Idate Morino

In his shinobi days Idate was brash and full of himself, boasting to his brother that he would make jonin faster than anyone. That same conceit sank him at the Chunin Exams' tenth question, where he valued his own advancement over his squad. Aoi Rokusho's betrayal, the sight of his brother's apparent death, and his flight from Konoha left him wary of shinobi in general and exposed a streak of cowardice, panicking under threat and slipping away rather than answering for his crime. Taken in by the Wasabi family, he transferred that need for belonging into a fierce devotion to Jirocho, the man who fed him even after a botched robbery and gifted him a pocket-knife he came to prize above his own life; he turned hostile toward anyone who slighted his benefactor. Once he crossed paths with Team 7 and made peace with Ibiki, a warmer, friendlier side emerged, and though he stayed away from Konoha he still regarded both the village and his brother as family.

Even after casting off the title of ninja, Idate keeps a working command of the basics. He spotted a genjutsu closing around him and shrugged it off without trouble, and his reflexes are sharp enough to swat away flying shells with nothing but a small knife. Preparing for a crucial race, he drove himself through punishing endurance training weighted down much like Rock Lee, a regimen that paid off when he outran Team 7, leaving behind even Sasuke Uchiha despite the Uchiha's own recent speed conditioning.

Idate sat the Chunin Exams up to the notorious tenth question, choosing to stay when quitting would have disqualified his team for six months. He wound up among those failed and told they were unfit, a verdict that barred him from ever retesting and left him crushed; when he protested, Ibiki suggested he simply was not meant to be a shinobi. Aoi Rokusho dangled a shortcut, promising a chunin rank in exchange for stealing a secret scroll and the Sword of the Thunder God, then kept both prizes to buy his own jonin status in Amegakure, leaving Idate branded a fugitive and on the run. Ibiki soon pieced together the scheme and pursued his brother, but Aoi's Amegakure allies seized him, killed his two Anbu companions, and tortured him for the scroll until a fire broke out; the brothers freed themselves yet were parted by the flames, each believing the other lost. Adrift, Idate tried to rob Jirocho Wasabi, failed, and was instead pitied, lectured, and adopted into the family. Three years on he ran for the Wasabi in the Todoroki Shrine Race with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura hired as bodyguards, flirting with Sakura and sticking Team 7 with the bill before bolting in ankle weights. The rival Wagarashi family's runner, Fukusuke, was guarded by Aoi and Team Oboro, hired to eliminate Idate, yet Team 7 shielded him through a brutal clash with Aoi and carried him to a first and only victory over Fukusuke. When Ibiki came to collect an injured Sasuke, he told his brother he no longer wore a coward's eyes; the two reconciled, and Idate chose to remain in the Land of Tea.