Hotaru Miyagi

Hotaru Miyagi (Miyagi Hotaru, 宮城ホタル) is one of the youngest members of The Brotherhood and a legendary puppeteer from Iwagakure. Miyagi defected from his village after an irreconcilable argument with his comrades over his increasingly renegade methods and his own ambitions to further his powers without having to answer anybody. Thus as a 19 year old, he left the village and was recruited by the Brotherhood, where his skills helped the organisation boost its combined power. Being an active part of the criminal group for the next six years, Hotaru grew very powerful, with puppetry skills matching the infamous Sasori of the Red Sands at the same time, despite being much younger than the Suna nin. Under the Brotherhood, Hotaru devoted his loyalty and efforts to aiding in the group's main objective, to restore an ancient deity like figure named Senso, to the world of the living—a reward for the finances and aid the Brotherhood provided onto him as he pursued his high tech puppetry. His extensive skill set which was incorporated in his one of a kind, wild puppetry granted the Brotherhood immense firepower and intimidation factor to match until they were taken out by a subgroup dispatched to eliminate them, by the Allied Shinobi Forces.

During this vicious encounter, a majority of the Brotherhood were eliminated in the Goliath battles which culminated in the newly revived Senso being defeated by the Allied Forces' special squad; and Hotaru was captured after losing a narrow battle with a member of that team and his own former ally. Hotaru remained jailed for the next nine years before being broken out by Masa Nakamura, who intended to reform the Brotherhood alongside Hotaru to build a vast underground syndicate bolstered by powerful shinobi while also intending to build a force powerful enough to plague the mutual enemy of both men. As the years passed this new faction of the Brotherhood grew strong and wealthy again under the leadership of both these villains, as they began terrorising the Great Nations again, this time from underground. Hotaru's strategic and tactical nous spearheaded the Brotherhood's fearsome antics as even the famed group that had stopped them the first time around now, we're not able to do so any longer.

As the Shinobi Nations struggled on against the criminals for the next ten years, the Brotherhood and Hotaru's fall began following the sudden and unexpected death of Masa Nakamura at the hands of two Konohagakure shinobi. This directly led to a massive information breach as the Brotherhood imploded upon itself, as Hotaru attempted to flee into hiding once more, or risk getting captured a second time. The Allied Nations sent Shin Hayata and Juro Uchiha after him, a duo of very highly rated Jōnin who were both pupil and son respectively of one of Hotaru's greatest enemies, part of the team that had defeated the first Brotherhood; Juro Uchiha being one of the duo to have killed Masa Nakamura as well. In this violent battle, Hotaru's own age and atrophied skill led to his defeat despite outclassing the younger duo several times; as Hotaru lost his entire left leg while also damaging his spine, ending up paraplegic for the rest of his life—before being sent to the Blood Prison; while also being forced to accept his defeat indirectly from the same man who dealt it the first time around. His beloved puppets would be sealed into a heavily guarded vault on the very edge of the Land of Whirpools, far from his influence, and protected so that they would never be used to wreak havoc on the world again.

Early Life
Hotaru Miyagi was the sixth son in a family of puppet makers in an the village of Iwagakure. While not renowned for their combat ability or any particular traits that enabled them to wear the crest of Iwagakure with pride; the small Miyagi Clan boasted incredible skill in the art of crafting furniture and puppets — their village business ensuring that the family ended up being fairly wealthy. Young Hotaru proved to be very adept at his family's craft at even a young age: building his first puppets at just the age of 3. The pride of both his grandfather and father, Hotaru's talents also did not go unnoticed by the village. His talents gained the attention of the former puppet technique wielder and Second Shinobi War veteran, Tenome Ueda, who saw the boy's potential to revive the now dead art of Puppet Techniques in Iwagakure.

While not particularly skilled himself, Ueda possessed a wealth of experience and knowledge that he passed on to the young Hotaru, acting as the child's master and guide. While the Miyagi clan wished for their son to inherit their businesses and work with them, they could not refuse Ueda's tutelage as it had been part of Iwagakure's strategy to develop talents in their ranks; an important mission seeing as the Shinobi World was gradually veering into the jaws of war. Through his master, Hotaru learned of the great puppets in the world, of the famed Sasori of Sunagakure and of the legendary Monzaemon Chikamatsu. Sharpening Hotaru's intellect and helping him develop combat oriented puppets, Ueda soon discovered that Hotaru possessed the Fire Release and Water Release, assets that indicated he would be very useful to Iwagakure as a soldier. Iwagakure took notice of these latent abilities, driving a wedge between Hotaru and his own family's intentions to moulding him into a powerful shinobi.

