Setsuna Tatsuo

"I am a weapon forged for Kirigakure's future."

It all began with a man named Setsuna Masanori. With his power and that of the man who would one day be known as Shodai, he united a broken people under the banner of the Setsuna and thus a new clan was born. Forever in the debt of the Shodai, Masanori pledged his clan's loyalty to the man and his rising village, Kirigakure no Sato.

Such has been the tradition each generation has honored.

Fast forward a generation, a child was born unto Masanori's eldest son, Tetsuo. Having witnessed the first Shinobi World War first hand and the effects that it had on the village. There were some who were traumatized with what took place, even a few who up and abandoned the village. Disturbed by this turn of events he went to the Nidaime and requested permission to start a program to train the perfect soldiers for the village. It took a few years but eventually the Nidaime agreed for a trail run of Toy Soldier Project.

Seven children were selected from the clan to be part of the project, of which included the six year old Tatsuo. The next few years tend to blur at that point. On a daily basis they were fed information about chakra, ninjutsu, genjutsu, anatomy, as well as various battle strategies; when lectures were over they were sent to train in the arts of stealth and taijutsu. As they grew, their training only intensified. Regularly they were pitted against savage beasts and dangerous criminals to heighten their survival instincts. It was a horrible life for a child to live, but they had no choice. They were weapons of Kirigakure.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

After seven years of specialized training it was time to show their talents and become official shinobi of Kirigakure. The exam was simply enough for Tatsuo. He took a quiz which he passed with ease and he had to fight one of the top academy students to showcase his skills. The fight took less then three minutes, and resulted in the child being rushed to treat his injuries. Without question Tatsuo was awarded the status as genin, and shortly after he was placed into a team of his own.

However, the time that he spent with his team was nothing more than glorified field practice. His true sensei was his father, who took considerable interest in him after proving himself to be the poster child of the Toy Soldier Project. Of the seven, Tatsuo showed the most progress in terms of combat and held the greatest understanding of chakra. He was the perfect person to learn Masanori's nintaijutsu.

His training began a week after he became a genin, which mostly consisted of him learning how to tap into his chakra nature. As the years passed his training continued, and his use of chakra flow became more and more refined. By the age of fifteen he was proficient enough to use it practically in combat. A year rolled by and his team had just finished the Chūnin Exams, with Tatsuo being the only one that passed.

Shortly after the promotion he was summoned by the Nidaime and offered a chance to join the ranks of the Oinin. Without hesitation he accepted, and so his training would begin again. Fortunately, due to his prior conditioning he fit right in with the Oinin and other ANBU.

Everything seemed to be going good for him.

At least, they were until he was tasked with hunting down a nukenin by the name of Rishimi Atsuchi, a war veteran who hated how the Nidaime was running the village. Tracking him down was easy enough for the three man team Tatsuo was leading. The issue came from actually killing him. Despite having him outnumbered he managed to hold them off for three days. In the end, Tatsuo managed to kill him but not before suffering severe retinal damage from one of Atsuchi's fire attacks. Though the mission was a success, Tatsuo's entire career as a shinobi laid on the line.

For weeks he remained in the hospital, his eyes bound by gauze after the doctors did everything in their power to save his eyesight. He never felt more useless. His sole reason for existing was to be a sword for Kirigakure and if he was blind then there would be no way he could continue being a shinobi.

When the time came to remove his bandages he still retained some of his eyesight, although it was severely impaired, only able to make out general shapes and colors. He soon fell into a deep depression afterward, often calling himself a broken sword. Fortunately, one of his friends managed to help him through his depression and during his rehabilitation Tatsuo began to develop a new talent.

With his eyesight diminished his hearing was amplified, and he specifically learned to hone in on the sounds of the heart beating. He spent the next three years refining this new skill and finding a way to incorporate it into his kenjutsu. By the end of his rehabilitation, he came out an even more efficient fighter than before and his eyesight had started to show signs of improvement. In the following two years he was promoted to the rank of Jōnin for his remarkable skills in assassination and abilities with the sword.

Soon enough, war broke out in the mainland and Kirigakure found its way into it. During this time Tatsuo was sent mostly on assassination missions to kill enemy commanders and lead ambush missions. However, his shining moment in the war was when he lead one of the attack divisions into battle that lead to the destruction of Uzushiogakure.

With the war having come to an end, Tatsuo has returned to Kirigakure. He does not truly believe that the fighting is over, as such he is ready to return to the battlefield at any given moment. Though, he would prefer if the peace lasted.