Aina Kichida

Aina Kichida (吉田愛菜, Kichida Aina) is a farmer, janitor, and kunoichi originally from Konohagakure. Unable to pursue a formal career as a ninja, she trains at home in secrecy. For a time, she is a fairly active member of the community, best known for her talents as a farmer and her care for local orphans. Despite this, she grapples with an intense loneliness that won’t subside no matter how much time she spends with people. The death of her mother and other events would launch her into a downward spiral that would eventually see her defecting from Konoha altogether. She joins Otogakure and tries to make a new home out of it. Upon realizing she would never fully belong in Oto either, however, she defects again to pursue life as a hermit at sea.

Background
Born premature and the only child of an older couple (her father was 70 when she was born; her mother, 35), Aina grew up on a small farm on the outskirts of the fields of Konoha. Both of Aina’s parents, Airi Kichida and Ekta Kocchar, were immigrants. Airi, hailing from Kumogakure, descends from an unknown clan of pacifists that specialized in pheromones and scattered all over the world disguised as ordinary people, always insistent on remaining neutral in conflict and acting only to assist innocents. Other than that, they had no agenda except to be left alone. Airi established her farm with Aya, her mother and Aina’s grandmother. Prior to this, Airi lived for a short while in a small fisherman’s village on the coast.

Ekta, from Iwagakure, came from an equally unknown clan and in his youth was quite enthusiastic about becoming a shinobi, only to become sour towards the idea after a traumatic experience during his first mission as a genin. After that, he deliberately fell behind in his studies and failed his Chūnin Exam so he could drop out, throwing away his once promising reputation. Thereafter, he left his home and became a drifter, learning and practicing techniques along the way. In his old age, he came to Konoha, where he met Airi and settled down with her on the farm, taking her surname as his own although they never formally married.

Aina enjoyed a close relationship with both her parents, although her bond with Airi would become more tumultuous from her preteens onward. Ekta would often act as mediator and comforter for both. While Airi had enough savvy to make a successful living out of their little farm, she had a temper that would get her in trouble with neighbors and occasionally land her in the village jailhouse; this and their grocery delivery service was how the family became acquainted with Fugaku Uchiha and his family. It was Ekta who impressed upon Aina the need and rewards of being involved in the community beyond business. A fraction of the plum trees seen in Konoha were planted by him.

Nearly every summer since she was four, while Ekta stayed behind to tend to the farm, Airi and Aina would travel to the beach of the same fisherman’s village she used to live on the border between Fire Country and Hot Springs Country. There, they would watch the sea turtles come up onto the sand to nest. They would make a second trip to see the hatchlings crawl into the tides. On the very first trip she made with her mother, Aina would meet her future partner, Manami. They would see each other every time Aina came to visit the beach in the following years, though they would not exchange direct words with each other until the aftermath of the Fourth Ninja War.

From a young age, making friends has always been a challenge for Aina, who would repel her peers with her strange behavior and speech. She would learn to socialize by helping her parents sell their wares in the marketplace or by offering help to anyone who needed it. More often than not, she got along better with people either much older or much younger than herself. Otherwise, she turned to animals for companionship, especially upon her discovery that she could speak to them directly at the age of six. Her fondness for stories stems from the ones her papa told her nearly every day, drawing inspiration and comfort from the characters within them.

When she was nearly six years old, Aina decided she wanted to become a shinobi, drawn to the occupation because of how cool and exciting and romantic it seemed, and the sense of belonging it offered. She wanted to go to school to pursue the career, slake her thirst for learning, and maybe make some friends for a change. Her parents rejected her wish because they feared Aina would fare too poorly in school to be worth it, and because they did not wish to see her become a shinobi. This wasn’t enough to deter her. The next day, she got up at the crack of dawn and snuck into a kunoichi class at the Academy. She was caught in the middle of the lesson after being humiliated in front of the class for her inability to read or write. The fact that no one spotted her until that late in the day was a clue that she did have some potential to be a ninja. Hiruzen Sarutobi, then the Hokage, noted it while he waited with her for her parents.

Airi and Ekta rejected Hiruzen's recommendation to let her apply next year, intent on educating her at home. Only a year or so later, however, they changed their minds about teaching her the ninja arts in earnest when neighbors started going missing (thanks to Orochimaru and Danzo). Realizing they couldn’t always be around to protect her, they decided to teach her for the purposes of self-defense and self-reliance. They did this with the stipulation that she never speak of it or use it in front of others unless it was absolutely necessary.

