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positive traits,

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negative traits,

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「 proficiencies 」

hijutsu ⌬ apprentice

FOUR LEGS TECHNIQUE[break]
the inuzuka taijutsu specialty that pairs a shinobi with a ninken in a unique way. for botan, he's still growing his connection with his ninken, they've bonded, but they haven't exactly worked out how to perfectly work in tandem. at most, they're like two rabid parts of a whole, thinking separately with the same goal in mind. he hopes to eventually find that inner "peace" or whatever it's called, he doesn't know. not like he's really had a teacher for all this. however, the four legs technique has made it easier for botan to move around on four legs and use all four of his limbs and his teeth as weapons. literally just a feral little brat.

dango tani's only ninken at the moment, he's been with the grey direwolf dog since he was a baby. he's not sure who appeared first, him or dango, but his mother would always joke about how she had two sons at the same time. already smaller than average, when he's walking with dango, botan looks even smaller as the large ninken comes almost to his shoulders (~4 ft tall) when dango is on all fours and definitely stands taller than botan when he's on his back legs. others usually see dango before seeing tani approaching. sometimes rides on the other's back when he's tired (or lazy). dango has the capability of speech, but he's very picky about speaking in front of people. often only talks to botan through their mindlink when others are around, but if dango trusts them enough, he'll speak freely. just don't ask him to speak on command - he'll bite you. dango does have the ability to shrink himself to be a smaller size so that he doesn't frighten people and can fit indoors with botan as needed.

shurikenjutsu ⌬ apprentice

doesn't often use his kunai, but he likes that they're basically tiny pointy teeth that he can fling at people. extra bite for all his bark, yanno? most of what he's capable of is academy level, still a little clumsy and not the greatest at aiming yet. look, he totally meant to hit the guy in the foot alright, it was on purpose. it's a lot easier to use his kunai as a distraction while dango goes on the offense for him. better to keep himself out of harms way instead of messing up his cute face. he has some skill with other thrown weapons like shurikens or senbon, but kunai feel more natural in his hands if he was to use a weapon outside of his own claws.

stealth ⌬ apprentice

most shinobi have some ability of stealth, whether that's through avoiding detection or sleuthing someone else out. for tani, that mostly falls in the line of staying undetected while picking someone's pocket or stealing some food. however, he's far too.... loud and rambunctious now to actually be great at sneaking around unless it's life or death - he's too much of a comedic not to laugh at something dumb. plus it's hard for a teenage boy and a giant wolfdog to keep quiet in most cases. however, he's great at detecting others because of his habit of trying to stay out of trouble. and it's difficult to sneak up on someone with a super great sense of smell, oops.

shōton ⌬ dormant

doton + katon[break]
shinobi who can utilize the crystal release, a kekkei genkai, are able to do a variety of different things. primarily using doton and katon, the two most common ways crystals are formed, the user is able to successful create crystals seemingly out of nowhere (more specifically, they can create crystals from direct physical material or by drawing moisture out of the air). crystal release is most noticeable by the creation of brightly colored crystals that form - for tani, his crystals take on a jade-green color which would distinguish them from other crystal release users. when purely created or pre-existing crystals are manipulated, most crystal releases take the form of weapons and armor. however when used on a living creature, they can be crystallized down to the cellular level and imprisoned as long as the crystals are intact. if the crystals are broken, the trapped creature will shatter and wind up with the creature inside disintegrated. creatures with high levels of raw energy and chakra cannot be crystallized.

enhanced scent

most inuzuka have an enhanced ability of some sort - scent, speed, sight. for botan, it's specifically his sense of scent. he's easily able to track someone or identify an actual person instead of a clone. though it's not without it's limitations. extremely strong scents can block his extra abilities, making it hard to even focus on tracking something. it's also a lot easier to track something when he has that specific scent to follow, makes it easier to pick it out from everything else. this also makes it easier for tani to conceal his position as well, aiding in his minimal stealth capabilities. it mostly just provides him the ability to possibly hide from other enhanced scent users as he can realize that he'll be downwind of something and it'll be harder to find him.

