Name: Shiranui Genma
Age: 21 at ANBU Trials, 22 after Tanuki Mission
Birthday: 17 July, Sandaime Year 12
Rank: Special Jounin
Service: ANBU Field Ops; Lieutenant, ANBU Team 6; Field Medic Grade III
Registration Number: 010203
Physical Appearance
Height: 181 cm (5’11”)
Weight: 71 kg (157 lbs)
Blood Type: A pos
Hair: Straight, shoulder length, light brown, tending to blond when sun-bleached. He wears it loose when off duty, uses his hitai-ate to hold it back when he’s in regular uniform, and puts it up in a ponytail or bun when in ANBU uniform.
Facial hair: Reddish brown. The best he can manage if he lets it go for several weeks is a somewhat derelict goatee and a wispy mustache. Usually clean shaven.
Eyes: Heavy-lidded in a way that makes them just a little drowsy and a little bedroomy. Light hazel in color, too light to be properly brown, too brown to be unnaturally yellow.
Skin: Light complected with a wheaten undertone, tends to get rather pale when tired or ill.
Facial Features: Genma is one of those people who looks a little older when he’s young, and will look young when he’s older. He has an oval face with a sharp jaw, high cheeks, and a straight nose. His lips are shapely and expressive, but he often has something in his mouth — usually a senbon, but he’ll chew pens and pencils, dango skewers, or stalks of grass if nothing else is available.
Other Physical Traits: Slim-built and relatively tall, he can look a little flimsy, though get him undressed and you’ll find solid muscle and bone. Raw-jointed hands and feet, with long fingers and toes. Pinky and ring finger on right hand are slightly twisted.
Handedness: Right handed for eating and writing, but deals cards, opens doors, drinks, and shoots pool left handed. Shaves ambidextrously. Right-handed swordsman and archer, completely ambidextrous with thrown weapons such as shuriken, senbon, and kunai.
Voice: Low tenor to high baritone. Warm, dry, slightly sandy, still cracks sometimes, especially when he’s laughing.
Identifying Marks
Birthmarks: none.
Tattoos and piercings: ANBU tattoo on his left biceps.
Scars: Long, ragged set of scars over his right shoulder and across his back from being thrown through a building fighting the Kyuubi. Assorted minor scars accumulated over a lifetime of active military service.
Usual Clothing: When he’s not in uniform, Genma can usually be found in slim-fitting jeans and graphic t-shirts, and if it’s cooler weather, an oversized hoodie or a leather jacket. If he’s going out he steps it up a notch: low-slung, tight pants, and a body-conscious dress shirt, a mesh top, or a tight-fitting tank. He’s a briefs or trunks man, preferably with a little sex appeal. Always wears a cup on missions.
ANBU Mask: A red and white tanuki.
Living Situation: Genma is in the process of moving. He’s recently been displaced from an apartment he’d been in for the last year, which was destroyed by fire when a fellow tenant’s roll of exploding tags accidentally combusted. Everything he owns currently fits into a couple of cardboard boxes, and it all smells of smoke. At the moment he’s couch-surfing, crashing at his friend Aoba’s place, but if he doesn’t get a lease soon, he’ll have to consider moving back into the barracks.
Ninja Skills
Fighting Style: Genma is a ninjutsu specialist who prefers to work with ranged attacks and weapons. He knows and readily uses a wide variety of tactical ninjutsu, including some rather elegant assassination techniques. His taijutsu is geared to his flexibility and quickness, and meets requirements for his rank, but it’s his weakest skill. He’s proficient with genjutsu, but is stronger at recognizing and breaking illusions than he is at weaving them himself. Chakra natures: Fire and Earth. Sensory range: 4 km.
Strengths: Chakra control and finesse, speed, and seal-weaving, both in combat and out. Acrobatic flexibility. Level-headedness.
