Hitokaru had finally made it to Genin, and she didn't plan to waste any time on training herself. She proclaimed that no one knew how she liked to be treated like she did herself, so she did not want to be trained by someone else, as they're ways may not be the ethical for her. However, a trainer would have made her training a tad bit more organized. With her attitude and her appearance, she was basically a child. She didn't know the best methods for training, but she had an idea. Training her strength was pretty self explanatory: lift things to build your strength. Though it may prove to be more complicated than she had thought, she had a very basic understanding of it.

She also had a very basic idea on how she could train her speed. She thought the most effective way would be through short sprints, allowing her speed to increase slowly, but effectively, and the same goes for her endurance. As she runs, she builds up how long she can stand physical exertion. She wasn't exactly "frail", but she was something close to it, though she did have many physical encounters in her childhood. NOw, reaction time and perception were a different story. She had no idea how she would train herself in those two fields, somewhat making her regret not looking for a trainer.

"Hmmmm.... So I get how to train 3 of the 5 key elements of a ninja." She thought to herself as she lay in bed. "But that's not gonna be enough. I guess I'll just have to figure the other two out as I go." Since she believed that training her strength was the simplest, she decided that she would being with that. She vaulted herself out of her comfortable bed, and didn't all of her normal morning activities: shower, brush her teeth, then put on her clothes. She decided that she would wear shoes while training, as she could hurt herself. She wore her usual sleeveless open-back dress the collar that covered her throat. She also wore thigh-high black ninja sandals, and wrapped both of her thighs with bandages.

The sun's radiant glow had made its presence known that day, and this signaled that Hitokaru would be in for a lot of work. When she was younger, she had always seemed to be the most fatigued when she went out on the sunniest days, and she didn't think the trend would stop on that day.

"Strength training....... START!" She said to herself. She had laid out a bunch of heavy blocks of rectangular iron with grapples on them for herself to lift the previous night, and being the exuberant girl she is, she went for the largest one first. "Tch.... GRRRRRRR!" She groaned. As expected, she was unable to lift the biggest one. She assumed that it was her grip that was off, so she tried to tip it over, thinking that would help her in her quest. She pushed the block, but nothing. She tried to lift it from the bottom and tip it over, but nothing. "GAAAHHH! WHY IS THIS SO HARD?!' She screamed. She had a tendency to get angry quickly, and this was one of those times where she had gotten angry quickly, but she refused to give up on her training.

"I guess I should start from the smallest one, and work my way up!" She picked up the smallest block with ease, as it had only been a 40 lb block. As she held it, she saw two tree stumps that had been only a few feet apart. "AHA! I KNOW WHAT I CAN DO!" She said, setting the block back on the ground because of her new found idea. She grabbed a sturdy piece of wood, and set it to where it had hovered over the the ground above the two stumps. She grabbed the weight again, and stood on the wood. The wood felt sturdy enough to not break in half with her and the one weight one it, but she knew that it wouldnt be able to sustain any of the other weights AND her own weight.

She crouched down, held out her hands, and stood there. Her body was slightly wavering, but she had been going strong. She observed the area around her, seeing many insects that she did not want to see. Her body began to shake a little due to her fear of insects. "Please don't come near me..." She said nervously. If one were to touch her, she would lose all focus and most likely fall. She stood in place for a nice amount of time before finally being bothered by a flying by insect that had claimed her nose as its landing point. She threw the weight and ran off screaming. "AHHHHHHHH! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT TOUCHED ME!" She exclaimed. She eventually made her way back to where she had been training, and got right back to it!

After she had had enough of the weight lifting, she decided that she would use a jump rope. It could train her leg and arm muscles, as she planned to turn it extremely fast. she placed the rope in both hands, and began to swing it. This had been the first time she had ever tried to jump rope, but she had seen other kids playing with them before, so she got the basic idea of it. But... poor Hitokaru had swung the rope faster than her feet could move, and she tripped over the rope, falling onto her face. "I guess this is why I need to train my speed" She thought to herself. She decided that it was best if she returned to her weights.

