Sakura Ieyoshi

"Note to self: don't use the Captain as an armrest."

- Sakura Ieyoshi

Sakura Ieyoshi (桜 家吉; Ieyoshi Sakura) is the Lieutenant of the Second Division, and the first cousin of Murasaki Ieyoshi.

Appearance
Sakura is a tall, young woman with a fairly sturdy build. She has a fairly prominent hourglass figure that's caused by her shoulders and hips being remarkably wide, while her waist is surprisingly narrow. Her breasts are fairly small, and the tight bras she wears makes them practically invisible when wearing the standard uniform. Sakura's muscles are well-developed and nicely toned, and it definitely shows; her musculature is not entirely unlike that of a boxer's, what with no incredibly bulging muscles, but still clearly defined forms--especially in the arms and abdomen. Her skin is fairly pale, and is more likely to burn than it is to tan. Several small scars can be found on her body--an occupational hazard--although the most noticeable one by far is the one that seems to spiral around her right arm. It looks oddly perfect in the sense that the "loops" are evenly spaced apart, indicating that it was not caused by any kind of natural means. Her Bankai is actually what caused the scar, and it reopens the wound everytime it is activated; as such, the markings can go from looking fairly old to very, very new depending on the last time Sakura made use of her Bankai. Her hair is a sandy, light-brown colour, and is cut fairly short. Her bangs--which are parted above her right eye--are long enough to fall into her eyes, however, and the hair at the back of her head, near her neck, tends to stick up when it reaches a certain length. Sakura's eyes are a vibrant but cold shade of blue, and are fairly round in shape.

Sakura wears the sleevless version of the standard-issue Shihakusho, as well as the signature beige cloak of the Patrol Corps. Her Lieutenant's badge is tied around her left arm, as per the uniform requirements.

Personality
In spite of her upbringing, Sakura couldn't be further from the poised and respectable lady that her clan so desperately groomed her to be. Put bluntly, she's a troll of the highest order, and will go out of her way to purposely upset others in order to entertain herself. The more serious the person, the more she will typically subject them too; she gets an immense sense of satisfaction from getting an extreme reaction from a more stoic individual, and will irritate them regardless of the consequences. This is evidenced by how she continously teases and even mocks her Captain, despite the fact that she knows full well that she will get punched at the very least. Needless to say, Sakura has a problem properly displaying the respect due to her superiors. She does hold the Captains and other Lieutenants in the highest regard, but seems to be permanently stuck in the "rebellious teenager" phase of life, and as such, can often be seen dropping the formalities here and there. It should be noted though, that while she rarely uses the "-san" honorific, she will not go straight to calling someone by their name alone. Of course, that doesn't make up for the amounts of times she butts heads with her superiors and peers. Being a fairly stubborn individual with morals that clash with most Captains' and Lieutenants', it's not entirely unusual to see her get into fights with the more hotblooded ones here and there.

While she does enjoy seeing people in emotional distress, Sakura also has another reason for being absolutely insufferable (not that it excuses her behaviour, of course). She was originally trained to be a part of the Onmitsukido; a military branch with a high fatality rate for all of the five corps in it. Her unpleasantness ended up serving as a kind of defence mechanism that prevented her from developing any kind of emotional attachments with others, and vice versa. Her promotion into the Gotei only served to worsen her behaviour, although this stems more from a feeling of discomfort than her unwillingness to make friends. Sakura has had a difficult time adjusting to her current position, mainly because her training was focused solely on the Patrol Corps; if it would not benefit her in the corps, she never learned it. This has set her behind the other Lieutenants in terms of leadership skills, and were it not for her being the Corps Commander of the Patrol Corps, it's likely that she would not have been promoted to her current position. This has fostered a feeling of inadequecy, and added on top of that is the belief that she doesn't quite fit in with the other Shinigami. All her peers have been in the Gotei since they passed the entrance exam, and have developed close ties with one another and their subordinates, whereas Sakura has only been around in the few months that the Soul War has been going on.

