Senju Ryudoma

Ryudoma is a staggering individual standing at six foot four inches tall and easily weighing over two hundred pounds. His body is muscular in tone and overall the man is a poster boy for health. Chocolate skin covers the length of his body while dark brown hues view out into the world. He has very little body hair aside from an arrow goatee and usually keeps his head shaved. Two small piercings on his left ear are covered by metal clamps spaced a few inches apart.

Seeing no reason to go against the usual attire of Iwa shinobi, the man sports maroon colored pants and a shirt, though the right sleeve is nowhere to be found. Covering the shirt is a brown flack jacket that zips halfway down the middle and comes equipped with a middle pouch (also zippered) to hold various equipment. Covering the right side of his pants is a loose maroon lapel that serves little purpose other than aesthetics. Black fishnet leggings cover the lower leg and disappear into black shinobi sandals. Ryudoma has his hitai-ate wrapped firmly around his forehead, the band also maroon in color.

How would one describe the man that is Ryudoma? Rigid as the rocks that surround him? Cold as stone on a clear winter night? Or maybe, just maybe he is a hearty chuckle head. That's right, underneath all six foot three of the man is a lighthearted, humor loving individual. Though many of his fellow village goers are stone cold, the Jonin figured that keeping such an attitude would one day give him a stroke. Not saying that he is a pushover or has wavering loyalty, with both traits arguably rivaling that of the Tsuchikage.

Likes? Dislikes? What drives the man between the throes of love and hate? For starters, he loves a good joke and those that aren't walking with a stick up their ass. Having been surrounded by those type of people most of his life it's always refreshing to come across someone who actually enjoys their life. Ryudoma dislikes indecisiveness, and though he isn't a stickler for rules and regulation, sitting around when there is action and adventure waiting to be had drives him insane.

Speaking of action, the Jonin loves a good fight. He is very proud of his power and wastes no time utilizing it. To say that his very manhood is directly linked to his abilities would be a gross understatement, it's more like a lifeline; so it's safe to assume that losing in any capacity completely shatters his ego and begins a downward spiral into depression.

Ryudoma's allegiances lie first and foremost with his village and to those who want nothing but the best for Iwagakure. He doesn't taken kindly to threats against his home or comrades and will go through hell and high water to protect them.

A clan blessed with power so great that they could not settle in a single land, but instead spread their lineage throughout the world. One such piece of the family ventured into the land known as the Earth Country and planted their proverbial roots there. In time, the hidden village of Iwagakure would be formed and Ryudoma's ancestors would play a vital role in helping the village come to fruition. On a day --not unlike any other-- a child was born that would henceforth be known as Senju Ryudoma. It was expected, like many in his clan who had come and gone before him, that the boy would one day take up the mantle of a shinobi as fate had had them do for so many generations.

The boy was enrolled in the Iwagakure academy at the age of seven and initially began to pick up on the basic concepts rather well. However, his motivation stemmed from a conscious desire to outshine the others in his class by leaps and bounds; and while that did wonders for the amount of effort placed into his skills they often ended up somewhat sloppy and lacking in detail. In a sense, Ryudoma cared more for simply overpowering others rather than careful and concise strategy. Training at the home would show similar results and his parents made it a point to educate their son that brute strength, while flashy, was not the only trait of a shinobi. A profession such as this required cunning and tact, traits that the boy obviously lacked. To this point in his young life the boy had never been told to hold back, so shifting such a mindset seemed rather odd, but as the days and months passed he was gradually able to understand what his parents and teachers were trying to tell him. While the occasional extreme bravado did rear its head every now and then, there was much more finese and discipline in Ryudoma's training.

Graduating at the age of thirteen, he was soon placed onto a squad with two female Genin and a male sensei. There was little that stuck out about any of them and their growth as a team went through the ups and downs, bumps and bruises, that most other Genin experienced. A rare Kekkei Genkai such as Mokuton --which had surfaced in the boy during his academy days-- was difficult to train as it required a significant amount of chakra control to combine multiple elements. As such, Ryduoma's sensei thought it best to help the kid focus on his chakra control which at first was none too appealing as the boy was a brawler and liked to test out his skills as much as possible; so sitting around and meditating was basically the equivalent of being locked in a windowless room. However, the explanation that having power but no way to control it was worse than having no power at all quickly altered the boy's way of thinking. Time would pass and the boy's control over his unique abilities would begin to rise leading to advancements in the size and quality of Mokuton that he was able to produce. Along with training came missions, if they could even be called such, more like glorified chores with the occasional chance to set outside of the village for a couple days. Not one to bite his tongue, Ryudoma made it known on more than one occasion that he wanted to try his hand at the Chunin exams, but his sensei thought otherwise. They had been a squad for roughly a year and were not --in his eyes-- prepared for the rigors that such an exam held. Needless to say, Ryudoma was displeased to hear such news but knew that with enough training they would eventually be able to persuade him into letting them enter.

Another year, now aged fifteen and with a combination of training and pestering their sensei finally submitted to their (mainly Ryudoma's) request to be enrolled in the upcoming Chunin exams. The next few weeks included rigorous training and strategy planning for whatever may come their way. When the time finally came there was nothing but excitement exuding from the young Genin who was raring for the chance to let loose against some of people he had grown to know rather well over the years. The tests were grueling, deadly, and difficult; a physical metaphor for life in the shinobi world. In the end, however, Ryduoma and his squad would all pass and be promoted to the rank of Chunin.

