Masumi Hanako

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Masumi Hanako-Uchiha (升美花心-うちは , Masumi Hanako-Uchiha née Hanako (花心, Hanako) is a kunoichi of the Hanako clan. Unlike other members of her clan, Masumi's intermediate family do not live as nomads. Masumi's parents felt a calling to join the Akatsuki when their people stopped at Amegakure to sell their apothecary wares. The Akatsuki attracted them for both their noble cause, the offering of a more stable income and a place to set up a more permanent residence so that Masumi's grandmother did not need to constantly strain her health with all the traveling.

Due to her family's isolation from the general population, Masumi grew up primarily in solitude, spending her time studying her mother's apothecary notes, drawing and training. This lifestyle would attribute to her skills as a shinobi, with even drawing bolstering her skill set. Becoming skilled at drawing made her more observant of her surroundings and inconsistencies, as well as give her a better understanding of the human body so that she could be more effective with her senbon.

Masumi joins the Akatsuki at the young age of 14 (nearly 15) after the death of her grandmother and her mother's retirement. Masumi made a name for herself despite having no official ninja documentation through her success in assassination missions for the organization alongside Itachi Uchiha. Masumi acts somber and intense around most of the Akatsuki members (to be taken seriously despite her young age), innocent and shy around the general population (for disarming purposes) but compassionate, emotional and excitable around the few she trusts and holds dear.

Background
Masumi is the only child of Airi and Hiroaki Hanako. The evening of Masumi's birth, during her Baptismal Of Flowers, a miracle took place. Even though she was not of pure Erīto blood, she was gifted a Konjumaru. However, it wasn't in the traditional sense. Instead of a small baby animal resting at the foot of her crib or beside the child, Masumi's features changed. Peaking from her newborn locks were two white tufts of hair, two little ears that resembled that of a wolf. Specifically, the ears of Hiroaki's ninken, who had recently died. Theory of the phenomena came to the conclusion that due to the recent death of her father's ninken and their incredible bond, his spirit energy lingered around him and intertwined with his daughter's. These wolf-like ears would give Masumi the same sense of hearing as a wolf on top of her normal ability to hear through her human ears.

Masumi was raised as a shinobi to take the place of her mother in the Akatsuki (specifically Yahiko's Akatsuki) once her grandmother dies and Airi inherits the Hanako clan's curse: The Contamination of Thorns.

However, before Masumi's grandmother dies, the Akatsuki's leadership was transferred to Nagato (thus beginning the era of Nagato's Akatsuki). During the ambush that leads to Yahiko's death, Airi was outside of Amegakure spending time with her 7-year-old daughter Masumi. Unfortunately, Masumi's father was not so lucky - he was with Daibutsu, Kie and Kyūsuke as they were arriving to warn the Akatsuki members of the ambush set up by Hanzō's men and members of Danzo's Root. He perished in the battle against Tobi and Zetsu.

Masumi's childhood was spent primarily in seclusion, her family home hidden away in a forest at the foot of a mountain, which is half-a-day's walk from the lake surrounding Amegakure. Due to the unnamed country's location being near the border of the great nations, there was constantly a risk of hostile ninja or criminals traveling past their home. To protect themselves, Masumi's family had elaborate traps set around the surrounding woods. For the entirety of Masumi's early childhood, up until she was about seven, she was never allowed outside without one of her parents by her side to keep her safe from their security system and any outside threats. While outside the house, she spent most of her time training as a shinobi under the tutelage of her parents, whom wanted to make sure she could defend herself/get away from life-threatening scenarios. When she wasn't training in the ninja arts, Masumi was helping her mother gather various plants for their family business, selling various poisons, healing salves, pills and potions to the ninja of Amegakure. This trade helped bring in some extra income the help pay for their security system along side her parent's funds earned from being Akatsuki shinobi. It was especially well needed after the death of her father, which gutted their income.

After the death of her grandmother, Airi retired and her membership in the Akatsuki was given to Masumi. At this point, both Airi and Masumi were uncomfortable with the Akatsuki's new method to bring about peace, believing that one organization should not have the power of all the tailed beasts and starting wars to 'accelerate' the process does not excuse the lives lost in the process. However, knowing their financial circumstance and their new colleagues being historically violent S-ranked criminals, leaving the Akatsuki now was not an option.

z Here you should write about your OC's academic expirience, before-plot childhood, family, how did she become what she is today (e.g. if she's an ANBU why and when did it happen, the reasons for being chosen etc.

Personality
Masumi is an introverted and withdrawn person, having spent most of her life secluded with her parents and being raised to avoid people whenever necessary. Despite this, she knows how to act around people thanks to her mother's insistence on giving her etiquette training, claiming it would be of great use.

As Airi learned through her time as an Akatsuki spy - people listen better and reveal more if you're polite.

