TOP SECRET and DEEPLY PERSONAL information about Maito Gai!
Character Name: Maito Gai

Age: 20

Birthday: January 1st

Rank outside ANBU: Jounin

Affiliated with which ANBU branch: Hunter- Field Ops.

Registration Number: 10252


Physical Appearance
Height: 184 cm (6'0")

Weight: 76 kg (168 lb)

Blood Type: B

Hair: Crow-black, stick-straight, thick but very fine and soft. Worn in a blunt bowl-cut, an outdated style chosen for two reasons. One, because this way his hair is guaranteed not to get in his eyes when he fights, ever. And two, because someone once told him he had old-fashioned good looks, and the unexpected compliment pleased him so much that he embraced the idea and decided to go with a "classic" hairstyle that would suit him. He considers his hair his best feature and cares for it with quality shampoo and conditioner that leave it silky and gleaming. His beard grows in as thick and unruly as his eyebrows, so he prefers to remain clean-shaven.

Eyes: So dark brown they're nearly black, his eyes are frequently more serious than his dramatic words and easy--often ridiculous--smile. There's a steadiness about Gai's gaze, an honesty, that is as surprising as it is reassuring, though most people don't notice it.

Skin: Caramel, coffee-with-cream tan, which is partly natural and partly because he spends a lot of time outdoors. Though he's only twenty, his skin is roughened from the elements. He has some faint acne scarring on his cheeks and jaw.

Facial Features: A kind old woman's long-ago compliment notwithstanding, Gai is not a handsome man, and he knows it. Almost everything about his face is a little (or a lot) too much, too big, too exaggerated, from his enormous eyebrows to his huge nose to his wide, expressive mouth. Even his cheekbones are big, standing out in sharp relief on a face that is already just too...intense. (His ears are large, too, but his bowl haircut conveniently hides this fact.) Gai has a face built for expression, not for beauty, and he uses this to its full effect, rarely using a subtle expression when a bigger, better one will do. Why quirk one eyebrow when you can waggle both and grin disarmingly?

Other Physical Traits: The rest of Gai, unfortunately, matches his face in terms of bits and pieces being disproportionately large. His hands and feet are big, his knees, knuckles, and elbows knobbly, and he's tall and lean. As a youngster, all of this made life hell for Gai, before he grew into his looks (as much as he's going to) and learned deadly grace to replace his gawkiness. Despite his slender build, he is solidly muscled, very flexible and incredibly strong.

Handedness: Right-handed, but excellent at using both in combat.

Voice: Deep and rich, frequently very loud. The Gai most of the world knows speaks like an actor onstage, with soulful exclamations of passion, uplifting and metaphor-laden monologues, every emotion explored in depth, every decision a murky mystery of uncharted and EXCITING POSSIBILITY! To BE or NOT to be!? To have SOUP or SALAD?!!? Such are the decisions of life, lived to its full potential, never a wasted moment, never a--ahem. The Gai a few people know speaks more quietly, clipped and efficient. No less passion, but fewer wasted words. Fewer words, period.

Identifying Marks: A so-new-it-itches ANBU tattoo and the amount of scars you might expect from a jounin who fights almost exclusively with taijutsu. His palms are callused from extensive (some might say obsessive) training hitting things and using his nunchaku. The only scars worth mentioning, the only ones that bother him, are severe burn scars on his lower legs. They start a little below his knees and extend to his heels, with the worst of the damage on his calves, though thinner, less horrific scarring snakes around to his shins in some places and over the top of his left foot. His right leg is more scarred than his left. These scars (and the muscle and tendon damage beneath them) would limit Gai's movements if he didn't care for them religiously.

Usual Clothing: Gai prefers to wear a form-fitting green jumpsuit chosen to wick away sweat and allow ease of movement while he's fighting. Over this, he wears his Jounin vest, his hitai-ate tied around his waist, and orange legwarmers that protect his sensitive calves. When on-duty, he wears a regular Jounin uniform or ANBU armor. On rare occasions, he will wear jeans or black pants, usually with a black or green turtleneck.

ANBU Mask: A rabbit, done in minimalist green curves. Gai would think it's cute if he didn't hate it.

Living Situation: Formerly a small, basement apartment in the village, which he didn't really like because it only had a small, street-level window, and he likes the outdoors and sunlight. He just moved into HQ and requested a top-floor apartment. (And was told they really didn't give a damn where he lived. Here's a map, pick one and take your stuff up.) He was manfully disappointed to find that his rival, Hatake Kakashi, lived on the side of the building with no available apartments with windows! He scrutinized the map, torn between 322, 324, 326, and 314, but chose 322 in the end because the doors to the others faced the showers, and he did not want to stumble out of his room in the morning and come face-to-face with a naked individual.


