamwork is very good.

Okiku also shares a close sibling-relationship with her little brother, Akio, and holds a lot of respect and admiration for her uncle, Yutaka, who served as her rolemodel during her childhood and inspired her to follow his footsteps as a shinobi. She also loves her mother and father and, although stating to be annoyed by it, is secretly kind of happy about the fact that her parents are so concerned for her well-being. Despite this, she tries her best to not give them a reason to worry for her.

Introduction Arc
Okiku was first seen sitting in the academy classroom after having graduated successfully. She wondered why Naruto was there despite having failed the graduation exam. She later was announced to be in Team 6 alongside Keiro and Kaname and smiled widely as a result, turning her head to look over to them.

Chūnin Exams Arc
Okiku and her teammates took part in the Chūnin Exams together with the rest of the Rookie 9. In the first phase, she and Kaname had to rely on Keiro to get the correct answers for all the questions. When the tenth question came around, she started feeling very uneasy and considered giving up, however she snapped out of her negative thoughts after hearing Naruto's short speech and observing the impact it had on the other candidates. Like the others who decided to stay, she passed the written test and Team 6 proceeded onto the second phase, relieved.

In the Forest of Death, Okiku and her teammates were in search of a heaven scroll. They were seen after a while having successfully fought against another team, though they were unlucky and were shown dissapointed at the sight of yet another earth scroll. As they wanted to move on, Okiku noticed two people drawing closer to them, who turned out to be Tenten and Neji, searching for Lee who had run off to rescue Sakura from Dosu, Zaku and Kin. Seeing themselves having an advantage since one member was missing, the team decided to fight the two but was interrupted by an agonized cry coming from afar. They rushed towards its source and looked on in horror as Sasuke beat up the Oto-nin. Later, Team 6 was seen at the preliminaries, indicating that they had managed to get a heaven scroll in time.

In the one-on-one matches, Okiku was pitted against a genin from a Kusagakure team called Nori. He used a shuriken launcher for attacking. Okiku had to defend herself with a shield made of chakra since the shuriken were fired with piercing speed. When she let her guard down for only a short moment, she was hit by a special shuriken from behind which paralyzed her. Because she wasn't able to fight anymore, Nori was declared the winner. She was angry and embarrased about her loss and, not able to move, was supervised by the medics until the exam was over. Later, she talked with her teammates about their fights and with their help regained some of her confidence.

About a month later, Okiku and Keiro arrived together in the arena with Kiba and Hinata to watch Kaname's match and the other remaining fights. Though concerned about Hinata's bad condition, they let Kiba and the disguised Kabuto take care of her alone and remained seated. Much like everyone else, Okiku watched Neji's and Naruto's battle in disbelief, showing sympathy for the former and respect for the latter. She followed Shikamaru and Temari's match in amazement, wondering to herself whether her shields would be able to withstand Temari's jutsu.

As Sunagakure started to take action, Okiku was caught by Kabuto's genjutsu with Keiro unable to release her from it.

Invasion of Konoha Arc
Okiku attended the Third Hokage's funeral together with the rest of the village, observing the other attendees as if in deep thought. She walked home together with Keiro and Kaname after the event and they shared their thoughts, concerns and hopes about the future.

During the time-skip
After Naruto left the village, Okiku became motivated to train as well. Though her main goal was to improve her speed, she actually gained a lot of stamina and, due to practice with her uncle, her Barrier Ninjutsu got better. She frequently helped her brother Akio with his studies at the academy.

Some time during the time skip, Okiku is shown practicing ninjutsu with her brother. When they finish and Okiku turns to head home for dinner together, Akio stops her and surprises her with a bangle as a thank-you gift to her for helping him all the time. Okiku is reluctant to accept it at first, feeling guilty and concerned that it must have cost him at least a month's worth of pocket money, but he insists. Moved by his action, Okiku can't help but tear up a bit, hugging and thanking him with a smile.

Sasuke and Sai Arc
In search for a third teammember for his mission to meet Sasori's spy, Naruto eventually ran arcoss Team Riku resting at Konoha's dango shop. They were suprised but very happy to see him again after such a long time. They had a short chat before he asked them if one of them could accompany him and Sakura, however all of them had to decline, having just returned from a long mission themselves. They apologized and wished him luck as he ran off again.

Hidan and Kakuzu Arc
Okiku, Keiro and Kaname learned of Asuma's death from their sensei and were shocked by the news. They were seen mourning his loss at his funeral together with the other shinobi. After the funeral, the team wanted to cheer up Chōji and Ino by taking a walk and talking to them for a bit, but they both declined the offer. Feeling heavy-hearted after the event and after seeing the members of Team 10 in their grieving state, Team Riku headed home together with their sensei.

