Tsubaki Kurogane (鉄ツバキ, Kurogane Tsubaki) is a young samurai from the Land of Iron and Mifune's most recent disciple. She is currently an exchange-student in Konohagakure, serving as a member of genin squad, Team 15.
Background[]
When Tsubaki became a student to Mifune, she befriended a senior disciple, Sazanka, looking up to his commitment to honing his skills. They frequently trained together and discussed their goals. During a tournament, it was rumoured the winner's prize was the right to claim Kurosawa when Mifune retired. Tsubaki advanced to the final round, when she had to face Sazanka. Despite him having the clear advantage throughout the fight, she was able to exploit an opening at the last moment, defeating him. The loss shattered Sazanka, who went on to kill his other fellow disciples when they tried to stop him from claiming Kurosawa by force. After Sazanka's actions forced him to flee the Land of Iron as a wanted criminal, Tsubaki blamed herself for Sazanka's change.
Personality[]
Very mature for her age, Tsubaki is a very driven young girl. Disciplined and committed to the task at hand, Tsubaki had adapted a no-nonsense mentality. She has a strong commitment to the traditions and ancient ways of samurai and likewise to honour her teacher's wishes, taking great pride in being one and is open about that. At the same time, this driven nature has led her to be somewhat arrogant and distant to others. While overall very respectful in the way she talks to her superiors, she can be rather condescending to all others. Viewing the shinobi of the modern and peaceful era as sloppy and lacking of commitment, she openly considers her reassignment as a member of a shinobi team as temporary and purely an obligation. However, upon seeing how committed her new team was to protecting the each other, Tsubaki began to respect what Konohagakure has to offer in soldiers. During her time in Konoha, while still proud of the Land of Iron's commitment to tradition, she came to admit it also constrained the country, making it harder to progress. She has also come to see her reassignment as both a chance to grow as a warrior and valuing the friendships she has made.
Despite her normal attitude, Tsubaki is not without some childish traits. Having committed herself so much to her training, she is fascinated by the more modern cuisines of the world, showing a special enjoyment for fries. At the same time, wanting to maintain her poise, Tsubaki prefers to keep her enjoyment of such things secret. Also, she is shown to be rather competitive. While proud of her high individual skills compared to the genin she works with, she hates the idea of losing, even in a team-effort. Likewise, while openly proud as a samurai, she is eager to prove her might in comparison to shinobi during official competitions. Her goal is to rise through the ranks and help her country grow.
Appearance[]
Tsubaki is a young girl of short stature. She has large pink eyes and thick eyebrows. She is fair-skinned with straight brown hair reaching her lower back with cropped bangs, apart from chin-length strands that frame the sides of her face. She keeps her hair in a high-ponytail secured by a headpiece with two pink flower-like beads. She dresses in a traditional samurai attire, consisting of a white robe with pink lining on the colour and sleeves, a turtle-neck undershirt, shin-length pink pants, black legging and socks, and straw-sandals. She also wears black arm guards that cover her forearms.
Secured regularly at her hip is a sword with a black cloth hilt, and scabbard with the hilt shaped like two opposite-pointing arrows. While travelling, she wears a traditional umbrella-shaped bamboo hat and a pink cloak.
Abilities[]
Trained personally by the general of the Land of Iron, Tsubaki is a very skilled warrior. Despite her young age, she was easily able to defeat two wanted criminals in the Bingo Books. Konoha leadership considers Tsubaki's skill in comparison to a shinobi of chūnin-level.
Physical Prowess[]
Tsubaki is an expertly trained swordswoman, able to use precise and powerful strikes to pentrate most defenses. She skilled in various styles and tactics of swordsmanship and likwise able to defend herself with just the scabbard of her sword. With her actual blade, she excels at quickdraw techniques, able to take down opponents before they can realise it. When wielding her drawn sword and her scabbard in the opposite hand, she can fight in the ambidextrious nature of dual-blade combat. For group enemies, she can channel her chakra into it, able to produce a powerful tornado to repel all around her. She excels in various misdirection tactics to create openings against her opponent. She is also very agile, skilfully able to jump from rooftop to rooftop.
In addition, Tsubaki is highly trained in hand-to-hand combat, able to seamlessly strike with kicks and punches, and switch between them and sword strikes without warning.
New Era[]
Time Slip Arc[]
When Sumire Kakei of Konohagakure was transferred to the Scientific Ninja Weapons Team, this left her genin team of Team 15 shorthanded. The Seventh Hokage contacted the Land of Iron, asking them to send a replacement for the team as way to close the gap between samurai and shinobi. Tsubaki was selected. Upon arriving in Konohagakure, she was quickly displeased by the apparent lack of disciple the village had. She soon met her new team, consisting of Hanabi Hyūga, Wasabi Izuno, and Namida Suzumeno. Tsubaki made no attempt to connect with her new team, believing it would only impair her own abilities. Later, by chance Wasabi and Namida stumbled upon a wanted criminal. Tsubaki quickly caught up to her new team-mates, impressed by their devotion to protecting their allies. Seeing the shinobi world in a new light, Tsubaki was determined to help the two genin and quickly defeated the criminals. Afterwards, Tsubaki met Sumire, who voiced her approval in Tsubaki as being her replacement, much to her appreciation.
