Sunshine History (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sunshinehistory) wrote2015-03-07 11:39 pm
sunshinehistory) wrote2015-03-07 11:39 pm
Entry tags:
Hoshigaki Clan
Clan History
The Hoshigaki are an old clan. They are in the running for one of the oldest established shinobi clans in Water Country, and definitely well pre-date the forming of Kirigakure. Wars, destroyed records, and several changes of location obscure the exact date, but the oldest intact clan records date back to around the time that the disparate islands were united into a single nation, so they are probably older than that.
The Hoshigaki are, if grudgingly from some quarters, considered a founding family of Kirigakure. This doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily trusted, because they’ve always been close-knit, and opponents frequently accuse them of being insular. They’ve also been in the thick of many civil conflicts in Kiri, and were on the side of the Mizukage in both civil wars.
These things have led the clan to be considered very warlike and aggressive to outsiders, and some who call the Hoshigaki enemy even go so far as blaming the practices that became “Bloody Mist” on them. The Hoshigaki volubly deny this, and have been publicly outspoken for changing those practices several times, especially against the Academy graduation that required classmates to kill each other.
At the founding of Kirigakure, the Hoshigaki didn’t give up their original clan compound near the sea, and maintained it alongside a similar, if smaller one in Kiri proper for several years, until a spate of sabotage topped off by mysterious fire made compound completely unlivable during an outbreak of civil unrest that didn’t quite escalate to war. After that they all lived in Kiri and expanded the compound there, but it’s never been forgotten by the Hoshigaki that they weren’t allowed that freedom, and some whispers have spurred up from time to time about remaking the lost compound again in secret.
During the first of Kiri’s actual civil wars, the Hoshigaki were almost exclusively used on the front lines. While they did great damage to the other side, they also suffered some of the heaviest losses and the clan was decreased in size, and several of the women retired completely from active duty, rather than the usual clan practice of only retiring temporarily for later pregnancy and the first few months of childrearing (leaving most of the raising of children in the hands of elders, or those who had remained civilian for one or another reasons) before returning to duty. This tactic did increase the number of clan births, however, which was the point of the exercise.
In the time period between the two wars, the Hoshigaki believed that a new one was brewing and started speaking out against what they believed was causing it, and this speaking out increased in volume and insistence as the hostilities escalated. As the war started, several who’d been the most outspoken got killed right after being “promoted,” in some cases during the testing for promotion to coveted ranks like ANBU. Not every one of these incidents ended in death, but the connections were clear, and it was made very obvious to the rest of the clan that the deaths and injuries had been intended by the Mizukage himself.
The clan fought among its members for a while, but the decisions were made that it was better to keep quiet about things and work more subtly to change them than speak out openly. At least until the clan had amassed enough strength to challenge the Mizukage in a political match and win.
Since then the clan has been training even the few members who never tried for shinobi to become stronger, as quietly as possible. But they’ve been very careful not to speak up to outsiders.
Clan attitudes and beliefs
The Hoshigaki value strength, tenacity, and intelligence. Being able to act independently, and hold your own in a fight without backup are also considered excellent qualities, but the clan also stresses working together for shared goals. So young Hoshigaki are expected to meet every obstacle, physical or not, head on and overcome it. Asking for help is not encouraged, but on the flip-side, someone young who struggling for an inordinate amount of time is expected to be given some tough love advice by the elders. If they still fail after that, they’ll have to work even harder afterward to overcome the disgrace. Along with the sheer brute force the clan is known for, Hoshigaki are expected to cultivate knowledge and intelligence, mental and emotional fortitude, and to follow a particularly brutal code of honor.
Strength, both physical and mental, is highly respected and to be emulated. Lies and deception are disdained as tools of the weak, and only to be used sparingly, if at all. In light of that, blunt honesty is encouraged almost exclusively, especially when two Hoshigaki have grievances with each other. In those cases, violent duels are encouraged, with both sides stating their sides and fighting over it, both physically and verbally. The loser is expected to listen to the winner and at least seriously consider their side, but the winner is also expected to respect the loser for having the guts to challenge them and go through with it honorably. It’s seen as much better to outright insult someone and then fight it out than to hold those bitter feelings and opinions back and stew in silence.
