Kuzaku Hyūga

**Kuzaku Hyūga** (日向 くざく, *Hyūga Kuzaku*) is a shinobi from Konohagakure. He is also a member of the branch house of the village's famous Hyūga clan.

## Background

Kuzaku Hyūga was born just prior to the Seventh Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki's, death. He graduated the Academy at the age of six and went on to take the Chūnin Exams at the age of ten. However, during the second stage of the Exams, he was badly injured by an enemy Fire Release technique that left the right side of his face badly scarred. As a result of his injuries, he was knocked out and he and his team failed the Exams. After the Exams, Kuzaku left his genin team, feeling that he had betrayed their trust in him, to train on his own and hone his powers so that he would never again fail.

## Personality

Kuzaku Hyūga, like many young shinobi before him, grew up with the dream of one day becoming the Hokage. He was particularly motivated to become the first Hyūga Hokage the village ever had, as the Senju, Sarutobi, and Uzumaki clans had a monopoly on the position if one did not count Minato Namikaze, the legendary Fourth Hokage. His dream motivated him to train hard in the Academy, which he graduated from at the age of six. However, his dreams were dashed upon being badly injured during his first attempt at the Chūnin Exams, during which he was badly burned. He subsequently failed the exams.

After recovering from his injuries, Kuzaku became notably withdrawn. His peers in the main branch of the Hyūga clan began to make fun of him, calling him "crispy" (クリスピー, *kurisupī*) because of his scar and the manner in which he received it. He also gained an intense case of pyrophobia, which gave him a deep and irrational hatred of members of the Uchiha clan. Furthermore, his failure in the exams caused him to become harsh on himself. Kuzaku began to subject himself to the most rigorous forms of training to make up for what he saw as deficiencies in his fighting style. In reality, he was simply driven to prevent such embarrassment and failure again.

Oddly, the incident also gave Kuzaku a renewed sense of pride in his Hyūga ancestry. He came to believe that the Hyūga clan was the most powerful clan in the village and looked down on Konoha's other clans. But he also looked down upon other members of the Hyūga clan whom he viewed as not living up to the clan's greatness. Particularly among these were the few Hyūgas who had not unlocked the clan's Byakugan.

## Appearance

Kuzaku Hyūga is a young member of Konohagakure's Hyūga clan. Despite possessing his clan's trade mark blank eyes, Kuzaku looks markedly different from other members of his clan due to his white hair (a recessive trait dating back to the clan's forefather, Tenko Ōtsutsuki) which stretches to his mid-back and is tied into a ponytail. He also has a burn mark on the right side of his face, a scar inflicted during one of his early mission as a genin. Kuzaku wears a black and red sleeveless *gi*. He also wears a red Konohagakure forehead protector.

## Trivia

* Kuzaku's name is another way of writing "peafowl" (孔雀, *kujaku*).
* According to Kuzaku's ninja files:
	+ He desires to fight Shōyō Uzumaki, the **Eighth Hokage** (八代目火影, *Hachidaime Hokage*).