She grabbed the two weights that had been larger than the first one. The first weight she grabbed had been 80 lbs, and the second weight 140. She began to swing them, seeing how long she could do it before finally losing control of them. It had been a while before she finally lost control, so she decided to try to fight using the weights. She grabbed them both again, and began to attack a nearby tree. She swung one, but it had a major recoil, but she managed to avoid getting hit by her own weight. Then she swung with the other one, having an even larger recoil, but moving even slower, so she managed to avoid being hit once again. Hitokaru then dropped the weights, stretched her arms, and tried to pick up the largest one again. She picked it up successfully. "YES, I DID IT" she said to herself. She had been very proud of what she had just accomplished, and she decided that with that she would end her strength training and move onto something else. But not until after she had a short break.


WC needed: 3750
WC: 1149

She sat on the ground grimly. She had never been worked that hard in her entire life, and she was somewhat ready to stop. She had a large resolve, however, this may have made her a little... less interested in her goal. As she sat, she slowly tipped over until finally falling on her back. She stretched out her arms and legs and looked at the sun. It was mocking her. Laughing at her because she wasn't showing all the spirit she had in her. In the academy, she had always been told that she had potential, but then again they said that to everyone... But when they said it to her, she took it heart. No one had ever slid her a compliment before, so when they told her that she had lots of potential, it uplifted her spirit. It made her feel like nothing could stop her except for herself, which happened to be the case at the moment.

"What are you doing... YOU NEVER GIVE UP!" She said to herself. She quickly jumped to her feet. "I KNOW WHAT I'LL TRAIN NEXT! MY SPEED!" She said positively. She was a strong-willed girl, so quitting was not a well liked term in her dictionary. She began to run around the cleared area she was in. Circle after circle, not seeming to get tired at all. She was running on sheer will power. She refused to give up, and that kept her going, though physically she was suffering. She kept going until finally... PLOP! She couldn't run anymore. She sat on the ground, weak for at least and hour. "I'm so tired..." She said to herself. "Maybe just a little longer..." She said.

She laid on the ground for a few minutes until finally deciding that she would continue with her training. "Come on, Hitokaru. You aren't anywhere near complete with your training! Why are you acting so weak now?" She said to herself. "You're better than this and you know you are. SO GET UP, AND FINISH. HITOKARU HIBIKI NEVER LEAVES ANYTHING UNFINISHED!" that pep talk was one that was greatly needed. She couldn't count on other people to lift her spirits, which was another reason why she decided to train alone. She quickly got up to her feet again, ready for action. She wanted to train how fast she could move her body, so she began to attack the nearby logs.

She began to swipe at them slowly, then gradually started speeding up. She combined her new found strength with her current speed and ended up whipping the log in half. "Wow, I didn't expect that to happen." She said. She was using her martial art, She Quan, as she practiced on the log. She Quan is based on whipping or rattling power which travels up the spine to the fingers, or in the case of the rattler, the body shake which travels down the spine to the tip of the tailbone. The ability to sinuously move, essentially by compressing one's stomach/abdominal muscles, is very important. Footing is quite grounded. The stancework is fluid in order to maximize the whipping potential of any movement. This necessitates building a strong spine to contain the power and strong fingers to convey the strike. Since breath is important to any movement of the spine and ribs, snake style is considered one of the main styles which eventually led to internal training. Snake style is also known as an approach to weapons training, the Chinese straight sword and spear in particular. There are even specialty varieties of sword blades and spear points that curve back and forth down the length of the blade in imitation of the snake's body known as snake sword and snake spear.

She practiced on some more logs, trying to keep her strength out of it, but to no avail as the logs continued to snap when she'd hit them. However, there was progress being made, as with every destroyed log she would destroy the next one with a higher speed. She moved on from the logs. "Hmmm... What could I do now?" She thought to herself. She paced around for a while, debating on what her next action would be. She thought and thought, until she finally came up with an idea. She would simply run around the forest. She began to trot through the forest, then her trot turned into a jog, then her jog turned into a run, and then her run turned into a sprint. And she sprinted until she couldn't handle anymore running.

WC: 775
TWC: 1937
WC needed: 3750