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Calel Mazoku (カレルマゾク, Mazoku Kareru), generally referred to as Cal (カレ, Kal) or by his codename Dante the Inferno (ダンテの焦熱地獄, Dante no Shōnetsu Jigoku), is a Shinobi of Konohagakure. After joining her team as a Genin, Cal absorbed Anko Mitarashi's cursed mark under suoervion from Jiraiya. After the events of the Chūnin Exams and the subsequent Konoha Crush, with permission from the recently appointed Hokage, Cal took a leave of absence to go and visit his family and hometown. After running into opposers to The Mizukage's rule, Cal found himself in the midst of a civil war and enjoyed a brief tenure as a Mercenary Ninja, specializing less in subtly and more in assassinating high-level shinobi out in the open. After running into missing-nin Kiyone and losing he became one of her associates and later, helped her to reconcile with Kiri's Kage and return to being one of the Hidden Mist's ninja. After helping to mitigate the rebellion in Water Country, he returned to Konohagakure and became something of a diplomatic representative to help bring the two village's closer together.
Background[]
When Cal was a young child he wasn't particularly sociable and didn't make friends too easily, at one point he met and befriended a "nice girl" that he described as "kind of weird". His parents didn't realize that this "girl" was in fact a Yokai, in particular, a spectral creature presumed to feed on souls. Through a strong empathetic link and genuine connection with him, it slowly taught Cal the interworkings of senjutsu, which at the time he thought was just some sort of bonding exercise or game. As time went on, Cal would start to exhibit signs that he was starting to lose his mind, experiencing feelings of deep melancholy, seeing and hearing thing's that weren't actually there. Other kids his age became fearful of him and in some instances, he became more and more of a pariah. People would often swear they saw Cal being stalked by some kind of monster or creature of darkness, people began to think he was possessed or cursed, some even thought he was actually a demon hiding in flesh all along. Although unlucky, Cal lived with a loving family and had an otherwise normal childhood.
Cal left his hometown at around 17 years old to become stronger and learn to further control and understand his curse. Electing to try and become a ninja, recalling childhood fantasies about samurai and ninja battling and hearing stories of incredible feats. Ultimately he decided to try the Hidden Leaf Village, somewhat out of convenience but also in search of the ledendary Sannin, Orochimaru being a Ninjutsu master and Jiraiya being a renowned Fuinjutsu user and Tsunade being a legendary healer. He is disappointed to find that not only are none of the Sannin in the village, nobody seems to have any idea how to find them.. He initially wanted to gain entry to the village by lying about wanting to hire a Genin team but instead, he simply beat up the guards after they figured out he was lying. After venturing into the village, he was quickly surrounded by Anbu, who did not find his nonchalant and candid nature amusing. He was arrested (without much resistance) and imprisoned, during which he was interrogated and has mind searched by the Torture and Interrogation Force, who discerned that his intentions were in fact innocent. Despite his unusual circumstances and advanced age, he is permitted to join the Academy and start training to become a ninja of the Hidden Leaf, he also gets a job as a Bartender to pay for his housing and earn his citizenship. During his fairly brief time as a student, he is not concerned with making friends and spends much of his time daydreaming and sleeping. Due to being older than everyone else, he was looked upon quite unfavorably and often described as "weird", though he was consistently not bothered. He graduated from the academy at the age of seventeen, some time before Naruto Uzumaki and his class at the start of Part 1.
At some point, Anko was appointed as Calel Mazoku's instructor, with him being deemed a special case and having no other graduating genin work alongside, the Hokage determined Anki would be a good match. To test him, Anko simply instruct him to try and catch her. He showcases impressive speed and chases her around the village but isn't able to quite catch up due to her advanced use of wall running, chakra control and stealth. Eventually, Anko decides to envoke a "friendly" sparring session. She is disturbed to witness his physical capabilities are much higher than hers, in close combat, she is hard-pressed to even hold her own. Electing to use weapon's and attack from a distance, Anko is once again shocked to see Cal demonstrate freakish physical power when he rips a tree from the ground and throws it at her. Though she is easily able to see and dodge a tree, Cal swiftly follows up and closes the distance. Anko puts her all into avoiding him and feeling a sense of danger, without thinking about it, instinctively uses a paralyzing-tipped kunai to cut and subdue him. As Anko begins to worry about accidentally injuring her student (and receiving a verbal lashing from the Hoakge) Cal is surprised that he let his guard down but begins to move forward to continue attacking when his legs give out and he starts to succumb to the effects of the paralysis. With some leverage against her, Cal manages to persuade Anko to take him on as her student.
The two are regularly at odds, with Anko being infuriated with being forced to tutor someone and Cal being irate with having such an irresponsible person as a mentor. Anko is consistently surprised by how advanced Cal seems to be for a genin until she learns from him that he only started training to become a shinobi after he turned seventeen, with him being eighteen at present. Although she is amazed that he's made so much progress in such a short time, she downplays this because she doesn't want to him to become overly confident.
Personality[]
A sincere smile.
Cal is a typically laid-back and easy-going person who doesn't seem to take much seriously, and is often described as having a "bad attitude". He has a pervasive issue with paying attention, losing interest in practically anything if he is not heavily invested or stimulated. He doesn't seem to have much of a filter and often does not think before speaking, making social interactions quite awkward he does so. Though he is quite lazy and now spends a lot of his time sleeping, due to his hyperactive imagination and hyper thought process he often struggles to get to sleep, in some instances even going a full day without sleeping. This often results in him being tired most of the time and causing him to drift off in the middle of interacting with people, even whilst standing up. He can be deceptively cunning and he commonly uses idle conversation and outward concern or feigned stupidity to distract his opponents.