Truthfully, Ekta had been teaching her some of the more basic techniques prior to that on their camping trips. He loathed to see Aina’s enthusiasm dampened because of something she couldn’t control. He just didn’t agree with molding her into an “attack dog” for the state, his opinions on the matter shaped by harrowing personal experience. Airi had no formal training herself–a trait of many members of her clan–but she was not one to be trifled with, either.

Ekta died when Aina was twelve, after a series of strokes that had left him unable to walk or talk. His last act was watching her pick plums off the tree behind their house. After this, Aina’s relationship with Airi, and the village at large, became more strained as she became more erratic and emotionally labile. At fifteen, she would be arrested for assaulting a customer who was threatening Teuchi. Although she would get off the charges fairly lightly, the night she spent in jail was a nightmare for her and Airi both (plus all the police overseeing the jail). She would calm as she exited her teens and entered her 20s—mainly after becoming involved with Sasuke, Naruto, and the village orphanage—but the peace she’d worked to cultivate would only last so long.

Personality
By all outer appearances, Aina is a soft woman of simple pleasures: friendly, cheerful, generous, and generally dependable, if eccentric, nosy, chatty, and overly familiar. Her nickname, “Kame,” comes from her lifelong love of turtles, as well as her odd disposition and slow and steady pace. She speaks with a pronounced slur, has numerous tics in her speech (e.g., “ah,” “don’t you know,”), has a tendency to repeat words, sometimes says inappropriate things, and laughs frequently. Though she has difficulties with reading and writing, she loves stories and poetry, especially fairy tales and love stories. A bona fide nature lover, she prefers not to wear shoes when it isn’t necessary and enjoys swimming or bathing. While turtles and tortoises are her favorite animals, she loves animals in general, particularly reptiles, and to a lesser extent, birds. It is common to see her stop and help animals in need or build spaces for them.

There is almost no job she will not do, jumping on every opportunity she can see to be helpful and possibly learn something new and useful for the future. She calls nearly everyone in their village by their first name without honorifics and stops to acknowledge their birthdays. She enjoys small garden parties, prefers to pacify rather than get into arguments, and goes above and beyond to keep every promise she makes (typically on her pinkie finger).

She carries an entrepreneurial streak, offering her goods and services at competitive and carefully considered rates, having learned most of these skills from her parents. On the other hand, while Aina can and has acted on her own, she prefers to work in a group or follow someone else. She values harmony and is averse to conflict of any kind. She possesses a literal interpretation of the Will of Fire, treating everyone she meets like family to the best of her ability, sensitive to the emotions of others but not always sure of how to respond to them.

For the most part, her intentions are good, even if at times they only make sense to her. However, a closer look reveals a far more intense, complicated and difficult personality that falls short of her own ideals. Aina has one foot in civilian life and the other in shinobi life. She has perspectives on both yet doesn’t entirely fit in either one. Although she insists that every neighbor of hers is her friend, she doesn’t feel truly close to any of them, and not from a lack of desire thereof. Her longtime struggles with fitting in and earning respect have caused her to set out to conceal and compensate for any and all negative things about her, including her inadequacies, neuroses, clinginess, stubbornness, temper, bad habits (e.g., theft, property destruction), and struggles with anxiety and depression. While she does not enjoy lying and does her best to avoid it, she withholds information and creates an illusion of openness to mask her secrecy, only spending enough time with people to keep up appearances and slake her thirst for company, however shallow and unsatisfying it ultimately is. In her experience, honesty about her real thoughts and feelings has seldom turned out well for her.

Her biggest flaw and fear is loneliness, which is caused by a deficit in self-love and self-confidence. Craving affection and validation from others, she is prone to quick and unhealthy attachments with almost anyone who shows her lasting attention, regardless of their overall morality. When people fail to give her these or fail to keep up with the effort she gives them—regardless of whether this failure is real or merely perceived—she becomes resentful, despite repeated claims that everything is fine. Despite this, she is disinclined to leave a bad relationship short of extreme circumstances. Indeed, she can become passive-aggressive and go behind her group to complete things her own way when she feels ignored, or lash out physically and/or verbally at the most unexpected times when her distress becomes too much to keep bottled—if she doesn’t disappear completely for hours or days at a time. Meanwhile, she is prone to let people take advantage of her and extend sympathy even when it may not be deserved. It is hard to say if her standards for people are too high or too low, whether her vision of them is clouded by naivety or willful ignorance.

