Gōketsu Mari

Ninja Wire

Explosive Tags

**Gōketsu Mari**, formerly **Inoue Mari** is the clan matriarch of Clan Gōketsu. She is a former missing-nin jounin from the Kirigakure, having abandoned a mission to invade the land of Noodle at the beginning of the story to attempt to help Shikigami found a new village in the Swamp of Death in the northwestern corner of the Land of Fire.

Mari is a seduction and infiltration specialist, with top-tier social skills and genjutsu abilities as well as strong close-quarter combat skills(taijustu). She is also a taijustu champion, although that may be achieved through cheating. She's good at dancing, can sing well, but only a passable flower-arranger, but is a bad cook. Being bad at cooking is a lie.

## Relationships

She knew Mako, who is Hazō's jonin-sensei, and was a good friend to her. However, Mari killed her.

* Gōketsu Hazō - She confided the most in him. From time to time, she would teased him by rubbing his head, which Hazo tried to escape.
* Gōketsu Noburi
* Nara Keiko - The person she initially cared for the most at first, taking Hazo and Noburi with her as a bonus when they fled Hidden Swamp.
* Gōketsu Akane - The only girl in the clan that she can talk to normally, unlike Keiko who is depressing to talks about and the boys who only talk about 'boy stuff'.
* Kurosawa Hana - Mari's role model, but also the person who broke her.
* Gōketsu Jiraiya - Mari's husband, who she's genuinely in love with. Jiraiya died before they can have a proper wedding.
* Mitarashi Anko - Great friend.

## Background

### Pre-Ninja

Mariko is raised as a future innkeeper. When not training for this purpose, she spends time with her friends and family, notably her uncle, Kazuhiro. When she returns home one day, she discovers her mother speaking with a Mist recruiter. Eavesdropping on the conversation, she hears the recruiter explaining that Mari could become a ninja, and her mother offering token objections before accepting, moving the family to Mist.

### Genin

Mariko changes her name to Mari, both considering her old name too girly, and out of frustration with how she's treated by the boys in her class. Kazuhiro comforts her, suggesting she find a way to stand out as a ninja. After much thought, she decides to improve in Taijutsu, manipulating an older ninja into giving her lessons.

Some time shortly thereafter, Kazuhiro sexually assaults Mari. She attempts to tell her mother, who slaps her and tells her off for lying, warning her not to make such claims again.

Her taijutsu instructor dies an indeterminate amount of time later, leaving her assigned to Usami, an infiltration specialist. Usami complains that her chakra control and social skills are wasted in Taijutsu. After something Usami says remind her of Kazuhiro, she freezes up; recognizing the signs of trauma, Usami changes the topic, explaining the benefits of genjutsu and infiltration before dismissing her for the day. Before Mari leaves, Usami offers a piece of wisdom: “A ninja does not have enemies. All they have are bodies that haven’t been disposed of yet.”

### Chūnin

After training under Usami's tutelage, Mari takes the lead role in a seduction mission. Accommodating her history, Usami changes the plan to target Lord Uesugi's head maid instead of the man himself. The mission is successful. Knowing that she'll have to kill the maid, Mari refuses to strangle her, despite that being the standard procedure. Unwilling to let her suffer, Mari stabs her through the heart, killing her almost instantly.

Usami congratulates her on her success, ruffling her hair and noting that the first seduction mission is always more difficult than you'd expect. Mari asks if he'll recommend her for the chūnin exam. Usami refuses, saying that although she has the talent of a chūnin, she lacks resolve, being unable to kill her feelings while she's on a mission.

Mari spends a month preparing, assembling allies, before returning to her home. There, she convinces Kazuhiro to come with her, luring him to an isolated location before turning every torture and genjutsu she had against him, concluding with a technique she'd designed specifically for him, to make him feel everything he'd ever made her feel. The technique forced his heart to give out. Her mission complete, she disposed of his body, using her connections to make sure he wouldn't ever be found.

## Plot

Mari (now Inoue-sensei to her youngers) occasionally saw Hazō when she was visiting his team leader, routinely taking the opportunity to tease him and ruffle his hair.

She was involved in Shikigami's plan to form a new village by claiming they were sent on a suicide mission.

### Hidden Swamp

Inoue was impressed by Hazō's team's execution of a killer alligator, eagerly demanding details. Expressing pride in the team, she then listened to the remainder of their report, before telling them to leave some aspects out at the later meeting. After Hazō asked how the other teams had done, Inoue filled them in, before dismissing Hazō and Wakahisa to speak with Keiko in private.

Later, she had Keiko pass on a message to the two, letting them know that "if [they] ever feel like [they]'re breaking, go talk to her. She can help."

After the team's next mission, Inoue put them through genjutsu training, simulating an attack on Hidden Swamp by Zabuza. In response to Noburi's complaints about the genjutsu's difficulty, she replied that she's produced genjutsu terrifying enough to stop hearts, and that if this was too much, they would never be able to stand up to a real genjutsu attack.

Slightly more than two weeks after the group's first entry to Hidden Swamp, Inoue detonated an explosive seal, making use of judicious amounts of sealed blood and her headband to fake her own death. When Hazō's team came to investigate, she put them under a special genjutsu, Truth Lost In The Fog, to try to convince them to leave Hidden Swamp with her. She said they also had the options of giving themselves up to Zabuza, or rebelling against Shikigami, or sticking with him to the end, saying that no matter what they chose, she wouldn't hurt them. Hazō voted to stay, but noted that he'll go with the majority choice. Keiko voted to leave. In response to Wakahisa's question about why Inoue was only leaving then, she told them that they'd planned around an imminent war, and with it not happening, and Jiraiya showing up in the area, it was too dangerous. After further discussion of the details, Wakahisa voted to leave, and Hazō followed the consensus. The decision made, Inoue began preparing the area to fake the team's deaths.

