Archive of Our Own ^beta

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So how does one begin to create a character. Your characters are one of the most important parts of a story, if not the most important parts. It's their stories that you're telling after all, so it's important that you have distinct and relatively well made characters to tell it. Otherwise people won't understand, or they won't care.

So where do we start when it comes to creating a character?

I usually start with their appearance, it might be a bit of a weird place to start for some but in all honesty, take a look around you. Think about the people that you see and interact with everyday. What's the first thing that you typically take notice of about them?

That's right, their appearance.

That said, sometimes the appearance of the character can be the hardest thing to decide on. So I'll get us started with something, let's assume that you're making a human character. What color is their hair?

Ginger, Black, Auburn, Dark Brown, Midnight, Blonde, Light Brown, Sandy

Those are only a few options, and in some worlds you can have even more variety, maybe they have indigo, or grass green, or even something like bright sky blue hair. Now that you've got a couple of ideas of the color what's the style? Do they wear it up, or down, is it spiky? Curly? Frizzy, straight or not?

And what about the shade of their skin?

Is it pale cream, pink, tan, dust, mud, umber?

Body type? Clothing style? Eye color?

Quick, here's an idea of what to do. Imagine a "perfect" character. Give them what you would think of as the perfect body, clothing, and hair style. Now ask yourself why you imagine those as perfect?

Now take that same character and think about some things that they can have about them that's not quite so perfect. Maybe there's a part of their hair that they can't tame, or they're a bit overweight. Give them a silly outfit that they wear a little too much, change their eye or hair color to something that's plain. Make them different.

Make three characters who appear different. Here's your challenge, make three characters of different skin shades and then design for them a general outfit for everyday use, a formal outfit for parties and finally an outfit that they would wear to bed.

That should be enough to get you started on this. So next on the list is names.

Naming characters is hard. Seriously, naming your characters will be the hardest thing ever. I mean it can be simple, you might be able to look at your character and bam there's a name ready for them. But typically coming up with a good name is hard. The first thing that I'm going to say is, don't give them a name that's meaningful.

Do Not, go out looking for a name that specifically means something, or that needs to have a huge backstory. It's a good way to get lost in the meaning of a name rather than having one that suits the character in question.

So here's my advice, take a step back from names with deeper meanings.

Initially you should go for simple. Names that are common or easy to remember, names that don't really need to be explained.

Some of my best characters have such names:

Ace, Tamika, Hybrid, Hope, Ally, Daniel, Blake, Hunter

All are simple names. The only ones in that list that really have a deeper meaning are Hybrid, Hope and Ally. And even then it's not because I focused on giving them a "meaningful" name.

But aside from that what about more meaningful names? Well, baby name sites are good for that. Or asking people around you. When it comes to meaningful names though, it's really best not to dwell. Because the name will affect the way that the rest of the world will interact with your character. Give them a name that fits, give them a name that works.

And consider the repercussions of that name.

Something like Aurora or Camille might be nice sounding names but they might get teased, or the other children will exclude them. A common name like Matthew might have the character complain because there's a whole bunch of other people with the same name. Someone who has a strange name like Hadar might get a few odd looks or teases, if your character has a weird name then remember that children tend to pick up on that and pounce.

Okay that all said and done. Brainstorm ten common names, now brainstorm ten uncommon or strange names. Write down both the pros and the cons you can think of about the names and then decide which of them suits your character.

Tip: When it comes to names from a different culture, don't assign them to your character merely because it sounds exotic. Take into context the background of your character, your characters parents and then do some research about the common names of that culture. Don't name them something just because it's "exotic"

Finally, the last thing that I'll be talking about here in this guide to creating characters is personality. Or at least the bare bones of it. So this is the part where a lot of people fail, where a lot of people stumble. It's the problem part.

So let's stop and actually think about it. When it comes to personality there are two aspects of it that you really need to consider.

Interactions with Others, and Interactions with Self. Or the Outer and the Inner personalities.

So for this I suppose though we'll be focusing on basic traits. I'll probably do more stuff just on personality later on but for now let's start off with basic traits. Okay then, think of a person who you really dislike, why do you dislike them? Are they rude, obnoxious or arrogant maybe? Or maybe it's just something else about them, maybe they lie a lot, or tend to be overdramatic? Now think of someone who you like, or look up to. Why do you like them? Are they kind, supportive, forgiving?

Those are all specific traits. Personality traits. Ways that you can identify people, although not the same as personality quirks. But traits are the basic personality building blocks. Now what about you, what kind of personality traits do you think that you have.