Due to the fawning over he received from both Ueda and Iwagakure's military big shots, Hotaru's own ego began to rise exponentially. He believed (justifiably) that his own power was too special to be wasted tending to his family's businesses, setting his sights on surpassing both Sasori of the Red Sands and Monzaemon Chikamatsu as a puppet master. As he enrolled into Iwagakure's Ninja Academy, Hotaru completed the construction of his first ever puppet Buruburu— a fully armed and battle ready combat puppet. The hardships of shinobi life seemed to be wasted on the well equipped and increasingly arrogant Hotaru Miyagi, who inherited a wealth of knowledge from Iwagakure's harsh imstructors; becoming exceptional at Bukijutsu and demonstrating good skill in Taijutsu. He was able to reconstruct, repair an modify puppets at an accelerated rate, inheriting his master's proclivity for restoration.

Hotaru was mounded into a rare breed of puppeteer, one in the vein of Monzaemon Chikamatsu. One who combined Taijutsu with Puppet Techniques, to create a new demon. He cleared the Academy, became a Genin and was promoted to Chūnin in the space of one year, as his puppetry was a rare skill for most others to prepare against, let alone contend with. By the time he was promoted to Chūnin, Hotaru had already created his first two master puppets: Buruburu and Akaname. When carrying out his duties as a Chūnin, Hotaru Miyagi was only 9 years old.

In other words, he was 9 years of age when he was thrust into the Third Shinobi War.

The first stages of the war saw Hotaru's deployment and involvement; the first Miyagi to represent Iwagakure as a full fledged shinobi alongside his master, Tenome Ueda. He proved that rank was a poor indicator of true ability, as his very first opponent was a Jōnin from Konohagakure. Hotaru's keen instincts and precise puppetry overwhelmed his unfortunate enemy rather quickly; decapitating the Jōnin in little over five minutes. His strength lay in his chilling determination to announce his arrival as the world's next great puppeteer. While his battalion eventually was outnumbered and their leader slain, Hotaru carried the burden of unfavourable odds by becoming his people's beacon. He tore through groups of shinobi singlehandedly, armed with a kunai in his mouth and his two deadly puppets swirling around him. Konoha had not been prepared for a puppeteer like this, who combined precise puppetry with brutally effective Taijutsu. The day ended with a very unlikely Iwagakure victory and a very unlikely hero.

He would earn the epithet of "Leech of the Strings" on that day, as Ueda proudly witnessed firsthand the monstrous genius he had helped create. The incessant praise drove Hotaru mad with arrogance, as he sought to further promote his might by slaughtering more enemies on the front lines in order to establish himself as a war hero. And that was exactly what he did. Hotaru helped foil two Konoha sieges on strategic Iwagakure outposts, tearing through his fellow Konoha Chūnin with malignant fury. His puppets possessed monstrous weapons that savagely mutilated his enemies and Hotaru never relented until he had killed every last enemy standing in front of him. This trend repeated itself many times even though Konoha gradually imposed their numerical advantage and their greater skill on Iwagakure. Now, Hotaru's role as a puppeteer was especially important; serving as a heroic rearguard to cover his allies' escape while mowing down as many enemies as he could. Much to his disdain, Hotaru's presence on the battlefield seemed to exert less throat burning influence as it had dozens of battles ago.

Hotaru's own might did not spare him from the true strength of the monsters that roamed the world. In his seventeenth engagement of the Third Shinobi War, the young child's brash notion of himself and aggressive fighting technique opened up a crucial gap in his defence. It was a forest, one where a puppeteer could be at an advantage, but Hotaru still faltered. A lone shinobi not much older than him, broke in between his puppets. A kunai was plunged into Hotaru's back, being pulled upwards towards his neck. As he collapsed onto the ground screaming and jerking violently, he saw another new character emerge from the dark forest. Blonde mane of hair and bizarrely shaped kunai. This character drove straight through the nearby Tenome Ueda, decapitating him in one swoop.

When Hotaru awakened, the Third Shinobi War had ended, he found himself on an infirmary bed. He was the lone survivor of his famed battalion and he had notched a personal tally of 59 kills. The Leech of the Strings was now lauded as a war hero, his scars on back of his neck tattooing Iwagakure's gratitude. As a mark of his gratitude, the Kage granted Hotaru the title of Jōnin, placing him under a division that would work closely with the ANBU Black Ops of Iwagakure. Though he had earned the pride of his family after his exploits, Hotaru finally felt grief. He had grown attached more to Ueda Tenome than his own parents — and the loss of the respected puppeteer left Hotaru at a loss. He set to work creating his next master puppet, one with exceptional offensive ability. One he named after his deceased master — Tenome. His dream to become a puppeteer without equal only burned brighter after news of Sasori of the Red Sand's exploits reached him. Exploits which beat his own remarkable tallies and battles. Hotaru vowed that he would surpass Sasori in ten years, no matter what he had to sacrifice.