Yet in spite of her initial unwillingness to make nice, breaking through Sakura's defences is surprisingly easy. The only true emotional armour she has is her constant mocking and teasing; there is nothing else to safeguard her beneath that. When she's with someone she is comfortable with, her behavior changes quite drastically. While she will still tease and mock, Sakura becomes notably gentler with her snide remarks; she goes from trying to tick people off to trying to make them laugh. She struggles with displaying her affection physically, however, and as such a thump on the back or a light punch to the shoulder is about all she will ever give someone. Public displays of affection--of any kind--are also limited, and while she will still be kinder, her teasing is not nearly as gentle as it is when she is with friends and only friends.

Even when she is comfortable with a person, Sakura still has a difficult time expressing her true feelings properly. She typically masks everything under a twisted sense of humour and jokes that vaguely hint at her emotions, but nothing is ever outright mentioned. This is mainly because Sakura despises seriousness; she has enough to deal with in terms of grave situations due to the Patrol Corps' work, and doesn't want to drag that into her personal life by turning a fun outing into a "let's talk about how we really feel" kind of thing. She works hard to keep things as lighthearted as possible, desperately trying to find the light in everything even though her own view of the world is jaded from her own negative experiences.

This outlook doesn't change in battle. If the fight is not related to the Patrol Corps, then she will put on a cheeky grin and mock the opponent to the ends of the earth. Only in very serious fights--ones where the scales are far from being tipped in her favour--will she ever shut up and focus completely.

Early Life
Sakura was the last child to be born to the main branch of the Ieyoshi Clan, preceeded by her eight sisters and four brothers. As per the clan's customs, she was handed off to her great-grandparents--both of whom were retired Onmitsukido officers--as her parents were still active in their respective corps, and did not have time to work and raise their children. So it was that Sakura, like her siblings before her, spent the first twenty years of her life training under her great-grandparents. She learned the general skills that all Shinigami possess, although more emphasis was placed on Hakuda and Shunpo than Kido and Zanjutsu. During this time, Sakura never left the family estate; almost all of her time was devoted to her training, and what remained was spent eating, sleeping, and doing chores around the home.

On her twentieth birthday, it was decided by the clan elders that she was best-suited for the Patrol Corps. Thus began another thirty years of training--albeit this time devoted solely to learning and perfecting skils that would be useful in the corps (and usually in the corps alone; few of these skills had little application to other areas of life). However, about fifteen years in, Sakura began to fight back. She had been doing nothing but follow orders since birth, and had finally grown sick of it; she wanted to be her own person, not a soldier with no personality.

But of course, like any other self-respecting clan, the Ieyoshi's couldn't have that. Punishment for disobeying orders and not standing up to their "ideal warrior" was exile, and an exiled soul could get nowhere in life. After a few close calls, Sakura realized the gravity of her situation, and reigned herself in as far as rebellious behaviour went. That isn't to say she went back to the lifeless drone she had been--rather, she just treaded the fine line between acceptable and unacceptable. She constantly tested the boundaries laid out by her superiors, and while she got in trouble more often than not, she managed to avoid doing anything too serious. She also learned how much fun it was to push people's buttons, and by the end of her thirty years of training, had managed to irritate most of her family--no small feat, given the clan's size.

Unbeknownst to Sakura, the elders held a meeting a few weeks before she was sent off to take the Onmitsukido exam. They debated on whether or not to permit her to continue, terrified that she would disgrace the family with the way she acted. However, a unanimous vote was needed to exile her, and both her great-grandparents refused to allow the others to banish her. Due to this, unrest was stirred up among the older members of the clan, and began to tear rifts between the main branch--the one Sakura was from--and the minor ones. The smaller branches began to believe that the main family had grown soft to allow such behaviour, and started to adopt a rather frosty demeanour when interacting with them.

Sakura, of course, was entirely oblivious to the rising tensions, as she had never really paid the political side of things too much attention. She went to take the entrance exam for the Onmitsukido, blissfully unaware of the situation at home. She managed to pass the test, albeit it wasn't by much; her score was quite a bit lower than she had been expecting, and was very, very close to failing. Part of this was due to arrogance--she had been training for fifty years, after all. How could she possibly fail something she had spent her whole life preparing for? Sakura didn't quite understand that it wasn't so much about what she knew, but rather her motivation. The effort she had put into the test had been sub-par at best, as she had very little inclination to actually try to get in (other than to avoid being kicked out of the clan).