In hostile situations, Aina’s first instinct is to get away and/or try to defuse the tension, blocking attacks as needed. When forced to fight back, however, she becomes quite fearsome, not letting up until there is no more movement. Though not her first preference, she can and will resort to dirty tactics if she thinks it will end the matter. She will fight on behalf of someone else before doing so for her own.

When she isn't busy trying to get by or caring for others, Aina keeps an eye out for true love, hoping to get married and start her own family someday. However, finding that special person has proven to be an even greater challenge than making friends. Even when she does manage to secure a date, none of them have gone anywhere past the first one—typically because the spark she is looking for is absent or she somehow screws up her dates’ impressions of her enough to make them decide not to pursue her any further. Less often, as is the case for dates with women, it is because she wouldn't indicate the date was anything beyond platonic and became too afraid to make any moves to reveal her true desires. This lack of romantic companionship—or companionship in general—brings her immense angst; being somewhat literal-minded, she comes close to a panic attack at the mere mention of becoming too old to be married. She falls in love at least twice prior to her departure to the seas and neither instance ends well for her. It is only well after she gives up on it does she finally find love in someone, and she comes close to running from it out of fear of hurting him or getting hurt again.

Over the course of her arc, she does become tougher and more outspoken, letting go of her desire for approval. Unfortunately, her experiences also burn her out and lead her to distrust people, especially those with power. Paired with the shame and guilt for all her actions up to that point, and her belief that no one has been any better off for having known her, it compels her to run away to the seas, where she spends the following ten and some years avoiding contact with anyone. In that time, all meaningful communication is reserved for animals, particularly the sea turtles.

Even when she does eventually decide to revisit society, she is quiet and guarded, speaking only when spoken to and in need of relearning nearly every social skill she had once worked painstakingly to master. Nevertheless, she retains her fondness for children and a certain protective instinct towards the defenseless.

Ekta
Ekta was 70 years old when Aina was born. Prior to this, he had spent most of his life wandering the globe, settling down in Konoha when he became too tired and lonely to continue his travels further. He would only get to be in her life for the first twelve years of it, but for that time, they were very tightly knit. Despite his refusal to let her pursue a career as a kunoichi, he would still take her camping and teach her what he knew. Himself a ninja in his youth, he loathed to see Aina’s enthusiasm for learning dampened because of something she couldn’t control. He and Airi would later agree to train her in the ninja arts in earnest so she could be better prepared to protect herself when they could not.

Despite being the elder of her parents, Ekta was decidedly the follower of the union and quite content in his role. He tended to the farm while Aina and Airi made their yearly trips to the beach, and he would often act as peacekeeper when the latter two clashed wills. When Airi got in trouble with neighbors or the law, he was her support. He was a soothing and encouraging presence, the more laid-back of her parents with a melancholic side–depression, perhaps–that he tried to temper with humor and spirituality. He bequeathed all sorts of stories, treasures, and survival skills to his daughter. A fraction of the plum trees seen in Konoha were planted by him, a tradition that she would continue upon deciding to become a wanderer herself.

From him, she inherited a love of rocks, the earth, tobacco, chocolate, and arts and crafts; her compassion for strangers; her lurking wanderlust; a knack for Earth-style jutsus; astrology and the occult; her nose, her chin, her smile, and her laugh. He was her first best friend, and to this day, she still misses him terribly. She takes off every July 20th, his birthday, to honor him. Arguably, between her two parents, Ekta may have been her true favorite, if for no other reason than because their bond wasn’t bogged down with as much turmoil as her bond with Airi was and would become.

Ekta died when she was twelve after enduring a series of debilitating strokes. Aina was gathering plums and Airi had gone inside to make tea for them all. He died in his chair on the back porch watching her try to pick the fruit off their tree with a “claw” she’d put together with him. After his death–coincidentally as she was entering adolescence–Aina and Airi’s relationship became more turbulent. In a sense, he was an emotional crutch for them both.

Airi
Airi came to Konoha with her own mother, Aya, when she was 25 years old. She would become involved with Ekta five years later, and then have Aina five years after that. However, she originally hailed from Kumogakure and had been briefly married once before to a fisherman.

