Nozomi Yamayuki grew up in her clan's home village up in the northern part of Kumogakure. She was an active girl, always smiling and helping others when she could. Unfortunately, her hair and eyes set her slightly apart from children her age, which only grew worse as she appeared slightly clumsy. However, she was determined to make friends, which eventually paid off when she met Kosho and Zumi. These two were similar to her in temperament, but more adventurous and normal looking. They didn't seem to mind her clumsiness and often included her in their games. They even defended her against some of the more intolerant people in her village, who thought her hair and eyes were signs of evil spirits.
As Nozomi grew, she became more interested in music, especially the flute. Here, at least, her clumsiness seemed to disappear, and she was able to play very well. Soon both her friends and her family started urging her to take advanced lessons in the flute, despite her parents' roles as warriors for the community. If any of her extended family harbored disappointment that she would not join the warrior ranks, or better yet, show a disposition toward shinobi arts, they kept their thoughts to themselves. The future looked brighter for young Nozomi, until disaster struck.
When Nozomi first turned ten years old, a small group of bandits found Nozomi's village and started terrorizing them. The warriors would drive the bandits back, only to have them return a short while later. The children were forbidden to venture outside the village or even near the edges of it in order to protect them, but Kosho, who was training to be a warrior, convinced Zumi and Nozomi to go trapping with him. Kosho promised to protect them, but the bandits were waiting for some children to capture for unknown purposes. Seeing the group of young children leave the village, the bandits attacked. Kosho and Zumi both put up valiant fights, but the bandits were more skilled, and managed to kill Kosho while severely wounding Zumi all Nozomi could do is scream.
However, the bandits weren't too disappointed since they still had a seemingly defenseless girl clutching a flute in her hands. Nozomi tried to back away, only to wind up against a boulder with no way to escape. As they bandits grew closer, she remembered an old lesson her parents tried to teach her as a method to see if she could wield chakra. Desperate, she attempted this old, weak jutsu by blowing a long note through her flute. The bandit, who had almost reached Nozomi, jerked his hand back in unexpected pain, only to step back further from an arrow stuck into the ground in front of him. Help had arrived, but too late to save Kosho. Zumi would live, but they would soon be parted as Nozomi's parents decided to travel to Kumo so that Nozomi could train in the village's academy.
It took three years for Nozomi to graduate from Kumo's shinobi academy, owing primarily due to her clumsiness. It kept getting in the way of her learning taijutsu, though she was able to keep up with most everything else and surpass her fellow students in ninjutsu, owing partly to her studies of sound manipulation. She even picked up on another jutsu, boom block, based upon her skills, though it sometimes proves slightly awkward thanks to her chosen instrument of the short flute and her lack of taijutsu skills. Still, she knew that with time she would incorporate her first love, the flute, into her clan's ninjutsu, after all, she had vowed to herself never to be helpless again.
