Childhood - 0 to 5 years old

The Land of Hills was a small region inside the Land of Fire, infamous for their fierce maintenance of independence from the Land of Fire. Chie was born as Keiko Hanasa, one of her clan’s twin heirs. Her early life was spent in the idyllic Land of Hills' hidden village, Okagakure. She and her twin sister Yuuki were the only children of the ruling clan's leader, Kei Hanasa, and were raised as the future leaders and protectors of Okagakure. Their mother died in childbirth, and their father was busy running the village. As such the twins were raised by a mix of servants and hired tutors. They were very close in their childhood - playing, studying, and generally spending every waking moment with each other.  

Much to their father's delight, Keiko was found to be a prodigy very early on - learning to read and write leagues before her peers, including her sister. Keiko also showed extreme talent in ninjutsu and general shinobi skills, graduating the Okagakure's ninja academy at 6 years of age. Yuuki trailed behind her in most things.

Youth - 6 - 17 years old

As they got older, the twin's father had their curriculums separated, but they were both taught general diplomacy, of the treaties that had kept Okagakure safe from the ever-looming threat of invasion by Konohagakure, to control their emotions, to harness their power for the sake of the people. and to use their Kekkei Genkai. 

Keiko was to become clan leader and head of Okagakure's military, the equivalent of the kage of other villages. Kei believed that it was important to harden Keiko by surrounding her with the realities of the battlefield from the moment she became chuunin at age 7. Her days were dedicated to the shinobi arts, as well as "training" missions, mandated by her father, that would often turn into mass cullings of civilians. Keiko, a sensitive empath of a little girl, severely disliked this and often resisted her father's orders. This resulted in scoldings that would quickly turn into lashings combined with a certain application of the Hanasa clan's kekkei genkai that inflicted great pain. Valuing her life, Keiko would eventually but reluctantly obey. 

Yuuki was to become Keiko's aide, guiding and manipulating things behind the scenes. Always the less talented one, Kei spent much less time with her compared to Keiko, sewing the beginnings of a rift between the once inseparable pair. 

When the girls turned ten - five years earlier than the norm - Keiko was considered ready for the Sosentensou - a secret, sacred ritual exclusive to the Hanasa clan that effectively quintupled the effectiveness of the clan’s chakra hardening Kekkei Genkai, via the transfer of the clan’s founder’s chakra from one leader to the next. Yuuki did not appreciate that their father did not consider her as an option. The growing rift between the twins became a chasm at her father’s decision. 

Yuuki became bitter, and set in motion a revenge plot against her sister. The people of the Land of Hills, made up of the survivors of the clan's cullings, had always been unhappy under the hands of the twin’s father but knew that as long as they cooperated they would live the rest of their lives in peace. For her revenge, all Yuuki had to do was tarnish Keiko’s reputation by making her the people’s scapegoat. Keiko, the Terror of Oka - killer of children and destroyer of families. The moniker and the reputation that came with it followed Keiko everywhere, even on the battlefield where enemy nin would address her with it. Keiko was forced into a life of isolation as her own people turned their backs on her.  

Meanwhile, Keiko unwillingly became the village's most lethal weapon. To ensure the daughter he had raised so carefully to be the perfect tool, her father had implemented a seal into the ritual as a fail-safe. The seal allowed the user to use the clan’s Kekkei Genkai from a distance of up to a kilometer rather than needing to be in touch range. Now, whenever Keiko was to hesitate, her father would activate the seal to harden Keiko’s chakra in non-vital areas. Just as before, the extreme pain would eventually force Keiko's reluctant hand.

Five years pass. Five years of killing the enemies she knew to be innocents. Her only solace was books and learning. Keiko grew resentful towards her father for his tyranny, but she could never bring herself to hate the sister she had once loved. As time passed, Keiko became to believe the reputation Yuuki had given her. Her behavior on the battlefield became savage and ruthless as she fought a battle within her to answer the question - was she a monster like their father, just as everyone said she was?

