Rui Wanigawa

Rui Wanigawa (わにがわるい, Wanigawa Rui) is a Shinobi from Tanigakure. She is 23 years old when the series starts and 25 in Shippuuden. Rui fights her opponents mainly with ninjutsu or weapons in close combat. In her past she mostly trained ninjutsus which helped her to keep hidden, but she improved at it and learned ninjutsu for fighting too. Her taijutsu and genjutsu skills are rather poorly and even her Element skills needed a lot of her chakra and concentration and are often difficult for Rui to execute.

Rui is a supporting character with a crush on Zetsu.

Rui Wanigawa belongs to Kikuri-Liaon deviantART.

Background
Childhood  The pregnancy of her mother, Hisako, could be described as unplanned. When she heard of it -aged 26- she still had a mission to complete with her partner Noboru, Rui’s father. Hisako used a Jutsu on the mission, making her half crocodile and, in turn, making her faster and stronger. Unfortunately, when she tried to resolve the Jutsu, Hisako didn’t have enough chakra for it and had to wait until she had recovered. After this incident the pregnancy was uneventful until Rui's birth. The doctors at the hospital discovered that the little girl had some physical differences. Hisako suspected it was because of the Jutsu that she had applied for longer in the pregnancy but, nevertheless, she loved her daughter very much. Noboru didn’t want problems, much less a child that looked a little odd, so he left his family, his wife and his little daughter. Hisako was very disappointed but she was not discouraged and moved on with Rui in Tanigakure.

Rui should’ve been enrolled at the local ninja academy but, because of her appearance, the other kids didn’t like her and she refused to go to the academy. When her mother was at home and not on missions she tried to teach her daughter the most necessary things, what she needed to know about the history of the ninja world and taught her simple techniques and Jutsus. Rui tried to learn a lot, in order to make her mother proud when she had refused to go to the Ninja academy, but she lacked the talent. It took her a long time before she learned one Jutsu and finally was able to apply it, even though she remembered what Hisako taught her and understood it.

Rui struggled until the age of 9 years to go to the Ninja Academy. While there she didn’t learn a lot but she worked hard on herself and tried to learn more about Ninjutsu and the practice.

 <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Genin - Academy Graduating age 12 <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"> <p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">After she graduated the Academy Rui was placed in a team with the two boys - Junichi Sugita and Matsuba Kurota. The team leader was the Kunoichi, Nanako Takawa, who was often quiet and left her team for a smoke. Nevertheless, she made sure her team learned something, and that they did their missions. Rui wasn’t that happy, because of Junichi. He was one of the boys who would laugh at her and the first time the team met, he was still mean. Although Matsuba would totally ignore her, favouring instead to talk to Junichi or Nanako, Rui never had a problem with it.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">After a few missions even Junichi had stopped trying to annoy her and the young girl was happy. Most missions were very easy because the little village didn’t get too many missions, giving the team plenty of time for training. At this time Rui tried her best to improve her ninjutsu, but she had already given up on learning genjutsu, because she’d never improved at it. She also wasn’t really interested in taijutsu, therefore she never learned much of it.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Apart from Junichi, both genins discovered chakra affinity for wand so Nanako decided that Rui and Matsuba could train their Water Release together and gave Junichi individual lessons during this time. Though Nanako was often severe and sometimes seemed uninterested, Rui liked her very much, because the Kunoichi was almost always friendly to the young girl. Even her teammates were a bit friendly during the training, but apart from this, when they met their friends, Rui was still not popular.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">During this time Rui first heard of the Akatsuki, but it was more a matter between the major towns, so it had neither the village nor its residents interested in what the organization was doing. <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Chuunin – Age 16 <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"> <p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Matsuba become a chuunin two years earlier than his teammates and Junichi was very jealous of him. He forced himself and Rui to become better shinobi so that they could become chuunin and go on more difficult missions. Rui wasn’t that ambitious, but she wanted to make her team and her mother happy, so she tried to learn as much as possible for the exams.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">After a long time of learning Rui and Junichi passed the Chuunin Exams and went on more difficult missions together with Matsuba. After the promotion her mother helped Rui to sign a blood contract with crocodiles, despite it being hard for her to learn from the big reptiles. She didn’t like them very much because she was afraid of their sharp teeth, their fast reactions and their rough appearance.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">She used the Summoning Technique a lot and tried to learn as much as she could about crocodiles and their special ability to hide in the water and then attack their enemies in an unexpected moment. Nanako decided that Rui should focus on hiding and spying and learn new jutsus. Although Rui was tired from learning so much, she doesn’t want to give up and learned a lot with the crocodiles. Rui’s skills at Ninjutsu’s, which are useful for spy missions, were better than her fighting skills and she was shaky on missions, which she had to do alone.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">When Rui was 18, Matsuba passed the Jounin exams and the team went on a mission together. It was at this time that rumors started circling about a criminal organisation was hiding out somewhere in the Land of Rivers, so the team was meant to keep the shinobi coming from the great villages out of trouble. Unfortunately it came to a fight and, as Rui’s fighting skills wen’t as good as they had been, she was severely injured and had to be brought back to the village..

