Chuutetsu, Ishidai

Ishidai is the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure.

Appearance
As the younger brother of a local (and now legendary) blacksmith, Ishidai has been the guinea pig for and beneficiary of many of his brother’s creations. His most prized possession is a suit of armor that his brother made for him. However, when wearing the robes of the Tsuchikaze, he only wears the chain mail under-fittings. He has a thick, heavy build. He has multiple scars as a result of his many years as a ninja, with one on his cheek. Instead of the forehead protector, Ishidai wears the sugegasa (conical straw hat) of the Kage with the rock kanji on it.

Personality
Ishidai is not exactly what you’d call a born leader. In fact, outside of battle, he’s downright shy. Years of being compared to his brother before he made jounin have made him humble, though he went through a period as a chuunin where his competitive nature got entirely out of hand. Age has done a lot to mellow out this character flaw, but truth be told, his impeccable drive has made him the leader and ninja that he is today.

History
Ishidai was born into a small, very poor family in Iwa. At the time he was born, his brother Ishizue had just begun helping his father to work in a local smithy. Thankfully, business picked up considerably in his first few years of life with the opening of a new coalmine in the local vicinity. Because of this increased income, his family was able to send him to the ninja academy, a luxury not afforded his brother, who bore the burden stoically. In fact, Ishizue was proving to be a gifted blacksmith in his own right, and was very much disinterested in his missed opportunity by the time Ishidai enrolled.

During the first few years at the academy, Ishidai, being a portly little fellow (his newly well-to-do parents may have overfed him a bit), was teased and bullied by older and more accomplished students. After coming home beaten and bruised after school one day, the young boy went crying to his brother, who took pity on the boy. After working all night, the young smith created his first piece of armor; a crude, slightly bulky right arm gauntlet, which he presented to his little brother the next morning. Upon his next encounter with the bullies, they laughed at the shabby weapon. In all likelihood, the piece was heavy and should have been more of a hindrance to him than a help, but there’s no substitute for a boost of confidence; Ishidai soundly beat several boys and sent one of them to the hospital. From that point on, Ishidai has never gone into a fight without some kind of armor on, which he uses to augment his formidable taijutsu style, a style that he learned from an older student named Kobe.

When finally assigned a team, Ishidai was blessed with a genjutsu specialist and a ninjutsu user, Shiori and Ikasu. With such a balanced team, the three easily became chuunin a year after they graduated, and began increasingly dangerous missions. Sadly, Ishidai became increasingly aware that while his two comrades had begun branching out into other areas (especially after they started dating), his taijutsu remained the basis of his fighting technique. Goaded on by a diligent urge to help his team grow stronger (and maybe just a smidge of jealousy), the chuunin upped the ante on his already strict training regimen, requesting tutoring sessions from various older shinobi around the village, and generally working himself to death. The result, however, was undeniable; Ishidai learned a plethora of jutsu in a matter of just one year, and began specializing in doton jutsu, something he’d previously struggled with.

Still, Ishidai’s inferiority complex hadn’t quite worked itself out of his system yet. After taking and failing miserably in several missions on his own, Ishidai once again went to his brother, who once again took pity on him. With Ishidai’s help, several long months later, Ishizue created his first masterwork, a suit of armor called Ninku (or Stoicism). Ishidai had already gotten into the habit of storing his brother’s cast-off weaponry in a scroll, and now asked one final favor of Ishizue: melt down his previous creations to make a single weapon. Once again, Ishidai helped his brother each day after the blacksmith closed shop, and it took exactly one month to make a gigantic dual-bladed weapon, which Ishidai appropriately named Shingai (or Terror). To commemorate the event, Ishizue took his brother out on the down, and by the end of the night, Ishidai had gotten the bright idea to get matching tattoos. He and his brother now bear dragon tattoos; Ishidai on his forearms, and Ishizue on his upper arms. He has since sealed the arm pieces of his armor into those tattoos, but it was certainly not their original purpose.

Fast-forward forty years. Shiori and Ikasu have been married and retired for almost a decade, but they still serve as advisors from time to time, and accompany Ishidai on the occasional mission for old time’s sake. Ishizue is the owner and founder of a world-renowned foundry, and still makes custom armor and weaponry in his spare time. Ishidai has been Tsuchikage all of five years, after serving as the assistant to his predecessor for another four. Ishidai has spent those nine years learning how to be a good leader, something he doesn’t think of as coming naturally to himself, or anyone else for that matter. He’s thrown himself into the study of it with the same fervor he did his fighting techniques, and to hear anyone but him tell it, his insatiable drive to excel has really paid off.

Abilities
Master of Doton.

Quotes
Cool quotes that they've said.