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Naruto Characters
Description
Mukai's family split off from the Hyūga clan several generations before his birth. Many assumed this meant his bloodline was too diluted to possess the Byakugan, but Mukai did in fact have a Byakugan in his left eye; he preferred to keep this a secret from anyone he wasn't close with. Once he became a Konoha-nin, Mukai led an accomplished career, ultimately joining the Anbu at the same time that he was promoted to jōnin. Although his membership in the Anbu had to remain a secret from most, Mukai's performance was nevertheless stellar enough to earn the trust of the Third Hokage. Mukai eventually married and had two children. But when one of his children, a son, became sick, Mukai struggled to afford his treatment. In order to make the needed money, he began spying on Konoha for Kirigakure.
Mukai's family split off from the Hyūga clan several generations before his birth. Many assumed this meant his bloodline was too diluted to possess the Byakugan, but Mukai did in fact have a Byakugan in his left eye; he preferred to keep this a secret from anyone he wasn't close with. Once he became a Konoha-nin, Mukai led an accomplished career, ultimately joining the Anbu at the same time that he was promoted to jōnin. Although his membership in the Anbu had to remain a secret from most, Mukai's performance was nevertheless stellar enough to earn the trust of the Third Hokage. Mukai eventually married and had two children. But when one of his children, a son, became sick, Mukai struggled to afford his treatment. In order to make the needed money, he began spying on Konoha for Kirigakure. Mukai was part of a team assigned to provide security to the Land of Fire's daimyō during his annual visit to Konoha: Konoha's Team 2 publicly served as the daimyō's escorts, while Mukai and his Anbu followed in the shadows to monitor for threats. When the daimyō's entourage was confronted by the masked man, Mukai and most of the other Anbu fell prey to the man's genjutsu. Only Kakashi Hatake resisted the genjutsu, but it took him some time to free Mukai and the others. They went to the daimyō's defence as soon as they were able, but the masked man had already been driven off by Itachi Uchiha. In addition to his Anbu duties, Mukai also went on regular missions. For one such mission, a few years after the incident with the masked man, Mukai's team was to infiltrate Sunagakure and monitor a meeting between the Fourth Kazekage and a representative from Kirigakure, whose villages were secretly developing an alliance. Such an alliance would break the delicate peace that had been formed after the conclusion of the Third Shinobi World War and inevitably initiate another war. Mukai's team was to gather information so that Konoha could take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening. Although they went unnoticed during the reconnaissance itself, one of Mukai's teammates set off a booby trap as they were leaving, alerting Suna's ninja to their presence. Mukai and his team rushed from the village trying to cross the border back into the Land of Fire before the Suna-nin could catch up to them. As they travelled, however, Mukai became convinced that the Suna-nin would catch them anyway, so opted to stop and wait for them; Mukai drank some sake and smoked a cigarette to pass the time. The Suna-nin soon reached them and surrounded them. Itachi Uchiha, temporarily added to Mukai's team after one of the usual members was mysteriously injured, assumed he and the rest of the team would be joining Mukai in fighting the Suna-nin. The other members, knowing Mukai's thinking, instead pulled Itachi away from the fight so that Mukai could fight them alone. Mukai activated his Byakugan and proceeded to engage the more than twenty Suna-nin in close combat, defeating them all in quick succession. With their pursuers dealt with, Mukai and his team resumed their course back to Konoha. In the end, because Suna and Kiri's planned alliance had been discovered by Konoha before it could be formalised, the two villages were forced to abandon it. On Mukai's next day off, he created a shadow clone to take his place around Konoha, notably spending some time with his sick son. The real Mukai, meanwhile, met with his Kirigakure contacts. Itachi and Shisui Uchiha, assigned by Danzō Shimura to eliminate Mukai for betraying Konoha, covertly followed Mukai to the meeting, defeated all the Kiri-nin he was meeting, and then confronted Mukai. They encouraged him to surrender, but Mukai declined, knowing he'd betrayed too many of the village's secrets to receive any mercy from Konoha's government. He released his shadow clone back in Konoha in order to regain its chakra, mused he would need to come up with an explanation to tell his son, activated his Byakugan, and then attacked Itachi and Shisui. Despite Itachi's attempt to keep his distance, Mukai quickly got close to him and performed a disembowelling manoeuvre, but the Itachi he attacked turned out to only be a crow clone. Shisui then attacked him with a Great Fireball, but Mukai dispersed the flames with his Gentle Fist. He began to spar with Shisui, but soon noticed that Shisui seemed to be guiding him towards something. Guessing that Itachi had concealed himself somewhere in order to catch him in a genjutsu, Mukai discretely located Itachi's hiding spot so that he could avoid it, then attacked when the opportunity presented itself. Shisui attempted to cut Mukai off, but this was only a shadow clone, the real Mukai having snuck up on Itachi from behind. Mukai began striking Itachi's tenketsu, but was interrupted by an attack from Shisui, directed at the Byakugan's blindspot. Mukai grabbed Shisui by the throat and started to strangle him. Though Itachi was having difficulty moving because of Mukai's previous attack, he nevertheless tried to intervene, approaching Mukai with his Sharingan active. Mukai warned him that the Sharingan's genjutsu wouldn't work on him, prompting Shisui to wonder if the same was true of the Mangekyō Sharingan. During the brief instant that Mukai made eye contact with Shisui's Mangekyō, he was captured by its genjutsu. He released Shisui and in the same moment cut open his own stomach, the result of a jutsu meant to prevent him from being interrogated if and when his spying activities were ever discovered. Mukai inquired what the Mangekyō Sharingan was, being unfamiliar with it, but received no reply. With his wound too severe for him to be saved, Mukai confessed to his actions, taking full responsibility so that his wife and children wouldn't be punished for his actions. He attempted to get a final cigarette for himself, but his motor skills had already deteriorated too much. Itachi placed a cigarette in his mouth for him, which Shisui lit. After savouring the cigarette for a moment, Mukai told them he'd be waiting for them on the other side before finally dying.