Ichika Kusatani

Ichika Uozumi (魚住イチカ, Uozumi Ichika, née Kusatani (草谷, Kusatani)) is a kunoichi and medical-nin of Konohagakure's Kusatani and Uozumi Clan. Upon graduating from the Academy, Ichika was placed on Team Botan and struggled with gaining her teammates' trust, causing her to reconsider being a shinobi. However, through finding her talents and sheer determination, Ichika made a name for herself as Ichika of the Hidden Release (隠れ遁のイチカ, Kakureton no Ichika, English TV: Hidden Style Ichika) through the use of her Hidden Release kekkei genkai during the Invasion of Pain and the Fourth Shinobi World War.

Background
Born to Hideo Kusatani and Ori Kusatani a little over a year after the Nine-Tails attacked, Ichika is the first member of the Kusatani clan to have a parent that was not originally a member. She was born somewhat prematurely and this is thought to have affected her height later on in her childhood. Ichika’s father, Hideo, died while on a mission during Ori’s pregnancy. He also gave Ichika her name before he died.

As a small child, Ichika was raised by her mother and the two would often visit Hideo’s gravesite. Though Ori was a kind and loving mother who meant well, Ichika noted that she was sometimes distant and this caused her to feel lonely at times. Ori also disapproved at first of Ichika becoming a ninja, as her husband had died in the career and she was scared for her daughter.

During her childhood, Ichika became friends with Kotone Shibasaki, and they bonded over the fact that neither of them had fathers. Though they grew apart as genin, they started to spend more time together in Part II and by The Last, they were very close. Ichika begged her mother to enroll her in the Academy, and after much effort convincing her, Ori finally enrolled her.

Personality
In general, Ichika is a cheerful girl who is energetic and tomboyish, as she ends sentences with “Sa!” (さ!, English TV: “Alright!”) when she is excited, a particle usually only used by boys. She can be very enthusiastic. Along with many other things, this verbal tic is a trait that she inherited from her father.

Ichika can also be mischievous, especially in Part I, as she sometimes uses her Hidden Release to turn invisible and play pranks on others. This slowly stops as she gets older, though it is shown that she still occasionally messes with her husband by using it.

She can be very naïve at times, as shown when she didn’t understand at first what Jiraiya meant by “research,” and this can cause her to be too trusting of others and be seen as younger than she is. Despite this, she is shown to be fairly intelligent. She also has a very hard time understanding whether people are telling the truth or not. This has been shown to have improved over the years, especially now that she has kids.

After her mother’s death, Ichika became more withdrawn and would often appear to be sad, though she did her best to hide it. She believed that her mother’s death was her fault because she wasn’t with her when she died and became almost overprotective of her friends and family, scared that she would lose them too. As a result, Ichika learned some medical ninjutsu, and this helped her to relax somewhat because she knew that she could heal at least some injuries. After she discovered a letter that Ori had written to her before she died, she was able to revert a little to her old personality. With time, she became mostly like herself again, though the grief of her mother’s death would be with her for a very long time.

Ichika is normally a bit passive, but she will become fiercely protective of her friends and family members if they are in danger. Though she does not enjoy fighting, she will do so without any hesitation to protect her loved ones. She is not usually one to get scared easily, though she tended to worry a lot at the beginning of Part II. She is also a sort of daredevil, often seen during her childhood swinging from trees and running on rooftops, earning her the nickname “Grasshopper” (飛蝗, Batta), though only family members tend to call her this now. Ichika can hold grudges for a long time, but she has improved at this as she has grown.

After meeting her father for the first time during the Fourth Shinobi World War, Ichika mentally matured and took on a serious attitude for the rest of the war, determined to win in order to make her parents proud and save the world.

Ichika can be very shy around her teammate Kaisei, as it became obvious during Part II that he was attracted to her. She began to have a crush on him after he saved her during the Invasion of Pain. Her shyness decreased after she admitted that she had feelings for him, though in The Last, they are still a bit bashful around each other.

Shortly after the events of The Last, Ichika and Kaisei got married and eventually had twins, a son named Watari and a daughter named Kotani. After the war ended, her personality returned to normal and she is shown to be a playful mother, though she has matured and wants her children to become great shinobi one day. Though she doesn’t let her kids get away with things, as seen when she scolded Watari and Kotani for playing pranks on their classmates through the use of their Hidden Release, she was shown to laugh about it behind their backs.