On the other hand, respect for strength means that retreat is not seen as cowardly. Acknowledging someone else is stronger is only reasonable, but along with that, the less powerful should strive to become as strong as the one who overpowered them in the first place. Fighting a losing battle and being captured, however, is seen as the height of stupidity and also as a betrayal of the trust one's comrades put in you. Tales of clan heroes that don’t end in overwhelming victory thus tend to either end in a retreat followed by getting stronger and bloody retribution later, or with a violent and glorious suicide that takes out many of the enemy at the same time.
As an aside to their valuing of honesty, the Hoshigaki tend to be steadfastly loyal. First to their clan, and at least since the forming of Kirigakure, to the village and Mizukage. Betrayal is seen as one of the worst lies imaginable, and reason for bloody retribution later.
It sometimes surprises outsiders that while beating a comrade bloody is allowed and sometimes even encouraged, killing a comrade is very much looked down on. It’s considered the height of weakness. The killer is considered to be too cowardly to give their opponent a chance to grow and become stronger (and thus, help them get stronger too), or too weak, and unable to provide for themselves, thus resorting to killing in order to gain power or security. Some historians assert that this is a new addition to the clan’s honor code, driven into being during an early conflict that saw their numbers diminished by clan infighting. The clan elders insist that it has always been this way, and no one has ever been able to conclusively prove otherwise.
In terms of how these views direct a Hoshigaki's interactions with non-comrades in a fight, unless the mission requires death or secrecy, or Water Country/Kirigakure is in active war, Hoshigaki tend not to kill their opponents. When those exceptions are in effect, however, they go for the throat. They rarely make attempts to capture, unless the mission requires it. This is an extension of their reverence for strength. An enemy is still a measuring stick for becoming stronger, and leaving an enemy alive to fight again later, is a chance for both to grow.
The clan always throws themselves full bore into conflict, seeing the adversity as something that will make them stronger, and fear of conflict as something weakening. Either someone is stronger, and can be used as a measure of your own skills, or weaker, and by fighting you will learn to become stronger. Or unknown, and obviously should be fought to discover where you both stand. Limits are considered self-imposed stumbling blocks, and a weak spot, if it can’t be made stronger, can always be compensated for in some other way.
In terms of organization, the clan is led by the three strongest, and one of the three, at least, always excels in intelligence and cleverness. The clan holds battles royal at least once every three years to make sure the current leaders still are worthy their positions, and changes in leadership happen fairly often. However, the leaders don't rule as an iron fist, and two out of the three must agree with any decision. It's not uncommon to see the leaders dueling it out instead of just having calm discussions. They often have these discussions while fighting, instead.
The elders are respected for their experience, and while they rarely take part in the battles for leadership, in practice the leaders consult them with every big decision.
If members of the clan don't agree with the decisions of the leaders, they are encouraged to challenge them to a group duel, and win or lose, the leaders almost always at least listen closely to what the challengers had to say.
It is possible to make a point of abstaining from a leadership role, though those that do, are often put under subtle pressure to stop abstaining if the rest of the clan thinks them actually worthy.
Of course, there isn't a single clan that doesn't have some civilians, and in the Hoshigaki clan, most of these are those that couldn't master their chakra and have burnt out chakra systems. They are looked on with a strange respect and pity. Respect, because they fought their hardest against their limits, and pity because they couldn't overcome them. However, if these members do their best to contribute (running the day-to-day details of the compound, child-care, etc) they are treated well. Not everyone can be a fighter, after all, and even one who chooses not to try to become a fighter will be respected, as long as they unequivocally prove that they made the right decision.
Skills and training practices
Training:
The Hoshigaki adopt a sink or swim approach to training, that depends very heavily on tossing the student into situations and making them figure out how to handle it on the fly, and also on sparring and demonstrations. A new technique will be explained once, shown once, and then the student will be left alone to try to master it. If they don’t succeed, the watching teacher will attack them in specific ways to show the points of failure and encourage them to go at it again.
