Team Shibata

Personalities
Shibata, the job in sensei of the team lives up to his nickname as the reincarnate of the Second Hokage as he was a very composed individual and a firm believer in the Will of Fire. However, when provoked far enough he can easily be the most dangerous ninja in the Land of Fire as seen when Ryuichi starts a fight with Masaru in his house that results in Ryuichi accidentally burning it down.

Masaru was a very perceptive shinobi rivaling those of the jonin class as a genin. Growing up, he rarely spoke to those of his age until meeting Ryuichi Tatsuno who attempted to help him in a fight albeit the latter ended up having to be helped. Ryuichi later helped Masaru break out of his shell and rarely spent a day apart throughout their childhood.

Ryuichi is a very boisterous and at times belligerent individual. Growing up his first childhood friend was Masaru Ichihara who he often referred to as an "old soul in a child's body" and his first childhood crush was Hinako Fukushima whom he nicknamed Konoha's Late (but great) Bloomer. He enjoyed a great amount of time playing pranks on his teammates and practicing his fire release techniques. At times Ryuichi can be very belligerent towards both comrades and opponents, a trait that earned him a nickname as "The Hottest Shinobi under the Sun" from Masaru. He also had a great memory as to where he constantly reminded Masaru whenever the day they became friends was coming around calling it their "Bromanciversary".

Hinako was an uptight and loyal person and at times hesitant. Due to her not knowing either Masaru or Ryuichi until they were all placed on a genin team together she kept a distant from the two whenever they began to conversate. After the bell test, Hinako was visually disappointed in her failure to retrieve one of the bells or even lay a hand on their sensei, to where her teammates suggested she may just be a late bloomer, where she responded by cursing at them before storming off. Later on in their time together, she was able to put up with more of her teammates' childish antics and even began to develop feelings for Masaru, which she claims was his fault.

History
Immediately after their graduation from the academy, Masaru, Ryuichi, and Hinako are all placed on a genin team under the eye of Shibata Takamitsu. In order to determine if they can show proper teamwork, Shibata gives them the bell test in which they pass with both Masaru and Ryuichi both retrieving a bell from their sensei. After passing the bell test, Ryuichi began a celebratory dance as Masaru went to comfort a visually disappointed Hinako, with much failure.

During the Chunin Exams, Masaru and Ryuichi proved to both be not only threats to other shinobi but even the best shinobi duo, which Ryuichi called themselves the "World's Greatest Tag-Team", while Masaru simply stated they were pretty good together. Due to their success as a duo, Hinako felt she was dead weight to her team and separated herself from them after entering the forest of death, much to her teammates' anger. After finding herself saved by the duo, she lashed out at them, to which Masaru told her that they need her along with Ryuichi stating "he'd feel pretty bad if he let the late but great bloomer die".

During the attempted Konoha Crush, Team Shibata(without their sensei) stayed back in the village to fend off the invading sound-nin. Before falling victim to a blindside attack, Masaru and Ryuichi were saved by Hinako who used her body as a shield, seeing their teammate who appeared lifeless on the ground, Masaru and Ryuichi cleared out the room with a joint jutsu leading to a large explosion. In tears, Ryuichi stayed by Hinako's side while Masaru went on to attempt to aide the Third Hokage, which he found dead lying next to his summon. Feeling as if he failed both his teammate and village leader, Masaru made a promise to protect his sensei and teammate even if it killed him in the process. Masaru was later relieved when finding out Hinako's injury wasn't fatal.

Being promoted to chunin the day of their "bromanciversary" which was also the day before Masaru's birthday, their sensei challenged them to a spar which would reveal if he felt if they were ready to be chunin. After becoming victorious, Shibata took his team out to eat as a celebration. After finding out her teammates became chunin, Hinako surprised them with matching necklaces, much to their surprise and even led to Ryuichi asking her if she was going to curse at them then or later. On their first mission as chunin and genin in Hinako's respect, Team Shibata was tasked with spying and if needed, assassinating several Iwagakure ninja. Before leaving for the mission, Masaru and Ryuichi got into an argument about how they should handle the mission, Masaru saying they should handle it with stealth, and Ryuichi saying they should take them out as soon as the opportunity presents itself. The argument led to Ryuichi threatening Masaru and later using his jutsu while in their sensei's home, burning it down. They later went on to complete the mission without having to kill any enemy shinobi.

