A young boy walked into an old shrine; it was his family shrine kept outside of the village of Konohagakure. It was there, but that was all that could be said about it. A ghost of its former self, a shell of greatness that once shone over the shrine. Yet, at the same time, it was his and his alone to look at, honor, and watch over.
As the sole remaining person of his clan, he was going to have to do his best to keep it clean and decent. It was an impossible task for an eight-year-old with nothing to his name and no support from those around him. He had just lost his grandmother, the person who mattered most to him in the whole world. It was not a good day; in fact, it was as hard as hell. He was at the shrine a few days after her burial, knowing that this place was her world.
After the death of his aunts, uncles, his mother, and father, Kaza Togusa had only his grandmother, who did her best to help and raise him with everything he needed to become a good person. He hoped that his life would honor her, leading a life fitting for someone of her light that she left him.
He walked along the old wooden floor, looking at the statues covered in dirt. Keeping this place up was hard for an old lady, and no one came to help her at all. Still, she had done her best and gone above and beyond expectations. She worked hard, kept it reasonable, and made sure to pass down important lessons of the Togusa clan to Kaza. In turn, Kaza worked hard to honor his unknown parents, those who came before him, and to respect those whose weight he carried as the last known Togusa clan member.
He wandered, the eight-year-old calmly looking around. His unique teal hair always stood out; he was considered unique, touched by fate, as his grandmother often said. However, he doubted that fact; he simply thought he had funny-looking hair. His hair was short and, as usual, a mess as he walked. His boots pressed against the old floor, and his long shorts and loose-fitting white shirt were hand-me-downs from a relative who had already passed away. But that was all he could afford, and they worked well enough. With little money, everything had to be used for food or the basics to survive.
He looked around the shrine carefully, hearing the sounds of animals in the woods around the place. The light coming down through cracks in the roof helped, but it was starting to show signs of age. The cost to fix the roof was way too high for him to cover, and thus, the shrine was destined to stay in the current state it was in at that moment in time.
As the youngster looked around carefully, he didn't see anything that stood out to him; he had been there so many times, offering the right prayers at the right time, as he had them all memorized as best as one could. He was about to head home when he noticed an odd metal-looking object hidden away in the back of the shrine. The area around it had worn down significantly. As he walked up to it, he pressed his fingers over the metal ring, growing curious. He found that the whole panel under a second one placed over it had been hidden for some reason.
Kaza worked quickly, his hands pressing to dig out the ring and pull on the panel, clearing off the other wood on top of it. Excitement and curiosity bubbled within him, and he wanted more than anything to see what was below the panel. He felt a palpable excitement as he pulled harder, the thrill of the moment and the curiosity of what might be hidden driving him forward. With a quick movement of his hands, he opened what turned out to be a ladder going down below into the foundation of the shrine.
As he descended, the excitement only grew, feeling his heart beating rapidly in his chest. He could hardly contain the excitement within himself. He knew that this discovery would be entirely new to him, and that alone meant a lot, considering how well he thought he knew the shrine. This experience had completely proven that notion wrong.
As he looked around, he found the area illuminated by some unnatural force. He wasn't sure what it was, but it seemed to emanate from a box at the end of the chamber. Moving forward, the entire area was filled with various carvings from a time long before. He walked forward, observing the light of the box intensify as he approached. His heart and mind were filled with excitement as he yearned to uncover what lay before him. He quickly crossed the space, examining the old silver box with the light seemingly emanating from within it.
The box seemed to emanate with a sort of warm light. Kaza reached down and pressed his fingers against the box as he looked over the cover carefully. He watched as it opened, revealing the glowing box below. It opened quietly, and the room felt so hushed in the early morning hours. Kaza gazed at the box, and suddenly, he saw something strange before his eyes, transported to another place and time.
His mind stood before another Togusa member, one he didn't know, who looked at him with a serious expression. The man stood strong and proud, with a smile on his lips, wearing fancy armor and sharing the same teal hair as Kaza. He had a proud look on his face. "Now, welcome. I guess you are my descendant," he said with a serious but proud tone, looking at Kaza. "Before you is the greatest challenge of your life, one that will test you and push you to your limits and beyond. If you are not able or feel unworthy, I suggest you never put that ring on. Yet, if you want to see if you have what it takes to achieve great things, go ahead, put the ring on, and work hard. The challenge will be a great one, making you question life and its meaning, challenging you more than any other ever will. However, if you can complete the challenge, the reward will be just as great. Now, you must decide which path to take: the safe one or the hard one?"
