Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

The Haunt Rips Again

Uminawa Derk was born to a wealthy family with their own patch of land in Water Country. The Uminawa bloodline owned several of the Archipelago islands, as well as a quarter of all the mansions in the outer and more serene rings of Kirigakure. The areas known for their lush grass and splendor untouched by the care of man that made these little mansion yards stand out like the pearl of Kirigakure's mossy asphalt and gloom.

Despite being a healthy boy, tall of stature, with long, black hair that extended a tip lower than his shoulders and sky-blue eyes, Derk never spoke a word to his aristocrat parents, or anyone else, for that matter. It was unclear where the boy's resolution to stay a mute by choice came from, but the more time passed, the fewer would test the fortitude of his unspoken vow to never speak a word.

Being a well-off and influential family in the entirety of the Water Country, thriving in the craft of sea trade that was vital as the blood pumping through the veins of the archipelago nation, many families in the Uminawa Zaibatsu would have hidden the boy away from the public eye, forced him to speak through psychological or physical pressure or simply made him disappear and shaken off the trouble. No one wanted a white crow flapping in their aviary, but Derk was lucky enough to be born to a loving and caring family that cared little about the boy's quirks and self-prescribed muteness.

Derk's father had hoped that while the boy would refuse to speak, he'd perhaps keep the intelligence of his bloodline and that the countless priceless connections that the Uminawa Zaibatsu had forged through the ages would accept him for the man he was not the man he refused to present himself as. Sadly, all attempts to educate the boy proved futile, as he proved himself to be painfully average in all things. While the business partners would've gladly spat aside and pressed the hand of a business-savvy mute, they'd have raised eyebrows when presented by a quiet and dull giant.

Not that the boy's family cared too much about what the other people would think of them because of their son. It was more that the Uminawa Zaibatsu was a conglomerate of families just as influential and savvy, just as connected and wealthy, but much more ruthless to boot. They would not have had a weak and rusty link dragging the Uminawa name down. The sea trade business was the bloody diamonds of the Water Country. Many would have killed and had killed for the opportunities and the connections that the Uminawa had to keep the blood of the archipelago pumping. Even the Feudal Lord and the Kage wouldn't have minded testing the waters of a cheaper merchant guild helming the ship of the trade, however, until the Uminawa showed weakness, this remained a sweet dream of the still seas.

It was only when Uminawa Derk grew to the age of 14 that his father had the splendid idea of sending his son off to train with a branch of the Kirigakure Demons. The Uminawa influence and their funds extended all the way to the ninja village and various establishments and organizations functioning within. While the Demons may not have felt too excited about an aristocrat playing pretend amongst their ranks without having even graduated Ninja Academy, Oni Mask himself would have ditched his prosthetics and tied his hair to pigtails for the opportunity to plump his organization constantly struggling for relevance against other wanna-be Black Ops groups with the Uminawa funding that the family owning their own sizeable island on the Archipelago could offer.

While the Demons commonly mocked Uminawa Derk for his lack of skill, Oni Mask noticed something in the boy that he loved very much. By all accounts, young Uminawa Derk was a slug and his punches were sacks of feather to trained shinobi, but Oni Mask noted how the boy held nothing back when striking. Even when he knew his opponent was tough as a bar of iron to punch or try to break, Derk always swung his best without regard for his own body. While Oni Mask wouldn't accept Uminawa Derk as his pupil or part of his organization nor would he recommend his father to have his boy pursue the path of a military career, the masked enigma did occasionally meet the boy for private lessons and wouldn't mind mentoring the boy a bit to help him direct his peerless "drive".