Invasion of Pain Arc
At the beginning of the arc, Okiku was seen leaving her house for a mission, telling her worried parents not to panic over her safety everytime she left Konoha. As she met up with her sensei and Kaname in the village centre, they witnessed the explosions caused by Pain. Once Keiro arrived as well, Riku told them to quickly check on their families and then help evacuate the villagers while he would go and inform the authorities. Okiku, arriving at her house again, brought her parents to the shelters and took Akio with her before starting to search for other villagers buried under the destroyed buildings. When Akio moved a rock aside to free an old man, the two siblings almost got crushed by loosened debris from above but were ultimately safe thanks to Okiku's rock shelter. Kaname, who had witnessed the incident from a distance, jogged towards them to check if they're injured. Afterwards, he offered to take the old man to the shelters in their place so that Okiku and Akio could go and find their uncle Yutaka whom he had previously spotted on the battlefield. Shocked to learn that their uncle wants to fight in his bad condition, they run off, but not before Okiku is reaffirmed by Kaname that he'll be alright on his own. Later, the two find their uncle but are unable to persuade him to go to the shelters. After hearing his reasons and after some reassuring words from Akio, Okiku eventually, albeit reluctantly, gives in as they stand together with numerous other members of the Sato clan in an attempt to shield the village from the attacks, with Okiku constantly watching over her close relatives.

After the attack was over and all the dead were revived, Okiku was seen celebrating Naruto alongside the other villagers together with her teammates, brother, uncle and clansmen.

Final Arc
Ultimately, Okiku woke up once the Infinite Tsukuyomi was dispelled by Sasuke and Naruto after they ended the war.

She later attended Neji's funeral along with the rest of the Konohagakure shinobi.

Blank Period
Two years after the war, Okiku continued to practice ninjutsu together with Akio, who was now preparing his first Chūnin Exams, and resumed training with her uncle to further enhance her abilities. It is hinted at a couple of times that she is in a relationship with Kaname.

The Last: Naruto the Movie
Okiku makes an appearance in this film together with her team. She is seen at Naruto's and Hinata's wedding, being part of a photo alongside the other girls (Hinata, Tenten, Ino and Sakura).

Konoha Hiden: The Perfect Day for a Wedding
Okiku appears in this novel. After thinking about what present to give to Hinata and Naruto, she decides to go to the library to search for ideas in a book about weddings. Flipping through the pages, she starts to think that she should probably come up with an idea herself instead of relying on some book. After asking Kaname for some guidance, she manages to make two matching bracelets for the two, but voices concern over whether they'll actually like them or not. When Kaname hints at the possibility of her having subconciously gotten the idea for the present from the bracelet she got from Akio, she smiles and becomes more confident in her self-made gift.

Epilogue
Years later, Okiku eventually became an instructor at the Academy along with Shino. In the last chapter, she was seen coming to his classroom, some whispering students referring to her as "Kusaki-sensei". She looked on when some of his pupils - most notably Boruto Uzumaki - caused a ruckus, not paying attention to their teacher. Looking at the students from afar with a smile, she told Shino not to worry, saying it's no wonder they behaved that way when you thought about their parents.

When she later came home in the evening, she was greeted by her parents and uncle sitting together and seen smiling warmly at the sight of Kaname sitting next to the others with their little son, Tasuku, in his arm. After giving the two a kiss on the cheek, Okiku goes off to the kitchen to prepare some dinner while asking her family about their day.

Naruto Shippūden the Movie: The Will of Fire
Okiku appears in this film together with her team.

Naruto the Movie: Blood Prison
Okiku, along with the other members of the Konoha 11 and Guy, Tsunade, Shizune, Kakashi and Yamato, came to Naruto's rescue and helped out in the fight against Satori.

Road to Ninja
Okiku appears in this movie together with her teammates. In the alternate world, Okiku wears her heart on her sleeve and is much less quick on the uptake than usual, shown when she is the last one to notice Lee in the girl's changing room at the hot springs.

Hidden Leaf Village Grand Sports Festival
Team Riku participates in the sports festival to win the prize. They congratulate Naruto together with everyone else after he wins.

Naruto, The Genie, and the Three Wishes
Team Riku looks on as the other genin try to snatch the genie's bottle. Like the others, they are shocked when the last wish is wasted on Kakashi.

Rock Lee's Springtime Of Youth
Okiku mostly appears in the spin-off together with Keiro and Kaname. She usually prefers to stay out of everyone's antics, only joining in if something piques her interest or if it seems inevitable. She occasionally comments on the situations both in her head and aloud, providing some funny moments.

Trivia

 * "Kiku",when written as 菊, means "chrysanthemum", which her mother once noted to be her favourite flower.
 * Okiku hates spring because she suffers from hay fever.
 * According to the databooks:
 * Okiku's personality is described as mindful and straightforward.
 * Okiku's hobbies include reading, taking baths and taking walks.
 * Okiku would like to fight Temari.
 * Okiku's favourite food is Onigiri with salmon filling while her least favourite is Tempura.
 * Okiku has completed 40 official missions in total: 10 D-Rank, 17 C-Rank, 9 B-Rank, 4 A-Rank, 0 S-Rank.
 * Okiku's favourite phrase is "Guardians never surrender".

Quotes

 * (To herself during her fight with Nori) "He's not holding back...I hope I can keep this up!"
 * (To herself about Kiba) "I wonder how Akamaru can put up with your crazy personality."
 * (To Akio after his graduation) "Congratulations! You'll be an amazing shinobi one day for sure."
 * (To Shino about Boruto and Shikadai) "Don't let it get to you, Shino. After all, remember who their parents are."

Reference
Okiku Satō is an OC for the Narutoverse created by The SatoGirl.

Edit: I'm an idiot. I only realized just now that Read Books was kind enough to write about me on her OC's page. So now: a big thank you to you as well!