Io is feared. He is rightfully so, because he is a force to be reckoned with. His strength is immense, and he seems invulnerable to harm. Deceivingly intelligent with his huge toothy grin, there is one flaw he has that next to nobody knows… he's not real. Io is the creation of the Gon family's newest and brightest warrior, Fugita.
His entire family has been known for its great skills in engineering great machines since there founding many years ago in the village of sand, but Fugita decided to use his skills to become a great ninja. Even being an albino didn't stop him from fighting for his goals. He fine tuned many mechanisms created by his father, and his father before him, and created Watsuki, the bladed one. Watsuki was a puppet the size of a large man, taking the form of a fully armed and armored white samurai. Until he was able to control his chakra enough to form chakra strings, Fugita used his own steel wires to learn to maneuver his creation. He hardly left his workshop, spending his time tinkering with new mechanisms while fixing old ones instead of working his tiajutsu. Because of his odd behaviors and diet, he became sickly and weak. Without enough sun and nutrients, his body was failing him, but he wouldn't let his mind stop. His superiors forced him into medical care, and there he worked on new designs for his next work while being treated. It was thought that if he didn't get into better habits with his health he wouldn't become a good ninja, but Fugita knew that his ideas would be wasted if he didn't spend every waking moment he could working with his inventions.
His skin pale and delicate to sunlight, Fugita always wore a cloak-like outfit with hat and mask to protect him from the sun. The sun wouldn't really do that much damage to him in the short term, but overexposure would prove very painful and, if left too long, fatal. For this reason, he had to wear these strange looking clothes, but Fugita soon learned that he could use them to his advantage in battle. Not only would he be able to hide his identity, but he would also be able to conceal weapons in the cloak, making any who underestimated him regret ever doing so. Being that he was still weak from ill habits in eating and sleeping, Fugita relied heavily on Watsuki to win his battles for him; with a lot hard work, he'd made him very fast, sturdy, and deadly. Watsuki was virtually indestructible, being made of armor, and he was almost nothing but hidden blades and other weapons. What looked like a great mane on the suit of Watsuki was actually a large number of long ejecting needles, some poisoned, and every joint could be dislocated and produce a sword, knife, or a launched bladed weapon. Just using poison and blades, Watsuki usually could win Fugita's battles easily, but in a desperate measure, Watsuki could detonate himself, launching all of his concealed weapons in every direction, and then rebuild himself.
Still feeling insecure about relying on a single puppet, Fugita decided to build a second one with his new designs. But he was determined to do something his family had not seen before, and made an all new kind of puppet. By increasing the size of the mechanisms and spending a lot of time on the defenses, Fugita created Io #1. Io #1 was just a suit of minor armor that would protect Fugita from most damage and protecting his identity. After some test runs with his team mates, he learned that his first model was simply too slow and heavy, while not really doing anything, so he continued his research and experiments.
Finally, Fugita was finished. It took him almost an entire year, but he created Io #2. Io was now more human looking, bigger and badder than ever. He looked . . . well . . . dumb (according to his peers). And that was perfect. The stupidly huge grin on Io's face was taken into great thought by Fugita. Not only did it distract most people at a glance, but it also acted as the doorway into Io's interior. Inside was more armor, tools, and devises than could be counted. The outside was made mostly out of a new form of rubber that was created just for Io. It was a texture very close to flesh, but was almost indestructible, impervious to heat and electricity, waterproof, and easy to mend if ever damaged. Realizing that his chakra strings could not possibly move this behemoth, Fugita resorted to using strong steel cables to move Io about, but the gears and pulleys made the functioning conceivable. After much needed practice, Fugita was able to maneuver Io faster that his teammates. With his long gorilla-like arms and legs, and his ridiculously huge hands and feet, Io was able to travel extremely quickly by jumping like a frog or running on his feet and his knuckles. Still, he was able to be as slow and gentle as a woman cradling a baby.
Using Io as his body, he would convince his opponent that he was a very strong, sturdy, dumb ninja. After a bit of fighting, Watsuki would be released, and it would "become clear" that Io was actually a puppet master. The double bluff, keeping enemy ninja from suspecting Io of being a puppet himself, keeping Fugita safe.
Fugita thought that he would almost never need to leave Io, but just in case, he had installed detailed explosives throughout his creation, and had built a spare which was, of course, hidden back in the ninja village. Being as slim as he was, Fugita could use a glider system hidden in his cloak to ride on warm air currents, so he was able to leave Io; and with a small detonation he could escape Io before Io exploded, destroying any evidence of Io's existence along with his enemies. Fearing having to fight alone, Fugita learned to keep his opponents at a distance by using thin steel wires embedded with powdered diamond in a devise on his wrist. The wires go up his fingers, and he is able to control them with his chakra, slicing up his opponent with the "invisible sword".
Fugita was more than a warrior. Being an engineer and inventor, the Kasekage hired Fugita as a teacher as well as a fighter. His skills and knowledge made him a very successful teacher in spite his very young age of 14, but he still liked spending his time tinkering with his inventions instead of spending time with his students. Because of this, he never gained the trust of even his students. Fugita had no friends or teammates that he would fully trust, and this made missions with him very difficult.
With the end of the war between Sand and Leaf villages, the counsel of sand decided to send ninjas to help with the rebuilding of Leaf. Along with sending the infamous Garra of the dessert and his siblings for man power, the ninja village also sent Fugita to help with the intelligence department. When he first entered the village, Fugita was wearing Io, and it was difficult to pass security. Because of his "idiocy", Io was refused entry to the village. After enough arguing, the ninjas guarding the gate sent word to the Hokage about the strange visitor. Tsunade listened to the complaint by one of the guards, and told them to have the stranger escorted by a jonin to her office, suspecting it was the sand ninja that was supposed to get there later that evening. Finally being escorted to the Hokage's office, Fugita waited to be alone before walking Io to the corner and exiting, showing his true form. Leaving Io, Fugita gave his report, saying that he was sent by the counsel of sand to assist the village of leaf until such a time that the village returned to a stable state.
During the meeting, Naruto burst through the door of Tsunade's office, yelling at her about a mission he was to take part in…stating that it was for beginners. Tsunade scolded the orange clad ninja for not knocking, and then sent him away to finish the meeting. Naruto then noticed the sand ninja next to the Hokage's desk, and asked what he was there for. He barely dodged the chair launched at him by the Hokage, then turned and ran out of the room, noticing but not paying attention to the huge "man" in the corner with his huge mouth hanging open. 'Probably the sand ninja's partner' he thought, and then continued to run from the office. The Hokage apologized for the disturbance, and then continued to show Fugita where he would be staying on a map. Fugita asked if he would be able to use the apartment shown as a lab, and he was granted permission, as long as he didn't blow up the building. 'Nobody is a permanent resident in that apartment block, most of them are just come-and-go types trying to keep a low profile,' as stated by Tsunade.