From the moment Aina was born, Airi became protective of her to a fault. This became all the more complicated as she realized she couldn’t always be around to care for her and needed to teach her independence. Airi thrived on having people and things to take care of–namely, her mother, her partner, her daughter, her farm. Unlike Ekta and Aina, however, she cared more about herself and her people than she did about the village at large. Enormous and fierce in her subdued way (that is, until it wasn’t), she was simultaneously a soothing and smothering presence in Aina’s life, especially after Ekta died. As Aina grew into her teens, their relationship became a cycle of pulling close and pushing away.

Aina loved her self-assurance and how she seemed to have the answer for just about all domestic problems but resented how she would make a fuss as to who she could talk to outside of work. After a certain incident at Ramen Ichiraku when she was fifteen, Aina seldom went far without her until chores–and Airi’s pushing away–separated them. They fought over Aina’s tendency to give money away to people in need, her choice of friends, dating, and her desire to change her appearance when she was younger. Eventually, they did come to an agreement on the money issue: it would be coming out of Aina’s own wallet. If she was going to do favors for people, she would charge them. Aina didn’t always follow her advice, though.

While she never outright lied to Airi about what she was up to, sometimes Aina would take her time going to or coming back from a job to try to socialize with other people. A couple of times, she even snuck out at night after Airi fell asleep. Occasionally, unbeknownst to anyone (or if it was suspected, no one pried), there was some verbal and physical abuse from both sides.

From Airi, Aina inherited her temper; her nurturing instincts; her clinginess; her money sense; her musical inclinations; her love of turtles and the sea; her pheromones; a knack for Water-style jutsus; her body, her eyes, her hair, and her tattoo. Every summer and fall, the two would travel together to the beach on the border between Fire Country and Hot Springs Country to watch the sea turtles come up to nest, beginning this ritual when Aina was four years old; this trip would be the one when Aina saw Manami for the first time. Airi gave Aina, among other things, the tattoo on her back when she was 13 years old, matching the one Aya gave her at that same age. The sledgehammer Aina carries around as her weapon of choice belonged to Airi.

Airi died after three long years of cancer when Aina was 28. Having previously tried natural remedies in order to save money, Airi stopped treatment altogether against Aina’s wishes, finding there was no longer a point in trying to delay the inevitable. She thought she was doing them both a favor, but Aina saw it as an act of abandonment. Even if she wouldn’t forgive her until well after her death, Aina swallowed her anger to make their final days together as peaceful as possible. She spread half her ashes around the plum tree in their backyard and the other half at the beach they used to visit.

Even today, Aina hates to speak of her mother in any negative way. She’s only been open about the full complexity of her feelings for her with few others, such as Manami. As she does for her father, Aina takes the day off for her mother’s birthday, November 7th, even after she is gone.

Teru Honda
Teru was an excitable young chunin and a neighbor who bought vegetables from Aina. Upon overhearing whispers about the suspicions surrounding Aina from the Hokage’s office, he took it upon himself to deal with the matter in the name of protecting the village, and perhaps to earn recognition. He attacked her in her backyard late one night with the intention of killing her and making it look as if Orochimaru had done it, reasoning that Orochimaru would kill her anyway. Mistaking her pet snake, Masa, for one of Orochimaru’s familiars, Teru threw a kunai at her right arm, slicing her arm and killing Masa on the spot. This triggered a brutal confrontation between the two that resulted in the destruction of her garden and Teru’s death, as Aina would be the one to kill him instead. It is only after his body, mangled and lifeless, hits the ground and his mask is removed that Aina comes to her senses and realizes what she’s done. Heartbroken, horrified, and injured, she hastily packs what she can carry before taking Minori and running away in a panic.

Teru is survived by his mother, who continues to grieve for his loss to this day. Even after Aina tries to apologize for her past actions during her brief return to Konoha, Mrs. Honda refuses to forgive her. This, among other things, convinces Aina that it’s better for everyone if she leaves the village for good.

Hiruzen
Aina and Hiruzen had a distant but friendly acquaintance, though Airi never liked him much due to his position and lecherous tendencies. He was one of the few to have an inkling about her potential as a ninja and was disappointed to see that she had apparently grown up to pursue farming instead, unaware that she had in fact continued training under her parents’ instruction in secret in the years following her attempt to sneak into the Academy. At one time, Aina advertised a willingness to complete assignments normally assigned to genin as D-rank missions at less than what the Hokage’s office was charging. This prompted Hiruzen to see her to negotiate a compromise rather than try to compete for business.

