A high hill to climb (training)

‘So, it all begins here’. These were the first thoughts of the young Wei Feng as she stepped into the first classroom of the Kumogakure ninja academy for the first time in her life. It was from here she would hone her skills, learn new ones, learn to fight, survive, and become a ninja. She would refine herself into more than just a girl, more than even just a ninja. She would become what she needed to be, anything that would help her on her ongoing mission and goal, to find the one who saved her life. Before she could even think of embarking on that though, she had to gain skills to be able to fight and survive in the world. That’s where these classes came in and oh boy were they going to be more than the young girl expected. To be honest, she didn’t know what to expect, the idea of being a ninja was very new to her but she knew she’d need to become one to acquire the skills and strength to fulfill not only her main goal but her own desires to protect and fulfil her duty to Kumogakure.

From the moment class started she was tested and pressed hard. First was physical conditioning. To fulfill the physical needs of being a ninja, standard sit ups and jogging wouldn’t be sufficient, more intensive methods were required. First were push-ups, simple, right? Not so much. Weights were placed on Wei Feng’s back, starting at 20 lbs. a piece, two weights being put on her back to start. It felt more like torture then training at the start. She pushed hard, gritting her teeth and fighting even to get just one push up. It felt like minutes of constant fighting and pushing, all while being watched and surveyed, but finally she managed to push up once. She sank back down though, huffing and panting, cheeks flushed and already her body felt like it was pushed further than ever before. This wasn’t entirely untrue, for the most part she had a comfortable civilian life before this. She wouldn’t let this stop her though, she couldn’t, even as tough as this seemed she couldn’t give up.

She clawed her fingers into the floor narrowing her fuscia colored eyes. She began to push up again, gritting her teeth and looking straight onward. She didn’t really care if it seemed like she was getting too intense for her first physical conditioning class, she took this seriously. Two push-ups became two, two became three and so on. By the time that her first class had ended she had managed ten push-ups with 40 lbs. on her back. Her progress didn’t go un noticed, her professors complimented her drive and determination but advised her not to hurt herself in doing simple training exercises. She felt mixed about this, considering while the criticism was constructive, she didn’t want to be impeded by mere weights. With a resigned sigh she made her way to her quarters, resigned to try and improve tomorrow.

The next days’ classes shifted away from physical conditioning and shifted to classes focusing on training with actual ninja tools. These classes not only helped with honing one’s reflexes and familiarizing them with their ninja tools but also trained students reflexes and hand eye coordination. Working with instructor’s students started with the basics, kunai. Picking up her first kunai ever, Wei took position across and a few feet apart from a practice dummy, holding the kunai a bit tensely as she tried to figure out how to throw it exactly. Her instructor wanted her to try and throw it on her own before giving instructions. She took a deep breath and drew her hand back, taking a moment before bringing it forward to throw. As expected, the kunai arced into the floor and hit with a clattering noise. While feeling no embarrassment the young woman was a bit disappointed, wanting to provide a better showing. Her instructor consoled her though, saying that students hardly ever threw decently on the first try, or even the first few tries. Wei nodded and took her place back in line. The rest of the day had her observing throwing techniques, how muscles moved and functioned in the throw and going through the motions herself. By the time class ended she could hit much close to the target, albeit still hitting the floor around it. Progress was progress.

The following day featured survival themed classes, not all tasks a ninja would perform were city centric. You had to know how to survive in the wild, and how to thrive on nothing but what nature could provide should bad circumstances arise. These classes were outside, a refreshing change of pace. Wei followed the instructors into the prefabricated environment, mostly mountainous like the rest of Kumogakure, areas reminiscent of forests and rugged mountainsides. She learned how to spot edible berries, fungi, and foliage should supplies run low; following that tree and mountain climbing were next on the agenda. In both circumstances harnesses were provided for the first few times climbing, more to get someone used to the feeling of climbing something before taking that safety net away (of course they also wouldn’t let students fall should their handholds fail). This was honestly the more fun parts of the classes so far, climbing seemed to come easy to Wei, climbing easily thanks to the aid of the harness, as well as beginning to recognize solid places to grab and hang onto. The day concluded with her being one of the few in the class to reach the top of not only the practice tree but also the practice cliff. These would be the classes that primarily made up her training, each increasing in scale and eventually providing new challenges.

