Ryūken Senju

"You people, should learn how to shut up! No one stands on the top of the world. Not you, not me, not even gods. Trusting in someone is the same as depending on them. That is something the weak do. How do you weaklings manage to trust each others ability so much when you know you are destined to loose? Hmmm... shouting out your abilities in the presence of your foes is foolishness. I hereby offer you to give up. Now, that I know your abilities, you are nothing compared to me therefore give up or perish! So what will it be? Back out already duds, or I kill thee a thousand ways!"

(千手竜弦,Senju Ryūken) is one of the major characters in the history of Konohagakure, was a jōnin level shinobi from Konohagakure and a prominent member of the Senju Clan. He was a member of the Konoha forces that fought during the First Shinobi World War (第一次忍界大戦, Daiichiji Ninkai Taisen). After the Second Shinobi World war (第二次忍界大戦, Dainiji Ninkai Taisen) he disappeared from the Village along with another shinobi, namely Kiba Uchiha.

Ryūken went into hiding from the world and began living into shadows till the Fourth Shinobi World War (第四次忍界大戦, Daiyonji Ninkai Taisen). After coming to know about the whereabouts of Reikaigakure, Ryūken became furious and began his search for Kiba for some unknown reason.

Background
Ryūken Senju was born nearly in the same timeline as Kiba Uchiha, to a Senju couple in Konohagakure, and was their youngest son, with Ryuu Senju being the eldest. The two brothers like any other brothers would train together competing over who would be the strongest one, however the elder one, i.e, Ryuu would always be the victor of their spars. Ryūken was certainly not happy about the fact that his parents gave more importance to their first child and his elder brother, Ryuu. This unhappiness later manifests itself as sheer hatred for his own parents. As a child, he was idolized by others, seemingly a perfect ninja, owing to his skills. At the age of 9, Ryūken graduated from the Academy at the top of his class after only one and a half year, he mastered various jutsu's by the age of 10 and passed the Chūnin Exams at age of 13, he was shortly enrolled in ANBU in the near future and served them for a term of three and a half years before being promoted to Jōnin ranks officially, it was said that when he was 14 his capabilities greatly surpassed that of the ANBU captain and some Jōnin's themselves. However though being praised by all as the best of his generation, and a genius above all others. Even by the standards of the battle-adept clan the Senju Clan, Ryūken was not certainly happy. Ryūken secretly learned about the secrets of the relationship between the Uchiha Clan and Senju Clan, that in the past. Ryūken later ended up in an altercation with his father about the senseless killing of innocent children and the blood shed by the clan itself. Ryūken stated that a clan which itself has shed so much blood and slayed so many innocent people can never state that they have something called Will of Fire and referred the clan as a cursed clan. Ryūken also managed to figure out the Uchiha clan's greatest curse: the fact that they had a greater love than any other person which if lost would turn into bottomless feelings of despair awakening the Sharingan as a result. Ryūken further laid many researches about the two clans respectively and found out Uchiha Clan were actually the one who valued friendship over jutsu's which caused his anger to grow and develop slowly, and not to soon he became one of the sworn enemies of his own clan. Ryūken began to praise and follow Uchiha clan's curse of hatred. Though Curse of Hatred (憎しみの呪い, Nikushimi no Noroi), is an ideal of enmity that was said to have been passed down throughout the generations by the Uchiha clan's forefather to the members of his lineage. In spite of this he seemed to have posses it. When Ryūken was 17 he was promoted to Jōnin rank and soon was selected to be a member of the Konoha forces that fought during the First Shinobi World War (第一次忍界大戦, Daiichiji Ninkai Taisen). Ryūken has witnessed all the four great wars in past and this had greatly traumatized him and soon he turned a philanthropist, though for a short period of time. However his undying hatred for Kiba Uchiha caused him to abandon his so called "philanthropist like behavior". He began to hear of the prowess of a young Uchiha Teen who managed to survive the genocide of his clan by living in the high Alps of Yamagakure, in hearing of this teen he heard the stories and name that he began to build for himself as a Hunter of the Hidden Mountain village. After profiling his look based on the information gathered from other, he managed to track down the wily Uchihia, and challenged him to prove his title, and his so called given mantle to greatness being born into that clan. To which Raido obliged, and the two did battle.

Ryūken as a genin was originally teamed up with Kiba Uchiha and, the team was originally led by Mushira Aburame, the team did multiple missions, which they completed at relative ease since the trio was extremely talented. His genin team was often referred as an elite squadron owing to their team work and skills. Not much is known about Ryūken's life after this, except for the fact yet he was devoted to his village but he deserted it without any apparent difficulty. However, before leaving he killed his own parents, some ANBU black Ops and physically tortured his brother, at some point he refereed his acts as a parting gift to the clan and the village. It is widely believed that Ryūken has been growing his hatred for his own clan and his former rival Kiba Uchiha, though the reason for hating the later is unknown till date. Life was never for the young Senju, for he had to live in a terrible condition and he was forced to live most of his life under the Shadow of his prodigious father and brother who were said to be even more talented than he was.

