AN: So apparently if the Naruto wiki is to be believed for the payouts on missions which I never looked into beforehand, then Takezou has enough money to buy several houses and furnish them. like what the fuck, apparently A-ranks payout anywhere from $150k to $1million Ryo, and he's done what like at least two of those now.

Anyhow this chapter is like cleaning up loose ends as well as a few extra bits.

Chapter Title: Misinformation
Sub Arc - Down Time

Three months had passed already since I had gotten back from the mission in the land of snow.

the crackle of flame and ember emphasized by the smell of paper and pine burning, touching my senses and making me smile as I watched it all burn. All the notes and profiles of people I had made for myself in case I had ever forgotten them, all in a bonfire I had created. Nothing but ash remained of the writings, that was how I wanted it to be. There was something not too long ago that clicked in me while we were on a C-Rank to Wind as part of an Emissary to help patch up relations, the something that made me decide to burn it all was watching Gaara do paper work while this old lady cackled like some sort of Oni forcing the boy to do the Kazekages work.

It was then that I had realized that I didn't really care enough if my memory was degrading and not to mention it all became unnecessary or at least they had all become obsolete. I couldn't rely on it to get me through this life any longer. Sasuke was gone and I needed to start doing shit on my own.

I had been mad about the sand in my sandals for most of the trip though.

On another note apparently, they had just finished dealing with some invading force from a far-off land, it was classified for obvious reasons so they couldn't really say much beyond what was already public knowledge. Because who'd have thought that you wouldn't be able to cover an entire army sitting at the country's doorstep.

From what I got out of the Batman guy- uh… what was his name? oh right! Kankuro, yeah that guy, he was relatively fun to talk to and so while I was chatting with him he said that there was something about these Gelel guys and they wore armour that sounded like European knight armour. The whole situation sounded kind of cool, I wished at the time that I had been able to see them, but they had left some time after being defeated.

Anyway, seeing Gaara and his siblings was nice, they were interesting enough.

Before I had set fire to my books with the crap in them, I had to explain to Dad why I was standing in our backyard dumping my belongings into a metal brazier, he seemed content with me saying that it was shit that I didn't want anymore and asked if he could give me some of his old paperwork that was just clutter now to burn.

So here I was watching those books burn along with Dad's old papers.

"I hope you're going to clean that up when you're done, Takezou." My mother's voice came from behind me, I turned to see her wearing a peach pink t-shirt and light blue calf-length pants with strap sandals. Her blue eyes watched me, eyebrows arched as I scratched the back of my head.

"Ah… yeah I was going to, that's why it's on the concrete." Mum moved off to the side and sat down on a dark greyish black couch that was under a lip of the roof that stuck out from the house providing the seat shade.

The backyard was mostly Mum's domain, that being because Dad was more often in his study or out in the village doing stuff- I think he works temp jobs for civilians when he has time during the week. Anyway, the yard had Mum's garden of which she spent a lot of time in. It was probably my favourite part of the house aside from the kitchen, to give an idea- once you stepped out of the door into the yard there was a large stone/concrete raised block that had five stairs that went down to the actual grass part of it, the veranda had its posts in the raised stone.

Aside from that the yard was encased by a two metre tall brown fence- actually now that I thought about it our house was more westerny-European mixed with eastern, I wonder if that's what it was like when my parents got it? Or if they built it?

"Hey Mum, did you and Dad buy the house as it is now? Or did you buy the property and build it in the way it is?" I asked turning back towards her from watching the fire.

"Oh? Are you interested in why it looks the way it does?" she asked back curiously moving into a sitting position from having laid back on the couch.

"Yeah I suppose so, I mean the style is just so different compared to the rest of our neighborhood let alone the rest of Konoha." I replied.

"Ah, well back when your father and I first got together and we moved me to Konoha, your father brought the property and there was this old run down house on it, so he decided that he wanted to build our own house here. A lot of the inspiration for the outside of the house is somewhat based off my family's house from when I was growing up whereas the interior is based off his parents' house when he was growing up." She explained scratching her cheek as she thought back on it.

"Speaking of, what were your parents like Mum?" I hadn't really ever asked her to hear her talk about them.

"Hm… I suppose I haven't talked about them before then?" She said more to herself than me. "Well as you know, that Kekkei Genkai of ours was what killed them in the end, so I guess I could tell you about how they died from it." She didn't seem all that bothered talking about them, in fact I might say my Mother looked and sounded excited to talk about them. "But before that you might want to clean up then go get your sister and we can have a bit of a story time." She said, reminding me of what I had been doing, I quickly went off and did as she said coming back out and sitting next to her with Akatsuki in Mum's lap with Mum's arms around her.

There was a brief silence where she looked thoughtfully out into the garden at the shed and then seemed to find resolve.