Masumi always remembers her manners and addresses others with proper honourifics. Masumi was taught how to read past a facade, seeing into an individual's true self and reading into their honest intentions - all while learning how to 'play the part' herself, but properly. She also learned conversational tactics and behaviors to manipulate people, without the aid of ninjutsu to avoid suspicion. Outside of important mission work or as a last resort, Masumi refuses to use these skills – believing that behavior to be exploitative and immoral. She also makes a point in all her missions to avoid unnecessary death or suffering, hence her preference to the precision and small entry wound of senbon. This also explains her inclination toward injection darts with non-lethal poison that will only temporarily paralyze enemies or put them to sleep.

When Masumi began her career in the Akatsuki, she primarily isolated herself. She favored being perceived as cold and detached for her own safety. She is acutely aware of how dangerous her co-workers are, as well as how they ‘re not the same kind of people that were in Yahiko’s Akatsuki – these were S-ranked criminals. When she needs to interact with others in the organization, she is serious and forthright- but never impolite or arrogant. She always takes criticism seriously and often tries to alter herself to fit the ideal – or at least appear as such before her critic to avoid confrontation.

An exception to this persona was her attitude around Deidara. Due to their closeness in age and general disposition, Masumi was always more lax around Deidara - even humoring his antics about art. She allowed traits of her true self to be known to him –her mischievous side and a hint of her compassionate self. She uses more colloquial language when conversing with him and considers him a close friend.

Around the general population, Masumi is gentle, kind and shy. However, in combat she is fierce, always attacking with viscous, aggressive shouting. This behavior is what earned her the nickname "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" - despite her disarming appearance, she is a ferocious in combat. The reference to wolves is also a tie into her Konjumaru features.

When Masumi initially begins to be genuine around someone, she struggles in making a connection - coming off as socially awkward and bashful. Under it all, Masumi is incredibly compassionate and empathetic. She always strives to comfort others and will go out of her way to do so. Even when they claim they do not want it. This is especially shown in her attitude toward Itachi. (See Relationship With Itachi).

Masumi is prone to fits of fluster, gets teary eyed over honest emotion and latches onto people who are kind to her. When Masumi trusts someone and is her full honest self, she is a little dramatic, mischievous and excitable. However she is also prone to bouts of depression, having low self-esteem and constantly comparing herself to the skills and achievements of others.

Appearance
Masumi is a woman of average height and has an athletic build. She has long,layered black hair that falls to her waist, long center-parted bangs that frame her face and extend to her collar bone. Due to its length and volume, Masumi sections a layer of her hair up in a tight ponytail - a half up style- to make it more manageable. She has hazel eyes with long lashes, often described by others to look distant and lonely. However, her most notable feature is the white wolf-ish ears on to top of her head. These wolf-ish ears move based on manual control (as muscles do) and subconsciously through the shifting of her moods.

Her Konjumaru features make her stand out in a crowd, which is the opposite of what a ninja wants, so she often has them bound to her scalp underneath a headband fashioned out of ribbons, which is further fastened down by hair clips. It is uncomfortable and she must be in control/aware of their movements while in disguise, otherwise they will emote with her moods and loosen the binding. She keeps them unbound during assassinations where she does not need to infiltrate into a crowd, so she is able to hear the movements and voices of others better.

When on a missions, Masumi wears the Akatsuki cloak fully zipped at the top but open at the bottom for leg move-ability. Under the cloak she wears a v-neck, sleeveless shirt with sleeveless mesh armor underneath. Her pants are elastic but fitted, comfortable to move in but also less likely to snag on anything. She wears multiple carrying implements, such as a utility belt with a 2 medium sized bag fastened on it (one containing her knuckle chakra blades, necessary poisons, salves and antidotes she needs while the other contains injection shots, wire strings and senbon) and holster for her injection shot sniper. Under her left sleeve she has a wrist-mounted senbon launcher and a hidden kunai mechanism under her right sleeve. Under both sleeves she wears long cross-string leather bracers to protect her arms for when she uses her signature whip of thorns jutsu. In the anime they have no design, making her arms easier to animate.

Around Amegakure she wears her Akatsuki cloak and her conical rice hat to shield herself from the rain.

Casually Masumi prefers to keep her wolf ears unbound for comfort sake, unless she is in a setting where she is trying to blend in with a crowd. She often wears a loose jacket in the style of a light summer yukata, where the sleeves extend to her elbows and the bottom of the jacket extends just past the waist. Often times her jacket will have a floral pattern design and her clan's symbol on the back. Her black pants are loose and comfortable, having elastic bands at the waist and individual ankles. Her black shirt is a halter top, which she accessories with a tight choker. If the weather is hot enough, her halter top will show off her midriff and she will wear fitted black shorts in in place of pants. Occasionally she will wear a belt around her midsection to close up her yukata jacket.

