Jiro's Training - Ramping Up for the Chuunin Exams

Jiro stood, hands in his pockets,  in the entrance to the training facility, looking out at the expanse of space and various equipment with a pensive expression on his face. One of his hands slid out of his pocket, holding a folded piece of paper. Opening it, he read the words again.

“Dear little sheep,

You should consider yourself honored to be privileged in serving the Hokage as entertainment and protecting this domain. Your lord has recognized you as a promising shinobi, perhaps amongst all the other villages. Your courage and loyalty does not go unseen and it is because of that lord Aokidanza extends this gift unto you. But no gift bestowed by his gracious hands goes without its trials. You will be tested against your peers, while at the same time judged on how compatible you are when working alongside others. You will be put through a life threatening experience…but I suppose it wouldn’t be an experience necessarily if you end up dead… Even so, even in your last dying breath you will bring glory to the name of Aokidanza Senju, your Hokage.

Signed and sealed by the hand of Lady Yachiru Chinoike, Minder of your Hokage”

Jiro’s jaw clenched. They expected him to compete, and possibly end up dead… How would his death bring glory to the Hokage, exactly? This was exactly the sort of messed up game that he despised. He crumpled the paper in his fist, sighing out a hot, frustrated breath as he shoved it back inside his pocket.

‘Chuunin exams… fuck,’ he thought, staring down at the ground bitterly. In truth, he hadn’t had any aspirations to become a Chuunin. So what, he could be sent on more dangerous missions? So he could hold the lives of his teammates in his hands…? So he could have their blood on his hands? His fists clenched at his sides, his brow furrowing deeply. Was this the only path? Did he really have no choice but to play into this same cycle, shinobi going out and dying in the name of their village?

‘Fuck that,’ he thought, his brown eyes blazing. “Fuck that!” he yelled out loud, his blood pumping. If he didn’t have a choice but to play the Hokage’s game - fine. But like hell he was gonna die for it. He wouldn’t give anyone that satisfaction. Not his enemies, and not his Hokage. He’d already decided long ago that he wasn’t gonna die like some dog. He was going to live, for all the people that didn’t get to. ‘But in order to live…’ he thought, his hands trembling as his fists clenched tighter. ‘... I have to be stronger than anyone else… I have to be stronger. That’s the only way I’m gonna stand a chance…’

Jiro looked up, a new determination behind his gaze. He was gonna do this, alright. He was gonna show them that nothing was gonna bring him down. Even if he had to face Death himself. He walked into the center of the field, and began warming up. He was gonna train like his life depended on it.
________________________________________
WC: 521

Today wasn’t like most other days. He couldn’t afford to be taking any shortcuts, This is what he reminded himself of as he reached down low toward his outstretched leg, groaning as his chest touched his knee. He knew for the training he was about to undergo, his body would need to be as limber as possible. Once his legs were stretched out, he did a series of back bends, grimacing when he heard a loud crack in his spine. ‘Well that’s not great’ he thought, picking himself up and twisting left and right. He probably didn’t stretch enough.. But that’s why it was even more crucial to do it now.

When his muscles felt nice and loose, Jiro looked around the training area, scoping out a path where he could run a few laps. He’d make sure his muscles were warmed up properly, before he got to the hard stuff. Picking a direction, Jiro set off, measuring his breath evenly as his heart rate picked up. As he ran, he got a flash of a memory from his academy days.

“Come on, we’re not stopping until you finish 100 laps!” the academy sensei had called out to the group of kids running around the track. Jiro was among them, nine years old and completely unmotivated. He had played along for the first five or ten laps, but as soon as he saw an opening when the instructor’s back was turned, he’d skirted off to the side and hidden among a cluster of bushes, taking the prime opportunity for a nap. He didn’t wake up until he heard the instructor’s whistle blowing to call the students inside, and he had scrambled out of his hiding spot to try and rejoin the others without bringing attention to himself. And he’d almost gotten away with it, too. “Jiro!” the sensei had yelled, holding him back as the rest of the students filed inside. “You were sleeping in the bushes again, weren’t you! Jeez, you still have twigs in your hair… Listen, you’ll never make it as a ninja if you don’t show some motivation! Now you’re gonna stay here and run 100 more laps right now!”

Back in the present, Jiro shook his head, his body moving steadily around the field as he continued to jog. Man, that guy was a pain… But now, with a challenge like the Chuunin exam looming in front of him, a challenge that took the lives of Genin like him every year… he could start to see that maybe his old academy sensei had a point. If he didn’t train like he was gonna die, then… when it came time to fight, he actually might.

