Ezekiel was not born the socially adept elitist that he has become in recent months. Despite his sudden and meteoric ride to the top of the social food chain, his origins are far more depressing than his current glamor status would have many believe. His tale is one of pain, determination and secrecy that begins with his days before the academy and ends with a dark secret on a rainy night that haunts him to this day. Perhaps the image is cliche, but to call it anything but telling of his future would be to overlook the environment that is the military organization of shinobi.

Clockwork Zeke was born Ezekiel Arcana, non celebrity status and an utter weakling in the eyes of his friends. Neither strong nor fast, his destination in life was obviously far from the military and honor of being a trained ninja for Konohagakure no Sato. His intelligence at a glance appeared to be average at best with the only thing truly making him stick out being his personal choices in dress and mannerism. Wearing a skirt or a shirt with sparkles makes some people uncomfortable and sure enough it usually resulted in some violence from a misunderstanding or out of spite for the child being different. Wild clothing gave way to wild makeup, from geisha and kabuki styles to urbanistic markings similar to graffiti, which gave way to wild colors of hair. To stick so far outside of the normal was a risk and one that did not pay out for the child.

Whether being trounced in an alley or having his face rubbed in the dirt under the heel of some bully, Ezekiel got used to running or getting beat up. He lacked the muscle and skill to defend himself even in simple games of "Ninja" let alone a full on fist fight with another child. He could not find a way around the beatings other than changing himself and he refused to take that path. His mother and father had always supported him, stating that his personality and mannerisms were his and he should never be ashamed of anything he did. Unfortunately for them shame was not an issue but other people were, beating their little champion to a pulp without much care for his opinion on the subject.

In an attempt to both make friends and learn to defend himself, Ezekiel begged his parents to do what they had avoided their entire existence and join the shinobi academy. His mother had sold flowers all of her life while his father acted as a carpenter for the village and aided in many large construction projects. Neither agreed with the selling of his soul to the military but respected his wishes and allowed him to enroll. The enthusiasm he started with quickly faded as he failed classed on ninjutsu and constantly had to be corrected in martial arts lessons. His ability with Kunai and shuriken was satisfactory but far from the top of his class and his use of other weapons was just too pathetic for the instructors to let him continue.

To make things worse were the kids, the same groups that had shunned him outside of the academy still did not accept him as comrade or ally and he ended up in the dirt just as often as he did before. Only now those children had the permission of the teachers in class to spar the awkward child and only have it broken up when things went too far. While others progressed their skills and grew as shinobi was when Zeke was barely grasping onto the basics. 

It was only luck that Zeke was exposed to the subjects that would define his life as a ninja. The technical art of sealing, otherwise known as "Fuuinjutsu" was a class briefly touched upon by all kids moving through the academy and was known  for generally being a pain with lectures on theory and application and the only seals taught being for storage or use of explosive tags. And as other children groaned through the lectures, one child in particular was enthralled with the flexibility of the subject matter and obvious power it held in even the simplest techniques. Finally there was a class that Ezekiel could flourish in and really earn some appreciation for himself.

As was standard for pairing with students interested in Fuuinjutsu were medical and puppetry classes. Both were important skill sets usually reserved for teaching students with a knack for them due to their overly specialized nature. Zeke's future as a medic was as clear as day, failing even basic bandaging, and it quickly became apparent that his focus had to be applied to puppetry.

Zeke's first puppet was Dokushin, a snake puppet that gave him a chance to display his unique way of thinking without getting the snot pounded out of him. Other children could only try and keep from getting captured and held down by the snake so that they were easy targets for Zeke during sparring practice. Where once he was totally outclassed and outperformed by his classmates he was suddenly succeeding and showing up class favorites with innovation and creativity beating out raw strength and talent.

Graduation came and Zeke's headband was earned with his skills and along with several others from his childhood he was assigned a unit to act with. He was a true dog of the military now but still looked down upon due to his different nature. The day of graduation was the day he decided it was time to change tactics. He would celebrate who he was and those who could not keep up being damned in his mind and found utterly unimportant.