Hotaru is the granddaughter of En no Gyōja, the former leader of the Tsuchigumo clan.
She first met Utakata when ninja attacked her—though they were actually after him. He saved her life, and she returned the favor by getting help that kept him alive. Grateful and needing to lay low, Utakata agreed to train her. He was skeptical at first, especially when she insisted on calling him "master," which he saw as putting too much weight on their relationship. But Hotaru proved him wrong repeatedly. She mastered water walking after a single night of practice, then surprised him again by learning Water Release: Violent Water Wave—apparently she had water-natured chakra all along, which Utakata hadn't expected.
When hostile ninja came hunting the Tsuchigumo's forbidden jutsu, Utakata and Hotaru were tasked with smuggling it away. During their escape, Naruto showed up and misread the situation, thinking Utakata was attacking her. After breaking up the fight, Utakata decided Hotaru would be safer with Team 7 and took off in a bubble, leaving her behind despite her protests.
The journey to the clan's hidden village got rocky—Naruto and Hotaru clashed at first. Yamato came up with a workaround: he had Sai summon mountain leeches to swarm her, and once she panicked, she was willing to accept their protection. After they delivered her to the village, Team 7 left. But Naruto noticed something off in the villagers' expressions and came back to investigate.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
