Ienori Hoshino

Despite having a chakra nature of predominantly earth, Ienori was a child of the sea. His homeland was the island nation of the Land of Water, and with the hidden village so close to the shore, his mother, a civilian woman, often took him to the beach to see the sea. It was their special tradition, something that happened only once every three months. The two of them would set up camp by the seaside for a few days and just play.

Ienori's memories of his mother were fond ones. Since she worked as a chef in a small, family restaurant, the boy would often watch his mother cook at home and at work. Despite being quiet and obedient by nature, his childhood wasn't without any normal childish antics. He hung around the shop, made friends with the customers, and took orders (or at least pretended to). He'd try to wash the dishes (only to make great soap foam wars with the dishwasher and end up being scolded for making a mess) and he'd help carry plates to and from the tables. When he wasn't "helping" out at the restaurant, he'd be curled up in the library reading, waiting for his mother to come pick him up.

She was a single mother, for the most part anyway. His father was one of the village Anbu, and with that, he wasn't able to come home very often let alone show his face on the streets. As young as he was, Ienori didn't quite mind. His mother's love and attention was enough, and he was mature enough to be happy with what he had. After all, his life could've been much, much worse, and he knew he was lucky to even have a parent left to fawn over him. But at that time, he hadn't really understood what death was and what it would mean. To a child like him, he only knew that it meant he wouldn't be able to see someone ever again, and that it made people sad.

A year later, he finally understood. By natural means, his mother contracted a disease that quickly drained her of her energy. Despite this, she hid her illness from her son, fearing that she would only make him worry. Less than a year later, she expired, and his father was discharged from the Anbu so that he could look after his seven-year old son. Having never interacted with his child for a long period of time, he spent a long year trying to get to know Ienori, who, after getting his first taste of death, wanted nothing to do with him. His mother's death haunted him: he'd finally realized that everything was finite, and that one day, maybe tomorrow, everyone would become the same as his mother—cold and lifeless.

For a long while, he had a one-track mind. Due to his overactive imagination, everything he saw and everyone he met made him think of morbid scenes of how things would be like when it was dead or abandoned, and every night, he woke with gritted teeth and tears in his eyes. He refused to go to his father, who he was convinced would only make things worse. After all, who wanted to watch one of their precious family rot before his mind's eye?

Once Ienori's father finally found out the cause for the son's discomfort, he sighed and went to talk to his child. It was after much discussing and explaining that he finally managed to ease Ienori's worries about death, and from there, the two grew much closer. They started a tradition of their own: one of gazing at stars. They had a set date that they'd make sure was free for stargazing, unless there was a special occasion (like a meteor shower!), and it was the sixteenth of every month.

For the next three years, Ienori spent his life focusing on academy studies. Being an active Jounin, his father wasn't exempt from missions, so there were times when he was left at home alone, but as he grew older, he found that he minded less. As long as his father made it home for their monthly stargazing trips, he was happy. He had also grown out his hair from in tribute to his mother, who once long and beautiful black hair—hair which he had inherited. It was only chin length, since he'd sometimes get teased for it, but it was somewhat long for a male and he felt he did his mother justice.

Growing up alone turned Ienori into a mature and responsible child. Despite his youth and small size, he learned how to cook and do household chores by himself (mostly with help from the neighbors), and he got by in the academy with lots of self-studying and practice. Some kind village members sometimes helped him out by giving him gifts of food and books, and Ienori, being too polite to turn them down, would accept them with many thanks. He always tried to do something for them in return, and his lifestyle eventually earned him a reputation as a kindhearted and respectful boy.

At the age of eleven, however, tragedy struck again. On a certain sixteenth of June, Ienori and his father went stargazing, as promised. This time, his father took him to the beach, somewhere that his son hadn't been to since the time of his mother's death. Since it would be a special day (there had been a prediction of shooting stars!), his father decided to take the whole day off, and the two left for the shore in the morning. The day passed smoothly until evening rolled around and his father called him back to their small camp for dinner. At that time, Ienori didn't quite move fast enough, and he lost his footing and his little body was sucked into the sea.

For what felt like a lifetime to him, there was no up or down, left or right. Everything was cold, everything was dark; one moment he'd feel blessed air against his skin and just when he thought it was over, he'd be dunked under again, an otherworldly force thrashing him around under the surface and into the sand. His body felt so heavier and everything was fast and slow at the same time. He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe, he wanted to cry but his tears were lost and his cries were swallowed and replaced with salt and water.

Finally, a strong hand grabbed him by the arm, and he was flung up to the beach again, half-drowned and beyond screaming and tears. His skin was rubbed raw in the places the force of the waves had dragged him across sand, and he had a hand-shaped bruise forming on his lower right arm. Everything was too much for him, and after coughing and vomiting up a sizable amount of seawater, he blacked out on the sand.

The next time he woke, he was in the comfortable hold of strong arms and traveling at what he thought at the time was a thousand miles per hour. When another round of tears sprung up, soothing hushes and whispers lulled him back into a doze. The last thing he felt was a warm hand ruffling his stiff, salt-dried hair. Otou-san, he thought, and drifted back into a sea of dark.

When he finally cracked his eyes open again, he was lying in a hospital bed, safe and sound. After a few nights' rest (and thankfully no fever), he was quickly discharged, and it was only after he got out of the hospital that he found out his father was missing. It wasn't his father who'd carried him back to the village, it was a Jounin who had been returning to the village after completing a mission. He'd found the child unconscious on the shore, and had returned with him.

Remembering the hand that had clamped itself onto his arm and dragged him out, Ienori became convinced that his father had taken his place at the bottom of the sea. With that realization came a fear for water (every time he saw a body of water, he could only imagine it rising up and swallowing him, no matter how still it was). Though the Jounin who'd saved him offered to adopt him, Ienori rejected his offer and tried his best to make ends meet alone. But a parentless preteen with aquaphobia couldn't exactly fend for himself, and with his fear interfering with what used to be daily aspects of his life, loneliness and an irrational fear broke him.

When the Jounin finally decided to take the chance to casually swing by and check on the young raven he'd saved, what he found astounded him. What he found was a dying twelve-year old (apparently, the boy had turned twelve during his breakdown) and so he put his foot down. He was helping the kid whether said kid wanted that help or not. If he didn't want to be adopted then fine, but that didn't mean he'd have to sit around and watch a child kill himself from the inside.

It wasn't long before he managed to gain the kid's trust, and with the coming years, the two were able to work out the child's demons and fears. Though the Jounin never did adopt Ienori, the two gained a a close father-son relationship not unlike (if not closer) than the one the boy had with his real father. Before graduating the academy (which he did with pride after a long slump), Ienori managed to conquer his fear over water for the most part, and he grew his hair out even longer, no longer caring about being teased a girl. (Cross-dressing for a job seemed to help that a lot.) Now he lives mostly happy and alive, a genin ready for the whatever the future might bring him.