Shira

A young man of decent height and athletic build, Shira has pale skin and spiky taupe-grey hair pushed back apart from two loose bangs. Scars cover his face and body, one cutting down across his throat, and his right shoulder bears the ink of a blue dragon. For clothing he wears a long dark green sleeveless shirt bound by a pale green sash, grey trousers, and black braces on the arms; his forehead protector hangs from the shirt's hem, bandages wrap one bicep, and a small amber magatama sits at his throat. Upon making chūnin he adopted a green full-body jumpsuit, a gift from the Konoha ninja, worn under orange leg-warmers as a tribute to Rock Lee.

Level-headed and composed, Shira speaks only when there is a reason to. Others may scorn his narrow range of skills, yet he remains mature and proud, refusing to blame anyone else for his limitations and holding firm to the belief that real determination is what carries a person to success. Humility marks him too, along with steady loyalty to his comrades and to Gaara, and in battle he keeps his cool, watching a foe closely before he ever strikes.

Possessing no gift for genjutsu or ninjutsu, Shira funneled every ounce of effort into taijutsu and taught himself to a masterful level before ever entering the Academy. That prowess let him stand his ground against the Fifth Kazekage, and during the Chūnin Exams enemy squads chose to gang up on him together rather than meet him one at a time. His movements are exact: he weaves through Gaara's sand to close the gap, stops a kick from Lee with one hand, and when Neji Hyūga attacked with the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, he deflected every palm and left the Hyūga stunned. A single kick can send an enemy flying, his speed matches an unweighted Lee without any chakra boost, and his larger frame lends the stamina to absorb heavy hits.

He borrows pressure-point strikes akin to the Gentle Fist, jamming an opponent's chakra flow, while his trademark Silent Fist wraps each blow in chakra so it falls without a sound and can scarcely be predicted. His finest technique, the Seven Heavens Breathing Method, swells his lung capacity to four times its normal size and pushes his power into Eight Gates territory, enough to trade strikes with Lee at five gates open. Fine chakra control lets him walk across quicksand unhindered and release chakra through any of his tenketsu to soften an enemy's attack, and a sharp analytical mind lets him read a foe's weak points at a glance and even coach Gaara to lean less on his reflexive sand shield.

His abilities shine brightest during a Chūnin Exams jointly run by Suna and Konoha, where his cell alongside Sen and Yome plots to carry every Sand genin through. When fellow Suna-nin turn on and attack his team, Team Guy steps in to rescue them, and the whole affair grows into a guarded friendship with Lee. Their one-on-one duel builds until both push to their absolute limits, Lee throwing open the Eight Gates and Shira answering with the Seven Heavens Breathing Method, until his old scars tear open and Lee calls off the fight. Now a chūnin, Shira later signs on with a special unit along the northern reaches of the Land of Wind, keeping watch over his parents from there, and departs beside Yome.