Ninja Skills
Fighting Style: Gai is a master of taijutsu. The style he uses is Strong Fist, focusing on using incredible strength and speed to inflict physical damage on an opponent. He excels in close-range combat and will push himself to the limit, even going so far as to open some of the Eight Gates if he feels that the situation calls for it. Due to his extensive training, his strength, speed, and stamina are all exceptional. It should be noted that, while Gai can use ninjutsu and genjutsu--as a Jounin, learning to do both was required--he will never use genjutsu again unless forced to by a superior.

Preferred Weapons: His body is his preferred weapon, and sometimes in combat he will throw a kunai, usually to distract the enemy while he attacks with his fists or feet. In extreme circumstances, he will use his nunchaku, and in even more dire (read: life or death) circumstances, he will resort to using ninjutsu.

Special Jutsu: Gai has a number of taijutsu techniques at his disposal. Most notably, he sometimes uses the forbidden technique of opening some of the Eight Inner Gates in order to make himself stronger or faster in order to perform some of his more difficult moves.

He also has a summoning contract with tortoises. Ninkame, a red tortoise large enough to ride on, is his personal summon and occasional confidante. Summoning is the one exception to his personal aversion to ninjutsu.

Weaknesses: Gai has only an average amount of chakra, though his control of what he has is excellent, and he is able to obtain tremendous amounts of chakra by opening some of the Eight Gates. His skills come from brutal self-discipline and practice, not any natural genius. Though he is intelligent (more than some would expect), he's not very good at analysis and works best in missions when he has a partner who is logical and a thinker, not a hotheaded man of action like him. He's not good at seeing around a situation the way a shinobi should be; if left to his own devices, he will attack head-on and concuss (or kill) himself trying to get through a problem rather than going around it or over it. He has some serious mental blocks about performing ninjutsu and genjutsu, to the point that he only became a Jounin by the skin of his teeth.

Service Record: Gai graduated from the Academy during the war and became a Geinin at age 7, under Jounin-sensei Hyuuga Hizashi, whom he idolized. His Geinin teammates were Rokusho Isamu (a pretty girl who was best in the class at ninjutsu and genjutsu, and who teased Gai mercilessly for being a loser) and Matsumoto Kamin (a quiet brown-haired boy who was Gai's friend and had a talent for healing jutsu). Gai became a Chuunin at 11 and a Jounin at 17. Due to his mastery of taijutsu, he was offered a promotion to Special Jounin at 15, after the Kyuubi attack, but he declined, vowing to become a full-fledged Jounin by his eighteenth birthday, or else he would be a disgrace to himself and would retire from being a ninja altogether. For the next two and a half years, he forced himself to study ninjutsu and genjutsu and in the process learned how to summon tortoises. The genjutsu he learned (Green Tree Immobility) makes an opponent believe they are a tree, thus rendering them immobile for about eight seconds.

War Record: Gai graduated from the Academy in the middle of the war and performed many C- and D-ranked missions with his teammates, keeping the village running as best as possible while the higher-ranked (and older) ninja were out fighting. During this time, Gai did a lot of farm chores and scrubbed a lot of medical equipment. He and his teammates were sent out to fight when Gai was nine, and Isamu died four months later. Hizashi-sensei, Gai, and Kamin continued to fight as a team, and they worked well together, two close-range fighters and a medic-in-training who wasn't half-bad with water jutsu. Kamin and Gai were both promoted to Chuunin after a particularly nasty battle when Gai was eleven.

During the Kyuubi attack, which happened when Gai was fourteen, he and Kamin worked together while Hizashi-sensei fought alongside his clan, protecting his brother and his family. As a medic (and, by that time, a Special Jounin), Kamin was needed that night much more than Gai, and Gai helped him as best he could, carrying the wounded, fetching supplies, saving people from being burned alive. Gai's legs were very badly burned when a blast of fire caught him from behind, but he ripped open a couple of gates and kept on going. He pulled a boy from the flames and he didn't quite make it back to Kamin before he collapsed, still smoldering. Kamin was on the verge of chakra-exhaustion himself after trying and failing to heal the genin Gai had saved, and when a gasping, half-conscious Gai told him to only heal his feet and knees, just let him be able to move, he had no choice but to agree. When he was finished, he touched Gai's shoulder and apologized, sweat and tears running down his cheeks, but Gai was too far gone to reply. Kamin was seriously injured later that night, and he died in the hospital several weeks later.