Here's a test, look at yourself, think about the way that you act when you're alone, and then think about the way you act with others. List off five negative traits about your personality and then five positive. Then look at the list again and write down beside them where and how you show these traits.

Now think back to the person that you dislike, and the person who you like. Try to think about five positive traits of each of them, and five negative traits. Now think about the character that you're creating.

List off ten positive and ten negative if it's possible. Also, consider where those traits show themselves. In private? Or in Public.

Tip: Pick a virtue, and then pick a sin. Choose their biggest personality flaw before you choose their greatest strength and then test where it comes out the strongest.

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Okay, so I have a bit of a pet peeve when it comes to reincarnation stories. Some of them can be really well done. They're engaging and amazing and you really connect with the characters. And then there are some stories that just happen to hit my pet peeve when it comes to reincarnation, or rather reborn stories.

Namely the way that the characters react to their new bodies. And the way that they engage with the world around them. Sure there are some loopholes that can justify any lack of disconnect and dysphoria such as the memories only been triggered later on, or if the memories are not immediately a result of the previous life being the front of this life. But this still feels kind of cheep, a short cut.

So now I'm going to talk about the problems that I have with this subject.

Firstly let's discuss the character, the way that they might have been reborn. There are three categories that I can kind of think of right here:

• Adult/Older person who's been shoved into a younger body after dying/other event out of their control.
• Child who happens to be born with memories of another life but no real emotional connection to the events in the memories.
• Finally someone who through a strange event or just age unlocks memories of a previous life, may/may not also find that they have emotions attached to those memories.

So first off without the emotional connection they won't have as many problems as those who do. But they should still have some problems. Questions about themself and the world that they live in. Or they may just discard the memories off hand, as vivid dreams or who knows. The point is without an emotional link to the memories the character shouldn't really focus that long on them. On what they involve.

They may have moments where they ponder them deeply, like considering things like technology, or their old job/school/family but they wouldn't really think about it too much.

And then there's gender.

Honestly, even if someone is reborn as the same gender that they were in their previous life there should be something here. Especially when they have an emotional connection to the memories of their previous life. Maybe it won't be much, but can you imagine just for a moment how weird it would feel to suddenly be really small again. Also maybe your hands and feet aren't quite the same, your eyes are different and you have different features. The stuff you once loved now feels wrong or itchy, and the food you loved gross and disgusting.

Do you understand, that's what I want to be able to read. More with the characters feeling just a little bit off. A bit out of place, maybe they have trouble forming connections to others at first because it doesn't feel right.

Aside from that, what about those who are born into bodies of the opposite gender?

This is where my biggest. BIGGEST pet peeve with these stories come in. When the character is described as firmly cisgender, or otherwise happy with the gender that they are they would not react with only a brief moment of "Oh... I'm a boy/girl now..." and simply accept it. This also applies for characters who are transgender but perfectly happy with their bodies, or characters who're agender/genderless. It would not be an easy adjustment.

I mean sure I will admit that I might not be the best at this myself. But at the same time, I do still give time in the story for my characters to deal with adjusting. To deal with feeling off balance and weird. But because my characters are agender/genderless they don't react as poorly as they could. It's more on the level of "well this is different? How does this work?" and maybe a bit of "I still don't feel quite entirely here..." because that's disconnect. More out of place rather than dysphoria because they do just kind of accept that things have changed.

That doesn't mean that they adjust right away, but they do adjust and deal with it.

But when I read a story and there's no time given to it aside from a throw away line. It just drives me to grinding my teeth. It just rubs me a bit wrong I'm sorry.

Because even if it only takes three chapters before they start to mention it less frequently at least that's something done with it. And it's not just gender swap and then never brought up again except for a couple of throwaway lines.

So please, can people actually consider this. I mean your characters don't have to find the gender change troubling, but I really would like it if people actually, I dunno stopped to spend at least a chapter or three dealing with the issue I would be happy. It doesn't even have to be that much, a couple of paragraphs each chapter with the character dealing with it. Asking themselves how they feel and what they need to do about it.

Please.

Because otherwise it makes me kind of grind my teeth and feel like it was just thrown in. Because gender swaps are so "fun".

Thankyou for reading this, and sorry if it sounded kind of like a rant, but this is just something that really bugs me.

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You know what's stupid about personality tests.

STEREOTYPES.

Especially when it comes to the MBTI, or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator... there are what, 16 personality types according to this test. And that's fine, because even with sixteen boxes, they're pretty different and it's basically there to offer you a baseline of what you can expect from other people... and from yourself right?