The Betrayal - 17 years old

One fateful day, the already-tense relationship between Konohagakure and Okagakure shattered when the twin’s father, ever the conqueror, chose to force Keiko into annexing one civilian settlement too many. Konohagakure decided enough was enough and assigned select jounin and their genin teams to defend the vulnerable civilian settlements nearby the Land of Hills. At this point even Yuuki’s diplomatic prowess wasn’t enough to prevent an eventual war. In an event known as the Oka Massacre, leaf ninjas came in hoards to seize and raze the Land of Hills and its people. At first, Keiko defended her home, but as her kill count rose her motivation fell. Wasn’t this her chance to leave the place that was so awful to her?

Mid-battle, she decided enough was enough. Her father was being attacked, and she seized his distraction as an opportunity. Keiko turned on her father, much to the surprise of the leaf ninjas he was currently combating. Without the power of the clan’s founder her father - transferred to Keiko during the Sosentensou ritual - he was not able to defend himself against both Keiko’s and the Leaf ninja's ruthless attacks. Once he was dead, Keiko fled the scene and somehow lost her pursuers. Without Keiko, Okagakure didn’t stand a chance against Konohagakure - the Village Hidden in the Hills was no more, and the Hanasa clan was culled by the Leaf. 

Wandering - 17 to 20 years old

Tired of being used as a weapon, Keiko shifted from alias to alias and face to face as she traveled the Land of Fire, hoping to maintain her newfound freedom. However, as a loose end with the death of thousands of people both civilian and shinobi pinned on her, she spent these years afraid of letting people too close. She began dyeing her hair black and maintaining the life of isolation she had been forced to endure in her youth by keeping people at arm's length, too afraid of being recognized from the pages of the bingo book and losing the peaceful life she had just obtained. 

She made due using her knowledge of the outside world she had obtained through her books and on non-violent mercenary work such as escort missions. She had always been jealous of civilians in general as she grew up, viewing their lifestyle as ideal, peaceful, and simple - a stark contrast to what she had growing up. It only followed that she sought to realize her dream of becoming a civilian, observing them from a distance and learning how to be like them over this period, taking copious notes and studying them through the night.

Present - 20+ years old

Three years after the collapse of the Land of Hills, a twenty-year-old Chie Satou arrived at the gates of Konohagakure as a civilian refugee. It just so happened that the town she had been living in was involved in a territorial skirmish. The place was razed to the ground, and the Leaf took in the survivors to help with a general civilian labor shortage. 

Though the situation was brought about by pure coincidence, Keiko made the decision to go forward with the understanding that moving to the Leaf would only put her in danger. She had grown weary of a life of running over the course of the past three years. If she was to be caught - so be it.

She was taken in by an elderly couple in exchange for helping them run their bookstore. The couple had no children or close friends, but treated Chie like family but did not pry- something Chie was extremely appreciative of. She was willed the store and the attached upstairs apartment when the couple passed two years later. 

Personality

Attitude

Despite her chosen profession, Keiko, now going by Chie, is anything but an open book. This was especially the case growing up when she was best described as aloof and cold to those who didn't know her well. Those who she allowed close to her were far and few between, but took note of the warm and kind person cowering underneath, afraid of getting hurt. 

In the weeks after the betrayal, Chie made the decision to emulate the personality of her favorite fictional protagonist - a bright and cheerful young woman who never let the tragedies that plagued her life change her positive outlook. The change felt natural for her, which she found surprising. She believed herself to be the cruel, cold, calculating monster the world viewed her as. This belief did not change, which she justified by considering her newfound cheeriness nothing but a new mask, ignoring how well said mask fit. 

Likes

All of Chie's hobbies involve some sort of escapism. Reading and writing are her major interests, followed by casual sketching - usual illustrations for said writing. 

Dislikes

Chie despises disrespectful people. She believes everyone has the right to be treated as a human. Along the same lines, she hates the needless loss of life. 

TRIVIA

Misc.

- Due to her traumatic past, she has trouble sleeping most nights - suffering from insomnia and night terrors. 

- She became Jounin when she was 14.

- Her back is cluttered with lashing scars, she has several battle scars on her arms and torso as well.

- Has read every single book in her bookstore. 

- 25% of her sales are erotica.

- Big fan of Icha Icha, though views it with a more academic lens than most.