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">At this point she decided not only to learn spy techniques, but also ninjutsu with which she could defend herself in a fight.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">When she recovered, she gained ambition and discovered her Lightning Release and also the Storm Release as her Kekkei Genkei. Hisako said she had probably inherited from her father, who was a Shinobi from Kumogakure. At this time Rui tormented her mind, wondering why her father had left, unwilling to admit it was because of her looks. Because of this it was hard for Rui to learn her father’s jutsus, even when she put her best effort in. Nanako supported her training although she still wanted Rui to learn more spy techniques.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">As her time as a chuunin ended Rui realised she had changed a lot. She was no longer the little girl that was ignored by the others, her peers too had learned to accept her, even with her differences. Although it was still difficult for Rui to find friends she began to love Matsuba and Junichi more as friends and they began to spend time with each other in their free time.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Jounin – Age 20 <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"> <p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">It wasn’t easy but Rui and Junichi passed the jounin exams together, however, afterwards the young woman wasn’t sure what she had to improve for. There would be no more exams or tests, difficult issues left for the older, more experienced jounin so Rui wasn’t busy with training or with the people around her. She was a little in love with Matsuba, because he was almost always nice, she rarely saw him angry and because he was balanced and had a cool head. As well as the fact that he was extremely charming. Rui wasn’t sure if she should tell him something about this because Junichi was always there when she met him and they almost never talk to each other without Junichi.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">On one evening she saw Matsuba together with a girl and realized that she didn’t have a chance to tell him what she felt. Because of this the next time her team met up it was very frustrating for Rui, as well as the fact that, without their teammate there, Junichi was more unkind to her than usual. Matsuba wasn’t there as he didn’t have much time and his free time was almost always spent with his girlfriend and not with his friends, which hurt Rui and Junichi. That was one reason why Rui often seemed cold and not so friendly anymore to her friends, but also to strangers.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">This was at the time when Rui decided leave her mother’s house and to buy a little apartment in which she could do what she wanted.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">When she was 23 years old, Rui went alone on a mission, because rumors about a criminal organisation in the Land of Rivers were beginning to go around. In their search no evidence to confirm this rumor was found, however, Rui met Zetsu Rui didn’t know of the missing nin or that he, or his cloak, were with the orgaisation. Because of this she wasn’t immediately suspicious, instead coming to like Zetsu. She thought his split personality was funny, she liked his look and she was naive enough to trust him at first. She let herself be carried away in order to spend some time with him and distract her from her mission, which was not particularly difficult as it hadn’t been achieved yet. Rui even helped with an assignment to spy on someone, even if she was probably not much help, she was more of a support. Eventually she found out that the Akatsuki was a criminal organization and, no longer wanting to talk to or be around Zetsu, she went back to Tanigakure. There she said the mission was unsuccessful. Even thought it was a lie it didn’t cause many difficulties and it helped her as she didn’t want to cause Zetsu any problems.