As someone who has been influenced by and linked to a seemingly malevolent entity since childhood, Cal is capable of exhibiting some darker aspects as a person. He can become brutal, bloodthirsty, and even sadistic, smiling eerily and laughing manically in life-threatening situations like the middle of a battle. He enjoys proving his power to others and despises to assert himself as superior. When his emotions are ignited, Cal becomes irrational and completely oblivious to anything else, leading to some extremely reckless tendencies. However, at the base level, he tries to avoid unnecessary killing, when realizing that there is no other way, he'll make the distasteful decision but will usually feel some amount of grief for the lives he has taken. He also seems to dislike the idea of torture. He seems to form intense attachments quite easily and become fixated on people, because of this, he can be manipulated by people that are close to him and have this emotional power over him.
He likes to read, mostly manga and comic books but he also enjoys expanding his knowledge through research. He dislikes the clichés that surround heroes and finds them to be very boring. Because of this, he prefers stories that feature unique characters and themes. He also does not like quotes and the heroic and supposedly motivating speeches people commonly throw around as he feels they cheapen and trivialize the ordeal. He has shown a dislike for people in authority that abuse their power and it seems he does not like being told what to do, sometimes feeling obliged to do the complete opposite just to be obnoxious and rebellious. He also seems to dislike people that are privileged and popular, particularly those that are arrogant and blessed. However, this mentality also leads him to have a soft spot for victims, even if helping them would put him at a disadvantage or if they are his enemies.
Despite being a highly capable combatant, he can be very clumsy, a running gag is that he will trip over objects that are not really in his way and then complain about how said object was in his way. He has a tendency to turn up late even in the most dire of circumstances. Money is something that Cal finds himself motivated by, having no real desire to climb the ranks beyond simply getting a larger paycheck and he is not ashamed to admit it. Despite this, he hardly has a taste for the finer things, favoring comfort over practicality or aesthetics. He will almost always wear baggy and loose-fitting clothing, sometimes resulting in him being criticized for his supposedly poor fashion sense and even one instance, being mistaken for a homeless person.
Appearance[]
Cal is a young male of relatively short stature who generally has strong but lazy posture. His eyes are a soft brown and his naturally spiky and wild hair is cut fairly short, styled in an undercut, and is a dull pale red that appears quite lifeless. He has quite a soft, youthful face and he has been described as looking tired and worn out. He has rather broad shoulders and a slim and lean, yet muscular physique which he presumably attained through his various training regimes through his life. His physique, however, is constantly hidden beneath his usually very baggy clothing, which combined with his height, can make him appear as a younger person who is rather diminutive and scrawny in stature. By the start of Part II, he has a very noticeable scar between his eyes and a slightly smaller scar on the left side of his mouth. Cal's most unique features, however, are the extra pair of eyes, located beneath each of his regular eyes they are much smaller and when closed barely visible, even appearing like birthmarks or scars.
Generally speaking, Cal likes to wear different clothes but most commonly he is seen wearing some sort of tracksuit or hooded jacket, having an "affinity" for comfortable, simple clothing. The first outfit is a black jacket and matching pants, he wears a red hoody underneath his jacket, with only the hood visible over it. The second outfit is a simple light-colored tracksuit with black cuffs, a black collar and dark loose-fitting pants.
Gallery[]
Abilities[]
Cal had no formal ninja upbringing in a village so, initially, his knowledge of Ninjutsu and chakra was attained solely through his childhood teachings of Senjutsu, natural energy and his interactions with Juinjutsu with Xanna. Being unable to perform basic techniques such as walking on water and simple clone techniques, until he was much older than normal has not impacted him in the long run however. He would later gain much exposure to ninjutsu through his career as a ninja of Konohagakure, and later on as a mercenary. He has shown to be a quick learner with an aptitude for the ninja arts, finding ways to refine his skills. Onitsuchi likened Cal's potential to that of Kenji Miyamoto's. By Part II, he is strong enough to be able to fight on parr with S-rank missing-nin, including the likes of Kakuzu and Hidan. He even fought Pain and most of his Six Paths using only half of his chakra, having divided it in two, in order to extract Jiraiya, while his Shadow Clone and summon provided a distraction. Even after being badly defeated in the past and feeling frustrated he can quickly regain his confidence, simply getting excited and expressing that there is still more room for improvement in his capabilities.
Physical Prowess and Chakra[]
Cal repelling his opponent with ease.
Even without the use of senjutsu or chakra amplification, Cal possesses a powerful, well-trained physique and boasts physical capabilities that few people can match. First of all, Cal's strength, is undeniably superhuman, consistently being capable of surprising people with the sheer intensity and raw physical might he possesses. He is capable of defeating and overwhelming opponents much larger than himself with little to no effort, a trend that has occurred since childhood and by the age of 21, he is considerably more muscular than the majority of the shinobi populace and can physically match the likes of Onitsuchi and Kisame Hoshigaki.
Cal dodging a high-speed attack.