Hoshigaki start training, in some ways, almost immediately from birth. Swimming is one of the most highly valued skills, and the earliest taught. Hoshigaki children often swim before they can crawl, and are able to fight very soon after walking. Because of the challenge posed by their own overwhelming natural abilities, young Hoshigaki often have difficulty with basic level jutsu until a significant level of chakra control has been mastered. Chakra control is highly emphasized in early training, and failure to master the chakra control is often the cause of hideous backlash and burnout. Young Hoshigaki have difficulty limiting the amount of chakra that goes into their jutsu, so jutsu often end up far more powerful than the intent or original design. It’s not uncommon for a Water Release to end up nearly drowning others (excepting Hoshigaki of course) or having the force to badly injure the unprepared, even when it shouldn’t have that much force. Burnout, on the other hand, is a result of their chakra overwhelming not yet fully developed chakra systems, and can lead to crippling or even death.
Because of these things, especially in times of civil or political tension, it’s been custom for Hoshigaki to keep their children out of academy until that control is mastered. There have been attempts to stop this practice, but each ended in injured students so the Hoshigaki are generally left alone with their children.
In spite of this often slow, late, start, most Hoshigaki who achieve the necessary chakra control rocket upward in power and skill very quickly, and it’s commonplace for an “average” Hoshigaki to have several jutsu that would be considered kage-level anywhere else in their arsenal.
Abilities:
In terms of natural abilities, Hoshigaki have never been officially recognized among the other kekkei genkai clans, though most will admit that they have one if pressed about it. Or something that breeds true in their family, at the very least. Hoshigaki abilities tend to show up even two or three generations after a Hoshigaki ancestor, and some minor traits, like the sharp teeth, can last for generations upon generations removed from Hoshigaki directly.
The most obvious traits belonging to the clan is the multiple adaptations for watery life and combat. They are as follows:
Skin: color and texture; water adapted.
The first trait observers tend to notice is skin, which normally ranges from pale gray to pale steely-blue, and has a combination of specialized cells and skin oils that make it possible for Hoshigaki to stay in water for extreme lengths of time without pruning. Texture-wise, it doesn’t feel quite like human skin, with a smooth almost slippery feel, but obvious toughness.
Hair: color, and slight water adapted
Hoshigaki tend to have hair that ranges from white to black, and frequently has either blue or silver tints. A dark blue-gray is the most common, with white being the least. Similar to the skin, oils make it somewhat water resistant, though not to the same extent.
Eyes: water and low-light adapted; nictitating membranes
Hoshigaki eyes are probably one of their stranger features, but often overlooked. This is because they have an active nictitating membrane, and very few Hoshigaki lower it when out in air. They are prone to dry eyes, and the membrane helps keep moisture in. It’s translucent, leaving them with a strange appearance that looks like there is no iris, only a pupil. Underneath the membrane, almost all Hoshigaki have a golden iris, though some are dark enough to be called brown, and green can also happen. The iris takes up the entire visible eye, and doesn’t close as far as a human’s, leaving an unusually large pupil, even in bright light. In low light, or underwater, however, the iris contracts to open up the pupil so far that it appears to take over the whole eye. As a result, Hoshigaki have excellent vision underwater and in low light, but are very light sensitive. Their eyes also have less visible adaptations for being underwater.
Teeth: naturally shark-like
Another very strange feature is their teeth, which all naturally come to a point and are slightly serrated. However, as a result of this, Hoshigaki can have trouble chewing on things that need to be crushed instead of sliced, and that can affect their diet. These sharp teeth tend to be artificially emulated by many other Kirigakure shinobi, where similar teeth don’t occur naturally.
Gills: functional, but small
One other obvious physical trait is the gills. Every Hoshigaki has one to three sets in various places on their bodies, and blood-flow rerouted to make use of them, and to transfer the oxygenated blood to important organs. There is also special musculature to draw in water through the top slit, direct it through the heavily blood-filled tissue, and push the water back out through the other slits. This makes the gills bulge and pulse when in use. In air they close tightly, and produce a film of protective mucus that gives them a faintly wet look.
In terms of function, the gills are accessory to the lungs, and unable to fully support the body’s oxygen needs. There are some rare cases that may well be more legend than fact, where the gills can support the Hoshigaki indefinitely, but for the most part they only allow the Hoshigaki to stay down longer than otherwise possible without equipment or specialized jutsu. It gives the family a decided advantage in watery terrain, and in facing off against Water Release.
Chakra: very large, even from birth
The most notable non-physical trait the Hoshigaki possess is ridiculously large chakra reserves, even from birth. A newborn Hoshigaki, even the most underwhelming of them, will possess enough chakra that most jounin wouldn’t be ashamed to claim, and those who make it to adulthood as successful ninja reach truly staggering amounts. Even the weaker members of the clan have more chakra than the majority of jounin, and stronger members meet and may even pass the amount that jinchuuriki possess. An extremely powerful Hoshigaki may even reach levels that otherwise only an unsealed Bijuu might claim.
