Shiori (HBH)

Shiori (栞, Shiori) was a originally hailed from. She defected from her homeland village following the and eventually found herself under 's tutelage sometime after the latter's own defection from. Under Orochimaru's mentorship, Shori became an incredibly talented.

However, after successfully managing to put a seal on Shiori's head so she could store more information than normal, this was gradually generating a brain aneurysm. Knowing that she could die at any moment, and not wanting to spend another minute with Orochimaru's twisted ideals, Shiori defected from and traveled far and wide towards the, where she located an abandoned building and turned it into her personal hideout, before eventually rebuilding it as an inn.

Up until her demise, Shiori taught everything to her pupil, Hana, wanting her inn, her only legacy in the world, to continue even after her passing, and after entrusting everything to Hana after seeing how the latter had learned everything that she could, even surpassing her own knowledge and skills, Shiori allowed herself to peacefully die from her brain aneurysm.

Background
Shiori was originally hailed from, but found her childhood to be miserable, as the village's poor state due to the ongoing wars caused her to constantly live in fear. During the, as Amegakure and its neighbor villages became the battlefield where the waged their war, Shiori decided to abandon her home village and became an  due to her defection.

Over the following years, Shiori struggled to survive as a homeless person, constantly hunting for food and water in the forests, while evading numerous bandits that usually passed by. Eventually, Shiori found herself in confrontation with, a recent missing-nin from , with whom she felt understood by her desire for wisdom, while Orochimaru desired knowledge of all the in existence, and Orochimaru took Shiori under his tutelage.

The two formed, which served as a personal hideout for both of them, and Shiori usually helped Orochimaru during his experiments by bringing him ingredients, while oblivious to Orochimaru's true actions and experiments. After Orochimaru placed a seal on Shiori's head to have gather further knowledge than a normal person could handle, it caused her to develop a brain aneurysm, and at the same time, Shiori finally discovered Orochimaru's experiments and became terrified at realizing she was part of them, and defected from Orochimaru's hideout and traveled aimlessly.

Eventually, Shiori found herself at the and discovered an abandoned building in the middle of a forest, and decided to use the location as her personal safehouse. Sometime afterwards, Shiori discovered the potential the building brought, and decided to turn it into an inn so she could profit from it while also looking for a subordinate to eventually assume ownership of her inn once she inevitably succumbed to her brain aneurysm. While walking through a path in the forest, Shiori heard sounds of a battle and decided to investigate, and witnessed a young girl being surrounded by several bandits who were about to kill her, and Shiori stepped in to protect her, using her skills to restrain the attackers before killing them with her Water Release Genjutsu: Demonic Phantom Fog Prison.

Because of Shiori's saving, Hana gained an undying and deep admiration towards Shiori and decided to follow her to her inn, where she began training under Shiori to eventually take over ownership of the inn.

Personality
Shiori was a firm and pleasant woman, sometimes a little seductive and very manipulative. She always knew what to say and how to act to convince people to do what she wanted. She was not sincere with most people and was very suspicious even if she always seemed open with others.

After being betrayed by after showing utmost trust in him, Shiori refused to trust anyone else, and became treacherous, and only cared for herself, although her charming way of showing herself prevented others from realizing this. The only person with whom Shiori was totally sincere with was Hana, although when they first met, Shiori only viewed Hana as a successor to her inn rather than a friend. Over time, however, Shiori came to genuinely, and deeply, care for Hana, and viewed her as a younger sister, and entrusted everything to her before passing away.

Appearance
Shiori was a beautiful woman, with short purple hair and blue eyes. Her eyebrows were short and thick and she used to use makeup.

Shiori wore a purple outfit that consisted of a short Chinese-style dress, and a short jacket with wide sleeves. On her dress, she wore a light brown corset. She also wore high white stockings, black sandals and a light brown hair bun cover with an explosive ninja tag tied to it (which was used for quick emergency escapes). At the waist was a cord with two sleigh bells and in her ankles, she wore ankle bracelets with sleight bells.

Abilities
Despite her illness affecting her skillls, Shiori was nonetheless a powerful kunoichi, and her potential was noted by many, such as, who decided to train Shiori, possibly to become a vessel of sorts. Her skills increased tremendoulsy during her time under Orochimaru's tutelage, learning how to perform the, allowing her to summon.

Genjutsu
Shiori's excelled in, being able to combine her Genjutsu skills with her techniques, such as the Water Release Genjutsu: Demonic Phantom Fog Prison. Her Genjutsu skills also earned the praise of Orochimaru, who claimed that Shiori's skills far surpassed any other shinobi he'd seen, and discounting the 's Genjutsu-based attacks, Shiori's skills weren't unmatchable.

Itachi Pursuit Mission
Shiori's condition was becoming worse and worse, and despite Hana's best efforts to try and heal her, Shiori's illness grew stronger. Knowing her time was almost up, Shiori told Hana to remain strong, and continue to look after her inn once she passed away. Soon afterwards, Shiori and Hana came across, who heading towards the for his battle against his.

Recognizing Itachi from the, Shiori asked him his motives for stopping at the inn, and Itachi simply claimed that with his , he noticed that Shiori's illness was reaching its boiling point, and Shiori confirmed his theories. Realizing that she was only hurting herself further, Shiori requested Itachi to mercilessly put her out of her misery, despite Hana's attempts to change her mind, and Itachi granted her wish. After parting her final words to Hana, Shiori allowed Itachi to place her under an extremely powerful, where she lived the remainder of her life in the fraction of a second, and because her mind was departed from reality in such a manner, Shiori quickly, and peacefully, passed away after giving her goodbyes to Hana.

Afterwards, Hana buried Shiori's body behind the inn, and created a memorial stone for her, and remarked that once her time came as well, wished to be buried alongside her.

Legacy
Perhaps Shiori's greatest legacy was her inn, Massakari, which started mainly as a small-time location for travelers, but later became one of the most popular and frequented inn's in the, so much that and  both described Massakari as their favourite place to spend their free time while on vacation.

Another of Shiori's legacy was partially through Hana, as the latter became a surrogate sister for the former, despite Shiori's past attempts to refuse to make any bonds with others after being betrayed in the past. Through Hana's ownership, Massakari became incredibly popular, fulfilling Shiori's wish that her inn became famous.

Trivia

 * The artwork, and name around Shiori (and Hana) was created by Chuun, who deserves all the credit for the artwork and amazing setting around it.