Just another day of training.

Nobu gathers his things up, readying himself for another day of fierce training. It didn’t take particularly long for him to get ready today, eating as much food as a few moments will let him and dashing off to the training grounds. This training was going to have to be another intense one, as Nobu still wasn’t strong enough with his Taijutsu skills. Sakaiza had been seemingly toying with him, Nobu unable to land much more than a few blows. He was faster than Nobu by a great deal, and his Gentle Fist style was fairly impressive. Nobu felt like his own physical strength might have been higher, but Sakaiza’s speed and grace in combat were too difficult to combat.
 
“I guess my training regimen just is not good enough then! I will have to double and triple up on all of my training! It will be two-hundred laps around the training grounds. And with boulders on my back for resistance! I will not let anyone stay better than me! My Taijutsu skills will surpass those of any shinobi that practices the art, no matter who they are!” Looking for the biggest, heaviest boulder he could Nobu squats down, places his hands firmly under it and hoists it to his back much like a “piggy back ride”.
 
This rock was rather large, but Nobu notices that it’s weight wasn’t anywhere near as noticeable as it had been before. All of the physical conditioning he was doing was making him stronger, much stronger in fact. “But still not strong enough…” Nobu would immediately begin running as fast as he could around the training area, the shifting sands beneath his feet only increasing the difficulty of the task along with training his balance and footing. Lap after lap, Nobu ran. People would look on with confusion at his methods, but they had proven successful so far and why fix what is not broken. He had been on the seventieth lap as a young Academy student had tripped trying to move from his path. He had to try and stop, but there was not enough time. Thinking quickly, Nobu decided it would be best to jump over instead of trample the young one. Leaping successfully he lands in the sand and loses his footing, the boulder falling on top of him and crushing his body into the sand. Luckily most of the impact force was spread through the soft sand beneath him.
 
Nobu slowly rises to his feet, noting the difficulty of leaping and keeping ones footing while carrying the boulder. “That is how I will finish my laps! I will run and jump trying to keep my footing in the shifting sands underneath me. That should up the intensity of this otherwise bland training!” Nobu was getting more and more excited for this, as he felt he was not so far behind Sakaiza that he would not be able to catch up in ability. Finishing the now jumping laps around the area, Nobu would head over to his favorite rock and begin to do push ups with the boulder still on his back.
 
“I will do push ups until my body refuses to do any more!” Nobu would say as he lifted himself for the first rep. Continuing at what seemed like a fast pace, Nobu would crank them out one by one, “one hundred seven, one hundred eight, one hundred nine….one hundred ten” This last rep was starting to become harder, as his muscles eventually began to tire. “No! I cannot quit now! I must continue, for the sake of my dreams!” Pushing onwards, Nobu would continue until he had reached around two hundred before his arms gave out from fatigue.
 
“Is this really all I have? No! I will not be bested by another!” Slowly pulling himself up, he heads over to what appears to be a punching post made of wood. Wearily walking over Nobu begins to strike the post with everything he has in a fantastic flurry of blows. The post had taken hit after hit until if finally gave under the strain of his punches. “It appears that wood is not capable of standing to my power. I will have to find something better to condition myself on.” He says this as he looks around the area. All that he could see besides the wooden training posts were several large rocks sticking straight up it would seem. “Those will have to do.” These rocks were fairly large, easily twice the size of little Nobu, but he knew that this was the only way he would be able to condition his extremities for striking the durable bodies of shinobi.
 
He begins with a solid hit, punching what would likely be the chest region on an opponent. Nobu could feel the sting of his strikes, each one hurting more than the last until adrenaline eventually dulled the pain. Striking harder and faster with each passing moment, Nobu quickly found himself seemingly damaging the rock. He recalls the first time he had stuck a rock like that. It had busted up his hand pretty bad, and the rock was none the weaker. Now the force of each hit was shaking the rock to its base.
 
“I should also start practicing conditioning my legs for impact as well. Technique and speed alone won’t be enough. A well placed block could shatter my shin…. I’ll have to focus on toughening it up and building more power in my kicks. If I strike someone, I expect them to feel it.” Nobu immediately begins kicking the stone with even more force than he had with the punches. He felt as though his fighting style had emphasized the legs, as they had longer reach and more power in them than the arms or fists.
Each strike was now causing small cracks in the stone, and these would be weaknesses in its defense that Nobu would exploit. Putting a great deal of force behind his kicks, he would attempt to repeat the technique he had used on Sakaiza, the Evening Elephant. This move was incredibly powerful, and was Nobu’s trump card if things were looking rough in a battle. He particularly prided himself on learning it, but it always took an enormous strain on his body to perform.
 

Placing several high speed strikes aimed at the rock, Nobu watches with glee as the stone shatters from the impact of the strikes, each large chuck being caught in the vacuum like pull of the Taijutsu maneuver and again being broken into even smaller pieces and so on and so forth. Nobu looked down at his body, sweat pouring from every place it possibly could. His heavy cloak was fairly drenched, but he still wipes the sweat from his brow on his hood and looks to the sky. He had not even noticed it, but during all of his training the day had gone by. It was now dark out and for the first time ever he looked at the sky not with a sad look at the blistering hot sun but with a smile at the cool desert sky. Stars could be seen all throughout the sky and Nobu just fell back and enjoyed the view before returning home exhausted. 

(Exit)
Total WC: 1213
Claiming Rewards:
1213 Words towards Mastering Evening Elephant (Making it 1601/4250)
6 Stats