Legends and Myths I [Advanced training][Private]

Having left his house in the uchiha clan district a few hours ago, Shizuka had been walking through the lifely woods of the fire country. Something about the flora and fauna in the fire country interested Shizuka. He loved the freedom the forest offered him to move around freely while not being able of being spotted by everyone due to the thick tree formations. Freedom was one of the things Shizuka had always liked from the time when he was still a kid, the freedom of growing on one's own pace. Though Shizuka had always been a fast learner with alot of potential, he was even called a genius and a prodigy in most occasions by his teacher's and clan members like his grandfather. Though life had been hard on him by taking away the life of his father and grandfather, he had also lost his closest friends in the Chuunin exams. Even though his life had been a rough one, he enjoyed life in the village.

One of the other things Shizuka liked about the forest was the solitude one had when roaming the lush, green paradise. Being able of hearing the crashing water in the distance, Shizuka picked up the pace and moved a little faster. Rushing past tree by tree in a few minutes, he eventually came out of the forest to see that he made it to his destination, the valley of the end. It was a place of legend, a place where the great ancestors of the village had fought once. The leader of the Senju clan and the leader of the Uchiha clan had fought in this valley, man to man. Though in the end, Madara was defeated by Hashirama and was not able of leading the village. As Hashirama became hokage, most traces of Madara disappeared over time, leading some to think that he left the country and other to believe that he had died. Though this was all history, Shizuka was living in the pressent, in a time in wich he had to constantly prove his strength to the village and the outside world.

Stepping up towards the edge of the cliff, he saw a large amount of water flowing down from the waterfall, then crashing down below before merging together with the great river again. Walking towards the cliff, he climbed down. Being cautious incase he would suddenly lose his footing, he kept his sharingan activated at all times while keeping an eye on his footing. Slowly but steadily making his way down, he focused chakra into his soles. Letting go from the wall, he dropped down about two meters and landed on the water's surface below him. Standing up straight, he was now in one of the most historic site's in all of the fire country. As the great statue's of Hashirama and Madara looked over him, he felt somewhat assured, like someone was watching over him. Getting ready to train, he sat down on a rock on the lower part of the waterfall while putting his shirt and body armor on a rock somewhere away from the waterfall so they wouldnt get wet.

As the cold water dropped down on his shoulders and back, he started meditating, increasing his concentration and focus. If he was able of staying focused while tons of water dropped down on his shoulders and while the crashing sound of water around him was always pressent, he would deffinetly be able of staying calm during battle. Sitting in the ice cold waterfall, it was very hard to keep his focus. Due to the cold, his body would go numb in a matter of minutes, but Shizuka had a rockhard determination of succeeding this trial, especially under the watchfull eyes of Hashirama and Madara. As the seconds turned to minutes, and the minutes turned to hours, Shizuka got out from the Waterfall with better concentration skills and alot of patience. As he got out, he quickly got into the sun to dry up and get back some of the warmth he had lost earlier due to the cold water.

As Shizuka had dried up, he got back on the water's surface with renewed stamina. Focusing his chakra to a certain level, he formed a string of handseals and created ten shadow clones with wich he would start his second fase of training, combat simulation. Calling up one clone after the other, the clone would use close combat skills to try and beat Shizuka. Either way, if he won, he got experience out of how to hit. If he lost, he would get experience and information from the clone on how not to get hit next time. Starting to exchange one blow after the other, the clone seemed to try and use a few acrobatic angles in fighting. Some high aimed kicks, some jump kicks and even trying backflips. Using his sharingan to copy eachothers move's, the fight dragged on for fifteen minutes. As the end of the fight came in sight, Shizuka became tired and the clone dispelled itself, passing his information on to Shizuka, making him even more tired.

Sitting down for a while, he ate some of the Onigiri he packed as lunch. Taking his sweet time to get his lost stamina back, he got back up and prepared for clone number two. As a second clone walked up to him, the two practiced climbing the waterfall while using the water walking jutsu. The one being the fastest would ofcourse be the winner, but would also pass the experience on how he would do best to form chakra under his soles. Charging up the waterfall, it was a rather hard thing to do. Deciding to use all the remaining clones to practice this type of water walking, it would perhaps be a better choice, the more people trying it, the more intelligence he would gain from it, though it would also tire him out more easily. As they started their charge, most of them got up instantly, while two of the clones failed and where crushed under water and the rocks at the shallow bottom. Along the way, many failed in their ascending movement. In the end, two clones and Shizuka remained, meaning that atleast six failed to get up.

