Tripping out, tripping down [solo, nk]

Now that he was finished with the jutsu, all the remained was to train his body and mind. Mostly just his body, his mind was pretty fit and ready for the exams as it was. So, all he needed to do was actually prepare his own body for what was to come. He remembered reading about a particular exercise with water droplets in a book he'd read. Yes, unlike many of his classmates, he did bother to read books instead of just automatically attempting to forge ahead with training. There was a great advantage to planning out what you wanted to do before you did it. Merely "playing it by ear" didn't satisfy him at all. 

As the beautiful sun rose up at the crack of dawn (no audio included), Kiichi rushed out, jogging along a worn path toward the training grounds. The shinobi were a newer presence in the village, so the grounds were commandeered (or at least, so he thought) from areas that had once held condemned buildings. After all, it only made sense. What else would the shinobi in charge do? Evict and bulldoze fully functional residential homes? Not particularly likely. Still, considering the enmity between the villagers and the ninja, Kiichi wouldn't have been surprised...

Reaching the training grounds, the sun had slipped behind some soft clouds, giving the morning a false cool feeling. Just you wait for an hour or two, he thought to himself. Then it'll really start burning up. Better to try and get done before then. A slight... memory? showed him someone running along the chain fence. How were they doing that? Right, the surface walking technique. One that he didn't quite know yet. That was fine, he didn't have time to learn that more intricate technique today. Besides, his training speed for things like that should speed up after he hit genin.

So for now, he would focus on making his body more powerful. His body was stranger than most, being able to have a higher chakra level than others. The volume of that chakra, though was something that could sure use some work. He knew already from the academy that he possessed a water nature, but that didn't matter much now. What did matter, though was that he kept it in the back of his mind for later. In a few days, he'd probably be able to cast techniques that could split trees and the like. 

Now, how about.... well, he had just finished running, so he cooled off for a bit by walking a couple of laps around the grounds. He was the only one there, so he attracted some rather hostile stares from the folk around him. Hah. How amusing that they should hate him for such trivial reasons... If they had been strong enough to resist, there wouldn't have had to be any kind of bad feeling between the two parties. Finishing his cooldown, he proceeded to start trying some chakra exercises. These wouldn't last for too long, of course. He knew that he'd gain access to better techniques when he became genin, so for now, he tried doing some pull-ups.

Grrrrngh... up! Hold it there.... then back down. Rinse and repeat.

That strange premonition came to him again, and he followed the instructions. God, that burned. Whoever had done this before in these strange visions must've been good at it. He could still hear that unnaturally deep voice counting off. 60, 61, 62.... 

He had barely made it to 30 before he had to stop.

"Aooowhhh...." Damn, he'd have to practice this some more at a later point, because he certainly couldn't handle it right now. There was a limit for him, and as he had just started on his long journey to self discovery, it was a pretty low bar indeed. He had to lift it higher and higher through fortune, hard work, and smart decisions. Now, there was his arm training, and in part, his abdomen as well. For his legs, he walked over to a training dummy. The short run he had done earlier wasn't enough, of course, and he jogged in place slightly as he thought about what he would have to do next.

Methodically, he raised his knee, then slammed a kick into the side of the dummy. The solid frame of the dummy shook slightly, but there was no way Kiichi was as strong as the man he sometimes saw in his mind. God, what was going on? Before he'd started pursuing this goal, he'd only seen flashes like this only once or twice... Whatever, everything would make itself clear soon, or at least so he thought. He lowered his foot, thinking about what he'd seen. Wherever these visions had come from, the man there had casually blown a dummy away with a simple kick. Well, even if he couldn't do that, he could at least practice.

He threw another kick at it, this time with the other leg. This continued on for some time until Kozogami's legs began to burn. Whew, not bad. Time to stop for a bit and stretch. Cooling down, he focused on each muscle group, stretching it out and maintaining a cool air of focus in his practice. Kiichi felt his body loosen and limber up, which was a good sign. He ought to be ready for the good old fashioned genin exams now, he thought to himself.

Heading back home, he was no longer plagued by visions now that his training was done. There was definitely a pattern here, he just needed to figure out what it was. Only time would tell, but he was still a little frustrated over it. Still, his body was ready now, after a good amount of training. He clenched his fist, and felt what he thought to at least be a good amount of power. Nodding, he walked back into his room and got ready for the next day. There were big things ahead of him, and he didn't want to miss a thing.

[TWC 1006,
5 stats]

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