It took months for Gai's legs to recover, during which time he mastered the art of walking on his hands when the medics said he couldn't get up yet. As soon as (actually, sooner than) he was allowed, he threw himself into his training and then went on any mission he could take, in any group that needed another member. Anything to be useful. He became a Jonin at 17, and then Hizashi died. Then Gai took more missions. Anything to get away.

On a recent B-ranked mission, Gai became ensnared in a genjutsu used by a Kumogakure ninja, in which he was made to believe that he was raping and torturing the little noble girl he'd been escorting. Gai was paralyzed with fear and horror, and it took his mission partner nearly killing him to get him to come around. They completed the mission (mistakes were made; all Gai's), and upon returning to Konoha, he immediately started making enquiries about joining ANBU. If he's going to die, he'd like to do it quickly, and well.


Personality
General Personality Traits: The thing about Maito Gai--the problem with Gai--is that the mask is attached. Flesh and bone, caterpillar eyebrows and a thousand-watt smile, and it is entirely genuine. He means it, when he flashes you the Nice Guy Pose and promises that he will be there for you until one of you draws your last breath. He means it when he goes on (and on, and on) for twenty minutes about how breathtaking the sunset is, and how fortunate you are to be alive to witness such a glorious moment. He means it when he stops and laughs delightedly at the cuteness of a squirrel. The passion is real. The emotions are real, and the highs are real. The lows are real. The depth is real. And the commitment to the shinobi way is real.

He is a gentle, passionate soul who has trained himself to become a ruthless killer, and he hides all of that by pasting what he sees as the good parts of his personality on the outside. He's seen too many shinobi walk around looking like they've already died, and he doesn't want to be like that. He stubbornly refuses to become like that, as if willing himself not to break can keep him whole.

But the darkness is there, stuffed away out of sight, and he's cracking. He's more brittle than he lets himself believe, stronger than others see him. His mannerisms are intended to keep people at arm's length even as he thrusts himself into their comfort zones. He is fiercely protective of others (especially those he perceives as weak or outcasts) and wants to be a rock for them, even as he adamantly rejects such comfort for himself.

He acts as though he has no people-skills, and he speaks with a weird blend of almost-inappropriate politeness and definitely-inappropriate blunt honesty. Other people frequently want to strangle him.

And yet. If anyone were to catch him without the mask, they would find a good listener with a good head on his shoulders, a quieter man who can indeed be a source of comfort, whose honesty is refreshing, and given with a surprising amount of tact. Gai is no fool. He just acts like one.

Gai is as brittle and broken and so-brave-it's-stupid as any paranoid, hair-trigger Jounin, even if he doesn't seem to be. Scratch the surface, and you'll see it crack. If he ever blows, watch out. This one's gonna be nuclear.

Quirks: Numerous. His self-imposed rules border on OCD, and he keeps a lot of the crazier ones to himself. His fashion choices are unorthodox. He doesn't like to see naked people or be seen naked, and as a result, he usually showers and bathes at odd times, when he's fairly certain no one else will be around. When he can't sleep, he trains himself to the point of exhaustion, even in the middle of the night. He loves animals but objects to keeping pets, unless they are intelligent and their presence is voluntary. He will eat absolutely anything and is not a good cook. He doesn't really know how to have fun, and his relative lack of possessions reflects this. He gives people a thumbs-up a lot.

Sexual Orientation: This is not something Gai has ever really considered. Sex is outside the realm of his understanding, simply not a part of his life, though he understands that it is for others. He has yet to let his guard down enough with someone to be sexually attracted to them, and he doesn't think of himself as a sexual being. He masturbates sometimes (he is human!), but it's a purely physical thing, an act that produces a result. (In actuality, he's on the gay end of the bi spectrum and has some serious issues, phobias, and denial surrounding anything and everything to do with sex.)

Gifts/Talents: A kind heart and a lot of empathy, which usually comes across even when his words are wrong. A truly impressive amount of self-discipline combined with one hell of a work ethic and a flat-out refusal to give up. A gift for teaching, even though he doesn't know it yet. Very loyal, and will defend his comrades (and select others) or what he feels is right no matter who he has to go up against. Will sometimes (slowly) come up with his own brilliant solutions to problems, though they're often convoluted, time-consuming ideas that work only for him.