Right?

Okay, first of all. Even though these things are incredibly accurate, you still can get different types when you retake the test later on. Mostly that's because people grow, they change. And the MBTI, it's more of a baseline. For how you process the world, not how you're going to actually be and who you are. It's a baseline. To give you a foundation of understanding. Since everyone is an individual and even within the different categories everyone is still different.

Different life experiences, different health issues, different way of viewing the world because we might not all be neurotypical.

But the point is... MBTI is not a surface thing. Also in all honesty, the personality types should not be what people use to blame their issues on... because really? Really? That's not how it works. After all, someone with Social Anxiety could still be an Extrovert. Maybe not a particularly loud one, but the fact is, this is how you process the world around you...

Introverts enjoy the peace and quiet of solitude. They don't fear social interaction like people with Social Anxiety might... Also, introverts simply need some recharge time away from others. On the other hand, people who're extroverts, they get energized by social interaction, from talking with others... which can still have some social anxiety there. Because while they enjoy social interaction, they might not always like it. Experiences lead us to have various issues with the way we interact with others... and sometimes that will mean that we'll go against our instinctive motive.

At the heart of it all. MBTI is not surface. It's something deeper. About how we view the world. And stereotypes lead to mistyping and ideas that don't always fit with what it actually is...

On that end of things, I'm going to bring in something... My mother. She's characterized as an ISFP or The Adventurer. And reading the pages for that personality type straight out... something doesn't fit. My mother is not particularly artistic or adventurous. She plans for the future... well about as far as a few months maybe and well... she's definitely not the stereotype is what I mean. But at the same time. She certainly does embody many of the traits and she fits in the box... it's just, it's not everything.

Same with me. Now whenever I take this test I pretty routinely receive the typing of INFP, or The Mediator. And also, I did mention this a bit in my MBTI breakdown of Uchiha Obito, but I also get the ENFP(Campaigner) type every once in a while... though a lot less now than before. And honestly, these two are incredibly close to one another. The only really difference is socialization but the point is... I fluctuate on the scale between extroversion and introversion... but also, again, some of the points that they make, and list for INFPs, they don't fit.

For a straight example the whole Dealing with Data thing... Because I like researching things, finding out new things and understanding more... Because a forest is all the individual trees. Each and every one is important. Which sometimes leads to the opposite, I can miss the bigger picture because I'm focusing on the individual bits at the time...

Other than that, well, you have to understand. Not everyone in a particular MBTI will be the exact same. After all we all have differences, and it will be influenced by our health, both mental and physical. After all, just because you have social anxiety doesn't mean that you'll necessarily be an introvert.

You might still have issues, crying inside the whole time you're in a crowd for example but... you may still be able to approach others first and you will enjoy yourself a lot more with others... Just not when you're in the spotlight.

Also introverts still spend time with others.

Notably I'm fond of the whole sit in silence and just appreciate the company thing but... that's introvert socialization. Because we enjoy the peace more than we enjoy the chaos, and large crowds are a bit, well... Draining.

Extroverts on the other hand need more. Talking, playing, interacting with people. But anyway... Let me get to the point.

Everyone. Is. Different.

And the MBTI is just a pretty box. And the thing with boxes is that typically they need to be opened to find out what's inside them.

To discover more.

Don't box yourself or your characters in with these okay? Because there's a lot more to people than just what their MBTI might be. And also, as mentioned, there is a lot more than just the basics that they have for what the personality types are. Because individuals manifest their traits in numerous different ways and sometimes issues such as social anxiety can lead to mistypings and misunderstandings. Stress as well. Depression. So the MBTI isn't the all et all, 'kay. It's a baseline. A beginning.

An closed empty box that needs opening to see more.

Now then... All that done, I'm sure that some people have seen my MBTI breakdowns. The ones where I look beyond just surface, because that's what this is. It's deeper than surface, it's in everything. But it's not everything. It's still just a baseline.

Now then. Let's actually explain how to use this, how to understand much better.

So first of all. Again it's baseline. Basics. And most of the online stuff is really, well, stereotypes. They will give you an idea of what to expect but at the same time... you need to actually look a bit further to understand so we'll define them here:

Introversion versus Extroversion(I vs E)

Introversion: Energy from being alone, in the peace and quiet, focusing inwards.

Extroversion: Energy from being with others, and focusing on what's going on around you.

