Takumi Uchiha

"'There would be nothing more humiliating to me than running away. You wouldn't understand what pride is..'""- Takumi, injured, to Akechi Hatake"Takumi Uchiha (うちはたくみ; Uchiha Takumi) is a Konohagakure-born rogue-nin working as a bandit. Growing up, Takumi lived in a neglectful and overbearing household that caused him to develop a difficult and attention-obsessed personality. After a confrontation with Akechi Hatake that resulted in his defeat and near-death, he trained in Ryuchi Cave for a year and emerged with a dramatic boost in power. Seeking personal glory and freedom, he became a grand thief and founded Taka.

Background
Growing up, much was expected of the boy and he was always being compared to the clan's brightest. He was not the prodigy that his parents always wanted and to make up for it he was forced to pick up with the slack at the expense of his life. Trying to emphasize that this was the norm they expected of him, his parents never praised him when he succeeded. Because of this, when his peers and teachers praised and hailed him for his incredible performance, he was subject to incredible glee and awakened an addiction to praise which later transformed into an addiction to acknowledgement.

The ultimate embarrassment was afflicted on the boy when he failed his Genin exams. Forced to stay back in the academy for a full year, his parents forever turned their backs to him after punishing him severely. He failed because his values were all wrong, but he was immature and interpreted it as a failure due to not being strong enough. Boiling with turmoil, humiliation, and bitterness, Takumi turned to suicide as a way to achieve final recognition and release. The intense negative emotion within him caused him to awaken the Sharingan, which gave him the mental clarity to turn back and think. Unfortunately, his next thought was: "I must become the strongest". Sometime later, he awoke his second tomoe.

Personality
Takumi is an abrasive person with a cold, distant demeanor and a tendency to behave in a tough manner. He is prone to sharp and harsh judgements, and he is easily irritated and angered. As a delinquent, Takumi's usual solution to a source of irritation is to attack it, and his fighting is a lot scrappier and more visceral than others. This is shown when he attacked Kaede Uchiha with an extremely powerful fire blast without hesitation. Sometimes, his cold demeanor can be overwhelmed with joy; he became maniacally and sadistically excited when revealing his plans to Kiyoshi Nara and couldn't help but be overwhelmed with glee when he awoke his third tomoe.

He is very vain and loves attention because it validates him and his hard work. Takumi's behavior is entirely centered around garnering attention; he acts like an asshole to gain notoriety and fear. He desires power so that he can gain more and more attention. Takumi also has a strong eye for fashion and style due to his attention-seeking tendencies as it ensures he is eye-catching and hard to forget. For that same reason, he has expensive and somewhat snobbish tastes in almost all subjects. Takumi also appears to be fairly cruel, such as when he did nothing to protect a dazed Hikari Mitabe when Kaede attacked her as a test.

Beneath the surface, Takumi is very awkward. He is inept at sincerity and struggles to genuinely socialize with people. A part of him still desires genuine friendships. Furthermore, despite his love attention, he doesn't know what to do with it; for example, many women adore him. When confronted with fangirls, Takumi has little clue what to do except for bask in their attention or chase them away once the appeal wears off. Takumi dreams of being able to fly.

Appearance
Takumi is a tall and powerfully built man with the traits typical of Uchiha, that being black eyes and hair. At his debut, his hair was shaggy, and he wore it with right-facing spikes. He had chin-length strands and a center parting. As he grew older, his hair began to thicken, and by the time he re-emerged from Ryuchi Cave his hair was fully fluffed out into a large raven mop reminiscent of young Madara's hair, but shorter in the back and shaggier. Facially, Takumi is considered to be very handsome.

Takumi has expensive and particular fashion tastes. At his debut, he wore a forehead protector headband and a fine grey jacket with an Uchiha fan on the back. He rolled the sleeves up and bandaged his hands up to the forearms. He also wore a grey tank top and baggy black pants tucked into standard shinobi sandals. He had a Shinju-imported belt which he bought himself and two expensive suspender straps in blue hung free from the belt. Before the Second Stone and Leaf, he replaced his pants with standard uniform pants and began wearing his jacket open with a mesh shirt underneath.