Master of the Puppets
At the age of fifteen, Hotaru was deemed to finally be worthy to lead his own special squad in Iwagakure. While his power had never been in doubt, the powers in the village had deemed his temperament to finally be suited for greater responsibility. He was placed in charge of the new Puppet Brigade of Iwagakure, charged with performing the same role as Tenome Ueda had: the recruitment and training of future prodigies to serve as assets in battle. Hotaru was extremely selective of his students, beginning to believe that his own repertoire as a great puppeteer would be determined in a way by the apprentices he churned out. At this time, he also had been using his considerable resources to obtain the finest substances to improve on the durability of his puppets and their weapons.

Tenome, Buruburu and Akaname had become symbols of Hotaru's superior craft. They were stylish, space efficient in terms of weaponry and highly flexible; but he had already made several other modifications to his. Fifteen year old Hotaru was already more respected than most puppet crafters ever were at their peak, but his own expectations and ego drove him to desire more. As he churned out a fair share of talented apprentices while also crafting a name for himself as a monster shinobi in battle, Hotaru longed for the post of Jōnin Commander, as he viewed the current holder of the position to be a vastly inferior and incompetent individual. As numerous assassination attempts piled up and failed, Hotaru's lofty impression of himself grew. He slaughtered enemies of his leaders to help them consolidate their positions, all in order to enhance his own stock. But the inevitable feeling dawned upon him that he was surrounded by fools who had no ambition, as he felt like his goal of overtaking Sasori was undeniably childish and lacking true value.

Four more years passed. Hotaru had grown even stronger, already considered to be an elite above literally every Jōnin in his village. Some said the point where he could kill the Tsuchikage alone would soon be at hand. But when he wasn't punishing his body with gruelling strength regimes, Hotaru relied on his good looks to womanise and drink himself into a stupor. His filthy habits were regarded as unbecoming of a soldier by many of his superior officers, who felt like the Kage was favouring and tolerating his bad behaviour due to his undisputed power. It felt like a waste of all the glowering praise that had been heaped unto him ever since the Third War, to the eyes of many. Gradually the child hero had grown to become a rowdy teenager to most of the village, but his ambitions to grow stronger had only intensified as well. While his puppetry was at a level most would consider to be mastery, Hotaru was dismayed by the very human limitations to his techniques, seeking to engage in bodily modification to not only increase the number of puppets he could control, but tweak his reflexes to minimise the openings which his more skilful opponents could exploit.

Having no contacts or experience to pursue these kinds of research, Hotaru instead took to the research divisions of Iwagakure, attempting to obtain information and individuals who would help him achieve his ambitions. Blinded by his eagerness for more power, he proposed additional experimentation on their prisoners which led to him being promptly rejected by the division higher ups. Aware he had pushed his luck with his suggestion, Hotaru backed down and resumed his ordinary activities, killing enemies while training himself and others — seemingly for the sake of the village but really just to move up the ladder to achieve his ambitions. Unfortunately, the Elders of the village were well aware of Hotaru's crude behaviour and the latest suggestion of experimentation on prisoners was a cruel thought that even the Tsuchikage could no longer ignore. Unknown to them however, Hotaru had already started looking into Kinjutsu, particularly into the forbidden art of Human Puppetry, an art which utilised the power of corpses as they lived, leading to highly effective tools in combat.

Eventually, alcohol and superiority complex gelled to bring the worst out of Hotaru. In a drunken stupor he became embroiled in a spat with one of his fellow Jōnin,, who happened to be a close friend of the Jōnin Commander himself. The war of words culminated with Hotaru smashing a bottle of sake into the man's eyes, blinding him in one eye. His exploits led to him being brought before the Jōnin Commander the very next day, who managed to provoke Hotaru's anger at the threat of court martial. After a furious exchange of words Hotaru stormed off, daring the powers in place to attempt apprehending him. This display of very public arrogance turned his superiors completely against him, with prominent soldiers and elders demanding that the Tsuchikage throw him in a prison for his obvious contempt. Still, Onoki attempted to withhold a punishment on the Leech of the Strings, who still had his supporters.

