Irigami Clan

The Fujiwara clan (藤原一族, Fujiwara Ichizoku) is a branched clan originating in what was once Yugakure no Sato. Most members born into this clan possess a literal "thick-skinned" quality, making them damage-resistant. They are also uniquely able to enter a state known as the "battle calm".

Founding
The original clan was founded by its matriarch, Fujiwara Kazue, who claimed to have been the lover of a god who had destroyed their village in envy. This story is corroborated with a geological event of the time: a considerable seismic quake, which decimated the Fujiwara's ancestral lands by causing significant flooding and damage to their fields. The clan quickly resettled and built a prosperous hot spring near the grounds of their original compound. The spring eventually ran mysteriously cool, and the business was re-outfitted into farmland, where an abundance of wild wisteria bushes grew unimpeded by its new settlers who claimed it was divine. Unfortunately, after several more generations, the livelihoods of the Fujiwara were at stake once more: a nearby clan had designs on the Fujiwara farmlands and attacked without warning; however, the greedy neighbours were led right into a veritable bloodbath. The Fujiwara displayed an as-yet unseen prowess in physical combat, somehow remaining cool and focused even as chaos reigned around them. In addition, the daughters (and sometimes sons) of the Fujiwara main branch had an uncanny resilience against fire, steel, and sharpened wood. The attempted land wars were finished in a matter of months, with the Fujiwara's dissidents scattered or buried. The Fujiwara clan's ensuing reputation as an indomitable war-clan discouraged any further looting or pillaging from neighbouring clans and nobles.

The present Fujiwara clan compound is located on the outskirts of what remains of Yugakure; the ancestral lands of the clan are still very much occupied, but after the split of the main families into several branches, the clan saw fit to expand into the bones of the abandoned Hidden Village.

Clan Lore
The Fujiwara have an extensive mythology to go along with their historical representation. The tale goes that the Fujiwara were once believed to have been descended from peaceful farmers. However, their village, frequently ravaged by beast and barbarian alike, was forced to grow hard and unyielding to the onslaught of its many enemies. This hard-hearted populace drew the attention of a god who had gone mad after being rejected by his human lover - then a member of the clan - who attacked the village with reckless abandon and was sealed inside a placid lake just outside their compound. Immediately the lake began to boil with the force of the sealed god's rage, and vicious rapids formed. The earth around the lake cracked and split as the scalding water rose, soon consuming more than half of the village. The Fujiwara decided to rebuild their village on top of the lake to spite the angry god and prospered from the new natural hot spring the sealed god had created.

The god felt remorse for his actions and attempted reparations by filling the fields of the Fujiwara compound with wisteria bushes of otherworldly beauty and fragrance. Even after several generations, the god's intended, who had grown very old and near to death, refused his plea for forgiveness and shortly passed away. Believing their only path to redemption had been destroyed, the god remained trapped at the bottom of the hot spring, weeping inconsolably. Without his rage to boil the waters, the spring once more became a cool, placid lake filtering through the wisteria, but it had grown salty from the god's tears. In a last attempt at achieving peace, the god reached out to the Fujiwara in their time of need - a rival clan had attacked, seeking to take their lands and free the sealed god to turn them against their captors. When the god was freed, he instead laid waste to the invading clan and, to prevent any more Fujiwara blood being lost, he offered his love's descendant a forbidden power of invulnerability and taught to her the skill of the "battle calm". The descendant passed down the power through her direct bloodline, and the skill to all her cousins, and in time they defeated the invaders and became known as a fearsome and capable enemy.

Yugakure
The Fujiwara clan is not by any means the oldest of the many clans of the Elemental Countries; however, its birth does precede the foundation of its sworn Hidden Village. Historically, the Fujiwara have always worked closely with the local government in its many forms. While preferring to remain on good terms, the Fujiwara clan did create a precedent of deposing incompetent, indulgent, or otherwise unfit leaders; it has been speculated that the Fujiwara clan's allegiance is not to the Daimyo, but to the Country itself and the land they occupy.

The clan's current interactions with the Daimyo of Hot Water Country are amiable. The support of Fujiwara clan is very much appreciated in warding off the orphaned ex-Yu-nin that plague the Country with their banditry.

