| abstract | - Katsumi Hayashi (林カツミ, Hayashi Katsumi) was a Jōnin of Konohagure as well as one of Orochimaru's experiments, created artificially using the DNA of another Akatsuki member, Itachi Uchiha, and a kidnapped Konoha Jōnin named Kaiya Hayashi. Given life inside Orochimaru's laboratory, his creation was a result of a new ninjutsu, developed by Orochimaru, created with the purpose of artificially creating human beings from DNA samples. After successfully creating a living human being, Orochimaru erased the memories of his "mother" and left the both of them just outside Konoha's gates, soon to be discovered by scout shinobi. Unaware of his unconventional origins, Katsumi was trained normally in the way shinobi, attending the Academy and graduating at the age of 10 to later become part of Team Anko. After becoming suspicious of Katsumi's true origin after viewing the Cursed Seal placed on his back by Orochimaru, Anko made it her mission to train Katsumi as intensely as possible to become a shinobi capable of singlehandedly taking down Orochimaru, a form of avengement for both Katsumi and Anko herself, a former student of Orochimaru's. During this training it was revealed that Katsumi had a very large capability as an exceptional shinobi along with being able to quickly learn and perfect jutsu in a very short amount of time. He was also able to see through his opponents movements more quickly than any average human, eventually revealed to be the result of his possesion of the Sharingan. At the age of 16, Katsumi was promoted to Jōnin after 4 full years of intensive treatment no normal human could endure. Soon afterwards, fueled by a new confidence in his promotion, Katsumi was able to awaken his Sharingan, given to him by means of sharing Itachi's DNA. Immediately after, he ran home to reveal the strange yet pleasant news to his mother, at which time he witnessed her death at the hands of an unknown assassin, later revealed to be his biologicial father, Itachi Uchiha. As a result of this heavy emotional burden as well as the development of an all-consuming bloodlust, a seal inside of Katsumi placed by Orochimaru was broken. The results of the unsealing of Katsumi's true nature led to his immediate clarity of the dark secret behind his own life, as well as the awakening of his own Sharingan, granted to him by means of Itachi's DNA, sealed away by Orochimaru until the day his own will turned evil and more powerful than his own. Horrified by these realizations and his new found visual prowess, Katsumi decided to desert the Leaf village and seek revenge on Itachi by joining the ranks of the Akatsuki in order to get closer to his mother's murderer. His exceptional physical strength and speed gained under the influence of Anko, along with his of Fire-Style chakra nature led him to be known in Konoha as the Dragon of the Leaf (葉の竜, Ha no Ryū). Katsumi originally began as a genetic experiment by S-rank criminal and former Konoha Jōnin, Orochimaru. Mass for the body of Katsumi was synthetically created using samples of DNA from two parent donors, Itachi Uchiha and Kaiya Hayashi, as well as small traces of DNA from other Akatsuki member, Nagato. Taking mere weeks to build up a substantial cellular structure, once Katsumi had reached the developmental point of a newborn human child, Orochimaru wiped his mother's memory and replaced it with synthetic memories of her pregnancy and fainting spell as a result of Katsumi's "birth" in the forest just outside the Konoha gates. The two of them were quickly discovered by shinobi patrolling the village's border and were taken back into the village where they proceeded to live a relatively normal life free of suspicion. In the Academy, Katsumi excelled in almost all shinobi courses and graduated at the age of 10. By 12, under the tutelage of his friend and teacher, Anko Mitarashi, Katsumi was able to begin training as a Chūnin early, beginning to teach himself all manners of complicated jutsu in order to fulfill his dream of mastering every fighting style in the ninja world. During a training session between Katsumi and Anko in a river outside the village, Anko discovered one of Orochimaru's cursed seals placed on Katsumi's back. Herself being a surviving experiment of Orochimaru, she was immediately able to begin to unravel his dark past. As a result of her own need for vendetta against her sensei , Anko pledged to teach Katsumi all the remaining techniques she knows to him in order to see him one day become powerful enough to defeat Orochimaru singlehandedly. Over the next four years, Katsumi's stength grew exponentially and by the time of his sixteenth birthday, he had been promoted to Jōnin. With newfound confidence following his promotion, an immense surge of chakra and incredibly strong will finally broke a seal placed on his eyes by Orochimaru, allowing