Nobukata Sanada

is a member of the Sanada Clan, the husband of Ōritsuhi Tsubaki and father of Ryusuke Sanada. A member of the Fifth Corps, he served alongside his future wife eventually becoming her subordinate when she was promoted to captain. Nobukata left the Land of Iron during the Samurai Schism in order to attempt to return Denzan Kyumori and his forces to the Land of Iron. He was slain for his efforts, only to be found later by Kaasage Tachinai who revived him and made him a member of his Eien. Nobukata was the creator of the Sanada Hidden-Style and the last master of the Blood Typhoon. He was known through out the Land of Iron as the.

Appearance
Nobukata has short white hair, though the bangs reach out to neck length, protruding out as a row of spikes over the left side of his face obscuring his left eye from view. His eyes are abnormal in that the sclera is black while the iris' are white. His skin is slightly paled and few frinkles fram his eyes. He wears a black face mask as well as a horned forehead protector in the same colour. A wide brimmed collar and hood sits around his neck, the hood carries a fraction of a darkened circle on the end framed by several triangle-shaped ridges that are intended to bleed into the more complete circle on the back of his outfit. Covering Nobukata's upper body is a skin-tight shirt with no sleeved and two simple lines running down the front. Nobukata wears a set of shoulder guards and gauntlets over both arms with chainmail covering his upper arms. Around his waist sits a large black belt with three rings on the side strap, said side straps connect onto Nobukata's scabbard. Extending from the belt are two loose robe tails that sit in front of his body while an ankle length kama surrounds his legs. His legs are covered by armour in the same vain as his arms.

Abilities
Nobukata was a masterful Samurai, who even up until his death, was considered to be the best of the Sanada Clan and one of the most powerful Samurai in the Land of Iron. Nobukata was capable of eliminating full groups of bandits without even a modicum of effort and could match Denzan Kyumori and his entourage while under the effects of venom that lowered his reflexes. He was known for his speed even while using his heavy nodachi-katana, capable of closing the distance and delivering the first strike before a shinobi would finish forming the smallest set of hand seals.

Kenjutsu
Nobukata was a very skilled user of Kenjutsu, having mastered the standard sword stances used by the Samurai military of the Land of Iron as well as all of the sword stances of Sanada Clan. To fit his use of a nodachi-katana, Nobukata created the Sanada Hidden-Style of Kenjutsu which relied mainly on removing the nodachi-katana from its sheath, attacking the opponent and then returning it to the sheath. The style had many different ways of doing this and did not rely solely on single attacks but the common theme for this style was a relience on speed over power. Performing all three motions (Unsheath, strike, sheath) at a lightning-quick pace was essential for successful mastery over the Sanada Hidden-Style.

Kekkei Genkai
The Blood Typhoon, the secret technique of the Sanada clan. Passed down to the successor of the clan head as their time to retire approaches, Nobukata is the only known member of the Sanada clan to have learned this technique without inheriting the role of leader of the clan. While he refused the position he was trained alongside his brother as a tribute to his skills. Nobukata only displayed one form of this technique in his lifetime which he called the which consisted of forming a large swirling pool of blood around his sword before swinging it downward causing a hurricane of concentrated blood to spew forth in a directed tornado.

Trivia

 * While not directly named after someone from the Sengoku era's Sanada Clan, Nobukata bore the similar trend of members having names that start with "Nobu" such as Nobuyuki, Nobumasa, and, Nobutsuna.