Chapter 57: The First Team Training Session
Hearing Hodaka's reply, Kaito sighed internally, 'No wonder he could keep up with me so easily during taijutsu training.'
Hodaka, however, felt quite pleased with himself, thinking, 'Although his training seals are higher quality, I'm applying much more relative pressure to my body!'
Mieko felt distressed, thinking, 'No wonder these two move so incredibly fast. Why didn't anyone tell me about this method of getting stronger?'
Renjiro thought to himself with satisfaction, 'This is truly impressive progress for their age. It seems I can make their physical conditioning regimen even more rigorous than I originally planned.'
He then announced, 'Alright, let's begin training.'
Team 3 commenced their first proper training session under their new instructor.
Everyone started with genuine enthusiasm. Receiving personal training from an elite jonin would prove incredibly beneficial for their future development as shinobi.
Whatever their ultimate dreams might be, becoming an elite jonin was the minimum standard they all aimed to achieve.
Only after reaching that level would they seriously consider making their personal dreams a reality.
For the first 30 minutes, all three were bursting with energy and determination.
In the next 30 minutes, their initial enthusiasm gradually diminished.
After a full hour had passed, Mieko could barely maintain the pace of training.
Even the normally stoic Hodaka could clearly see her desperately struggling to hold back tears of exhaustion.
Hodaka could still keep up adequately and was the only one genuinely looking forward to the remaining three hours.
Kaito could also maintain the pace, but he developed an increasingly bad feeling about where this was heading.
Two hours into training, Kaito deeply regretted his decision from that morning. He thought bitterly, 'Which damn idiot thought it was a good idea to set the seal pressure to 25% for the morning run to this training ground?'
When the brutal training session finally concluded at 9 AM, both Hodaka and Kaito collapsed to the ground completely, barely able to move a single muscle.
Mieko had actually fainted from exhaustion much earlier.
Neither Kaito nor Hodaka knew exactly when Renjiro had picked her up and gently placed her under a nearby tree for shade.
Kaito wanted to scream demands for a 'Child Protection Act,' but he was far too exhausted even to form coherent thoughts.
He noticed Mieko regained consciousness just a few minutes after training ended, which somehow felt suspiciously convenient.
Observing this, Renjiro chuckled quietly to himself. He announced, 'Don't be so dramatic. This was merely a simple morning warm-up exercise. Get up now and stretch properly under those trees.'
The two boys barely managed to stand on shaking legs, staggering awkwardly to the trees where they collapsed with their backs against the trunks.
Renjiro then tossed several military ration bars and water bottles to the three exhausted genin, saying, 'You can rest here for the next hour. Eat these ration bars and hydrate yourselves—preferably after resting for half an hour first. I'll return to check on you at 10 o'clock.'
He then vanished in a Body Flicker, leaving them alone.
The instant he disappeared, Kaito and Hodaka immediately slid down to sleep. This infuriated Mieko, who loudly declared, 'Wake up, you two! We can't just sleep the entire day away!'
This startled both boys awake. Hodaka replied dismissively, 'We didn't sleep for over an hour during that hellish training session.'
Kaito added in the same exhausted tone, 'Yeah, just wake us up in thirty to forty minutes.'
Then they both lay back down to sleep immediately.
Mieko grew angry and made considerable noise trying to wake them, but both were simply too exhausted to pay any attention to her protests.
Approximately half an hour later, Mieko reluctantly woke the two of them up.
As soon as they regained consciousness, they devoured the ration bars hungrily and drank all the water from their bottles.
The brief nap had somewhat restored their depleted energy, but it did virtually nothing to alleviate the intense muscle pain throughout their entire bodies.
Kaito groaned and said, 'I feel like literally every muscle in my body is screaming in pain.'
Hodaka agreed, 'Yes, me too. I don't think this soreness will disappear anytime soon.'
Kaito added grimly, 'Especially if we have to endure this torture every single morning.'
This realization startled both Hodaka and Mieko considerably. Mieko asked with rising panic, 'No way, right? Unlike you two, I didn't even survive through the entire training session! How can we possibly do this every day?'
Kaito chuckled darkly inward, thinking, 'Poor girl. She's absolutely terrified now! But this instructor... I was initially disappointed that I didn't get to meet Might Guy and learn from him directly. But now it seems not encountering him might not have been such a bad thing after all. Even though this training is already insane, Might Guy's regimen would probably be exponentially harder. Otherwise, he couldn't have mastered all Eight Inner Gates!'
Hodaka attempted to comfort Mieko, saying, 'Don't worry too much. I've been doing this type of intensive physical training for many years now. After a while, our bodies will adapt and grow accustomed to it, and the results are definitely worth the suffering.'
This calmed Mieko down slightly. However, Kaito thought mischievously, 'Now that I think about it, this presents a good opportunity to temper her Uchiha arrogance a bit.'
He countered pessimistically, 'I don't think it'll be that simple with Renjiro-sensei. If we appear satisfied with this training level, he'll likely increase the difficulty. Even if that's not the case, he can simply force us to increase the seal pressure on our bodies.'
This terrified Mieko again immediately. She quickly asked desperately, 'But can't we just lie about how much pressure we're applying to fool sensei?'
Hodaka nodded, 'Yes, we could try that. Others can't physically check our seals.'
Kaito smiled faintly and explained, 'Even if he can't directly verify our seal settings, he'll judge our actual effort by observing how exhausted we are after each training session. So even though we can technically fake the pressure level, I seriously doubt it's possible to fool an elite jonin about the true difficulty of our training.'
After being contradicted again, Hodaka began wondering what Kaito was actually thinking. He thought with confusion, 'I'm trying everything possible to make her feel better about this situation, but Kaito keeps making her more and more scared.'
He pondered for a moment but couldn't figure out Kaito's motivation, so he simply decided, 'Forget it, I don't care anymore. However, if a single physical training session has pushed me to this extreme, it clearly means I need to get significantly stronger!'
Mieko tried desperately to think of more solutions but couldn't devise anything workable. A question formed in her mind, and she considered asking her teammates.
'Should we ask sensei to lower the difficulty of the training?'
However, her Uchiha pride absolutely wouldn't allow her to voice such a weak request aloud. She decided with renewed determination, 'Alright, I'll work harder and strengthen my physique! I was the only Uchiha who graduated early from our class, which proves I'm far superior to others. No training regimen can prevent me from achieving my dreams!'
Kaito didn't notice the newly determined expressions forming on his two teammates' faces. His body remained far too sore to pay much attention to them.
However, someone else definitely noticed.
Renjiro was concealed nearby, carefully observing his young students.
Seeing Hodaka and Mieko's determined expressions, he smiled with satisfaction and thought, 'Excellent! With this level of resolve, their strength will increase very rapidly. Unfortunately, Kaito doesn't seem quite as determined yet.'
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[+10 Reviews = +1 Extra Chapter]
If you enjoyed this chapter, leave a Review!
P*atreon/DarkFoxx (30+ advanced chapters)