Shikaniku Nara

""You know what people are forgetting, about the shadows that is. They are not physical phenomenons but are illusion stemming darkness. Don't you see it!? The reason the shadow projects your figure is because YOU block the light with your body, and when light doesn't reach a certain area -- what is that called? Darkness, correct? What does that mean, you ask? It's elementary, my dear Watson. It means that I am the King of Darkness for as darkness is my domain. And you, my friend have trespassed yourself into Hell. Yes, Hell, because that is a dark place considering that you're headed there. Well, let's just say: You people are making my life so much easier right now.""

- Yami speaking to a bandit

, renowned as hailing from the prominent and noble Nara Clan of Konohagakure; a prodigy among shinobi. He is currently a Tokubetsu Jōnin, attributed to the fact that he only specializes and is prominent in his Clan's unique and Hiden techniques and is also the current leader of the Nara Clan; assuming this position twenty years after the Fourth Shinobi World War with his enhanced charisma, strength, intelligence and by promising to protect his fellow clansmen from the terror of the world caused by previous war beforehand, involving the. Being the leader of the Nara Clan, Yami possesses a fierce loyalty to Konohagakure but his loyalty towards his clan is even greater and will do almost anything to protect his fellow clansmen. Because of this, he often believes that the Nara clan are indeed the strongest clan the world has ever seen, surpassing that of both the Senju Clan and Uchiha Clan and believes himself into being the strongest shinobi the world has ever seen, often comparing his powers to that of the Ten-tailed beast himself. To achieve his goals of putting the Nara on the top of the world, Yami will do anything and use any method; killing children, men and women, using his own shinobi abilities, political abilities or will even rely on backstabbing and betraying anyone.

Power wise, Yami is known clan-wide for his employment and complete mastery of his clan's techniques which revolve around the manipulation of shadows; renowned throughout his clan as an absolute prodigy of these techniques, with some believing that he was simply born with the ability to use his clan's techniques without proper training. Despite officially being a Tobekstu Jonin, his skills suggest that this is simply because he only uses his family hiden techniques though the fact is that he found no need to become a Jonin, using this lack of a rank as a strategy to sneakily gain more and more power without anyone taking him as an immediate threat, until it was obviously too late for them to do anything. According to himself, every battle that he lost is completely intentional, which is actually believable considering his skills. As a result, many of his fellow clansmen consider him an absolute political mastermind and perhaps the best mind of their current time, being called the reincarnation of Tobirama Senju; a recognition which he dislikes to a large degree as he considers Tobirama simply a preview, sent by god, of himself. Typically recognized, Yami often associates with the most dangerous of groups, including the likes of the Akatsuki and even Seika no Heiwa; two organizations who are both dangerous but are equally dangerous to one another. In addition to this, he has noted that he have capture two entire villages that now serve under the Nara Clan and claims that he now possessed even more military power than two of the Five Great Nation themselves. As a result for his cooperation with these groups, some other nations consider Yami a criminal himself and thus he is often unauthorized to travel into their lands, making him an S-Rank criminal as well.

Early Childhood
Yami’s born was nothing special nor was it that important; born to two Chunin Shinobi of the Nara Clan who barely possessed any other skills other than their clan’s technique, which even with those their skills weren’t that great. Attributed to this, the infant was expected to become a prodigy or anything above a Jonin to be quite honest. This doubt generated by his fellow clan members eventually affected his parents’ decision in placing him into the newly formed under the command of, instead he made the organization to make use of one’s emotions during battle and to teaching them that true strength originate from the will to protect someone; which later caused Yami to dedicate himself to fighting to protect his fellow Nara Clan, completely ignorant of the thoughts that his fellow clansmen created about his being. Inevitably, Yami began training hard to master his abilities, practicing but most of all watching his parents and fellow clansmen use their hiden techniques.

Upon his fourth birthday, Yami’s family decided to take a trip to Sunagakure to visit his aunt and her children, as they moved there after the Fourth Shinobi World War with their father who originated from the Sand Village. During their journey however, a group of bandits ambushed the three member family and nearly killed both of Yami’s parents who were doing their best to protect their son, commanding the child to run. Upon seeing this sight, the child awakened his latent powers and turned the bandits’ shadows into tiny tentacles which penetrated the attackers and killed them. Do the wounds they gathered during their battle, Yami’s parents both passed out and awakened in a wooden cabin in a soft bed with Yami sleeping in a chair. He had made his parents more than proud, but at that moment where he killed the attackers they knew that he was special, that he was naturally gifted with their unique hiden techniques. With this realization, the parents took their child back to Konoha to continue his training with the root, informing Sai of what happened. Sai agreed to harness this power to the max, and personally took the boy to train him himself.

