14 Legacy

It had been nearly two months since Team 9 of the Hidden Leaf Village was formed. Takeru, Biwako and Shikatsu followed their team leader Shunsui to perform various D-rank missions all throughout the village. It ranged from watering plants to babysitting someone's child to escorting old grandma to her favourite place to sit and back. They were mentally exhausted but Shunsui was having the time of his life. It could not get any better for him. He got to laze around all day ordering young impressionable kids, saying that it was all for building teamwork and patience. He was even having serious thoughts about whether he should take D-rank missions for another month or not. Alas, his musings about how to mentally torture his young students were stopped as Biwako finally snapped and threw whatever she could find near her to their evil sensei and shouted at the top of her lungs, - "WAKE UP YOU EVIL MAN, WE ARE WORKING OUR ASSES OFF HERE AND YOU ARE SLEEPING!!!". Shunsui had just enough time to avoid a flowerpot which was dangerously close to hitting his family jewels. "Hey, hey, stop, STOP! You will hit someone if you throw things like this". "That was the plan sensei", - Takeru sighed as he continued to mow the lawn. Shikatsu was dead asleep and could not be woken up no matter what. Takeru tried many methods but all of them failed. Biwako was shouting, crying and saying things like she would make the world a better place by killing their sensei and how he was the root of all evil. It was evening and Takeru finally finished the mission. He was dead tired, not physically but mentally. He just wanted to go home and sleep. Shunsui took the mission completion slip signed by the owner of the property and left with his team. Shunsui, the heartless, seeing his cute students in such a state finally decided that they would take a C-rank mission next week. He also saved his students from any further work by saying that he would submit the mission report in the Hokage Tower himself and gave them 2 days of rest at home. The three genins were literally crying in happiness. Shunsui saw them off and the three broken genins went home.

Takeru did not just do missions all the time in these two months. He learned and improved many things. Takeru finally managed to combine and merge Body Replacement Jutsu and Shadoe Clone Jutsu perfectly. He named the technique Shadow Body Replacement Jutsu, with this he could now seamlessly use Body Replacement Jutsu with any of his shadow clones nearby making it almost impossible for anyone to successfully hit him during combat unless the enemy could attack him and his shadow clones all at once. He mastered the Fire Release: Searing Migraine really fast due to his fire nature mastery and then learned Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears from his sensei and became proficient in it. He wanted to learn jutsus of other chakra nature's but Shunsui told him not to. He told him that he first needed to master his own style first and only then move onto new jutsus. Takeru understood that learning some jutsus and mastering them fully was far better than learning many jutsus but mastering none of them. So, Takeru practiced his jutsus with maximum effort. Takeru entered the level 4 of his training seal after being fully accustomed to level 3 and Takeru nearly collapsed due to the sheer strain his body was going through in the level 4 training mode. Nonetheless Takeru persevered and was now able to move normally. His taijutsu skills improved leaps and bounds in these days. He taijutsu prowess was now firmly in the level of a jounin. He regularly fought with Shunsui and their fights were really violent. Sometimes Biwako and Shikatsu had to stop them from going overboard. To be exact Shunsui was a battle junky and he found a true partner in Takeru. Takeru's fight with Shunsui improved his taijutsu skills so much because of the abundant usage of shadow clones, Takeru's superhuman physical conditioning and Shunsui's sharingan. Shunsui would spot and mark each and every flaw of Takeru's fighting style and would show it to him. Takeru corrected them and fought again and like this with each fight Takeru's taijutsu skills