Futami

Framing his face, Futami's long black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and his eyes were brown. In his thieving days he kept to drab clothing: a plain grey vest over dark-grey trousers, grey shoes, and white cloth bound around his wrists and ankles. After entering Hagoromo's service, he switched to a pale, high-collared kimono fastened with a dark sash, its collar set with magatama. Later in life, faint wrinkles appeared across his brow, beneath his eyes, and at the edges of his mouth, while grey overtook the lower length of his hair.

In his criminal days Futami was hard-hearted, pursuing only his own gain and committing crimes with full knowledge of the harm he caused. Hagoromo's efforts at first left him indifferent, yet a streak of stubbornness gave way and he pitched in. The act of aiding people rather than preying on them shifted his outlook and drew him into Hagoromo's fold. In time he rose to become the sage's advisor, pouring himself into the cause and growing humble along the way. He came to cherish Hagoromo's boys, Indra and Asura, the elder above all, whom he judged fit to inherit his father's legacy from an early age.

In the years after Kaguya Ōtsutsuki and her Ten-Tails laid waste to the world, Futami settled beside a wrecked bridge and made his living by fraud: he would offer to help travellers across, then rob them and vanish. His routine unravelled when Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki arrived and set about rebuilding the span, which Futami resented as a threat to his livelihood, especially after Hagoromo warned off one of his marks. He watched the work for a couple of days, then lent a hand, secretly hoping Hagoromo would soon leave so he could tear the bridge down again. Instead, as others joined in, Futami discovered he liked how it felt to be useful and took pride in the effort, and when the bridge was finished he chose to leave it standing and departed at Hagoromo's side.

Hagoromo later granted Futami a portion of his own chakra, making him the very first to follow Ninshū, a purpose that finally gave his life meaning. The two soon reached another broken crossing worked by a thief named Mitsuo, who knew Futami from his old trade and bristled at the intrusion, only to find that his former peer had reformed and now wanted to repair bridges rather than exploit them. Futami stayed at Hagoromo's side for years as his earliest student, often present when the sage watched over his two boys, Indra and Asura, and he said more than once that Indra struck him as the rightful heir. Never a fighter, Futami counted only on his quickness to carry out his old thefts.