Stamina: very high
Part and parcel with the ridiculous chakra is ridiculously high stamina. It’s high enough to cause rumors outside the clan that Hoshigaki never tire. That of course, isn’t strictly true, but it is exceedingly rare for a Hoshigaki to be pushed so far in battle to collapse either from physical or chakra exhaustion.
Strength:
A slightly less obvious trait that is considered to be connected to the those two, is greatly enhanced physical strength. An average Hoshigaki will be at least twice as strong as a non-Hoshigaki of the same muscle mass. Of course, because by and large, Hoshigakis tend to be physically imposing, this is one of the lesser known facts about them.
Chakra drain: rare and coveted
The clan also boasts a rare, secret trait that few of the clan actively possess. That is the ability to drain and utilize an opponent’s chakra. Clan lore states that the ability was learned from the Greatsword Samehada, which has historically favored Hoshigaki wielders. At its most basic, the chakra drain skill can only be applied to chakra that is being molded into Water Release, and only if the Hoshigaki in question has physical contact with the water source before the jutsu is finished. At higher, more advanced, levels the versatility is said to near Samehada’s own ability to drain chakra. Hoshigaki who reach that level usually have had a chance to wield the sword, or been trained under a Hoshigaki who has.
Family jutsu:
Additionally, the Hoshigaki clan has developed a variety of family jutsu. The clan summons is sharks (but some also summon other large and predatory species of fish), and there is also a group of shark-themed Water Release passed down over generations. None of these techniques are secret, but they are rarely taught outside the clan. All but the most basic were developed with a Hoshigaki’s chakra reserves in mind, and would be prohibitive to use regularly for most others. However, there are two that are kept as secret as possible. These are Great Shark Missile, and Water Prison Shark Dance, and to be taught one or the other, even within the clan, is considered a high honor. The latter, specifically, is considered forbidden to anyone but a wielder of Samehada who has achieved the full fusion. However, powerful Hoshigaki have made good use of it in the past in conjunction with shark summons.
The Hoshigaki are an old clan. They are in the running for one of the oldest established shinobi clans in Water Country, and definitely well pre-date the forming of Kirigakure. Wars, destroyed records, and several changes of location obscure the exact date, but the oldest intact clan records date back to around the time that the disparate islands were united into a single nation, so they are probably older than that.
The Hoshigaki are, if grudgingly from some quarters, considered a founding family of Kirigakure. This doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily trusted, because they’ve always been close-knit, and opponents frequently accuse them of being insular. They’ve also been in the thick of many civil conflicts in Kiri, and were on the side of the Mizukage in both civil wars.
These things have led the clan to be considered very warlike and aggressive to outsiders, and some who call the Hoshigaki enemy even go so far as blaming the practices that became “Bloody Mist” on them. The Hoshigaki volubly deny this, and have been publicly outspoken for changing those practices several times, especially against the Academy graduation that required classmates to kill each other.
At the founding of Kirigakure, the Hoshigaki didn’t give up their original clan compound near the sea, and maintained it alongside a similar, if smaller one in Kiri proper for several years, until a spate of sabotage topped off by mysterious fire made compound completely unlivable during an outbreak of civil unrest that didn’t quite escalate to war. After that they all lived in Kiri and expanded the compound there, but it’s never been forgotten by the Hoshigaki that they weren’t allowed that freedom, and some whispers have spurred up from time to time about remaking the lost compound again in secret.
During the first of Kiri’s actual civil wars, the Hoshigaki were almost exclusively used on the front lines. While they did great damage to the other side, they also suffered some of the heaviest losses and the clan was decreased in size, and several of the women retired completely from active duty, rather than the usual clan practice of only retiring temporarily for later pregnancy and the first few months of childrearing (leaving most of the raising of children in the hands of elders, or those who had remained civilian for one or another reasons) before returning to duty. This tactic did increase the number of clan births, however, which was the point of the exercise.
