Penjira

Penjira ( ペンジラ , Viz: Penzila) is a citizen of the Land of Redaku . He is imprisoned at the Astronomy Research Institute .

## Background [ ]

Penjira has long been a gambling-fanatic. Whenever his losses placed him in too large a debt, he would marry a woman and run off with the dowry money. With the money he paid off his debtors and resumed his gambling habits until he inevitably went into debt again and the cycle repeated. He was eventually caught during one of his attempted marriages and sent to the Astronomy Research Institute to serve a one year prison sentence. Because this was a much shorter sentence than most of the Institute's prisoners, Penjira volunteered to be in charge of the Institute's archives in the hopes that it would help him earn an early release for good behaviour.

## Appearance [ ]

Penjira is a short, lanky tan man with blue eyes and grey-black hair styled in a mullet pampadour. He also possesses a shaved goatee and, like all the prisoners of the Astronomy Research Institute, he wears their traditional prison jumpsuit.

## New Era [ ]

### Sasuke Retsuden Arc [ ]

Main articles: Sasuke Retsuden (novel) , Sasuke Retsuden (manga) and Sasuke Retsuden (anime)

After returning to their cell for the night, Penjira challenges one of his cellmates, Jiji , to play Chinchirorin , with cigarettes being used for their bets; they also invite their other cellmates, Ganno and Sasuke Uchiha , but neither is interested. Sasuke later changes his mind and asks to play with Penjira, offering a large gem as a bet since he doesn't have any cigarettes. Penjira is wary of this offer, as he has no use for a gem and, even if he did, he doesn't have anything of comparable value to offer as his own bet. Sasuke insists that, if Penjira loses, he will only need to do one favour for Sasuke, to be specified afterwards. Panjira accepts this offer.

Sasuke rolls his die first, secretly using Wind Release so that he will automatically win on this first roll. Penjira is stunned by the outcome and assumes Sasuke cheated; however, cheating is allowed within the prison so long as nobody can prove how it was done, which Penjira is unable to do. Penjira admits defeat and asks what Sasuke's favour is. Sasuke explains that he wants Penjira to leave the cell with him to serve as a lookout. Penjira hesitates, as leaving the cell after nightfall is against the rules, but ultimately follows Sasuke. When Sasuke explains that he wants to get to the opposite side of the prison, however, Penjira refuses, as he's fearful of running into Menō , a reptilian creature responsible for making sure prisoners don't try to escape. Sasuke asks that, rather than accompany him, Penjira create a distraction for the prison guards instead, which Penjira agrees to do.

A few days later, Penjira takes a nap while working in the archives. He is woken by Sasuke, who notes that Penjira's use of one of the books as a pillow won't help his hopes of earning an early release. In response to this, Penjira tries to clean the puddle of drool from a book about ancient dragons ; even though he can't read, he enjoys looking at this book because of the pictures. Sasuke asks for help finding a book about astronomy, so Penjira directs him to the book catalogue nearby. Sasuke does so and identifies a book that seems to be what he's looking for, but Penjira informs him that it's located in the basement section, which is reserved for the archives' more valuable documents: any prisoners who go down there will be executed.

The prison's new doctor, Sakura Haruno , overhears their conversation and approaches them, expressing a curiosity in the contents of the book Sasuke is looking for. She tries to convince Penjira to grant her access to the basement section, but he refuses, as he would be the one to be executed instead. Sakura suggests they have a wager, where if Sakura can win a game of Penjira's choosing, she gets to borrow the key to the basement; she promises to return the key before he can get in trouble with the guards. Penjira, weak to a chance to gamble, agrees. Because of his previous loss in Chinchirorin to Sasuke, Penjira selects Hoshinarabe as their game. After he retrieves the playing cards, he explains the rules to Sakura. Despite how complicated the game is, Sakura claims to understand after only a brief study of the cards.

Though confused by Sakura's casual attitude, Penjira nevertheless deals the cards, with Sasuke and many other prisoners watching their game. When the game is finished, Penjira is confident that he's won, as he managed to assemble the second-strongest possible hand. Upon revealing this, however, he discovers that Sakura has assembled the exact same hand, meaning their game is a draw instead. Penjira assumes that she cheated, but since he doesn't know how his only option is to play another game. The next game also results in a draw, as does the next and the next. Penjira ultimately wearies of the repeated outcome and forfeits rather than be forced to play again. He grants her the key to the basement, but informs her that it's possible the book she's looking for won't actually be there; he explains that several documents were stolen decades ago by a man named Orochimaru .

The following night, Jiji starts claiming that he has figured out the patrol schedule of Menō. Penjira and Ganno are doubtful that Menō's behaviour has any degree of consistency, only to be proven wrong when Menō walks by their cell, as Jiji predicted. Jiji lures Menō closer to their cell and encourages the others to try petting his head, but Penjira refuses for fear of having his arm bitten off. Ganno tries it, and Menō has no negative reactions. Because of this, Penjira decides to try too, but when he approaches he fails to notice that his toes slightly leave the boundaries of the cell, technically meeting the definition of "escaping". Sasuke notices this and shouts at him to get away, but it is Jiji who pulls Penjira to safety, just before Menō's attack can land. Penjira is confused by what happened, but when it's explained to him he thanks Jiji for the help.

A few nights later, reincarnated dragons emerge throughout the prison and start attacking the prisoners. Penjira is able to avoid the dragons during the initial attacks and eventually joins up with Ganno. Together they come across Sakura in combat with some of the dragons. When Sakura knocks one dragon to the ground, Ganno and Penjira climb onto it, holding it down and repeatedly striking its knees, intent on trying to stop its wounds from regenerating. Other prisoners soon begin following their example, keeping the dragons preoccupied in this way until Sasuke and Sakura are able to have the dragons sent back to the afterlife.