increased and the flaws of his fighting style lessened more and more. Shunsui assessed Takeru's kenjutsu prowess and gave the verdict that his kenjutsu skill was on par with a tokubetsu jounin. Shunsui taught all three of them basic kenjutsu katas and told Takeru to focus on the basics again. He told Takeru that in order to be a master of kenjutsu, Takeru would have to first create his own move and to do that he would have remaster the basics as Takeru's basic moves were too convoluted. He tasked Takeru to make his kenjutsu moves more simple. Takeru practiced daily, either with Shunsui or with Toru and was slowly making his moves simpler, faster and more powerful. Takeru found out that his sensing ability had increased again. He could now actively sense at least 1km in every direction for 8 hours straight. Takeru was also learning new seals and was now trying to master a different kind of seal, an Advanced Storage Seal. Unlike basic storage seal where only one item could be stored in each seal. Advanced storage seal grants the user the ability to store multiple things in a single seal. The number of objects depends on the size of the objects being sealed and most importantly the seal could be placed permanently on a human body. Although this seal could only be used to store non-living objects, it was enough for Takeru. He was halfway through figuring out the seal and was sure that he could completely learn it in just a month or two. Takeru had finally learned a genjutsu. Shunsui informed Lord Hokage of Takeru's condition and requested for any genjutsu that Takeru could learn and use correctly. Lord Hokage joyfully gave him a genjutsu that was developed by his brother Tobirama to teach Takeru. Shunsui taught Takeru the Genjutsu: Bringer of Darkness. Takeru tested the technique on his team and it turned out that unlike the original technique his usage of this not only made the target not see anything but black, the target could not even hear, smell or taste anything. Only the sense of touch was active and even with that the target would probably be unable to move as Biwako and Shikatsu experienced and told him afterwards. Takeru was confused why it happened so the madman Shunsui told him to use the technique on him with full power. Takeru did it with glee. After just 30 seconds when he deactivated the genjutsu, Shunsui immediately vomited all over the ground. Shunsui later explained that in the genjutsu it feeled like he was falling into a deep dark abyss continuously for an uncountable amount of time. Although Shunsui could use sharingan genjutsu emulating the effects of this technique, he could not distort the time perception of his target. Thus cementing the fact that in this genjutsu, the target's perception of time would be greatly distorted. Takeru used the jutsu on a shadow clone of himself and found that his sensing ability did not get lowered or hampered while in the illusion. So, as this jutsu was too different from the original in Takeru's case, Shunsui named the technique Genjutsu: Infinite Darkness. Although this genjutsu offered ridiculous effects, the duration it could be used for was very low. Although 30 second was a very long time in a battle between shinobis, it was truly short compared to other genjutsus. Takeru was thinking how to increase the duration when Shikatsu suggested him that he could use his chakra strings to employ the genjutsu. As his chakra strings were invisible to the naked eye and only those with some kind of dojutsu or sensory skills could see or sense it, the idea of using chakra strings to employ genjutsu was excellent. And with the use of chakra strings, the target would be permanently locked in the genjutsu unless he detached the chakra strings off of the target, making this technique really stupid powerful. But this technique was not unbreakable as Shunsui broke out of this technique with his sharingan and so did Biwako with her incredible chakra control. He of course did not use chakra strings to employ the genjutsu on them as he really did not have such proficiency with it. But still a technique like this in his arsenal, Takeru was confident enough that he was finally on par with an elite shinobi.

