Yamazu, the Monkey-Priest

by **Rasari** Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:18 pm

Name: Yamazu, the Monkey-Priest

Age: 158 (explained in history)

Bloodline: N/A

Rank: Wanderer, recieved no offical rank. Was S-class level, now Genin leveled (see history).
Classification:
Village: None.
Alignment: Good-ish, very mischievous.

Appearance: His skin is slightly golden, and his hair is gold. His fingers are thin and extremely dexterious, and his feet are the same, with both being hairy. He often goes around without wearing any footwear. His eyes are deep brown and constantly sparkling. He also posseses a long prehensile golden tail.

Personality: After being trapped for a hundred and thirty years, Yamazu has a few screws loose. His actions are very erratic, even when standing still he moves constantly, hopping from one foot to the next or swinging his tail around. Despite the betrayal that led to his incarseration, he is a very trusting individual. He is also rather mischievious, often playing practical jokes and stealing things. In fights, he sees it all as a game, enjoying the combat and laughing all the way through it. He always wears a smile on his face. Yet despite this seemingly childish and idiotic exterior, he is also very wise, learning a lifetime of lessons from the priests of his temple.

History:
As the Tale Of The Monkey-Priest is very old and has been degraded over time, the exact details are unknown. However, the following is the most historically correct version that is still being circulated today.

A long while ago, on top of a high, forested mountain, there was a temple. In the temple, priests practised their art. Taijutsu and staff fighting was their way of meditating, although they also practised some Ninjutsu for defensive purposes. They mostly got their inspiration from the monkeys that swung from the branches near the temple, copying some of their actions and molding them into their Taijutsu and Staff Kata's. This gave them an agile and fast, if not paticularly powerful, style of fighting.

The priests had a belief that one day, word would reach them of a young boy who would become a great warrior. When, in a small nearby village, they heard a rumour about a misfit child born with a tail of a monkey, they needed no more encouragement. Taking the boy from the village without a fuss (the villagers were glad to see the back of him), they brought him back to the temple and trained him in their way of fighting. The child was a natural at the Taijutsu, picking up the moves faster than any of the priests. He even made improvements to it, making it more effective.

The young child had some trouble with the staff fighting at first, his hands instinctively dropping it to fight bare-handed. When he learned to keep a hold of it, he still had trouble melding the monkey Taijutsu with the staff fighting. Eventually though, he mastered that art too, his nimble fingers manipulating the staff with more than normal efficiency. The Ninjutsu arts he was proficient at, but not that extaordinary. His real talents lay in his Taijutsu and staff fighting, able to weave about a battlefield with amazing speed. For such purpose, Yamazu made himself a special Staff made from the tallest tree of higest reaches of the temple mountain. Made with the Monkey-Priests own chakra, ledgend said that although made from wood, it was as hard as steel, and whoever held it would be protected from enemy attacks.

After twenty long years of training, Yamazu grew bored, having learned everything that he could from the priests. Many travellers visited the mountain temple to trade and several times the Monkey-Priest tried to escape using them as cover, with the other priests always catching him and bringing him back. Then one day, a man from the Hidden Rock Village came along with a tale of an Ape Demon that had four tails. It had been spotted on another mountain far away, and it held much power and caused much destruction.

Upon hearing the story, Yamazu instantly felt attached to this Demon, they only other being on the face of the planet that had the same strange burden as him. Asking the priests about it, he learned of the other tailed demons of the world, and how some of them where sealed away into 'hosts' known as Jinchuuriki. Yamazu vowed to become one of them, and form a symbiotic relationship with the Four Tails. The man, who had seen the Monkey-Priests' strength, claimed to have the power to Seal these Demons away into a human host, and agreed to help Yamazu on his quest.

The priests had only one condition for the Monkey-Preist; that he took the time to enjoy himself and look around at the world. And to send lots of letters back home. For several years, Yamazu travelled all over the country visiting several places, even other Hidden Villages. The Sealing Man offered to show him around his own Village, after they had defeated the Four Tailed Demon. Eventually, they reached their true destination, and they began the long road up the mountain.

When they reached the pinicle, they found it to be a wide open space, the tip of the mountain having been torn off long ago by the Ape Demon. The Demon itself was there, towering over the shinobi and the priest, it's red fur rippling like water in the strong breeze. With a monsterous roar, the beast charged them, and the pair readied for the fight of their lives.

Even at the time, the details of the fight were vauge. A hundred and thirty years later, there are no details left. All that is known of the battle is that eventually, the Hidden Rock shinobi and Yamazu were victorious. Whether or not the fight really lasted several days and nights, if it destroyed many villages in the process, or if it reshaped the mountain itself are up to the listener, for such facts are now lost forever in the mists of time.

After the Demon was defeated, Yamazu turned the The Sealing Man and asked for him to seal the Demon inside him. But the Monkey-Priest was too trusting, and he allowed the man too approch and place a seal on him. The moment it touched his skin, Yamazu knew he had been tricked. Starting with his feet, rock started to grown upon him, rooting him to the spot. The Sealing Man explained that originally, he was going to let the Monkey-Priest go unharmed after the fight, but that after the years of practical jokes that Yamazu had pulled on him on the road, he had grown weary of him. He instead decided to pull a little prank of his own, and seal the Monkey-Priest away, forever. The seal would not kill him, it would keep him alive, but he would be routed to the spot of his defeat for eternity.

With that, The Sealing Man vanished from Yamazu's sight as the rock covered his eyes, and the sealing was completed. The Four-Tailed Ape Demon was sealed away in another person called Roushi, his Staff was stolen by The Sealing Man, and the world forgot about Yamazu except for the occasional telling of the Tale Of The Monkey-Priest.

During his incarceration, the Monkey-Priest was not idle. Using all his chakra, he slowly chipped away at the seal binding his body in rock. After a hundred and thirty years, he finally managed to break the seal, and the rock crumbled away from his body. Taking a very deep breath (his first in over a century) he gave a great laugh and danced back down the mountain. After reaching the village he passed through when he came up to the mountain, he found that it had been abandoned. There was barely anything left of it, reclaimed as it was by the forest.

It took him a few days to find his way into the next town, where he discovered that it had been over a century since he went up the mountain. Shrugging it off with a laugh, he headed back to his temple, which he found to his relief was still in use. The monks there (most the great-grandsons of the priests who Yamazu used to know) explained to him how the world had changed since his sealing. When he heard that the Four-Tailed Demon was now free once more, he knew that he was going to have to pick up where he left off.

Unfortunately, he would have to start from almost square one. A century of picking away at the seal had taken a lot of his strength away and he no longer had the power to use most of his Ninjutsu. He still retained his knowledge of the Ninjutsu, he just could not use the more powerful techniques. His Taijutsu and staff skills were still fully intact, although it made him sad that The Sealing Man had taken his Staff away. After a hundred and thirty years, the trail to finding it would be long cold. However, he refused to give up, and resolved to find that too. Building his chakra up again would be a long and tiresome challenge, and he would never regain all his powers. He would need much assitance in tracking down and sealing away the Ape Demon, even after he had regained his power and Staff.

But he was determined to see through his spiritual trials, and thus Yamazu the Monkey-Priest set forth on the quest he started over a hundred and thirty years ago.

Speciality: Taijutsu/Staff
Learned Jutsu: Click here
Elements: Fuuton (D), Doton (r) and Katon (r)
Weapons/Items: None as of yet, but he hopes to find his lost Staff.
Goals: To regain his abilities. To find his Staff. To claim the Four-Tailed Beast.