Shuto Swordhand (Natural Origin Ninja / Envenom Mastermind)

The Mamushi (Viper) Clan of Ninja had fallen on hard times. Only six of them survived to flee Japan after the Clan Wars decimated their family, and they found themselves hiding in the aptly-named Rogue Isles, trying to forge a new destiny for themselves. Masters of poison and intrigue, more than actual bladework or use of explosives now so popular in the home isles, they attempted to work more along the lines of a Yakuza crime-family, subsisting by petty extortion rackets, smuggling and enforcer-work, only to find themselves woefully under-equipped to compete with the much better organized, and often superhumanly enhanced, native criminal element. Viper Clan needed an edge, and they thought that they had found it among the native creatures called only 'the Snakes.' Capturing a few such creatures, they finally managed to ambush and seriously wound a Cobra, one of the leaders among these creatures. The Cobra thought itself lucky to have escaped, but the Ninja had no wish to capture or kill it, only to draw some of it's precious blood, that they might sample its DNA to experiment upon, without risking any of their half-dozen Genin. The old man they called 'The Alchemist' led them into an Arachnos laboratory, the Clan bypassing it's sensors and guards without strenuous effort, and there he managed to create a serum from the Cobra's DNA, that would be injected into one of the Clan to give him Snake-like powers of venom control. But he found himself unsure of the safety of this serum, and unwilling to risk one of their half-dozen warriors to an untested formula, they stole forth and seized a tourist from the boardwalk, a young Japanese art student, simply because the Genin assigned to the task thought it harmonious to test the formula on one of their kinsman.

The young man was injected with the chemically enhanced DNA, and erupted into agony so intense that he burst the leather straps that bound him in place, and broke one of his own arms flailing about. He may have actually inflicted some harm on his captors, had the transformation not also rendered him completely blind. After hours, the screaming stopped, although his muscles remained trembling with exertion, and his mouth frozen open, with blood now coming from abused vocal chords, the screaming only having stopped because his body was no longer physically capable of the act. The Alchemist stood watch over the process, but even the hardened killers of Viper Clan turned away to other matters, making excuses to avoid watching the torture of the young man, for such was not part of their once-honorable path. The Alchemist watched as the man's body turned cold, as if in death, but his heart still beat within his chest, and his skin, while turning grey and stiff and pallid, remained flexible. His blind eyes changed to slits, and scaled patches begin to appear, and within a matter of days, fangs could be seen as well. The Snake DNA was progressing through the young man's body, wreaking changes as it went. Even The Alchemist couldn't have anticipated the cold changes that would occur in the young man's *brain,* however, and soon the slitted eyes watched him as studiously, also observing, also planning for the future... The golden eyes had an almost hypnotic quality, and The Alchemist peered deep, losing all track of time.

A fleck of spittle in the old man's eye was all it took, and an hour later, The Alchemist called in the Genin of Clan Viper one by one to swear fealty to their new master, who gifted each with droplets of his powerfully addictive psychoactive venom. From victim and guinea pig, to leader of a chemically-addicted Ninja Clan, the life of the young man who now calls himself Shuto Swordhand has taken a turn for the strange, and he has chosen to use his new mastery of Snake venoms, and the drug-addled service of his assassins to carve himself out a kingdom here on the Rogue Isles, as he knows that he can never again return home to set scaled eyed on the family he no longer feels a part of.