The training was extremely tough, challenging the four year old child on multiple cylinders though he slowly began to show improvement in controlling his unique abilities. His abilities stemmed further than manipulating his own preexisting shadows, Sai eventually realized, instead seeing that this child naturally possessed the ability to manipulate something much bigger than shadows; darkness. Determine to harness this power, Sai told Yami to pack up and that they were heading out in the morning. Approaching his home, Yami informed his parents of what Sai and they packed. The next day, the child and his teacher headed into a deep forest where sunlight rarely struck the ground. This would be Yami’s training field for the next six years. During this training, Yami and Sai created several techniques stemming from his powerful and unique employment of the Nara’s hiden techniques, and by the age of ten Yami surpassed all of his fellow clansmen in regards to their hiden techniques, to such an extent that they considered and hailed him as a prodigy, the best of his generation.

Exiting the forest, Yami soon discovered that a large majority of his classmates had been sent to fight in the Fifth Shinobi World War and that he would not be deployed to the front lines, being excused from battle because of his uniqueness and high worth that he held. Angered that he wouldn’t get to protect his friends, more specifically being his clansmen, Yami secretly set out to join the battlefield and to find his fellow companions. The child didn’t get far however; he being attacked by several enemy shinobi along the way and all of these shinobi being chunin level and above. They were kids though and it wasn’t “right” that they were fighting in this war, being killed in this war. Nevertheless, Yami knew that he had to find his friends and protect him and thus he did what he had to do. Using their own shadows, he created large tentacles which pierced all of them in their throats, killing them painlessly and quickly. He couldn’t bring himself to killing them in a horrible manner.

Despite winning, this little battle slowed Yami’s progress down considerably and he was soon found by several high ranking konoha officials who secured the boy and brought him back to Konoha, claiming that he was much too valuable and important to be used as a pawn for the world’s silly wars. This claim would eventually lead to Yami believing that he simply better than everyone else. However, while Yami was safe in Konoha his friends were all killed, every single one of them slaughtered in a horrible manner by several shinobi belonging to Iwagakure. As a result, he was left with very little friends, essentially none. This granted him the capability to focus on his skills alone and dedicate all of his attention to his abilities as well. This was later revealed to being a perfect plan executed by several members of Konoha’s council, against Sai’s wishes.

Rise to Fame
Three years had passed since the extermination of Yami’s friends and he had improved considerably. His skills regarding his own hiden techniques were incredible. To measure his abilities, Konoha elders matched him against twenty Jonin level shinobi and commanded that they be defeated without the use of anything other than his hiden techniques. Following their wishes, the thirteen year old child defeated all of the jonin with the use of a single technique in which he turned their own shadows into equivalent doppelgangers of themselves; all of which possessed every technique that the original possessed, but the difference was that these doppelgangers would be healed whenever they entered a place where light failed to reach, such as a shadow of a tree. Eventually, the Jonin were overmatched by their equivalent doppelgangers and Yami was considered the strongest Nara clan member of his time, perhaps in history.

Due to the comments and thoughts that he was injected with, Yami was absolutely arrogant and believed that he and his clan were the best in the entire world. He desired to rule them, to become their leader and to lead them to the top of the world, but even he realized that this would take two life-times but he only had one and there was no one else who could take his place; no they were all to take over the world, they needed his skills to succeed. Realizing this, Yami would continue perfecting his technique while also spending a bit of his time every day to perfect a technique which granted him the ability to stay youthful forever, so that he could lead his clan to success when the time inevitably revealed itself, but for now he would be patient and wait until it was his time.

A few days after his battle with the Jonin, Yami was commanded to go on a mission alone, which revolved being the bodyguard to the Daimyo of the land of fire. Without hesitation, the Nara child accepted the mission and left the village immediately. Now was the perfect time, the moment that he had been waiting for. Now was his time to make his mark on the world. Within a matter of hours, he reached the Daimyo’s meeting place where he met several other high ranking warriors from all over the Land of Fire, one person being the famous Sannoto Senju who occupied the area with his organization, Seika no Heiwa. Before he even had a chance to get accommodated into the area, a large group of bandits attacked. What a foolish mistake, as they attacked at the night. This was Yami’s time to shine. Using the darkness around him, Yami made short work of the bandits, without the assistance of anyone else who was protecting the Daimyo. Amazed at his abilities, the Daimyo requested that Yami be his personal escort to the area where he was supposed to meet his fellow allies to discuss the aftermath of the Fifth Shinobi World War and the status of the Land of Water. Accepting his offer, Yami accompanied the Daimyo alongside Sannoto Senju; once the pride of the leaf.