Finally, at his reemergence from Ryuchi Cave, he got a new grey jacket, and wore it open with no shirt underneath. He wore a fine blue waistcloth held up by a wrestling champion's belt with the kanji for 'scale' (鱗) on the plate. He began wearing baggy black pants again which are tucked into a pair of knee-high shinobi sandals. By this time, Takumi was very strongly built and had a six-pack.

Abilities
Despite being only a Chunin, Takumi is a very strong ninja worthy of the rank of Jonin. He possesses the selective Kekkai Genkai of the Uchiha Clan, the Sharingan, and has unlocked all three tomoe. He is a proficient kenjutsu user as well as a skilled user of taijutsu. Overall, Takumi is more of a specialist who opts heavily into quality over quantity.

For example, Takumi is proficient in only Fire Release, but makes up for it by being able to use an ultra-potent fire release heated to a blue color. This Blue Fire Release is harder to mold because of its increased temperature. Furthermore, Takumi knows only a few jutsu, but is proficient in one-handed seals as well as so proficient in his few jutsu that several have reduced seal usage.

Due to his training in Ryuchi Cave, he is proficient in a number of snake-based techniques, such as Hidden Shadow Snake Hands, and also developed a few. He is also a snake summoner, and has a personal summon called Kiroeri. However, due to the turmoil in his heart, he is unable to meditate and thus incapable of training in Sage Mode. He is, however, compatible with natural chakra, and his body is highly resilient to poison.

Jutsu

 * (Many) Hidden Shadow Snake Hands
 * Eight-Headed Dragon Technique
 * Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique (One-handed, full seal requirement)
 * Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu (One-handed, no seals)
 * Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique (One-handed, all seals)
 * Post Timeskip Fire Release: Blast Wave Wild Dance (It’s only 1 seal anyways)
 * Snake Clone Technique
 * Soft Physique Modification
 * Summoning Snake Dart
 * Summoning Technique

Summon

 * Kiroeri (Giant Snake)

After the Konoha Crush
Three months after Wolf’s devastating attack on the Leaf, Takumi began to ponder his place in the world and, over the year after the attack, soon realized that there was a whole other level of strength outside of the world. He felt small and weak, and as a result, continued to lash out at those around him. He developed his signature blue fire techniques during this. Eventually, he came to blows with the Sannin-level Captain Akechi Hatake after he mocked the boy, prodding at his weakest points.

Akechi was vastly superior to Takumi in strength and beat him down, but Takumi, in a fit of hatred, gained the third tomoe to his Sharingan. With it, he was able to briefly pressure his opponent and even draw blood. However, Akechi was still stronger in the end and nearly killed him in an instant with a powerful water jutsu. Takumi vanished before the technique could kill him. A year passed by and he returned to the world, emerging from Ryuchi Cave with aspirations of grandeur.

Shortly after, Takumi recruited Kiyoshi Nara to assist him in the armed robbery of a nearby lord's estate because he desired teammates who would look up to him and praise him but also knew he would need assistance. The two swiftly stormed the building, easily defeated the lord's guards, and broke into his vault. Takumi summoned Kiroeri, who then swallowed up the contents of the vault. Some time later, Takumi looked into the Bingo Books for additional recruits. Among his slew of candidates was rogue Jinchuriki Hikari Mitabe and the Shinju thief Naomi Shiame.

The Storm
A little over a week before the storm, Takumi sent Kiyoshi to find some of these candidates, then went and tracked down Naomi to find that she was accompanying Hikari who agreed to join without much fuss. The other, however, demanded a fight. After a brief clash, Takumi established to the Shinju-nin that he was stronger, causing her to surrender and agree to join. Later that day, the group stopped for dango and the subject of names came up. Initially, Zetto (Hikari) suggested Hebi, but Naomi said something obnoxious that ruined the name for Takumi. Her next suggestion, Taka, however, landed well and was made official almost precisely a week before The Storm hit Konoha.