Cal also has incredible speed and well-trained reflexes to complement his strength, being one of the fastest runners in the village, beating both Kakashi and Guy in a 100-meter sprint. He is capable of moving swiftly enough in a fight for his agility to be acknowledged as a threat that can allow him to readily close the distance. Because of his powerful muscles, at max speed, he can sprint so fast that he loses his ability to coordinate his movement, something that is more of a hindrance during combat.
Cal tanking a powerful cutting attack.
Cal possesses a highly durable body and can take a massive amount of physical damage. He survived fighting against Sosuke Mizushima and Kiyone, with no preparation, and without suffering any lasting injuries. He suffered a great many direct hits from multiple high-level shinobi, and was frozen multiple times, all without being subdued. Cal is so confident in his inborn physical toughness, that he had no doubt in his mind that he would have survived being skewered by dozens of Kiyone's ice spears all at once. Despite his durability and stamina, Cal's pain threshold does not seem to be particularly extraordinary, according to himself, he feels just as much pain (if not more) as other people do.
Being a descendant of the Uzumaki Clan, fundamentally, Cal does possess large chakra reserves, not comparable to that of a Jinchūriki but enough to be considered an above-average amount regardless. Even whilst wastefully using far more chakra than necessary to perform techniques, his reserves and endurance allowed him to still fight long after other people would have exhausted themselves. By Part II, his chakra is potent enough to use senjutsu and his reserves are large enough to summon Bishamonten and perform chakra-taxing techniques in fairly quick succession. Although he boasts a considerable amount of chakra, by the age of 21, he also has gained a commendable degree of control over his chakra as seen by his ability to perform techniques efficiently, dispel powerful genjutsu and develop techniques that require immense concentration and control and either don't require hand seals or require very few. For techniques that require or encourage a large number of hand seals, Cal makes sure to perform sneak attacks or distract his opponent with shadow clones, in order to buy himself time to move through the correct hand seals.
Ninjutsu[]
Although he started learning ninjutsu late, by the age of 21, Cal has become highly skilled in it's use. He can summon powerful Yokai to aid him in battle and particularly skilled with shadow clones, using them to increase his training efficiency and to outplay and overwhelm his opponent in combat with strong coordination. He has become skilled enough in ninjutsu and nature transformation to tutor someone in their use. He has also shown some aptitude with Space–Time Ninjutsu as he is able to use the Flying Thunder Formation Technique, learning it from Raidō Namiashi. Later on, he became capable of using this technique with three shadow clones to teleport himself to another marked location instead of having to rely on other people to perform it. After establishing markers, he has used this to travel quickly between Kirigakure and Konoha. Though he does not seem to have the chakra control and skill to perform this technique in a fight, he has hopes he'll be able to learn the full technique in time.
Cal has trained with Genjutsu user's like Kurenai and Anko to gain strong insight into illusions, covering many theoretical topics, including the best ways to counter high-level techniques. His knowledge of chakra flow and usage of senjutsu makes him partially resistant to the effects of powerful illusion's and Dōjutsu. By combing genjjusu with natural energy, Cal can create an incredibly powerful illusion that can completely overwhelm and torment his target. His primary usage of genjutsu remains as a countermeasure against other high-level illusion's.
Cal is also proficient in the use of several weapons, showing some skill with kunai, shuriken, staffs, nunchaku, and swords. He seems to be particularly proficient with nunchaku, wielding Nozarashi with the skill to overwhelm multiple opponents at once. Although he is quite skilled with weapons, he rarely elects to use them as he favors unarmed combat.
Nature Transformation[]
Cal creating and manipulating fire.
By the start of Part II, Cal is proficient in the use two of the basic nature transformations; Fire and Wind, as well as Yin Release and Yang Release. He seems to have a particularly strong aptitude and natural affinity for Fire Release, his proficiency being likened to an Uchiha's, with him being capable of performing the clan's Great Fireball Technique to a masterful extent, though his ability to weave hand seals is quite slow. He can both create his own flames willingly and also control flames from external pre-existing sources, though the latter is much more difficult. The sheer power and size of his flames can be tremendous, as is his extremely precise and fluid control of said flames. At his peak, his fire is shown to be strong enough to devastate the environment, set a person alight akin to spontaneous combustion, and disperse most Water Release techniques, despite the elemental disadvantage. Additionally, by channelling chakra through his body and making contact with people and materials, he can increase their temperature, being capable of melting various bindings and a prison of solid ice. He can also create fire clones that burn opponents on contact.
Cal's tremendous slashing ability.
Cal is also highly skilled with Wind Release, having picked things up from watching the likes of Asuma Sarutobi and Temari. He can create a wind stream imbued with dust particles to act as a smokescreen or to blind and impair, and he can produce a powerful gust of wind, strong enough to send a human being flying through half a dozen trees. The true strength of this nature transformation is its tremendous slashing potential, which when combined with senjutsu, becomes potent enough to cut through flesh, rock, stone and even the toughest demon skin, effectively defeating a Yokai as powerful as Bishamonten with a single wind justu. He can also use his skill with his nature chakra's to channel them through his weapons and ninja tools like shuriken and kunai to give them more cutting power, durability and the ability to burn people when he cuts them.
Taijutsu[]
Cal overwhelming a powerful swordsman with pure Taijutsu.