She was absent for the Konoha Crush, having left the village shortly before the Chunin Exams for a pilgrimage to the beach to spread her mother’s ashes. Still, as was everyone else, Aina was heartbroken to learn of Hiruzen’s passing upon her return.

Teuchi and Ayame
Teuchi is an acquaintance of her family and a regular customer, buying some of the vegetables for his ramen from them. When Ayame was younger, Aina would babysit her while Teuchi worked. In return, as Ayame grew up, she would watch Masa and Minori for Aina when the children from the orphanage were unavailable. Teuchi was also her first crush in her teens, to which he stayed more or less oblivious. On Ayame’s fifth birthday, when Aina was fifteen, she took the former for a walk around the market, entertaining her while Teuchi kept up with the lunch rush for that day. Upon coming back to the stand with Ayame in tow, Aina saw a customer arguing with him and becoming increasingly aggressive about it. When the argument reached its fever pitch and became physical, Aina ran to them with no apparent warning and proceeded to beat the man to a pulp in front of Teuchi and every other customer, for which she would be arrested.

Ashamed of facing him or Ayame after this display, Aina avoided them both and seldom went far without Airi for over a year. Though she would ease up enough to start talking to them again, she would remain relatively sheepish around Teuchi for the rest of their time together as she tried to put the incident behind her as if it had never happened. Later, her feelings would be hurt Ayame got older and declared herself no longer in need of a babysitter, intent on working in her father’s restaurant alongside him. For a time, Aina would insist they spend time together regardless, forcing Ayame to be firm about her desire for independence.

Though she does occasionally have lunch at Ramen Ichiraku in support of them, Aina rarely eats directly inside the establishment. Instead, she sips her vegetarian ramen bowl outside so she can take off her shoes and have her feet bare, and to get away from the noise. Teuchi and Ayame have a spot outside designated for that purpose. Ayame volunteers to care for Aina’s pets while the latter makes her pilgrimage to the beach.

One of the things Aina does during her brief return to Konoha is see Ayame from the hospital while the former recuperates from surgery and is placed under arrest. Teuchi is unable to come due to work, but he sends a packaged serving of ramen with Ayame to give to her. Their reunion is tense and bittersweet. However, by then Aina has long since made up her mind to leave Konoha again, this time for good, once everything is settled with Tsunade—a fact she keeps to herself. Before she disappears, she asks Ayame to bring the rest of Ekta’s collection of stones and crystals from her cottage. Ayame honors her request, and Aina divides the crystals among Ayame, Teuchi, Shizune, Kurenai, Anko, Naruto, Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Hinata.

Tsunade
Aina and Tsunade’s relationship is initially warm and friendly until it becomes complicated when the former falls for the latter. The events following her confession would gradually infect a chill in their interactions. Aina first meets Tsunade when Tsunade comes to Konoha to succeed Hiruzen as the Fifth Hokage. Seeking her out to get a sketch of her for her portrait to be carved on Hokage Rock, she meets Tsunade in her favorite bar, where they become acquainted. By the end of their meeting, Tsunade offers Aina a job at the Academy as a custodian, which she takes without hesitation. In the following months, Tsunade would invite her to outings after work to unwind: some with the rest of their friends, others one-on-one. It didn’t take long for Aina to become enamored with her. Tsunade would sometimes unknowingly take advantage of her feelings and have her do favors for her when she felt lazy.

Once Aina lets slip her true feelings, however, Tsunade puts more distance between them. She stops inviting her to outings after work or accepting Aina’s invitations for the same, insisting from now on that they only interact as boss and employee and do not speak about what has transpired. Unable to return her feelings, she does not wish to repeat her situation with Jiraiya, especially not with someone so fragile-looking to her. She thinks she is doing Aina a favor by cutting her off, but combined with everything else going on at the time, all it does is make her feel alone and unwanted. Although Aina agrees to her terms without an apparent fight, she would resent her for the rest of the time they’d work together, despairing to see Jiraiya remaining a close friend to Tsunade despite his own unrequited love for her.

