Machiko

Machiko (真智子, Machiko) is the leader of the Yuetsu and an extremely powerful being. The eponymous ruler of the Yuetsu, often referred to as Mistress by her subordinates, she has been sewing chaos and discord through her organisation for almost a millennia. She is responsible for actions such as (through her organisation), the attack of Konohagakure, the death of the Fourth Hokage and the previous generation of Kage. She is not widely known by the wider world, with only few knowing of her existence.

Early life
Born over 1000 years ago during the time before the Sage of the Six Paths, not much is known about her early life. It is known that at some point, Kaguya Otsutsuki arrived and trapped her and the entire human population at the time in the Infinite Tsukiyomi. Some time after her eventual release, she began to follow the Sage of the Six Paths following the defeat of his mother Kaguya. She was one of his first and most devout followers, believing in Ninshu and world peace in general. As she was a follower, the Sage of the Six Paths shared his chakra with her, and as with all of his first generation of followers, she received an extremely large amount.

Some time after the birth of the Sage's two sons, Indra and Asura, Machiko was taking a walk in the forest when she encountered Black Zetsu, who was attempting to revive his 'mother' Kaguya. Originally, he had planned to awaken the Rinnegan within one of the Sage's sons, but in order to save time, he had a different idea. After coercing her into a deeper point of the forest, Black Zetsu grafted a portion of his DNA into her body. Because his body and DNA was made of Kaguya's chakra signature, this led to Machiko being fused with Kaguya's essence. Initially, Black Zetsu had believed he had succeeded in recreating his mother, but the reality was far more troublesome. Kaguya's and Machiko's chakra had merged together within her - this meant that Machiko now possessed devolved forms of Kaguya's traits and abilities, as well as Kaguya's chakra signature. However, her personality had also been warped by Kaguya's DNA, causing her to develop a twisted desire for world peace by using any means possible, including destruction.

Gone was the old, kind, free-spirit. In her place was a being with a desire for world peace, seeking it at any cost using any method. Black Zetsu, initially believing his mother had returned, greeted her with joy. Only for Machiko to respond by violently incinerating his presence, while chiding him for being weak and inpatient.

Forming the Yuetsu
Following this, she became extremely paranoid about her former idol, the Sage of the Six Paths, believing him to be her only threat in the world (this also likely stemmed from Kaguya's innate fear of her son for sealing her away). So during this time, she hid herself and her chakra signature away. Eventually, after the death of the Sage, she once again walked the Earth. This time, ready to enact her plans. She had stolen a copy of The Story of Genesis from the Sage of the Six Paths' temple, and she spent almost 50 years researching it's contents. This allowed her to form her plan, The Ultimate Sanction.

Once she had formed her ideal, she began to work to put her plans into action. However despite her great power, and the death of the Sage of the Six Paths, she could not carry it out without assistance. She theorised that manipulating others into doing the work for her was much easier. As the war between the two sons of the Sage of the Six Paths carried on, Machiko used the chaos to find strong individuals. At this time, Chakra was not diverse and was rare to possess, as the reach of Ninshu had not extended very far. However, she managed to find strong individuals who were talented in hand-to-hand and weapon combat. She assembled over 30 individuals, using her ability to manipulate others (which was quickly realised to be her Saino) and her temptations of power and status to form a group.

Her ultimate goal is to enter the Pure Land as a mortal being and acquire the powers of the divine, to do this she would need to 'ascend', thus it is appropriate that she named her group of followers 'Yuetsu' (literally meaning: ascendance).

Moving forward
After operating for several centuries. Machiko soon realised that she was biologically immortal, age would never take her (although she can be killed). This likely stemmed from a mix of her own unique chakra with Kaguya's. During this time, Yuetsu turned over hundreds of members, and she was causing chaos throughout the land; however she was making little progress in her main plan. She realised that the infighting of her members to vie for her attention was bringing a halt to progress.

She made the ultimate decision to restart her organisation. She declared that all her members would engage in an all-out free-for-all to see who was the strongest; this was to weed out the 'weakness' and 'disruptive elements'. Eventually, after over two years of combat amongst her members, only eight members remained standing. She declared that these eight would be the first incarnation of her 'Inner Core', who were her most trusted and loyal followers. The eight were ranked in order to strength and given an appropriate title to match their position. She dubbed them the Masayoshi, and tasked them with going out and recruiting new members who would operate as her 'Outer Core' who would not be filled in on her plans and only serve as common footsoldiers. This arrangement made Yuetsu a much more efficient and formidable organisation.