Masaru's Training

With a sigh, Masaru let himself lean against a tree, and gradually fall into what could be called a sitting position. While he was somewhat comfortable with his chakra level and his speed, he still needed to work on other things, such as his strength, his stamina, and his overall physical durability. Well, that was what training was for, was it not? That thought in mind, Masaru pulled himself up. While he had been doing some training the past few hours, he had no intention of stopping now. Hrmf, he could rest when he passed out from exhaustion.

What should he start with? Well, he could challenge his stamina by first working on that, and then moving onto something else. With that in mind, he began leaping through the training grounds, not really testing the limits of his speed, but rather intending to see how long he could get, before he ran out of energy. Well, now that he thought about it, there was no reason to not try to become a little faster while he was at is, and as such he increased his speed as much as he could, rapidly flying through the leaves of the treetops of Konoha.

Well, that was how it was, initially. With him jumping from one tree to another, and while that tested his reflexes, he had to dodge quite a few branches, which he could have sworn was not there a minute ago, it quickly became somewhat boring. Why not make a sight-seeing tour of some sort out of it? He smiled a bit at the thought, and wondered when the last time he had been around Konoha had been. A long time ago, he believed. These days all he seemed to do was being at the academy, training, and studying, which did not leave much time for experiencing Konoha. He did not regret spending his time as he had done in the past, but he would be glad to see his village a bit, although it would be in a blur most of the time, as he did, after all, have to train.

While he would prefer not running through the streets with the speed that he was going at, he had no qualms about leaping from one roof to another. The villages were probably used to shinobi more or less flying around the village. At least Masaru was slow enough for him to be spotted by the naked eye, as opposed to some shinobi who were all but invisible to civilians. His little trip brought him around Konoha. Some of the places he recognized were due to having been there a lot, such as Ichiraku. Nobody could really call themselves a true inhabitant of Konoha without having been there at least once. And while Masaru had not been there for some time, he had been there quite a lot in the past. And while he saw it only through the corners of his eyes, it was enough to make him smile, with it bringing memories back of some of the time he had spent there.

He did, however, not stop there and get all nostalgic. He had to train, and as such it would not do to stop to see everything he had a memory about. As such, he merely flew by the Academy as well. He spent quite some time there every week, after all, so there was no reason for him to stop and stare. However, the circle pattern in which he had run eventually brought him back to the training grounds that he had started at. When he finally stopped, he could not help himself but pant heavily, quite exhausted from the trip.

However, not enough to make him pass out from exhaustion, which meant that he could still do plenty of training that day. That in mind, he headed towards another training field, in order to find some boulders, which he would most likely not be able to lift this day. Instead, he would have to do with training with some of the larger stones. While he could not imagine himself smash a stone with his bare hands, he should surely be able to lift some of them, right?

Well, his first attempt never even got off the ground, literally. The rock that he had chosen was way too large for him, and after a few minutes of trying to ruin his back, he silently conceded defeat to the rock, and moved on to something lighter, something easier to lift. And he did find something. A rock that only the very strongest civilian would be able to lift, but most ninja would probably be able to lift it anyways. As such, Masaru had to try, at the very least. And while he barely got it off the ground in his first attempt, he was able to lift it higher and higher as the time went on, allowing himself to smile between attempts at lifting the stone. He was getting stronger, albeit slowly.

WC: 836
+1 stamina, +2 speed, +1 health

Approved for Appropriate Rewards

It was yet another day which was not going to be spent at the academy, which meant yet another day where Masaru could do some training. Was he getting obsessed with this? Maybe a little, but who said that it was a bad idea? Well, apart from his step-mother, as she did not count. Some of his teachers at the Academy seemed to be a little worried once they heard about how much he trained, but how would he become great without training? If in any way, it would be slowly. And while Masaru did not mind taking his time to do things, he did not like delaying things for no reason. And he saw no reason not to become a great ninja right now, which meant more training.

It had been some time since he had training his physical strength, so he decided to start on that. As for how… Well, he decided that he might as well start by punching some trees or something. He had heard that some ninja were capable of punching through rocks, although he heavily doubted that he would be able to do that soon, if ever. Nevertheless, he could not let petty things like reality let him down in inspiring him to do some training. Although he would not start with punching rocks, no reason to render his hands useless for no reason, he nevertheless moved over towards the rocks and boulders of the place.

He moved over to a boulder which he had tried to lift before, and just like last time, it did not move. Well, he told himself that it might have moved a little, but nowhere near enough to consider it to be lifted. He moved onto a rock, which he had lifted in the past, albeit with some difficulty. Hopefully it would be easier this time. It ought to, right? It did turn out to be easier than he remembered, as he had no problem lifting it up in the air, and then holding it there for at least as long as he had done last time he did this, probably even longer. Well, even a pawn could turn into a queen by enough hard work, so maybe he would obtain the strength needed to smash rock with his bare hands one day?

That day was, however, still a long time, Masaru was reminded, as the strength in his arms failed him, and he let the rock drop, as he had thought a little too hard to notice the strain the rock put on his arms. Thanking his speed for saving him from what would at least have resulted in the inability to train for quite some time, Masaru sit down, letting his arms rest for a while. Maybe it would be safer to do something which did not involve lifting a rock over himself?

That thought in mind, he moved back to the main training ground, and found one of the training dummies, and started punching away at it. While his hands got bruised quickly, not to mention the fact that they began hurting quite a bit, Masaru kept on doing it for some time, until he once again had to stall the training, out of concern for his arms. Well, while his arms rested once again, he might as well do something else useful.

Well, it had been a while since he had trained using chakra in his own little training sessions, or at least it had by his standards. He started out with seeing if his chakra control had worsened. Well, he was able to climb one of the trees at the training grounds using only his feet and the chakra he focused under them. After coming down to the ground again, he started molding chakra in larger amounts than what he had used for the tree-climbing, as he was now going to try to make a few clones. Hopefully they would not be as pale as they had been before he really got started with practicing his chakra control.

With a smile on his face, Masaru looked at the two clones he had made. In fact, he looked quite a bit at them, inspecting them, as if he was daring them to be even a little bit pale, because he had not used enough chakra to make them. He thought that one of them looked a little paler than he remembered himself looking like last time he was looking at a mirror, but that might just be because he had been training for some time, and thus a little exhausted. Well, they could be mistaken for him, so that was all that he needed from them right now. Well, it would be nice if they were a bit more durable and could impact the environment so that people could not instantly see that they were clones due to that, or because they had no shadows.

WC: 821
+2 strength, +1 stamina, +1 chakra, +2 JP

Approved!