Aina tries to follow Tsunade’s advice on reaching out elsewhere to make friends; her efforts would put her on course with Orochimaru. She and Tsunade would have a fight over this before her first defection from Konoha, and for over two years thereafter Aina would go through the motions thinking Tsunade was the one who’d sent Teru to kill her, or at the very least had no interest in finding her and bringing her back home.

She would come back to Tsunade voluntarily to ask for her help in evacuating most of the subjects from Oto in the wake of its collapse, and to pass on any information she still had that could be useful for retrieving Sasuke. Still, the two never completely reconcile. Aina even refuses to let Tsunade repair her injured back, insisting that Sakura do it instead. Though she claims that Tsunade already has too much to do as Hokage to worry about her, which isn’t incorrect, she really wants to use every excuse available to keep up distance between them and indeed throws back similar words Tsunade had said to her during their last fight, believing the personal aspect of their relationship is now beyond salvaging.

Shizune
Aina becomes acquainted with Shizune and Tonton through Tsunade. Every day, Aina comes to work with a treat for Tonton from her garden, typically a carrot, potato, or radish. She can be seen following Shizune around when she has nothing else to do, looking for opportunities to be helpful to her. Shizune occasionally finds this annoying but always tries to be polite about it, picking up early on that Aina does not handle criticism or being told “no” very well.

Things become awkward between them after an incident occurring one night when they’re out drinking with other kunoichi. Shizune begins complaining about her lack of time she could spend dating and finding a good potential husband, teasing Kurenai about her relationship with Asuma and expressing jealousy about it. Aina, who has been secretly panicking about the same thing and had recently been rejected by Tsunade, has a nervous breakdown then and there. She jumps out of her seat, takes Shizune’s hand, and abruptly proposes marriage to her in front of everyone so that neither of them would be alone again, despite the fact that they are not dating nor have they ever dated. When Shizune, of course, says no, Aina’s reaction makes everything worse, going on a half-coherent rant hinting at her personal issues that includes some projecting, with a suggestion that perhaps Shizune can’t find a man because she’s really interested in women. Aina avoids everyone for a week afterwards, and even when she does resume going out with her coworkers, she becomes progressively quieter and contributes less and less to conversations.

She and Shizune reunite briefly when Aina returns from Oto. Shizune assists Sakura on the operation to fix Aina’s back.

Anko
Aina and Anko became friends when then 24-year-old Aina saw then 19-year-old Anko pacing in front of a teahouse, hungry and broke, and bought a snack for her. They have bonded over their mutual interests in reptiles and good food, as well as their lesser-known mutual interest in the arts. Sometimes Anko will invite Aina out and refer neighbors to her when they need a job done, with mixed degrees of success. That said, theirs is a somewhat strained relationship due to Anko’s abrasiveness and neglect and Aina’s sensitivity, passive-aggressiveness, and clinginess. When Anko is promoted to jonin rank, they see each other less often, which adds an additional strain. Things become even more complicated when Aina becomes tied into a correspondence with Orochimaru, who she does not recognize until it’s too late to back out.

When Aina returns from her pilgrimage, she notices that Sasuke has a mark on his neck that he hadn’t had before she’d left, noting that it looks exactly like the mark Anko has on hers. When he refuses to tell her what had happened, she confides her concerns in Anko, urging her to reach out to Sasuke and help him resist temptation to use the Cursed Seal. Anko agrees to try, unsure that Kakashi’s own part in the matter will be enough, but all efforts to teach Sasuke fall flat. To everyone’s frustration, Anko’s rigid sense of right and wrong, and her personal grudge against Orochimaru, keep getting in the way, causing Sasuke to double down. The attitude Anko and Sasuke keep giving each other doesn’t help. These same problems would later prevent Aina from telling Anko the truth about her later involvement with Orochimaru.

When Aina defects from Konoha the first time, she believes that Anko has forsaken her as everyone else from the village has, perhaps rightfully so. While Anko is indeed angered by Aina’s apparent betrayal and is prevented by her duties from searching too far for her, she never entirely gives up on seeing her again. Only after they reunite on Aina’s farm does Aina confess to her past actions and motives—or at least as much as she feels necessary to tell her. She leaves Anko some of her father’s crystals as a token of apology before she disappears for the second time.

