Template:Yūmei Kokūzō

Yūmei Kokūzō (幽明虚空蔵, Kokūzō Yūmei) is the Fifth Hokage (五代目火影, Godaime Hokage; Literally meaning "Fifth Fire Shadow") of Konohagakure, and a descendant of both the Senju and Uchiha clans. He is the eleventh eldest son of the late Fire Country's daimyō, pulled the strings of the pseudo Akatsuki's, and was the founder of Genesis prior to its merge with the Leaf.

Enter: Yūmei Kokūzō
As one of the many offspring of the Fire Country's daimyō, an Uchiha, Yūmei was raised astray from the operations of much of the shinobi world under the additional care of his mother, a Senju, who possessed the DNA of Hashirama Senju. In spite of receiving a reasonably-high standardized education, he was segregated from the world outside, his knowledge of it bleak whilst remained homebound. In spite of this though, Yūmei never felt entirely lonely, on occasion commuting with his half-relatives, particularly Kudara Kokūzō, who remained his closest sibling, in spite of them only possessing a mutual father. Yūmei was also known to be an expert in shōgi, his tactical prowess emanating whenever he brought down somebody older than him, and was only ever unable to defeat Kudara. However, this luxurious lifestyle was fated to end in utter ruination.

When he was nine, Yūmei's mother was assassinated; the sorrow that he experienced during this time instigated the awakening of the Sharingan. A seven year old Yūmei confronted the daimyō afterward and accused him of leaving his mother defenseless, even going as far as denouncing his entitlement to his aristocratic position, ignoring Kudara's consistent pleas for him to remain silent of the ordeal. In response, his father banished him to Konohagakure, where he was to be used as a political hostage. However this only lasted for several months as the Land of Fire consequently abandoned Yūmei as a diplomatic tool and forced him to go into hiding. Yūmei then resolved to uncover the truth regarding his mother's assassination, and began to take multiple steps in order to achieve just that.

While residing inside of Konohagakure, Yūmei sought help from the Mayakashi household, who were his deceased mother's associated in the past. They enrolled him into the local academy, where he graduated from several months later, his genius-level of intellect surpassing that of even the teachers. During his education there, Yūmei established a close friendship with Yūjin, a fellow student, and to only one who approached him without appearing intimidated by Yūmei's overwhelming wisdom. They were placed in the same squad at Yūmei's request, in spite of him being eligible to enter the Chūnin Exams. During a mission though, everything became mirror-clear. The anonymous client turned out to be none other than one of the daiymō's consorts, who had learned of Yūmei's survival, and sought to end it otherwise; Yūjin turned out to be a spy planted by the daiymō himself, used to monitor Yūmei's lifestyle, and was later discovered by the very consort who sought to use him on this one mission. Faced with life and death, learning the truth of Yūjin's identity and being reminded of what he had resolved to perform in the past, Yūmei was forced to kill his 'friend' in cold blood, instigating the awakening of the Mangekyō Sharingan. He then defected from Konohagakure, in fear that there may be more spies planted by the daiymō.

Spending a couple of years as a missing-nin, Yūmei learned of a masquerade ball being hosted within the daiymō's palace. Seeking to question his father then and there, he broke into the premises through repetitive usage of the Mangekyō Sharingan technique: Rakeshisu, and wound up inside of the main hall, snagging himself a mask in the process, and participating as a guest as the festivities continued. He confronted Kudara in his room, pausing their reunion in favor of locating their father, to whom the former led him to. There he questioned that very man the reasons leading into his mother's death, or assassination-farce, although Yūmei's father did not remain passive for long, and being a prestigious member of the Uchiha clan, fought his son to the death without fully answering his questions. While although his father did not possess the Mangekyō Sharingan, the plethora of attacks at his disposal was no understatement, and lead Yūmei into overusing his own Mangekyō Sharingan, rendering himself blind. The aftermath that ensued led to the transfer of eyes from Kudara to himself, thus restoring his sight, and instigating the awakening of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. The two half-brothers coming to an agreement, they set set out from the imperial palace, into the wilderness - against the world, their mutual enemy.

The more Yūmei wandered the continent, the more he was subjected to the grave injustice being performed on a daily basis. He witnessed murder, lies, rape, homicide and theft. The world was black and white, black because his eyes shut out the light, white because he came to forget the other colours. It was during this time he learned of his ability to manipulate wood, and evolved his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan into the Rinnegan; shortly after, he developed an inclusive extension of Yin–Yang Release, Feng Shui Art (風水芸術, Fūsui Geijutsu), enabling him to devour everything within a certain radius in a phenomenal amount of compressed chakra, fend himself from chakra-based techniques and bind his opponents with relative ease. This only furthered both his and Kudara's plans to redeem the continent, with intentions of destroying it.

