Aburame Clan

The Aburame clan (Aburame Ichizoku; Literally meaning "Aburame family") is a clan characterized by their use of insects as weapons. They are most noticeable because most of the family members wear shades or sunglasses. At birth, the babies of that clan are given to the kikai, or Destruction Bugs. The kikai are the parasites and the body of the newborn is the host. However, it is symbiotic. They both benefit; the kikai get Chakra and the host body gets a powerful weapon and resource.

Origins
The Aburame, like all the storied clans of the world, are a group of shinobi rich with history. Their beginnings predate that of even the founding of the great ninja villages. It was a time of lawless violence, where ninja fought unorganized wars against others, only sparing those of their families. One such ninja who lived in this harsh environment was a man by the name of Aburi Aburame. He was for all intents and purposes a weakling in this world, resigning himself to scouting for his family of true warriors. This was technically a noble position, being the bearer of information which allowed his families fights to be less costly, but few saw it as such. Aburi and his clansmen always saw him as a coward. He gathered information through scouting, but never assisted in battle, never helped wounded, nothing. He would just move back after his primary mission was done. This was a cowardly existence, but a healthy one. At least for a time. Aburi continued with his efforts through most of his life, until one fateful day.

Aburi was scouting through the forest much like he did on any other mission. But something unexpected happened on this eventful day. The man known as coward was thrust into his first solo fight, and it was against what would come to be known as the scourge to his people. Aburi did his best to evade the barrage of attacks launched his way from the scourge, but his lack of skill was his undoing. Documentation of the scourges appearance is slim, the only person to survive an encounter with him was Aburi, and the only description he could give was that is was a beast with many arms. Regardless of this scourges origin, he was soon to meet his demise.

It was in fact true that the scourge was easily able to overtake Aburi, but how is it he survived. Details are at best sketchy, but suffice it to say, lady luck was with him. As the Scourge caught Aburi with a crushing blow, Aburi went careening down to the ground, and the lights began to fade. Aburi had no way of knowing how long he had been out of commission when he awoke, all he knew was that he shouldn’t be waking up. The ferocious scourge should have killed him, but why hadn’t he? As Aburi oriented himself he began to see the fate of the many limbed scourged. During the fight he couldn’t get a clear image of him, but now he was in the open, but something unusual was happening. Yes his six armed form was standing there, but he seemed almost covered in a shadow, and the shadow seemed to be harming him. Aburi couldn’t even fathom what was happening until it was over. Soon the scourge fell to the ground limp, and the shadow fell from its person revealing nothing but the bones that had once been hidden under the Scourges skin. And with that the shadow began flowing towards Aburi over the ground.

As the impossible creation began to move forward, Aburi tried to move, but he was unable. His body felt stiff, almost as if it was full of some sort of stuffing. He was helpless against the quick moving dark mass, as he too was enveloped by its form. But what was to become of him? Even in his fear, Aburi was able to notice that it wasn’t in fact a shadow, but a mass of beetles so large they filled in the entire area around them. He was unsure of what was happening, but as the insects covered him in their fear causing terror, he realized they didn’t seem to be harming him. It was more so that they were holding him down. He had no understanding of what was going on, that is until a voice sprang up around him. He tried to figure out where the noise came from, but he couldn’t see around him. He couldn’t see anything. It was then the second time he heard the nearly indecipherable whisper that he realized, it wasn’t coming from outside of him, but from within.

He laid there in motionless terror, as he tried listening to what he could only assume was the cracking of his sanity. The voice continued to become louder until finally he was able to understand it. The voice continued to repeat the same phrase over and over. “You are in danger. May we cleanse you?” It was asking him permission? But why would something within his mind ask him permission? Even an insane man wouldn’t think of himself as a separate entity. The only explanation was that it came from the only other living creatures in the area, the beetles. It took him several minutes, but finally he was able to respond by moving his mouth and forming the necessary words. “Who are you, what do you want?” The words merged together almost intangibly due to his body’s lack of control. He hoped they found his meaning. “You have been fouled by the creature. Allow us to proceed or you shall perish. May we cleanse you?” As the voices words touched him a sharp pain emanated from his mid section. He had no way of defending himself, and with them seemingly not wishing to harm him anymore then he allowed, combined with their foreboding warning of his apparent demise, Aburi had little choice. He muttered what could only be considered as a yes.

Soon after his consent more pain then he ever could imagine sparked within him, and once again he blacked out. When he once again awoke, the beetles were gone, and only the fleshless mass of the scourge lay ahead of him to show it wasn’t a dream. “What happened to me?”, asked Aburi as he glanced himself over to try finding something different, or some sign of the bugs, but before he finished his question was answered. “You were cleansed. That beast had laid its offspring inside you, so that when they awoke they would be able to feast. We ended them before their fury could be unleashed upon the world. We unfortunately didn’t end them in time to save you.” It was the voice from before, but had it just told him he was dead? How? The voice continued its flow as Aburi was rendered speechless. “I am the queen of this group of kikai who have defeated that foul vermin. It is us who are able to keep your destroyed organs alive long enough to let you pass on your heroic sacrifice to your clansmen. We were once a group of creature summoned to this world to assist in peoples battles, and though our summoning scrolls has been lost to this world, we have other gifts to present.”

