On The Fast Track [Solo]

Sweat trickled down his forehead as the young genin pried himself up off the ground, dirt and grit stained his damp clothes and dusted his glistening skin. Clutching his abdomen as he managed to struggle to his knees, he could feel his muscles tense and burning as they beg for more oxygen than he could provide them. Each breath was a fight in of itself, his lungs felt light someone had reached into his chest and were squeezing them. Perhaps even worse was that his heart felt like it wanted to beat right out of his chest, trying to escape the cruel punishment that Satomi had been putting it through all morning. Life had been speeding along quite quickly for the genin, it felt like only yesterday that he graduated from the Academy and now he's been asked to take the Chuunin exams upon a review of his mission records. The only problem being that he had been so busy learning support jutsu and training his chakra that he barely had an offensive jutsu at his disposal. On top of that he'd let his body trail behind as he trained his spirit, but that would all change. For several days Satomi had made his way out to Tekiatsu Lake in the middle of Hoshigakure's Tachibana forest to train.

After a few minutes Satomi was up on a pair of wobbly legs that gave him that newborn foal appearance, his breathing having somewhat moderately stabilized. This week of training was all about physical strength and endurance, but even so, Satomi wouldn't let his chakra dwindle in the wake.  Doubling down on his efforts, he combined the surface walking technique with his morning morning run over the lake. The uneven and ever shifting surface was simultaneously taxing on both his leg muscles and his chakra control, so much so that for the first couple of days he was forced to swim back to shore. However; as Satomi turned back to eye the barely-visible shore across the impressive man-made body of water he was about to start an equally impressive 124th lap across the lake this morning. Perhaps a feat that would even impress an old taijutsu legend.

“Still-- Not... fast enough.” Satomi muttered, his self-determination bordering on destructive as he took off across the water once more. The lake's natural waves were gaining in size and choppiness, as it fought the child's efforts to conquer yet again. In reality a storm front looked to be settling in over the star village and its nature reserve, the waters becoming more turbulent as the wind picked up. It just took a surge of wind to drive an unexpectedly large wave at Satomi, the genin losing out as the pair crashed into one another. Stumbling forward Satomi was looking to take another dip of defeat in the lake, that was before some quick thinking lead to the boy drawing chakra into his hands before planting them onto the surface of the water to catch himself. Using his momentum he pushed himself up and over back onto his feet to continue his sprint for the shore, the darkening clouds giving a thunderous roar of disapproval.

Satomi's feet feel heavy in staggered steps as he again reached the shore, his legs trembling as he sluggishly swung around to look over the lake just in time to be blinded by a brilliant bolt of lighting as it struck the lake's surface. Thunder crashing overhead to dare the boy to try it again, Satomi catching a the first drop of rain right between the eyes to sneer at the clouds.

“So it's a challege, is it!?” Satomi rolled his head to stretch out the muscles in his neck, getting a few satisfying pops and cracks from his spine as a result. The storm answering in kind with a crackle and pop of its own as another streak of lighting arched across the sky, followed by a growl of thunder. It was a tough decision, one that a stubborn boy with something to prove would of course consider the options logically before making a decision-- and Satomi already settled into a starting position as he glared across the raging lake. One more lap. Then... lunch! A small smile would creep onto the boy's face only stifled by the sudden rumbling of his stomach at the thought of returning to town for a nice hot meal, then gain that could have also just been more thunder.

Sure he could have taken the long way around and/or have waited out the rain, but it was a personal challenge to help unlock his potential. “On your mark. Get set.” Satomi's foot shifted and dug into the loose soil under him as he reached up and adjusted his headband over his furrowed boy. The storm wasn't the only surge, his chakra every bit as eager to prove that it was up to snuff. “GO” Satomi's words drowned out by the sound of another pillar of lightning assaulting the lake's surface and the accompanied rumble in the sky, startling the boy as it struck even closer this time in one last bid to dissuade the child from making the plunge. Of course you can never reason with a stubborn child and after a stumbling start Satomi was on his way, hurtling waves and fighting the extra resistance of a upwind draft.