Jiro stopped off to the side, going to his pack and pulling out a bottle of water, taking a few sips to replenish what was already lost to sweat. ‘Alright, warm up finished,’ he thought, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. Now it was time for the real work to begin.
________________________
WC: 503 / TWC: 1,024

Jiro crossed over to the thick standing logs, and found one without much damage. He needed to train the strength of his kicks. He was able to hit pretty hard as it was, but it wouldn’t be enough if his blows couldn’t kill. The thought chilled him, and for a moment he just stood in front of the log, staring at it. He had suddenly imagined his fist smashing through a person’s skull, and his blood ran cold. ‘This is life,’ he recited to himself in his head, trying to shake the sick feeling in his stomach. ‘You know this. It’s kill or be killed out there. There’s no room for hesitation. Kill, or die.’

Jiro’s hands balled into fists, and his body trembled. A surge of emotion welled up inside of him, made him want to scream. He tried for a moment to figure out what it was, then he realized. He was grieving. He was grieving for the lives he knew he would inevitably have to take, to preserve his own. It seemed so fucking selfish. Why did he deserve to live more than they did? ‘I don’t,’ he thought darkly, reaching up and grasping the log with his bandaged hands, gripping it tightly and staring at it intensely. ‘Shikadai deserved to live.’ And enemy shinobi had killed him. ‘That’s why,’ he reminded himself, steeling his resolve as much as he could. ‘That’s why it’s MY turn to live. To do what Aniki couldn’t do. And to make sure no allies ever die in front of me.’

He took a deep breath in before giving a strong shout and invigorating himself, taking up his stance and starting to kick the log as hard as he could, his rhythmic kiai echoing through the training grounds. The log reverberated with every kick, but it stood sturdy and strong. These logs were meant to endure years of training, and some of them had been eroded on the sides from doing exercises like these. ‘I’ll do one thousand strong kicks,’ he said, panting as sweat rolled down his face. ‘If I can’t do one thousand kicks, then I’ll add a thousand squats.’ Fire burned in Jiro’s belly as he pushed himself to the limit, pushed past the pain, pushed past the fear. It was time to fight.

At five hundred kicks, Jiro switched legs, the bandages of his right leg now scuffed and dirty with blood seeping through. Jiro’s eyes never wavered, and he maintained his focus expertly, exhaling as he dropped into his stance before starting to launch the same shattering kicks with his left leg. He could make it to a thousand easy, he thought. But the next step of his plan was to implement these same kicks while he was with an opponent in midair. The training would only start to ramp up after this. He was only getting started.
______________________________
WC: 481 / TWC: 1,505

Jiro huffed as he launched kick after kick, his left leg now mirroring his right in its worn down appearance. “Four hundred ninety eight,” he puffed, sweat drenching the surface of his skin. “Four hundred ninety nine… Five hundred,” he counted, finally dropping his leg and leaning his forehead against the log, panting quietly and letting his eyes close for a moment. Pain radiated through both his legs, but this was all part of training. His skin and bones would grow tougher just as his muscles grew stronger. But in order to toughen, they first had to bleed.

After catching his breath for a moment, Jiro returned to his pack with his water bottle inside, picking it up and guzzling it down. As nice and cool as the temperature was outside, his body was hot from exercise and he’d lost a lot of water from sweat. He learned early on that it was always important to hydrate, or his body wouldn’t perform at its best. In the worst case, he could even pass out from exertion, and he couldn’t train if he was unconscious. After drinking his fill, Jiro quickly glanced around before pulling a plastic wrapped package from out of his pack. Inside was a slice of delicious strawberry cake that his mom had made, that he’d raided the kitchen for before he came out. He knew that he might need a pick me up in the middle of his training, and now seemed as good a time as ever. Jiro carefully unwrapped the soft, sweet delicacy and dug right in.

The bit of a sugar rush was just what he needed to get back in the game and continue his training. Once his snack was finished, he tossed the plastic and headed right over to the grappling dummies. Grabbing one up, he returned to the center of the field where he would have plenty of space, and began thinking about how he would execute this technique. Ideally he would kick his opponent into the air, then slam them back down into the ground. Once he had the mental image in his head, he set to work. Heaving the limp dummy into the air, Jiro launched it high with a powerful upwards kick before instantly moving into the dummy’s shadow, mirroring its movements. At the peak of his trajectory, Jiro grabbed the dummy and spun in, lifting his leg in tandem and slamming it into the dummy’s stomach, sending it hurtling into the earth with a loud crash.

Jiro landed gently off to the side, inspecting the damage. The ground had cracked at the point of impact, the dummy certainly looking worse for wear. It wasn’t exactly a crater, but it was nothing to scoff at either. Jiro almost felt satisfied, but part of him knew that he would have to make it even stronger. It needed more destructive force, or it wouldn’t be effective. He pondered over this for a moment, and then he remembered a secret taijutsu technique that he’d only ever read about.