Opportunity, that was what Ryudoma felt he had with the advancement to his new rank. Better missions, better pay, getting stronger as a shinobi overall. One team member, who had excelled in minor healing techniques and had a desire to one day work in the village's hospital, was taken under the wing of one of the Iryo-nin, but the remaining squad would stick together and continue to train and complete missions together; taking on a third member if the situation called for it. Control had become a major pillar in the teens life, mostly in terms of governing his abilities, and with instruction coming from both his sensei and family he quickly excelled in his skills with Mokuton. His family often joked that if life as a shinobi didn't work out he could always go into carpentry.

Life would continue in a set cycle for many years, his strength ever increasing and the need for a good fighting always on his mind. It was expected of a Senju to show great prowess, perhaps not as much as the stories from the past, but it was believed that all who carried such a bloodline were destined for greatness. However, such a power did have a price. Though few missions relegated to Jounin were routine by nature, this particular mission had been one that Ryduoma's father had completed in a similar fashion quite a few times. What should have taken no more than a week turned into two, then a month, without any word or sign. Ryudoma couldn't believe that one of his family had actually been taken out during a mission. The boy was distraught, he had always been the root of the family and now... nothing. One day, however, a shinobi who was assigned to the mission with his father returned badly injured and on the brink of death. In his last few breathes he told that the squad had been ambushed and his father taken captive, while the others were left to die. They were not the targets of the mission, but spoke solely of obtaining a certain power. The Senju, for all their might, had many who coveted their power to seemingly create life in the form of trees, and would go to great lengths to try and replicate it. Stories told of those who were abducted and experimented on, and it seemed that this act was along those same lines.

Ryudoma wanted to leave to try and find his father, any clue of him, but rushing out in the middle of the wilderness, with power weaker than his fathers would surely be suicide. He would continue to live with the hope that one day his father would either return or the village would finally allow him to go and search fr him. Years would flow by and though he never once forgot about his father, keeping such a thought in conscious thought would no doubt hinder his abilities as a shinobi. Now at the age of twenty, with a thick log of missions and skills under his repertoire, he was put up for promotion to the rank of Jounin. Unlike the Chunin exams, being promoted to Jounin focused more so on the tactical and mental aspects of being a shinobi rather than power. Given that they were the strongest protectors of the village and would, if called upon, have to lead a squad of Genin and missions, they needed to be strong in both body and mind.

There was no hiding the fact that Ryudoma liked a good fight and was more battle oriented than most, but the many lessons over the years about control had actually gotten through the rather thick skull of the Senju. Not a brilliant tactician but more than acceptable knowledge and wit to perform Jounin-level duties admirably. When all was said and done, Ryudoma was promoted to the rank of Jounin by his fellow peers in the village and final approval of the Tsuchikage. Needless to say, it was a very proud moment for the man and he wished that his father had been around to experience the moment as well, but deep down Ryudoma knew that a man with such strength had to still be alive, and one day he would find him.

The next years included various missions, training, and following up on any clues or leads that could have lead to the whereabouts of his father, but after all the time that had passed the village would not sanction a veritable wild goose chase. A village of stone will and only the toughest shinobi began from the ground up, so it was only fitting that those who would one day take up the mantle as the villages' protectors needed excellent tutelage. Ryudoma was in his late twenties when rumblings of him being appointed to lead a Genin squad began to surface, but to that point there had been no official meetings called to gauge the man's interest and any missions taken had only been with other Jounin and the occasional Chunin. However, as time passed the thought began to take hold and grow, perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to train up a few youngsters. They were rambunctious and full of energy, always looking for a fight and who better to go against than a man who loved a good fight? Granted, he knew well enough that training the body only would do no good, and it would force him to actually try and implement tactics into his style --added onto actually teaching said tactics-- and that would surely bring another dynamic to the man's life.

A world steeped in war, a village idly watching by from the sidelines. To some it made sense, after all why waste the resources and man power if no one was threatening you directly? However, taking offense to others being attacked and giving verbal support made matters a bit more tricky; especially when those in need of that support started calling. Indeed this was the current predicament that Iwa was facing and it wasn't sitting well with all of its inhabitants, one in particular being Ryudoma. He loved to fight so maybe there was some bias, but he was in no way a dumb muscle head who couldn't pick and choose his battles. He was very familiar with the toll constant fighting took on those in and even those who weren't doing the fighting. People died, families cried, an air of death and uncertainty filled every nook and cranny; it wasn't fun.

Perhaps that was why those higher than himself, though there weren't many, had been so hesitant to act. A noble testament to maintaining the village's way of life but after such a massive outpouring of verbal support things would not be able to stay like this for very long. If she wasn't careful the Tsuchikage would end up with the title of fence-sitter etched into her legacy. The man chuckled at that thought as continued his leisurely trek through the village. Stone buildings here, stone buildings there, it was a wonder people didn't get lost looking at all the rocks. If there was one silver lining it was that the sun had been mostly blocked out by clouds preventing practically everything in the village from being cooked by the sun; he hated leaning up against a building only to be scalded by a burning slab of rock.

Where exactly was the head Jonin of the village headed in a non too frantic pace? Easy: no where in particular. Yep, the man who had a fleeting affair with action and adventure was just aimlessly meandering about the village. For a moment Ryudoma pondered getting something to eat, but he couldn't be bothered to turn suit and head back to the food district. Well, perhaps this wasn't a completely useless trip as it provided a great opportunity for the man to clear his head of all the political ramblings that had been going on for quite some time. Even if the village itself wasn't taking part in the fighting they were still being affected by the outcomes of other battles. His life had shifted from battling to on the field to waging war in conference rooms. Giving reports, hearing reports, it was all so boring and even after all this time they were still no closer to reaching a decision on their place in the fighting. Between the unmoving talks and Ryudoma not settling on a destination this really was turning out to be a time of indifference.