The storm didn't take kindly that the genin would ignore its warnings and was through playing around, the sky lighting up over the boy as he trudged across the depths below and it was as if time itself slowed down as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end. In that moment all he could remember was having a feeling similar to the one he got from touching a statically charged article of clothing and the feeling of his chakra pouring through his body, reinforcing all maters of muscle, ligaments, and tendons. In that one moment he had feel more incredible than he ever had as his foot pounded the surface of the water and for an instance he the streak of lightning, his body blinking from existence just before the storm's own bolt made contact with where he had just been.

Another frustrated roar of thunder echoed through the clouds as the fury of the downpour increased. It didn't mater though, Satomi appeared as if though he were skipping through time itself as he would vanish from one point and appear almost instantly in the next further along. Whatever power he managed to dredge to the surface felt amazing, at least until it didn't. It became apparent just how harsh on his young body maintaining such speed was as his muscles began to burn and tighten, Satomi's calves cramping as his feet made contact with the hard ground as the made landfall. The sudden tension and pain sending the boy violently tumbling through the mud, a slave to physics the speeding boy rolled to a stop a few meters later in a crumbled mess of exhaustion and road rash.

“S-Son of a...” Satomi hissed as he rolled over onto his back and laid in the rain. His legs were numb and throbbing, the boy barely able to straighten them out as he tried to flatten out and enjoy the cooling affect of the downpour. Satisfied at the suffering of the young shinobi, the storm finally let up. The rain becoming just a trickle before it would stop entirely as the dark clouds passed and parted to reveal the sun again. It was a few minutes more before Satomi managed to sit up, discovering his body had received several nasty cuts and abrasions in his crash landing, another pained hiss squeezing through gritted teeth as he inspected a particularly nasty scrape running the length of his left shin. “Ow, ow, ow! That seriously smarts!”

The wound didn't appear to be threatening, but that didn't stop it from hurting any less. Fortunately a shinobi was always prepared and in Satomi's case that mean spending time nose deep in books and scrolls at the Kozai Yuki archives researching wilderness survival techniques in anticipation. Grunting as he learned forward, he tired to recall one of the chapters on basic first aid jutsu. “Oh man, what were those hand seals again!?” Satomi grumbled as his hands came together in front of him. “Tiger? No-- Rat! Ugh! Why didn't I take notes!” Grimacing as he pulled his leg up to himself, the genin dug deep to recall the information as his hands mimed several seals. “Rat... Snake. And boar?” He mumbled. “That sounds close, but I don't think that's the right order. Was it boar first? That seems more familiar.”

Slow, but surely the genin worked it out as unfortunately some of the feeling returned to his leg and with it the sting of his fresh wound. First thing was first, he had to clean the area first. In what could be a mild abuse of his chakra, Satomi allowed a stead stream to build in his leg. His limb faintly glowing with his chakra, forming a thin barrier over his skin to lift and discard the dirt and debris along with the blood on his skin, letting it roll off his leg and fall to the ground under him. “Good. Now to help speed things up a bit.” Satomi's hands were already working through the seals as he remembered them, Boar → Rat → Snake as he drew chakra into his hands. Having experience and a few powerful jutsu under his belt already this basic technique wasn't too demanding for the shinobi has his hands began to radiate an aura similar to leg a moment before. This time it was for a different purpose as he placed one hand over the back of the other before holding them both over the abrasion on his leg. The was a slight tingling sensation followed by an intense stinging as he allowed his chakra to seep from his hands and into the wound. The chakra infused his body's cells, encouraging healing and speeding up the natural process of clotting. A frown found Satomi's face as he lifted his hand to reveal a series of scabs marring his porcelain skin, so much for flawless skin.

Sighing as he reached into his back pouch, he removed a roll of bandages and proceeded to dress his partially healed wound before grabbing a nearby piece of driftwood to hoist himself back to his feet. Satomi groaned as the realization set in as he hobbled towards his way towards the path back to the village, it was going to be along shuffle back to the market center. “This stinks!” As that may be, there was a bit of lightness to his limp as he traveled the trail, a sunny day ahead for the genin.