Clan Politics
The Fujiwara clan is typical of an ancient bloodline, being very proud and guarding their ancestral secrets closely. They appear to outsiders to commit themselves wholly to the mythology of their clan, but in truth their only allegiance is to history the clan itself is made up of four branches:
 * the Fujiwara (藤原, wisteria field), or the main branch, the foremost familial branch and the extension of the clan that acts as the political and diplomatic head. Current clan head is Chie.
 * the Ito (伊藤, this, wisteria), or the secondary branch, are the first branch to have split off from Kazue's descendents. They tend to be born in pairs. Current clan head is Asuka.
 * the Kato (加藤, increase, wisteria), one half of the tertiary branch, are the "secret-keepers" of the clan's history. The Kato are the branch of the clan that most interacted with Uzushio, resulting in many violently red heads and tempers alike. Current clan head is Hanae.
 * the Sato (佐藤, help, wisteria), the other half of the tertiary branch, function as the "deployment" branch; they are the largest of the four branches currently existing, making them an invaluable source of manpower for themselves and their allies. They are the most diverse of the four families and are carriers of a variety of interesting genetic traits from every branch. Current clan head is Hibiki.

The Black Egg Affair
The Fujiwara are most famous for their involvement in the Black Egg Affair, which happened around the time of the Withdrawal of the Fourth Branch. A kunoichi of the main branch, Fujiwara Nanaho, was convicted of the unauthorized experimentation and Sealing of ten shinobi academy students without consent, two of which did not survive the process. Nanaho was charged with illegal experimentation, medical malpractice, and the Fujiwara's personal charge of "Inhumanity". The last of these charges resulted in her exile from the clan; Nanaho was stripped of all rights to her surname, branded on both cheeks, and had her chakra signature removed from the Clan wards. She was sent away from the compound and ostracized by any of her previous family members she came across.

Clan Markers
The Fujiwara are a tall and lithely muscular clan. Due to their dalliances with other countries, there is no set skin tone for any branch or for the clan as a whole; they exist in a range of starkly pale to olive-toned to extremely dark. All members of the clan are bright-haired and dark-eyed, and actual colour schemes vary between branches.Descendants of the Fujiwara clan are divided into four categories according to the branch they are bound to. In addition to appearance, the Fujiwara all tend to dress in a similar fashion. Men and women alike wear hanbok, a traditional Korean dress, around the compound; specifically chima jeogori for the women and baji for the men. Armor is worn over more casual clothes during battle, but only the chest, back, and forearms are covered, as well as the thighs. Main and secondary branch clan members prefer to wear the colours of the matriarch, which are a series of dark purples to dark pinks, and mix it with cool jade greens and cerulean blues. Tertiary clan members, young children, and at times the elderly all tend toward the colours of the clan's historical emblem, which are lighter purples in lavender and periwinkle, and accessorize with dark cobalt blues and whites. Both factions like strings of red beads or similarly-coloured ornaments.
 * the Fujiwara (main branch) are usually golden-haired and grey-eyed
 * the Ito (secondary branch) are usually pale blonde- or red-haired and blue-eyed
 * the Kato (tertiary branch) are usually bright-haired (yellows, reds) and blue-eyed
 * the Sato (tertiary branch) are usually golden-haired and brown-eyed

Elemental Countries
The Fujiwara had ties (both political and spousal) to the Land of Iron, and a long-standing trade was established for weapons and techniques. Their ties to the Lands of Snow, Fire, and Lightning were not quite so strong, but could be considered in the way of amicable neighbours.

Yugakure
In the early years of its foundation, the Fujiwara were allied closely with Yugakure (when it existed) and Uzushiogakure (with whom they shared and traded a skill for seals). Presently, the Fujiwara clan's main allegiance lies with the Land of Hot Water. Having disbanded its hidden village, what was previously Yugakure is now overrun with ninja turned to banditry; the Fujiwara have allied largely to protect their ancestral Land from this threat.

Kirigakure
Kiri's attack and subsequent salt-and-burning of Uzushio outraged the Fujiwara clan, who can still be found to rave about it presently. As such, Kiri's relationship with the Fujiwara is tenuous at best, even with Mei Terumi's reforms.

Konohagakure
The Fujiwara hold a sharp animosity for Konoha, whose forces they believe neglected Uzushio in its time of need. They are mistrustful of Konoha's policies and of its ninja.