Because of his finesse with ninjutsu, Genma was recognized early as having an aptitude for medical jutsu. As a chuunin during the war he trained as a field medic, learning basic first-aid techniques and a few specialized jutsu for stabilizing a fallen comrade in combat, but he wasn’t ultimately recruited into the medical corps—his skill and utility as a fighter outweighed his abilities as a healer, and more importantly, he didn’t want to be a full-time medic.
Preferred Weapons: Genma’s favorite weapons are senbon and kunai. He’s skilled with a katana, but it’s not his first choice. He has a particular interest in poisons and poisoned weaponry, and is trying to develop some degree of immunity to those poisons one can build a tolerance to.
Chakra class and Special Jutsu: Genma’s first affinity is for fire, and second is earth. He’s developed a handful of metal jutsu, a sub-class hybrid of fire and earth jutsu.
- Youyuu kinzouku no jutsu (molten metal) — B rank
- Draws metal from a handy source (your own kunai or senbon, coins from your pocket, your opponent’s fly etc) and renders it molten. The molten metal can be moved through the air with chakra and used as a projectile. The more chakra and concentration put into the jutsu, the more metal can be affected at once, but it’s hard to do more than a senbon’s worth at a time.
- Kinzoku o hikidaru no jutsu (extracted metal) — A rank
- Draws iron out of seemingly non-metallic sources, such as rock and soil, dissolved solids in water, and even blood. Turning the iron in someone’s blood into a solid lump, even a tiny, millet grain-sized speck, is almost instantly lethal. Chakra intensive. Requires direct contact and takes quite a long time to work, during which time the jutsu must be actively sustained.
- Tetsu o hakai no jutsu (iron corruption) — B rank
- A jutsu to make an opponent’s iron weapon “spongy” by pitting the metal with tens of thousands of microscopic holes. It makes the metal brittle and causes the blade to snap. Requires indirect contact with the targeted metal (can be channelled down a wire, but there must be a physical link between the caster and the target.)
- Toi no tetsu o hakai no jutsu (distant iron corruption) — A rank
- Identical to the iron corruption jutsu, but can be activated without direct contact, from up to 5 meters away. Much more chakra intensive, harder to control, and runs the risk of damaging nearby metal, including the caster’s own weapons.
Weaknesses: Not as skilled in taijutsu as most ninja of his level. If a fight turns into a contest of brute strength or stamina, he’s at a disadvantage.
Service Record: Graduated from the Academy and became a Genin at age ten. Promoted to Chuunin at thirteen and served as a courier in the western front during the Third War. Began field medicine training at fifteen when a jounin medic at a field hospital recognized Genma’s aptitude and desperately needed an assistant. Three months later he was re-assigned to formal training in a six-month course at Konoha Hospital. It was there that he first developed an interest in poisons.
Tokubetsu Jounin at seventeen, following the discovery of Orochimaru’s treachery. Was on the front lines against the Kyuubi and carries the scars on his back and one shoulder where a blow from the Fox knocked him through a building. Joined ANBU a few months before his twentieth birthday.
Personality
General Personality Traits: Laid-back and thoughtful, and plays his cards very close to his chest. Difficult to read. Has a dry sense of humor. He’s hard to impress, and even harder to panic. When the going gets hairy he stays outwardly calm, at least until the crisis is over.
Get past his reserve and you’ll find a guy who can spend hours talking about ninjutsu, poisons, action movies, or the sublime heat of Mangrove Country style curries and the best teas to temper them with.
Organized and on top of things. A natural planner (and a bit of a worrier.) He carries a small scroll with a med kit in it at all times. Also has a notepad, writing implements (including a brush, ink stick, and inkstone), a couple of blank scrolls, and a compass. Color codes his scrolls:
- Black—weapons
- Red—poisons
- Orange—traps
- Yellow—medical supplies
- Green—food and drink
- Violet—clothing, personal items
- Blue—other supplies
Quirks: Wears his hitai-ate backwards. Usually has something in his mouth, often a senbon. (It used to be a cigarette, but he’s trying to quit.) When he was a kid it was his thumb, but he switched to a blunt practice senbon his first week of Academy, when he was teased by his classmates.