Today, after Shunsui told them to go home, Takeru dragged his body straight to his home. He entered his room without even greeting or saying anything to his parents. He just flopped down on the bed and promptly went to sleep. After sleeping for a whole night, Takeru woke up at 4 before dawn habitually. He completed his daily training routine in the woods behind the Hokage Mountain and returned home at 10 in the morning. His parents were off to work. Takeru spent the day just lazing around the house. He went to lunch at Akimichi Restaurant when he found Kagami and his team with their jounin sensei sitting there. Kagami and Danzo saw him and invited him. "Long time no see, Takeru. What are you doing here? Where is Biwako and Shikatsu?", - asked Kagami. "We got 2 days rest from Shunsui-sensei. We were all completely fed up from doing all those D-rank missions and sensei finally got enough amusement from our suffering. So, here I am celebrating my freedom", - Takeru replied with mirth. "Ah, I totally forgot it. These are my teammates, this is Danzo a very cheerful guy who is friends with everyone", - Kagami said with a smirk. "Haha, very funny",- Danzo deadpanned. Takeru let out a chortle of laughter at that. "This is Torifu Akimichi, Torifu meet Takeru, Takeru meet Torifu" - Kagami introduced. Takeru and Torifu greeted each other. Although they had seen each other in the class, they never really talked much. "And this gentleman here is our sensei, Hyokai Hyuga" - Kagami introduced their team leader. "Hello, Hyuga-san, my name is Takeru Yamamoto" - Takeru bowed. "Ah, you can just call me Hyokai-sensei. I have heard many good things about you from my students and Shunsui. You show much promise. I hope you will become a great shinobi of the leaf in the future" - Hyokai smiled at him. "It is my honor, Hyokai-sensei" - Takeru bowed respectfully again. "It is nothing, come sit with us. I do not think the restaurant will allow you to stand there like this" - Hyokai invited Takeru. Takeru joined them at the table and had a good lunch with his friends and new acquaintances. Takeru and Team 8 seperated after that as they went to complete another D-rank mission. Takeru shuddered at the thought of doing missions like those again. He wished them all the luck and returned home.

It was evening when Toru and Akane returned from their work and saw Takeru reading a book in the dining room. They greeted each other. Toru and Akane got freshened up and changed to casual clothes. Toru and Takeru began chatting and Akane began preparing dinner. Takeru told them that they got 2 day leave from the missions but they would take a C-rank mission after this. Toru nodded in understanding but Akane did not say anything. Her head was filled with various thoughts. Soon, the dinner was done and Takeru went back to his room. Takeru was anxious as it would be a major problem if his mother would not permit him from going outside the village to perform missions. Any C-rank mission would always be outside the village. It could be either an escort mission, an information delivery mission or an extermination mission. He knew that his parents were very concerned about him and although his father believed in him. Akane, his mother was filled with hesitation as no mother would ever willingly send her son into a dangerous situation. Takeru, to distract himself from these thoughts started practicing fire nature chakra control. A few moments later he sensed Akane was standing outside his room. He stopped practicing, stood up and went to the door to open it. He opened the door and saw his mother was standing there silently. Akane entered the room and sat on the bed. She took out a small wooden box and placed it on the bed. Takeru stood there silently. After a few moments of silence Akane started speaking, - "You must be wondering why I did not give you permission to perform missions outside, right?". Takeru nodded slightly. Akane spoke in a soft tone, - "Do you know why I have so much disdain and distaste towards shinobi? Because shinobis risk their life for money without even thinking that money could not bring back the dead. I was a little girl back in Land of Grass before I met your father. Our clan, our family was a small clan that lived in those lands like numerous others. We had very few strong fighters and shinobis but no other clan attacked us. It was not because that we were nothing in their eyes but because they were afraid of us. Our clan, the Ito clan was famous for being a clan of assassins. We rose to fame because of our stealth techniques and it was also the cause of our downfall. Many people coveted out techniques and many had died for it. My father protected and took care of the clan fiercely. He fought many people and won many battles but in doing so he made many enemies. My father Aizu Ito was the head of our clan and I was his only child making me the clan heiress. My mother died while giving birth to me. I was alone but father loved me and my maidservant, my friend Miku was the best person I could have asked for in my life. I was very happy with my life. I was never good with my clan techniques, so father suggested that I learn medical ninjutsu instead. I knew that father killed people for money so I asked him all the time to stop doing it. We could live like normal people. Maybe we would have less comfort and less food on our table but we would have lived peacefully. Father was a shinobi and he told me that it was his job and without it