Pretty simple right. This one is easy, and honestly, I personally know, while it can be hard. Everyone does lean more to one way or another, and it also depends on how comfortable you are with the people around you. So while I know that there are people who consider themselves ambiverts... well, it's not really part of the test unfortunately. And even if you are one, everyone has at least some measure of leaning one way or the other so...

The focus for this is do you find yourself thinking more "self" or more "outside" really.

Intuition versus Observation(N vs S)

Intuition: Connecting the dots, jumping to conclusions based on separate connecting pieces of information, a bit of instinctive understanding rather than conscious reasoning.

Observation: Solid facts and information, focusing on the here and now, understanding the information in front of you but not always connecting the full picture unless it's laid out.

Okay, so this is a bit harder. Because this is how do you process information, how do you come to conclusions. This is hard because information is processed in so many different ways even between the two categories. But really, this is mostly about whether you focus more on solid real tangible facts that have been proven again and again, or if you breeze through life connecting bits and pieces as you go and coming up with whole new theories all of your own.

A bit of your head in the clouds in a way. At least that's how I view it. Because intuition is connecting the pieces yourself and observation is taking each one as it comes and connecting them once the connection is explained.

Big picture versus the Individual Parts in a way.

Thinking versus Feeling(T vs F)

Thinking: You make decisions that are based more in what's logical and the facts of the situation rather than what your emotions are telling you.

Feeling: Your decisions are very emotionally based and you often listen to your heart in the way that you deal with them and other people.

Choices, choices. And maybe a bit of how you understand people around you. Because people who're very Thinking focused can be bewildered by those who're Feeling focused. But this is more about decisions and choices than how you relate to those around you. Sure that comes in, but in the end the question here is...

Do you look before you leap?

Haha, and then well, I guess empathy and how you view the actions that they take. Do you think with logic and therefore struggle to understand when they do things that you just can't understand, or do you see others around you who just don't seem to care at times... well, that's the thing with this part... because it's the influence behind our decisions...

Which is about all I can say.

Judging versus Prospecting(J vs P)

Judging: You are the one with the plan, a goal, an idea of what you want to do and how you plan to do it.

Prospecting: Keeping your options open, it's all about being spontaneous and you understand just how much plans can change as things go on.

Finally, at least in the basic MBTI there is this. The one about how you plan things out, how you look towards the future and how you go day by day. Are you a planner or a drifter? Do you follow a schedule and plan things out before hand or do you just dive in and roll with it? In a way the question here is similar to the previous one.

Looking or Leaping. But at the same time it's not because this is overall, plan or open ended. Set goal or just going by, taking things as they come and leaving the future open. Heh. Which interestingly is more about the path there, rather than the end goal.

Do you pre-plan or just dive in and let the wind take you there.

Assertive versus Turbulent(A vs T)

Assertive: Self-assured and sure of who you are, fairly resistant to stress and you won't think of the past since what's done is done.

Turbulent: Self-conscious, always pushing to do more, striving to be better and for self-improvement, they are sensitive to stress

And just for fun...

These two. Which are added on over at 16Personalities. But they do add a small bit of extra definition to the types... while not adding any extra because these are more about how you view yourself in reality. Do you have a lot of self-confidence or not really... But hey, I'll throw them in here as well because it's kind of nice you know...

Overall...

So I mentioned earlier that the websites all have stereotypes right? Well that's true so what I do is I take these, and I break them down. Because that's what they're for, the basic bare bones an idea of what you might be. They're the bones of a personality. Because your personality, who you are is built up on top of it all. Since there might be a specific idea of how they should go together but really. That's not set in stone.

I mean just look at the few of my Naruto MBTI things... sure I did bring in the stereotypes but at the same time... haha. No. I stopped and looked a bit deeper because as said it's not surface. It's more than that. I mentioned it earlier, but I'm an INFP, to be a bit more specific I'm an INFP-T. Yep, I always push myself and strive for more... for all that I might push things off and push them off, that's mostly well... Because I want them to be the best you know... and also.

It's breakdown basics.

"I'm an introvert, who connects things together even when they might not always be connected, I enjoy theories, my decisions are almost always spur of the moment emotional and planning, well I'm not the best at developing a plan and sticking to it, even if I am good at choosing a Goal and striving for that... and finally I always strive to be higher and hold myself to a standard..."

And that's what the MBTI should be... the basics... because that could be anyone written like that. And well yeah. I showed my deeper thoughts on this with the Naruto MBTIs, Kakashi and Obito explaining why they were the other way round with their I vs E traits... but yeah.

