Editing Saburo (Polesia) (section)

==Saburo's Childhood and Training==

Some time passed, and the three surviving Ichimitsu children grew and pursued their trades as their father saw fit. Shiro and Naomi were for the most part ignored by their father and trained mostly by others to use their unique talents to better their clan, while Hisoka put his full attention on his older son. They were the lucky ones.

Saburo's training was brutal to say the least. His father would drill him in the use of the bow until his fingers bled and his arms cramped. All this was made even worse by the fact that Saburo, from a young age, displayed weak eyesight, something that his father believed could be overcome by intensifying the training, and while this did give Saburo the ability to fire his bow and hit his target based on instinct, he was never able to master the distance that his father had. In time Hisoka realized that his dream of training his son to be his replica was never going to be realized. He continued to drill him in the use of the bow, but the training became more mundane and focused on increasing Saburo's speed instead of his distance. 

Without Hisoka's knowledge, Miyuki also trained Saburo, introducing the concept of Mushin (no mind) and teaching him some of the more basic precepts of Zen archery, which allowed him to fire his arrows with astonishing speed and accuracy, even surpassing his father in this regard. Saburo, during this time, also began to resent the Sasori methods of subterfuge and their "flawed" version of bushido, preferring the ways of his mother's people. For years doubt gnawed at him, as his dedication to honor made his responsibilities to the Sasori almost intolerable while simultaneously trapping him in his role as the eldest son and heir who was obligated to perform those duties.

Things worsened for Saburo as time went on. During his early twenties, he caught a horrible fever the wracked his body and seemed to sear his very being. Little to nothing could be done conventionally to heal the sickness, and by the time a shugenja of sufficient power could be brought to him, significant damage was done. After that Saburo was never quite the same, his constitution was weakened and he was given to fits of coughing every winter. But worst of all, the fever had damaged Saburo's already weak eyes so that he was nearly blind, unable to even see shapes more than a couple of feet in front of him. Hisoka was crushed by this and ceased most contact with his son, ending their training and his hopes of the boy becoming his heir.

For a time it looked like Shiro would become the new head of the family, a prospect that no one (Shiro especially) was particularly keen on. However, remarkably, within six months of losing his sight, several servants witnessed Saburo out in the archery range firing his arrows and managing to hit his targets at a fairly distant range. Hisoka came immediately, upon hearing the news, thinking that Saburo had somehow regained his sight. However, Saburo showed his father that he had set small bells on the the targets that would jungle in the slow breeze and allow him to fire his arrows at his mark, based on his hearing.

This remarkable story was of course a lie. Saburo had in a sense truly regained his sight, he simply no longer saw with his eyes. Either during the his fever, or the stress afterword, Saburo had awakened some latent psionic power that now allowed him to sense his surroundings in a way similar to his brother. Unlike Shiro, however, Saburo made certain never to pursue the "curse" further than simple perception to help him perform his duties. He kept a tight reign on his powers and never overtly manifested them, and came up with other explanations for his ability to walk about as though he still could see. There are some who doubt this miraculous ability, and some that even suspect it for what it truely is, but for the most part its simply accepted that Saburo is extremely skilled at his craft and many lament the possibility of what he might have become had he not lost his sight. The only one who truly knows Saburo's secret is Shiro, and the young Himitsu has kept his mouth shut on the matter, knowing that no good would come of the truth.

In recent years Saburo has taken his monastic leanings more to heart, knowing that he still has a long time before he can retire from this life that he loathes, but still doing what he can to purify his soul from the distasteful actions that his clansmen call honor. He will do his duty to his family and to himself, but he despises every moment of it.