NAME: Neka. Although her name comes from kanji 根 (ne), which means “root”, and ending 花 (ka), meaning “flower”, her name is written in katakana: ネカSURNAME: Nara.
ALIASES: “Kage no Ko”, the girl of shadow. When she becomes a jounin, her alias changes accordingly to “Kage no Shoujo”.
CLAN: Nara. She belongs to the honourable Ne family, which is part of Nara Council.
AGE: 20, post Fourth Great Shinobi World War (3 years older than Konoha 11, in general).
RANK: Tokubetsu Jonin, promoted at 17.
OCCUPATION: Member of Nara Guards Corps, together with Nara Daichi and Nara Daen.
FACECLAIM: Naomi Misora from Death Note.
PHYSICAL ASPECT: Neka has a rather slender, lean frame, at a first look she could seem quite frail and easy to break. She has long, straight black hair and blind, slanting, almond-shaped eyes (colour is faded blue-gray). Neka can actually see only shadows of whom and what stand in her nearest surroundings. As a result, she has sharpened her hearing sense to an enormous extent.
Her nails are chewed and broken with bleeding hangnails, but except for it she holds a decent overall appearance.
In spite of her small body, Neka is quite strong, especially whether she is able to focus her chakra in her fists.
PERSONALITY: Neka is a tranquil young woman who only speaks when spoken to, mostly because she doesn’t care for expressing her thoughts to other people. With a bright intelligence and a perception talent, she is reserved and introvert like many in her clan, with solitary tendencies linked to her physical disability. She doesn’t like to be bothered for minor things and people with too sunny of a disposition are said ‘to give her headache’.
This being said, Neka is extremely loyal to her family and to the people who prove to be considerate of her situation without tripping into useless and undesired commiseration for her. This was what drew her to become a Nara Guard in first place. Her humor is dry and her sarcasm on point, yet if one manages to see this side of her should not be troubled, for those are qualities she only shows to whom she feels emotionally attached to.
She has a strong sense of duty and responsibility, which makes her a naturally gifted leader despite her sight disvantage. Nonetheless, it’s not difficult for her to make a step back when someone else holds the leadership of a certain group, rather she is a good follower as well.
BACKGROUND: Born with congenital glaucoma, her sight worsened in a short period of her early childhood and allowed her to only see flashes of lights obscured by shadows. Her father, Neichi, and her mother, Akemi, were worried about the kid’s possibility to become a ninja, but her grandmother Nemi told both to harbor hope in their hearts, since shadows have always been companions of a Nara’s life.
Indeed, Neka’s bond with shadows proved fundamental during her growth: she was not trained as an average ninja and this helped her flourishing into a completely revolutionary kind of fighter. Neka’s incredible connection with shadows was hastily rumored all through the clan and when she turned fifteen she got called by Nara Shikaku, the clan head himself, to be a member of his family’s escort.
Neka refused at first, only because she didn’t feel up to the situation and in her opinion she still had a long way to go before being able to live up to his expectation. Shikaku demonstrated to be comprehensive of the girl’s doubts and gave her some other time to better train herself.
Being enlisted for a short period in ANBU as a chuunin, she dropped out of the Black Ops when Third Hokage decided to promote her to Tokubetsu Jonin rank together with few of her colleagues. Especially, her appointment was justified because of her valuable role as team coordinator.
After her advancement in rank she asked Shikaku if the Guards assignment he had proposed her was still available. At the age of nineteen, she officially became a Nara Guard, yet she (as well as her colleagues) did not quit regular tasks as a kunoichi.
In occasion to the outburst of Fourth Great Shinobi World War she was deployed in Mifune’s Fifth Division, together with Yamanaka Ino, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba and Hana. Back to Konoha, she joined back the Guards Corps as the protector of freshly-designed leader Nara Yoshino.
JUTSUS & ABILITIES: Neka’s abilities all revolves around her deep connection with shadows. Neka is in fact able to communicate with all the shadows in her surroundings, even those who do not belong to her, to state enemies and allies’ positions on the battlefield (for a range of 50 meters).
By touching someone’s body and consequently instilling her chakra inside them, Neka is able to control their shadows as her own (her level of control is subdued to the amount of chakra she gives out, so she must hold it in check and weight up every move she makes).
Neka is also able to materialize her shadow to create arranged weapons, shields or extension of her limbs.
List of jutsus Neka can perform:
Basic Academy Jutsus (Clone Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu, etc.)
Summoning Jutsu (deers)
Shadow Imitation Jutsu
Shadow Gathering Jutsu
Shadow Neck-Binding Jutsu
Shadow Speaking Jutsu
Shadow Possession Jutsu
Shadow Invasion Jutsu
Shadow Locating Jutsu
Shadow Imitation Field Jutsu (Gaiden)
TRIVIA:
Neka’s favourite phrase is “roots do not need eyes to be efficient”.
Neka’s favourite dish is ebi tempura. Her least favourite dish is maguro sashimi.
Neka’s sexuality is on gray spectrum. More specifically, she is a gray-A and only experiences sexual attraction on rare occasions. As long as her romantic interests are regarded, she is convinced she is aromantic, but actually it’s just very hard for her to fall in love.
Neka, like Nara Morimaru, was originally conceived as an antagonist to Yoshino’s regime.