The next few physical conditioning classes were progressing rather well for Wei, it took her a while but 40-pound push up became something she could consistently and regularly preform. She advanced another 10 pounds, making it a total of 50 lbs. that she was holding up as she did push-ups. Gradually she conquered even that. Physical conditioning wasn’t just about strength of any one part of the body though, a ninja had to be quick and they had to have stamina. The next set of tests that weren’t strength related focused more on the endurance aspect. Jogging seemed easy enough but Wei soon found they weren’t running one or two laps, they were consistently jogging through to the end of class. Her lungs felt like they were on fire, and her claves felt like dead weight by the time class ended. Not one to feel daunted by the idea of running tell exhaustion, she began to focus on a more maintainable speed, burning less of her energy and putting less strain on her lungs. She proved to adapt quickly, building stamina over days of classes, and becoming a student who tended to be at the top of the class. She didn’t hold aspirations of being the best, trying to achieve a place on a pedestal served one ill in the long run, or so she believed. Finally came the agility training. In part, the endurance training helped in some regard with building speed, it certainly taught the importance of not trying to go fast and exhaust all your energy. Speed only made up a component of agility though, balance, reflexes, these were all important. Timed obstacle courses featuring obstacles that needed to be blocked, jumps needing to be timed, and other such devices were used to help train up agility to suitable levels. Wei’s first few jaunts through the obstacle course were…. less than great. One of the more important jumps she needed to make which featured a receding platform she mistimed, falling into a small pool of water. This resulted in a very soaked, very cranky Wei Feng. Thankfully she wasn’t really the type to get embarrassed easily, if anything it spurred her on to do better. As classes passed by her began to get the timing right on jumps, be able to dodge obstacles that would try to smack her off the course, or even fly through gates or choke points that would slam shut and bar passage. As time progressed she was acclimating to the physical lifestyle of a ninja.

There were still the other aspects of her classes she had yet to master though. Learning the tricks and tools of the trade that ninja made use of were an interesting, albeit difficult, aspect to master. Kunai were but one tool they trained in, shuriken and senbon were also tools that students were expected to learn and practice with. Having a bit more variety this time around, Wei deviated from kunai and this time tried shuriken. Hoping for a better first time throw then with the kunai she gave a toss with a shuriken… which went wildly overhead. She grumbled in irritation, making the instructor chuckle and tell her once again that it was unlikely shed get her first throw with any of the tools to connect. She acknowledged this, but still hoped to see better results than she was currently seeing now. She took up a senbon then, deciding if nothing else to try all three in the first day, just to see what the feel was like for each. When she gave the senbon its throw, her aim was still off, but it passed jus to the side of the target versus missing it wildly. She paused, her instructor taking note of her near hit as well. She took another senbon, thinking, making a few practice motions. When she was fully satisfied she threw the needle again, this time hitting the outer rim of the target. She couldn’t explain it but the feel of the senbon just felt…right. Like it had a better feel in her hand and throwing then the other two did. Her instructor praised her, taking note of her apparent affinity with the senbon as well. Over the coming weeks her senbon throwing would travel closer and closer to the center of the target, one day finally hitting it dead center. During this time, she of course practiced with the other tools eventually becoming proficient enough with both kunai and shuriken to be on the board at least. Training with the tools of course helped with her hand-eye and depth perception too, providing training within the training itself. She was beginning to grow more and more accustomed to ninja tools and was gradually looking more the part of a ninja. While she knew she could always improve and there was ever more to learn, she was gaining confidence and boldness in her training, becoming more at ease with trying new types of training and learning new skills.

Survival classes were the last real step she had to make in her initial training courses. She enjoyed these classes a little more, why she wasn’t totally sure, maybe because they were outside and she felt less confined, but that was beside the point. Climbing was just one trick they needed to pick up while taking these classes, other things they needed to learn were how to set up shelters, construct fire, identify edibles, and learn how to survive in the wild for missions taking place outside cities. Wei really thrived here, she was enthusiastic about learning how to set up and deconstruct camp, surveying land and learning how to blend in to foliage. She wasn’t perfect though, she tended to be rather poor at identifying edible flora, thankfully avoiding anything seriously poisonous but still more often than not mistaking normal berries for ones that might make her very sick. She was counseled on being a bit more attentive about identifying foods, but otherwise she performed well in learning survival skills, being one of the top of her class. With the conclusion of learning said skills, her basic training was complete, now she moved on to the more advanced, and unquestionably more difficult matter that all ninja must learn, jutsu.

The morning of the day where she began to practice jutsu, Wei arrived early, a little nervous about the transition to learning more advanced techniques, she wouldn’t let this stop her though she wasn’t the kind to back down. Two techniques were required to pass her exam and let her become genin: shadow clone and transformation. Starting with shadow clone she was paired with an instructor, who first demonstrated the technique, effortlessly creating two copies of himself, even preforming a sequenced acrobatics act to show just what could be accomplished when one mastered the technique. Impressed, and emboldened by the display Wei told her instructor she was ready to learn.

