Though their story was not an epic, it was not without it's heroic beginnings. Katsuro Satoki was a higher-ranking shinobi of his home who spent many years honing his skills as a shinobi. Anei Kimura was also a shinobi at the time, though considered a rank lower than Katsuro at the time. The two had very little interaction with each other, though Anei was well aware of Katsuro's existence in the world. She had been admiring him for most of her time as a ninja, though it was purely from a skill standpoint until a particular mission brought them closer in a romantic sense. The two were organized in a squad to eliminate high priority targets and after Anei jeopardized everybody's safety and risked her own life, Katsuro had come to her rescue.

It was a rather cliché story, though it was what sparked their relationship. Eventually Anei gave up the life of a shinobi after determining that it wasn't the life for her. The two were wed, and they had a single child four years later. After those agonized months passed, Arata was born. He had the face of his father and the hair and eyes of his mother. Arata was born as a healthy boy and he grew up admiring the life of a shinobi, though completely oblivious to the dangers that would await him later in life. Arata adopted the name of his mother rather than his father's, out of paranoia that the enemies of his father would seek to harm his family. Katsuro was a shinobi who had been around, after all. He had to do things that he wasn't proud of and he made enemies.

Arata was enrolled into the academy upon reaching the appropriate age and found himself in his element. The life of a ninja was everything Arata expected it to be, and he was just as excited as ever to surpass the limitations that he was believed posses. The entire academy experience was made difficult by Arata's apparent lack of ability to preform Genjutsu. Could it have been his ignorance of the subject? Perhaps. He found himself dedicating much more time to practicing ninjutsu and honing his taijutsu abilities. Arata didn't seem to think that he needed genjutsu, and he hasn't thus far.

Neither top of his class nor bottom, Arata did his best to make a name for himself. He worked hard to climb through the ranks and took on every lesson he was given with enthusiasm and gusto. He put his all into everything and anything he did. Because Arata's father was such a prevailing and steady guidance figure, Arata received a little extra push in the right direction. Weeks past, then months, then a year or two. Arata had learned all that he would need for the upcoming years as a genin. From the simple skills such as throwing kunai and shuriken to learning and memorizing every hand seal, Arata pretty much had all of it under his belt by now. He was determined to graduate and move on with his life.

Despite his very obvious weakness towards Genjutsu, Arata did just that. He earned his headband and rank as a genin as a reward for all of his hard work. This was only by the time he was twelve however, the regular age for graduation. Arata found that he didn't work particularly well in groups. This was mostly due to himself however, not others. He just preferred working by his lonesome. His training was supervised by his father for the most part. Most of his effort was dedicated towards advancing his taijutsu abilities. While chakra and ninjutsu were still a large part of his regimen, Arata liked the ability to dominate an opponent with his physical prowess rather than relying on an arsenal of jutsu to do the trick.

During this time as a genin, Arata still made his fair share of friends. He experienced what every kid his age was meant to. He got himself into trouble, more often his own fault than not, and learned from it. Now, Arata stands ready to take on whatever the world throws at him. With the skills he's wanted to develop for the majority of his life now under his belt he's much more confident to collaborate and work with others.

Katsuro stood in silence for a few moments before Ayame began with her instructions. He took a quick look around at his team mates. They both seemed pretty skilled, but their level of expertise was not what was important to Katsuro... It was their level of fun! He didn't want to have to do missions and train with a bunch of sticks in the mud, but they seemed like a cool bunch, so Katsuro wouldn't make any observations just yet. He finally turned his head to listen to Ayame give the three their instructions for the exercise. There were apparently twenty red tags, fluorescent at that, on the bottom of the lake. It was one damn deep lake too. They'd need to get two orange ones, or was it that there were only two orange ones to get? He was already confused... Getting down would be the hardest part though, probably. But, Katsuro had a plan!

That was it, apparently. Amaye disappeared, but not before telling them that they could begin. She didn't give them a time limit, so Katsuro took his time with removing his equipment. He watched as Zenjiro jumped head first into the lake and then disappear under the surface. Before Katsuro jumped in, he removed his sword and holster and set them on the ground. He also removed his shoes and legwarmers, which were set beside his sword. Next, off came his shirt and weapon's sash. The only thing left on him were his ankle and wrist cloth wrappings and his shorts, and he was finally ready to involve himself in the exercise.

“Alright! Let's get started!” he shouted out, showing little care for who could hear him. Katsuro planted his feet firmly on the ground and slammed his hand into the ground. His fist actually penetrated the soil and went down to Katsuro's elbow. As he pulled his arm back out, a thick gauntlet-type piece of armor had collected and compacted itself onto Katsuro's right arm. Without saying anything else, Katsuro assumed a different stance where his bare feet were still planted firmly on the ground. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs to their limits, and thrust both of his hands in front of him, towards the sky. A large pillar of stone rose from beneath Katsuro's feet and launched him into the air over the lake. Katsuro held his arms and legs out and began to laugh hysterically, the view was amazing from up here, and he was about to pull off the sickest cannonball ever!

Well, the cannonball would have to wait, he had an exercise to complete. Katsuro pointed his heavy earthen gauntlet towards the water and began to fall. He fell fast, too, and penetrated the surface of the water with relative ease. The gauntlet had not only broken the surface of the water so that Katsuro could fall through safely, but the weight was also dragging Katsuro down at a very fast pace. He reached the bottom of the lake, where he would barely see anything, and began to search for the tags. The pressure from being so far down in the lake was difficult to stand, and it made holding his breath that much harder, but Katsuro spotted a tag nearby and slowly made his way over to see if it was the color he was looking for.