Kristin Hatake



Kristin Hatake (Hatake Kristin) is one of the main characters in the Naruto anime series. She is a Chūnin-level Kunoichi of Konohagakure's Hatake Clan, a medical-nin using Elemental Chakra, and a member of Team Kakashi. She is also a human vessel for the Wolf Demon, Helena (or known as the Black Demon of Red Snow). As of PartII, Kristin and Helena have merged thier spirits and are one person; making Kristin half-demon.

Background
Kristin was born into the Hatake clan to Kakashi and Kagome. She is the middle child of the three Hatake Siblings, as well as the first born daughter of the two Hatake daughters. She has a great friendship with Sasuke Uchiha, Shikamaru Nara, and Chōji Akimichi. Within that group she was shown to be a mediator because Sasuke and Shikamaru would clash over some of the smallest things.

Once she enrolled in the Ninja Academy, she was amongst the top in her class along with Sasuke, and unlike her two other friends, Chōji and Shikamaru. She proved to be a prodigy amongst her classmates, being able to perform skilled justues at her young age. Of course the reasons for this being is that she would train with her father, Kakashi.

Even as a young girl Kristin has always been kind to those around her, the prime example being the case of her friend, Orchi Hagane. Orchi was often cast out of groups because her father is Orichimaru, one of the three legendary Sanin as well as a rouge Ninja. Kristin stood up for Orchi and the two formed a close friendship and it continues throught the course of the series.

Personality
Kristin comes off as a calm-headed, down to earth type of girl, but when irritated she can come across as hot headed and tempermental, but most of the time, she is relatively kind, cheerful, and rational. In the anime, she also prefers to speak formally, very reliant on approaches of theory and principle and tends to be a heavy thinker when it comes to details on almost any matter and very analytic when on or off the job. Kristin adapted to the moral code of Shinobi that her father had taught her and tends to agree with him the majority of the times while on missions. She also brags to everyone that she is the daughter of the best Jonin in the Hidden Leaf Village. Due to Kakashi's hihg reputation, Kristin strives to be the best ninja she can, wanting to prove she is of Hatake blood and not just another pretty face. Kristin has shown to be strong-willed and determined, not one to lose or give up in a fight easily, though she has admitted she pales severely in this aspect in comparison to Sasuke, her teamate and best friend.

The only loss Kristin has delt with is the death of her mother, Kagome, who had died a year before the Chunin Exams began. Though Kristin was seperated from her mother and brother when thier house was set ablaze a year prior to the Uchiha Clan Massacre. That fire was the main drive that Kristin said was her reason of wanting to become a Shinobi, to avenge her mother.

At the start of the series, Kristin's friendship with Sasuke has been shown, as well as her friendhip with Shikamaru and Choji. She was joyous to be on a four man squad, but saddened by the fact that it wasn't the squad she hoped for. Kristin had orginally dreamed of being on a four man team that composed of her, Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Choji, since those guys were her three best friends and her support group for becomming a kunoichi. But even though the four are on two seperate teams, their friendship seemes to have been kept.

Kristin also forms a friendship with Naruto and Sakura as the series progresses, showing to admire their abilities and their personalities. She and Sakura have a close bond as they are both Kunoichi and need to stick up for all the female ninja of the world. Her relationship with Naruto is on a bit deeper level as she knows about him being the jinchūriki for the Nine-Tailed Fox, and the fact that she herself is a vessle for a Demon Wolf.

Kristin also has a strong, unwavering loualty to those she cares about. A few examples are when she activates her demon seal to protect her teamates during the Chunin exams; when she takes a grave injury from Gaara in order to protect Sasuke and Sakura, and another is when she joins the Sasuke Retrival Team and time and time again uses her jutsu to protect the others. She grows dramtaically in Part I and only grows more in Part II.

Her loyalty to Konoha is shown in Part II when Lady Tsunade gave Kristin (who by this time is a Chunin) a very dangerous, S-Ranked mission. Kristin was ordered to go undercover and infiltrate Sasuke's band of rouge ninja (Taka) as a last effort to bring Sasuke back home to Konoha. Although Kristin thought about it and was close to taking the mission, when the time came to act, she refused to go along and instead tried to beg Sasuke to return, but he instead injured Kristin to the point of death. Later during her recovery Tsunade asked Kristin why she didn't act on the mission, to which Kristin replied "My heart belongs to one Shinobi in this village, and he is where I belong" she turned to the window and looked at Shikamaru and he smiled at her.

