Kae Yukiwari

is an exchange student to the Konohagakure Academy and the princess of the Land of Bamboo.

Background
As future heir to the throne, Kae had been required to act in a manner that befitted her status. Due to that, she did not get a chance to make friends, instead spending her time only with her younger stepbrother during her childhood. Kae was very close to her late mother. She would often attend parties hosted and prepared by the queen. As Kae voiced her admiration of her mother, she encouraged Kae to make sure she does things her own way, and looked forward to attending a party hosted by Kae.

Personality
Kae is a very cheerful and kind girl. While proper and dignified, she secretly prefers the more carefree life of the commoners, disliking having to meet the expectations people have for royalty. She enjoys reading romance novels and meeting new people. She idolised her mother, hoping to grow up to be like her.

Because of her royalty lifestyle, Kae pushed herself to remain graceful and elegant in front of her classmates, but after Kawaki convinced her to act as herself to not only make herself happier, but also allow her classmates to know the real her, Kae allowed herself to loosen up and become more relaxed around her friends. Because of this stifling, Kae felt a need to reclaim lost experiences, such as playing with friends her own age. She is very sharp, able to notice when people are acting out of character and from this deduce the nature of their actions. She is also strong-willed, refusing to give into despair when kidnapped. She is also likewise very forgiving, willing to accept when something was not truly someone's fault.

Appearance
Kae is a fair-skinned girl of average height who is considered very pretty. She has blue eyes and grey-blond hair tied in a left-side ponytail with upward curves strands framing the sides of her face and short bangs splitting in the centre of the forehead. She wears white clothing lined with blue on the collars with grey pants and white sandles.

While appearing formally as a princess, she wears a blue, long-sleeved qípáo-like garment with dark blue and light blue linings, two grey necklaces, one of which has a pendant, and a simple necklace-like accessory across her forehead with a small pendant hanging over it.

Abilities
In her efforts to emulate her late mother, Kae is a talented party planner and host, including personally making tea and cake. After enrolling in the Academy in Konohagakure, Kae was able to learn skills like Tree Climbing Practice, but in her excitement, she was unable to keep her focus, almost falling from the tree.

Kawaki & Himawari Academy Arc
Giving her a chance to experience some freedom from her duties as a princess, Kae was sent to Konohagakure, attending their Ninja Academy. There, she quickly became popular for her beauty and the revelation of her nobility. She found Kawaki interesting, despite him being older than other students and more standoffish. When he tried to befriend her, many confused it with him trying to woo her. Kawaki later caught her acting naturally, and she told him about how people expected her to act. Eiki Fūma, who did have a crush on her and found Kawaki suspicious, attacked him with a summoning scroll, but was knocked out by the summon. Kawaki protected Kae from the summon. Kae asked him who he was, but he brushed it off, just saying he wanted to befriend her, and offered her a romance novel. She later told Batora Kuromori how she was enjoying her time in the Academy.

Later, eager to make friends, Kae invited her class to a tea party. Determined to succeed, Kae even baked a cake herself, trying to live up to her mother's memory. During the party, she and Himawari Uzumaki bonded over having leaders for fathers. When her cake was served, Kawaki caused a commotion by rushing to stop from eating it, believing it to be poisoned. She stopped him and Eiki from fighting and asked whey Kawaki did it. Unable to reveal his mission, he merely excused himself. Osuka Kamakura teased her for her failed party, but Kawaki and Himawari exposed her as the culprit, having discovered she forced Neon Asakusa into injecting mustard into the cake as a prank with her drone. When Osuka denied any involvement and tried to pin everything on Neon, Kae lost her composure and scolded her for abusing her friend. She tried to recompose herself, but her friends enjoyed her genuine attitude. At Kawaki's suggestion, she continued the party, and enjoyed the taiyaki he brought.

When Team 7 taught her class as special instructors, an exercise divided most of the class. Kae took neither side, and through the conflict attempted to help reconcile both sides. When their teacher was successful, Kae took part in the picnic and cherry blossom viewing party. Days later, when her class-mates decided to investigate the Academy's Seven Mysteries at night, Kae joined them, but secretly had Batora fake the mysteries so as to maintain her friends' sense of wonder, and convinced Kawaki to help Batora. When one of the mysteries was seemingly real, she felt guilty over faking them, but later discovered it was just Shino Aburame's insects cleaning the Academy. She was delighted that her involvement cemented a new story as part of the Seven Mysteries.

During a practical lesson day, Kae was placed in a team with Himawari and Sōsha Amino, the two of them picking Kae as team leader. Because of his mission, Kawaki was distracted from the tests during the morning, despite Himawari taking care of Kae for him. Konashi Nerikiri left her a note to meet her away from everyone, so he could ask her opinion on his sweets, but he ran away when coming across a flame bear. Himawari found her, and Hana acted as a distraction, allowing them to escape. Kae later gave a positive critique on Konashi's sweets. Her team had the most points at the end of the day.

