Yuzu

A young boy who failed his shinobi exam.  After enduring searing backlash from his teammates, he sought information from every source in his village on places to train.  A few scattered phrases in old literature pointed to a wolf clan in the north possessing incredible chakra control.  Over time, he pieced together their general location, the name and alleged image of the pack's leader, the wolf god Fubuki, and that they didn't often take kindly to humans seeking to train.

Rarely did any humans return from the north at all, and the ones that did were often in bad shape.  Should they deem him unworthy, he could only hope they'd end his life quickly.

Months of preparation followed his decision and, after folding up his entire life and packing it into his bag, he fled his hometown at dawn, silent and quick.  Past the square, past shops and homes alike, past the fields in which he played and the home in which he lived.  Everything blurred in the corners of his eyes as he ran down, down, down through the valley trails and into the mountains, until...

---

The god Fubuki refers to him as a kind of son.  The wolves of the pack think of him as their own.  Yuzu sometimes spends enough time in his wolf form that he almost forgets he's human.  But they all exist as one, hunting and foraging as a unit, a brilliant display of human and beast becoming one within chakra.

After five years, he's reaching the end of his training and can shift into a wolf form at will due to his increased chakra control.  He'll make a fine shinobi once he returns home and retakes the exam, but he's in no rush to end his apprenticeship just yet.

Yuzu, once a frail and weak-willed boy, is one of the strongest in the pack.