Personality
<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Rui has a good self-assessment, so she knows she can be difficult to deal with. Even though she is aware this, she doesn’t have the motivation to change it. She's a smart girl, she can analyse things and people quickly as she is usually very attentive, but the fact remains that she can be ignorant or too mean to some people, although she knows that they feel hurt by it. Rui can be very stubborn and will not give in sometimes, even when she know that it probably would be better. She knows herself, that she is not as nice, friendly and shy as she was when she was a child, however, she is happy that she has changed and now she can say what she thinks, even if it hurts someone. She feels better when she is able to say what is on her mind.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">It is sometimes difficult to get to know her, because if someone stares at her or asks why she looks so odd, like most people, she will ignore them, meaning they don’t have a chance to get to know her better. She has tried to stop doing this because she know how hurtful they can be but sometimes she can be provoked into it and it can happen quickly, then a conflict begins. However, if she picks up that these people are just mean to her to have fun, she ignores it so they can not enjoy her responses. This doesn’t happen much anymore, because she has grown a lot more confident so many just accept how she is.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">In Rui’s head there is usually a big order, however, this is not always the case around her. Her apartment is very messy but she rarely admits this because she can find everything sooner or later. She does not see who she should clean-up for as no one lives with her and Rui manages to survive quite well in the chaos.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">On missions she usually tries to keep a clear head and not to get distracted by unimportant things, but if she is bored or the trip takes too long, incidents can happen quickly and easily. When she fights it is similar, although it is much more difficult to distract her.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">It isn’t easy for her friends to be around her sometimes either, especially when they are in a good mood and joking around with her. Sometimes she can hold a grudge against them for a few days, sometimes even she taking revenge. However, Rui tries to be a good friend, and to support the people who are important to her in her own weird way. If she is in their usual environment she is normally relaxed and happy, even if she doesn’t show it.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Rui and her mother, Hisako, have a very strong bond. She tells her things that she doesn’t tell her friends, but she keeps secret what Rui’s friends know. All in all, it's a good mother-daughter relationship. Sometimes Rui finds her mother too caring and annoying but it doesn’t change the fact that she loves her.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Rui also has some quirks that not even her friends know, one of these is that she likes to be nude, at least in her own home. It is not unusual for her to sleep like this or walk around her house without any clothes. In public, she doesn’t like it and when she occasionally goes swimming naked she makes sure that no one is there, even in bathhouses and hot springs she’s only when there aren’t many people to stare at her. Junichi is probably the only person who knows about this as he is Rui’s neighbour since she moved out of her mother’s house and, on one occasion, he saw her walking around as she forgot to close the curtains. Since then, the relationship between the two is a little difficult, but she tries to forget the whole thing.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">It is difficult for Rui to like or love someone. If it does happen she will usually keep it to herself to begin with, in order to think about it more as, although she is usually quite hot-headed, she knows that it matters so she takes time to make the decision. Then she tries to think well ahead and make as sure as few mistakes as possible happen, although it is hard to plan these things.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">She tries not to show that she is afraid and always tries to control her emotions, making sure they are not obvious. Despite this most people know she is not a cold person, and if they do think that, she will try to show them the opposite. A lot of the time the fact that she is trying to hide her emotions are the reason they show, and it is usually caused by the behaviour of others, although she can choose to show them herself if she knows it will be better. It is hard for her to take criticism from other people, if she knows that she has done her best, but if she knows how she can do it better, she always tries to do it.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Rui rarely thinks about the future, as it scares her. She doesn’t know if she ever wants to get married, have children or even lead a Genin team.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">In general we can say that she quickly rude, ignorant and sometimes can be annoying but she can often surprise people who know her well and she will even sometimes dare to show her feelings to those close to her, even if it does happen very rarely.

Appearance
<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Rui’s height is 173 cm and her weight is around 138 kg, because of her heavy crocodile tail, which is around 85 kg itself. She is ashamed of her weight and, therefore, she tells no one her weight, even if her tail is very useful for her and she sometimes likes this special body part. Beside her crocodile tail and the crocodile skin, the rest of her skin is a flat green and, even if it doesn’t look so, this skin isn’t different from normal human skin, besides the colour. She also has yellow-grey eyes, which are also a special body part because of the nictitating membrane, so she can see everything underwater. Rui has no human ears, they’re just two little holes in the crocodile skin, which are hidden under her hair.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">She likes her short hair, which is really convenient for a Kunoichi. Most time she has a simple cut with a fringe. Just sometimes, when she is at home, she doesn’t want to straighten her hair so it’s a bit curly and she wears a headband for this hairstyle.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Rui is slim, so her chest is rather small, but she has curvy hips appropriate for her age. She tries to wear comfortable clothes, which fit her body. She likes reddish colours, so most time her upper part is a red top and she wears grey or black shorts. Under the shirt she often wears net-shirts or bandages. For missions she always wears shoes but when she is at home or walks around in Tanigakure, she likes to go outside barefoot.

