Solo Stamina training

The breeze was nice on Maku’s face as he stood in the borders.  A land of bandits and cut throats, Maku had found them neither.  Perhaps he had just been one of the lucky ones, or perhaps the lands had been over exaggerated for their dangers.  It had been a long time since he had been in any real danger.  Perhaps this was his own confidence growing, or once again arrogance.  The purpose of his efforts would be to increase his stamina.  He had long known that he had powerful techniques, but it wouldn’t help if he was too tired to keep it going.  Because of this he knew he would have to train his body to be able to last longer in a fight.  He had had only two sparring matches up to this point, and felt that he was still largely untested when it came to combat.  Because of this, he was still worried about getting into any real confrontations.  However, if he knew he could last a long time in a fight, then he would feel better about getting into a fight.  Maku had left his two friends for the time being to train on his own.  Both still did not know of his summoning abilities and it was this that he needed to work with.  It had been several weeks, maybe even months since he had summoned his allies.  It was time, to revisit this lost technique and put it to good use.
 
Finding a comfortable position, across from the ocean Maku set himself up in a cross-legged sitting position.  He always hated this part.  Why did summons always need a blood sacrifice, it was a real pain.  Maku didn’t like pain, he guessed no one did, but he really despised having to hurt himself.  However it was a necessary sacrifice.  Pulling out his wakizashi and laying it across his lap he prepared to cut his fingers and draw the blood he needed.  Sliding his middle finger across the blade, he drew blood.  Taking his finger over to two separate positions he let a drop of blood hit the ground in two different spots.  He then bandaged up his finger quickly.  Rubbing his hands together and raising them above his head, Maku slammed them both down on the two separate spots of blood.  In a puff of smoke two crustacean creatures appeared.  Both looked vastly different from each other.  One was tall, standing several meters high.  He was gray and huge, known as the Rock Lobster.  The other was very small and bright red with spines out of its shell.  This one was known as the Bafukani.  Both in a way did the same thing by helping Maku in combat, though one helped by defense and one helped buff Maku’s offensive capabilities.  “Good to see you again friend, I hope you’re ready for some training.”  He said to the Rock lobster while he allowed the Bafukani to crawl up his body and attach himself to his head.  Instantly Maku could feel his body grow stronger form the influx of chakra. 
 
The Bafukani increased his strength, speed, and the toughness of his body.  Using this to his advantage he would be able to work harder.  And by working harder he would be able to increase his abilities faster.  It was a good thing the Bafukani increased his strength otherwise, it would be harder to move his head with the heavy creature attached to it.  Finishing up his stretches he faced the Rock Lobster who had taken up a defensive position.  Maku would begin his training regime by attacking the Rock Lobster ferociously.  Maku would first duck under a claw, and leaping up to striker the creature in the face.  The first strike was ineffective, as even with the augmentation to his strength, Maku still wasn’t strong enough to harm the giant Lobster.  Which, was probably for the best, since he didn’t have to hold back in these fights, and didn’t have to worry about hurting his training partner.  Maku dodged the next oncoming strike and leaped backwards.  Continuing with these pursuits Maku dodged claws and landed blows, all while being augmented by the Bafukani.  He was moving with a speed of 120 so the Lobster had no chance of landing a blow.  But all the same, Maku was only hitting with strength of 30 so he wasn’t harming the crustacean either.  Their fight went on for a long time, after all the point was to help him get his stamina up.
 
In fact the great Rock Lobster had to quite earlier than Maku had assumed he would due to fatigue.  Not being able to maintain its presence, it disappeared in a puff of smoke, causing Maku to fly through where it had stood, and land in the river.  Swimming back to the surface and to shore, Maku laughed.  It was after all pretty comical how that had just worked out, and Maku tried to find the joy in things like that.  Getting back to shore, Maku also allowed the Bafukani to return to its home.  After all the whole point had been to fight the Lobster which since he was gone, it was ok to let them both go.  Stretching out the kinks from the fight Maku stood and prepared for the next bit of training; after all he really had just started and wanted to get more out of all this.  Preparing for the next step in his training Maku did the one thing he could to prepare.  He took a nap.  Maku had been a lazy child constantly being told to get up and move by his mother, and over time he changed.  At first it was to bring glory to the waterfall village, but now it was to bring glory to himself.  Maku had enough of waiting in the village weekly, but in time perhaps these things would change.  Maku still wished to return to the village at some point, perhaps he could reclaim the village, perhaps not he wasn’t sure.  The waterfall village hadn’t exactly been the greatest place to him, but maybe if he returned it’d be different.  He wondered if his leader had even returned yet.  So many thoughts occupied his dreams as he slept away the time.  Maku dreamed of creating his own empire, full of ryo and power.  Of controlling his own village and having a lot of respect.  In the dream he saw shadows behind his form though, men who wished to take his power from him, and the shapes even seemed familiar.  Power begets enemies, and Maku saw himself lose and regain the power.  It was an odd dream, but one full of insight to his subconscious.
 
