Shades

Shades (シェイド, Shēdo) are sentient chakra-based lifeforms that are generated from significant concentrations of mental anguish corrupting the natural environment. Shades have the unique ability to adopt the biological design of other living creatures in order to interact with the material world. Shades that have claimed a physical form are referred to as Yūgure (夕暮れ, Literally meaning: "Dusk") and are nearly identical to the creature whose form they mimicked. The existence of Shades and Yūgure is all but completely unknown in the shinobi continent, though there has been a recent resurgence of these lifeforms in the past decade. Yūgure, and in particular human form Yūgure, have been enemies of the Mystics for countless generations.

There have been rumors that Shades can be sealed within people in the same manner as tailed beasts, though this have never been officially confirmed. The rumors state that such beings have the craving for physical energy just like Shades.

Origin of Shades
While the method in which Shades initially came into being is highly disputed, they are most most commonly associated with locations that have staged massacres and/or battlefields. In such locations powerful emotions at the point of death of several people appears to merge with, and corrupt, the natural energy in the aforementioned area. This corruption process can take anywhere between a month to several decades, making the appearance of Shades quite sporadic. At some point after the corruption has developed far enough the corrupted energy, which resembles a form of chakra at this point, will attach itself to a nearby inanimate physical object. This chakra, which is highly imbalanced in favor of spiritual energy, desperately craves a physical energy in order to cure this instability. Unfortunately, due to the fact that Shades are bound to an object they are unable to roam and acquire the balance they desire under most circumstances. The inability of Shades to actively claim physical energy serves as the motivation for their advancement to Yūgure. It should be noted that they destruction of the item that a Shade has attached to will destroy the Shade as well.

Yūgure
Unable to actively collect physical energy, which would be acquired through direct absorption from living creatures, Shades developed the ability at some point to mimic the physical template from the living creatures they usually drained. This process requires that the Shade come in contact with the DNA of the living creature. This process can be troublesome as only an undamaged source of DNA can be utilized for this conversion process. If the Shade is able to come in contact with the necessary genetic source it will use a majority of its chakra in order to facilitate the generation of a physical form. This "body" will not be identical to creature from which the genetic source was derived, though physical similarities are not uncommon. This is primarily due to the inability of the Shade to perfectly express specific physical features encoded in the DNA, and instead focusing on the form itself. Once a Shade has created this form the remaining chakra merges with the body, and thus becomes a complete life form. Upon merging the creature is referred to as a Yūgure and is able to interact with the environment in the same fashion as its genetic source.

It should be noted that directly after the conversion Yūgure are vulnerable due to the exhaustive process. Furthermore, the stage of the creatures lifestyle that the Yūgure initially takes appears to be random.

Traits
Yūgure are known to possess a number of common traits that set them apart from other creatures, though they share many commonalities with regular life forms too.


 * Yūgure have the mental capacity that is similar to that of their genetic source. Therefore, a Yūgure derived from a dog, for example, wont display intelligence beyond its station. Despite this the physical abilities of Yūgure are usually beyond that of their genetic source. Furthermore, non-human Yūgure occasionally display giantism.


 * While Yūgure obtain a majority of their energy in the same manner as their genetic source they naturally crave physical energy and often obtain it by draining it in the form of chakra from living creatures. As humans traditionally have the greatest chakra reserves they are often targeted in the process. While being drained of chakra by a Yūgure isn't inherently fatal, a starved Yūgure will often kill their victims. This is most commonly seen with human form Yūgure who attempt to resist their urges until they become overwhelming. Hybrid Yūgure can resist this craving much easier if they aren't under a state of emotional distress.


 * Yūgure are able to reproduce in the same fashion as the source of their genetic information creating Yūgure hybrids. As such a human form Yūgure could reproduce with a normal human. It should be noted that human form Yūgure and Yūgure hybrids are more emotionally driven than normal humans. While this trait can be controlled in the same manner that humans keep their emotions in check, it such drive is merely more prominent in Yūgure.


 * Unlike other life forms Yūgure do not possess a chakra network and instead their chakra collects around the spinal column and bodily organs. Due to this difference non-hybrid Yūgure cannot utilize chakra in the same manner as shinobi, and instead have developed their own methods of manipulating chakra. Hybrid Yūgure possess a combination of two chakra systems and may be able to manipulate chakra in multiple fashions. Furthermore, Yūgure have a natural affinity for a single elemental nature, though the elements are not identical to those used by shinobi.


 * Yūgure age just as all lifeforms, though the rate seems to be much slower than the species they emulate. As such human for Yūgure can live upwards near two hundred years, but also develop slower. This trait is only present non-hybrid Yūgure.


 * Yūgure and Yūgure hybrids cannot possess kekkei genkai, regardless of their genetic lineage.

Yūgure skills
Yūgure skills are unique abilities that utilize the chakra sytstem found in Yūgure and Yūgure hybrids. As such these skills cannot be utilized by non-Yūgure. These skills show attributes that are synonymous to shape and nature transformation, with the latter using a element system different than that of shinobi. Yūgure can only possess a single elemental affinity which is determined at either birth or conversion from a Shade. Yūgure hybrids can possess a second element, but this is normal chakra nature as seen in shinobi and is molded via the chakra network.

Yūgure Elements
Yūgure elemental skills are divided into five elements, though only three of these elements have direct cognates with the shinobi elements. Though they behave similarly in terms of surpassing one another in a cyclical manner. Additionally, the elements are said to have three levels of mastery though only the two first levels (Manipulation and Generation) have been officially recorded.
 * Fire


 * Water


 * Earth


 * Wood


 * Metal

Other Skills
Yūgure have be noted to possess illusory abilities similar to genjutsu, but this seems to be a highly advanced ability and has been rarely encountered.

Trivia

 * The five elements used by Yūgure are that of the Wu Xing, which is found in Chinese Philosophy.


 * Shades (シェイド, Shēdo) being rendered with katakana is a deliberate attempt to introduce Shades as considerably foreign to the shinobi world.