Inner Demon
Her 'Inner-Demon' refers to the presence of Helena within Kristin's mind. since birth, Krsitin has had Helena's spirt within her so as she grows, so does Helena. Not much was known about her at first, just the fact she was once a wolf demon that protected a land from invadors, and her nickname was the Black Wolf of Blood Snow.

At first Helena could only be seen by Kristin in her own reflection, and her first appearence is in the Land of Waves Arc. After her inital appearence, Helena is frequently seen in Kristin's reflection, often telling her that no matter what she does, she can never escape the "Demon within".

Since she is a speret entity altogether, Helena often voices her own opinion on things, though only Kristin can hear them. So in a way, Helena is similar to Sakura's "Inner-Sakura" personality.

Appearence
Though she is in fact the daughter of Kakashi, Kristin's appearence is an exact likeness to her late mother, Kagome. Kristin has duel colored Hot-Pink and Lavender hair, blue eyes, and fair colored skin. Due to her duel colored hair, she was often riduculed by other kids, the only people who saw the true beauty in her hair were her friends Choji, Shikamaru, and Sasuke.

In Part I, Kristin wore a Jade-green vest like top and skirt cut off at the legs, with bandages covering her mid secion and legs, she also sported black elbow warmers (sometimes they would appear white due to animation errors) with forest green trims. Kristin wears her hair in a simple ponytail style. A sectin of bangs hangs over her eye, and she wears a forest green ribbon arund her ponytail, covering up where the pink and lavender blend together. .

Before she set out with the Sasuke Retrival Squad, her bangs had changed from hot-pink to dark purple, this symbolized the fact that she and Helena were begining to merge into the same person.

After the Sasuke Retrival Arc, she was promoted to the rank of Chunin and her outfit changed a bit. She still wore her Jade-green vest top, though shorter than her orginal one, and skirt, but also added a short-sleeved mesh shirt underneath and mesh leggings under her skirt. She still wore her black elbow warmers and wore her forehead protector around her neck. Another addition to her outfit is the flak jacket, symbolizing her rank as a Chunin.

In Part II, Kristin has matured into a young woman and became more confident about herself. The mesh shirt has been removed, revealing her bare stomach. She also replaces the warmers on her elbows with tight, fishnet ones with a forest green trim, and wears a pair of the fishnets covering the length of her legs. Along with these, she wears a short, dark blue, sleeveless blouse with a black collar, an open-front dark blue apron-skirt over a shorter, black skirt, with her shuriken holder underneath, and a pair of black, fingeless gloves with, short, fishnet wrist warmers, and black knee-high boots. She also dones the flak jacket and her forehead protector around her neck.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kristin is apart the Konoha alligence and dons the standard uniform of the Alliance and a Konohagakure flak jacket. She was assigned to the Fourth Division under the leadership of Gaara and Shikamaru Nara.

Abilities
At the start of the series, Kristin manged to show supreme skill, showing as she was the only one of her teamates to acctually capture a bell from Kakashi. Though she did this when he was busy lecturing Sasuke and as soon as she got the bell, she jumped into a nearby stream and dissapeared. And she has continued to get stronger over the course of the series, this is mainly due to the fact that she has her demon counterpat, Helena.

Due to her excellent chakra control, Kristin has been noted to have a natural aptitude for genjutsu. In PartI we see her being able to negate the effects of Yakumo's genjutsu. And in PartII, we learn that Kristin's 'Demon Eye' can perform a special kind of genjutsu which involves her demon spirit.

Chakra Control
Soon after the start of her first mission, Kristin discovered that she had an excellent control over her chakra, and as such she had an innate ability to use techniques to their maximum efficiency without wasting any chakra. Kakashi pointed out that her ability to gather chakra from every part of the body and then using it with great timing made her superior to her team-mates in that respect. She used this ability in her fighting skills, as well as in her demon stages to gain upper advantages to her opponents. This becomes a focal point in Kristin's abilities throught Part I and Part II.

Nature Transformations
Inherited from her mother's side of the family, Kristin has the ability to use all the main nature transformations in her jutsus. She can also combine all the elements. Her strongest release is Water, while Fire is her weakest, nonetheless, her jutsus are always powerful and on target. Due to her Chakra Control, she is also able to use two or more element releases simoultanioulsy.

Her most notable jutsu using all the elemental releases is her Elemental Release: Five Element Hatake Hydra; which she first used in the episode "Squad Mutiny: Everything Falls Apart". Even under the pressure and time contraint of the mission, Kristin was able to balence her chakra and use all five major nature types and combine them into a five headed dragon entity and use it to break out of the Earth prision created by Jirobo of the Sound Ninja Four.