Personality
Initially Ryūken was depicted as a highly intelligent, capable, kind and calm individual, who was never interested in personal gain, caring more about his family, friends and eventually the village. Who took proud on his lineage and wanted to emulate his brother. Ryūken like every brother was a very competitive and yet caring brother. However, the fact that his parents praised his elder brother caused him to feel jealous very often and not too soon the bitterness of jealously turned into sheer hatred for his own brother and later his parents. After finding out the truth about the history of Senju's and Uchiha's, Ryūken blamed the clan for shedding so much blood and killing so many innocent people, he also stated that Senju's are no longer need in future and even if they are - they have no future at all. To Ryūken senju's were evil and Uchiha's were friendly and peace loving. When he learned about the 'Curse of Hatred' and the 'Will of Fire' he denied the fact that Senju's carried something like that, however he was greatly influenced by Uchiha's curse which ultimately caused a drastic change in his personality.

At a very young age, Ryūken was told by his brother that his nick name, 'Kenmei' means "Wisdom," but that he was named Ryūken in hope that he would wisely protect those he loved, namely his mother and brother. He began attending a private coaching center for the sake of protecting them. Since then, the number of people he wishes to protect has continued to grow, causing Ryūken to risk his life to protect both the people close to him and complete strangers.

Uchiha's curse caused him to become cold, indifferent, cruel, cynical, somewhat arrogant, unreasonable and overconfident. For some-reason the Senju was eager to perfect everything and the he believed that using more powerful techniques more than once in a battle would be disgraceful. Ryūken is a complete atheist and doesn't believe in the existence of theories regarding hell and heaven. Ryūken insults his opponents with harsh and offensive words and makes them go all out on him, but when it comes to his turn to attack Ryūken believes in using a relatively weaker move which would cost him less amount of chakra but he utilized the low-taxing techniques with such proficiency that even high ranked techniques performed by elites shinobi's would fail to do any good against him.

He is also a serious fellow, always having his sights on his main mission. Ryūken has an undying hatred for Kiba and this hatred is so overwhelming that he felt disgusted when a shinobi mentioned Kiba's name, which caused him to kill the shinobi immediately. Ryūken is also seen stating that the world is not a place where weaklings can survive, according to him whoever is weak doesn't deserve to live and must die. He also has a habit of smirking when things are going in his favor, further Ryūken states that who are willing to abide by the "suffocating" rules set by the Shinobi world are worse than scums.

When Kurokishi questioned him about his belonging to a dark side he answered that "this world is full of things that cannot be measured as merely good or evil", implying an enlightened or a philosophical frame-of-mind, or perhaps, even a corrupted heart. During a fight Kiba he displays a more wicked and cruel side of himself, and shows that he has very little care for his former village, such as he tries to destroy Konohagakure itself. Though he was extremely devoted to his village in past, his former loyalty and ideologies that seems to be derived from the Will of Fire, he has succumbed to the Uchiha clan's Curse of Hatred with the entire world itself as the object of his loathing. Ryūken is a calculating assassin. Unusually for an assassin and a former ANBU member, Ryūken exhibits and sometimes acts upon emotions. Ryūken prefers to hunt down, torture and then finally kill his opponents. Ryūken is totally devoted to what he sees as his life's work, the cleansing of the shinobi world. He states that the line of ninjas has grown weak since the last time he awoke, and plans to "strengthen" the world by killing all ninjas he considers "weak". He expresses joy at fighting those he considers strong, and seems to take pleasure in bringing down those who cannot fight to his standards. Ryūken is also very clever as seen during his fights, he never makes the first move, by making use of various tactics, he would wait for the correct moment to attack and made sure that his opponents would run out of chakra quickly and as they do so he would simply crush them with a single but powerful blow.

A rare trait about him is his love for small animals, ranging from birds to hedgehogs. He is shown to dislike being in debt to anyone and strives to pay them back as soon as possible and can't stand being restrained and he absolutely refuses to allow himself to be controlled.

Appearance
Ryūken Senju is a tall man with light red hair brushed back in a ponytail and light red irises. He's has very thin eyebrows. Normally wears a white long-sleeved shirt with the kanji for "Death" on the arms, hakama pants and a long white scarf. After the one year timeskip, he now wears a different attire: the shirt now is black on his shoulders and arms, wears black fingerless gloves and has a black undershirt with white edges and high collar. Ryūken is also seen carrying two swords with him, one of which is attached with his belt and the other one on his back.

