Shira

is a genin of Sunagakure and a team-mate of Sen and Yome.

Background
Because of his lack of skill in genjutsu and ninjutsu, he was forbidden from entering the Academy due to a rule established by the Fourth Kazekage. At the same time, Shira suffered the ridicule and scorn of his peers for his shortcomings. However, Shira worked very hard in hope of becoming a shinobi with taijutsu alone. Later, his taijutsu skills caught the eye of the new Fifth Kazekage Gaara. After testing Shira's skill, he reminded Gaara of another young shinobi who only had taijutsu at his disposal. Believing in Shira's potential despite his handicap, Gaara decided to abolish the rule preventing Shira from entering the Academy. Shira also began training the latter in taijutsu. Unfortunately, most people's mockery of Shira turned to jealously over Shira's recent luck, making it harder for him to be acknowledged by others. After Shira graduated the Academy and Gaara's skills showed noticeable improvement, Shira decided to enter the upcoming Chūnin Exams in order to help further Gaara's reputation as Kazekage.

Personality
While Shira is looked down upon for his limited skill set, he is shown to be a very proud man. He never blames others for his shortcomings and only strongly believes that true determination will ultimately make one succeed. At the same time, he is very humble, showing a noticeable loyalty to his allies and leader Gaara. As seen in his battles, he is not reckless and carefully observes his opponents before acting. Shira's general demeanour shows him to be a calm, silent and level-headed individual.

Appearance
Shira has spiky taupe grey hair, combed backwards except for two bangs, and a somewhat fit physique. He has a number of scars on both body and face (for which he may seem look older), including one running vertically across his throat, and he also have what appears to be a tattoo of a blue coloured dragon on his right shoulder. His attire consists of a long sleeveless, dark green shirt which he ties with a light green sash, grey pants and black arm braces. His forehead protector is attached to the bottom of his shirt and he wears bandages on his right biceps. Shira also sports a small amber tomoe necklace.

Abilities
Since he has no talent for both genjutsu and ninjutsu, Shira's fighting style resolves only around taijutsu. Because of that, he developed his skills to a very high level, made all the more impressive by the fact it was all self-taught before joining the Academy. During his fight with Rock Lee, Shira's speed is shown to match Lee's without his leg weights. After his training in the Academy, Shira became able to internally mold his chakra for feats such as walking on quick-sand without any problems. He is also very observant and intelligent, elaborately deducing his enemies' strengths after seeing them fight only once.

Taijutsu
A specialist of it, Shira is a very potent close-range and hand-to-hand combatant. He is very precise in his attacks and battle methods. During his demonstration to Gaara, Shira was able to efficiently maneuver through the Kazekage's sand attacks to get within striking distance showing both excellent evasion and speed. Defensively, he was able to easily block one of Lee's kicks with one hand, much to the latter's surprise. Shira possesses a great amount of physical strength, able to send an opponent flying with a single kick and steady his body as an effective defence against other attacks. Shira could also deflect all strikes from Neji Hyūga's Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, something the Hyūga prodigy never experienced before. He, likewise, was able to effectively train Gaara in taijutsu, teaching the latter to rely less on his automatic sand defence and more on actual direct combat skill.

Shira could also use his self-made Seven Heavenly Breaths, a unique taijutsu which increases his lung capacity fourfold. This technique grants him strengths similar to the Eight Gates. While this technique is active, Shira could fight equally on par with Lee with his Eight Gates activated. Likewise, another one of his unique techniques is the Silent Fist which allows him to make strikes that create no sound, therefore making it almost impossible for his opponents to anticipate his moves.

In Naruto's Footsteps: The Friends' Paths
Shortly after Gaara was made Fifth Kazekage, Shira's team went to join in the early Chūnin Exams co-sponsored by Sunagakure and Konohagakure. Entering the exams, his team was split into different rooms, with him being placed in room one. Shikamaru Nara, as proctor, explained the goal of the written test on a monitor. His team ultimately passed the first round since their combined score equalled 100 points as it was supposed to, and by leaving the bonus question unanswered. However, a preliminary round had to be held to lessen the many participants there were. The preliminary round involved a race to Suna where only the first 30 teams to arrive at the destination would qualify for the second phase.

Ultimately, his team were among the first 30 teams to make it. The night of the arrival, when the genin got into a brawl during dinner, he was easily able to stop a direct attack from Rock Lee. Eventually, everyone lost their desire to fight due to Fū arriving with her optimistic ways. Afterwards, he was confronted by Lee, who deemed him as a worthy shinobi after their brief altercation. The next day, the second exam proctor, Temari, announced the start of the second round taken place within Demon Desert. Once the second round began, Shira began a plan to ensure that all of the Suna-nin would advance to the next round. With his team, he was able to keep all strong enemy teams from approaching. Eventually, Shira and his team confronted Team Guy as they viewed them as the strongest rivalling team. With a careful genjutsu from Sen, Team Guy was launched into the Sand Waterfall Pit. Afterwards, Shira's team went to talk with the other Suna-nin on how to move against the remaining enemy teams. The other Suna-nin however betrayed Shira's team and attacked them, viewing them as weak and easy targets to advance through. As Shira began guarding his team with his body, Team Guy returned and quickly forced the other Suna-nin to retreat. While Yome began healing Shira, he asked Team Guy why they had saved them, to which the Konoha-nin explained that they felt compelled to save them from their treacherous allies. As Neji asked Shira why his fellow Suna-nin would do such a thing, it was explained that they had no respect for him as a ninja from which Lee deduced that Shira, like himself, was unable to use either ninjutsu or genjutsu and was ridiculed for it.

Recognising Shira's greater struggles than his own, Lee angrily went after the other Suna-nin to make them atone. Lee's team-mates soon caught up with the overzealous Lee and saved him from the Suna-nin's group assault. As Lee's team left them prime to defeat, when Shira's team arrived, Shira begged the Konoha-nin to leave them be. He insisted that their distaste of him is his own fault for the person he is right now. determined to be a man of recognition in the future. After Lee and his team agreed, Shira offered his scroll to one of the Suna-nin teams as they technically defeated his team earlier. As Shira's words finally reached the spiteful Suna-nin, they declined and instead gave Shira's team and Lee's team their own respective scrolls as they lost this battle. After the Suna-nin left, determined like Shira to prove themselves by finding more scrolls, Shira agreed to Lee's request to have a one-on-one battle.