They encounter each other again during the Fourth Ninja War, when Aina, now a hermit, finds Anko's unconscious body in a cave. She watches over her until she is able to lure a rescue team to her location. She does not stay to see Anko wake up, leaving only a raggedy blanket as evidence that she had ever been there.

Kabuto
Aina first met Kabuto when he was a child and still living with Nono. In exchange for his help with healing Airi’s broken ankle, Aina vowed to pay him back, much to Airi’s chagrin, by donating one million ryo to the orphanage: 200 installments of 5,000 ryo. As little as her family had for itself, she would take on extra jobs to raise the money on the side. It took her 15 months to reach her goal. However, on the day she visited the orphanage to deliver the final installment, she was devastated by the news that Kabuto had been called away for a mission. She would not see Kabuto again until her recruitment to Oto, and when it was time for Nono to leave, she would never see Nono again at all. Still, she continued to support the orphanage any way she could, inviting the children to play or work on her farm. Before her second departure from the village, she would sign over her entire house and farm to the orphanage, sensing they would need it more than she did anymore.

In Oto, Aina quickly recognizes Kabuto but he appears not to recognize her. Her attempt to help him remember her, particularly the mention of Nono, triggers him enough to threaten her with a scalpel. This incident sets the tone for what becomes a tense and complex relationship, their respective duties often placing them together.

Aina, who comes to see Kabuto as family, tries periodically to appeal to the better sides of his nature with little success. Kabuto’s feelings, on the other hand, are far more ambiguous. Some days, he is distrustful, critical, and cruel to her. Other days, he is more accepting of her help and imparts useful advice on getting by in Oto, sometimes going out of his way to heal her injuries. Due to his issues with names and identity, he is the only person who will not address her by her nickname, calling her by her actual name instead. In a sense, Kabuto and Aina are, in turns, mirrors and foils for each other. Both possess a genuine, if dubious, loyalty to Orochimaru, but whereas Kabuto loses any will he had once had to rebel, however secret, and ultimately sides with Orochimaru, Aina grows disillusioned and eventually turns on him without notice.

Incapacitated by a genjutsu cast by Sasuke during her attempt to keep him from pursuing Itachi, Aina is unable to stop Kabuto from injecting himself with Orochimaru’s blood. She awakens and tries to stop him from leaving, but it is in vain. The resulting skirmish ends with Aina crawling after him across the floor in agony as he departs without so much as a goodbye. With him and Sasuke gone, she is thus left to wrangle together the remains of the village.

As with Anko, she finds Kabuto unconscious in the caves as he is trapped in Itachi's genjutsu. Despite her anger towards him, she cannot bring herself to leave him alone and defenseless, so she lingers in the caves. Between Anko and Kabuto, the latter stirs first, having just had the change of heart necessary to escape Izanami. Their reunion is brief and bittersweet—perhaps more bitter than sweet—as Kabuto tries to apologize only for Aina to dismiss it. He hurries away to help the Allied Shinobi Forces while Aina lures a rescue team to Anko.

While she has since come to understand the reasons for his actions, it takes her many years to truly forgive him. Even when they see each other again in the New Era, in which Kabuto has become the director of Konoha’s orphanage, she is distant with him, which he takes in stride. In return for everything she’s done for him and the orphanage, he offers her supplies any time she visits. Their relationship gradually improves to the point where she will come see the children as a guest teacher, demonstrating skills for getting by in the outdoors as her father had long ago done for her.

Appearance
Aina is a plump, dark-skinned woman of average height with honey-brown eyes and thick, deep brown curly hair. On her back is a small black tattoo shaped like a turtle with a lotus bloom above it: a gift from her mother for her thirteenth birthday. Her manner of dress is typically plain except for her headscarves, which come in numerous colors and prints depending on the occasion. She is often seen in an apron. She prefers to be barefoot except when she is working or going on a special date, in which case she will wear boots for the former and padded sandals for the latter. In fact, when she is home alone, which is often, she likes to lounge around with no clothes on at all. Depending on the chore she is performing, she will wear ear plugs to muffle noise. In her pockets, she always carries around five crystals bequeathed to her from her father, which she takes out for comfort or motivation.