In the meantime, Hotaru had already seen how vast sections of the populace of Iwagakure had started to regard him with distaste, and how so many of them had called for his head. His anger continued to grow as these calls grew louder, believing that his own brethren had forgotten of his deeds and had begun to dislike him because they could never match his power and skill. His family began to distance themselves from him, as his vulgar actions and lack of conjecture would inevitably jeopardise their business if they associated themselves with him. Ostracised and shunned, Hotaru felt Ueda's absence even more. Over the course of the year, sentiments intensified and his behaviour only worsened. Even worse, he began harbouring ambitions to steal the village's legendary Kinjutsu in an attempt to spit on his village while obtaining a source of destructive power as well. The straw that broke the camel's back came in the form of Hotaru's much disliked Jōnin Commander, who labelled his Tenome puppet as 'inferior to true ninjutsu'. Hotaru insulted his character and ability, calling him a weak man whose only claim to his post was through "exquisite ass licking". This was enough to goad the man, buoyed by the support of the Elders, to charge at the very willing Hotaru.

Hotaru easily proved the disparity between the two. In a match very much in the public eye, he reminded Iwagakure why he was a war hero and just how far he had come since then. He was now a monster inhibited by an ungrateful village. His puppets whizzed through the Commander's sluggish Earth Release, arsenal of weapons drawing the middle aged man where young Hotaru wanted him. With his chakra threads, Hotaru immobilised the man, slamming him to the ground. Approaching a pile of animal excrement, Hotaru pressed his foot generously into the stinking pile, shifting the same foot into the bound man's face. The Jōnin Commander screamed in humiliation as Hotaru laughed loudly, stomping his foot as the man's face turned to a mixture of brown excrement and blood. Pulled away by fellow Jōnin, the two men were wrestled away for their public indecency and to prevent further escalation. Hotaru screamed profanities, cursing the village for their lack of appreciation for true heroes, while lauding wasted beings like the Jōnin Commander. He wrestled his way away past those restraining him, bounding towards his home, his foul air laid bare for all to behold.

When other Jōnin arrived at his home to take him to the Tsuchikage in an hour, they discovered an empty, messy home. Hotaru had made up his mind to leave months prior and he had always just waited for the right chance. Finally moved to action by Hotaru Miyagi's last act of betrayal, the Tsuchikage dispatched an ANBU squadron to drag Hotaru back to Iwagakure and stand trial as a deserter. The squadron did catch up to him, as their elite tracking abilities and top notch skill allowed them that privilege. However, special ops training and superior abilities alone still could not match the once in a generation might of Hotaru Miyagi, the Leech of the Strings, the one destined to be the Master of Puppets. They fought with passion and showcased their great might, but they could not match Hotaru's speed. Or his brutality. Or the strength of his creations. He was like a blacksmith who had crafted the ultimate weapon, but who was also the ultimate warrior it was designed for. Hotaru tore through flesh and bone, his poison shutting down body systems and his ingenuity outwitting the well practiced ANBU team routines and combination ninjutsu.

The extent of his mercy towards his former village was not killing anyone in its grounds. That mercy had exhausted itself when they decided to come after him. Hotaru now knew he was too great to be forced to be their dog, let alone play the role. The worthless and talented ninja of Iwagakure stood only as obstacles to his goals of achieving the pinnacles of power and reaching the heights of puppetry. He was cursed with ambition, but what he did not know at that time was that many had taken note of his vast abilities. And some had taken more interest than others. Having known of the various criminal syndicates that plagued Iwagakure's borders, he intended to render his services to at least one, in order to gradually make his way towards powers that could help him achieve his dreams of experimentation.

Personality
Having grown up as the centre of attention and having the abilities to justify the praise, Hotaru has grown arrogant and conceited. He does not respect his enemies unless they give him reason to and his approach to fights involves belittling and humiliating his opponents as far as possible. Hotaru places great faith in his considerable arsenal of techniques and weapons, refusing to acknowledge an opponent's own power until they truly bring the fight to him and force him to give ground. His "holier than thou" nature extends to his day to day interactions: Hotaru's head is eternally tilted upwards, refusing to meet the gaze of most in the eye. His self adoration is not limited to pontification of his abilities and knowledge—they extend to his looks as well. Hotaru genuinely believes himself to be the most beautiful being to exist, therefore utilising his attractive features to mercilessly toy with the hearts of women and men alike.

Despite his vain demeanour, Hotaru has worked hard to reach the level he finds himself at. He is a believer in punishing, hard work and effort and scorns at individuals who do not push themselves beyond all limits. To Hotaru, excellence isn't a birthright. It is the product of never ending labour. An opponent who cannot best him yet still makes every effort to try may indeed win a measure of respect in Hotaru's eye; as the spirit of human endeavour is one Hotaru secretly adores and admires. Even in his childhood, the master puppeteer was taught by his parents and teacher to never give less than 100% in any endeavour — leading in him breaking beyond all expectations from a very early age, from his first puppet creation at the age of 3 to his incredible exploits in the Third Shinobi War to his rapid ascent up the ranks of the exceptionally talented Brotherhood. After more than twenty years of hard, back breaking endeavour, Hotaru considered himself to be the greatest puppeteer known to man at the age of 23.

