There are no special stories or amazing feats to be found here. No. This is just a normal life for someone, who grew up poor. Takehiko is the son of a fisherman and a drunk, a rather despicable man, who didn't really care about whatever happened to his kid or his wife. It might appear to be a pretty bad life, but it actually wasn't. His mother was a really kind woman, a tailor, but she wasn't meant to be and died in an ''accident''. The use of the word ''accident'' is rather loose as it involves his drunk father being drunker than usual, something about having a really bad catch that month. Sure not a good thing, but by then Takehiko was already used to hiding and avoiding his drunk of a father, though his mother, sadly, hadn't been as lucky.
No matter, he doesn't really hold a grudge towards his dad, no, but he wouldn't really rush to his deathbed when the time came. The two had a strict professional relationship and nothing more was really involved at all. The kid didn't really have any other relatives, so it really wasn't surprising when he left the house to never return. For a while he wandered the streets, stealing in order to survive. Sure it might not be the best way or the most honest way to live, but to a eight-year old kid that was about the only way to survive. At first it was sort of hard, but as time went on he got better and better at what he was doing and it would be a lie if he said that all that hiding from his father hadn't been a huge help to him.
Months passed in this way and nothing really changed until he got caught stealing from a travelling merchant, or at least what Takehiko believed to be a merchant. It turned out that he was no trader, but that isn't really the point. The kid had messed up and that was it. Greed had overcome him at the sight of a delicious meal and he had lost control, revealing himself in the middle of the act. The man who caught him was a shinobi from Kumogakure and again it would be a lie to say that it wasn't a good thing.
Up until that point Takehiko hadn't really had a real goal in his life. Daily survival was all that really mattered, but that soon changed. The shinobi who caught him decided to take the kid in. Maybe he had felt pity for him or maybe the practice the boy had in stealing things had impressed him. It didn't really matter at all as the result was the same- he was entered into a shinobi school. Again it was quite the uneventful time in all honesty. Day after day it was all the same, well for a time at least. During his second year at the academy that happened. What is that you ask? Quite simple an ''inspector'' came to the academy. The man was an ANBU looking for potential recruits and whether it was good or bad luck Takehiko somehow managed to end up on that list.
How you ask? Well the story goes like this. Being the stupid kid he is he had gotten punished that week. It wasn't a hard punishment- without lunch for the time period, but why should he do that. He knew how to steal without being caught without any trouble after all. The first few days there hadn't been any issue at all, but on the last day that inspector came.....the kid got caught.... his punishment got worse. End of story you might say, but no. That ANBU had taken interest in the kid and after finally graduating from the academy off to ANBU training it was.
Everything was going smoothly really, but there appeared to be a distinct lack of goals in his life even after all that time. He appeared to have no real ambition to move up the ranks at all, but that didn't mean he wasn't good at what he did. It was quite far from it really, but Takehiko did avoid accepting any task that involved brutal murder even if his strengths were rather suited for the task.
Years passed as he learned his new profession, but something was different now – instead of struggling to feed himself he actually had more than enough money to sustain himself. He began helping people who were in the predicament he had once been in, but that didn't really interfere with his work at all. It was a simple existence, but it wasn't a bad one and through all of it life just went on....