Cal is an incredibly skilled and versatile hand-to-hand fighter with knowledge of various techniques, skills and arts applicable to combat. He has trained considerably with Might Guy and Rock Lee to hone his taijutsu, even using their signature Strong Fist to later develop his own style of fighting. He can adapt to combat his opposition seamlessly, using his opponent's weaknesses against them, planning several steps ahead of them and using his surroundings all to gain the upper advantage in fights. He has an excellent mind for combat, displaying an exceptionally high fight IQ. Using his physical prowess and fight IQ he is able to overwhelm and incapacitate multiple highly skilled opponents very quickly.Cal's style of fighting puts particular emphasis on maximizing damage output via counterstriking whilst adapting to an opponent's style. Because of his incredible pain tolerance, stamina and durability, even against more skilled opposition, he can fight for an extended period of time, maintain a consistent flow of damage and tire his opponent out and before finishing them off. Because of this superior physical ability, he can make his style work even against opponents who possess Kekkai Genkai or are more technically skilled and more experienced than him.
Fūinjutsu[]
Cal's powerful fūinjutsu chains.
Cal is highly knowledgeable and skilled in Fūinjutsu, and has a strong grasp of just how valuable it is - he believes that the solution to a great many problems lies within the art of intricate and timeless art of sealing. He can read and translate many sealing language texts that most people struggle greatly to even understand at a rudimentary level. A contributing factor to his ability in sealing may be his nature as a descendant of the Uzumaki Clan, who were famous for their unparalleled prowess in fūinjutsu. He understands the theory behind using seals to contain reserves of chakra and natural energy among many other things, and then the skill to make his theory into reality, using his curse mark to act as a vaccum and container of sorts. He can store a large number of weapons or objects into scrolls, which he can later unseal. From his teachings with Jiraiya, Cal learned how to use a powerful sealing technique to undo the chakra-sealing effects of the Five Elements Seal or effectively counter a seal of equal power and with preparation. He can seal ninjutsu mid-fight, including fire-element ninjutsu as strong as Amaterasu and he can combine his fire nature to apply a seal to severely limit his target's ability use chakra. Cal even devised a seal to be used by others, allowing essentially anyone to carry around useable medical ninjutsu to heal wounds, in the form of his support seal. He also has some knowledge of Kushina Uzumaki's incredibly powerful Sealing Chains and he managed to create an alternative based on them, though he is uncertain of how to fully harness that original power, much to his ire.
Senjutsu[]
Cal in Sage Mode.
Cal was marked by Xanna at a young age with the Cursed Seal of Naraka and cursed. Cal was taught how to use senjutsu, a process which due to his lack of knowledge regarding chakra and ninjutsu, ultimately took many years. His curse would make it so that anytime Cal used sage mode and senjutsu, Xanna's chakra would start to leak into him and "corrupt" him. By the age of 21, unlike many senjutsu user's, he is able to perfectly balance natural energy with his chakra, allowing him to enter a complete Sage Mode with no significant negative alterations to his appearance. Due to his cursed mark mixing with his chakra, Cal's usage of Sage Mode permits him to experience fluctuating emotions and passively absorb natural energy, he is also completely incompatible with any other style of senjutsu, such as the Toad's of Mount Myōboku. When active in any capacity, the cursed seal partially saps Cal of his willpower and sense of self and injects a large, potent amount of Xanna's own chakra, in turn giving him increased chakra levels, physical capabilities, the ability to use senjutsu and the unique ability to corrupt people with his mixed chakra. His usage of this mode is signified by the appearance of unique symbols on his forehead, nose and chin with various dark marking's on his body - two lines on both his wrists, upper arms, circles on both his shoulders with a dot in each, two-segmented curve lines on his chest, and two lines on his stomach. His eyes take on an eerie red color, he also gains sharpened teeth, claw-like fingernails and the extra pair of eyes he has, open up.
Cal's senjutsu-enchanced elemental ninjutsu.
Upon entering Sage Mode, Cal's already impressive physical attributes are augmented to the point where he can damage, break and shatter the ribcage of a Complete Body - Susanoo with a single strike and move fast enough to avoid the pull of Kamui at close range. He becomes so fast that he can create an afterimage with his speed alone, convincing enough to fool his opponents, in fact, he can move so fast that people often assume he is using some form of teleportation technique. Cal also gains the fearsome ability to rapidly heal, allowing him to recover from non-fatal injuries such as having his hand cut off, in mere moments. As well as his ninjutsu being empowered, he can also use the ambient natural energy with genjutsu, creating a potent effect on said target's mental state, making them more suggestible and vulnerable.
As he has grown older and more experienced, Cal has gained considerable control over his curse, however, prolonged or intense use of it leads him to display signs of increased aggression and according to himself, he can feel his sanity slipping away and Xanna's will taking hold. Providing enough usage, eventually, Cal was concerned that Xanna would be able to take over his body and assimilate him, akin to a hive mind, resulting in him electing to use his curse (and Sage Mode) sparingly.
Intelligence[]
Cal initially appears to possess relatively average-level intelligence, especially in the fields of mathematics, science, and world history, in part due to his terrible memory and easily distracted, unmotivated nature in regard to most academics. His scores at the academy were passable but quite underwhelming, consistently being amongst the mid-to-lower-ranking, despite being the oldest by several years, though it is possible he simply couldn't be bothered trying to get higher grades. Although he was at best a painfully average student, he has displayed an excellent understanding of the human body as well as its capabilities, specifically in relation to the science of what the human body is capable of. He has shown the ability to articulate himself in quite an intelligent and articulate manner when he wants to, often stunning those around him that have to expect incompetence and a thick-headed disposition. In order to pass the academy, he managed to learn a great deal of basic-level ninjutsu without any real guidance or instruction, simply reading books, observing other ninja and taking advantage of his strong nature as a kinesthetic learner.