After gathering the remnants of his army, the Daimyo decided to move out and personally requested that Yami sit in his carriage alongside him. During this expedition, the carriage was once more attacked, but this time an entire nation of shinobi appeared before them, requesting that the Daimyo be handed over to them immediately. Obviously disagreeing to their request, the protectors of the Daimyo (including Yami) leaped into battle; the nara child leading the defense and successfully repelling his attackers. This battle eventually became known as the Battle of the Titans and Yami was noted as the commander of the winning army at the time. News of this quickly spread out across the shinobi world, and everyone knew that a thirteen year old child was responsible for the defeat of an entire nation of shinobi.

Returning to Konohagakure, Yami was renowned as an absolute hero; typically being referred to by his clansmen "A King Among Men". This fortified his arrogant nature quite the bit. A few hours after his return, Yami was called before the entire Konoha village to be honored, though things didn't go as he expected them to. Approaching him was the leader of the Nara Clan, who then revealed that this thirteen year old boy would become his apprentice leader of the Nara Clan today; Yami was simply speechless.

Leading the Nara
A mere year had passed since he was granted the honor of becoming a apprentice chief and leader of the Nara clan, though much changed in that time. Under his rule, the Nara clan became more treasured than what they already were; they became much more treasured than the or  clans, though they still seemed to be on par with the. This wasn't a problem though, as Yami knew that once he finished his extreme training to master his abilities that the Nara would become the most treasured clan in the world. What also changed with the state of the nara clan was his unique powers as well, they all developed extremely well and becoming much more powerful though they still weren't complete. He thought he had discovered a way to make himself immortal, though he was extremely wrong.

Waiting until it was noon, Yami went into the middle of a grassy plain on the outskirts of the leaf village, standing in a position where his shadow was fully projected. After doing so, he then activated his Shadow Gathering Technique, using it materialize his entire shadow until it resembled himself exactly. Finally, the latter physically pulled the shadow into himself, infusing it with his entire being. Not everything went as he expected. He didn't fuse with the shadow, as the latter simply rejected his body and seeped out of his mouth onto the ground beneath him. Following this, it opened up, creating a hole to the Darkforce Realm, where he was pulled into. Upon being pulled, he met several shadow-like beings who threatened to destroy him, until he revealed that he was a member of the Nara Clan; the shadows praising him afterwards, as the Nara Clan were responsible for their creation and the creation of this realm. According to these shadows, the Nara clan before the Era of the Warring States manipulated darkness and not just shadows. Listening to this story, Yami requested that these shadows train him how to utilize his new form and unique powers, to which they agreed. With that, the training began.

Two more years had passed and Yami's training was complete; he was released from the darkforce realm with all of the experience and information that he needed to utilize his powers to their fullest extent. Upon returning to the real realm, Yami was greeted by his clansmen. A few cried and few rushed at him, believing him into being dead. With someone asking him where he was, Yami made up a fake story. Only one person failed to believe it, that person being the previous leader of the Nara Clan, though he approached Yami much later when the latter was alone in his backyard. Yami revealed the real story to the Nara leader. The leader was not pleased and threatened to reveal the entire story to everyone while also planning to kick Yami out of the Nara Clan, the clan that he loved so much! Without thinking, he killed the leader and devoured his body using his shadow to hide any trace of evidence. Then, using his charismatic attitude, he convinced everyone that the leader disappeared suddenly, allowing him to assume his position as the leader of the Nara. From that point on, Yami led the clan and continued consuming shadows, growing stronger by the day and improving his abilities tenfold.

Appearance
Raised to believe that he was better than everyone else, Yami's own appearance reflects this disposition. As a result, he is normally seen smirking complacently, in such a way that many can discern that he's arrogant, even random and complete strangers; thus, many refuse to associate with him for this very reason, with the exception of women who feel the need to have a dominating and confident man. One rare occasion, even when under an immediate threat, does his complacent smirk ever falter.