When Himawari failed to show up for a shopping trip with her, Kae grew concerned and went looking for her. After talking to Kawaki and finding her pendant on the floor, they checked on Osuka, who had been seen with Himawari, and discovered they had been kidnapped. After checking with Neon and learning more about her home life, Neon used a new sensing function in her drone, jointly developed by her mother and Osuka's, to find them. Kae and Batora looked after Osuka and Himawari as Kawaki defeated the kidnapper's leader. After their arrest, Osuka's mother Hibari Kamakura arrived, and reconciled with her, after which Osuka apologised for her attitude and Hibari invited everyone for pudding.

Later, her class had to put on a play about the Sannin, and Kae was cast as Tsunade. She was shocked at how easily Orochimaru abandoned his friends and his home, holding hers very dearly. During a rehearsal, Eiki's struggle with Kawaki damaged the stage, so everyone joined in the repair efforts. She decided to sleep in the infirmary to rest, and was timely saved from an assassin by Kawaki. She awoke shortly after the assassin's escape, asking what Kawaki was doing. He insisted it was nothing, instead deciding to walk her home.

On the day of the festival, while Batora couldn't attend, she remained eager to have fun. Before the play began, an explosion went off, with the threat of more if anyone left or tried to contact the outside. While teachers and former students helped disarm the explosive tags around the Academy, Kawaki had to leave to help Eiki disarm a circuit he discovered. Several smoke bombs went off, and the assassin got very close to Kae, but was stopped by Himawari, who took her outside. The assassin made another attempt, but was stopped by Kawaki. The assassin escaped again, and Kae realised she was the target all along, having deduced Kawaki was assigned to guard her.

Following the attack, Kae's father decided to call her back for safety. Kae was saddened about leaving her friends, and thought Kawaki only approached her for his mission, something Batora disagreed with, pointing out how his actions prioritised her happiness over his mission. When the power went out, Batora was injured protecting her from an assassin. Kawaki chased the assassin while Himawari looked after Kae and Batora. She bandaged his injury. With the assassination plot seemingly resolved after the Land of Bamboo authorities arrested the minister implicated by Batora's investigation, Kae was allowed to resume attending the Academy.

Later, following Hana being hospitalised from the terrorist attack, Kae joined her class in welcoming back their teacher. Later, Kawaki and Himawari asked her to hang out, in reality still concerned she was in danger. She happily agreed, saying she would have Batora make cookies for them.

Hana arranged for the class to undergo survival training on an uninhabited island. Everyone was looking forward to it, as it was another opportunity to make up for the festival being cancelled. However, their food going missing and the rumours of killer missing-nin on the island put everyone on alert. While everyone looked for food, Kawaki kept an eye on Kae. She asked if he was still guarding her, and he admitted it was also because he had fun attending the Academy. She revealed she would soon return to her country. As a thank you for Hana, she made her a flower arrangement. When Kae saw it was missing later, Hana asked her help in looking for it. While the two were getting further away from the group, Kawaki and Himawari arrived, having deduced that Hana was the assassin based on recorded footage from what damaged Neon's drone earlier. Dropping the act, Hana picked up Kae and ran off to a bridge, where she seemingly stabbed Kae to complete her mission.

In reality, it was a ruse by Hana, who intended to link up with the minister's subordinate, and use her as a hostage to secure the minister's release following his arrest. Kae attempted to reason with Hana, who revealed her situation, throwing a kunai near face as a taunt. Kae used it to cut through her restraints after Hana left, but Hana did it deliberately, and tried to break her injure her to break her spirit, even if she couldn't kill Kae. Kawaki and Himawari arrived to help her.

As Hana began pressuring Himawari and Kawaki with her Fire Release, Kawaki was able to counter and forced her on the defense. Hana then used her Wind Release: Obsuring Paper to trap her targets. While Kae noted that Hana couldn't keep up such a technique for long, the assassin noted that her allies would arrive soon. While struggling to avoid Hana's blinding assaults, Kae threw a kunai with an explosive tag on it, breaching the barrier momentarily. Himawari then used her Byakugan to locate Hana again and her Gentle Fist to break through the barrier, letting Kawaki attack Hana and defeat her. Soon after Sai Yamanaka arrived after being led by the class. He revealed that Hana's allies were already subdued by the Anbu. As Hana decided to kill herself rather than be captured, the good personality was able to break through to stop her. With the encouragement of Kae and her fellow students, the good Hana was able to regain control.

Ultimately, Hana was allowed to return to teaching with a special seal in place to ensure her other personality couldn't take control again. In addition, Kae set out an official petition to hide all knowledge of Hana's dark actions. Later, Kae revealed to her classmates that she had to return home early to step up as leader of her country with her father having fallen ill and to protect her stepbrother who got involved with the incident relating to the minister's failed assassination plot. As a sendoff, the class performed their intended play from the festival. At the train station, while the rest of her class saw her off, Kae was saddened over Kawaki not coming. However, as the train pulled out, she noticed Kawaki seeing her off from afar, happy to know their friendship was real.

Trivia

 * Her last name refers to the practice of breaking and removing frozen snow to expose the ground.