Kankuro

Player Information

Name: Del
Personal Journal: elalmadelmar
Age: 26
Contact Info: Plurk: Oceanica
Other Characters Played: None

Character Information

Character Name: Kankuro [No family name]
Character Series: Naruto
Character Age: 18
Character Gender: Male
Game Transplant
Canon Point: From his most recent appearance in Chapter 589, as the zombie Deidara is disintegrating.
Former Game: a_facility (I'm aware Facility has since moved, but Kankuro left the game before the move to Dreamwidth)
Background Link: Kankuro on the Naruto Wiki
Game Background: Kankuro, thanks to his upbringing -- hardened to horror, right from the start, thanks to growing up with Gaara in Shukaku's grip -- actually fared reasonably well, psychologically speaking, in the Facility. Oh, he has more than a few nightmares now that he didn't have before, but they've joined the ranks of the ones he brought from home, and he manages to sleep pretty well despite it all. However, that's not to say the Facility left him untouched, only that the effects are subtle and he's not actually broken. He is, however, jaded to a lot of horror, more cut-throat than he used to be by far, and tends to view himself and his own safety with a certain bitter detachment, although to balance that out, he's less hotheaded than he used to be. Willing to put himself at risk for others? Absolutely. Ready to go off half-cocked against someone he identifies as an enemy? He had it beaten into his skull why that's a terrible idea, and had a little more education on how enemies from home aren't always enemies when locked up in a multi-world crazy bin.

The experimentation he suffered turned him against Gaara more than once, unleashing a sentiment that Kankuro fought since then to disclaim and reject -- intense envy of Gaara's transformation, his respect among both the shinobi of their village and the other residents of the Facility. The incident ended with Kankuro nearly killing himself in an attempt to display his remorse and commitment to serving as Gaara's bodyguard; in the aftermath, Kankuro became much more hardened against forming bonds with people, realizing that they were too vulnerable to manipulation. Certainly, he wasn't going to toss his brother aside, but he became far warier of others, ready to deny any feelings of friendship or affection that started to blossom.

Conversely, he also learned the uselessness of holding violent grudges, particularly in a close-quarters environment where no one stayed dead. When he had to face down his enemies over and over, and killing them only got them off his back for a few days, there was very little reason to keep those grudges at the forefront of his mind or react violently against someone, no matter how gravely they'd wronged him or his. When no one can die, the cycle of revenge can't end.

Personality: Kankuro is almost never seen in public without a hood over his head and paint on his face; when he fights, he steps back from the center of things and lets his puppets take the stage, putting them forward in combat and letting his skill at manipulating them speak for itself. These points, together, illustrate the particular combination of self-effacement and theatricality that Kankuro embodies. On the one hand, he doesn't show his true face, and he leaves his battlefield prowess to be demonstrated indirectly, by his weapons themselves; on the other, he is perfectly willing to be eccentric, to look different than anyone else and draw attention to his specific differences. He wears paint; you see and remember the paint, not the shape of the face underneath it. (Headcanon: it's never explicitly mentioned in the story, but Kankuro without his paint on is the spitting image of his father; I speculate there is some connection between that similarity and Kankuro's insistence on concealing his features.)

He speaks with an affected accent, casual and rough but at the same time rhythmic and almost musical; he's an actor to the core. The other significant puppeteer character in Naruto talks about art in terms of creation, but Kankuro lives art in terms of performance. His day-to-day actions imply an audience, although sometimes that audience is for him personally, the paint-and-hood public persona, and sometimes it's for his puppets. He also affects an exaggeratedly casual aspect about most things; it's not clear whether it's to make it seem that he's not afraid of anything, or whether he genuinely isn't, what with having grown up with Gaara's homicidal younger self as his teammate. He wants everyone to know that no matter what he sees, he's not impressed, probably doesn't even give a shit, and doesn't care one bit who knows about it.

However, while his public persona is casual, rough, and sometimes rather disrespectful, there's a more private side to him, the one he only shows to close friends and to his siblings. That inner Kankuro is fiercely loyal to his brother, to his family, and to his village. That's the Kankuro who runs out alone to try and rescue Gaara, knowing that the enemy he'd be facing was strong enough to take down Gaara and all of Gaara's far greater power, the Kankuro who faced down a once-triumphant enemy with determination and ferocity, because it needed to be done. Kankuro is perfectly willing to put himself in harm's way when needed -- so long as the one who needs him has earned the right to that loyalty, to know the inner side of him.

(His stay in the Facility, it should be noted, has made it harder to get to that inner place of privilege. Having let people in there, only to lose them through "termination" or to have them both turn on each other thanks to the experiments that were performed -- it has made him that much warier, that much less willing to trust.)

Perhaps surprising with his gruff exterior, Kankuro also has a surprisingly broad capacity for forgiveness. Gaara terrorized him throughout his childhood and into his teens -- but once Gaara himself changed and made it clear that he really did wish to seek connections to others, Kankuro became his first and biggest supporter, encouraging Gaara forward, supporting him, and even serving as his bodyguard. Similarly, although his first meeting with Sasori ended with Kankuro escaping death by a hair, when he fought the man a second time, Kankuro was willing to be friendly with Sasori, forgave him the battle, and even encouraged him to be true to himself and his own innate nature. He was willing to forgive Sasori for the past, even if it had almost meant his own death, and respected him for his skill and strength.
Abilities:Two sections to Kankuro's abilities: the first are standard ninja abilities in his world, the second are unique to him. All ninja abilities work off chakra, energy that is created from within one's own body. Chakra powers the body's basic functions as well as these special abilities, so to drain oneself too deeply can lead to physical weakness/exhaustion, fainting, decreased function, even organ failure and death if taken too far.