Ichika loves her family deeply and enjoys spending lots of time with them, though in her children’s early years it was difficult due to Kaisei being in the ANBU. Later on, though, it became easier as he returned to the regular forces. While he is away more than she’d like him to be sometimes, she and the twins will often send him letters while he’s gone. She loves to help her children train and tell them stories about the past.

Appearance
Ichika is a little smaller than other girls her age. She has lightly tanned skin and pink eyes - a strong resemblance to her mother - though she also has unruly green hair with bangs that resemble a leaf which she keeps short until she reaches adulthood. She also has a rather flat chest, which she is slightly insecure about, and a boyish figure.

In Part I, Ichika wore a yellow, long-sleeved pullover sweater over a light blue t-shirt. Along with this, she wore a pink pleated skirt, brown cropped leggings, and pink shinobi sandals. She also wore a standard kunai holder, albeit on her left leg, and the standard Konoha forehead protector. On the back of her sweater, she had the Kusatani clan symbol.

In Part II, her face had thinned out as she had grown, and her colour scheme had become more muted. Ichika wore a dusky pink long-sleeved sweater with her clan symbol on the back over a high-collared, light blue tank top. She wore light pink mid-length shorts, brown cropped leggings, and black calf-length shinobi sandals. She continued to wear a kunai holder on her left leg and donned the standard Konoha forehead protector, now on a black cloth. She also began to wear a medical pouch.

Later on, she wore the uniform of the Allied Shinobi Forces made up of a Konoha flak jacket, a black long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and black shinobi sandals. She also wore the Allied Shinobi Forces forehead protector on black cloth.

In The Last: Naruto the Movie, Ichika, who had become a young adult, kept a similar colour scheme to her previous outfit. She wore a short, high-collared, light pink sleeveless pullover dress that was belted on the sides with light blue pieces of cloth. Underneath, she wore a dusky pink shirt with mid-length sleeves. Ichika also wore a yellow sash tied in the back, brown mid-length shorts, and black calf-length shinobi sandals. Additionally, she wears a kunai holder on her left leg, a medical pouch, and the standard Konoha forehead protector, again on black cloth.

In adulthood, Ichika is noted to bear a striking resemblance to her mother, Ori. She has grown her hair out long and it has straightened quite a lot, though she keeps her bangs the same. Her face has further thinned and she has grown to an average height, though she is a bit on the shorter side. She wears a dusky pink shirt with mid-length sleeves and yellow cuffs and a simple light blue bracelet on each of her wrists, along with her mother’s two black hair clips on one of her bangs. Ichika also wears a brown, calf-length skirt that is tied with a light blue bow on the left side of the front and greyish closed-toed shinobi sandals. She no longer wears a forehead protector.

Abilities
As a genin, because of her small stature and inexperience, Ichika was often seen as a burden to her teammates who were both older and more battle-oriented than she was. She was not shown to be particularly talented, no matter how hard she trained. Eventually, she realized that she was training in the wrong areas, and after identifying this, her skills improved immensely. Once she unlocked her kekkei genkai, Ichika became a formidable opponent, and she became far more confident in her abilities.

As a member of the Kusatani clan, she inherited the Hidden Release and above-average levels of speed and agility.

Sensory Perception and Chakra Concealment
Though Ichika cannot use the same level of Hidden Release that her father could, she can conceal her own chakra to a certain extent. However, dōjutsu such as the Byakugan can still see it to a point, though it is not as easy to see as someone else’s chakra and will appear heavily muted.

Kekkei Genkai
Ichika inherited the Hidden Release from her father Hideo. The Hidden Release (隠れ遁, Kakureton; Viz “Hidden Style”) is an advanced nature kekkei genkai unique to the Kusatani clan that can be used to render oneself invisible, along with other abilities, granting the user an advantage over those whose fighting styles focus more on brute strength. This ability therefore can render the user invulnerable against a large amount of taijutsu. She is also able to turn at least one other person invisible along with her by making physical contact with them, which is extremely useful in missions involving very high amounts of stealth. However, being what is referred to in the Kusatani clan as a “mix” (someone who does not have parents that were both born into the clan), Ichika is physically unable to utilize the Hidden Release to the extent and with the same amount of control as someone who is “pure” (someone who has parents that were both born into the clan). Regardless, she has been noted to have skills with the technique that rival many past pures of the clan.

Nature Transformation
Ichika has demonstrated fair use of nature transformation, having the ability to use Wind Release techniques such as Wind Release: Gale Palm and Wind Release: Great Breakthrough. She can also perform the Typhoon Water Vortex Technique by herself through combining Wind and Water Release.