Clan Information

Appearance

Hanasa clan members had distinctive dark red hair and softer facial features. There were no indicators that separated the branch houses from each other naturally, besides the different symbols used to brand them on their lower backs.

Background

The Hanasa clan was the leading clan of Okagakure, an infamous, militaristic and territory-hungry hidden village that was located in the southern region of the Land of Fire. Surrounded on all sides by Konoha territory, Okagakure survived only on fragile peace treaties. In what seemed like a never-ending cycle of tense relations, these treaties were constantly broken due to Okagakure violently annexing civilian settlements and enslaving their people, only to be reinstated due to the valuable resources provided by Okagakure to the Leaf. Said resources were clay, coal, and the plethora of food provided by the annexed farmlands.

Ten years after the Third Shinobi War ended the tension between the two villages came to a breaking point. Okagakure conquered a settlement explicitly under Konoha’s protection, violating one of the fundamental peace treaties staving off war. The leader at the time, Kei Hanasa, had grown cocky. He believed his heir, Keiko Hanasa - the most powerful clan member the clan had seen in generations - would be able to single handedly defeat whatever and whoever the leaf sent in retaliation. What he didn’t expect was for her to betray him and Okagakure as a whole, fed up with the unethical practices she was forced to partake in. Without her to defend the village, Konoha razed Okagakure to the ground. They massacred all members of the Hanasa clan in the process. Keiko and possibly her twin sister Yuuki are said to be the only remaining survivors.

Kekkei Genkai

The Hanasa clan’s Kekkei Genkai enabled the user to harden the chakra they come into contact with. Most chose to morph their chakra into shields or weapons. Upon physical contact with an enemy’s body, they could solidify the enemy’s chakra from within, causing extreme and debilitating pain.

The largest advantage of their Kekkei Genkai was the minimal chakra usage required for it. Shields and weapons that do not stray more than one meter (an upper limit, the average distance is around a tenth of a meter) from the user could simply be unhardened and the chakra recycled back into the user. Any weapon formed from the Kekkei Genkai that strays from this limit immediately dissipates and is recycled. As such, the Hanasa clan relied on trade to supply kunai, shuriken, and other throwing weapons.

The Disadvantage? Mastering its use in combat took a decade and a half for most to master. Training usually began the moment the child learned to talk. The average Hanasa just beginning to use their Kekkei Genkai could take up to thirty seconds to muster up a small blade of usable sharpness, or five minutes to create a full-body shield - much too slow for combat. Because of this, most Hanasa clan members relied on the pain-inducing abilities of their Kekkei Genkai in combat until they learned to fully control its other abilities.

The speed a Hanasa learned their Kekkei Genkai was greatly dependent on the house they belong to combined with the talent of the user. “Branded” houses, named for the cattle-like brandings burned onto their lower backs at the age of 11, serve the main branch and must work twice as hard to develop their Kekkei Genkai. On the other hand, the main branch tended to produce offspring with a natural talent for it, learning at sometimes twice or three times the speed as their branch family relatives.

To counter this disadvantage, the heir of the clan of each generation underwent a special ritual developed over the centuries of the clan’s existence called the Sosentensou (lit: ancestor transfer). In this ritual, a portion of each previous clan leader’s chakra over the generations became incorporated into the heir, quintupling the effectiveness of their Kekkei Genkai as well as doubling their chakra. Only one clan member could benefit from the effects of the ritual at once.

Despite the difficult learning curve those that mastered its abilities were a deadly force on the battlefield. Specializing in ninjutsu and kenjutsu and the combinatorial in-kenjutsu to make full use of their clan’s abilities.

Battle Style

The Hanasa clan is renowned for the battle style of their most advanced Jounin. These jounin use the clan's Kekkei Genkai to form blades sharp enough to slice through bone and flesh with extreme ease. The style itself seeks to end battles quickly through decapitation or the cutting of limbs. During the Third Shinobi War, the clan became infamous for littering the battlefield with the heads and limbs of any who encroached on their territory. Brutal, but efficient.

Other Information

Okagakure promoted their ninja based on performance in the field as well as scores on written tests. It did not participate in any joint chuunin exams.