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「 summary 」

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you were never really been taught how to be strong. a father you don't know. a mother you can barely remember. a village that didn't care for the boy on his own. you've had to teach yourself your own strengths. how to motivate yourself to be successful, how to survive. courage is something you pride yourself on now. you laugh to mask the pain, you laugh in the face of danger, something that you're berated for now that you have people who care about you. what a funny feeling. you're not sure how to handle something like that since all you've known is anger for most of your life. anger at the world, your parents, yourself. it all bleeds together until all you can see is red and all you want to do is fight. tooth and nail, you claw your way towards the top -- you're still not there, but you're further than where you started. at least you have some scale of power to survive, some sense of belonging. an idea that everything doesn't always have to be fought for, that some things are just given freely.
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a new life, a sense of familiarity, the idea of hope. you don't want to fall into a false sense of security, but you can't help but feel optimistic with the new experiences before you. a job? if you can even call it that.. it felt more like a title given to you to make something seem legitimate. was there really an underground, er... in cave, fighting arena.. thing in kirigakure? you'd never heard of such a thing, but now you were a recruiter for it as well as the 'game' announcer. it was exciting, seeing the crowd get pumped up and in the mood as you introduced contestants. you didn't have a script to follow, not like you could ever really follow a script, could barely even follow a schedule or a set of rules. sometimes you get antsy watching the rounds, introducing new challenges for the competitors - rapid animals, more opponents, changes to the arena environment. your impatience brings you entertainment, puts a smile on your face and has laughter ringing in the air. the irregularity between every round is something that you look forward to every day. some even call you mad for loving the misfortune that befalls opponents.
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for all your bravado, you're a coward. you don't fight your own fights. you befriend those stronger than you, make them cater towards you, feel the need to protect you. so that when push comes to shove, you can slink into the shadows while they fight your battles instead. cowardly. and whenever you do have to handle things for yourself, you have dango to take the brute of the attacks. he wouldn't let you get injured anyways, always stepping in front of you whenever he senses danger. of everything in your life, he's the biggest constant for you. always there whenever you need him, never too far from when you need to seek comfort. you'd do anything for him to be happy, remembering the times you chose not to eat so that he could have something instead. and that kindness is repaid tenfold as you get older. but you're not sure how to show that towards other humans, dogs were so much easier to deal with, humans were too... nuanced. too complicated. you don't understand them.
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you're young, you didn't have a dedicated education like a lot of others your age. it's only recently that you've been taught how to read and write, still struggle and prefer to avoid that if possible. you don't want others to know your weaknesses. any progress or skills you know have been learned on your own - observing, replicating, perfecting. it's not an easy task, it takes awhile for you to grow and adapt. your inexperience is often noticeable, the wide child-like look on your face whenever you experience something new (something that happens far too often now thanks to him). you don't like looking dumb and there's far too many situations that make you rely on luck to guess your way out of it. for some reason, you always guess correctly (at least most of the time or people just don't call out your bluffs). it's a fine line that you toe between fact and fiction, choosing to create elaborate stories instead of telling the truth. it's too easy, too sad, to tell people your story. so what if every time you talk about your past some thing changes, some new adventure you've been on (a lie), a new person you've met (a lie), a life threatening creature you've faced (a lie). lies roll off your tongue so often that you can barely remember them and it's rare that someone catches you in your web, but when someone sometimes does, you run away so you don't have to deal with it.
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despite being dragged out of your comfort zones far too often than you'd like, you still feel safer than you have before. you're not sure if it's him or the sense of family that you feel from everyone else, you can't tell. but it feels good. it feels like what you have with dango and that's more than you could've imagined. for once in your life, you allow yourself to let down your defenses, to let the walls you've built crumble just a little. you're not sure how long they'll stay down, how long you'll let people in, but for now you're content to see what happens. you've always hid yourself behind a smile, behind a rowdy laugh. it helps to mask everything else, makes you appear confident in the face of dauntless tasks. it comes in handy far too many times for you to count, people backing down from aggravated issues, ignoring your presence for that of others who might be more of a threat.
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you're finally in a place where you can explore, can take the time to figure out who you are. not botan the inuzuka. not botan the orphan. not botan the forgotten dog of the village. you're finally given the chance to be a child or at least the carefree sentimentality of a child. you don't have to constantly look over your shoulder in fear now, at least not as often. you still push buttons on purpose, it's fun after all. but you're more careful about who you engage with, you have a loyalty to a team now, you can't let them down. you don't really get emotions though, struggle to figure out how you're supposed to react around others. though you know that you don't like letting people down, so you try to avoid that as much as possible for the people that make you feel as good as you do when you're with dango.