Life in the Patrol Corps
Sakura spent a good two years thinking that she could just drift through missions and mock her teammates in her downtime. She quickly realized that, without her clan breathing over her shoulder, she had a lot more freedom, and kind of lost control. The only work she did was when she was sent out on a mission, and the effort she put into it was minimal at best; she was constantly walking on pins and needles with her teammates, who were getting quite fed up with her behaviour and unwillingness to put forth any kind of effort. She pushed many, many boundaries by mocking everyone and making some very, very rude comments--even to her superiors. She had no respect for the people she worked with, and no respect for herself either; she was a loose canon, drunk on the freedom she never had and determined to do the exact opposite of what she had been raised to do. It wasn't her dream to be a part of the Patrol Corps, so why should she have to follow through with it?

Two years later, she finally got what was coming to her in the form of a fist fight. She had pushed her coworkers too far one night, and things got ugly. It was not the first time she had initiated a fight, although they had never gotten as ugly as this one, which resulted in a few broken bones. The following day, Sakura received a suspension notice, and that was when the gravity of her situation really hit her. If she were to be kicked out of the corps, she would undoubtedly be kicked out of the clan for being such a disgrace--no one would want to associate themselves with her. She recognized that between being banished from her clan and having been kicked out of the Patrol Corps--a respectable branch of the Seireitei's military--that she would essentially be unable to do anything with her life. No one wanted to go near an exiled noble--no matter how low they were in rank--and the Gotei certainly wouldn't hire someone with a record like hers.

So it was that Sakura burst into the quarters of the Corps Commander, got on her knees, and begged for the second chance that she didn't deserve. After much pleading and bargaining, the commander agreed to give her a "trial" period. If she conducted herself in a respectable manner and proved to be a valuable asset to the team, then she would be allowed to stay; if not, she would be expelled without even so much as a warning.

The trial period lasted for a month, and it was perhaps the hardest month of Sakura's life. She was forced to reign herself in and work hard--two things that she hadn't done since she decided to be her "own person" (which she typically used as an excuse to be a jerk). The first week was especially rough, as she had no idea how to properly interact with her peers off the battlefield. Not being able to tease anyone to even the slightest degree was exceptionally frustrating as well, and she wound up starting two fights because she didn't know how to let off that excess anger. However, things started to turn around in week two; by actively participating in missions and going above and beyond what was expected, she often found herself incredibly exhausted by the end of the day and didn't have the energy to lament the fact that she could no longer irritate the others. The remaining two weeks were no different.

So it was that Sakura narrowly avoided losing everything, although she was still walking a fine line; just because she had passed the trial period did not mean she could revert to her old ways. Terrified of being kicked out and sent into exile, she continued to do her best on missions, and rarely interacted with her fellow officers in hopes that it would limit her urge to mock them until the end of time.

However, old habits die hard. After a few years, she started to slip again, albeit she never hit the all-time low that she had before. She started to drop snide comments here or there, and tease and mock and generally just annoy her coworkers every now and again. She was especially nasty to the newer officers, although that was the typical standard in the corps--no newbie got it easy going in. Her superiors, however, where another story. At first, she was still too afraid to do it to her superiors, but eventually that fear weakened to the point where she would make slightly gentler, and indirect remarks about them. She was never as rude to them as she had been before, though... even if she didn't give them all the respect that they were due.

Slowly--very slowly--she began to climb the ranks. People were still wary of promoting her, given her past record, but as she continued to prove that she was not the complete slacker she had been, she began to gain ranks a little bit faster. The progression wasn't stellar, but it was still progress nonetheless. When the Winter War rolled around (about 184 years after she joined the Onmitsukido), Sakura had managed to climb to a rather respectable position. She spent most of the war patrolling the human world outside of Karakura with her teammates and killing off the hundreds of Hollow that were being attracted to the area by the high amount of reiatsu being released. It was a particularly taxing job, given that the beasts were utterly relentless, and she and her partners were almost overrun a number of times.