him for the first time to manifest the power of his Sharingan. The same day, returning home with strange and yet good news to bear, Katsumi discovered to his horror that his entire house had been ransacked by an absent assailant who had left his mother fatally wounded on the floor of their home, wrapped in a ripped sheet of an Akatsuki member's cloak. Mortally wounded, Kaiya was only just able to tell Katsumi who had done this to her, and to follow his own path and stay true to his ninja way. Just moments after his mother passed away in his arms, Katsumi was enveloped in an incredibly forceful rage. This rage triggered the breaking of another seal placed inside of him by Orochimaru. A mental seal, it's destruction allowed information deeply surpressed in his deepest memories to leak to the surface; memories concerning Katsumi's true origins, as well as the probable suspect of his mother's death. Deeply disturbed by the things he had seen and almost entranced by his new level of awakened power, Katsumi immediately defected from Konoha to seek out the whereabouts of his mother's murderer, and effectively kill him. - Knowing that even with his exceptional talent as a shinobi finding the Akatsuki on his own would be nearly impossible, he instead decided rather to have them come to him by capturing a jinchūriki and threatening to publicly execute them, knowing that the Akatsuki sought to collect all 9 jinchūriki for their diabolical plans. He decided to travel to the Village Hidden in the Clouds to capture the 2-tails. Making quick work of disguising his identity and eventually trapping the jinchūriki and rendering her unconcious by means of a snake venom jutsu taught to him by Anko, Katsumi then traveled with the 2-tails to one of the known Akatsuki hideout locations he had discovered through extensive interrogations of his own doing. Loudly proclaiming that he could easily kill the jinchūriki and then harness the power of the 2-tails for his own bidding, by chance he happened to attract the attention of Tobi, a member of the Akatsuki. A deal was eventually struck trading the jinchūriki to the Akatsuki in exchange for his own membership. Finally having found a link to his mother's killer, as well as the man who made him into the human monster he saw himself as, he lied low in the ranks of the Akatsuki, partnered to Tobi to be kept a close eye on, his powers only further flourished as he prepared to kill his father and creator. - Having discovered the current location of Orochimaru within one of his many secret lairs, Katsumi used his immense strength to barrage a hole deep into the innermechanisms of Orochimaru's lair to seek him out and kill him. After almost an entire day's searching, he finally stumbled upon the room where he sensed Orochimaru's chakra had recently been. However, what he found inside was not a full bodied Orochimaru, but a large white snake made of many smaller snakes lying in bloody pieces on the floor. Unbeknownst to him, Sasuke Uchiha had mere minutes ago slain Orochimaru in that very spot before him. Realizing that he had been beaten to the literal punch, Katsumi broke down into angry tears, only feeding the deep hatred buried within himself. The hatred proved to be far greater than anyone in the Akatsuki had anticipated as his Mangekyō Sharingan was finally awakened. - After learning from Pein that Itachi had been killed by Sasuke, instead of him, yet another swirling rage enveloped him, similar to the one brought about by his mother's death. Nearly driven mad by his utter realization that with both parents, and Orochimaru dead, along with being essentially a botched laboratory experiment, Katsumi screamed aloud in anguish and pain as both of his eyes began to once again tear blood uncontrollably, much to Pein's dismay. However, upon recovering from the intense rage spell, Katsumi opened his eyes to reveal that he had not been injured, but rather had awakened the Rinnegan. A surge of spiritual chakra strong enough had evolved Katsumi's Mangekyo Sharingan into an entirely new form of doujutsu. In a fit of rage, Pein began to piece together the process of events and quickly developed a defensive jutsu for the oncoming fight. Gaining the upperhand for a split second, Sasuke took advantage of the momentary lapse in fighting and with both hands, ripped Katsumi's eyes from their sockets. A deadly silence fell over the battlefield as Katsumi's previous smile disappeared and a negative wave of chakra emmited from his very being. With only a second to spare, Sasuke jumped backwards into a defensive stance as Katsumi's neck grew several feet into the air and took on, along with his head, a malevolent serpentine appearance. Without another second to spare Katsumi lunged toward Sasuke with a mouth full of venom seeping razor sharp teeth. Having now no manual jutsu, or