51 - Denra Seizaki

"Henka, I need you to infiltrate the war."

The blond looked up from whatever he was writing. "Huh? Why?"

"They are currently being infiltrated by spies from other factions, it's a good opportunity to gather information. Plus, your transformation jutsu is the epitome of transformation. In the chaos, people will be scrambling to identify fakes on the surface, they won't question someone slightly off," Kyomu explained. "I heard rumors of there being a Tsuyoku descendant among the reanimated. I want you to figure it out."

Henka's ability isn't quite a kekkei genkai, but it is a family technique. It's essentially his ancestors going full out on transformation jutsu to the point they can freely change their chakra signatures and copy personality, verbal tics, and everything in between.

That made Henka a valuable asset, except for when he complains about ruining his hair for weeks afterwards.

With a sigh, the blond stood up. "Well then, wish me luck."

"I wouldn't mind if you died in a fiery explosion," Rina replied, picking at her nails.

"You just have to insult everyone, don't you..." Kessho scoffed.

Naku might have said it as a joke, but Denra was most definitely where Fuyuka got all her, quote unquote, 'crazy genes.'

You might be asking, dear reader, 'so why exactly is she so weird?' The answer is, Denra Seizaki is literally just like that.

The only reason Miyabi wasn't absolutely batshit insane is thanks to her father, Shoki Kaifuku. Shoki had short platinum hair and violet eyes, which Miyabi inherited. Her hair was also probably some kind of mash-up between dark slate blue and a silvery color.

But to explain what happened next, the creation of Shadow Star has to come to light.

The Tsuyoku were only called a 'clan' due to their unique powers, in the end the Tsuyoku themselves were only a relatively large family, while their powers branched out to descendants. During the Warring States period, people with Tsuyoku abilities were often sought after, especially due to them being individual families which makes it easier to snatch up their powers compared to larger clans.

It had been over a decade since Konohagakure was founded, but like with other larger clans, maybe even more so, Tsuyoku descendants were still subject to danger. It was then when a Hoshino brought this problem to the Hokage, Hashirama Senju. This Hoshino settled for working in the background in exchange for secrecy and protection of their Tsuyoku abilities.

There were three requirements for who is to be moved to Shadow Star. The first requirement was they must be at least 13 years of age and be able to use their Tsuyoku powers, as such powers are inconsistent when they surface. The second requirement was that the village was in need of a more special fighting force. The third is that they must be part of the Hoshino family and possess Tsuyoku powers.

Honestly, most people wouldn't be okay with working entirely in the background. However, the nameless background Hoshino guy was also Fuyuka-level antisocial. Yeah, that was hereditary.

At the time, the Hoshino were the only family in Konoha to have consistent Tsuyoku powers. Denra's two types of Yamyaku both surfaced out of nowhere when she found a wild Night Star flower, as neither of her parents had such powers. As Shadow Star was made for the Hoshino, Denra was free to run around and blast things with her cool thunder powers, at least until the rules are changed in the future.

Shoki first met 13 year old Denra when she blew up his yard.

Despite her parents' worry, Denra thought her 'thunder pro max ultra powers' (as dubbed by the girl herself) were awesome. She held a hand sign as she sat on a tree in her garden, watching the crackling gray cloud grow larger.

Then came a gust of wind.

"Fuck!" Oh, yeah, swearing at a really young age was also hereditary.

Denra hopped off her tree as her stormcloud drifted towards a neighboring yard. However, back then, she hadn't quite gotten a grasp of how to not let ridiculously long hair get caught in branches.

Shoki had a Fire type affinity, which he often trained. That day, he sat in his yard, having set a log on fire and controlling the flame.

Then a whole crackling dark gray stormcloud came rolling in out of nowhere.

He desperately hoped it would go right over, but no, the wind had to stop while the cloud was right above him. Whipping around, Shoki dived behind a rock just as a thunderbolt hit his burning log.