not only us but everyone depending on our family would suffer. So, I relented. It was a beautiful day, like today. I woke up in the morning, Miku greeted me and brought me breakfast. The day was peaceful, I took care of my little herb garden, played with my father a bit. I spent the day without a care of world and then it happened. I did not know how it happened or why it happened. I was in my room combing my hair when the door was crashed open and Miku came rushing to me. I asked her what happened but she did not answer me. She took my hand and hurriedly took me to my father's room. I could hear the sounds of battle, cries of mercy and my father's shouts of anger. I grew anxious and I asked her about the whereabouts of father, but she did not say a word. She opened a hidden compartment in the room and told me to stay there. She told me to not come out regardless of whatever happens, she told me that no matter whoever tells me to come out be it her, father or anyone else, I should not come out or answer anyone before atleast a day passes. Then she handed me a box and locked me in the room and left. I waited in that room holding that box for I do not know how long with only darkness as my companion. I could hear father's voice telling me to come out, I could hear Miku's voice telling me that it was all a joke and the playtime was over but I did not listen to them. I stayed silent and did not come out. It was more than a day when I came out of that small dark room as I could not stop resisting the hunger anymore. I, I wish I did not come out. Miku's naked, defiled, bloody corpse was laying there in front of me. I could not think of anything else after seeing that. I cried and ran, searching for my father, shouting his name but all I could hear was silence. Father's favourite color was blue and he often wore his blue yukata when he was home. I recognised the dress in an instant. H..he was lying down there on the floor but I could not see his face. His head was not there with his body. I do not know how I escaped from there but I remember that I ran, I ran like a coward. I ran with everything I had, thinking it was all a dream, that after sometime I would wake up and all of them would be alive and well. I could not wake up from that dream no matter what I did. I ran until I was unconscious. A group of samurai going back to the Land of Iron found me someday after that. I woke up holding this box. The is the only thing that I have left of my family".

Takeru did not know how to respond to this. He knew his mother had a history with shinobis but he did not know this. He thought maybe she was a kunoichi in the past but after hearing everything he did not know what to do. Her mother was the last surviving memeber of a fallen clan. Her whole family was massacred. At that moment Takeru did not see his always gentle and loving mother. He saw a young frightened girl trying to escape the horrors she experienced and failing miserably. Akane was crying, whimpering silently. Tears were rolling down her face. Takeru stayed standing there silently and after a few moments he spoke softly, - "I am sorry, mom. I, I did not know. I will tell sensei tomorrow that I would be leaving the team. I promise I will apply for the fuinjutsu corps. If you want I will join medical corps. You just say it and I will do it". "No, you will not do that. I will not allow you to. You are a shinobi of this village. You train all the time and work hard to achieve your dream. I will not allow my selfishness to rule over your future" - Akane said with a tear-stained face. "But what if I want to? What if I want to quit being a shinobi?" - asked Takeru. "You will not do that, I know you will do something like that but it is your dream, Takeru and I will support you with all my heart. So, I forbid you from doing stupid things like that. You will go to missions and you will come back to me alive. Promise me, Takeru that no matter what you will come back home, promise me" - asked Akane raising her voice perhaps for the first time ever. "I promise, mom, I will come back home safely no matter what" - Takeru hugged his mother tightly and stayed there. After a few minutes Akane calmed down. Then she took the box and handed it to Takeru, - "This box contains everything about Ito clan, our legacy, our history, our ancestors names, our techniques and everything. This stayed with me for almost two decades but I had no use for this. This belongs to you now. Although my clan ended with my father but I was and am still the heiress of the clan. And I appoint you as the clan head of the Ito clan from now on. Maybe you can put these into good use". Akane smiled slightly. Takeru also gave a small smile and asked, - "So, about the mission, should I…". Akane interrupted him, - "You have my full permission, and do not talk about this ever again". "Alright, I will do that. Thanks mom" - Takeru nodded. "Alright, now I will go. You go to sleep, Takeru" - Akane got up, smiled at her son and left the room. Takeru stood in the middle of the room holding the wooden box, a storm of thoughts in his head. He sighed lightly, put the box inside his locker and went to bed. Too many things happened today and he needed a fresh mind to sort out everything. The history of his mother, the massacre of a whole clan, the true reason she was against the decision of him becoming a shinobi. The implications of today's events made him think. And with these various thoughts in his head Takeru fell asleep.