On rare occasion she will wear make-up, usually she will sport winged eyeliner and dark lipstick - this is due to her preference of a gothic aesthetic. In Akatsuki lives AU, after Itachi recovers from his coma (rather than dying), Masumi keeps her bangs long but cuts the rest of her hair short, giving a light upward wave to its style. She doesn't adopt this hairstyle until much later in the canon.

Abilities
Here you will write the basics of the abilities, such as what is their strongest asset, their strengths and weaknesses, strategical preferences and such

Relationship with Itachi
Early into the leadership of the Akatsuki by Nagato, funds were tight. The organization needed to obtain more money to support the goals and livelihood, thus they provided mercenary services at a competitive price. To help accelerate the process of achieving this, outside of the ten key members for the Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals the Akatsuki had reserve members such as Masumi, Sasama and Tamaishi. When the Akatsuki were hired to carry out an assassination mission, especially the type that specify to keep the death count of non-target individuals low and their appearance in the community to a minimum, Nagato assigned Masumi and Itachi to carry it out as partners. Itachi's skill in genjutsu and Masumi's skill in injecting poison (both lethal and non-lethal) at a distance proved them to be an effective duo. Their personalities during missions also worked well together, they were both quiet, even tempered, avoided conflict and were strategically flexible as well as intelligent. They were also nearly the same age and were both newer members to the organization, although Masumi had much more background knowledge than Itachi because of her parent's involvement in the Akatsuki.

((Work in progress!!))

With her skills of perception of a person's true nature, Masumi is able to see past Itachi's cold exterior and understands he is much like her - a kindhearted person who lost most of their childhood to outrageous expectations, and someone forced to hide their true selves to survive. When she initially acts this way toward Itachi, he distances himself further from her to preserve his reputation and keep the secret mission as a double agent for Konohagakure from being revealed.

((Work in progress!!))

Part II
Here you write about your character's plot during the Shippuden series. Delete the heading if your character appears only in the original Naruto series.

Trivia

 * Masumi Hanako's name translates to "Ascending Beauty Flower" (or "Blooming Beautiful Flower")
 * Traditionally, those of the Hanako clan are either named after flowers or something in relation to flowers.
 * Masumi is bisexual.
 * Masumi has existed since 2007, she is her creators first original character they became really attached too. Although her personality, story and abilities have been drastically rewritten throughout the years, her hairstyle and ears have always been a consistent (not counting the first concept art of the character where she had none).
 * Masumi's stats are based off of the deviantart quiz suggested for character building on the Naruto OC wiki, and factors such as the stats of other Akatsuki members played into part of their consideration. Her creator wanted to make sure she was strong enough to stand by Itachi Uchiha in combat, but not too strong that she would be overpowered. The most referenced stats in her consideration were Deidara and Hidan, but she has one more point to her stat (32.5, the same score as Kakuzu) to keep up more with Itachi's score (35.5).
 * Masumi is afraid of cats, because they are naturally hostile toward her. She blames her Konjumaru ears for this.
 * Because of Itachi, Masumi also has a close connection to crows.
 * Masumi helps care for the many crows who are connected to Itachi. She tends to any injuries, gives them treats, and spends time bonding with them.


 * According to the databook(s):
 * Masumi's hobbies are flower arrangement, sketching and watercolor painting. Her artistic talents are displayed in a bound sketchbook she keeps with her. This sketchbook contains notes written in the margins of the various plantlife illustrations. After she first began developing a crush on Itachi, she began doodling little crows in the corners too.
 * Masumi's favorite foods are Unagi and Onigiri with Miso filling. She is also very fond of sweet drinks, such as peach tea.
 * Masumi's favorite word is "understanding" (理解, Rikai)

Quotes

 * (To Tamaishi, about the Akatsuki ) "But that's why organizations like the Akatsuki exist. Our goal is to protect mankind from themselves. From war. Even though some of us seem like . . . less desirable people. These are the reasons why my mother joined when it first formed. This is the reason why I was raised to join too. We want to help people."
 * (To Tamaishi, who claims the Erīto are technically aren't human due to their 'pure-blooded' celestial ancestry) "Okay, than what does that make me, a Hanako? A clanswoman who is also a descendant to celestial, albeit in an 'impure' way due to his children born by a human woman. What does it make the Uchiha or the Hyuuga, who are descendants of a celestial and human? Does it even matter anymore anyway? Everyone has chakra now, ancestry doesn't matter"
 * (To Itachi) "How can I trust you if you keep hiding behind so many secrets? Stop lying to me Itachi, why are you avoiding me?"
 * (To Itachi) "Honestly? I never wanted to be a part of this. This organization is no longer what it use to be, and its methods are incredibly misguided. But I need to stay - I'm in too deep and I need the money to support my mother and me. The least I can do while I'm here is spare as many lives as I can."

Reference
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