Abilities
As a medical-nin, Ryūken Senju has enough knowledge and ability to use the Mystical Palm Technique to heal his injured comrades on the battlefield. He has essentially found another variation of the technique, that is, Reverse Healing Technique which instead of healing, kills the target. He was also capable of performing performing tricky surgeries such as a kidney implant and eye implant only with basic tools. Otherwise as a Senju, Ryūken is an immensely powerful shinobi and is hailed as one of the most powerful shinobi of this era. Due to his Senju heritage, Ryūken inherited an extraordinary life force, as well as physical energy. Likewise, his chakra was also shown to be remarkably strong as he was able to shatters boulders and crush metals, by simply placing his hand on it and releasing his chakra through it. He also had a great knowledge of various Kinjutsu and aside from his battle prowess, he was also a very gifted sensor ninja since childhood. By simply touching the ground with his index finger, he could detect the presence and number of enemy shinobi, much like Minato. Ryūken had a fearsome reputation owing to his battle prowess and other skills, however in spite of this he preferred strategical approach rather than utilizing brute strength. Greatly admired around the world, he is reputed to be one of the most powerful shinobi in ninja history. Ryūken is undoubtedly one of the most powerful ninja that Konoha has ever produced. Ryūken was said to be strong enough to stand against Raido X and Kiba Uchiha at the same time, at sometime in past he defeated Raido Uchiha without any taking noticeable injury on himself and was also capable to crush Kurokishi Shinto with a single blow. He has also shown considerable skills in the field of Kenjutsu; which is seen when he killed several powerful Jōnin with a single swing of Sword at a blinding speed.

Taijutsu
His speed and reflexes out matched that of his brother. With his body now fully developed he can easily see, react and counter a tailed beast's attacks. He also greatly increased his hand speed, able to do many hand seals in a blur and launch an enormous amount of weapons just as quickly as possible. With his such astonishing skills and his proficiency with the Body Flicker Technique caused him to become one of the fastest Shinobi's living. Lastly, he also has a high amount of stamina and endurance. To somewhat has been observed to Ryūken Senju incorporate Wind Release to some of his techniques. Ryūken's greatest attribute is his immense speed, instantaneous reflexes and supernal agility. Attributed to his small size and lithe frame, Ryūken is basically a swordsman primarily built for speed and agility, therefore his training consisted of training to harness these innate abilities and hone them to extraordinary levels. Unlike most traditional taijutsu specialists, Ryūken did not utilize the standard method of adding weights to increase his speed. The reason for this was that while weights apply additional strain to muscles, excess weight fools the bodies natural reactions and response times. This forces those who use this training method to learn a rigid style of taijutsu due to their lack of adaptability. His speed is said to be "God Like" and there is no human eye or brain on earth which can possibly follow it. Ryūken jutsu's and other skills are especially useful because of his amazing agility, speed, endurance, dexterity, and natural strength. Ryūken Senju is obviously extremely skilled in martial arts and is an accomplished acrobat easily able to do back flips and mid-air cartwheels with little effort in terms of physical strain. Ryūken's natural abilities are so impressive that even without his other skills and jutsu's Ryūken is easily able to take on other assassin's and shinobi's. Ryūken Senju is a proficient unarmed fighter, favoring the use of hand-to-hand combat over his signature Sand Release seen shortly during his fight with Kiba Uchiha shortly before the Chunin exams, in retaliation to his own attack, in such instance, he was shown tackling and holding his own against three opponents at once. He seems to be physically powerful as well. When Kiba punched him in the face, he just took the hit and somersaulted back onto his feet in midair. The punch seemed to have no effect on him, leaving no marks on his face afterwards. He has demonstrated his agile movements almost every time he fought with an opponent. Ryūken Senju has shown on different occasions to be very fast and agile. Like, during his fight with Sageru Uzumaki in an alleyway, he displayed enough acrobatic prowess and strength to move several meters in the air by jumping from one wall to the other. He was also able to avoid some of Kiba's attacks despite his overwhelming speed. Ryūken Senju has proven himself to be very strong, having been shown capable of lifting an enormous amount of large wood beams all by himself, despite subsequently being crushed under them due to distraction as well as to shatter the section of a stone wall with a single punch sideways. Thanks to his overwhelming taijutsu skills which are performed in conjunction to his surprising bukijutsu skills he has surely become one of the most athletic shinobi's in the world.

Quotes

 * (to none in particular) "I'm a proud man being a member of the powerful Senju Clan. However, unlike them, I'm bathed in hatred similar to that of the Uchiha."
 * (to Kiba Uchiha) "I've changed drastically in the span of my life. No longer am I the pure hearted Senju that has the Will of Fire. No -- the similar curse of the Uchiha courses through my blood and nestled itself in my cursed heart. I can feel it crawling and controlling my modest thoughts. It wants your blood to be spilled."