As he poked his head out to survey his scorched yard, a girl came dashing in, a whole twig tangled in her hair. "Oops! Sorry about that!"

Shoki frowned, patting the soot out of his hair. "I don't think sorry will do it when you just blew up my yard."

"It was a thunderbolt, it's not 'blowing up,'" Denra replied indignantly, crossing her arms. "It's more 'blasting.'"

Shoki facepalmed. "That's not the point. My parents are going to kill me when they find out what state the yard is in."

"That's sad!" Denra chirped, whipping around. "I gotta go now!"

The two next met (thankfully, Shoki's parents didn't kill him) when their teams were assigned on an investigation mission for a suspicious settlement nearby.

They were ambushed by a crowd of rogue ninja pretty quickly, as soon as they set up camp. These people were about chunin level, which technically isn't too high, but their joint team had only two jonin and a bunch of genin.

"Stay in formation!" Denra's sensei, a regular dark haired woman named Kijo, commanded. "Denra, do your stuff!"

Shoki tilted his head. "What's 'her stuff?'"

Denra smirked, forming a hand sign to let a dark storm cloud form above the crowd of rogue ninja. "Behold, Denra Seizaki special- Lightning Blast!"

A bright white bolt of thunder crashed down, blasting about five out of the seven ninja into smithereens. Denra's lightning had a range of about a few meters, large enough for area damage but certainly within dodging range of the average ninja. However, she managed to catch these ones off guard.

The rest of the team beat up the remaining two, who no longer had the benefit of numbers.

However, out of the darkness of the forest an eighth ninja emerged, grabbing the nearest person- Denra, before retreating into the darkness.

"Shit," one of Denra's teammates cursed. "Do we go after her?"

"They need a hostage. We recover, we'll go after her soon," Kijo decided.

Denra woke up in a dark cave. Her arms were bound, and the entrance was sealed with a boulder, though it wasn't very secure.

"Those guys clearly can't kidnap properly," she muttered, noticing her legs still completely free. The blue haired girl struggled up, her arms still stuck behind her, taking a walk around the small cave.

She reached for her Lightning Blast powers, frowning when nothing happened.

"Oh, shit," she groaned, noticing the distinct lack of Night Star flowers in her pocket. Her supplies were gone.

The girl's mood improved when she noticed the boulder was relatively small. She nudged at the rock with her legs a few times, managing to get it to budge enough to squeeze out.

Yeah, those guys definitely can't kidnap properly.

"My arms are sore," Denra complained to herself, walking through the forest. She had no clue where her team was, or where the enemy was, but it's not like she was worried.

The girl found one of the kidnapper's allies patrolling around the forest. "Yo, can you untie my arms?"

The enemy froze, turning around slowly before letting out a scream. "Th-the hostage esca-!"

Denra kicked him in the shins before following up with a second kick, throwing the rogue into a tree. Her eyes brightened as she noticed a blue flower dropping from his hands. "Great!"

She caught it between her teeth before it could drop on the dirt, now capable of fighting. But man, her arms were seriously tired.

The rules didn't change until Denra was 30 and Miyabi was 5, when the thunder manipulator was granted an exception and admitted into Shadow Star.

Originally, she didn't want to join, but Shoki was the one to convince her, by playing exactly to her weakness.

"You'll get a cool title," he said. "And if you join, that means nobody will target Miyabi."

Denra died at 40 years old, due to a mix of the Second Shinobi World War and also because she really didn't want to eat vegetables. Hey, you can't expect every anime character to have a cool backstory, some of them are just petty and weird.

Which brings us back to the present.

"Okie dokie, ask away," Denra said cheerfully once she was Stellar Snared to a tree with a chakra suppressing tag. "Just make sure to keep any Night Star away from me or I might accidentally kill you."

"Okay," Fuyuka crossed her arms, walking in circles around the clearing. No, this wasn't a clearing before, but one area getting repeatedly blasted with lightning does stuff. "First question. Tell me about Shadow Star."