Kaza looked at the ring closely, having no idea what the challenge was, but understanding that it would be hard and push him. He took a deep breath, contemplating his decision. The easy way wasn't an option for him. There was no easy path for someone from a family perceived as failures. He, too, was seen as a failure, destined for a sad fate of being ignored and forgotten, regardless of his skills or talents. Shaking his head, he couldn't allow himself to think that way. He needed to focus on the moment and prove that they were not failures. This might be the only way to do that, so he had to take the challenge. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Kaza slipped the ring onto his finger, and as he did, he felt his chakra shrink rapidly. Everything became incredibly challenging. He fell to the ground, his body aching, and the simple act of moving felt like an immense struggle. He sensed the weight of the world upon his shoulders as he gathered himself, determined to move forward. Looking up at the ladder before him, he knew it would be a difficult journey, but it was the only way out. Slowly, he forced his body up, bit by bit, pulling himself up with sheer willpower. Driven and focused on his goals, he felt his breath heavy and his body tired as he forced himself onto the floor of the shrine. Pulling the panel back closed, he lay there for a good long moment, catching his breath, his body covered in sweat as he rested.
As he lay there, he knew the only path for him was back home, and he would have to make it there. He understood that every step was going to be hellish and hard, pushing his body to its limits with each one. Slowly pushing himself to his feet again, he almost fell down on his face but managed to move from the shrine, each step arduous and pushing every limit he could think of. Pain rushed through his whole body with each movement, and he wondered about the purpose of this trial and how it would ever help him. Did he make some kind of prideful error in putting on the ring? He had no clue, but the only path now was forward, towards his home. He looked at the ring, his hand fumbling with it for a moment to double-check, confirming that the ring was completely stuck upon his finger.
With a lot of effort, he found his path forward and pushed himself towards his home, a small place that had belonged to his family for generations at that point. He pushed open the sliding door and entered his simple room, falling upon his bedroll that morning, breathing heavily as his body slowly, hopefully, got used to the challenge of moving and doing anything with the ring on. He looked around as he breathed hard, lying there for a long time. He knew he had to get used to this; if he couldn't, he would be a failure as a student, and he hadn't even started that journey yet. He had a week to figure this out, along with the tasks of working, eating, cooking, and living with this ring. It was going to be really hard, a challenge in and of itself. Yet, he knew this wasn't the challenge he was told of; that seemed like it would be a more long-term struggle than just something that would happen in a single day, week, or even a year.
Kaza lay there for a few hours before he got up, slowly pushing himself more and more each time as he learned to move around the room. Each day, he expanded his world, giving himself a chance to move around and adjust to his surroundings. As the days passed, his world expanded a little bit, and he grew accustomed to the weight and challenge he faced each and every single day. He had to push forward and try to challenge the limits he had.
By the sixth day, he had pretty much regained the normal range of walking. However, he was undeniably slower and weaker than before, requiring more thought and effort in everything he did. Each advance was something to be proud of, an achievement that he could take joy in, as he wasn't going to back down from this challenge. He had accepted it wholly and completely. The teal-haired youngster knew no one would care about his struggles, and he had to push forward himself.
On the seventh day, Kaza moved around, going from his home back to the shrine as he worked to clean up. He spent the entire day with cleaning materials, working to clean the shrine as best as he could. Despite the limitations imposed by the ring, he refused to half-ass things. He toiled from sunrise to sunset, each moment important as he learned to work with the ring and simultaneously improved the shrine, keeping it presentable. While no one else might care about this place, he honestly did, and it was all he had left of his family. He did his best to honor his unknown parents and his late grandmother, who meant the world to him.
Each moment allowed him to adapt more to the challenges presented by the ring. By the end of the day, he returned home, knowing that the next day would mark the beginning of his journey as a ninja. His father, uncles, aunt, and grandfather had all been ninja, perceived as failures for never advancing in rank and dying unnoticed. They were generally seen as losers and failures of the village as well.