This is just for building blocks, not for deep cover of everything. And as said, everyone is different and stereotypes just don't work when you look further into it. Because traits manifest differently... it's why I can see that Mum's an ISFP even if the stereotype sounds rather... well off for who she is. Because she is that, she just doesn't follow the pattern that people expect. And that's what is important. It's a box yes, but remember boxes can be opened so you can see what's in them and that's more important.

Don't look at the surface and base everything on what MBTI someone has... because that's their baseline, the very basics of who they are.

And people are more than that you know...

Now, uh, before people start wondering why this is in my Character Creation part... well I would think that would be obvious by this point. The MBTI is a base. A place to start, because this is the very bare bones of your character.

It'll be something to build from.

For example I'll use one of my characters, Hybrid. They're an ENFP-A. But of course, that's not all they are. It's just a shorthand way to explain how they might approach a situation... but doesn't say everything. Heh, nope. It's just to give me an outline of who they are. Same with all my other characters. I hope this helps you all out there.

If not with writing, then maybe with understanding yourselves.

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The problem with looking back at my work and how I've described hair colours... and it's painful... I mean I never really went and used the bluenette description, but damn... that wouldn't have been out of place there...

As it is though, to be honest when you think about it, especially for anime with all it's hair colours sometimes you had to make these words… but like substitutions... And so I've got a short list of what I used, back in 2011-2013 when I started off in fandom:

• Pinkette = pink hair
• Mosstop/Greenhead = green hair
• Raven/Crow = dark blue hair/black hair
• Azure/Bluehead = blue hair
• Silverette/Silvertop = grey, white or silver hair
• Ginger/Redhead = orange, and red hair
• Lavender = purple hair
• Blond/Blonde = yellow hair
• Brunette = brown hair

Which yeah... I've grown a bit, expanded, but this is still mostly my go to list for hair descriptions in the shorthand. Interestingly enough the only ones that I really done the -ette on the end for was pinkette, and silverette, mainly because I got them from reading other fics...

With azure and lavender you can probably tell I used them like you'd use ginger.

"Oh, he's just an azure…"/"Such a lavender" pfft. So yeah.

Substitutions and shorthand, easier ways to refer to them... so yeah.

Also my reasoning for never using purplette like I sometimes saw was because of purplette onions… since back then(and even now) I kind of had an issue with onions… also lavender just seemed nicer. Now though, if I do use these, I'm probably going to swap a few… because man. Lavender reads really weirdly when using it to describe people, so I went and looked up words and now, for future reference:

• Phlox = purple hair

And I think that I'll leave the rest. Because you know, they're understandable. People know what they mean when they read them... as annoying as they can be.

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Okay, so let's get started.

Warnings: Genetics, Pseudo-science, actual science, character headcanons, Clan headcanons, Impending Headache

Blood

Type O: People with this blood type can give their blood to anyone as a donation but they can only receive blood of the same type if they need a transfusion.

Type A: People with this blood type can only donate blood to other's with type A blood or people who're type AB. They can also only receive from people of the same blood type or type O blood.

Type B: People with type B blood can only donate to others with type B blood or people with type AB blood. They can only receive blood from people with type O blood or blood of the same type.

Type AB: People with type AB blood can only donate blood to those of the same type but can receive donations from anyone with any type of blood.

AB and O are the rarest blood types, with O been recessive and the blood types A and B been more dominant, in the case of those with blood type AB, both are equally as dominant. Each of them has a trait, like blood type O is signified by been OO, not AO/BO, and people with blood type B either have BB or BO. It's all genetics really, and generally the parents blood type will carry over to their child.

Eyes

Oh boy, this is going to be fun! Let's talk about eye colour. Including fantasy eye colours like Red, Purple(violet) and the oh so fun yellow-white(since the closest we actually get is rich Amber-orange). So let's get started then won't we? Oh, also for anyone Black is also an fantasy specific colour, since people can have grey eyes but not black.

Okay so straight up, everyone knows brown eyes are the most dominant. Yes, even typically over black. So, general rule of thumb there:

Brown>Green>Blue>Grey>Black>Purple>Red>Yellow>White

Blue>Pink>Red(Albinism)

Brown>Black(theoretical Melanism)

If you need a quick idea of it anyway. But the thing is eye colours are seriously complicated because there's about 16(or more) different genes that actually determine eye colour and then also the shade, and the general rule of thumb is the lighter the colour the more recessive it is, and therefore less likely to be passed on. The exception is black, because as said, there's a lot of genes going into eye colour so it gets pigmented colour... and there's a reason why the different shades of brown are the most common.