"Alright, so let's start with your grandparents, my Mother's name was Chizuru Ittousai and she was a Shinobi for Kumogakure, while my father Fuyuki Rakurai was- well my father was… it doesn't matter what he was, by the time I was born he was a father that was always at home and that enjoyed spending time with my mother and I." She said taking a moment to trail off away from whatever her father had been.

"So?" I prompted her.

"Ah, well what happened was that around the time I was fifteen or sixteen my mother had retired from being a Ninja and stayed around at home or was out helping the small village we lived in. She did that because when she had retired a few years prior when I was about eight, we moved out into the more rural areas in the Land of Lightning." Mum paused waiting for my sister to stop moving around in her lap before continuing. "and so my father also did the same thing for the most part- they had trained me to fight, but only to protect myself and not for anything else. Anyway I'm getting side tracked, My parents had always told me that I needed to constantly use chakra and just throw it around so that our family death sentence didn't act up."

"So on this day what had happened was that Dad had been paralysed recently and Mum was looking after him, but he hadn't been able to use chakra for a long time and this slowly built up to a point when his body had so much circulating in it that eventually it couldn't hold it- Dad was asleep and Mum was unaware of what was happening, so all that chakra with nowhere to go eventually just decided to force itself out and the resulting aftermath had our entire house destroyed in an explosion and both my parents dead." She sighed as she began to run her hands through Akatsuki's hair. "Not a very exciting story, but it's something that we need to be very aware of- 'Tsuki, Take- just remember to always keep an eye on this and if anything, ever feels off then come to me or your father. This is the sort of thing that can kill us and I don't even want you to go through the same thing I had to when I was younger." Mum finished holding a serious but glum look.

"So is there anything else about your parents you want to talk about Mum? Like I mean what did your father do before you were born?" I asked bringing it around.

"Oh, well… my father… was… he- Dad was a mercenary, a very well-known one in the land of lightning for a long time before he had retired to live with Mum." She seemed uneasy about what granddad did, there was probably something there that she was uncomfortable with.

"So why did Chizuru retire from being a Ninja? Well aside from having a baby." I asked giving her a lifeboat to move on with.

"My mother retired before she was pregnant actually, she retired from being a shinobi because as she told me 'the bastard lot of them won't stop blathering on about how Men are better fighters' or that's somewhat paraphrased seeing as it's been something like three decades since she told me that, so take it with a grain of salt." There was a clock on the wall next to Mum and she looked it after she stopped talking. "Looks like story time is over, I need to head out for a little while." She said as she began to stand realizing that my sister had fallen asleep in her lap- I got a look from her that asked me for help.

"I've got her." I said as I picked my sister up in my arms and moved out of the way letting Mum past into the house while Akatsuki stirred in my arms.

"mrbl… 'Ake?" her quiet voice mumbled out tiredly.

"Yes, yes, your dearest 'Ake is here." I said back as I waked us to her room and set her down pulling the sheets of the bed over her and leaving her to sleep.

I sighed to myself as I left the room leaving the door partially open, I was glad to hear about what Mum's parents were like and what they did, but I didn't get the chance to ask her about whether or not she knew any Jutsu- 'cause I remember when Dad was teaching me the academy three that she helped out, and I wanted to know if she could actually perform them. I'll have to talk with her about it when she gets back from grocery shopping later today.

I mean she would have to know some though right? Because that would be the best way for her to expel chakra with our Kekkei Genkai, for now though I'm just glad it doesn't really start affecting us until we've started to have reserves build up, so Akatsuki wouldn't need to worry about that for a while yet.

[Getting Past It]

Slowly and calmly I breathed in through my nose, movements like the drawing of a bow had since become second nature with this action, as I did this I closed my eyes softly for the briefest second opening them in tune with the release of the breath. The following moments were filled with soft quiet words near inaudible "Illusions of innocence, cast shadows on tranquility." I spoke letting the arrow fly, heading straight and keeping its course despite the hundred and fifty odd yards between Yumi and I from the target.

There was a soft but still audible at range thwip as it flew until it made a thump when it hit.

"Seriously what's that about?" a female voice said off to my left, making me turn towards its owner who gave me a raised brow. "You know what I mean, you keep saying that stuff whenever we practice. Last time it was something like 'Immortality is a heavy burden, so fly now and shed that weight' or I think that was it." Yumi said, watching for my answer.

"Uh..." I just sort of starred at her with my mouth open making a dumb sound as my thoughts were in a blank state, I had to shake my head once- well she did actually before I made an awkward noise and she laughed at me.

"I'll take that as you not really knowing and it being some sort of thing that helps focus your mind and soul on the shot, kinda like what I've seen grandfather do actually." She said, continuing without me. "Though his are- well they kind of sound like incantations or something crazy like that, yours sound like..." she trailed off as though the words got whisked away in the midst of her thought.

