Tonotsuchi's Super Strength Training! (Part I)

"Alright, I think I've gathered all the ones I could..." Tonotsuchi nodded to himself as he examined the lineup of an assortment of light-to-heavy objects he could find. Today, he planned to work on his physical strength, as he found that a necessity in becoming a strong ninja.

He reassured himself in his mind. "If I could drag all of these here, I'm sure I can lift them all and hold them up high for...7 minutes each. Shouldn't be a problem." He seemed sure of that, but as his eyes shifted to gaze upon the heavier objects there...he became a little worried. But nonetheless he decided to begin the exercise.

STAGE 1: "LIGHTWEIGHT"

In all honesty the lightweight object weren't too light; or else it would be rather pointless to add it to the training. The first thing here were a single mid-sized boulder. Tonotsuchi decided to handle the boulder immediately and walked up to it. "Well, it doesn't seem to amazing, so might as well get this over with." With this, he crouched down, and put a grip onto the boulder from the sides. He then grunted as he started to lift it up over his head. As required, he had to do so for seven minutes. As he stood there with the boulder, his left eyebrow furrowed. To any normal person passing by, he must look either incredibly suspicious, or worse supremely idiotic. So he thought of an idea that made him at least feel it'd be worth a try. "Maybe...I could balance it on my head instead? It'd be much more difficult..but...it may pay off." That's what he guessed out loud, but really he just wanted it to be less of a possibility for someone to see him...

He closed his eyes for concentration as he kept his balance while going down. Inch by inch he got lower as the sand shifted as he did, and eventually he was sitting cross-legged, holding the boulder up. He could feel the sweat trickle down his forehead and he wasn't sure if it was because he was holding the boulder and shifting himself constantly, the intense heat of this damned desert, or a combination of the two entirely. Breath drew from his nostrils heavily as he began to lower the boulder to his head. Finally, the boulder found balance on top of the cranium. Tonotsuchi crossed his hands together in his lap as he kept the slightly heavy object balanced. However, it wasn't too long before he started to wince a bit.

"Shit, why did I think of this?! I think my head's gonna be crushed..." He could feel the weight of the boulder starting to overcome him, as his head was leaning forward more and more, and eventually it'd be so dangerously forward there would be the possibility of it crushing his skull into the sand. As it happened, he started to lose even more concentration, starting to panic. His breathing was erratic now. But he then remembered what the point of this training even was, and this led him to calm down. His breathing began to even, and he achieved balance once again. The boulder started to feel a little lighter now, indicating something was working, he just wasn't too sure what.

By that time seven minutes had already passed by. Tonotsuchi took the chance to throw the boulder off of him and sigh loudly, laying flat in the sand.

"...This would actually be relieving if I wasn't in the damn desert." He grumbled lowly, glaring at the beaming sun.

STAGE 2: MIDDLEWEIGHT

He stared at the next thing he had to lift after his brief rest. It was a strange, spherical object he found buried under the hot desert sands. Tonotsuchi wondered why he even bothered to carry the thing here considering his small grudge with it. Metal is a good conductor of heat, you could imagine how much heat it absorbed being underneath the hot sands of a beaming sun. His initial contact with it was bad enough to feel like dipping one's hand in boiling water. Luckily, he suffered no serious injuries.

"This thing is rather odd, isn't it...?" He stepped around, circling it while he examined the object. It almost seemed alien. It was a perfect sphere that was a shiny silver, even the tiniest spec of dust or sand would slide right off of it's smooth and warm surface. When Tonotsuchi crouched down to get a closer look at it, he could swear he saw the specs of sand going directly towards it, then sliding up towards the top and then away as if some sort of magnetic repulsion was happening from the metallic ball. He blinked twice to make sure he wasn't seeing things, and then he saw it happen again. He was quite surprised. "I have never seen such a thing before...just..what is this ball made of? And where did it even come from?" He rubbed his chin in thought, humming a bit in contemplation. He couldn't seem to come up with any good answers currently, so he decided to carry on with his Strength Training. Next thing to lift for seven minutes? The metal ball itself.

He sat down cross legged as before and put a grip onto the ball's sides. It wasn't bigger than the boulder, really. He could almost cover the entire thing with his hands alone. "Now, I just-...?" As he was lifting it, it didn't seem to budge. He tried again and once again, it didn't seem to budge. He held his breath and braced himself the third time, and with a surprising amount of stress needed to, he lifted the ball up with both hands, just above his lap. His eyes were wide with surprise as he lightly panted. Whatever it was made of, it definitely was much heavier than anything else he could recall lifting.

"Unbelievable, this little ball is heavier than the boulder ever could be! There's no way this would be able to go on my head. I better just hold it as normal..." He wasn't expecting it to be as heavy as it was. The metal sphere was starting to seem more and more strange to him with every passing moment. He held his eyes shut as he concentrated on the initially simple task of holding it for seven minutes. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Until he felt something slithering on his leg.

His eyes snapped back open, as he immediately looked down. He tensed up greatly after he saw what was touching him. It seemed to be an extremely poisonous type of snake. One false move and the thing would most likely bite him. After looking at it thoroughly, he saw the snake was rather small with dark purple spots running down it's back. The poison of this snake would probably cause paralysis and death not soon later. Tono was in a rather bad situation. If he were to drop the metal ball and try to move, the snake would surely bite him. If he didn't move however, he would either die from the stress or the snake would surely bite him. His options seemed bleak. He could only think of one thing that would allow him to move without disrupting the snake currently slithering on his leg, and that involved once again putting the heavy object onto his head. But this was much heavier than the boulder from before. He realized there was little margin for error, but he had to do something lest he wanted to be poisoned!

He slowly started to lift it, he could feel the weight of the ball really this time because of his strained arms. They've done nothing but lift for quite some time now, and doing it anymore was becoming very strenuous. His teeth were gritted together as he finally managed to lay the ball onto his head, and not only was it hard because of it's weight, it's perfectly spherical shape had made it very easy, and very possible for it to roll right off of his head. He quickly made the hand sign.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu." A single clone appeared in a puff of smoke, quickly grabbing the snake. The snake hissed loudly and nearly bit the clone as it was thrown away far enough to not be a bother again, hopefully. The shadow clone then balanced the ball on top of the original Tonotsuchi's head as it began to wobble slowly. After a while, the shadow clone disappeared and Tonotsuchi was focusing well with the metal ball on his head, as he stayed completely still. Seven minutes had well passed.

Soon, he grabbed the metal ball into his hands and stood up, stretching. He cracked his neck as well, the training had made him stiff but he felt it went fine enough in the end. "Still not finished...this thing was already a handful and yet I have another challenge waiting for me....and it's hot." He grunted as usual at the heat of the desert, he began to wonder why he even decided to live here in the first place. He vowed to himself to eventually move to a place with more even weather one of these days.

"Of course, this bowl of heat has it's perks, it makes for a good place to learn discipline." He nodded thoughtfully as he walked, starting to carry the metallic ball under his arm. Whatever it was, he was going to keep it. Just...for curiosities sake.

Approved then.