Standard
Most ninja in the Naruto world, with only certain special exceptions, are capable of the following abilities:
Henge - Changing one's own appearance (or, potentially, the appearance of another; it's tied in with kawarimi, below) to imitate someone or something else. This is considered a low-level ability.
Kawarimi - Body replacement technique. The user appears to be in a certain spot, and may even move about and fight, but when struck, a henge is dispelled and an inanimate object -- traditionally a small log, but just about anything may be used -- is revealed.
Water/Wall walking - Chakra in the feet (or another part of the body, or an item such as crutches being used to assist in mobility) makes the user able to 'stick' to a vertical or upside-down surface, such as a wall or ceiling, the underside of a tree branch, or similar. A variation on that technique exudes continuous chakra from the feet, allowing the ninja to stand, walk, or run along the surface of water. (Headcanon: I tend to assume that Sunagakure ninja, being in the desert, use a variation on that last to enable them to move quickly and with little expenditure of muscle energy to run across the sand.)
Shunshin - "Body flicker." One minute they're there, the next they're gone. It isn't actual teleportation, but rather, using chakra to move a short distance at very high speed, faster than the eye can follow. Many add an elemental flare, using a swirl of wind, mist, flame, smoke, sand, or other material to disguise their departure.
Chakra sensing - All ninja are sensitive to some degree to the chakra of others; it lets them detect when a large jutsu is in the works, when a skill like henge is being used, or simply that another ninja is present. It also lets them sense things like killing intent, the way a person's chakra reacts when they are truly ready to kill their target.

Kankuro's Specialties
These abilities are particular to Kankuro or people with the same skills and specialty as he has.
Chakra strings - These are the basis of Kankuro's combat techniques. He refines his chakra into a very thin string, which other ninja typically cannot sense unless they are sensor specialists, and uses the strings to manipulate objects or people. He seems to have an extremely long reach, although it's never canonly defined just how long. These strings also allow him to perceive the world through his puppets - which is how he can continue to fight while completely hidden within Sanshouuo, for example, or while pretending to be Karasu and completely cocooned in bandages. (Headcanon: it's never explicitly stated whether he could do this with another living person; I tend to think he could, but it would be much more difficult and the other person would be able to feel his attempt to use their senses, and if they had any chi/chakra/personal-energies control, would be able to throw off the strings.)
Battle puppets - The primary use for these chakra strings is in manipulating a set of battle puppets, heavily armed and artistic creations that have a variety of purposes. All of them are combative in some way; two are for direct combat, primarily offensive; two are capture puppets, built with large, hollow bodies that open to admit their victim, and then snap shut again, with thin slits where weapons from the offensive puppets can pierce through and skewer their helpless victims. The last is a protective puppet; large, solid, he can withstand a powerful impact, protecting the occupants within him. (It's worth noting that one of the attack puppets is actually the lifeless body of another Tower resident. Ain't that going to be an interesting chat?)
Poisons - The puppeteers specialize in using poisons; the weapons in their puppets are coated with a variety of exotic compounds, and the puppets can also fire poison gas pellets. This is never really touched on in great detail in canon, however, it seems logical to assume that a very talented and high-ranking puppeteer would have comparable expertise with the poisons that are used on his puppets.
Sample Entries:
Old sample 1, Old sample 2

New sample
Testrun thread 1, Testrun thread 2

[Since that's a little short, I've also written out a sample.]
Kankuro'd gotten all the pertinent warnings about what he might find in the Tower if he poked around too much, so it wasn't like he was going into this blindly. Nope, eyes wide open and hands ready for trouble, that was him. He was restless, frustrated, angry with the situation he'd found himself in, and all too ready to go hunting for a little trouble.

Trouble that he'd most definitely found.

The creature -- no name for it that Kankuro knew of -- was some cobbled-together monstrosity of a human and a something, some kind of pulsing nightmare creature with bulging muscles, a rancid stink, and far too many arms with far too many joints to them.

It stared at him and Karasu, and he grinned to himself. Time for a little fun.

Knowing the danger, he'd deliberately chosen to keep Karasu out, switching places with his oldest puppet as he had from his first years as a ninja, so that it was the puppet who strode confidently through the Tower hidden behind bold purple facepaint and a black hood, and the puppeteer draped over his shoulder, a seeming of wood and bushy hair with too many eyes and quite a few limbs himself.

All for the better, as the creature's gaze was fixed firmly on the false Kankuro now.

"Move aside," Karasu said with his voice, a lazy grin spreading. "I ain't got time for your shit." But what he did have time for was a good hard fight.

That was all the time he had for talk, as the creature lunged for what it thought was the tasty morsel of a puppetmaster standing in front of it.

Karasu tossed Kankuro aside and danced back, not quite willing yet to drop the illusion of being a human. Kankuro let himself collapse bonelessly, the illusion giving off the sound of clattering wood, and Karasu-as-Kankuro drew a blade, slashing at the creature whose horrible long nails scrabbled at him, trying to tear.

Too bad they were trying to tear wood. Kankuro jerked a hand and Karasu showed off his own multiple arms, catching the creature's human torso in a tight, razor-edged embrace, the serrated blades in his arms tearing at the grotesque flesh. The blades might be poisoned, but Kankuro had the idea that it wouldn't be enough to take this guy down quickly. A hand dropped down to the scroll tucked into his sash, wondering if he ought to throw Sasori into the fray as well. But he'd rather hold back on that one if he could, out of general caution. Karasu himself was an excellent puppet, and Kankuro felt he could handle the job decently enough.