"Hel-" I was cut off by her finding them again.

"A Mantra! That's it! yours sounds more like a mantra!" she seemingly cheered for herself at remembering it.

"I guess, I must be doing it when I enter that state, you know?" I said referring to that and yes I do mean that and not that other that. I laughed as she scowled at me.

She rolled her eyes as she began walking towards the targets in the Dojo's firing range "What? you mean Wu Wei?" she made a face at me before pulling the three arrows she had let loose out of the varying spots on the target while I pulled the four I had fired- three from the target and one that had gone off to the side and hit the wall when a large gust of wind had run through. "I've yet to really figure that out to be honest, grandpa says that I'll get it with time and whatnot, but it seems like one of those things where you have to accept a part of yourself that is hidden for a reason, you know what I mean?"

I gave a short nod, it reminded me of something I had gone through twice now, once in another life and here after the Chuunin Exam, despite what I had acted like at the time or well I suppose it had really reared itself during the Exam as well with the Neji incident where my mind just flicked that switch that everyone had. You know the switch right? The one that makes the difference between a civilized action you'd associate with normal and that primal human savagery that just wanted nothing more than causing pain, suffering and other horrid things people aren't even willing to accept is a part of them, no matter how nice and good they may seem. I know this because I had once learned about it before I passed and it was something that had stuck with me, well that and Asuma had pulled me aside when I was waiting for Hinata and Sasuke afterwards, he had talked to me about a look that he had seen sparked in my eye that I ought to keep an eye on because it was something that he'd seen people control and others fall horribly to its grasps.

It was just one of those things you have to learn about and understand on your own I guess.

We continued to train for another hour as the afternoon reigned in and the sky became that pinkish red hue, I was in the midst of removing all my Kyudo gear when the other people at the Dojo were leaving with one or two that were coming in to train in the late afternoon because they worked nine to five jobs, I said farewell to the people leaving and got a few hellos from the people coming in. Yumi had since already left while her grandfather was around helping some of the people get set up for training.

I did a few minutes of stretching before I finally left the Dojo and began heading home, my mind gave rise to an idea that I hadn't really dwelled on much except for in the moments they were relevant. Sometimes my mind would slip just enough and during those Kyudo practices the targets would appear human- like all those foes I've had the misfortune of fighting against, whenever I would come to see Orochimaru in them my breath would hitch while my heartbeat became sporadic, my eyes would be frenzied and uncertain letting loose arrows that would kill him dead in those moments of illusion. They scared me… not only because it seemed there was something deeper in my person that was scarred by the events, but because it was all in my head, I never fired the arrows, I never ceased up like I thought, when I came to, I'd be kneeling where I was moments prior as though nothing had happened and no one seemed to notice me.

I hadn't brought it up with anyone yet even though it's been a problem for these last months since after my promotion, everytime it happens I wonder why I ever decided to become another wretched fool for the slaughter like this… "those morons- truly are they the reason?" I spoke aloud casting it out in English as though I expected them to respond somehow.

My walk home was filled with more similar thoughts, upon seeing my family it was like all of my worries were washed away by their warmth and love, it was weird that, wasn't it? Just being in their presence had a way of clearing my head. I had no clue as to why it was that why, but it had been like that all of this life, something about them always made me feel safe in situations where my mind slipped and things weren't as they seemed to be.

[A Lot Simpler Than You Think]

A few days down the line I was with my aunt Ume and I decided to ask her a question because I had been considering something recently and she seemed like the person who would know about it.

"Ume? You have tattoos right?" asked her while she was in the middle of packing something from her lessons up.

"Uh… yeah? I do. Why?" she was obviously confused and I could understand why, this had come out of nowhere.

"You just seem like you would, and my reason was just that I was considering getting something and I thought you would be able to give me advice about it before I go and tell my parents." I explained.

"Right, well for starters your Dad has a few and really all I can suggest is that you think long and hard about it." she shrugged her shoulders and went back to focusing on the things she was organizing.

"Guess I'll have to ask Dad about it then- later Aunty." with that I left and went home to ask my father about it.

When I arrived home and talked to him he honestly didn't seem all that surprised I had taken interest in it, as well as that I found out that he had a black and white pair of Koi swimming around a Maple tree that had a Samurai wearing an Oni mask sharpening his blade stood next to it. Not what I would've expected for him to have on his chest. Though he had a braid of Plum and Sakura blossoms on a vine around the part of his arm that wasn't missing.

He also mentioned that Mum had four, a rising sun on red clouds for Akatsuki, the trust Kanji for Dad, a book and Katana next to one another for Me and an arrow for my older sister.

It was cool to find all this out but it made me spend a while looking into what I wanted to get.

AN: Still though, the least $150k for an A-rank is wild, I mean it makes sense, but like fuck.