And then I chucked in the whole Albinism and Melanism thing, because yes, genetics. Although the latter has not been reported(to my knowledge) in humans but has been observed in several different animal species. As both conditions are recessive genes, they're shoved into a lower section. Because you need two(or more) of the genes active for it to show. Also with this comes sensitivity, because the lack of pigmentation in albinism leads to poorer filtering and protection from the light. Anyway, in regards to these, it's pretty obvious. Albinism/Melanism when they do show up in people.

But honestly, all this is confusing because of the blending of genes and the odds are weird. Also, add to this other conditions that can impact eye colour such as heterochromia which is the presence of two distinct pigments in the eyes, two different colours. Which can either be two differently coloured eyes, or just segmented eyes.

And this isn't even touching on the genetics of some of the stranger pupils in people's eyes... but for a rule of thumb regarding those things. Also the weird blending when it's more or less one colour for the whole eye(sclera, iris and pupil).

Normal>Blended Iris

Hair

Brown>Black>Blue>Silver/Grey>Blond/Blonde>Pink>Red/Ginger>Purple>Green>White

There.

That's the way it generally goes. In regards to what's more dominant. But at the same time, since there's two main genes that work with the colour, one for shade the other for vibrancy, we get this weird thing where brown is slightly more common than black(no but seriously, I see more people with brown hair than I ever do with black[At least that's how it is in my everyday life]).

But honestly the genetics here are again somewhat weird. Because as said there are really two main ones. The ones for shade, and the other for vibrancy, or really colour clarity. Which pretty regularly is the recessive red/ginger gene. It's sort of why a lot of people have this slight red tinge to their hair when dying it. And that tint is also why so many people have brown hair because it mixes. But right after is of course black, and with people in fantasy at least, the red/ginger trait can be replaced with a slight blue one, or the even more recessive green.

It sort of piles up weirdly though, because hair colours(and eye colours tbh) can remain dormant in family lines for a while buried under the more dominant genes before suddenly emerging. You see this in reality with those sudden gingers. Where two people with brown/black/blond(e) hair have a ginger.

Again, like with eye colour there's a fair bit of blending that goes along in the genes to determine hair colour. And children can have slightly darker/lighter shades compared to their parents, or a completely different colour again if both of their parents passed down recessive genes.

And then there's those in fantasy with multi-coloured hair. Which is either an indication of a chimera-child, or a fluke in the genes. This is a recessive trait again. The maximin amount of colours someone could potentially show up with is three, and that's only if they're a chimera-child. Normally the most you might get is two hair colours, split pretty evenly.

Solid>Two Toned>Three Toned

And just to fit it in of course I'm going to finish it off with Albinism and the theoretical Melanism in humans.

Silver>White(Albinism)

Black>Dark(deep) Brown(Melanism)

Wait no, that's not where I'm going to finish. Nope. Because I still have my quick sheet for hair colour shorthands that people probably should know because otherwise you're all going to get confused/annoyed with whatever's going on in the story. And I'll point you to where it is here in that case.

Skin Tone

Okay, welcome to the deepest pit of genetics hell that you can reach because this... This is where things just get annoying. Because the inheritance of skin tone is not straight forwards at all. You would expect someone with darker skin to be slightly more likely to pass that on to their children in a dark-light skin pairing... but actually the issue here is that skin tone is inherited through incomplete dominance. So neither gene is any more dominant than the other and instead they mix much more to blend somewhere in between.

Of course your skin does get relatively darker as you age, because of the exposure that you get to the ultraviolet coming from the sun and you need a little bit less as you grow older to maintain a healthy level of vitamin D within your body. But seriously, skin tone is hard. Because you won't inherit it perfectly from your parents despite what most cartoons and fantasy tries to say. So a lot of the skin tones shown in Naruto are wrong simply because they're not represented accurately... but it's a cartoon it's fantasy who really cares about that am I right?

Anyway...

Just as a clearer way of explaining this... both me and my brother have paler skin compared to either of our parents. Just slightly but still... Also, going back to the dark-light pairing from earlier, it also depends I guess on how well everything goes, location and what's going on. But generally expect blended tones, so it'll be somewhere in between the parents, and lean one way or the other slightly more.

Oh and also we should know how Albinism and Melanism would affect this... and if you don't... well google is your friend. But anyway, for the simple of it, Albinism= lack of pigment, and Melanism= overproduction of pigment.