Medical Ninjutsu
Though not technically classified as a medical-nin until the events of The Last: Naruto the Movie, Ichika began to learn some medical ninjutsu from Tsunade as a way to cope with her mother’s death over the time-skip. She is shown to be proficient in it and, after the Fourth Shinobi World War, decided to specialize in it. However, her skills pale in comparison to those of ninja such as Tsunade, Shizune, and Sakura Haruno. Her abilities improved immensely during Part II and they proved to be beneficial in the War. Because of her ability to practice medical ninjutsu, she was switched from the Third Division to the Logistical Support and Medical Division almost immediately after the War started. In the epilogue, it is shown that she has continued her studies even further and has become a doctor at the Konoha Hospital.

Summoning Technique
In the latter half of Part I, Ichika signed a Summoning Contract with a hawk named Hatori, who is normally only used as a messenger and is never used in battle. However, she has been used to both track and scout ahead on missions.

Taijutsu
Due to her small size, Ichika is not a frequent user of taijutsu and instead relies mostly on speed and agility. She is shown to have very good reflexes, as seen when she was able to essentially tackle Kaisei out of the way of an attack by Pakura’s Scorch Release at the last second in the Fourth Shinobi World War.

Intelligence
Though somewhat naïve, Ichika is shown to be fairly intelligent. She is talented at memorisation and is shown to be able to predict her opponents’ next moves while in battle. Despite this, she is also shown to be a bit impulsive at times and occasionally finds it hard to think under pressure.

Chakra Control
A member of the Katō clan through her mother Ori, Ichika has demonstrated very good chakra control. Because of this, she is able to utilize her Hidden Release much better than many past mixes of the Kusatani clan.

Teamwork
Though she found it hard to get along with her teammates at the beginning of Part I as there was both an age gap and that they tended to think of her as a little kid, Ichika eventually formed very close bonds with her teammates and thinks of them as family. Team Botan has been told by many people, even enemies, that their teamwork is very good, though it is nowhere near that of the Ino-Shika-Chō formations.

Part I
See also: Plot of Naruto

Chūnin Exams

 * Main article: Chūnin Exam Arc

Even though his team was still fairly new, Botan entered Team 1 into the Chūnin Exams that were being held in Konoha. Ichika eagerly agreed to participate, though she was later nervous about whether or not she and her teammates would be able to work together well enough to pass. For the first stage of the exams, all participating genin were given a written test with ten questions that were too difficult for a standard genin to be able to answer. Ichika answered four of the questions by herself, and was able to fill out three more when the genin beside her was caught cheating and his paper was momentarily exposed. When the tenth question was presented, neither Ichika or her teammates choose to leave, and Team 1 ultimately passes.

For the second stage of the exams, Team 1 entered the Forest of Death with a heaven scroll and was tasked with obtaining an earth scroll and making it to the centre of the forest before five days have passed. Team 1 initially spent all of their time avoiding confrontation, though Ichika grew impatient and told Hakaku and Kaisei that they wouldn’t be able to find the other scroll if they kept hiding. Though Kaisei admitted this was true, Hakaku disagreed, preferring to wait for another team to come to them. Ichika and Kaisei then left their hiding place, knowing that Hakaku would follow them however begrudgingly it may have been, and they ran into Masao’s team, also from Konoha. After a long fight, Team 1 emerged victorious, though Ichika sustained a fracture to her leg. Kaisei carried her and the three made their way to the centre building without anymore conflict.

Because too many genin teams ended up passing the second stage, a round of randomly selected one-on-one matches was held where only the victor was able to continue on. Ichika received medical treatment and was unable to participate. However, her teammates were able to, and Kaisei and Hakaku were placed against each other. Struggling with whom to cheer for, Ichika instead cheered for both of them alternately, earning her strange looks from some of the other genin. Eventually, both of them forfeited, and the match was over.

While watching the rest of the matches, Ichika saw Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka fight and was surprised at Naruto’s determination, causing her to be even more determined to become a great ninja. She also witnessed the brutal treatment of Hinata Hyūga by her cousin Neji Hyūga, and was both angry and confused at this, wondering how someone could have treated their own family that way.

