Namua

Namua ( ナムア ) is a former shinobi and reformed convicted criminal.

## Background [ ]

Namua was once a shinobi who killed and stole from whomever he could in a desperate desire to survive. Eventually, he was captured and sentenced to the Northern Penitentiary. After his sentence, while starving, a priest who had only a little bit of food shared it with Namua. While Namua initially planned to kill him for his remaining food, he hesitated at the genuine kindness in the man's eyes. Inspired from this, Namua decided to take a new path free of selfishness.

## Personality [ ]

Namua was once violent and greedy, killing others over fear and paranoia over being killed himself. After meeting a priest who shared food with him, Namua became an ascetic, having disciplined himself to be composed, and admitting his mistakes. He takes his time held captive calmly to instead meditate. He is also very compassionate, working to help others escape in their impending demise and likewise disgusted at other people's lack of compassion. He caries tremendous guilt from his crimes, still remembering his victims screams when he closes his eyes, and struggling to sleep. He had a strong enough will to overcome Rokuro's jutsu controlling his body.

## Appearance [ ]

Namua is a tall, solid-built man with a bald head, pale skin and large lips. He has two, grey ring tattoos around his right bicep from his time in prison. He is dressed in a white shirt and pants with green robes. His shirt sleeves are secured by three green band each, a dark green sash around his waist, and his legs are bandaged with grey sandals.

## Abilities [ ]

Namua is a former shinobi, and competent taijutsu user. He is shown to be quite strong, able to hold back a crushing ceiling for a period of time, and survive Rokuro's double slash to his back after breaking free of his control.

## New Era [ ]

### Labyrinth Game Arc [ ]

Main article: Labyrinth Game Arc While on the Thunder Train , Namua and all other passengers slept and found themselves detained in a secluded room. Eventually, their captor, Ōga, revealed himself, explaining how he would put them through five experiments to test their ability to avoid death before being allowed to leave his maze. The first test involved escaping a brittle, collapsing platform on a chasm to a higher, safe ledge. He criticised Batta when the Wind Release she used to save herself further destabilised the platform, which she ignored. He helped Boruto take people up the ladder improvised by Kiseru , clearing the first experiment.

For the next experiment, everyone was given a candle that symbolised their lives, if it went out, they'd die. When the group that agreed to work together came to a closed gate, Namua and Kiseru trusted someone else with the lanterns containing their candles to help Boruto force open the gate. In the next room, he along the other shinobi helped protect the non-shinobi from a dust storm while they protected the entire group's candles. Near the end, they had to take a slow-moving elevator, and realised that their candles wouldn't last the entire ascent, Ōga intending them to steal each other's candles. Boruto exploited the exact wording of Ōga's rules to make one long candle with the remains of everyone else's, shared by all, so they all survived the ride, clearing the experiment.

Before the next experiment, the group discussed their dreams. Namua claimed he had none, and Rokuro exposed him as a former criminal, recognising his prison tattoos. Namua shared his criminal past, and how he turned away from it. In the experiment room, the spiked ceiling threatened to crush and stab them, but Boruto determined that there was available space under the floor. Namua and others helped Boruto break through it, so no one died in this experiment.

For the next experiment, "Calculation", each person recieved a card with a number from 1 to 8, and had to reach a gate within two hours with enough cards to sum 7. Namua's was 5. He met up with Yatsume, who had 4, and offered his card, but she refused. He calculated that with the right combination, up to five people could pass, at least three of them failing. They were joined by Boruto and Shamo, and eventually found Batta and Fugō dead. Namua deduced either Rokuro or Kiseru were responsible. Rokuro found them, and decided to kill everyone to reach the goal of Ōga's experiment early. Namua helped Boruto fight him, but was infected by Rokuro's jutsu, forcing him to fight Boruto. The kindness in Boruto's eyes reminded him of the priest who inspired his change, allowing him to break through Rokuro's control, and protect Boruto from Rokuro's attack. When Boruto stayed behind to confront Kiseru about Batta's suspicion, Yatsume and Shamo helped Namua through the gate.

When the others tried to leave in order to search for Kiseru, he volunteered to stay behind and held the gate open, seeing it as a way to repent for his past crimes. Everything turned out to be an elaborate plot carried out under genjutsu while everyone was in suspended animation. When Boruto refused to give up on Yatsume, who was the real Ōga, she woke up from the genjutsu on her own and freed everyone. Namua was overjoyed to finally start a new path for himself.

## Trivia [ ]

- His name could be a shortening of Namu Amida Butsu ( 南無阿弥陀仏 ), a Buddhist prayer for rebirth in Sukhavati , the Pure Land of Amitabha.

## References [ ]