brainrot

PERSONALITY

Izuna has a calm, cool, and icy persona with his clan, but is actually a very hot-blooded and impulsive person who reacts blindly to emotion. Izuna tends to avoid or willfully refuse to comprehend things that upset him, and often physically removes himself from whatever environment he had a negative experience in to achieve this. He's developed a talent for tuning out people when they're talking.

All of Izuna's self-worth is tied to his contributions to his clan. He takes glee in his successes, and when he fails, it reflects his value as a human being. Despite this, Izuna has an incredibly poor memory for people, his own clan members included. He’ll often forget information he has very much learned already. His lack of ability to retain information on people he knows seems almost wilful. He would never admit it, but this is an extension of his issues with comprehending things that make him uncomfortable.

Izuna has a very vindictive and hostile attitude, yet always falls short of sadism or a firm desire for vengeance; he has an unusual kindness he tries to suppress by being as negative as possible about absolutely everything. When he is wronged, he will often default to assuming that it's his own fault.

Izuna has a lot of issues with respecting boundaries, learned from a combination of the people around him being forthright and entitled to do whatever they want. He’ll often invite himself onto outings and rifle through the things of family and friends. He’s had a compulsive desire to take valuable items from his loved ones since childhood, and has a collection of stolen items stocked up in his closet. On the flipside, he’s not too aware of his own boundaries. He still does this as an adult.

Izuna believes his legal status as an adult at 16 means he is a literal adult at 16, and thus any ‘childishness’ is proof that he is doing something wrong, as it is ‘childishness’ his father criticized the most. Even in adulthood, he views overt and untempered displays of emotion as ‘childish’, despite his tendency to be emotional.

Particularly a problem as a teenager: Because Izuna is so reactive to his own emotions, the more distressed he becomes, the more wildly inconsistent his motivations are. At the height of distress, he instinctively seeks out a status quo, no matter how irrational.

Izuna is constantly keeping track of how others view him, and performing whatever persona others want from him, even when he finds it unpleasant. Even when talking comfortably with someone, he calculates what he says carefully. Much of his public face is built around keeping people at arm’s length.

This compounded discomfort with others has given him social anxiety. His response to being nervous is to act cold, so he just comes off as aloof when this flares up. Because he only really interacts at length with people when he wants something, his socialization is disjointed, with major holes in it like “regular people can see the things I do to manipulate my targets too” and “most people find me attractive”. If he’s forced to have a regular social interaction he will do his best to just not talk.

Izuna feels he is constantly making up for his worst traits, and were he to not temper himself, his very existence would be inherently damaging to others, especially his clan. He’s aware he’s inherently dishonest about himself, and perceives this as a sign he is a bad person rather than as a coping strategy.

The most visceral triggers for Izuna are abandonment, rejection, and his innate lack of worth, and he’ll often chase these ideas during bad moods.

Ultimately, at the back of his mind, he is aware that his only purpose is to die.

PRESENTATION AND MANNERISMS

Izuna wears a blue overcoat with lightweight armour (or plate, in large-scale sorties) on the battlefield and a black kinagashi at home. He takes special care with his appearance, always changing his outfit and makeup for what the situation calls for, and looks down on those who aren't meticulous about presentation as he is.

Izuna tends to mimic the behaviour of others depending on if he's seen someone deal with a social situation well. He's copied Hikaku's fan flourishes and tendency to be act polite and cheerful when frustrated, Madara’s tendency to resolve conflicts with shows of power, and his mother’s blank and self-assured affect when he's nervous.

In his teen years, Izuna developed some residual discomfort calling Madara “nii-san” after all of his older brothers died, and will usually slip into a more comfortable and casual “aniki” in private. He eventually feels comfortable returning to “nii-san”.

Izuna has a chewing stim that usually only shows up when he's stressed. Normally he chews on his knuckles and wrist, but he'll bite anything that feels good to dig his teeth into.

SHARINGAN

Izuna got his sharingan at a prodigiously low age from the sheer strength of his joy at seeing his brother alive. Being punished with disbelief and disinterest from his father has reinforced Izuna’s feelings that his positive emotions are a problem to be solved, and the more positive he is, the more of a problem it is.

His mangekyou was earned in a tragic accident Izuna usually spends almost all his mental energy repressing. Izuna has had a mild phobia of it since childhood, and feels incredibly nervous about others using theirs. At his most stable, Izuna refuses to use his at all. At his most unstable, he’ll burn through jutsu to the point of putting himself into a coma.

Thanks to his father’s ambiguous run-down on the mangekyou, Izuna is aware that giving up his eyes means that Madara will be stronger. He doesn’t know if Madara is aware of this. Izuna is constantly grappling with the need to be exactly as useful as a transfusion would be, justifying living just a little while longer.

Despite the fact he has the perfect mindset for it, Izuna is naturally predisposed against succumbing to the Curse of Hatred. The stronger his hatred, the more it turns on himself, after all.

RELATIONSHIPS

Izuna's world revolves around his brother, because to him his brother is the pinnacle of the clan. When he feels he's failed the clan, he will often get frustrated with Madara for not - as the pinnacle of the clan - voicing his failure. They are prone to petty arguments, but are otherwise attached at the hip. Madara is often Izuna’s sole emotional regulation, and he only gets better at it into adulthood.

Much of Izuna’s complexes about Madara are rooted in his complexes about his father, who encouraged his mindset. Tajima was always frustrated with Izuna’s emotional volatility, and instilled in him as many principles as he could to make up for it. Tajima’s discomfort with affection for his non-clan-heir sons has always affected Izuna the most. His mother’s inscrutable attitude and pulling away after the death of her other sons only compounded Izuna’s feelings of abandonment and poor self-worth.