He has shown to be capable of being quite shrewd and tactful, being able to discern situations and character traits from the people and environment around him as well as craft counter strategies mid-fight to fight against opponents that are more powerful than himself. He is very observant before and during battle, always preparing himself to combat his opponent and never fighting without prior knowledge if he can help it. He can be pragmatic and objective, making sure to avoid the attacks that will inflict great damage upon him and against an opponent possessing a kekkai genkai such as the Sharingan or Byakugan, electing to not rely on Taijutsu like usual, instead using long-range strategies to wear them out before closing the distance. He is also quite good at improvising and can create improvised weapons from things around him.
Stats[]
| Databook | Ninjutsu | Taijutsu | Genjutsu | Intelligence | Strength | Speed | Stamina | Hand seals | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | 3 | 3.5 | 1 | 3 | 4.5 | 4 | 3.5 | 1 | 23.5 |
| Second | 4 | 4.5 | 2.5 | 3 | 4.5 | 4 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 27.5 |
| Third | 5 | 4.5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4.5 | 4 | 2.5 | 31.5 |
Part I[]
Interlude[]
Kiri Subterfuge[]
Alongside several other Mercenary's, Cal is hired by some of the higher up's of Mizu no Kuni to help get rid of usurpers and rebels trying to dethrone the peace-toting Mizukage, Mei Terumī, who's been rapidly gaining traction and support around the country. He was involved in an undercover ploy to unravel any spies or traitors within the village. Although initially apprehensive, feeling no real desire to assist Kiri or their Kage, after considering and negotiating a higher price, Cal accepts the job. His team comes across
Sosuke cuts through Cal with ease.
He quickly spews a blast of fire at the ice projectiles, melting them and buying himself a few more precious seconds. With a burst of inhuman strength, Cal breaks himself free from his ice prison, much to the shock of the spectators. Though she is surprised to witness such a display of brute strength, Kiyone swiftly disappears from view and lands a vicious kick to Cal's stomach, sending him sliding backwards, even after absorbing some of the kick's force with a last-second block. Again, Cal finds himself impressed by Kiyone's power, noting to himself that just that one well-placed kick was strong enough to potentially cause internal damage. After a brief exchange of Taijutsu, with Cal bleeding all over the place and showcasing his ridiculous endurance even further, he's attacked from behind by Sosuke, who decks him with a blast of shadows just as Cal turns around. Noting that he's distracted and vulnerable, Kiyone catches Cal in a powerful blast of icy wind that freezes him in his tracks just after he picks himself up off the floor.
Death from above.
Irritated at being attacked from behind and totally taken back by the ability and immense freezing nature of the technique, Cal laments on just how strong this woman must be to be capable of pulling off such devastating attacks with such apparent ease. "Had enough yet?". The Ice Queen inquires, mostly to herself in bemusement. Balking at the idea, Cal makes his displeasure known with colorful language, invoking a light chuckle from Kiyone. As he begins to heat up the ice's temperature to once again mitigate the brutal frostbite, Cal notices an array of deadly, icicle-like spears swiftly descending toward his still-frozen, defenseless body. Acknowledging his predicament and his opponent's skill, Cal curses and begins to brace himself to be brutally impaled, confident he'll survive, though it will be very, very painful. To his surprise, he finds himself just waiting for an attack that never comes, the onslaught of ice spears merely hanging in the air ominously. Kiyone is intrigued as to where his strength of will comes from, stating she isn't particularly interested in killing him anymore, immediately invoking protests from those around. She points out that Cal could be a valuable addition to the Village's military - he put up a fight against multiple high-level shinboi, and best of all, he didn't seem afraid of death. Cal is knocked unconscious from behind and taken away.
Waking up in Kiyone's encampment outside the city, Cal. As he discusses his situation with Kiyone, he nonchalantly reaffirms during their fight he wasn't bracing himself for death and would have been able to withstand her final attack, something she finds hard to believe, though she notes he appears to be genuine in his implication that he'd be capable of surviving being impaled by multiple ice spears. Kiyone explains she was the second favorite candidate to take over as Mizukage, losing out to Mei. Cal haphazardly asks whether Kiyone is asking him to kill Mei and get her out of the way so she can become Mizukage. Which she laughs at after telling him to get over himself, pointing out that he isn't strong enough to kill either Mei or her. She reasons that regardless, she isn't the political type and wouldn't be able to satisfy her battle-hungry desires behind the confines of a desk. Cal says she didn't seem that bloodthirsty when they fought, which she again laughs at, saying he's too weak to invoke that reaction from her, something he finds offensive, muttering to himself about her being crazy. Losing interest in the conversation, she gives him a nice, simple ultimatum - join the village and pledge loyalty to her and the Mizukage or die.
Taki[]
Fubuki's team intercepted by Akatsuki.