visual doujutsu, Katsumi's new snake form shrieked and writhed with anger as several of those around joined in on the fight, throwing all manners of ninja weaponry at the still-growing beast in order to try and slow it down. However, Katsumi's rage had become all consuming, unable to respond to even the sound of his own name. Katsumi , now completely transformed into a large snake creature capable of spitting torrents of fire, had lost nearly all of his true self as the beast raged toward Sasuke with a horrifying bloodlust. The Katsumi snake managed to kill 30 and injure 50 more shinobi before Naruto finally stepped into the battle. After several minutes of withstanding minute injuries Naruto finally created an alarmingly powerful Wind-Style Rasen-Shuriken and aimed it directly at the creatures black heart pumping negative chakra throughout the beast's body. The force of the impact severed the heart itself from the creature as it landed several meters behind. The snake turned and met its eyeless stare with Naruto for a few fleeting moments before collapsing onto the battlefield and slowly shrivelling back into Katsumi's normal form. Naruto reluctantly walked up to Katsumi's side and kneeled down beside his dying body. Gingerly, Katsumi retrieved shinobi headband from the sole pocket on his right side. Clutching it tightly against his chest, Katsumi smiled, and a heavy rain began to fall. For the first time, Naruto began to feel deeply sorry for Katsumi, watching as his eye sockets and scoured wounds across his body leaked blood into the torrent of rain washing it down the mountainside. Seconds from death, Katsumi turned, although blind, to stare into Naruto's eyes with the empty sockets of his own and asked him, "What do you wish to ask of me... Naruto?" Naruto shuddered as he heard for the first time his own name uttered from Katsumi's, now blue lips. Naruto leaned forward towards Katsumi and said of him, "I've known you for a long time, Katsumi. I've seen you go from the top of your class at the ninja academy, to one of the most terrible threats to the shinobi world there's ever been. And now I want to ask you, on the hour of your death, which do you choose?" The smile upon Katsumi's face vanished. Taking a moment to cough up a sizeable amount of blood, Katsumi relayed to Naruto, "Through my eyes, I have seen terrible things, I've seen the monster the world can be, full of murder, betrayal, and sorrow. Yet now, even though my eyes have been lost. I can finally see, Naruto. I can see the light of the world. It took me losing my eyes to see the good I've been searching for all this time. Naruto Uzumaki, you have been one of my most bitter rivals for the majority of my life and now, on my deathbed I can truthfully say that I see you as a friend. The only friend I've ever had, or ever will have. I know deep down, through all of the terrible things I have caused, that I am still a shinobi of the Leaf, and I always will be. Carry on my legacy Naruto, bring great change to this world. You are the only one who can. And I entrust this rotten, beautiful world to you." Wiping away a tear Naruto complied, grasping Katsumi's one hand, "I will, Katsumi, I will make this world the place you always wished it was. A peaceful land where anyone can do what they set their mind to." Smiling once again, Katsumi replied with what little strength was left in him, "Thank you, Naruto Uzumaki." The rain stopped as Katsumi directed his eyes to the heavens where clouds began to roll away to reveal a beautiful midday sun. With his last breath, Katsumi's eyes teared for the very last time and he spoke, "Father... Is that you...? I'm home." Katsumi had a number of mixed physical features due to his multiple donors of DNA by Orochimaru. Shaggy and dark, almost black, brown hair led to hollow black eyes and a gaunt, pale face, (much like that of his mother) complete with age lines travelling diagonally down from the insides of either eye, a descendant trait of his father. Priot to his defection from Konoha, Katsumi typically wore a standard mesh shinobi shirt along with red pants, a long black cloak, and typical black sandals, tied together with the signature Leaf Village forehead and knuckle protectors. Following his leaving the village, he swapped the long red pants of his typical garb for a pair of black pants cut off about mid-shin. He also swapped his shirt for another mesh shirt with the mesh fitting just around the abdomen. Following his rapid acceptance into the ranks of the Akatsuki, he decided to leave behind all footwear to walk about barefoot in nothing else but the typical Akatsuki cloak. He also, like most new Akatsuki members, retained his forehead proctector, but scratched out the Leaf emblem to maintain appearances for his new-found comrades.
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