Awakening Maku began training again from the get go.  His dream had been an odd one that was sure.  Maku resigned to watch his back from everyone and always be vigilant.  He began by doing some running and such.  Very basic, but it always helped.  While jogging Maku was devising the next step in his endeavors.  He thought that he would attempt to work on his taijutsu training.  Finding a solid tree he set up to practice his punches and moves.  He also decided to draw his wakizashi and practice with it as well.  He held it in a kind of back hand hold, an untraditional hold.  It was this way that he could punch and bring the blade down at a different angle.  He practiced against this tree, for awhile.  Letting out three punches and then a kick, followed up by a slash with his blade.  Attacking this way a total of 15 times he had delved deep gouges in the bark of the tree.  His knuckles were also bleeding slightly from punching the tree.  Breathing heavily he relaxed for a minute.  He wondered what the next stage in his training should be, go for a jog, continue taijutsu training or something else entirely.  After all he needed to mix it up every now and then.  Keep the body guessing so he was constantly growing, his chakra stamina and his physical stamina.
 
Deciding on doing something different Maku prepared to practice using jutsu in rapid succession.  In this way he would put strain on his body.  He thought he would use his abilities and by practicing he would be able to do more and more.  He had already proven he could make both his summons appear at the same time pretty easily.  So now he would use his other jutsu, and work on performing them.  Using the mole technique he sunk underground and moved about.  It was harder to move underground and slower, but it was still effective.  Practicing, he stuck his head up and made a large mist appear from his mouth covering the area.  In this way he developed his defensive combo.  He would first create a mist to hide and obscure his chakra, and then go underground.  He would be able to sense where his opponent would be, while still hiding.  This would make it possible for him to find his opponents and use his genjutsu on them effectively.  He really only had two at the moment that he was using.  The temple of Nirvana and the Taki no Sekai.  Practicing his temple jutsu, he stuck one hand above the ground in a tiger sign.  This caused a flurry of feathers to appear in a 10 meter circumference around the area.  These feathers were a bright gold color, and fluttered to the ground.  The feathers if they touched anyone would cause them to go to sleep.  It was one of his basic genjutsu, but an effective one.  It was useful if he was trying to capture someone or scatter a large group of enemies.  Using this combo was a good way to also arrive in the middle of an area, and let lose the genjutsu to hit a large area.  Maku practiced this entire combination a couple times.  First mist, then mole, the temple.  A simple combo but effective nonetheless.  The other option was to use the Taki No Sekai if he was only facing one opponent, as it was his most powerful technique.  It also had the heaviest of consequences so he had to be careful when to use it.  He had to be sure he was moving in for the kill if he was to use it and nothing else. 
 
 
Finishing up with the combination jutsu Maku went on to do some good old fashioned classic strength training.  By finding a nice sized log he placed it on his shoulders and started running along the river.  He mused how simple of a training method this was, and yet how effective as he could feel the burn un his thighs and calves almost instantly.  He hadn’t been running long at all and he already felt that it was working.  Despite his nap he was still exhausted.  The repeated jutsu use, physical exercisions had taken their tole on his body as intended.  But that was the purpose after all, he needed to wear his body down, and let it get built back up again.  He didn’t need to be a marathon runner, but he had to at least be able to sprint a mile.  With his style of jutsu the fights would only last until Maku could get close enough to finish them with a genjutsu and then slit their throats as they lay drooling on the ground.  All the while he was thinking this he continued to receive the benefits of the workout from running with the log.  Tossing it to the ground, Maku stretched his back.  The weight had been killer on his back while he had been running but worth it all the same. 
 
After he had finished this, Maku began heading back to where his friends were.  He was happy with how his private training mission had gone, and was good with going back now.  He was glad he had found them, and had other people to train with now.  However he still enjoyed his personal training time alone from time to time.  After all he had grown alone as a ninja so it was hard to break that habit.  Reaching in his pockets and humming, he relized how poor he was.  He needed to get his hands on some ryo and he was getting increasingly desperate as to how he would achieve this.  The thought of stealing was even worth it now.  Killing even, Maku wasn’t sure.  He knew that ninjas killed as part of their job, but he had not had to yet.  His callousness hadn’t increased that far yet, but how long until it did.  He wasn’t sure.  He even began thinking about it, it wouldn’t be so hard would it.  The thought of that brat that had embarrassed him at the gate of the leaf village came to mind.  Yes that would be a glorious kill, but that kid he still couldn’t shake him.  There was no indication that he was a powerful ninja except for Maku’s own suspicion of him guarding the gate.  O well, Maku thought perhaps the chance would never come only time would tell.  For now he would relax and meet with his friends until further plans were made.

(Word Count – 2215, 11 stats, 22 jp)

!Approved!