Ikugui

**Ikugui** (活杙神 "Thriving Tip") is the Second-Generation Primordial Goddess of Plants, Growth, Safety and Fruits. She was one of the higher ranked lords of Takamagahara during Kuninotokotachi's rule, ruling over the western domains of High Heaven, where she grew her famed Five Sacred Gardens of Spirit. She also founded a few vaguely renowned clans such as the Uzumaki and Hyuga clans, which were respected as holders of great chakra and ki.

She is the third oldest daughter of Amenominakanushi and Benzaiten (and Bishamonten) and the younger sister of Kuninotokotachi, Toyokumono, Uhijini and Suhijini, as well as the twin sister/future wife of Tsunugi. She is the older sister of Otonoji, Otonobe, Omodaru, Ayaka Shikone, Nihilion and Nihil. She and Tsunugi had a son named Jurojin.

## Appearance

Ikugui was well-known for her beauty. She was a fair-skinned and slender woman of feminine build with violet eyes, and red hair. Her hair was straight and reached her ankles (thighs in the anime) with shoulder-length strands that framed both sides of her face and a black clip that parts her hair to the left. Generally, she wore a high-collared, sleeveless blouse under a long, loose-fitting dress with a wristband on her left wrist and standard shinobi sandals. While her style of clothing normally consisted of this, she has been seen wearing it in varying colours.

While on duty, she wore a blue forehead protector with her hair tied up in a high ponytail and strands at the sides of her face. Her attire consisted of a standard Konoha flak jacket over a black short-sleeved shirt and black form-fitting pants that reached her calves.

In her childhood, she had a round face, which, with her red hair naturally framing both sides of her face, giving her the resemblance of a tomato. Her attire was a sleeveless kimono-style blouse that was yellow in colour and held closed with a green obi over a short-sleeved mesh shirt with a pair of dark blue shorts and brown shinobi sandals. In her adolescence, she wore a short-sleeved, tan kimono-like blouse with a dark embroidered border, held closed with a black obi, a dark short skirt and stockings that stopped at her thighs along with the village's forehead protector and brown sandals.

## Personality

In her childhood, Ikugui was a headstrong, impulsive, eccentric, and stubborn girl. According to Jiraiya, Ikugui was also talkative and tomboyish. Amenominakanushi noted that much of Takami-Musubi's personality, as well as his senjutsu style were inherited from her. Ikugui also had a verbal tic: when flustered or excited, she would end her sentences with "(da)ttebane" ((だ)ってばね a trait she hoped wouldn't be passed down to Sakuya-Hime or Jurojin (who also use "you know", or *"(da)ttebayo"* (だ)ってばよ)).

As an adult, Ikugui was very level-headed and cheerful with a noticeable sassy side to her. Despite her calm and kind nature, she retained her quick temper from childhood and occasionally lashed out violently at others if they angered her, something that even she finds off-putting.

She also was fearless, as her sister, Suhijihi was slightly surprised when Ikugui showed anxiety over labour pains. Ikugui was prone to worrying about her husband and unborn son, showing strong maternal instincts as she correctly predicted her child's future personality and gender well-before giving birth. In the anime, possibly derived from her over-excited personality, Ikugui is shown to be a selective hearer.

Ikugui deeply loved her family and was not afraid to sacrifice her life to stop the Yamikami, even taking the deer's deathblow meant for her young son. Though afraid of the harsh and cruel life Jurojin and Sakuya-Hime would have to endure as orphaned vessels of the beast, she did as much as she could in her final moments to shower her only children with love. She also cared deeply about Tsunugi's students, thinking that Medeina was adorable and would often hug and kiss her on the forehead. She also had friendly fights with Izanami, her favourite according to Tsunugi.

## History

Ikugui grew up as a strong and responsible girl, inspired by her mother who she once saw reprimand all of the Kotoamatsukami on her own for letting some yokai take Toyokumono away. She was also a fan of Takami-Musubi and tried to be more like her.

