Hōki Taketori

Hōki has messy brown hair and purple eyes. At the Academy he wore a dark blue shinobi garment under an unzipped teal vest; once a full shinobi, he zipped the vest closed. Out of devotion to Kakashi, he took on a dark blue face mask and angles his forehead protector over his left eye.

Hōki throws himself into his work with zeal, idolizing Kakashi and hoping to walk the same path. That dedication can tip into overconfidence and irritability whenever he takes command, yet he is not free of self-doubt and visibly frets over failing. In competition he shows grace, declining to gloat or taunt an opponent he has just beaten.

For all his youth, Hōki lands information-gathering assignments of Anbu caliber, helped by a photographic memory that lets him recall the smallest detail flawlessly. He flies through hand seals, dabbles in fūinjutsu that can pin foes in place and grow stronger in tandem with other users, and trained under Sai Yamanaka in Anbu methods, including resistance to mind-probing. His strongest suit is Earth Release, reshaping the ground into a disorienting maze that both confounds and attacks, a scale that impressed the Earth specialist Iwabee.

He entered the Academy amazed by Boruto Uzumaki crashing a train into the Hokage Monument, and later shadowed a civilian workplace on Shino Aburame's assignment. His class toured Kirigakure on a field trip guided by Kagura Karatachi. During the graduation exams he struggled against the proctors but, following Boruto's plan, helped trap Kakashi in a group String Light Formation; though no one claimed the bell, Kakashi passed them all for grasping teamwork, and Hōki was placed on Team 25 with Hako Kuroi and Renga Kokubō.

Amid the Byakuya Gang thefts, Team 25 assisted without engaging directly, then cycled through D-rank work while their sensei recovered; a stint sorting post-office mail saw Hōki's bossy commands grate on his teammates until Sukea nudged him to recognize his overreach, echoing Kakashi's own youthful regret, after which the trio pulled together to find hidden bombs before landing under Sai Yamanaka's command. He later helped capture Mujina Bandits who had slipped into the village, and traveled with the team to Amegakure to map tunnels for Sasuke Uchiha's investigation into Kara. He attended the memorial for the fallen of the Fourth Shinobi World War.

In the revived Chūnin Exams run by Naruto Uzumaki, Hōki cleared the first test and pressed on alone through the Forest of Death after Renga and Hako stayed back to carry an injured comrade out. In the finals he faced Sai's son, Inojin Yamanaka, seizing control by warping the arena into a maze he had memorized; when Inojin attempted a Mind Body Switch, Hōki's Anbu training let him shrug it off and subdue him. Promoted to chūnin and later named team captain, he went on to arrest the Land of Bamboo minister's associates aboard a ship as they tried to abduct Princess Kae Yukiwari.