With that a second swarm of the insects who called themselves Kikai presented a scroll to the apparently sacrificed ninja. He took it and with the life sustaining help of the kikai headed to his village. There he presented them with a scroll detailing the ritual to give them the kikai’s power as we see it today. Soon after his tale was told to them, the kikai inside Aburi could no longer sustain him and he collapsed. His life had ended in an unintentionally heroic manner. The clan heralds him as a hero, not only for his thwarting of the Scourge, but because of his presentation of the techniques that made them the clan they are today. Many follow in his footsteps of being scouts, in fact their scouting prowess assisted them in being one of the founding clans of the village hidden in the leaves at its conception. Since then they have branched out, always keeping their kikai techniques within the clan. The ultimate scouts, coming from the fearful, unlikely, and unwilling hero.

Kamizuru Clan Relations
The Aburame defeated another bug-taming clan, the Kamizuru Clan, when they attempted to invade Konohagakure. This lead to the remaining Kamizuru Clan members despising the Aburame.

Personality
Though it would be unfair to say all, as each member of the clan is different in their own way; it is common for members of the Aburame Clan to be somewhat anti-social. Their Clan has kept to themselves for generations; they have been the Black-Sheep Clan of the Leaf for as long as anyone can remember. It is because of this that Clan members rarely marry outside of each other; causing the Clan to maintain such a small population.

Physical Characteristics and Clothing
When it comes to physicality, there are several ways to distinguish a member of the Aburame Clan from your average Shinobi. First of all, the way they dress. Any member of the Aburame will wear something that covers almost their entire body, to hide the hundreds of scars received during the insemination process. The other constant aspect is somewhat harder to distinguish and can only be seen by few people; mainly those of the Hyuuga Clan. The Aburame all have the same Chakra System, which is completely different to that of a normal Shinobi due to the colony of Kikai living within them.

Aburi Aburame

 * Main article: Aburi Aburame

Fighting Style
While perfectly capable of holding their own in direct combat, the Aburame are experts in the art of espionage because of the kikaichu's lack of sound or motion. Since the Aburame can communicate with their own hive of the destruction beetles, they can send out scouting insects and have them relay information.

Hidden Jutsu

 * See also: Aburame Clan Jutsu

The Aburame Clan is a group of Shinobi that specialize in the use of unique bugs, called kikaichu “Destruction Bugs” (or kikai for short), in their attacks. At birth, they are given a set of bugs, which, over the growth of the individual, will grow into a large-scale colony, this is a ritual named Kikaichu Ishoku, which translated to Destruction Bug Implantation. These bugs produce more bugs, who work together with the user in order to devour the opponent’s chakra. However, they do not only feed off of an opponent’s chakra, part of the pact between the Aburame and their kikai is that the bugs will have the ability to feed off the of the Aburame shinobi’s chakra. This creates a special bond between the bugs and the shinobi that often disturbs other individuals, but grants some significant advantages in battle to them, as well.

Refined Chakra System
The first advantage granted to these shinobi is a fast acting, refined chakra system. They have the ability to reproduce chakra at an amazing rate. This is due to the fact that they have to be able to constantly feed their ever-hungry kikai in order to keep their loyalty. This also works to dramatically increase their total chakra reserves, because in order to feed their bugs and maintain a normal shinobi level of chakra their total amount would be forced to be higher.

Poison Resistance
The second advantage comes from the Aburame’s near immunity to poison. This immunity to poison is created by the way the kikai eat their way through the user’s chakra, which in turn forces their system to be processing at a higher rate, creating a system that actively purges poison from the body. The stronger the poison, the more difficult and taxing it is for the user to combat it; however, that being said, users who use poison on an Aburame will be surprised at the lessened effect that they receive.

The Aburame regularly "train" this ability by ingesting minute amounts of varying poisons so that the existing kikaichu can become more adept at ridding the poison from the shinobi's system. It also allows any newly born kikaichu to become familiar to the poison.

Kikaichu Bond

 * Main article: Destruction Bug Host Technique

By the time the Aburame reaches the level of a Genin, they already have a very active, refined chakra system. They have also been feeding their bugs for years, creating the special bond mentioned earlier. This is a near telepathic ability that allows the Aburame to force the bugs to understand what he or she wants done without actually having to say. Some direction is still needed, like the extension of arms; however, the user and the bugs understand each other at a level that exceeds the normal levels of human companionship. This allows the Aburame to perform most of their jutsu without performing hand seals, although any technique that actually expends some of the users chakra (i.e. elemental techniques, techniques that don’t use the bugs) still require hand seals.

Genjutsu Resistance
Aburame Clan members have an incredible resistance to Genjutsu because the insects that they employ are not affected by it. While Genjutsu effects the brains of the actual clan member, the fact that the Kikaichu infest their bodies allows them to stop the flow of chakra by eating it, rendering them unaffected by it.

Weaknesses
When the Aburame attacks with the Kikaichu, they themselves are extremely weak against the elements of fire, water, ice, and earth. The elements of wind, wood, and lightning, however, have little effect due to their ability to effectively scatter. When the Aburame is defending, however, the use of the wind element is particularly effective, used to scatter the bugs. The Kikai also have the ability to move into robotic or other structure’s joints, making them difficult to move and eventually making them impossible to move at all. They can easily jam small airways, too.