Flaws: Has a hot temper and is way the hell too emotional. Frequently says the wrong thing. Is not good at thinking through things, or thinking quickly. Has a million and four defense mechanisms, most of which are instinctive, to the point that he doesn't realize he's keeping people at arm's length. Sometimes makes promises he can't keep and nearly kills himself trying. Usually comes across as self-confident and a bit of a braggart, to the point of being silly. Tends to believe the best of people, which isn't always in his best interests. He can't dance and can't tell a joke to save his life. Doesn't easily open up to people and yet will push others' boundaries like crazy.

Religion and Philosophy: Raised Shinto/Buddhist in a very religious household and was devout until a few years ago. Now he's angry at any sort of higher power, doesn't believe in any afterlife, and only trusts himself. Or so he says. He's trying to be an atheist, but it's hard to hate gods when you say you don't believe in them.

Likes and Loves: Nature, training, learning a new skill, winning a challenge (self-imposed or a competition with others), animals, the color green, music, curry (the spicier, the better), beating Kakashi at anything.

Dislikes and Hates: Unfairness (especially as in, skills coming effortlessly to some people while others have to work hard for them), bullies, lying and being lied to, nudity, anyone messing with his legs, missions involving sex/desire. Not a fan of fire.

Fears: Genjutsu (and often those who use it), being disliked, aging and losing his abilities. Sex, though he wouldn't admit it.

Dreams and Ambitions: To push his body beyond its limits, to prove himself as a great shinobi, to be of service.

Relationships
Family: None living. His father, Maito Taro, was a Jounin killed in the war when Gai was eight. His mother, Kamiko, was a younger daughter of the Akimichi clan, and it's from her that Gai gets his height. She worked at a bar, charming patrons with her warm laugh and willing ear, until she was killed by a Konoha ninja suffering a mental break. Gai was thirteen and away on a mission, and he returned two weeks later to find that they'd already buried her. When he asked, and asked, and kept asking, higher and higher up, finally Yondaime Hokage himself told Gai the truth about how she died, and he learned that she and another barmaid had been raped before the rogue ninja slit their throats. Gai has never forgiven himself for being away when that happened, and he's never forgotten that even his fellow Konoha shinobi can lose themselves and become the enemy.

Friends: None living. He and Hatake Kakashi entered the Academy in the same year, and Gai decided almost immediately that Kakashi was his measuring stick, his standard, his eternal rival. Which isn't a friend, but Kakashi is someone on Gai's radar.

Lovers: N/A; he's a virgin.

Hero: Hyuuga Hizashi, his father (who was a hard parent, quick with a spanking or a hug, and whom Gai adored), and his mother, from whom he gets his kindness, gentleness, and self-discipline.

Enemies: None.

Personal History: There was never any question about Gai being a shinobi. He loved his father, and his father was a ninja. To serve Konoha was a way of proving himself, his manliness, his worth. Proving to everyone who laughed at him that he was not a loser, and proving to his mother that he could be her son, could become a kind and pure and spiritual man despite a weapon in his hands. That would be his Way of Ninja.

At five, he joined the Academy and discovered that he had only average chakra, unlike his gifted father, and became determined to excel at taijutsu and to master ninjutsu and genjutsu as best he could. He would show his father--would show everyone--that even someone average could become a master of weaving seals. And he did learn, well enough to graduate at seven.

At eight, his father died, killed by seals and chakra. And Gai looked at his hands, at his teammates' hands, and was afraid of what just fingers and chakra could do. It seemed dishonest, unfair, not to fight face-to-face, close enough to smell your opponent and see his eyes. So, he would focus on taijutsu, his natural specialty. That would be his way. At nine, Natsu's death only strengthened that resolve.

At thirteen, he wasn't close enough. Wasn't there to protect his mother. He was a Chuunin, but still not good enough, not strong enough, still a loser. And he smiled and said he was all right, because his father taught him that shinobi are strong, and they do not need friends, do not need attachments. If he had faith in himself, he would not be a loser. And words to a child crying because he was teased became his Way.

He had faith in himself. Tried to have faith in himself, to push his body so that he could have faith in himself, and he cherished the friends he had, the ones who believed in him. Don't trust chakra; trust your muscles. Don't trust in gods; trust yourself. Trust your friends, be strong for them, and they will trust in you.

Then Kamin-kun. Then Hizashi-sensei. And then...himself. (Straddling her, gripping her arms, breaking her wrists, shifting his hips pinning her. Her screams. Just like his mother--) He will never use genjutsu again. Only his body, and his body is a tool, and his body is his weapon. That is his way.

And it is his way to be the self-confident, strong ninja his father wanted. The nice boy his mother raised. "Believe in yourself, Gai!" is his Way of Ninja. He does believe in himself, even when he's not entirely sure who that is. But maybe, in ANBU, that won't matter so much anymore.