Kumogakure
The Fujiwara clan's attentions to the Land of Lightning (particularly their Hidden Village) have cooled somewhat after Cloud's attempted perversion of the Hyuga's doujutsu, which the Fujiwara hold as a breach of civil liberty with the ability to lead to a similar event to Kiri's invasion of Uzushio.

Nadeshiko Village
New ties have been forged between the Fujiwara and the kunoichi of Nadeshiko Village, an arrangement which benefits both parties greatly.

Uzushiogakure
The Fujiwara's loyalty grew in regards to Uzushio and its shinobi as many intermarriages began to blur their ethnic lines. Several high-ranking members of the main and secondary branches have expressed their hope for the scattered Uzumaki population to rebuild Uzushio, which they would support politically and in any ways necessary.

Abilities
The Fujiwara clan is a renowned war-clan; their physical prowess is nearly unmatched in its form and success. Much of their accomplishments can be awarded to a special trait each Fujiwara descendant possesses, that of an uncanny invulnerability. If this trait is inherited recessively, one's skin will simply be more resistant to damage. Dominant and partial-dominant carriers will notice a resistance or imperviousness to extreme temperatures, most metals, and the sharpness of organic wood. The caveats to this gift are only a danger to those without caution: the resilience and elasticity of their skin causes their cells to multiply and divide erratically. Depending on how their invulnerability is expressed, one can heal rapidly (and thus mismatched in places, forcing one to reopen wounds to let them heal properly) or extremely sluggishly. In addition, this high cell activity causes early-onset mutations that have the ability to cause infant or childhood chakra pathways to malform, making chakra use an arduous and deeply-involved process; close to ten children per generation are born with this handicap.

Thus, to prevent a chakra "dependency" young Fujiwara are trained extensively in taijutsu and the sealing arts(which require less chakra then offensive techniques). As a result, many such masters tend to come from or marry into the clan. Their education is rigorous and rooted deeply in clan lore and values; the Fujiwara clan is said to have been given the gift of "battle calm" by a remorseful god in recompense for their unwanted advances on the Fujiwara matriarch. The battle calm is a state of mind each Fujiwara clan member is instructed in that allows the user to maintain a singular focus in battle - an almost meditative state where one is aware but unimpeded by their surroundings. In early feudal wars with neighbouring clans, the Fujiwara used this ability to remain fighting upright even through debilitating injury and the chaos of the battleground.

Finally, the Fujiwara are skilled manipulators of chakra threads. Due to their small chakra capacity (excepting those Fujiwara of the Uzumaki bloodline), the Fujiwara clan is generally adept at chakra control; this resulted in a school of string-masters adept at weaving chakra into their hair, which is worn identifiably long, to be used as a last-resort prehensile weapon. Other chakra techniques, such as genjutsu, are not so widely used and will leave Fujiwara mostly vulnerable; ninjutsu is not their strong suit, but some Fujiwara have been known to employ basic techniques. That being said, the traditional governing nature of Fujiwara chakra-users is earth- and water-type, but they are very weak with yin-type jutsu.

The Fujiwara are skilled logicians, and often employ mathematics and physics in their battle calculations (ie. distances between targets, appropriate force, etc. etc. ).

Leaders

 * Fujiwara Kazue, first matriarch and founder of the Fujiwara clan.
 * Fujiwara Chie, current matriarch of the Fujiwara clan and head of the main branch.
 * Ito Asuka, current head of the secondary branch.
 * Kato Hanae, current head of the tertiary branch, archival division.
 * Sato Hibiki, current head of the tertiary branch, deployment division.

Trivia

 * The kanji in fujiwara (藤原) literally means "wisteria field"; likewise, each of the branch clans have the kanji to (藤) for "wisteria" to show that they are descended from the original clan.
 * The two known matriarchs of the clan, Fujiwara Kazue and Fujiwara Chie, both share the kanji e (枝), meaning "branch".
 * Kazue's name is made up of the kanji (一枝), meaning "one branch"; whereas Chie's name is written as (千枝), or "thousand branches".
 * All current clan and branch heads are female. Historically, the Fujiwara have had 3 male inheritors of the branch head title, and only 1 male clan head.
 * The Fujiwara clan member responsible for pioneering the "Hair Release" fighting style was Kato Ayumu, whose hair was reported to be nearly 183cm in length.