Another note about her Elemental Chakra is she can use it as Medical Ninjutsu. After the Land Of Rice Fields arc, Kristin begins some training under Dyna, the daughter of Tsunade. Kristin masters the art and uses it when sh goes on missions when it's necessary.

Taijutsu
Kristin's skills in Taijutsu, or hand-to-hand combat, is also one of her many abilities. She has used it here and there towards the begining of the series, but uses it more and more as the series progresses. An in-depth look at it is when she was fighting in her Prelimanry match of the Chunin Exams during her match with Kankuro, who was shocked that Kristin had so much strength and power. During her training sessions between the Prelims and the 3rd round exams, Kristin was shown to be able to break big stones in the river with her Taijutsu ability.

Her Taijutsue ability has gratly improved over the time-skip between Part I and Part II. She mainly uses her Taijutsu in her second stage of Demon transformation, as her increased speed gives her the upper hand in combat.

Intelligence
Another notable ability of Kristin's is her intelligence. She graduated as the top Kunoichi in her class, alongside Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka.

Demon Jutsu
Kristin was born with the spirit of Helena, a Wolf Demon of legend hailing from the Land of Snow. As she got older she started seeing Helena in her reflection. Once she became a genin, Helena's powers began to surface.

Kristin's Demon Seal has three stages that have relvelence to the Eight Chakra Gates; her first stage starts with her seal advancing over her body, the second stage the marks merge together and her body turns black, her hair turns dark purple, her eyes change to thier demon form and her body enters a half human/half wolf stage, and the thrid and final stage Kristin enters the full wolf form.

In her first stage, the first three gates (the Gate of Opening, Healing, and Life) open. This allows Kristin's chakra to increase and her hand-sign speed is increased 5x faster than before. It also adds 5x more power to her jutsues. In this form, her seal spreads throughout the surface of her body, creating an almost chakra gate over he chakra network, protecting her oragans from opposing attacks.

In Stage2, also called her "Half-Stage", the next three gates (the Gate of Pain, Limit/Closing, and View/Joy) open. With this Kristin's speed and stamina are increased ten-fold. Also in this stage, her demon chakra begins to blend with her normal chakra. Her ability to perform hand-signs seems almost instantinous, giving her a high advantage in battle. She resembles a female werewolf in this stage, and she acts more on instict than reason. it is also in this state where Kristin enters an 'immortal' like preference, since she can heal from any injury she sustains.

In her third and final stage she is impossible to kill, and the last two gates (the Gate of Wonder/Shock and Death) open. With this stage, Kristin can use a jutsue without using a hand-sign, all she has to do is think of which jutsu to use and she can create with just her mind. She takes on the full wolf appearence and is able to heal from any wound (including hits to vital areas such as the heart and neck).

Introduction Arc
Upon being assigned as a member of Team 7, Kristin had her mind set to be the best she could. This caused her to come across as stuck-up because of all the training she had prior to her becomming and Genin; she belittled Naruto and Sakura, and competed with Sasuke for the position of 'top dog' on the Team. As such, when Kakashi administered a test on the four to see if they would be allowed to become genin, Kristin preoccupied herself with finding her own opening, which led her to working alone and not caring about her other three squad-mates. Her action and mind-set led her to being the only one who had gotten a bell (though how she aquired it was when Kakashi was lecturing Sasuke after he burind him up to his neck in the ground).

After Kakashi lectured Kristin for this, as well as Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke for their respective faults, Sakura realised that if they were to become genin, they would need to work as a team,and Kristin added even if that meant breaking the rules. This revelation having been the goal of the test, Kakashi passed the three, Team 7 being the first group to have ever passed his test.

Creation and Conception
Kristin's creation came from her creator's vivid mind and wanting to make her a unique character with a unique style. She wanted Kristin's appearence to reflect on a girl who started out on the "outside looking in" type, but who gradually advanced to having a small circle of her own. Her color scheme seem to meld together to make her overall feminine, unique, under-estemated and more than meets the eye.

The idea for a character with two-tones hair came as a tutorial idea. But her creator gradually grew to the hot-pink/lavender color scheme of Kristin's hair and thought it best fit the character's ideal. Kristin is the first character of Mina's that has two-toned colors. She wanted one aspect of Kristin to be teased about when she was a child, that would gradually lead to her wanting others to see her for her skills, not her looks. She also wanted Kristin to be more of a "more than meets the eye" type of Kunoichi in the Naruto anime. Once the hair was done and set, she went on to find other colors that went well with the pink and lavender. She decided on blue for the eyes, and jade-green for her outfit, and forest green for Kristin's forehead protector. Once that was set, all that was left was Kristin's backstory for her looks, to which she got the hair and eyes from her mother.