Due to her appearance, some of her more playful siblings mocked her about it, arousing bouts of great rage in her, whereupon she would ruthlessly beat her targets to a pulp, earning her the nickname 'Red-Hot-Habanero'. Despite not being stronger than them, Kuninotokotachi and Toyokumono were often afraid of angering her.

During the time when the Five Cosmology Gods were claiming the Shinto Pantheon as part of theirs, Ikugui discovered how little she understood of the world and felt repressed and helpless for the first time. In desperation, she fled to her travelling husband to stay by his side. She was also mentored by Gaia and a couple of other entities and grew in strength, becoming a nature deity equal to Rhea.

She and her husband came back to Takamagahara to join the First Sino-Japanese Divine War and that's when she lost her first children and grandchildren. This caused her immense sorrow and similarly to Amaterasu, she hid in the largest cave of Mount Fuji to escape the horrors of the war. In there, she would cry and tear at her skin, sipping tears and blood on the grounds of Fuji.

Ubknowst to her, her blood and tears would give life to the spirit of Mount Fuji itself, which was later known as Sakuya-Hime, the ancestral mother of the first imperial clan of Japan. Seeing this lone infant, Ikugui took of her and raised her as if she was truly her own daughter. She also taught her techniques and senjutsu. Her time with Sakuya-Hime managed to somewhat heal Ikugui's wounds and she came back to her brother, who she mated with and gave birth to a child - Jurojin.

She also followed her husband's example of mentoring the mortals of Ashihara and establishing a hierarchy of clans. She passed down two of her greatest techniques to two mortal prodogies who became the founders of the Uzumaki and Hyuga Clans. She also helped in dealing with some of the more powerful beasts that disturbed the mortals, such as the Kirin who she sealed inside herself.

One day, when she was ready to put Jurojin to sleep, two Yamikami agents (Shijusha and Kamen-Tangan) abducted her through a surprise attack. They forcefully opened her seals and unleashed the Kirin, infusing it with Ayaka's dark energy. Shijusha and Kamen-Tangan were planning on using Kirin against Kamiyonanayo and Kotoamatsukami.

However, with some help of Sakuya-Hime who had come to check on her, Ikugui thwarted that plan by sealing Kirin inside both Jurojin and Sakuya-Hime, sacraficing herself in the process. Severely wounded, she was dropped at the main battle site near Tsunugi, so he could watch as Shijusha and Kamen-Tangan destroyed her, thus lowering his guard and allowing other Yamikami to finish him off.

## Powers and Abilities

**Immense Strength**: Ikugui was a powerful deity in her own right, even though she could not quite match her husband or eldest siblings. At full strength, she was considered to be comperable to Rhea, the Queen of Mount Othys. She has been able to fight and defeat numerous powerful God-Class Beings, some not even being challenging. She could also overwhelm and supress great beasts such as Kirin or the Leviathan's children. Kamen-Tangan, a powerful minor Kami had warned Shijusha that Ikugui was not a goddess to be casually trifled with, using the case where of her beating two Archdemons at the same time. Even when she was severely injuried by Yamikami surprise attack, she could still hold the Kirin beast while preforming an extremely difficult technique.

**Immense Speed**: Ikugui was fast, rivalling her husband. Even when she was caught off guard she was still able to hold off her attackers for a while, before the confusion got her.

**Immense Durability**: Ikugui was also a very resiliant goddess, capable of taking multiple hits from two Yamikami without taking major injuries. It was only a combination of tactical exhaustion, Kirin's blow and already sustained injuries that allowed Shijusha and Kamen-Tangan to eliminate her.

**Enhanced Senses**: After sealing Kirin inside of herself, Ikugui also gained his enhanced senses, allowing her to envision her surroundings with more ease than most beings.

**Expert Magician**: Ikugui was well-versed many types of Magic, mostly elemental and material, as she would control the land and build naturally-formed paths that helped mortals cross huge and dangerous territories.

**Senjutsu**: Though not as skilled as her husband or her older siblings, Ikugui still possesses greater knowledge of Sage Arts than any mortal, lesser god or yokai during her time. She was well-trained enough to preform multiple complex techniques that related to healing, sealing, rearranging the flow of chakra and Ki and enhancing her own constructs of nature. She was able to reduce the brunt of damage she experienced from the first Yamikami attack.

