Hyuga Hokamaru

Kanji: 日向 甫花丸 (circle of first-blooming flowers)

Age: 24-25 (Classic); 27-29 (Shippuden)

Sexuality: Pan

Pronouns: He/Him

History:  Hokamaru was born in the Hyuga main household to Hokusai (北斎; his father) and Hiroe (浩恵; his mother). For the first four years of his young life, he enjoyed having the kind of authority that was granted to him "by blood," until his younger brother Daisuke (大輔) was born. The young Hoka realized two things by the time his little brother was three years old: 1) he wanted to teach his brother about all the cool and fun things they could do together in this world and 2) he became fully aware of the future that awaited Daisuke in the branch house after witnessing the cursed seal in action just once. It was then that he made the decision that he would never let this happen.

So Hoka started acting out. He rebelled, determined to draw all the wrong kinds of attention to himself, in hopes that his father and clan would start detesting the idea that he was even associated with them due to his wild ways and immature antics. In hopes that he'd be bypassed as "main material" in favor of his younger, quieter, more respectful little brother. He went as far as purposely failing to graduate onto a genin team just to look bad. Then, when he decided his reputation was thoroughly ruined, he revealed his true skills, became a genin, and then a chunin so shortly after that he had very little time to connect with his team. 

He grew up a chubby child, and once he hit 12 years old, he became aware of what "body image" meant, and what it meant to be attractive, especially by Hyuga standards. He began a long journey that would end in walking a precarious line which effected his weight and eating habits. By his mid-teens, he was struggling to stay just fit enough that he could pass physical tests and stay in the military, while still being the slim, elegant weight deemed ideal among his clanmates.

After he made chunin, before his parents could make any final decisions about who would be relegated to the branch house, Hoka left the clan altogether and applied to be recruited into the ANBU, so he'd be free to operate on a completely different set of rules than other shinobi. At this time, as a final act of rebellion, he shaved his head completely, shedding the last remains of the Hyuga aesthetic (or so he imagined).

At age 17, he was placed on Team Ro after their previous Hyuga member was killed. He established himself as one of their frontmen, due to his more offensive skills rather than defensive. He refused to utilize most of the Hyuga techniques out of pure spite, and kept only Rotation, for which he learned to change the chakra nature, creating an outward-bursting fire dome, a jutsu he affectionately dubbed "Fire Style: Flaming Vortex."

A year later, he was assigned on a duo mission with his captain, Hatake Kakashi, during which Hoka became too dehydrated and hypoglycemic in the heat of an escape, collapsing on the field. At the same time, Kakashi had run his chakra dangerously low; they and their mission were almost compromised, saved only by Kakashi using the last of his chakra reserves and survival instincts to drag Hoka's exhausted body home, damaging his chakra pathways in the process. Both of them ended up spending time in therapy together, resulting in a close friendship that's lasted years since.

Personality: He tends to do things just because he can, just for fun, or just to look cool and/or hot. He's usually witty and at least superficially self-confident (often arrogant), has a selective verbal filter, and is super informal but fairly people-savvy. He's more in-tune with people than he appears and can be quite charismatic if necessary. He plays up his "bad boy" act to great lengths, but some of it isn't an act, such as his tendency to play devil's advocate or antagonize people for fun (particularly people like Tenzo or Iruka--he finds soft-spoken and/or uptight people to be the most amusing to harass.) On average, he's not genuinely malevolent and just wants to be entertained more than anything else.

Trivia: 

- he does nOT like when somebody else gets the drop on him and succeeds in flustering him. it's a very rare, very foreign occurrence for him and usually results in an attempt to One Up.

- he can and will flirt with anything on two attractive legs.

- he crushed on Shizune for a little while bc he thought she was adorable, but pretty sure he quickly learned she was "a nag and a buzzkill" so he bailed outta that attempted friendship.