From Dawn to Twilight
Hence he formed the criminal organization to be known as the Akatsuki. Enlisting a number of S-ranked criminals, Yūmei worked behind the scenes while his associates performed his dirty work. However their antagonism to the world proved to be a hindrance to his careful planning, dastardly slowing down his progress of casting the world into oblivion. During this time Kudara departed from Yūmei's side in order to perfect the kekkei tōta, Star Release.

Later disbanding the Akatsuki, Yūmei and a selective amount of his most prized associates went into hiding in a past hideout. The more time progressed, the easier it was for the outside world to forget their existence, hence was why they began to operate as a secret society. The organization Genesis was birthed as a result. No longer focusing on capturing the tailed beasts which the villages on the surface continued to bicker over possession of, Yūmei placed his attention on more pressing matters: Sparking a revolution that would captivate the world enough to tear a rift in the fabric of reality - a paradox no less, to revert everything back to its primordial state. Although this served as his main objective, he possessed an alternative - to subjugate the entire shinobi population under his divine rule.

Ascension of the Godaime Hokage
Becoming the Hokage following Shiizuki's removal, he integrated the forces of Genesis into Konoha's ANBU force, greatly increasing the village's military power. He also later developed a seal granting him similar, if not better, effects of Orochimaru's Cursed Seal of Heaven, of which left him in a coma for multiple days. Shortly after Yūmei's coronation, Kudara returned, having perfected his kekkei tōta, and became an ambassador of the village.

Following Kumogakure's declaration of war was made on Konoha, Yūmei further closed the margin between his power and that of the Sage of the Six Paths. He meditated so as to unlock the true potential of Yin–Yang Release as well as his own ability to rule over life and death as the Outer Path in a form unaffected by either. This training session led to the creation of, and inspired the future creation of many other extraordinary abilities. He at that point, abandoned his previous persona as an aristocrat of sorts, and began to don that of an individual exhibiting both the Will of Fire and a much more wiser demeanor, even titling himself 'The Sage Incarnate'.

Bonds of Scales
Following the death of Uchiha Rares, Yūmei came into possession of his attire, the scroll containing information concerning the mechanics of the Flying Thunder God Technique, of which he himself cannot decipher without first signing a blood contract with one of those who created it, and most importantly, the dragon summoning contract. Signing it shortly after obtaining it, the Hokage attempted to summon forth one of the mythical creatures as a test run, only to be reverse summoned to Tenryūji, homeland of the dragons as a result. There he commuted with several of the species, and trained with them to build up a healthy fellowship, and ultimately gain their undying allegiance. Of the creatures inhabiting the vicinity, he's only made extensive contact with a couple, their powers of a truly terrifying caliber, truly befitting of mystical creatures.

Some few weeks later, Yūmei sought out a more efficient method of increasing his chakra pool, as well as his own physical attributes from the dragons. While at Tenryūji, he came to learn of how the species' contract's predecessor, Rares came to do so - through the assimilation of dragon-kind. This left Yūmei in a difficult situation, not wishing to sacrifice the dragons he had already come to befriend. Instead, he sought out other power members of the species, then finding out about the Shiryū (四竜, Four Dragon Kings); he also created a technique for performing the deed. Per chance, the Hokage crossed paths with two of its members while scouring the plane for assimilation-worthy subjects, Tsuyoshikō and Tsuyoshinzoku. He challenged them to a death match, the two dragons immediately accepting, taking far too much pride in their power, without being wary of their opponent's own. The battle lasted for an entire day, however in the end, Yūmei triumphed, though only through expending the vast majority of the chakra he had stored away in his seal. He then assimilated them into his body, undergoing a complete cellular-metamorphosis. When the process was completed, he could feel a near-overwhelming amount of chakra circulating throughout his body, and feeling empowered. Notably, his more darker emotions began to surface more often as they did in the past, as was the fundamental nature of the dragons. Yūmei was confronted by the other members of Shiryū, who rather than avenging their fallen comrades, gifted him a new attire, even though those comrades happened to be their siblings in addition - so long as they were in the plane, the dragons were forced to uphold a chivalrous perspective to a high extent, one which seemingly forsook the deaths of relatives.

Return to Konohagakure
When Yūmei returned to Konohagakure, he was still engaged in the secondary portion of his recovery. When he received a visit from Dark, the scroll in his possession was properly deciphered mentally imbuing him the fundamentals of a particular technique. Yūmei also returned the scroll to Dark, as a show of good faith, not to mention that he had no further use of it.

