The Grind Begins

I sighed in deep thought, sitting quietly in the corner of the last row. I evaluate my current progress. I have improved my physique in these two months of academy training and I have just started my chakra control exercise. Right now I could keep the leaf on my forehead for about 30 seconds. I had the notion that I could quit being a ninja anytime I wanted but I guess I was wrong. According to toru sensei we can only quit if we are injured on battlefield and the authorities deem we are unfit for duty. It is basically a conscription. Never in a million years would I have guessed, children are conscripted.

Sigh!!.. This was not part of my plan. I have been taking things lightly. I need to dial things up and come up with a plan if I want to survive this war. After wrecking my brain last night to come up with a strategy. The only solution i could think of is for me to get stronger. I need to come up with an efficient training plan to achieve the best results.

I took out my pen and book to write down my training plan for the days to come.

Morning starts with heavy breakfast, taijutsu kata, leaf sticking exercise. I didn't include morning physical training because i dont want to be exhausted during the academy physical training that lasted for 3 hours. I will have to adjust my schedule to fit in with the academy routine as it may change in the future.

Afternoon consists of theoretical lessons such as trap making, tracking, strategy making etc. and it ends with sparring lessons.

In the evening after class, it is followed by a heavy round of physical exercise such as running, squads, push ups, sit ups until my body can't take it anymore.

After dinner it ends with leaf sticking exercise.

Since the academy has no class on Saturday and Sunday, i replaced the class schedule with physical exercise and chakra control exercise followed by lunch break at yakiniki-q and reapeat the same cycle until dinner and ends the day with another chakra control exercise. I set up Sunday for total rest to recover my body. After all i am still very young and i want to avoid any permanent damage.

Looking at the training schedule makes me feel better. At least now I have a plan. I believe i can get stronger if i follows through the plan.

The class continues as usual. In the sparring lesson, while the teacher was pairing up the sparring partner, obito went up and challenged Kakashi and decided to declares him as his rival. On the side Gai gave him thumbs up. Since the pairing was done among clan kids, the teacher gave his consent. Kakashi responds to the challenge and proceeds to beat the living crap out of him.

I am still paired with the civilian and the results was similar to my first fight. The kid was too nervous and scared to initiate the fight and when he got hit, he drop all katas and form and ends up with a brawl.

After i got home, i went to the small clearing in back yard. I stretched my body as a warm up for 5 minutes. I started my training with squad and followed by sit ups and push ups of 70, 50, 30 respectively. I took 2 min breaks on every set of 5 sets in total. By the time i completed the final set, my body was burning up and became heavy as a lead but i didn't give up. With heavy breath i stood up and started running again. My body gave up after 30 laps of round and fell on the ground. I took a 10 minute break and repeat the same cycle with smaller sets until i couldn't take it anymore and dropped. I went to take a bath covered in sweat and dirt. Dipping my body in the wooden tub of cold water relaxes my strained muscles. I had a difficult time preparing dinner after the excruciating pain of my workout. I ended the day with chakra control exercise. The days continued and I followed my torturous training schedule. By the end of the month i could see slight improvement in my chakra control and physical condition. Now i can keep the leaf sticking on my forehead for 5 minutes.

In the fourth month of the first year, the academy introduced us to hand signs for jutsus, kunai and shuriken throwing technique. We were taught how to handle kunai and shuriken. And the throwing technique, the wrist movement elbow and shoulder placement for every angle. The time for academy physical training exercise was further divided up for throwing practice and hand signs.

During the sparring practice, I was paired up with a clan kid for the first time. My opponent is aoi hyuga from the branch family. Honestly I was excited to go up against a clan kid because the civilian don't put up a fight. We both enters the circle and waits for the teacher to give signal. As soon as signal is sounded. I put up a gaurding stance and closing in the distance. Aoi shot forward in open palm stance and attacked my left shoulder with his right hand. I lean to the right planning to counter attack from the left but the son of bitch chain connects his attack, swinging to the left. The attack connects on my left chest. Before i could retaliate, i got hit on the right ribs, next on the left shoulder, neck, multiple hits on the torso. The result was a disaster.

thunk! thunk! thunk! ...

All I could hear is the impact of me getting hit. I did say I was here to learn and not win but this is pissing me off. I couldn't even put up a fight.

'I want to smack him just once'

Since aoi didn't stop his attack. I gave up guarding my upper body and counter a fake attack with my hands at the same time exert all strength and kick him on his calf. As soon as my kick connected his calf I took that opportunity and banked on the chances of him getting distracted even for one third of a second to smack him on his face.

Bang!

Argghhh.... Blehhhh!

The result was him blasting me on the stomach and launching me outside the circle. I end up throwing up. It was painful. Every part of my body hurt. I don't think I can train after class.

He came up to me and did the reconciliation seal. I bear the pain and respond with the damn seal. He got closer and lowered his head, looking straight at me and said

" Hmph!.. You should be grateful I went easy on you. Next time stay down. A fate of a Mediocrity should not overreach "

This brat!.. I swear I'm gonna smack him one day