In some areas of training shed been a pretty quick study, picking up skills rather quickly, this was not one of those areas. For the first few days it had been almost impossible to get clones to appear for her, be it because she was unused to using her chakra, or because she was getting the hand signs wrong, it was uncertain. It was hard not to get frustrated, but stressing out and becoming frustrated wouldn’t get her anywhere. Finally, some results came around the fifth or so day of practice. She managed to finally get the hand signs down, managed her chakra properly. She made the signs: ram, snake, tiger. In a small puff of smoke, she finally managed to create a single clone of herself…which was so anemic you could see skeletal structure. She dismissed it in a small fit of panic, her instructor nearly falling to the floor in a fit of laughter. After a few minutes of calming the situation down she tried again. Mind focused, chakra managed. Ram, snake, tiger! A puff of smoke and another clone…. which was grossly overweight to the true Wei. She dismissed it again, growling in annoyance, her instructor excusing himself to privately go laugh himself into stitches. Clearly this would require time and effort…

It seemed like night after night she practiced, both in the company of her instructor and by herself. Time after time comparable results: fat, skinny, fat, skinny. Again, it was a test of her patience and a battle against her frustration, failing in either sense would cause her results to be poorer than the last. Sighing in frustration she finally called it quits one evening, quickly finding herself getting nowhere anytime soon. She looked at herself in the mirror of her room; why wasn’t she getting this? It was one of the simpler techniques, wasn’t it? She looked down, mulling things over as she trudged to her cot. It wasn’t the hand signs…it wasn’t chakra…it had to be her. She studied the technique over and over, and she didn’t seem to be doing anything wrong… maybe she was the problem then? She focused on the technique so much… maybe she was losing sight of herself? She took a deep breathe getting up. One more time. She took her stance, managed her chakra, made the signs: ram, snake, tiger. All the while she thought about her personal quest, what it meant to her. She activated the technique and in a puff of smoke, a perfect clone was standing opposite her. At last.

That was the easy part though, the hard part was yet to come. When she demonstrated her successful clone technique to her instructor, she could progress onto the transformation technique, the hard part. This was one of the hardest techniques to learn early on, and she had to learn it for her exams, otherwise she wouldn’t progress. She wouldn’t let it stop her though, she beat one technique and she wouldn’t let another stand in her way. With steeled nerves and a determined heart, she stood before her instructor, ready to learn the final technique shed need before taking her exams. She’d beat this challenge, and any other set before her if it meant fulfilling her goal and honing her skills more.

The instructor demonstrated the technique first by taking her to a more natural environment, then made the hand symbols, turning into a perfect replica of a nearby boulder, even further demonstrating the use of the technique by having Wei close her eyes and turning into another piece of the environment and trying to have her find the change. The technique was useful, that was certain, all she had to do now was learn it. Learning the hand signs turned out to be the easy part, it was focusing enough to turn into something that was difficult. For the first few times she tried she couldn’t transform into even a simple rock or stump. She shrugged it off, continuing to remain calm and not be phased by failure. Days passed, she made better progress than with the clone technique because of her conviction to her goal and not losing sight of herself. She had yet to successfully transform into anything yet but her instructor continued to give pointers and she took certain initiative to get closer and closer.

It was on a cool day in the mountainous countryside that she finally managed to perform a successful transformation. Constant practice and determination had led to a successful flash and the transformation into a stone like the ones strewn around. It wasn’t perfect, according to her instructor, her transformation stood out in the environment, smaller details like texture or shape caused her to stand out. Despite this, she knew it was a step in the right direction and shed use it to propel herself in the right direction. More day’s passed, transforming time and time again refined her technique more and more, eventually advancing her form to a heightened level. She was still far from perfect by the time her instructor told her she was ready, she had trouble getting texture and more minute details down but for her level she was more than adequate. She was armed with the tools, she had the conviction, the rest was in her hands at this point. The night before her exam she took a deep breath, steeling her nerves, the time was now and she was ready.

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OOC: 
WC: 3034
Requesting: 10 stat points = 2000 words
Techniques: Clone Technique & Transformation Technique = 500 words a piece for 1000 words

(A big first step, hopefully its adequate ^^ let me know if theres anything I need to do or amend.)

bump

Stats and jutsu may be claimed with the same wc so you’d be able to claim another tech if you’d like. 

If not this is approved.

oh, my mistake XD ill consider it good writing practice ^^ ill just take what I asked for, not that I'm not grateful but I want to start even so to speak. Thank you for responding though :3