### Iron

For their first lesson, Inoue asked the team where they should go, providing relevant information about the Elemental Nations. After some analysis, they chose Iron, and she agreed that it was a good choice. On the way to Iron, she tested them periodically on awareness, ability to henge, and other skills. Once they arrived at a minor village, she had Hazō pretend to be the group's leader.  In this manner, they gathered information about the area, learning about the Liberator and the Black Hunter.

After being asked too many questions, Inoue became frustrated, telling the genin to rely on their own common sense occasionally. After shooing them off, she gathered information from the local smith, before overseeing the team's hunting of lake monsters. She allowed Hazō to be attacked by chakra voles, to teach a lesson about awareness, but when she detected the Black Hunter, she told the team to retreat to the village, while she pursued, leading the Black Hunter to detonate a large explosive tag in the forest. Upon discovering that the team had followed her, she put them on punishment detail.

Inoue gave a little lesson on not believing everything the kids had been told. We learned of Captain Ayanami's nickname: "Storm", for having the elements: Wind, lighting, and water.

Afterward, Inoue helped the kids with their bloodline experiments. She also took in confidential information about bloodlines, such as Hazo's Iron Nerve and his ability to produce seals as well as the Kurosawa being proud to "hold the line". She agreed to be on the lookout on finding a sealmaster. The kids were dismissed and went on an S&E drill while she tried to fish out more information from an old fisherman, Kurou.

After overhearing a civilian girl about the detail of a trade between Kagome and the villager, she decided to make first contact.

She arranged a mean of communication using waterbug pictures and got information out of it, such as retired ciphers to solve to help Kagome learned what village they are form as well instructions on how to meet him.

Inoue arranged for a distraction so that Hazo can eavesdropped on the villagers and representatives of the Liberator.

### Joining Leaf

Inoue Mari became Gōkestu Mari, wife of Jiraiya of the three, and mother to the adopted genin. She constantly expressed her desire for a large wedding.

### Chunin Exam Prep

After the announcement of the chunin exam, Mari answered questions about the exam. She organized a psychological warfare training session with Neira, with Neira tearing down the kids while Mari built them back up. The next day, she talked to the kids about meeting their family once again and being prepared.

### Interlude Intermission

Mari met Mitarashi Anko on one of the training ground, and together they bonded on their hatred of the Hyuga matriarch and the Hyuga clan.

Tsunade came to town and decided to test Mari for her suitability as wife of the hokage. Tsunade also demanded a wedding invitation.

### Exam Resumed

Mari and the liberal coalition fended off Hiashi's attempt to gather support to get himself elected hokage. With Kagome, she tried to make the sealmaster more social, eventually culminating in Kagome educating a new student.

### Break

Kurosawa Hana confronted Mari about the theft of her son and how unsuited Mari can be as a mother. That led to Mari's emotional breakdown.

### Hat Crisis

When Mari heard that Jiraiya had died in battle, she had an emotional breakdown. Hazo broke her out of it and she tasked herself with politics and securing the political survival of the clan.

When Keiko announced that she was canceling the trade deal with the Pangolin. Mari intervened and try to stop her from doing so, but Tenten backed up Keiko's decision.

Instead, the clan matriarch diverted some of her time from politics to making trade deals and positioning the clan to petition the merchant council to tear down the barriers against ninja magic, seals in particular. She does this by demonstrating respect for civilian merchants she's working with, especially with Kenta's current and potential business partners.

Mari came back with a deal from the Uchiha and presented it to Hazo. Deal detailed included making babies for adoption scheme, and a financial and business deal that benefits both parties. Hazo made a number of changes to the deal for her to renegotiate.

When Mari came back to renegotiate with the Uchiha, she was rebuffed by the Uchiha and the babymaking part of the deal fell apart, presumably because of Hiashi. After that, Mari was reassigned to negotiate with the Amori with the tools Hazo gave her as well the proposed token system.

The Uchiha deal fell apart when Hiashi chose to overpay for a property. That was discovered when Hazo and Mari made a visit.

Mari was made reagent and she voted for Asuma accordingly. However, this was not enough, and Asuma did not win. When she was home, she shut the door to her room. Hazo did not hear any sobbing.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 67
2. ↑ Chapter 4
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Interlude: Heartbreaker
4. ↑ [1]Chapter 10
5. ↑ Chapter 8
6. ↑ Chapter 4
7. ↑ Chapter 6
8. ↑ Chapter 7
9. ↑ Chapter 9
10. ↑ Chapter 11
11. ↑ Chapter 12 Part 1
12. ↑ Chapter 12: Part 2
13. ↑ Chapter 12.1
14. ↑ Chapter 13
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 14
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Chapter 15
17. ↑ Chapter 150
18. ↑ Chapter 151
19. ↑ Interlude: Tending the Home Fires​
20. ↑ Interlude: Sister-in-Law
21. ↑ Chapter 189
22. ↑ Chapter 214
23. ↑ Chapter 261
24. ↑ Chapter 271
25. ↑ Chapter 272
26. ↑ Chapter 277