Despite his lack of taijutsu training, Yami was still a child of average size; being around 5”5 when he was thirteen and possessing extremely lean muscles which bulged out of his shirt, a trait many believed in being a natural indication that he was naturally skilled in taijutsu, which is an ironic assumption indeed. In addition to his size, Yami was often categorized as “cute” by many of the females of his age, often subjecting him as a target of envy and jealousy from various males. Coupled with his average size, Yami’s notable features made him a very attractive teenager; he possessed fair skin and bright, green eyes which shone like emeralds in the sun. His face was perfect, every feature being shaped in the correct manner and placed in the perfect place, as if his face was chiseled by the best artist. Even more impressive than his facial features was his shaggy, brown hair, a feature which everyone loved. His shaggy, brown hair was absolute astounding, evident by the fact that every strand were the same size and that they all flowed in the same direction. If one strand of hair was lying down, they all were laying down; it was so nice and extraordinary that Yami rarely had to do anything to keep it as it was.

Disregarding the praise he received about his appearance, Yami was still unsatisfied when being forced to wear the traditional Konoha shinobi outfit, considering the outfits as too plain, simply and ugly for his taste. As a result, Yami personally requested that his own outfit be designed. Because of this, his usual attire looked nothing like that of a shinobi outfit. During his childhood, Yami wore a black vest with white buttons over a white collared shirt with black buttons, to which he didn’t button the top portions of both pieces of cloth and then folded them backwards to resemble that of a V-Neck. Following this, he wore black pants which he tucked into large brown boots. Completing this outfit was a purple cloth which he tied around his waist, allowing it to hang downwards; which was followed a yellow belt which held his blade on his waist, along with black gloves as an additional accessory.

As he grew older and trained much for extensive periods of times, his appearance began to take a shift. His scrawny appearance turned into one that was muscular and as he grew older his face changed, developing more masculine features to accompany this masculine physique. Although this current appearance is much different from that of when he was younger Yami still is extremely pleased and proud of himself; thus, he is often referred to as the, though this may also be because he is indeed still a very handsome man. Perhaps the most noticeable trait/evidence of his complacency is the fact that he poses when attempting to impress someone, usually during his attempts to impress a lady; often showing off of his well defined muscular build, displaying his extreme masculinity regarding his appearance.

While as a child he was called cute, Yami is now referred to as handsome, if not outright stunning. This characterization is attributed to his features; who are so well defined that they seem as if they were created by God himself. Yami is a fairly tall male with fair skin. He has spiky, brown hair with two long pieces hanging from both sides of his face, resembling that of sideburns. He has blue eyes which resemble the same coloring as the ocean. His nose is perfectly shaped, pointed at the tip as if it's a sword. Yami interprets this shape as a symbol of his absolute power that he holds.

Never outgrowing this trait, Yami still has his own clothing tailored by the best tailor in the Land of Fire, because he absolutely loathes the Konoha uniform. However, Yami has adapted a more "responsible outfit" as opposed to wearing clothes for their style, despite the fact that they inhibited his movements; his clothes now allow him to move gracefully and access his techniques in a much smoother manner, due to their loose fit. Currently, Yami is normally seen in a purple, v-neck shirt which reveals his broad chest and the upper portion of his abdomen which are tucked into white, silky pants in which are then tucked into his blue boots which are used to protect his "precious" feet. Completing this unique outfit is a long, blue, short sleeved haori with the Nara clan symbol on the back and a white lining on the inside which reads "The Shinobi of the Shadows", along with black, fingerless gloves and a green bandanna. Contrary to what most believe, Yami assumed this appearance at the age of sixteen years old, which was over eight years ago, but his face hasn't changed or aged in the slightest, not even a single wrinkle has developed, which is because of his extensive treatment and care of his skin.

Personality
Essentially raised to believe that he was god, Yami is an extremely arrogant individual who possess little to no ability in congratulating or complimenting others on their skills because of his extreme case of complacency. His arrogance has affected how he battles, often underestimating opponents despite their reputation and how he presents himself, often requiring his outfits to be tailored by the best. Yami's arrogance is the most noticeable of his characteristics as a human being, but even more so is responsible for several other traits, which normally reveal this self-indulged pride that he holds for himself; a pride which has only increased as his powers grow stronger.

Stemming from his arrogant nature, Yami is a very flippant man who seemingly goes out of his own to anger or frustrate anyone else, casually mouthing off to even the strongest of foes, because he basically loves rubbing people the wrong way. While majority of the time this seems to just be a mean-move made by Yami, he has noted that he casually mouths off to his opponents to anger them and force them to make a mistake due to that anger, making it a strategic move as well which displays a bit of Yami's intelligence which is normally hidden behind his arrogant disposition. During his mission to guard the Daimyo as a child, Yami is never serious during that trip, though he states he could have been if he wanted to, and was never without a witty comment or comeback to his opponents.