Later, Taka reunited at a trading village to find that Kiyoshi was unable to flag down any candidates in the allotted time. While discussing their next destination, Zetto said something that bothered both Takumi and Kiyoshi who retorted with hostility and condescension respectively. Stressed out by the conflict, the Jinchuriki collapsed. Takumi noted that Gyuki was messing with her body and admitted that he chose her because he wanted a Jinchuriki on his squad, fully aware that taking her despite having no knowledge of her skill with her beast's powers making it a gamble.

Zetto reawoke as Hikari, then asked if the group could go somewhere quiet so she could explain herself. Departing on the path to Suna, the group agreed to take a stop at Kiyoshi's hideout along the way to make that quiet place. At the hideout, Hikari revealed her mental disorder, explaining the existence of her alter Zetto and what caused her to come into existence. Kiyoshi then handed over the Byakugan he harvested from Fumei Hyuga's body to Takumi for safekeeping. The group departed for Suna and Kiyoshi destroyed the hideout to bury the evidence.

While passing through a small town, the group received the news of the attack on Konoha. After hearing a group of men insult Jinchuriki, Zetto snapped and attacked them, then expressed desire to ravage the village in revenge. Takumi considered it but decided the town had little to offer and made the order for the group to leave. However, Zetto decided to ravage the town anyways and entered her V1 state. Takumi, desiring to enforce his authority over her as the group leader, took her on. However, Zetto ceased to fight back due to her and Hikari beginning to fight in the mindstate, turning their body into mindless husk. Takumi entered the mindstate and suppressed Zetto due to her unpredictable and problematic nature, giving Hikari full control over the body.

Burial Island
Some time after the attack on Burial Island, Taka was approached by Shinku Squad and confronted them. Naomi took on Kaede while Nora took on Hikari briefly. Isa and Kaito waited in the trees and were confronted by Kiyoshi. The pair of Taka girls were unsettled by Nora's unique dojutsu as well as Kaede's Mangekyou Sharingan, the latter of which eventually caused Naomi to call in Takumi knowing that he'd be interested. After appearing, Takumi and Kaede argued briefly over their motives, then engaged in battle while her kids retreated. With her early-stage Susanoo, she was able to pressure him and eventually caught him in a chain coil. In response, Takumi used his Soft Physique Modification to make it seem as if he killed himself. Kaede released him in response and frantically attempted to approach and see if he was still alive. At the last second, he sprung up and struck her, causing her to finally snap and disown him as an Uchiha which sparked further argument. However, her Mangekyou was strained and she couldn't form another Susanoo, so she took a staff of Isa's Glass Release and prepared to fight. In response, Takumi used a Double Eight-Headed Dragon Technique and a Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique in tandem to attack her with an enormous fire wave which resulted in severe injury for Kaede. He spared her, however, and told her to return to Konoha to announce that he was still alive after all.

Katakiuchi Uchiha
Kata is Takumi's maternal aunt. From a young age, Kata has filled the role of a loving parent for Takumi, who lived in a household with unloving parents. Kata from experience knew what it was like to grow up in such a household and sought to avert Takumi from having it as bad as she did. However, Takumi struggled to truly make a connection with her.

Akechi Hatake
Takumi despises the man. Akechi approached Takumi was he was practicing his Blue Fire Release and, taking it out on the stranger, called it worthless. Eventually it escalated into a fight where Akechi beat Takumi down, and the feelings of humiliation awoke his third tomoe. For a while, Takumi was able to pressure Akechi, but the ANBU Captain soon regained control of the situation and washed Takumi away with an overwhelming jutsu. Takumi desires to get his revenge.

Taka Members
Takumi has a cold and fairly indifferent attitude to his teammates, viewing them only as business partners. However, Takumi views Kiyoshi in a warmer light, even smiling and expressing enthusiasm around him.

Trivia

 * Takumi (Kanji: 匠) means 'artisan'. Other letters with similar pronunciations are used to describe skillful people or to refer to skills.
 * Despite his preference for fine cuisine, Takumi's favorite food is dango; a guilty pleasure.
 * His favorite color is red.
 * Takumi is very strongly a cat person and dislikes dogs.