As the information of six clones suddenly passed into his brain, the two clones caught the collapsing Shizuka and carried him to the river bank so he could rest up. Dreaming about what his father wouldve been like if he was still alive, he dreamt of his father seeing what he had become, a village jounin. Having a good time in his dreams while seeing the face of his father, he woke up realizing that it had only been a dream. Upon waking up, he dispelled his other two clones and went back to the village to get some rest and to show his face to the family, so they would know that he was still alive.

Once he arrived back at the village, he took a little detour, walking around the shops in the village. Stopping for some ramen at Ichiraku, he had a discussion about the uchiha clan herritage, and that there was no actual leader to the clan, though any strong and potent uchiha clan member could take leadership in the village, since it is the new settlement of the uchiha clan after the old one is now lost over the years. It fascinated him that the ichiraku chef had such knowledge of the Uchiha clan, but it was one of the legendary clans, and some of the clan might have dinner at his shop sometime. After eating atleast seven dishes of Ichiraku's ramen, he went home to get some rest. When he arrived home, he went through his junk in search for some interesting books or he could read. Digging through some old junk, Shizuka found a few old wooden kendo swords. Reminding him of his training with his grandfather, he remembered the day that he awakened his sharingan, and recalled that he never forgave him for treating him the way he did. "I forgive you grandpa" Shizuka said with a faint smile, knowing at his older age that what his grandfather had done was what made him a powerfull jounin today.

Putting the swords aside, he came across alot of other stuff in the junk pile that belonged to his grandfather. Finding an old, cracked Anbu mask, a shattered tanto and an old body armor wich resembled the one he wore under his shirt. Though it was fun to find all of these things, none of them actually had any value to him other then the emotional value. As he started cleaning up, he found a notebook. Finding alot of writing from his grandfather, he also found several paragraphes written by Busho Uchiha. His father wrote in this notebook, just like his grandfather. In Shizuka's eyes, this was most likely a very important piece of work if both of them had set their difference's aside in order to work together. When starting to read the documents, he read that it was about a lost uchiha foretress. It was said to be the former home of the uchiha clan, before they came to live in konoha a few hundred years ago. Though alot of the documents where in code, he was able of using his Sharingan to break most of the codes, getting out more and more out of the small notebook. As he wrote down the words and sentences he had decoded, the list started getting longer and longer.

After a while, he found out alot from the notebook, something no other Uchiha or shinobi would be able of figuring out on their own. Taking maps out of the closet, he placed them next to eachother so the area's would overlap eachother. Having figured out that some of the coded parts where actually not words but coordinates. Using these coordinates to set a square on the map, the area within the square was what would be the most likely be in that area. Though on the map, there was not supposed to be anything in that area. Closing the notebook, he saw a small note on the back. Taking it of, he opened it and saw his name. "If you read this, go to the uchiha clan shrine called the Naka shrine. In the main hall, beneath the seventh tatami mat from the far right, is a secret meeting place of the Uchiha clan. In there is a tablet containing the clan's secrets. The tablet can only be read with specific dōjutsu, with the Sharingan you will be able of reading half of the story, if you have obtained the Mangekyou sharingan, you will also be able of reading the other half. Here the secrets of the Mangekyō Sharingan are written, as is the story of the Sage of the Six Paths and the Ten-Tailed Beast".

Burning the notebook and the evidence, he only kept the note that was on the back, and the map he had created using the new coördinates. Heeding the words of the one that wrote the note on the back of the notebook, he went to the Naka shrine in search of the tablet the sage of six paths left behind. It was clear that Shizuka found something that was much bigger then him alone, and it was something that perhaps regarded all of the uchiha clan. Doing this not for himself, but for his father and grandfather, he wanted to figure out the rest of the mistrey, the part they never got to figure out. He knew about the Sage of six paths, but he never heard of a ten tailed beast, nor did he know of any hidden tablet and a secret uchiha stronghold. Being dead set on finding out what all of these things had to do with him and the clan, he geared up and prepared for a trip to the Naka shrine.