Personality
Yūmei is a highly intelligent indiviual who is also calm, sophisticated, and slightly arrogant due to his aristocrat upbringing. When donning the role of a leader, his true feelings are expressed; his charisma and ideals gain him the trust and respect of many warriors and leaders. While Yūmei is righteous and noble by nature he is more than willing to do acts that go against his morality; this is due to his belief that he must commit evil to destroy the greater evil. His desire to destroy and recreate the world comes from his revenge for his mother's apparent death, however in time he came to realize that his goal is not just for her, but for the entire world.

Yūmei has a habit of accepting responsibility for actions which he has no fault in. This may be his tragic flaw. Yūmei seems to have an average amount of concern for innocent lives, while he does oppose the concept of terrorism, he does not (or at least not openly) display a great amount of remorse for the collateral of his endeavours. While Yūmei can be ruthless and often merciless in battle, he can be a rather compassionate person to his friends and loved ones. At first glance, he seems to have relatively little concern for the wellbeing of his subordinates, but in reality he does care about them, seeing them as valuable allies. Although, he has made exceptions on numerous occasions.

Appearance
Yūmei's trademarks are his long ebony hair and violet eyes. His attire (given to him by the Dragons) consists of a purple suit with golden stripes and long sleeves. It bears plates of gold in various locations, particularly on his arms, on his hips and the sides of his thighs. They are however, not mere decorations; these plates can at Yūmei's will eject into a full body suit - chakra armor, somewhat similar to a diver's wet suit, very much resembling his more recent choice of attire. This attire, due to the gold plates is relatively-heavy - a regular human would not be able to wear it, however, with his increased powers, this additional weight to Yūmei is nothing.

His more recent attire consisted of a light purple suit with golden stripes and long, wrapped sleeves. The outfit combined Victorian fashion with that of a sleek bodysuit, elegant but practical; worn over it a black and gold cloak with crimson spandex inside and an enormous black cape encircling the head.

Its immediately recognizable feature was a spiky black and indigo mask, worn on various occasions, completely concealing Yūmei's head when worn — appearing opaque from the outside, but transparent from the inside. By unknown means, a small part of the mask could be signaled to slide down to reveal his eyes, although this was rarely done. Notably this mask prevented genjutsu from being directly cast upon Yūmei being that his facial features, notably his eyes were concealed behind a continuously-active, perception-manipulating barrier ninjutsu. There also existed a miniature microphone on the lower end of the mask's interior designed to deepen his voice for identity-safeguarding purposes.

His other discarded attire consisted of him wearing an onyx robe with gold-trimmings, along with a large, white, flowing toga draped around his main body and across his chest. His ebony hair stuck upwards at the top, although he from time to time reverted back to possessing his present hairstyle.

He bears the Blessed Crest of Yatagarasu on his chest over where his heart is supposedly located.

Abilities
As the Hokage and previously the leader of Genesis and Akatsuki, Yūmei is an extraordinarily powerful shinobi, and recognised as the most powerful member of the previously mentioned criminal organizations, as well of Konohagakure as his new title suggests. It should be noted he possesses great stores of chakra, having assimilated two dragons, hence being able to cast a long chain of S-rank techniques without tiring through from time to time, training to bolster both his physical, and spiritual prowess'.

Ninjutsu
Possessing the Rinnegan, Yūmei possesses all five of the basic chakra affinities. He has also created a number of ninjutsu augmented into his fighting style, granting him a high level of versatility when on the battlefield. Yūmei's techniques also often involve usage of crows, both in ninjutsu and genjutsu. This is seen amongst others with his creation of a clone that dissolves into crows and using crows to hide shuriken in them. Assimilating two dragons, Yūmei's prowess with the fire, lightning and yin affinities has drastically increased, granting him improved resistance to those natures in particular, while improving their destructive capabilities on his part.

Space–Time Ninjutsu
Yūmei is known to be highly-skilled with manipulating the space-time continuum, as demonstrated through his creation of a number of techniques capable of of utilizing it for a variety of purposes. He is capable of travelling through the space-time continuum to reach a variety destinations almost-instantaneously, as demonstrated whenever he uses Secret Technique: Pedestal of Time to reallocate himself from Konohagakure to his secret hideout beneath the village.