It was this experience and the less-than-satisfactory results of the mission that spurred on the higher-ups in the Corps to push the more senior members to start working on obtaining Bankai. Sakura begrudgingly obliged. She had no real interest in learning, as she much preferred to fight hand-to-hand, but acknowledged the fact that they needed to be better equipped if they were to perform better in future wars. So as much as she grumbled and complained about it, she went along with the training, and managed to obtain it within twenty years. She had several issues communicating properly with her Zanpakuto--who was a fairly tempermental spirit that had a serious dislike for it's wielder's behaviour--and it set her back behind the others considerably. She was forced to spend many a night trying (and mostly failing) to talk to Odori Kusari, although it almost always ended up in a fight. She was very out of practice with conversing with him, as she hadn't really spoken to him since obtaining Shikai, and also neglected to use him often in missions. Eventually, the two came to an understanding, and he gave her his true name.

By this point, Sakura was a good ten years behind the other Bankai-wielding members in the Patrol Corps--a gap that couldn't be closed regardless of how hard she worked. She spent the next fifteen years trying to learn how to control her new power, but never managed to master it due to the start of the Soul War.

The Soul War
Sakura is the last of the new Lieutenants to be appointed.

Equipment
Radio: As the Arrancar and Humans cannot make use of the Hell Butterflies, every officer, regardless of rank, was given a radio that they could use to communicate with everyone.

Spare Katana: At the start of the war, all Shinigami were issued a standard katana in case their Zanpakut ō  broke, or they preferred not to use their Zanpakut ō  unless it was needed.

Rejuvination Pills: Originally used only by the Fourth Division, these pills were distributed among the rest of the Seireitei in hopes that they could increase the fighting capacity of the soldiers and limit the number of casualties.

Natural Abilities
Expert Swordsman: Swords were a fairly big part of life in the Patrol Corps, and while Hakuda always took precedence over them, they were still used frequently. Sakura, although not the best swordsman around, is fairly well-versed in the art of the blade and displays skills that are above the other seated Shinigami (albeit a bit lower than her fellow Lieutenants).

Kid ō  Practicioner: The majority of Kid ō techniques were far too flashy for Sakura's occupation, and as such, she never really bothered with learning them. Bakkad ō spells--especially binding ones--were redundant, as most did the same thing her Zanpakut ō did, albeit in a less efficient manner due to her skill (or lack thereof). As such, she cannot perform any mid or high-level techniques without the incantation, and has little to no control over such spells when using them. Even some of the lower-level spells give her some trouble.

Hakuda Expert: Being a member of the Onmitsukido, extensive knowledge and great skill in Hakuda is a must. Sakura is highly proficient in hand-to-hand combat, and her abilities surpass those of most of the other Lieutenants (with exceptions such as Shuhei Hisagi and Tetsuzaemon Iba).

Shunpo Expert: As with Hakuda, being a Shunpo expert in the Onmitsukido was a must. It was highly neccesary in the Patrol Corps especially, annd as such, Sakura is capable of travelling long distances in a very short time without becoming tired.

High Pain Threshold: Sakura has an incredibly high tolerance for pain. Part of her training for the Onmitsukido included increasing how much pain she could take before cracking, and between that, the training she received while in the Onmitsukido itself, and the nature of her Bankai, Sakura can blow off most wounds as though they were little more than a papercut.

High Spiritual Pressure: Like all Lieutenants, Sakura possesses a high amount of spiritual pressure.

