Early Life
Shikairu was born to a loving yet strict family, a family sworn to protect their clan’s leader. Every boy born into this family would be trained from the moment they were able to hold a weapon. Shikairu was no different, he joined the academy built to train their future samurai when he was 6 years old. He met his best friend in the academy, Rin Nara his family was born to a lower house of the clan they were mostly poor and were not as dedicated to the protection of the lord. They were nearly inseparable they grew together and trained together only getting stronger as a team and driving each other to be the best they could be. When Shikairu and Rin turned 10, they were given their first mission along with the other students. They were tasked with hunting the giant beetles that had been attacking nearby farmlands. The mission was easy at first, until a younger boy had been knocked down and disarmed by the biggest beetle they had ever seen. The two boys ran to the young boy’s aid but to no avail, the beetle was much too strong and fast for them to defeat alone. A senior in the school was tasked with leading the boys into their first mission, Setsuko Nara, he came to the aid of the boys and took out the beetle as if it were child’s play. This only showed the boys just how much further they had to go in order to be considered strong.
Shikairu had finally turned 16 this would be his and Rin’s last year in the academy, they were almost full-fledged Samurai in the eyes of their Lord. Shikairu’s father, Shikami, had been in talks with the Lord who had tried and failed many times to produce a male heir, Lord Rikumaru Nara had decided that Shikairu would marry one of his daughter’s to be his successor provided a rightful heir was never born and in the event of his untimely death Shikairu would run the Clan until the rightful heir became of age. Shikami was pleasantly surprised that his son would be given such a great honor, their family had served as the right hand of the Lord from the very beginning. Shikairu was delighted that he was even considered worthy of such a great opportunity. Not knowing of his best friend’s true feelings towards him, he told him he was set to marry the daughter of Rikumaru Nara. Although happy, Rin had to accept that he would never be able to be with Shikairu. Shikairu was the top of his class, what he lacked in intelligence and wisdom he more than made up for it in strength and determination. His final test was coming leading a team of young students through their first mission. He couldn’t help but think back to his mission and the man who had saved him, he could only hope that he could do the same if it came down to it.
Shikairu led a team of 10 year old kids on their first mission. They were tasked with helping clear a nearby towns home cavern, the cave had been taken over by a giant bug. Unknowingly they had made the cave their nest. Upon entering the cave, he took lead to investigate, he noticed that it was just a nest the hatchlings and the insects were gone. He had studied the eggs, he was unsure of what species but cleaning the cave would seem to be easy. As the boys cleaned the cave and cleared the mess so that the villagers could return to their homes one boy heard a noise. Shikairu was helping clear the mess and hadn’t seen the boy venture deeper into the cave. A scream rang out, and without a moment’s hesitation Shikairu ran towards the scream. A giant centipede had attacked the boy leaving him with only one arm remaining on his body. Shikairu had scooped up the boy and ran towards the others. After reaching the group he tasked them with taking the injured boy back to the village, but as they turned to run more large centipedes blocked their escape. Shikairu faced these insects in battle all while traying the protect the students from harm, after hours of battling the villagers that placed a job request came to check on the progress. As they arrived Shikairu and the students emerged from the cave, the young man was covered in wounds and looked to be barely standing but aside from the one boy the students seemed just fine. Upon his return to the Clan he was awarded, the mission was supposed to be a simple cleanup with the possibility of fighting a single insect but instead was met with an infestation and an aggressive mother. He was seen as a hero as not a single student had died and only one had a serious wound but was going to live through it.
Family Life
Shikairu married Rikumaru’s oldest daughter, Akimaru, they were both 16 at the time of the arranged marriage. Although arranged the two fell madly in love with one another and started their family nearly immediately after the marriage. They had a little girl, Kaimaru, that wanted nothing more than to follow her dad around everywhere, even going as far as hiding in his gear to follow him out on missions. She was turning out to be a handful. Two years later they had a little boy, Shikuru, who was more interested in what his mom was doing than what Shikairu was doing. They were happy together, having a small home on the outskirts of the village. After Shikairu’s father’s death he took over as the right-hand man to Rikumaru, they grew closer, and both only had the upmost respect for one another. Rikumaru gifted Shikairu one of the only remaining horses they had, Kazekage. Rin was watching the man he loved live a life he wanted for them. Rin was unable to hold back his jealousy and resentment, he went out when the world powers were fighting to take out anyone who didn’t bend the knee to them. He told them where to find the clan and that they would refuse to swear their loyalty to them. Shikairu was out on a mission to speak on the Lord’s behalf due to the Lord’s health deteriorating.
An invading force had come into the Nara Clan’s village and wiped them out, killing and burning the corpses of the men, taking the women and children that didn’t die in the fight. Shikairu returned to the village only to see the dead bodies of his comrades impaled into spikes and left at the village gates for everyone to see. After searching the village, he found his wife’s body next to her father’s as if she was trying to protect him, she had been nearly cleaved in two and her father's head had been removed to display at the gates. Although some Samurai were out on missions the number of dead bodies would lead him to believe not many members of the clan had survived this attack. After burying the bodies, he fell into a deep depression drinking until he had nearly died over and over every night. He spent nearly 8 years trying to die by fighting the people who had killed his clan. He had failed countless times until he met an old man that seen the pain and suffering in him and decided to tell him the story of Sun Wukong. After seeing so much of himself in the story he decided to look more into the story and the further he dove into the story the less rash he became and the more relaxed he got in life. He eventually decided to just live his life for himself, do what he wanted and get revenge only if the opportunity presented itself. His best friend Kazekage was glad that he had finally given up on his death crusade. They would now just go village to village helping those in need and taking anything, they wanted from the ones in power. They were a thorn in the side of everyone that held positions of power, his goal was to overthrow those in power and give back the control to the oppressed and have fun along the way. He thought he had found the bodies of his entire family and of Rin, however that was not the case. He had only given up because he thought he had lost everyone and his revenge was only going to get him killed and achieve nothing in the long run, at least with the way he was going about it originally.
Ronin
Shikairu still flies the flag of his Clan, a stag wearing a samurai helmet in front of a full moon. However, with no master Shikairu is considered a Ronin. He wanders from village to village mainly drinking and partying with the locals, he is usually laid-back leading to him building friendships nearly everywhere he goes. The issue is he is usually wasted leading him to forget many people and events, so usually others recognize him before he recognizes anyone else. He has gotten under the skin of the current communist regime many times and seems to just slip away before facing any charges. He has stolen many things to give to the poor people including food and other goods when he feels like it or if the local authorities do something to make him hate them. He doesn't have a goal anymore other than he just wants to live the rest of his life carefree and do whatever he pleases whenever he chooses. He does find himself lost in the past a lot, he has done everything he can to move on from the events of his clan's and family's death. Usually if he is not partying, fighting or fornicating he is sleeping while Kazekage wonders to the next destination. He has been mistaken for being dead many times while being passed out on the back of Kazekage.
He has met the current Daimyo of Kanazawa, Masahido who is a gold dragon. They don't exactly see eye-to-eye, however they do have a working relationship. Shikairu has remained masterless since his life was pledged to Rikumaru and in the event of his masters death he was intended to be the next Shogun/Lord of the clan. As such he decided he would live for himself, he has no intention of restarting the Clan or the village at them moment, but he is still living wild and free at the moment. He has considered doing it and it will cross his mind from time-to-time but he is just not ready to do so as of yet.