Harmony in Gold[]
Later, Tsubaki found to her dismay that since joining Team 15, its overall performance had declined. Furious at the idea of being the weakest genin team, she convinced Wasabi and Namida to treat each mission as a challenge between each other, seeing who was the best for the mission. This ultimately backfired, as this overly-competitive made them lose sight of their true objective and fail in high assignments. Ultimately, Hanabi decided to suspend Team 15 until they learned to better cooperate. As Tsubaki pondered over this, she met with Boruto. Finding it ridiculous that she would only eat fries, he offered her his drink and burger, leaving her amazed at how good the combined flavors were.
The following day, after seeing Team 5 off with a merchant for a boar-hunt, the Team 15 students found that the real merchant was tied up and replaced with a bandits' leader. Realising that their friends were in danger, Tsubaki and her team rushed to help. Amazed at how well-coordinated Team 15 was and remembering her experience with new food mixtures, Tsubaki realised that the key to victory was team-work. Tsubaki trusted her team-mates to hold off the enemies long enough for her to ready her ultimate technique, swiftly defeating most of the foes and leaving leader for her team-mates to defeat. With the mission successful, Tsubaki was happy to have made friends she could trust.
Kara Actuation Arc[]
After Boruto and his team returned from the Land of Valleys, Tsubaki asked Boruto about his recent hand injury. Later, as Denki Kaminarimon began setting up an experiment to improve radio communications, Tsubaki and her friends helped him with the work. It ultimately worked, but failed to maintain stability. Denki however remained determined to improve the technology, Tsubaki joined everyone in cheering.
Ao Arc[]
Tsubaki attended the memorial service for the fallen people of the Fourth Shinobi World War. Later, she watched the sparing match between the Seventh Hokage and Boruto at the Training Hall, impressed both by Boruto's improved skill and Naruto's mysterious new ability to absorb enemy techniques.
Chūnin Re-Examination Arc[]
Following Isshiki's attack, Naruto decided to host another Chūnin Exam to boost morale and promote more chūnin. Despite not being a shinobi, Tsubaki took part of the exam to prove her might as a samurai. She and her team passed the first exam, a written test. During the second exam, Tsubaki had to rescue an injured ally within the Forest of Death within an allotted time limit. She was one of 10 exam takers to pass the test, and for the final exam, she would have to go against one of 9 other genin in an one-on-one fight.
The following day after finishing a sparring session, Tsubaki received a letter from the Land of Iron, calling her back to fill in a leadership position. She was overjoyed at the chance to help promote growth for her country from an official position. Planning to use what she learned during her time in Konoha to help her country, Tsubaki was now even more determined to win in the finals.
Before the second match, which involved her team-mate Wasabi, she and Namida noticed that Wasabi was unusually reserved, and how flustered she became when her family came to cheer on her. She listened as Wasabi explained her clan's background to her, and how pressured she felt to meet her family's expectations of her. Before the third match, between Sarada and Chōchō, Tsubaki and her team checked on Sarada, concerned about her having to fight her best friend. Sarada insisted to them she was ready.
Tsubaki and Denki were the last names left at the end. Before her match, she overheard her team-mates discussing their conflicting feelings about her departure, and felt ashamed for not taking their reaction into consideration. During the match, Tsubaki didn't think much of Denki's Lightning Release Suit and made the first strike. However, the suit allowed Denki to avoid her attacks and make strong attacks of his own, pressuring her. She eventually realised the suit had a motion sensor that analysed and predicted her movements, so she destroyed it. As the fight continued, the suit began to overheat. She offered Denki the chance to forfeit, but he refused, so she attacked. Denki chose to sacrifice the suit to block her attack, giving himself an opening to land a Lightning Release which knocked her out, costing her the match. When she woke up in the infirmary, she revealed to Namida and Wasabi that she chose to pass on the leadership position, feeling that she still had much to learn in Konoha. Later, she joined her team and Team 5 in celebrating Wasabi and Denki's promotions to chūnin at the Lightning Burger.
Later, Team 15 was assigned Kawaki as an extra for a mission to test him as a potential genin. Despite completing the mission, Kawaki's efforts were excessive as he traumatised the runaway child, leading to the client being furious with the team, much to Tsubaki and her team-mates dismay.
During a mission to investigate attacks on merchants, Tsubaki discovered her former fellow pupil Sazanka was among the bandits. She was initially unable to draw her sword against him, as she still felt guilty about her role in putting him on the path to becoming a criminal. Her team-mates encouraged her to face the challenge, reminding her she would regret it for the rest of her life if she didn't. Tsubaki overcame her guilt, and was able to cut Sazanka down, who acknowledged her strength as a samurai just before dying.
Kawaki & Himawari Academy Arc[]
When the Academy held a festival, Tsubaki attended it with her friends. When the festival received a terrorist threat, Tsubaki and other former students offered to help deal with the situation, removing explosive tags around the area.
Trivia[]
- "Tsubaki" (椿) is the name of the Japanese camellia.