In the time period between the two wars, the Hoshigaki believed that a new one was brewing and started speaking out against what they believed was causing it, and this speaking out increased in volume and insistence as the hostilities escalated. As the war started, several who’d been the most outspoken got killed right after being “promoted,” in some cases during the testing for promotion to coveted ranks like ANBU. Not every one of these incidents ended in death, but the connections were clear, and it was made very obvious to the rest of the clan that the deaths and injuries had been intended by the Mizukage himself.
The clan fought among its members for a while, but the decisions were made that it was better to keep quiet about things and work more subtly to change them than speak out openly. At least until the clan had amassed enough strength to challenge the Mizukage in a political match and win.
Since then the clan has been training even the few members who never tried for shinobi to become stronger, as quietly as possible. But they’ve been very careful not to speak up to outsiders.
Clan attitudes and beliefs
The Hoshigaki value strength, tenacity, and intelligence. Being able to act independently, and hold your own in a fight without backup are also considered excellent qualities, but the clan also stresses working together for shared goals. So young Hoshigaki are expected to meet every obstacle, physical or not, head on and overcome it. Asking for help is not encouraged, but on the flip-side, someone young who struggling for an inordinate amount of time is expected to be given some tough love advice by the elders. If they still fail after that, they’ll have to work even harder afterward to overcome the disgrace. Along with the sheer brute force the clan is known for, Hoshigaki are expected to cultivate knowledge and intelligence, mental and emotional fortitude, and to follow a particularly brutal code of honor.
Strength, both physical and mental, is highly respected and to be emulated. Lies and deception are disdained as tools of the weak, and only to be used sparingly, if at all. In light of that, blunt honesty is encouraged almost exclusively, especially when two Hoshigaki have grievances with each other. In those cases, violent duels are encouraged, with both sides stating their sides and fighting over it, both physically and verbally. The loser is expected to listen to the winner and at least seriously consider their side, but the winner is also expected to respect the loser for having the guts to challenge them and go through with it honorably. It’s seen as much better to outright insult someone and then fight it out than to hold those bitter feelings and opinions back and stew in silence.
On the other hand, respect for strength means that retreat is not seen as cowardly. Acknowledging someone else is stronger is only reasonable, but along with that, the less powerful should strive to become as strong as the one who overpowered them in the first place. Fighting a losing battle and being captured, however, is seen as the height of stupidity and also as a betrayal of the trust one's comrades put in you. Tales of clan heroes that don’t end in overwhelming victory thus tend to either end in a retreat followed by getting stronger and bloody retribution later, or with a violent and glorious suicide that takes out many of the enemy at the same time.
As an aside to their valuing of honesty, the Hoshigaki tend to be steadfastly loyal. First to their clan, and at least since the forming of Kirigakure, to the village and Mizukage. Betrayal is seen as one of the worst lies imaginable, and reason for bloody retribution later.
It sometimes surprises outsiders that while beating a comrade bloody is allowed and sometimes even encouraged, killing a comrade is very much looked down on. It’s considered the height of weakness. The killer is considered to be too cowardly to give their opponent a chance to grow and become stronger (and thus, help them get stronger too), or too weak, and unable to provide for themselves, thus resorting to killing in order to gain power or security. Some historians assert that this is a new addition to the clan’s honor code, driven into being during an early conflict that saw their numbers diminished by clan infighting. The clan elders insist that it has always been this way, and no one has ever been able to conclusively prove otherwise.
In terms of how these views direct a Hoshigaki's interactions with non-comrades in a fight, unless the mission requires death or secrecy, or Water Country/Kirigakure is in active war, Hoshigaki tend not to kill their opponents. When those exceptions are in effect, however, they go for the throat. They rarely make attempts to capture, unless the mission requires it. This is an extension of their reverence for strength. An enemy is still a measuring stick for becoming stronger, and leaving an enemy alive to fight again later, is a chance for both to grow.
The clan always throws themselves full bore into conflict, seeing the adversity as something that will make them stronger, and fear of conflict as something weakening. Either someone is stronger, and can be used as a measure of your own skills, or weaker, and by fighting you will learn to become stronger. Or unknown, and obviously should be fought to discover where you both stand. Limits are considered self-imposed stumbling blocks, and a weak spot, if it can’t be made stronger, can always be compensated for in some other way.