**Nature Manipulation**: Ikugui can manipulate, tap into, blend and/or become elements of nature, including air, weather, lightning, earth, stone, metal, water, ice, light, darkness, clouds/mist, magma, fire etc.. They can control animals and plants and mimic their abilities and forms.

* **Plant Manipulation**: Ikugui can create, shape and manipulate plants, including wood, vines, plants, moss, and parts of the plants, such as leaves, seeds, roots, fruits and flowers. The user can cause plants to grow, move/attack or even rise from the soil and "walk", mutate plants by rearranging DNA structure and revive withered or dead plants.
* **Vine Manipulation**: Ikugui can create, shape and manipulate vines, tendrils, stems or runners of the plant with a growth habit of trailing or climbing stems or runners, the specialized stems, leaves or petioles with a threadlike shape that is used by climbing plants for support, attachment and cellular invasion by parasitic plants, generally by twining around suitable hosts. The user can cause vines to grow, develop thorns, move/attack or even rise from the soil and "walk", mutate vines by rearranging DNA structure and revive withered or dead vines.
* **Fertility Manipulation**: Ikugui can create, shape and manipulate fertility, the natural capability for living beings to reproduce (in terms of animals) or grow (in terms of plants). She can make land, living beings or plants fertile, allowing them to reproduce or grow, or make things infertile, making them unable to reproduce or grow.

**Byakugan** (白眼, *literally meaning:* White Eye): The Byakugan is a kekkai genkai that originated from Kirin, which Ikugui received upon sealing him in herself. Jurojin and Sakuya-Hime also have it. Individuals with a Byakugan have a near-360º field of vision around themselves, save for a small blindspot at the back of the neck above the first thoracic vertebra. The Byakugan's vision can penetrate almost any object, allowing users to see through walls, peer underground, or even examine the contents of a person's body. Only certain barriers have been shown to block a Byakugan's sight. The Byakugan can easily see through a smokescreen, though if mixed with a particular mineral dust, it can serve as an effective defence. Users can focus their vision on anything and everything within the Byakugan's range, allowing them to monitor individuals from afar or to quickly survey a vast area and pinpoint specific locations within that area. The Hyuga Clan were cursed by the Kirin, allowing them to develop Byakugan early from birth, but also depleting their lifespan by half in the process. To counter this, the Hyuga would marry into the Uzumaki, who had far larger supply of chakra and could keep living for a few centuries.

## Equipment

**Adamantine Sealing Chains**: This is a sealing technique that is characteristic of the Uzumaki clan, whom are able to create weaker replicas of Ikugui's chain. Ikugui produces chains made out of her own chakra, which emerges from her torso. Ikugui controls the chains as they extend outwards from her body, most commonly to wrap around targets and restrain them. The chains are extremely durable, enough that even the Kirin would struggle to destroy them. In the anime, in addition to physically binding targets, the chains are said to bind targets' chakra as well. Depending on the number and the length of chains that users intend to produce, they may prefer to initially create only a few chains, which they send underground to split apart and spread around the area as needed, leaving their immediate surroundings uncluttered.

A barrier can be erected between two or more sealing chains, which is quite impregnable: Ikugui creates such a barrier to not only prevent the Kirin from escaping a defined area, but also to prevent Shijusha and Kamen-Tangan from entering it. Because the chains are made of the user's chakra, the chains can be produced anywhere the user's chakra resides.

## Gallery

*Portrait of Ikugui**Ikugui beating up her siblings**Ikugui runs away from Takamagahara**Ikugui laughing**Ikugui's Divine Aura**Ikugui is angry**Ikugui gives birth to Jurojin**Ikugui attacks Kirin**Ikugui's Kirin Aura**Ikugui and Kirin**Yamikami release Kirin**Tsunugi giving a gift to Ikugui**Tsunugi and Ikugui**Tsunugi and Ikugui kiss*

## Trivia

* Her appearance is based on **Kushina Uzumaki** from *Naruto Shippuden*.