Attributed to his pride-full attitude, Yami is also never seen fighting at his full potential, believing himself into being much stronger than his opponents, which occurs a large majority of the time. Yami is simply unflappable, never showing fear when things don't go his way, such as being ambushed by large groups of bandits and also Jonin-level shinobi. During his time in the Darkforce realm, his unflappable nature is actually what saved him, standing up the shadows who guarded the area. Even when battling for the lives of himself or others, Yami will still underestimate his opponent and hold back, simply to make the fight more interesting and longer; this trait revealing a bit of his child-like nature, as he was essentially without a transition stage between a child and a adult, thus he never ridden himself of these child-like habits such as joking around, playing tag and sleeping with his brown teddy bear, Brown-San.

In addition to these other traits stemming from his arrogant disposition, the nara is also a very proud and loyal person to himself, the nara clan, the noble clans of konoha, konohagakure and the land of fire, due to the fact that he believes they are the best in the entire shinobi world, being ranked in that specific order. Regarding himself, Yami would nearly do anything to preserve his goals and fulfill them in, even if it meant betraying or killing anyone; even little children, though this rarely occurs.

Yami loves the Nara Clan more than anything else, excluding himself though his love for his clan may rival that for himself, if not slightly a bit lower. As a result, Yami will do anything to help the Nara Clan reach the top of the food-chain as they are the sole reason he trained so hard a child. Even to those he doesn't know, Yami feels as if he has to protect every Nara, regardless of what they did or will do, even going as far as to threaten the Hokage after they tried to persecute a member of his clan. For the Nara Clan, Yami associates with criminal organizations, other lands and even other clans so that they can eventually reach the top of the world. Perhaps his most extreme testimony to his love for the Nara Clan is they mere fact that he purposely turned himself into a shadow so that he could ensure that they became the true rulers of the world.

Following behind the Nara are the other noble clans of Konoha: Akimichi, Sarutobi, and Yamanaka. While they aren't as important to Yami as the nara are, he still believes that they are very important clans, attributed to the relationship that their clans share with one another. Yami commented that once the world was dominated, these nobles clans were serve as the nara's second in command, with their leaders becoming the leaders of certain portions of the world. According to himself, there is only one thing he wouldn't sacrifice for these clans, and that being the nara clan themselves.

Ambition
"World Domination? Well sorta. It's just simply that I want to be the best, at the top of the world and I want certain people to follow under me; the Nara Clan, the other noble clans of Konoha, then Konoha, and finally the land of fire itself. Eventually, this world will fall into darkness and I will rise and protect everyone everyone from themselves. Then i'll forcefully unite the world through political power and military power and then.....everyone will be the same village. No more fighting. However that peaceful part comes a bit later, after I rise to the top of the world. Little do these people know, that they're making my life so much easier right now."

Even as a child, Yami was told that he was the best and that he would be the greatest shinobi to ever live. This mentally affected him as a child, to an enormous degree. Yami truly has taken this statement to heart and has developed his entire goal around being the best. Inevitably, the truth of the matter is that Yami believes that because he is the best that he should have utter control over the entire shinobi world, as they need the best leader to control them and to truly rule them. So that they can escape the current dark age that the Fourth Shinobi World War has left them in, to preserve the world that is worthy enough of his presence. With this, Yami has a three step plan which he will use to achieve this goal. As of currently, he has achieved the first step.

The first step to his plan was to officially take over the Daimyo's position, which he has accomplished. This grants him access to one of the strongest villages in the entire shinobi world, Konohagakure, along with several other smaller villages that reside in the Land of Fire. With his military power and economic prowess, Yami began conquering other lands to gather more military, political and economic prowess. This essentially starts an arms race against other lands, as they now feel the need to further increase their military prowess and expand, even lands without the money to do so. When they try to do so, they'll ultimately go bankrupt.

The second step after he has bankrupted other lands, Yami will sit back and watch the country destroy itself out of lack of money, food, and supplies to take care of its civilians, without allowing anyone to enter his lands. This will leave their world in shambles, forcing people to fight and kill eachother. This gradually weakens the emotional status of their country and destroys any sense of nationalism held by the civilians. Following this, he will open up the gates to the Land of Fire and allow people to enter. This will increase his economic, military, and political power of the people. Using these resources he will capture the Tailed Beast with these people and use them to establish more power.

The last and final step he has it to use the Tailed Beast and his resources to destroy anyone outside of his empire. This eliminates all opposition and truly allows him to rule uncontested. He will destroy the world itself and then use his powers and resources to build the world back up again, in his image. He will be the sole ruler, then the Nara Clan will be the government, then the noble clans of Konoha will be the leaders of certain sections of the world.