Despite showing infamously jaw dropping prowess in combat, Hotaru prefers to explore the art of puppetry more than he enjoys fighting. It would be a lie to state that he does not obtain enjoyment from a challenging battle, but his true calling as always been to make masterpieces in the field of puppetry. Hotaru idolised puppeteers like Sasori and Monzaemon Chikamatsu from the days of his early childhood, seeking to emulate and eventually surpass their achievements in puppetry. He expressed great love in tinkering with his puppets, obsessing over the materials that went into their construction, their artistic appeal and their functionality as works of art as well as weapons. His meticulous nature may have fuelled his obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), leading to bizarre rituals as he fiddles with his tools and puppets in certain 'patterns'. His passion in art has led to him being exceptionally well versed in all forms of art, not limited to puppet techniques.

A trait that his enemies and allies alike have associated with Hotaru Miyagi is sheer, uncompromising courage. Hotaru was an effective and determined rear guard as a child during the Third Shinobi War. The fear of death was something he could suppress very well during his quest for greatness, and several times he had taken on the fiercest of enemies without falling prey to their psychological advantage. His audacity held him in great stead when it came to questioning dubious orders, or challenging the ideas of powerful figures. Courage was what spurred his election to the upper ranks of the Brotherhood by Katsuro Minoru. Hotaru's value to strategic planning was immeasurable, as he could provide his honest, unfiltered opinions without quaking in terror to even the most merciless of his superiors.

Confidence goes hand in hand with courage, and Hotaru is filled to the brim with trust in himself. He had believed that he would be the greatest puppeteer to ever walk the world and according to many, he definitely is. Densetsu Uchiha claimed that no puppeteer alive had reached the overwhelming power and fearsome variety of techniques that Hotaru had. His cocky and outlandish nature also helped him in his more lustful ventures. Hotaru was most confident in his ability to toy itch people and use their bodies for his satisfaction. A foul man where the morals of relationships are concerned, Hotaru ate like a king, whored like a godless man and drank to his heart's content. His foul habits were what contributed to his downfall as Iwagakure's brightest puppeteer and ended up feeding multiple unhealthy habits in his later life — that left him with a damaged liver.

Hotaru's speech is riddled with obscene language and hate. He does not care enough to hold back in day to day communication and does not view age as a force for respect. He notoriously labelled the former Tsuchikage Onoki to be a "castrated, misshapen mutt" in a public meeting before defecting from his village. He was known to verbally abuse and taunt his opponents in combat, never sparing family members from his violent verbal tirades. Hotaru always conveyed his core beliefs: respect wasn't something given to anyone under the sun, it had to be earned. And he had to see it being earned to give it. It is said that the only two men who completely won Hotaru's respect were his first master Ueda Tenome and the leader of the Brotherhood, Katsuro Minoru. These individuals not only demonstrated their knowledge or power to Hotaru, but showed that they were leaders who were worth following—meaning Hotaru took an uncharacteristically polite tone in front of them, as a mark of appreciation. Hotaru however was quite attached to several other members of the Brotherhood as well, considering them to be his valued comrades. A notable example was in the second coming of the Brotherhood, where Masa Nakamura proved to be a worthy ally in his eyes.

Loyalty is a gift that Hotaru guards tightly. Throughout his life, he has been extremely wary of swearing his allegiance to unworthy individuals. Earning Hotaru's loyalty is a sign of a goal beyond all the trivial nonsense of the Shinobi World. When promised the funding and expertise to further his puppetry by Katsuro Minoru, the man won Hotaru's hand as an enforcer, but when Minoru elaborated the Brotherhood's plan to revolutionise the entire world by reviving Sensō, the promise of creating a better world ruled by its strongest inhabitants appealed to Hotaru's own beliefs—making him a staunch believer in the goals of the Brotherhood. His unwavering loyalty ironically blinded him to the fact that Katsuro wasn't being totally honest to most of the Brotherhood's members. The next man to win Hotaru's trust was Masa Nakamura, who convinced a severely injured and defeated Hotaru to fight alongside him and unleash chaos onto the world so that it would be born anew — a world of order out of disaster.