Abilities
<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Rui’s weakness is her genjutsu and taijutsu. She can’t create a whole genjutsu and they are hard for her to break. After she realized that she was just wasting time if she tried to improve her genjutsus, she concentrated on trying to improve her basic skills so she could break genjutsus. She still struggles with spotting good genjutsus and breaking from them without help.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Rui is also not good at Taijutsu as she does not have enough power to cause serious damage, despite her quick speed. She tried to improve her stamina in order to use less chakra.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Among Rui’s strengths are her elemental ninjutsus and her summoning technique. Although she doesn’t know many jutsus for her lightning and storm releases she works had to perfect the ones she does know and make them strong. Her best techniques are her water jutsus as she finds these fun to improve. Because she can use 3 elements she doesn’t have a strong weakness, other than the wind release.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Much more important is her strategy: Do not fight unless it is absolutely necessary. She avoids fights as much as possible and when she is implicated to a ballet she tried to clear her head and attempts not to be provoked from her enemies. So when it comes to battle, she tries not offensive, but in blocks or evades attacks until her opponent is weak or inattentive and then she can attack at the right moment. Unfortunately, this strategy can be applied only rarely, because it always runs other than Rui had imagined.

Summoning
<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">It’s not a surprising fact that Rui has signed a summoning contract with crocodiles, like her mother did a long time ago. Even though she was frightened of the rough, aggressive and indestructible crocodiles she has become accustomed to them with the time. Most of the time she works with Mokuzu – who is a big, but calm, saltwater crocodile. A lot of the time he’s friendly to Rui and they work well together. Of course they have their strengths in fighting and disguise, especially in water, where they are strong and their attacks can be combined with Rui's water jutsus.

Physical Skills
<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Because she is half a crocodile, Rui has some strengths, weaknesses and skills, which a normal person doesn’t have. Among her strengths are that her skin is not as sensitive to water, she can stay in the water for a long time and stay under water for about half an hour, sometimes more or less, without air. She can also see underwater because of the nictitating membrane protecting her eyes. Especially in rivers or swampy areas, she can disguise herself well in the water when she wears no flashy clothes.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">One of her weaknesses is that she becomes cumbersome and tired on long walks and trips because of the extra weight. Even in longer fights it is hard for her to avoid attacks and respond quickly.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">If she is under water, Rui must also observe her body at all times, because her blood circulation is often disturbed by the lack of oxygen and she must take care that she gets fresh air soon enough to avoid being unconscious.

<p style="margin: 1em 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Another weakness is her very sensitive reaction to extreme cold and hot weather. She could easily die if she’s visits places in that climate for a long time, so not every mission is very comfortable for her.

Trivia

 * <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Her first name means "tear", which really does not suit her, because she almost never shows tears. Her last name is more fitting, meaning "crocodile skin" and is the surname of the family of her mother, who then had a summoning contract with the crocodiles.
 * <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Her birthday is on the 27th June, meaning her zodiac sign is Cancer.
 * <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Her stomach tolerates just about any food, probably even stones, but she likes meat, preferably fresh. She even likes fish very much too, but she hates spicy or sweet things.
 * <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">She has been on 73 D-Rank missions, 107 C-Rank, 145 B-Rank, 42 A-Rank and no S-Rank missions.
 * <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Most people think that her teeth must be sharp, but she has quite normal teeth.
 * <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">She does not like her curly hair so the most time she straightens it.
 * <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">She dislikes wearing shoes when she’s at home at her village or in the water.
 * <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Rui loves rivers more than the sea, because her orientation there is bad. She also is afraid of the sharks there.

Reference
Art is all owned by me, along with the OC and all other OC's mentioned. Summons and Custom jutsu's are owned by me. Naruto & all of its characters is owned by Masashi Kishimoto.

© Art, drawn by me and various artists on DA, commissioned by me and can all be found on my DA.