During her service in Otogakure, she wears the standard uniform: purple shirt, snake-patterned pants and scarf, forehead protector, and knee-length white apron over the front. The demands of training and work cause her to lose weight, one factor being her resolve to fast for one to three days every time she takes a life. In addition, she acquires a number of keloid scars from the skirmishes and fights she gets into, most of them against her will. She gains a long, thin scar along her right forearm from the night she runs away from Konoha; later, she gains another long, thin scar along her neck from a confrontation with Orochimaru. Just above her tattoo on her back is a large diamond-shaped scar gained from a mission-related injury that she narrowly survives.

By the New Era, her appearance has become more feral. Her body is littered with scars, as well as small bite marks and burns from jellyfish tentacles—markings from her time training under the Turtle Sage. With age, she has gained creases around her eyes, mouth, and forehead, and a few silver streaks in her hair. She is also missing a front tooth, having lost it in the same confrontation that caused her neck scar. As a hermit, she has little in the way of clothes or shoes, making do with rags or whatever she can steal. Because her body so drastically changes shape in Sage Mode and damages her clothes, she often strips prior to its use. When Aina chooses to employ Sage Mode, her appearance becomes almost entirely turtle-like, with thick leathery skin, a beak, a shell, three long tails, and webbed fingers and toes with claws. She uses this to her advantage to incite terror in her targets, masquerading as the kappa of legend.

Abilities
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Kekkei Genkai
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Stats


Part I
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Part II
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Blank Period and New Era
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Trivia

 * Aina's name is made up of two kanji: 愛 (ai) meaning "love, affection" and 菜 (na) meaning "vegetables, greens." Her maternal surname, Kichida, is written most commonly with the kanji 吉 (kichi/yoshi) meaning "joy, lucky, good" and 田 (da/ta) meaning "rice field." Kichida is the less common variant of the surname Yoshida. Her nickname, "Kame" (カメ), means "turtle." She earned this nickname from both her lifelong love for turtles and her slow, steady and odd disposition.
 * Her father's surname, Kocchar, is Indian for "armor."
 * Aina's hobbies include gardening and farming, volunteer and charity work, and watching sea turtle nests. She can also play the gottan, which she later replaces with a kankara she makes from a can.
 * Aina's favorite foods include plums, root vegetables, miso soup, onion soup, taiyaki, chocolate, jalebi, lotus tea, umeshu, and lotus stems and roots. As a pescatarian, she dislikes meat and poultry.
 * Aina's favorite words include "Rock" (岩, Iwa), "Home" (家, Ie), "Garden" (庭園, Teien), "Turtle" (カメ, Kame), "Sea" (海, Umi), and "Love" (愛, Ai; 恋, Koi; 慈愛, Jiai).
 * Aina's nindō is "Tend to your gardens" (あなたの庭に向かいます. Anata no niwa ni mukaimasu).
 * Aina has no interest in fighting anyone in particular.
 * Since Aina has never been registered as a shinobi, it is unknown exactly how many missions she has completed, although it's unlikely she's completed any missions beyond a B-rank.
 * Aina's height, 165.1 cm, does not include her hair.
 * Her bust-waist-hip measurements are 106 cm-97 cm-127 cm.
 * She is left-handed.
 * Aina displays many of the signs and symptoms of autism spectrum disorder: sensitivity to sounds, metals and fabrics; repetitive behaviors and speech; stimming behaviors (e.g., playing with crystals), difficulties with communication and socializing; having special interests (e.g., turtles); difficulties adjusting to change; excessive affective empathy; occasional hyperactivity; learning disabilities; meltdowns that involve self-harm, etc.
 * Aina is panromantic and pansexual--that is, she is attracted to all genders.
 * Her Sage form is based on the kappa, an aquatic demon found in actual Japanese folklore.

Quotes

 * "Ev'rybody's my neighbor, an' ev'ry neighbor's my friend."
 * (To Orochimaru): "You...you like a peacock! No matter how lovely his feathers or how sharp th’ thorns on his legs, a peacock only as worthy’s th’ plain peahens think he is."
 * (To Orochimaru): "I’ll tell you what. I tried real hard t’ understand an’ get along with you a long time ago. M-maybe I made some mistakes doin’ it…but I know deep in my soul how hard I tried. I plum f’rgot myself in my tryin’. An’ I wouldn’ta tried that hard if I di’n’ care. But you didn’t. I gave…an’ I gave…an’ I gave an’ gave an’ gave. An’ all you gave me back was selfishness-n-cruelty. I don’ know why. I done got tired’a tryna figure you out. All I know’s you di’n’ care, then. But now suddenly you do?"