Close to the start of Part II, Akatsuki members Kakuzu and Hidan tracked the team down while they were returning from Fū's first "real" mission outside the village. Unaware of the Akatsuki's mission to capture all the tailed beasts, she is initially excited to meet and potentially "befriend" a fellow Taki shinobi, despite knowing the rogue shinobi's history. However, the rogue Kakuzu menacingly states that their motives aren't to become friends with her, much to Hidan's amusement, and (as they realize what the two men before them are) Fubuki's teammate's horror. In the face of two practically unkillable S-rank missing-nin, both of her jōnin teammates are swiftly killed and she is no match for her foes, even after she transforms. The last thing she see's before blacking out is Hidan cursing and kicking the corpse of one of her teammates.
Cal feels a large familiar chakra spike from Fubuki's fight with Akatsuki and cautiously ventures closer out of curiosity. By the time he gets there, the fight is over and Kakuzu is carrying an unconscious Fubuki over his shoulder, with his partner laminating on the fact that this girl was annoying. Recognizing the two rogue-nin as members of Akatsuki, Cal silently watches and stalks the duo from a distance and ultimately decides he's going to try and retrieve the defeated girl, cursing himself for having a bleeding heart. Acknowledging he won't be able to beat two S-rank missing-nin at the same time in a straight fight, he decides to try and swiftly dispatch the one that's not carrying the girl first. He silently activates Sage Mode and makes two shadow clones, sending the clones around the front to attack the masked nin. Cal and his clones strike simultaneously and swiftly, with Cal assaulting Hidan with a vicious senjutsu-enhanced blow to the head from behind. Hidan is too slow to respond but Kakuzu activates his hardening technique and leaps out of the way after sensing the presence of impending danger, avoiding being damaged by the clone. With one of his foes unconscious or dead (though he notes that he should have been able to decapitate Hidan with that strike), he prepares to take Kakuzu on, who scolds Hidan for his slow reaction time. After releasing that his partner isn't faking it and will be temporarily out of the fight, he notes his opponent's strange aura and compliments Cal for delivering such a powerful attack, before callously dropping the body of the unconscious girl on the ground. The two exchange blows in a Taijutsu spat, with Cal's clone contributing damage sparingly and playing it safe to avoid being dispersed. Kakuzu is shocked at how strong his adversary's strikes are and finds that even after hardening his body, he can still feel the strikes. This little brat. Is he actually stronger than me?. With Kakuzu hardening his own physique and fighting smart, Cal struggles to find any outstanding openings. Considering the state of the person he knocked out, he recognizes it's possible that they will wake up soon, making it an unfavourable two versus one.
As his clones distracts their foe with a brief but intense brawl, Cal skirts back as he moves through a long series of hand seals and unleashes a massive torrent of fire that envelops the area in searing flames, blinding Kakuzu and forcing him into escaping underground, being incapable of running to avoid the sheer magnitude of the attack. Quickly enough Kakuzu realizes he can't hear or sense his opponent anymore and emerges from the ground, angrily surveying the area for any sign of his opponent. He curses, coming to the aggravating realization that his foe has actually taken the jinchūriki and fled in the confusion of the firestorm. Kakuzu kicks Hidan in the head, telling him to get up. Hidan regains consciousness and sits up,before asking what happened and Kakuzu silently fumes after being made to look (in his opinion) a fool. Hidan catches on to the fact that his partner just let their assailant get away with the valuable jinchūriki, to which Kakuzu does not respond positively, highlighting Hidan's uselessness. They attempt to hunt Cal down, but it seems that not only has he run away very quickly, he also hasn't left behind any discernible way for them to track him. Both Akatsuki members decide they have a score to settle with their assailant and make a note to never forget his face until they kill him.
Fū wakes up and starts to panic when she doesn't recognize where she is or who she's with. Cal tries to calm Fubuki down but she is understandably fearful and hostile, attacking with desperation, only to be quickly restrained by immense physical strength she has no chance of breaking away from. Cal also applies a sealing technique to her that limits her ability to use chakra without experiencing severe pain. With a kunai to her throat, Fū stops struggling and Cal briefly recounts her being captured by Akatsuki. She asks him if he killed them and he admits it's not that easy, the point was to prevent the criminal organization from gathering Tailed Beast's, lamenting on the fact that while he doesn't know what Akatsuki's goal's are, they can't possibly be in his best interests. He declares his intention to deliver her to his village, Konohagakure, with Fubuki instantly complaining. He silences her by stating that she'll never make it back to her village and even if she did, Akatsuki must have information on the village and Kakuzu could simply lead them inside the village. With Takigakure's lack of military might and isolated location, she wouldn't be safe there anyway.
Fubuki tries to escape from Cal.
Come nightfall, they stop and rest by some cavern's, making sure to not set a fire that could alert anyone to their location. Fubuki tries to quietly escape after using some technique to make her "captor" tired and fall asleep. She is stopped by a shadow clone, and the ensuing scuffle results in Cal waking up. He threatens to cut her legs off if she doesn't stop being a nuisance and cuts a tiny lock of her hair off with a superfast blade of wind before she can even blink. Fully releasing that he could have killed her at this point, Fubuki curbs her desire to return home and acknowledges that she should be grateful considering that she would most likely be dead or worse by now without the intervention of the man in front of her, even if he's just planning to drag her back to his village to become a weapon. Before she can think further, Cal's shadow clone is dispelled and he's rolled over to go back to sleep, not before telling her that she has three hours to get some sleep.
The duo find some amount of common ground and become more friendly, noting a similar sense of mischievousness and Cal finds himself comparing Fubuki to Anko in some ways. They make decent time and arrive at the Hidden Leaf Village within a few days. They are intercepted by Kakashi and then escorted to the Hokage's office as Cal and his senior catch up. Kakshi informs Tsuande that she has visitors.