Without the guidance of his parents, Izuna leaned on Madara, and Madara’s friend, Hikaku. When Madara was having meetings with Hashirama, Izuna just went to train with Hikaku, and never stopped. Almost every non-combat skill Izuna knows he learned from Hikaku, especially in regards to social manipulation. To Hikaku, Izuna is his precious younger brother, and to Izuna, Hikaku is ‘Madara’s friend’. Neither has noticed this dichotomy. Their relationship becoming more balanced in adulthood only serves to mask it more.

Izuna keeps the fact he had a relationship with his late brothers at all on lock. He’s always both resented and envied them for being the focus of his father’s attentions, and often sought out their best traits in himself. The only one he’s truly interacted with is his eldest brother Kurouji, towards the end of his life. Kurouji using Izuna’s sharingan as a spotter for his experimental mangekyou research is the origin of Izuna’s fear of the eyes, not only from the immense damage it did and the way it doomed his brother, but the way it seemed to rot at the entire family structure, and indeed, the entire clan. Kurouji was unexpectedly very attentive to Izuna’s progress as a shinobi, and Izuna has complicated feelings about it he would rather die than share with anyone.

Izuna does his level best to avoid personal contact with both his immediate family and the greater clan. Much of the older generation find him detestable, and he’s gotten used to pretending they don’t exist. The younger generation reify him as they do Madara, and are intimidated by his presence. Only the civilians in the clan seem to have a grasp on his vulnerability as a person, but he rarely comes in contact with them.

Izuna’s relationship with Tobirama is complicated; he views Tobirama as the pinnacle of the Senju, a mere obstacle he wants out of his sight without the fires of hatred, yet over the years the sheer frequency of Tobirama causing him to fail his clan has triggered an antipathy in Izuna anyway. If Tobirama did it, it’s a character flaw, even if the thing Tobirama is doing is ‘being a good person’. Eventually, his self-worth starts getting tangled up in his ability to defeat Senju Tobirama.

Izuna doesn’t even remember why he loathes Hashirama, he’s so accustomed to it. Fuck that guy. Get his ass Madara.

Izuna has no friends and is hostile to people expressing affection towards him, yet constantly craves acknowledgement. Normally this is focused on Madara, but he can be easily coaxed by anyone who takes him seriously and is attentive to his needs. Unfortunately, he’s modeled his concept of relationships off obsessive behaviour tied to his sense of self and his clan, so he very much has ‘favourite people’. The more distressed he becomes, the worse this gets, and he will start inventing new layers to the relationship as he goes. Izuna is shockingly normal and affection-averse with most of the people he knows despite this. Watch out.

Izuna’s view on romance and sex is highly abstracted. He’s never felt romantic or sexual attraction, and it doesn’t occur to him he never will; he views an arranged marriage as an inevitability, and doesn’t care who it’ll be with. To him, sex is having the marriage consummated and then later for having kids. While he loves hearing how people enjoy sex and romance, he never relates it to himself. He’d love to study people who have relationships like an anthropologist. Because of his compulsion to just not comprehend things that make him uncomfortable, he has yet to really grapple with the fact that being in an arranged marriage means he’ll have a wife.

COMBAT

Izuna likes to use a big jutsu first, followed by more even attacks. He uses the sharingan’s basic viewing and copying abilities liberally, but doesn’t normally use genjutsu.

Izuna specializes in various sword techniques, one of the few things learned from his father. He normally uses a katana, but often uses a ninjato or tantou depending on the situation. He’s equally deadly with all of them.

Izuna’s hand-to-hand skills are an amalgamation of various taijutsu he’s copied, like any Uchiha, but as one of the best fighters in the clan, he’s had far more experience witnessing different styles, and is highly unpredictable without a weapon.

Izuna’s favourite grappling techniques are the defensive folding fan techniques he’s learned from Hikaku. While they’re designed for disarming the enemy, he integrates environment and Hyuuga-style taijutsu to make it a beloved stealth combat technique.

Izuna’s chakra reserves are monstrous, and he has trouble comprehending people don’t have his endless wellspring of energy because Madara’s reserves are even bigger. In a match of stamina, only Tobirama is capable of facing him.

Izuna’s chakra control is weak for someone with as much chakra at his disposal as he does, but he makes up for it with an incredible intuition for techniques, which he integrates into his repertoire rapidly. He’s adept at inventing new uses of basic elemental principles, a trait he shares with Madara (and, to his chagrin, Tobirama).

Izuna’s sensing skills are only barely above average; even by 24 he can barely tell a civilian from a horse. He can, however, identify the chakra signatures of those he’s close to.

LIKES AND DISLIKES

Izuna adores cities. His desire to be occupied can’t resist the stimulus. He likes to window-shop, buy snacks, and go to shows just because they’re there and have the power to distract him.

Izuna has a very shallow view of art, but respects the form, and adores complex and fast-paced choreography. He likes plays the most because its the artform that has the most going on at any given time. He does not have quiet tastes.

Izuna’s constant craving for stimulus extends to his love of training. He is constantly tussling with Madara for fun, and their spars are the only environment in which failure does not inspire bitterness and self-criticism. He is at his most nakedly joyful when flinging himself at a good sparring partner.

Izuna hates children with a passion, but is very gentle with them, and does his best to hold his tongue with children under 12. After that they get to hear him complain about their every move.