Hotaru's ambitions were driven by his unexplained hatred towards the common man. He genuinely disliked democracy, believing that too many unqualified individuals earned a right to vote — meaning that the votes of fools could doom countries to failure, should the fools be swayed by rhetoric. He held the belief that the world should be governed by the strongest, that those who were not strong were condemned to follow. His experiences in Iwagakure contributed greatly to this mindset: disliking his family who had no talent in ninjutsu, disliking his superiors who were clearly less able than he was. It was these hateful beliefs that also drove him to lust after power so voraciously, as he was dogged by the ever present fear that he would become just like the rabble he so rabidly despised, someday. Eventually after his second crushing defeat, his lifetime of hatred and anger got to him — Hotaru descended into a type of madness after being rendered paraplegic, unable to believe that he would never be able to wield his powers again and that he had become the very swine he so despised.

Appearance
While not particularly attractive as a child and of a particularly scrawny constitution, Hotaru was one of those who experienced the mercy of puberty. His gawky features settled in place, complementing his growth spurt. Hotaru's newfound image was that of an extremely handsome young man, a long and narrow nose with a sharp and thin chin. His jawline is chiselled and sharp, tracing a smooth line to his ears. His emerald eyes lie deep in sockets which are shielded by a strong albeit thin brow line; giving Hotaru a cruel and unfeeling look, not too different from what he truly feels.

In an initial boastful stunt, Hotaru decided to add a new piercing to his ear for every ten enemies he managed to kill. He lost count after the fifth ear stud. Like his father before him, Hotaru had bright blonde hair, which he grew out to the length of his neck; spouting what he not so humbly christened to be a lion's mane. A reminder of the Third Shinobi War is etched onto the back of his neck, harkening back to the day that he lost his first great mentor and friend — this ghastly scar is deep to the touch and serves as a reminder to Hotaru to strive to reach a level where no opponent would ever add such a mark to his body again. His brutal conditioning routines just prior to leaving his village left his once thin body very well muscled and sleek, a constitution few puppeteers could brag off. His spine had been heavily modified by the resident medical expert in the Brotherhood, spouting numerous tiny sockets that he could use to attach additional puppet arms — in a bid to control more puppets than humanly possible.

Tall and athletic, Hotaru was every bit as lavish as he was fit. He dressed in expensive robes when not in combat, with equally fancy embroidery woven into them. He wore comfortable silk clothing and pampered himself with jewellery (which he gifted to partners who made his nights best of all). In combat, Hotaru dressed in simple gear: a red singlet and combat longs with many different utility belts strapped to his torso and legs. Belts which contained numerous scrolls, each containing puppets and ninja tools. Tattoos on his forearms contained swords and perhaps the most crucial tools — poison antidotes. He was also fond of a red jacket and black undershirt which he would often don when on completely casual days. Hotaru also possesses a cutlass slung by his side whether in battle or not: assurance and proof of his wide ranging abilities in battle. Leather boots and gloving complement these attires.

However as age was kind to him in his early years, by the time he turned forty his legendary good looks had long since died. The years of alcohol and unhealthy habits left his face sunken, yet bloated at the same time. While still muscular, his body gained a larger and bulkier physique, making him look like a powerhouse instead of an agile athlete. His magnificent mane of blond hair quickly greyed after his tumultuous defeat, achieving a full grey load by the time he fought alongside Masa Nakamura in the second coming of the Brotherhood. A once clean shaven jawline was now obscured by a beard, while a silver moustache obstructed a pair of dried lips. His face was wrinkled and now sported small scars, as one defeat had led to others. His eyes had grown crueler and his smug expression was now changed — sporting a look of constant pain and irritation, as his alcohol damaged liver left him in a near constant state of agony. The painkillers he took also blanched his skin as an unforeseen side effect, leaving him pale and looking anaemic.

Abilities
As quite possibly the greatest puppeteer of his time, simply stating that Hotaru was an elite combatant would be doing him a disservice. Even as a child of 9, Hotaru's very presence on the battlefield had been crucial to saving many of his comrades during the course of the Third Shinobi War; heroic acts that had given birth to his own legend. In a distinguished yet infamous career spanning four decades, the veteran combatant had fought in two Shinobi Wars, three civil wars, a full fledged rebellion, thousands of skirmishes and had single handedly recorded a kill count of at least 743 individuals. His victims included fellow S-rank criminals or enforcement teams and countless Jōnin — Hotaru had also been granted the notorious epithet of "ANBU Collector" in his early years in the Brotherhood, where he had functioned as the sole weapon and defence against the prying eyes of special ops forces on the Brotherhood. Sasori of the Red Sands was also known to have acknowledged Hotaru as an artist of great pedigree.