In terms of organization, the clan is led by the three strongest, and one of the three, at least, always excels in intelligence and cleverness. The clan holds battles royal at least once every three years to make sure the current leaders still are worthy their positions, and changes in leadership happen fairly often. However, the leaders don't rule as an iron fist, and two out of the three must agree with any decision. It's not uncommon to see the leaders dueling it out instead of just having calm discussions. They often have these discussions while fighting, instead.
The elders are respected for their experience, and while they rarely take part in the battles for leadership, in practice the leaders consult them with every big decision.
If members of the clan don't agree with the decisions of the leaders, they are encouraged to challenge them to a group duel, and win or lose, the leaders almost always at least listen closely to what the challengers had to say.
It is possible to make a point of abstaining from a leadership role, though those that do, are often put under subtle pressure to stop abstaining if the rest of the clan thinks them actually worthy.
Of course, there isn't a single clan that doesn't have some civilians, and in the Hoshigaki clan, most of these are those that couldn't master their chakra and have burnt out chakra systems. They are looked on with a strange respect and pity. Respect, because they fought their hardest against their limits, and pity because they couldn't overcome them. However, if these members do their best to contribute (running the day-to-day details of the compound, child-care, etc) they are treated well. Not everyone can be a fighter, after all, and even one who chooses not to try to become a fighter will be respected, as long as they unequivocally prove that they made the right decision.
Skills and training practices
Training:
The Hoshigaki adopt a sink or swim approach to training, that depends very heavily on tossing the student into situations and making them figure out how to handle it on the fly, and also on sparring and demonstrations. A new technique will be explained once, shown once, and then the student will be left alone to try to master it. If they don’t succeed, the watching teacher will attack them in specific ways to show the points of failure and encourage them to go at it again.
Hoshigaki start training, in some ways, almost immediately from birth. Swimming is one of the most highly valued skills, and the earliest taught. Hoshigaki children often swim before they can crawl, and are able to fight very soon after walking. Because of the challenge posed by their own overwhelming natural abilities, young Hoshigaki often have difficulty with basic level jutsu until a significant level of chakra control has been mastered. Chakra control is highly emphasized in early training, and failure to master the chakra control is often the cause of hideous backlash and burnout. Young Hoshigaki have difficulty limiting the amount of chakra that goes into their jutsu, so jutsu often end up far more powerful than the intent or original design. It’s not uncommon for a Water Release to end up nearly drowning others (excepting Hoshigaki of course) or having the force to badly injure the unprepared, even when it shouldn’t have that much force. Burnout, on the other hand, is a result of their chakra overwhelming not yet fully developed chakra systems, and can lead to crippling or even death.
Because of these things, especially in times of civil or political tension, it’s been custom for Hoshigaki to keep their children out of academy until that control is mastered. There have been attempts to stop this practice, but each ended in injured students so the Hoshigaki are generally left alone with their children.
In spite of this often slow, late, start, most Hoshigaki who achieve the necessary chakra control rocket upward in power and skill very quickly, and it’s commonplace for an “average” Hoshigaki to have several jutsu that would be considered kage-level anywhere else in their arsenal.
Abilities:
In terms of natural abilities, Hoshigaki have never been officially recognized among the other kekkei genkai clans, though most will admit that they have one if pressed about it. Or something that breeds true in their family, at the very least. Hoshigaki abilities tend to show up even two or three generations after a Hoshigaki ancestor, and some minor traits, like the sharp teeth, can last for generations upon generations removed from Hoshigaki directly.
The most obvious traits belonging to the clan is the multiple adaptations for watery life and combat. They are as follows:
Skin: color and texture; water adapted.
The first trait observers tend to notice is skin, which normally ranges from pale gray to pale steely-blue, and has a combination of specialized cells and skin oils that make it possible for Hoshigaki to stay in water for extreme lengths of time without pruning. Texture-wise, it doesn’t feel quite like human skin, with a smooth almost slippery feel, but obvious toughness.
Hair: color, and slight water adapted
Hoshigaki tend to have hair that ranges from white to black, and frequently has either blue or silver tints. A dark blue-gray is the most common, with white being the least. Similar to the skin, oils make it somewhat water resistant, though not to the same extent.