During the one month after the second phase that the participating genin had to train and recuperate, Ichika’s leg healed and though she and the rest of her team were not participating, they were seen training with their sensei. Along with her teammates, sensei, and mother, Ichika watched the finals. When the invasion orchestrated by Sunagakure and Otogakure began, Ichika was rendered unconscious by Kabuto’s genjutsu along with almost everyone else.

Konoha Crush

 * Main article: Invasion of Konoha Arc

Ichika could be seen alongside her mother and the other villagers at the Third Hokage’s funeral, mourning his death.

Interlude
At some point in the time-skip, Ori was sent on a mission with several other jōnin for the purpose of investigating suspected past hideouts of the Akatsuki. However, they never made it farther than a day’s journey from Konoha as the group is suddenly attacked by a couple of rogue ninja. Ori is killed when she jumped in front of a sword that was meant for one of her comrades, while everyone else was able to get out of the attack with only minor injuries. One of the men on her team is able to send a note that night with Ori’s summon, Taka, who had accompanied them on the mission, to the Hokage’s office. Tsunade receives the note and immediately sends a couple of ANBU to go and meet them while charging Shizune with informing Ichika.

Ichika noticed something is wrong when she was looking at the stars from their balcony and saw several ANBU taking off from the Hokage’s building. At that moment, Shizune arrived at the house and knocked on the door, with Ichika opening it. The words that Shizune said to her were muffled, with Ichika having a look of shock on her face. She was seen falling on her knees in the doorway and crying. She then became extremely depressed for quite a while afterwards.

Sometime after, Ichika begged Tsunade to teach her medical ninjutsu. When asked why, she replied that she did not want what happened to her mother to happen to any of her teammates. Understanding this, Ichika was taught basic medical ninjutsu, though she did not decide to become a medical-nin. Later on, Tsunade gave Ichika a letter that Ori had written for her in case anything were to happen to her on a mission. While the exact details of the letter are unknown, it is known that it was able to break Ichika out of her depression somewhat and caused her to regain some of her old personality.

Video Games
Ichika Kusatani is a playable character in the following video games:

Trivia

 * Kusatani means 'grass valley': "Kusa" (草) is the character for 'grass,' and "Tani" (谷) is the character for "valley."
 * Ichika can be written as 'one flower' (一花).
 * Ichika is one of only four known characters in the Naruto universe to be born to parents of two different clans (the other three being Naruto Uzumaki, Shikadai Nara, and Mirai Sarutobi).
 * Ichika is the youngest known member of the Allied Shinobi Forces, being just under sixteen years old when the Fourth Shinobi World War began.
 * Ichika was named after a single flower that her parents saw amidst the destruction of Konoha when the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked.
 * Ichika is not shown to be a good cook, although she tries very hard. Kaisei does most of the cooking.
 * It is unknown how premature Ichika was.
 * Both of Ichika and Kaisei's twins inherited Ichika's verbal tic and kekkei genkai.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * Ichika's hobbies are stargazing, climbing trees, and pranking unsuspecting passersby by turning invisible.
 * Ichika wishes to fight no one, and does not like to fight when she doesn't have to.
 * Ichika's favorite foods are tuna and nori, while her least favourite food is green onions.
 * Ichika has completed 48 official missions in total: 22 D-rank, 15 C-rank, 9 B-rank, 2 A-rank, 0 S-rank.
 * Ichika's favourite word is "family" (家族, Kazoku).

Quotes

 * (To Sakura) "My mom always used to say that stars are actually angels; our loved ones that have left this earth. She told me that if I ever needed help, I could just look up to the sky. I wonder if she is one of those stars now?"
 * (To Sai) "You kinda remind me of a slightly nicer version of Sasuke'."
 * (To Kaisei) "I was a broken mess when we fell in love. You didn't care about that. You understood that while you could help heal my wounds, there would always be scars there. I still have them today. But you knew that and you still chose to love me. You pulled me out of the darkness that I was trapped in. You found me when no one else could. Thank you...I love you!"
 * (To Hideo) "Dad...I finally get to meet you. Have you been watching me? I-I made chūnin...I'm fighting a war I don't know if I can win...I've fallen in love...have I made you proud?"
 * (To Hakaku) "I'm not just a useless little kid! I can do things! I've proved that multiple times and you still keep ignoring me and treating me like I'm just an annoying brat! Well, I'm not!"

Reference
Ichika Kusatani is an OC/RPC for the Narutoverse created by MonsieurCrouton. Certain images are edited screenshots from the anime. Naruto and Naruto: Shippūden belong to Masashi Kishimoto. This character is still in development!