Lost[]
Cal activates his cursed mark and attacks. He cuts his foe and ingests their blood, much to the latter's curiosity. He states that he's being forced to participate in a "game" during which they must abide by a specific rule set by the user. Failure to abide by said rule by either participant leads to "punishment", implied to be death. After this, Cal states "fire-based ninjutsu only" and barrages Bishamonten. With no fire techniques, Bishamonten instead relies on his physical supremacy.
After surmising Bishamonten's foresight ability, Cal lays his sealing trap down and continues to fight in close quarters. Eventually, he lands a massive fire attack as he forces his opponent to back up toward his trap. After telling his foe to watch where he stands, Cal activates his trap, briefly holding him in place and assaulting him with thousands of deep gashes.
Bishamontent concedes defeat.
Part II[]
Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant[]
Seconds after Jiraiya successfully entered the village, he was detected by Pain. Wandering around the village, Jiraiya speaks to the inhabitants about their leader, Pain. Unsuccessful in gathering information he captures two ninja of the village, who tell him about their mysterious new leader Pain, who single-handedly defeated Hanzō, the former leader of Ame. Before acting further, Jiraiya summoned Gerotora and instructed him to store himself in Naruto should anything happen to him, speculating that Madara Uchiha was responsible for the Nine-Tails attack on Konoha in the past. Meanwhile Pain knowing that an intruder had infiltrated the village, orders Konan to search for the intruder. She then transforms into multiple origami papers to seek the intruder out. Konan locates Jiraiya, and informed Pain, who then changes bodies in a secret chamber.
Konan then went ahead and attacked Jiraiya, who fought, evenly matched, with her for a short time. Jiraiya then spoke about this history with Yahiko, and Nagato. When Pain arrives, they discuss Pain's personal ideology, and Akatsuki's goals. Pain, who is convinced Jiraiya is to die anyway, reveals his reasoning behind collecting the tailed beasts which was to create a kinjutsu which could wipe away entire nations, so that the world would "mature" and develop aversion for war. Finishing their talk, Pain summons a crustacean to attack Jiraiya, who defeats it and summons Gamaken. Having no other choice left, Jiraiya and Gamaken begin their battle against Pain. Camouflaging himself, Pain summons multiple creatures to defeat Jiraiya. Realising that he is up against a powerful foe, Jiraiya uses a barrier and prepares to enter Sage Mode. Due to the predicament Gamaken has, he sustains deep wounds from the battle. As Jiraiya has his technique ready to use, Gamaken leaves the battle and enters Sage Mode after summoning Fukasaku and Shima.
Jiraiya soon finds Pain, who summons two of his other Paths to enter the battle. Jiraiya blinds one of the new Pains with a kick to the face, and Fukasaku suspects that all three Pain's share the same eyes and vision after they countered all their attacks, while Jiraiya realizes that each of the bodies has only one specific purpose. Jiraiya stalls for time while Fukasaku and Shima prepare a powerful genjutsu to defeat the bodies and are successful in doing so. Jiraiya had a flashback to when he first met the Toad Sage, who had told him that he would be a pervert, travel the world, write a book, and would train the destined child who would either save or destroy the world. Leaving the bodies behind, another Pain attacked Jiraiya from behind and cuts his arm off. Being confronted by the entirety of the six paths of pain, Jiraiya discovers that all of Pain's bodies belonged to ninja he once knew, amongst them being his old student, Yahiko, functioning as Pain's Deva Path.
Even without astute sensory abilities, Cal can feel the threatening chakra as he rushes through the Village of Rain. He activates Sage Mode and creates a shadow clone as he crosses the water and spots Jiraiya sprawled out over a rock, surrounded by a devastated battle zone. The paths leap from their perch to finish off Jiraiya once and for all but a massive gust of wind intercepts and repels them mid-air, scattering them across the water. The paths recover quickly, insistent on silencing their former master forever, however, a subsequent firestorm is sent towards careening them, with the Preta Path beginning to absorb it, only to receive a flying kick to the face from Cal's clone.
Cal summons Bishamonten.
Don't die on us now old man. Making sure to keep his focus on the group of bizarre colorful ninja, Cal applies some minor healing to Jiraiya and quickly cauterizes his severed arm. Those are some pretty grizzly injuries, not much I can do for him, I'm no medic. Taking an extra few seconds to analyze his surroundings and the immediate threat. Are there four or five of them then? No, six, right? They all have those same purple eyes, hmm, what a load of bullshit. The sound of Jiraiya coughing up blood halts Cal's thoughts. I need to get him out of here, and fast.. Without breaking eye contact with Pain, he places his hand on the rock. You better show up you bastard. "Summoning Justu!". The hulking, monstrous form of Bishamonten emerges from the shadowy smoke, invoking a degree of surprise from "God". With his intentions laid bare, "I need five minutes" Cal states. The demonic creature snorts and warns him not to push his luck - he'll get three (minutes).
Glancing at his shadow clone and summon, he grabs Jiraiya and Fukasu and hauls them over his shoulder. "I expect a top-tier distraction from you guys, I'm making a break for it". Several of the paths attempt to cut them off and the Deva Path attempts to pull Jiraiya toward him with Banshō Ten'in but before he can he is cut off by yet another cascading inferno as Cal's clone launches himself into the fray, the newly-summoned behemoth following behind soon after.