What set Hotaru's combat style aside from other puppeteers was his highly kinetic style of puppet manipulation: his incredible skill with Taijutsu and Bukijutsu allowed him to overwhelm his enemies while they were already preoccupied with his puppets. The ultimate proof how how frighteningly powerful Hotaru was could be seen in the techniques employed by his puppets: incorporating Space-Time Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Barrier Ninjutsu, Kekkei Genkai and Fūinjutsu to handle different types of enemies. Hotaru has been praised by the notorious warlord Gangetsu Maeda as one of the most lethal individual assassins in the world even without his famous collection of puppets, indicating that he was a top tier killer without the aid of his greatest skillet. The S-rank mass murderer and ex Kumo ANBU vice commander Masa Nakamura also sincerely regarded Hotaru as one of the few individuals who could definitely kill him. Despite his many talents however, Hotaru was not without weakness.

According to Setsuna Yuki, his erratic and aggressive style of puppetry covered up a puppeteer's classic weaknesses, but it opened up several glaring ones that experienced enemies could exploit. Most notably, lone enemies with exceptional speed could make it past his puppets and easily overwhelm his guard if they were skilful enough — enemies of that caliber definitely did face Hotaru in his lifetime and make him pay. In later age, Hotaru would also lose his great speed and a degree of his dexterity—his cockiness preventing him from actually counterbalancing these weakness, which allowed Konoha's Shin Hayata to penetrate his defences and paralyse him permanently.

Puppet Techniques
Hailing from a village not known at all for puppetry, Hotaru owed his rich training to his family of craftsmen and the one surviving member of Iwagakure's disbanded Puppet Brigade — Ueda Tenome. Under specifically Tenome, Hotaru learned about the intricacies of crafting combat worthy puppets, the importance of choosing the right materials and the basics of actually combining craftsmanship with precise technique for maximum efficiency in battle. Hotaru was naturally adept at creative endeavours — creating his first puppet at the age of 3. He was ingenious when it came to building and modifying things, an ability which made him a natural when it came to crafting anything, specifically puppets.

Hotaru's great knowledge in minerals and substances allowed him to concoct alloys which greatly heightened the individual abilities of his puppets. He freely experimented with materials for specific weapons and armour, reinforced hinges and joints and thought up devious methods to set his puppets aside from many others before him. As such, Hotaru ended up becoming a master of space utilisation. His puppets could contain dozens to even hundreds of compartments at a time, holding everything from classic ninja tools such as shuriken, bolas, kunai and caltrops to highly sophisticated weapons such as explosive missiles and oil bombs. Every puppet Hotaru made had its own designated strengths, but they were expected to all be able to perform in any condition to a certain degree.

As he was an expert at breaking down, restoring, modifying and creating puppets, Hotaru could live up to his own expectations as a collector of puppets as well. He restored the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets after locating the site of Sasori of the Red Sand's last battle; while also salvaging the remnants of Sasori's puppets for future research. Hotaru's restoration of the Ten Puppets was fantastically faithful to the originals, but his analysis of them led to him developing his own legendary puppets — five mighty creations that allowed him to truly put his mark on the world of puppeteers. In fact, so great was his knowledge in puppetry that he could instantly locate the weak spots of others' puppets in combat — being a master artisan. It is for this reason that Hotaru Miyagi never saw defeat against any other puppeteer who had challenged him; meaning out of the hundred challengers he faced, not one prevailed.

Chakra Threads: Hotaru has extensively studied puppet masters from different countries and continents in an attempt to diversify his style and attack his enemies in ways they would not be able to expect. A particular method of combat that he took great interest in and mastered quickly was the art of using his puppet strings as weapons themselves. By utilising fire and channeling into his threads, Hotaru was able to grievously wound and incinerate his enemies, limiting their range of movement or distracting them just long enough to strike a fatal blow. The ranged nature of chakra strings also gave Hotaru a slew of tactical options: he often used his threads to latch on to his enemies weapons, drawing on these notoriously inconspicuous threads to alter the trajectory of his opponents' strikes to leave them vulnerable, or simply to defend himself. Much like manipulating puppets, Hotaru was also able to showcase his skill as a support to his allies, attaching chakra threads onto them on a moment's notice to save them from attacks they may not have seen coming. Indeed Hotaru's skill with his heads was so fearsome that he was feared by his enemies for sometimes ending fights without bringing out his puppets: killing some foes with nothing more than his chakra threads.

Classic Puppetry
The bread and butter of any self respecting ninja puppeteer emphasised precise control over puppets in order to provide a savage edge in combat — allowing ranged fighters to use these tools of death to fight in close proximity. Hotaru designed his puppet minions for the sole purpose of bringing as much pain and suffering onto his enemies as possible. He created grotesque creatures, unsightly puppets that were meant to intimidate and strike fear into enemy hearts. Hotaru's puppets had a distinct sanguine odour to them, evidence that they had slain many a shinobi in months and years passed. Possessing quite a number of his own puppets, Hotaru would usually save his best cards for the strongest opponents.