Motto: “Actions more than words.”
Sexual Orientation: Enjoys sex of many flavors and varieties. Has a modest preference for men. Has no intention of settling down anytime soon. Kinsey five.
Gifts/Talents: Empathetic and observant. A good problem solver because he analyzes things logically. Can knead bread and bake cookies, and is quite good at icing cakes, especially making roses.
Flaws: Nags and care-takes to excess. Worries. Doesn’t trust his team to look after themselves. Prioritizes care of other people over himself, to his detriment.
Religion and Philosophy: Buddhist/Shinto. Genma is a little more religious than your average assassin thanks to his civilian father and a childhood hanging around the temple.
Likes and Loves: Tea, travel books and maps, sex, stewed kabocha, hot springs. Chemistry and poisons. Learning new jutsu. A good adrenaline rush. Running at night. His father’s melon pan, chestnut daifuku, and cream buns.
Dislikes and Hates: Spinach. Abuse of power. Disloyalty. Orochimaru.
Fears: Being permanently paralyzed or disabled. Having to kill a teammate.
Dreams and Ambitions: Serve in ANBU, learn a bunch of cool jutsu, invent some cool jutsu, and maybe one day become a jounin-sensei. Be on the team that takes down Orochimaru once and for all.
Relationships
Family: Genma’s childhood was scented with steel, flour, yeast, and the sweetness of red bean paste. His mother, Azaki Etsuko, was a chuunin who died when he was two. His maternal grandmother, Azaki Fumiko, was also a ninja who hailed from a rural community in northwestern Fire country. The Azaki clan allied with Konoha when the Hidden Leaf was founded. Genma’s father is a baker. Though Yuuichi loves and supports his ninja son, he doesn’t quite understand him. And he’s not at all sure he thinks Genma should be in ANBU.
Friends: Has been friends with Yamashiro Aoba since they were both at the Academy. Generally well-liked by his peers. Still friendly with his most recent ANBU captain, Hajime. Was on the same ANBU rookie team with Sarutobi Asuma, where they became buddies, in part because Genma just wasn’t that impressed that Asuma was the Sandaime’s son. He was sorry when Asuma left to join the Twelve Guardians, but understood why his friend had taken the opportunity: if the tables had been turned and Genma’d been offered the position, he’d have taken it too.
Lovers: There have been a handful, male and female. Most recently he was sleeping with Uchiha Masanori, but Masa’s family have arranged a marriage for him, which makes continuing that relationship a little awkward.
Enemies: He hates Orochimaru, but it’s not exactly a personal enmity on the traitor sannin’s part. It’s not just that Orochimaru killed civilians and betrayed his village, not even that he has tremendous and dangerous power, but that he used that power to try to punish Konoha for not electing him Hokage. Several of the civilians who died in Orochimaru’s gruesome experiments were customers of Genma’s father’s bakery, but Genma has an even more personal connection to Orochimaru: on the day Anko escaped from her teacher’s evil dungeon, Genma was the one who found her and helped her get to safety and reveal Orochimaru’s treachery.
Hero: Idolizes his mother, though he never really knew her. Has grown up on tales of the Shodai Hokage, and used to go around pretending to make trees grow when he was little.
Personal History
Genma’s mother, Azaki Etsuko, was a chuunin from Konoha; his father, Yuuichi, a baker from southern Fire Country. They met when Etsuko was on a mission that took her to Yuuichi’s town for several weeks. Though they were just 18, it was love, and within three months they were married and moving back to Konoha to start a life together. Yuuichi took a job in one of Konoha’s larger bakeries, and Etsuko continued to take missions as a chuunin, mostly C and a few B rank. After four years, they decided to start a family, and a little over a year later, Genma was born.
The summer Genma turned two was hot and dry. A series of fall typhoons turned the drought-stricken hills into death-traps and the rivers into raging torrents. Etsuko was one of hundreds of ninja sent to shore up crumbling cliff-faces and divert floodwaters from nearby farming villages. She and her team were caught in a landslide that destroyed the village of Tateyama; their bodies, like those of nearly 290 villagers, were never recovered. Yuuichi was left to raise his toddler son alone.