The Eight Gates. Supposedly, if he was able to release the inhibitors at certain chakra points within his body, he’d be able to access several times more strength than he had normally. And while in this state, his taijutsu would be even more effective, even allowing him to perform high speed power moves like the Front Lotus. Jiros stared at the dummy, thinking this over. The only problem was, he didn’t know how to release the inhibitors. It certainly had something to do with chakra control… right? Grumbling, Jiro closed his eyes and sighed. He tried to feel his chakra, and imagined the gates regulating its flow. He tried intense movement, now it was time to be still for a while, and concentrate.
______________________________
WC: 630 / TWC: 2,135

Jiro’s chakra felt elusive, like always. It was something he’d frequently been scolded for, both at home and at the academy. “It’s because you don’t do enough spiritual training,” his father had told him, before forcing him to meditate. Jiro had just ended up watching clouds roll by until he fell asleep. ‘Probably should have paid more attention,’ he admitted to himself, sighing and focusing inward as much as he could. He could start to feel how the energy moved in his body. It was alive, like a flame in his belly.

He had read somewhere that each inhibitor, called “gates”, had a certain location in the body. And if he remembered correctly, the first one was located in the brain… but which hemisphere was it? Jiro grumbled, scratching his head. He supposed that all he could do was try and flood chakra to his entire brain at once to try and force the gates open. He exhaled slowly. Now that he thought about it, this seemed dangerous. But there was no gain without a little risk. Standing up, Jiro squared his stance, clenching his fists apprehensively. This was it.

All at once, Jiro focused his full energy on his brain, building up his chakra quickly and violently. The air stirred around him, loose leaves and pebbles scattering away from his feet as energy surged out of him. A low rumble began in his belly, turning into a full shout as he pushed his chakra even harder, funneling it into his brain. The veins on his forehead started to bulge, beads of sweat forming and dripping down his face, his voice screaming out with all he had as he pitched in a final concentrated effort, surging his chakra into the gate points, until there was the sudden sensation of release.

Rampant chakra flooded Jiro’s body in an instant, visibly rippling his clothes as the air shimmered around him like he was a source of unimaginable heat. Jiro’s mouth opened in shock, and he stared at his hand, clenching his fist. He felt stronger than he’d ever felt in his life. Turning around, he lodged a solid punch into the trunk of the tree nearby, the wood splintering under the impact until it came crashing down to the ground. A grin split across Jiro’s face, and he laughed triumphantly. “I fucking DID it!” he exclaimed, jumping into the air only to find he rose at least twice as high into the air as he was expecting. He used his newly acquired Lightness skill to safely land back onto the ground, before running over to grab the training dummy again. There was one more thing he had to try.

First, he launched the dummy high into the sky with a powerful kick, using the Dancing Leaf Shadow to follow its movements. Then, he funneled his chakra into his arms, loosening the wrapped bandages that adorned them and causing them to wind around the dummy, trapping it close. For his final trick, Jiro started spinning, rapidly increasing his velocity as he drilled the dummy into the ground head first, leaping away only at the final moment to spare himself the impact. But what an impact it was. The ground sundered with loud cracks, the dummy all but destroyed in the middle of the crater that was left behind. Jiro walked to the edge of the destruction, only smirking at what he had produced. This kind of power was just what he needed to get a leg up in the Chuunin Exams.

Pleased with his progress, Jiro spent a bit of time cleaning up as much as he could, before heading out. He’d definitely put in enough effort, for now. He’d earned as many lazy days as he could get, before the day of the exams arrived.

[Exit]
____________________________
WC: 633 / TWC: 2,768 (Using Strawberry Cake for total of 5,536)

Claims:
+43 Stats (13 Speed, 30 Strength) *Hitting Max Stats*
+24 AP (Remaining 1,200 WC)

* 375 for Reckless Art: Eight Gates Amplifier (D) -> 5,161 left
* 750 for Leaf Great Whirlwind (C) -> 4,411 left
* 1,125 for Counter Strike (B) -> 3,268 left
* 1,875 for Reckless Endurance (A) -> 1,411 left
* 750 for Second Gate -> 661 left
* 661 towards Flash Step (B) (661/1,387) -> 0 left

* = 25% facility discount

Jiro Nara wrote:
[Exit]
____________________________
WC: 633 / TWC: 2,768 (Using Strawberry Cake for total of 5,536)

Claims:
+43 Stats (13 Speed, 30 Strength) *Hitting Max Stats*
+24 AP (Remaining 1,200 WC)

* 375 for Reckless Art: Eight Gates Amplifier (D) -> 5,161 left
* 750 for Leaf Great Whirlwind (C) -> 4,411 left
* 1,125 for Counter Strike (B) -> 3,268 left
* 1,875 for Reckless Endurance (A) -> 1,411 left
* 750 for Second Gate -> 661 left
* 661 towards Flash Step (B) (661/1,387) -> 0 left

* = 25% facility discount

Approved