Zanpakut ō
Odori Kusari ( 踊り鎖; Dancing Chain) takes the form of a regular katana in it's sealed state. The wrapping around the hilt is dark red in colour, and the cross guard is decorated with what seems to be an engraving of a chain.
 * Shikai: Odori Kusari's Shikai command is "Sway, Odori Kusari."  When that phrase is uttered, the blade of the sword will turn into what seems to be an ordinary chain.
 * Shikai Special Abilities: Odori Kusari's chain is actually made up of reiatsu, and the length of it can be increased or decreased depending on how much reiatsu Sakura channels into the hilt of the weapon.  While there is technically no limit to how far she can make it stretch, if she goes over a thirty-foot radius she'll be out of energy within a matter of minutes.  Other than that, there is nothing spectacular about this Zanpakutō; it's essentially a whip made out of chains.  The links themselves can be broken through brute force and Kido, although seeing as they are made of Sakura's reiatsu, they can be reformed as well--it just takes some energy on her part.
 * Banaki: Kuishinb ō  no Odori Kusari (食いしん坊踊り鎖; Gluttonous Dancing Chains).  Due to the nature of this Bankai, it is particularly difficult to control properly and is ill-suited for lengthy battles.  This is due to the fact that it requires large amounts of energy to function effectively--so much so that Sakura is often forced to steal the opponent's reiatsu to power it.  Upon activiation, the entire weapon turns into one massive chain link that wraps itself around Sakura's right arm.  It splits off into several different chains about an inch or two below her finger tips.  The idea of this seemingly impractical weapon is to grab hold of the main chain, and wield it as though it is a (rather massive) multi-tailed whip.  Now that being said, each of the chains attached to the main one can be controlled separately by manipulating them with reiatsu; essentially, it can seem as though they all have a mind of their own, although this is excessively difficult to do, and as she is far from mastering her Bankai, Sakura usually fails when she attempts this.  It also takes an excessive amount of reiatsu to do so--more than is worth wasting in a fight.
 * Bankai Special Abilities: Like in it's Shikai form, the length of the chains can increase or decrease depending on how much reiatsu Sakura pours into them.  However, the amount needed to lengthen them has gone up by quite a bit, and the result can be rather painful.  When the length is changed, the chains will either slide down Sakura's arm or slide up, and as they are so tightly wound around her, they will often break the skin and tear one long wound that goes from herwrist to her shoulder (hence the scarring mentioned in the appearance section).  She avoids hurting her hand by simply loosening her grip, but she has yet to discover a way to couter the injury done to her arm.  Due to how much reiatsu it requires, the maximum length her Bankai can reach at the moment is twenty feet (with the exception of one attacking technique, which can reach up to fifty feet).
 * Hiru ( 蛭; Leech): Since Kuishinb ō Odori Kusari takes so much reiatsu to function, Sakura often has a difficult time maintaining it.  One way to lessen the toll on herself is to steal the opponent's reiatsu, which is done by releasing a handful of links from the chains.  These links are propelled forward at a great speed and latch onto the enemy.  It doesn't matter if they touch skin or clothes; it's all the same.  They will absorb as much reiatsu as they can before returning back to the main chain, providing it with however much energy they stole.  It's typically not enough to completely power an attack, but even the smallest bit helps.  However, while they are fast, the links can only travel in a straight line to the target.  They can return regardless of where Sakura is, but the enemy must be right in front of the links in order for the attack to work.  The links are also vulnerable to being destroyed, either before or after they've stolen reiatsu.
 * Kusari Yari (鎖槍; Chain Spear): When used, the different chains will appear to merge back into the main chain before shooting out at an incredible speed.  Unlike the other attacks, this one is not limited to a length of twenty-feet; it shoots to about fifty feet before the chains return to their original form and length.  As with Hiru, however, this attack can only move in a straight line.

Trivia

 * Sakura isn't too bad of a singer, but she will purposely sing off-key and mess up song lyrics in order to amuse people or tick them off.
 * She is very polite and respectful when conversing with Captains Unohana and Kotetsu--the former because she's terrified of her, and the latter because she just can't tease Isane without feeling bad about it.
 * Much to her chagrin, Sakura cannot eat meat due to the fact that her body has a difficult time digesting it.  That being said, she still does eat meat on rare occasions... Only to wind up in the fetal position on the floor an hour later, in too much pain to move.

Creator's Notes

 * Sakura is the oldest Shinigami OC in the Soul War project, having been created around five years ago.  She was originally a substitute Shinigami who was soft-spoken and gentle, and had long hair as opposed to short hair.  She was also supposed to be a love interest for Ukitake, and served as a kind of self-insert.  Needless to say, she's developed a lot since then, and is far from being any of the aforementioned things.
 * Sakura has also been a human, Fullbringer, Vizard, and Arrancar in the past before I finally settled on making her a Shinigami.