Kristin's most well-known characteristic is her duel hair and the fact she was ashamed of it for the majority of her childhood after her mother "died". Her personality is another expressed trait. Kristin is probably one of the few characters in the anime to go through a dramitic personality change from her childhood to Par1 of the anime to Shippuden.

Growing up, Kristin was often teased about the fact she had two-toned hair. Guys would ignore her, and other girls would laugh at her calling her a "freak". She was constantly teased and therefore had no friends untill she was about six years old. After she met her three best friends, Kristin became more confident in herself and focused on using her two-toned hair as an aspect that people would underestemate her.

Her outfit in Part1 resembles Ino's a bit, except for the color and the absence of ruffles around the neck area. Her outfit reveals her to be modest as the tank top doesn't show much, the bandages on her stomach and legs, and her long kimono-like skirt. Though as the series moves to the Chunin exams and past, Kristin's outfit seems to change. After her promotion, she exchanges the bandages for fishnets and her top and skirt become shorter. Her idea to wear the flak-jacket symbolizes her eyes that she deserves to wear it. She also becomes lessed fazed by the fact her bangs were changed to purple due to her demon-half.

In Shippuden, her outfit changes to a more femine yet professional style. The color changes from jade-green to denim-blue. The blouse reveals her matured chest area, and her stomach is bare. She wears a short skirt with fishnet leggings and black boots. Her creator states that this was to show her newfound maturity and training advancedments. Kristin still doning the Flak-jacket, and being the only main female to do so, symbolizes her owning up to the fact that she's no ordianry girl, but a Chunin Kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf. The only time she is seen without her flak jacket is when she's asleep, on standby, or in casual clothing when not on missions.

Quotes

 * (To Naruto at the start of the series) "We always have to pay for your screw-ups."
 * (To herself) "All my life I have always thought of myself as a true Kunoichi, one that will put evyerthing on the line for my team. But now when my team needs me, I can't do anything! Well no more...I will save them...It's time I own up to what I think I am."
 * (To Sasuke Uchiha) "You just want me to stand here and let you tear yourself apart? No Sasuke I can't bare to watch that! You're my best friend and I care about your well being, I can't let you go on in these exams."
 * (To Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara) "No matter what's happened so far, you both kept your promise, and I thank you for that. You both mean a lot to me and I only wish I can stay and cheer you on, just like you did for me. I believe in the both of you."
 * (To Choji Akimich) "Choji, you've always been the kindest person that I know. You have the biggest heart in a shinobi that I have ever seen. I thank you for letting me have a small space there. Thank you, my friend."
 * (To Shikamaru Nara) "No matter how dangerous things got, you still stayed and helped us. You're the greatest friend I have Shikamaru, and I thank you for always being there for me. You're my best friend, and I'm glad to have known you."
 * (To Naruto about Shikamaru) "If any of us Rookies deserve to be a Chunin, it's Shikamaru. He always has the best strategies and always picks the best soloution in a fight. I would follow him into the innermost circle of Hell without so much as a second thought. I trust him implicitly and will gladly follow."

Trivia

 * Kristin's element in regards to her Astrology sign (Cancer) is the same as the Element for which she has an affinity for; Water.
 * Kristin's name means either "Believer" or "Follower of Christ" in Scandinavian and German languages. Her name is kanji looks like this 久理守珍, (Eternal Reason Protect Rare). Her last name "Hatake" means "Farmland/Field". Together her name means "Believer in the Field", which dosen't make much sense. Her Kanji character however do reflect her.
 * Regarding the datebook(s),
 * Kristin's hobbies are training by any source of water and spending time with friends and family
 * Kristin wishes to fight her grandfather, Sakumo Hatake
 * Kristin's favorite foods are BBQ pork rice with miso-curry sauce and various pastas, while her least favorites are anything deep fried.
 * Kristin has completed about 50 official missions: 17 D-Rank, 12 C-Rank, 9 B-Rank, 11 A-Rank, and 1 S-Rank.
 * Kristin's most used phrases are "Teamwork", "One target, one shot", and "Never underestimate me!"
 * Kristin also tends to brag on her clan's lineage. When fighting she often sets the stage by saying "I'm the daughter of the Copy Ninja and the Granddaughter of the 'White Fang'"
 * Kristin is the first shinobi in history to have shown an affinity for all five natures of Chakra. As of Part2, she is able to use all five.