Eyes: water and low-light adapted; nictitating membranes
Hoshigaki eyes are probably one of their stranger features, but often overlooked. This is because they have an active nictitating membrane, and very few Hoshigaki lower it when out in air. They are prone to dry eyes, and the membrane helps keep moisture in. It’s translucent, leaving them with a strange appearance that looks like there is no iris, only a pupil. Underneath the membrane, almost all Hoshigaki have a golden iris, though some are dark enough to be called brown, and green can also happen. The iris takes up the entire visible eye, and doesn’t close as far as a human’s, leaving an unusually large pupil, even in bright light. In low light, or underwater, however, the iris contracts to open up the pupil so far that it appears to take over the whole eye. As a result, Hoshigaki have excellent vision underwater and in low light, but are very light sensitive. Their eyes also have less visible adaptations for being underwater.
Teeth: naturally shark-like
Another very strange feature is their teeth, which all naturally come to a point and are slightly serrated. However, as a result of this, Hoshigaki can have trouble chewing on things that need to be crushed instead of sliced, and that can affect their diet. These sharp teeth tend to be artificially emulated by many other Kirigakure shinobi, where similar teeth don’t occur naturally.
Gills: functional, but small
One other obvious physical trait is the gills. Every Hoshigaki has one to three sets in various places on their bodies, and blood-flow rerouted to make use of them, and to transfer the oxygenated blood to important organs. There is also special musculature to draw in water through the top slit, direct it through the heavily blood-filled tissue, and push the water back out through the other slits. This makes the gills bulge and pulse when in use. In air they close tightly, and produce a film of protective mucus that gives them a faintly wet look.
In terms of function, the gills are accessory to the lungs, and unable to fully support the body’s oxygen needs. There are some rare cases that may well be more legend than fact, where the gills can support the Hoshigaki indefinitely, but for the most part they only allow the Hoshigaki to stay down longer than otherwise possible without equipment or specialized jutsu. It gives the family a decided advantage in watery terrain, and in facing off against Water Release.
Chakra: very large, even from birth
The most notable non-physical trait the Hoshigaki possess is ridiculously large chakra reserves, even from birth. A newborn Hoshigaki, even the most underwhelming of them, will possess enough chakra that most jounin wouldn’t be ashamed to claim, and those who make it to adulthood as successful ninja reach truly staggering amounts. Even the weaker members of the clan have more chakra than the majority of jounin, and stronger members meet and may even pass the amount that jinchuuriki possess. An extremely powerful Hoshigaki may even reach levels that otherwise only an unsealed Bijuu might claim.
Stamina: very high
Part and parcel with the ridiculous chakra is ridiculously high stamina. It’s high enough to cause rumors outside the clan that Hoshigaki never tire. That of course, isn’t strictly true, but it is exceedingly rare for a Hoshigaki to be pushed so far in battle to collapse either from physical or chakra exhaustion.
Strength:
A slightly less obvious trait that is considered to be connected to the those two, is greatly enhanced physical strength. An average Hoshigaki will be at least twice as strong as a non-Hoshigaki of the same muscle mass. Of course, because by and large, Hoshigakis tend to be physically imposing, this is one of the lesser known facts about them.
Chakra drain: rare and coveted
The clan also boasts a rare, secret trait that few of the clan actively possess. That is the ability to drain and utilize an opponent’s chakra. Clan lore states that the ability was learned from the Greatsword Samehada, which has historically favored Hoshigaki wielders. At its most basic, the chakra drain skill can only be applied to chakra that is being molded into Water Release, and only if the Hoshigaki in question has physical contact with the water source before the jutsu is finished. At higher, more advanced, levels the versatility is said to near Samehada’s own ability to drain chakra. Hoshigaki who reach that level usually have had a chance to wield the sword, or been trained under a Hoshigaki who has.
Family jutsu:
Additionally, the Hoshigaki clan has developed a variety of family jutsu. The clan summons is sharks (but some also summon other large and predatory species of fish), and there is also a group of shark-themed Water Release passed down over generations. None of these techniques are secret, but they are rarely taught outside the clan. All but the most basic were developed with a Hoshigaki’s chakra reserves in mind, and would be prohibitive to use regularly for most others. However, there are two that are kept as secret as possible. These are Great Shark Missile, and Water Prison Shark Dance, and to be taught one or the other, even within the clan, is considered a high honor. The latter, specifically, is considered forbidden to anyone but a wielder of Samehada who has achieved the full fusion. However, powerful Hoshigaki have made good use of it in the past in conjunction with shark summons.