"Those are some freaky eyes you've got there, buddy. They wouldn't happen to be magic like those Uchiha eyes would they?"
"Why do you resist? It's futile, Jiraiya-sensei is going to die soon enough, his fate has already been sealed". "Way too slow, you wasted all that time with us, the real me is long gone by now."
Pain contacts Kenji Miyamoto, who's in closer proximity to Konoha and Iwa, instructing him to track down Jiraiya and his accomplice and capture or dispose of them.
Fukasu doesn't seem capable of using any kind of summoning or reverse summoning techniques at the moment and Cal has effectively used more than half of his chakra up till this point. Haha, nice reflexes there.
Here we go again, I guess. Make shadow clone to distract
What the hell's with this guy, his chakra feels sharp and intense, his entire aura is making my body shake.
A crackling sound resonated through the area breaking Cal from his thoughts. Something felt wrong. Wait, what? Cal looked down and suddenly blood began spurting from his chest. He collapsed to the floor, his entire body screaming in pain, electrical currents percolating throughout his shaking body. I didn't even see him move, what the fuck. I can barley move. Even if I could, I've got a fucking hole in my chest, I'm bleeding out, and I'm seriously low on chakra. Never mind carrying Jiraiya and the frog. Hold up, am I really about to die right now?
"Hey, that was The Hidden Leaf's Shadow Clone Jutsu, right? Teach it to me." Kenji's enthusiastic scarred face popped up.
"What?" Is he insane? I'm moments from death here. I really wanna kill this guy.
Hah. As if I'd just give it up.
Haha, there you go man, you can do it. Kenji fired a massive laser beam. Cal could only stand and stare in a stunned stupor at the massive laser beam hurtling towards him at neckbreak speeds. His life flashed before his eyes. Are you kidding me? I can see it now, death. Shit, my bad guys, guess I'm done. On that sombre note, his entire is enveloped in the brilliant light before darkness swiftly claims him. His limp body drops to the floor. "Alright, guess I finish the old guy now. Do I even want to join Akatsuki? Damn sausage fest anyway."
Kiyone, spoke med nin and Sosuke entire route to Konoha stumble upon. Kenji swiftly dodges a gust of freezing cold wind intended to disable him.
What's the big idea trying to freeze me. The pale blue hair of his attacker stood out to him. "Whohoo, you're that Ice Bitch from the Hidden Mist. Haha, what an honour, you're even more cold and beautiful than they say." That guy with the sword seems pretty capable too. The other girl seems harmless, but those two are trouble, hmm. Maybe I quickly take the fodder out? I doubt I can just cut either of those two down. Make it a simple 2 v 1? That ice user tho, she's dangerous. It took a surprising amount to put that last guy down, I'm not exactly at full reserves anyway. Meh, I'll just retreat, that Pain guy can cry all he wants, I don't really fancy my chances at the moment. With that final thought, Kenji simply turns around and runs off far too quickly for them to bother following, much to his surprise, Kiyone is quick to pursue, staying on his trail for far longer than he wanted. He eventually manages to ditch her.
Akeno, attend to Cal, I'll check the Toad Sage. Sosuke gloomily bears down on Cals body. He's got a hole in his chest, he already looks like a corpse, there's no way you can do anything for him.
They eventually slip out of the country, with the favored choices of Kiri or Sunagakure and the Kazekage being far too great of a journey, they make for the nearest discernible village, Kusagakure, in hopes of being able to get some desperately needed proper medical care. Discarding his concerns about enemy shinobi, deciding even if the village is hostile, it's better than being caught by Pain and Akatsuki. After arriving at the village, they are met with initial hostility but Jiraiya is attended to by medical-nin after his gruesome injuries are seen. The village head attacks Cal while he is waiting to access his strength. They submit that they can stay until the healing process is done to a satisfactory standard but they will be under watch and must leave as soon as they are able.
Trivia[]
- Cal's physical templates are Yuji Itadori and Sukuna from "Jujutsu Kaisen".
- Cal's codename "Garou" (餓狼, Garō) literally translates to "Hungry Wolf", referencing his theme as a hunter.
- Mazoku (魔族) literally translates to "The Inferno" in Chinese, an obvious reference to his ability to produce extremely hot flames and manipulate them.
- The word "Mazoku" is commonly associated with supernatural and demonic imagery, against referencing common themes with the character's association with demons and Hell.
- According to the databook(s):
- Cal doesn't want to fight anyone in particular again.
- Cal has completed 19 official missions in total: 13 D-rank, 2 C-rank, 2 B-rank, 1 A-rank and 0 S-rank.
- Cal's favourite words are "knowledge" (知識, chishiki) and "resolve" (思い立つ, omoitatsu).
- Cal's favourite number is Seven (セブン, sebun).
- Cal's favourite food is meat, but he doesn't eat it as much as he;d like.
- Cal's favourite things to do are read manga, watch movies, eat junk food, and sleep.
- Cal's favourite colour is orange or purple.
- Cal's ultimate goal is unknown but he seems to want to live a carefree life.
- Associated theme Bring Me Back to Life.
Quotes[]
- (To Anbu Squad) "I come in peace...take me to your leader?".
- (To) "Don't look at me like that. You Uchiha fucks didn't invent fireballs".