Rinnegan
Yūmei's incredible power stemms mainly from his kekkei genkai, the legendary Rinnegan. This was originally possessed by the Sage of the Six Paths, the world's first ninja, and the founder of modern ninjutsu. Yūmei mastered all six nature transformations, something that was completely unprecedented, and is well versed in all the mainstream ninjutsu. It is believed the Rinnegan allows Yūmei to use any technique he wishes, which had led to his invention of Feng Shui Art. He can also use the Rinnegan to install mental barriers and traps in his minions' minds to prevent others from accessing secret information. The Rinnegan also enhanced Yūmei's vision of chakra in a similar manner to the other great dōjutsu, allowing him to see the chakra of barrier techniques around the perimeter of his location, and the chakra gathered at a shinobi's feet. Using the Outer Path's ability, he can create chains which can control tailed beasts and are very difficult to remove.

Animal Path
The Animal Path (畜生道, Chikushōdō) grants Yūmei the ability to summon various creatures. The Animal Path's main abilities revolves around summoning various animals and creatures to aid him as the summoner in battle. Each creature serves a different purpose in battle, much like every path is also different from the others. Each animal summon also has the Rinnegan and as such Yūmei is able to see through their eyes as well. Each animal had various body piercings as well, suggesting that they are under his control.

Asura Path
The Asura Path (修羅道, Shuradō) grants Yūmei the ability to summon mechanised armor, augmenting their body with extra limbs and various robotic weaponry. The Asura Path allows him to fire one of his left forearms off as a long-range projectile, and can pull out his arms to reveal and fire a cluster of segmented missiles at its targets. It can quickly propel himself forward with a burst of chakra from its boots, and can protract multiple blades and drills from his right arm in combat. Also, he can open up the crown of its head to release a powerful chakra blast that is capable of destroying numerous buildings at once.

Deva Path
The Deva Path (天道, Tendō) grants Yūmei the ability to manipulate attractive and repulsive forces. His main abilities associated with this path revolved around the manipulation of attractive and repulsive forces, allowing him to repel or attract objects or people. However, he could not perform techniques such as Banshō Ten'in and Shinra Tensei in rapid succession, leaving it vulnerable for a short period of time after each use. This period of time between usages varied from five seconds to several minutes, depending upon the force of the repulsion or attraction that the Deva Path had used. Yūmei's mastery over the power of this path has lead to the creation of techniques such as Kami e no Fukujū and Chakra-Empowered Devastation.

Human Path
The Human Path (人間道, Ningendō) grants Yūmei the ability to remove the soul of any target he touches as well as read their mind. Through the Human Path, Yūmei possesses the capability of mind reading simply by placing his hand over the target's head, and can extract any information or secret being hidden by the victim against their will. However, using the technique will inevitably pull the soul out of the target's body, causing instant death.

Naraka Path
The Naraka Path (地獄道, Jigokudō) grants Yūmei two main abilities: interrogation and restoration, by using the King of Hell. To interrogate, he needs only catch hold of a person, causing the King of Hell to appear before them. With the victim seemingly paralysed, Yūmei begins questioning them. After answers are given, the King of Hell will unzip its mouth to release tendril-like arms and would draw out an apparition of the victim's life force energy in the form of an enlarged tongue. The King of Hell then proceeds to pass its judgement. If the person was lying or refused to answer the questions, the King of Hell would remove their tongue and consume it, apparently killing them. However, if they told the truth, they would be spared, although left extremely exhausted. The second ability Yūmei through the Naraka Path possesses is the ability to repair any damage. To do so he has the King of Hell ingest the damaged body with its tendril-like arms into its mouth. Then, after some time, the destroyed body will emerge from its mouth, completely healed and rejuvenated.

Outer Path
The Outer Path (外道, Gedō) is the ability granted to Yūmei to revive the dead. Said to live outside the realm of life and death, Yūmei could use the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique to revive people that he recently killed.

Preta Path
The Preta Path (餓鬼道, Gakidō) grants Yūmei the ability to absorb an infinite amount of chakra in any form using the Blocking Technique Absorption Seal. This path's "chakra absorption" ability is primarily defensive, since Yūmei is capable of absorbing any ninjutsu-related technique with it, thereby nullifying its effect. This technique can also take the form of a barrier around his body, allowing him to absorb attacks from all directions. In addition to its defensive properties, this body's ability possesses offensive capabilities, as Yūmei can potentially absorb all the chakra out of any person that he touches or grabs.

Intelligence
Even when excluding his dōjutsu's prowess, Yūmei is a formidable opponent. He is highly intelligent, possessing a genius-level intellect, and is capable of devising and executing strategies with incredible speed and precision. The conspicuous appearances of Yūmei and knack for evading hostile confrontation demonstrate his mental acuity; ranging from his superb skill in playing shōgi, to when figuring out the identity of an individual he can only acknowledge mentally, Yūmei instantly comes up with fourteen different possibilities for the former's identity - including the correct one.

Trivia

 * His name literally translates to "dark and light, the Receptacle of Void".