The team later went on to split up for roughly a two years as both Masaru and Ryuichi left the village to train under the tutelage of Shibata's Father who was in a neighboring village while Hinoka trained personally under her sensei.

Upon returning from the village, Masaru and Ryuichi decided to rest instead of meeting up with their comrades. When Hinako found out they were back she immediately began searching for them to show them she finally made chunin. Their first mission back together was to go to Sunagakure to help the Fifth Kazekage with the battle against the Akatsuki, much to Ryuichi's disapproval since they had just gotten back to the village and were now traveling again. Before arriving to Sunagakure, Team Shibata ran into the two Akatsuki members who were transporting the unconscious Kazekage back to their hideout, ensuing a fight. Team Shibata broke into two teams, Shibata along Hinako and Masaru along Ryuichi, with Shibata and Hinako pursuing one member, Masaru and Ryuichi stayed back to fight the other member. Masaru and Ryuichi would later kill Sasori while Shibata and Hinako failed in stopping Deidara and retrieving the Kazekage.

Later on in the series, noticing it was their ninth "bromanciversary", Shibata decided to nominate both Masaru and Ryuichi to become jonin, which they were. After being elected to join, Ryuichi teased Hinako telling her not to take as long as she did becoming chunin so they could all celebrate. A year later, Ryuichi decided they should celebrate their "bromanciversary" with a mission, much to Masaru's disapproval, stating he didn't want to be on a mission during his birthday that followed the day after. They were tasked with assassinating two Akatsuki members alongside with two tokubetso jonin. While leaving the village, Ryuichi reminisced about their previous "bromanciversaries" stating each year they spent it fighting someone as a team, a way he wanted to go out. While fighting Hidan and Kakuzu, Masaru and Ryuichi were usually separated and prevented from performing any of their team jutsus. Upon finding out Hidan was a Jashinist, Masaru made it clear to retreat as there was no way to kill him and they needed to go back to research and strategize. Upon receiving the message, Ryuichi used his fire style jutsu to create a diversion while Hidan was in his ritual circle, burning Ryuichi along with Hidan. Upon delivering a fatal blow and torturing Ryuichi with his ritual, Hidan was knocked out of his ritual circle by Masaru who grabbed a fading Ryuichi and retreated back to the village. Masura stopped on a rooftop due to Ryuichi's requests, stating it was too late for him and gave him his dying wish of protecting the village and move on from their "tag-team" days and become an "undisputed champion". The following day, Masaru's birthday, was the same day of Ryuichi's funeral.

Masaru later went on to avenge Ryuichi and incapacitated one member before killing the other. Following the mission, Masaru visited Ryuichi's grave along with Ryuichi's Mother who gave Masaru a scroll holding Ryuichi's chakra sword as a late birthday present.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Masaru was proceeding to another battle site before encountering Kabuto Yakushi who brought back Ryuichi with the reanimated jutsu. Breaking down, Masaru's emotions prevented him from fighting his former comrade, only to be saved by Hinako and Shibata. Before being sealed, Ryuichi told his former team of Kabuto's new location. Upon finding Kabuto, Hinako told Shibata and Masaru to engage him in battle while she held off the small white zetsu. Later in the battle, Masaru was able to deliver a fatal blow and killed Kabuto, discontinuing his reanimation jutsu. After regrouping with the rest of the Allied Shinobi Forces, Team Shibata helped with taking down Madara Uchiha and later Kaguya Otsutsuki.

Years after the war, Masaru and Hinoka are seen visiting Ryuichi's grave during Masaru's birthday, where they leave a necklace on the tombstone after Masaru apologized for getting married to Hinoka on their "bromanciversary". Masaru and Hinoka would later go on to have a son named Ryuichi Ichihara and later have twins named Miyasaru and Miyahina.