Most ninja he faced would only ever come up against Akaname, Buruburu and Tenome; three immaculately crafted but comparatively weak puppets compared to the powerhouses in his collection. The strength of this combination lies in the role each puppet plays against opponents, with Tenome playing the support role to Akaname and Buruburu's offensive might. In Tenome, Hotaru has experimented with Genjutsu extensively, utilising body parts stolen from other shinobi and his own creations to somewhat craft a pseudo human puppet. The Genjutsu while weak, have all been proven to be able to distract opponents long enough for them to be brought down by the hail of poisoned senbon from the other two puppets. Akaname's uses as a puppet to Hotaru also far exceeded its offensive missiles and projectiles, armed with recording devices which allow it to record details of enemy defences and attacks. Numerous times, this ability also allowed for Hotaru to analyse the enemies he failed to defeat: studying their abilities to find a way to work around them should they meet a second time.

Hotaru's three main puppets were also no pushovers in terms of defensive capability. Buruburu which was often considered to be his least armoured puppet, had been able to withstand one initial direct blow from Shin Hayata's notoriously powerful earth golem; although it was quickly destroyed upon the second hit. Akaname was also able to escape a battle against Iwagakure's Explosion Corps wit nothing more than its outer layer being melted off, despite taking three direct blows from the notoriously vicious group. The puppets were obviously impervious to small arms such as kunai, arrows and similar projectiles — while they were able to be penetrated if the aforementioned projectiles were infused with chakra, such as demonstrated by Masa Nakamura's Osoroshīken, which was imbued with Wind Release.

Five Master Puppets: Hotaru's most famous battles against his most powerful adversaries were often waged with his internationally feared 'master puppets', comprised of the Alpha, Nagare, Nakamoto, Satoshi and Omega puppets. In the puppet erring community their appearance has been known to signify Hotaru's magnum opus — the Ancient Puppet Dance. Their renown was so great that Konohagakure's ANBU Captain labelled them to be the Butcher's Blades, as these notorious puppets had been the last sight of many shinobi who had opposed Hotaru and his interests in battle. Unlike his first three puppets which do not boast immense defensive power, the Master Puppets are exceptionally resistant, representing the pinnacle of defensive sturdiness for a ninja tool. The main defensive utility of these puppets stem from the combination of the Shadow Realm Technique and the Shadow Realm Ejection Technique via the Alpha and Satoshi puppets, which rely on Space-Time ninjutsu to absorb and redirect attacks at opponents, a slight modification to the extremely basic Summoning Technique.

However these two abilities are only useful for frontal attacks, as the seals required for these techniques are located on the abdomens of the puppet. Blind spot attacks and large area of impact attacks such as the Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet have been known to be too wide to be absorbed — situations where the basic durability of the puppets really shine. Hotaru's efforts in mixing different metals and creating unique alloys has led to the five puppets being strong enough to withstand numerous famed techniques in battle. Alpha in particular had been struck twice at point blank range by the Rasengan before its armour finally caved in, while also being capable of tanking a direct hit from Lightning Impaler and withstanding the crushing power of Akuhei Iwao's Wood Release: Hotei Technique. Satoshi was also able to withstand the combined Fire Release of six shinobi at once, powering straight through the flames to strike the casters down. This almost supernatural resistance to certain ninjutsu can be explained by the use of the Silent Grave Robber Technique by one of the puppets, allowing a certain amount of chakra to siphoned out of the attack to Hotaru, removing the edge of some attacks to a degree.

Of course, when an attack is too large and concentrated with huge amounts of chakra, it is impossible to remove enough chakra to significantly dull the damage in any way, which makes Akaname's survival of the Hōtei Technique all the more incredible, given the technique's size and the caster's own potent and colossal chakra reserves. Brute force attacks are the speciality of these puppets — their layers are built to absorb and redistribute impact, allowing them to get in close proximity in hand to hand situations, absorbing a certain amount of damage to open up space for counter attacks by utilising a vast array of tools such as buzzsaws and automatic mechanisms to fire senbon. Satoshi's ability to fire thousands of explosive tags at one go is Hotaru's go to technique to crush a distracted enemy. The Nakamoto puppet also possesses the ability to manipulate sound, a technique popularised by Otogakure, sound waves which can easily disorient and physically harm human beings while the other puppets take advantage of the situation. This combination of different abilities, simple offensive power and defensive strength supplemented by chakra absorption techniques and superior aerodynamic design creates as terrifying obstacle for most enemies; be it groups of them or individuals.

Trivia

 * His character is modelled after Hotsuma Renjou.