With the death benefit paid to him as Etsuko’s widower, Yuuichi opened his own bakery. He and Genma lived above it. Nine months later, when the sharpness of grief was beginning to wane, and the bakery was beginning to show a profit, Genma, who up until then had been a completely normal toddler, did something that changed their lives: in the middle of an “I don’t want to take a bath” tantrum, he set the towels on fire.
Without a match or candle.
Yuuichi, from an entirely civilian background, had no idea what to do with a ninja child. He decided, unwisely, to pretend it hadn’t happened. Three weeks later, this time in a battle of wills over whether or not Genma was going to get dressed, Genma set the dresser alight, and Yuuichi (after putting out the fire) called in reinforcements.
The Nichi Ren temple offered help in the form of a preschool for ninja children. At five Genma was enrolled in the Academy. He made friends easily, though he was often teased. He didn’t know how to hold a kunai or make a basic hand seal, and he still sucked his thumb when tired or anxious. His first sensei suggested he chew on a wooden practice senbon instead of his thumb, which put an end to that aspect of teasing (and set Genma up for a life-long habit.)
Genma graduated at 10 and was put on a genin team under Nara Ayami. He passed the chuunin exams at 13, and was made a courier, running messages back and forth between Konoha and the front-lines in the Third Great War. Began field medicine training at fifteen when a jounin medic at a field hospital recognized Genma’s aptitude and desperately needed an assistant. Three months later he was re-assigned to formal training in a six-month course at Konoha Hospital. It was there that he first developed an interest in poisons.
One June evening when Genma was 17, he was heading down an alley in Konoha dressed in his chuunin blues when a little girl came stumbling out of a doorway, grabbed his leg, and told him her sensei was killing people and she needed to see the Hokage. She was burning with fever, hollow-eyed, and shaking. At the junction of her neck and shoulder, a freshly placed seal thrummed with terrible chakra.
She babbled frantically about her sensei experimenting on people in an underground lab. About dead teammates and a girl strapped down on a table, and corpses in the walls. They needed to get to the Hokage, she insisted. They needed to hurry.
It could have been fever talking, but there was something Genma saw in her dark eyes—terror tempered with righteous fury—that convinced him she was telling the truth. He picked her up and ran straight to the hokage’s palace. Masked ANBU guarded Sandaime’s door, but when they’d heard Genma’s story, and a little of the girl’s, they took her from him and told him to wait.
An hour later, Sandaime himself came out, flanked by three ANBU. One held the girl wrapped in a blanket. The Hokage stopped just long enough to tell Genma he must never speak of any of the things the girl had told him, or even acknowledge he’d had any part in her discovery. He’d made Genma swear an oath on his hitai-ate and his honor as a shinobi of Konoha. Then he’d gone, flanked by two of the ANBU.
Three days later, the news was everywhere: Orochimaru had turned traitor. An undisclosed number of ANBU had died trying to stop him. Two genin were in the hospital: one of Orochimaru’s own students, and an older genin who had been missing for months, daughter of one of Konoha’s diplomats. Dozens, maybe hundreds of corpses had been found in Orochimaru’s lab.
When Anko passed her chuunin exam, Genma was there. Occasionally they’ve locked eyes across a room, but he’s never spoken to her since that day five years ago, and he’s not really sure she remembers him.
Promoted to Special Jounin in the aftermath of the Orochimaru affair, at 18. When the Fox attacked, he was on the front lines trying to contain the beast, and caught a blow across the back that knocked him through a building. He was lucky it didn’t kill him. When he woke up, the fight was over, the fires were still smoldering, and far too many of his friends and comrades were dead, but at least the village was saved.
At 19 he entered ANBU. He’s happy there now, with no plans to leave before his stint is up. In fact, he may even re-enlist when it is.