His arms were threatening to give out on him, Kaito had been doing pull ups for over an hour now and his arms screamed at him for mercy. He couldn't do it, he couldn't allow himself to give in. If he was gonna find out what had really happened to his mother he needed to be stronger, to become a better shinobi. His medical training wouldn't be enough anymore, Kaito knew he had to keep going, no matter the pain he felt.

His hand slipped, no, his arms had finally given out on him. It wasn't a long fall to the ground, a few feet or so, perhaps just over a meter. It still felt like he'd get a bruise from it though, his hip had hit some sort of rock, causing him to wince as he sat up. His arms were spent, but there were other ways to to train his body. To grow stronger.

He began digging around the rock, slowly making progress as the numbness set into his arms. Increasing his chakra flow to his arms, Kaito focused on his muscle tendons, willing them to repair themselves so he could continue. Twenty minutes later, the rock was out of the ground, and he was struggling to lift it so it would sit on his feet.

Laying there on his back, he started to extend his legs up, holding for fifteen seconds before pulling his knees back to his chest so he could pause, rest, and repeat the process. Using his legs to lift the rock wouldn't just make his legs stronger, it'd also help his lower back as well. The rock had to weight a decent thirty to thirty five or so pounds. Kaito could feel his thighs straining as the familiar burn of it all began to set it.

He would become stronger, one way or another, and if his arms needed rest, fine, he'd just find another way. Kaito was good at that, at least when it came to his medical studies. It wasn't easy though, his back hurt more than his legs did, and Kaito could feel the pain in his back beginning to radiate and mix with the dulling pain in his arms.

Kaito went on with this for the next twenty minutes before dropping the rock and laying there for a second to rest. He'd dropped the rock a couple of times, and his left hand had been busted a bit in the process. Other than that, his body ached all over, and he even had to gasp at the pain when he sat up. Again the thought crossed his mind to rest, but he knew he could allow himself to give up on his training.

If he rested for too long the ache would set in as fatigue, making it even harder for him to continue on with his training. Kaito already knew he was gonna be sore, so promising himself a hot shower when he got home, he forced himself to stand and stretch his screaming muscles before dropping to the ground again to do push ups.

"One, two, three, four..." He began to count

The first dozen hurt, mostly because his body was already in so much pain, but he continued on with it. Making his way through the second dozen as his breath became labored and the strain in his arms started to return. He had to find the will to push past that strain, the pain he could deal with, but if his body gave out on him again he'd be in trouble. That just couldn't be allowed to happen out on a mission. He needed to get stronger.

"Thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine!" Kaito counted out with a pained gasp.

He'd allow himself to stop at fifty for now, then he'd move onto something else, but he was beginning to lose his focus, normally he'd think of what he'd do next that way he could just move from one task to the other, but this wasn't the hospital, this kind of training required more effort from him. His medical studies had always come easily to him, sure Kaito had had an early start at it with the help of his mother, but even she'd known he had the talent for it when he was little.

Chakra control and precision, were the primary skills of any medical shinobi, but this sort of training didn't require chakra. Wait Kaito thought to himself. Chakra control was exactly what he needed now, how could he be so stupid? Had he really forgotten that infusing his body with chakra would allow him to push past his limits?

Completing his push ups with a grin on his face, Kaito jumped up to where he'd been doing his pull ups earlier with a renewed sense of vigor. He could do this, and his medical training would help him along the way. Kaito just had to continue to think of creative ways to apply his medical knowledge to the task at hand.

Yesterday had been brutal, and Kaito could still feel the soreness despite two warm showers and a good night's rest. Luckily, after wearing himself out and hitting the hay early, he'd made just as early of a start this morning. Kaito meant to make the best of it, he wanted to meet up with some friends later so he knew he needed to get today's training out of the way now rather than try and fit it in later in the day.

Wait, friends? Kaito wasn't sure if he really considered them friends yet, especially since they were a few years younger than he was. Still, he knew he'd need people he could rely on once they started doing more missions and such together, so he'd call them friends for now and wait to see where it all went.

After a light breakfast, Kaito put in his earbuds, setting his jogging playlist to play, and started his stretching routine. He'd helped plenty of shinobi through physical rehabilitation over the last couple years, so this training regiment was something he was fairly confident in. For now at least.

Kaito planned to start his morning jog along the coast, since he lived in a small duplex that was near the shore. He'd continue on for about three fourths of a mile before turning inward toward the main part of the city. From there Kaito would run a good portion of the wall surrounding the city until finally making his way to the hospital grounds. From there, Kaito would turn back and do it all in reverse, hopefully ending up back at his house so he could get a quick shower before meeting up with his friends.

Sprinting the short distance from his front door to the shore line in a set of black sweats, there weren't many people out and about this time of day. Other than the few shinobi patrols here and there, most of the people he saw on the shore line were fishers and dock workers, leaving most of the actual beech to him alone. It'd been a while since Kaito took one of these early morning runs, and despite the fact that it was a form of training, it usually left him feeling far more relaxed.

Other than the seagulls flying overhead and the sounds of the waves hitting the sand, that was, other than the music blaring in his teenage years keeping him from so much as hearing the waves or caring about the seagulls. The voices of some hot new boy band from Kirigakure ringing in his ears, Kaito could feel the soreness in his legs melt into a steady warmth as the muscles were worked out.
Five minutes and a song later, Kaito was turning off the beech and back into the city itself. It wasn't long before he came to the wall surrounding the city. Forty feet tall, and while Kaito had never seen the waves rise that high, he'd seen enough sea weather to know that they could. Perhaps one day the people of Kirigakure could paint or carve the faces of the Mizukage into the wall, similar to how Kaito had heard about the Stone Faces of Konoha. It was a thought at least.

By the time Kaito made it to the General Hospital, the sun had already risen, though most of the light was hidden behind the cloud cover. Some people, especially outsiders, found the constant rain and gray skies boring or even depressing. Like most people in Kirigakure, it made Kaito feel more at home. Memories of times spent with his mother as a small child, curled up in a blanket cuddling on the porch with homemade cider to sip on. Rain was what made moments like that so special, and those moments were what made the rain so beautiful.

Stopping for a moment at the corner of the Hospital's grounds, Kaito took a moment to stretch out his increasingly aching legs. He was still good to go, though he'd worked up quite a sweat thanks to the humidity. Kaito was definitely looking forward to taking a shower, so he began sprinting back down the path he'd come from. He'd made it halfway from the wall back to the beech before he had to stop and couch up his guts.

It took a few minutes for him to regain his composure, his legs burned like fire and in that moment as he looked over at the ocean, all he really wanted to do was go swimming. Not that his legs were in any shape for another work out at the moment, but he wanted to all the same. Instead, Kaito began walking home, rather than run or jog, that way his legs would have the chance to cool off before he got home and had to get ready for the rest of his day.

The sweat dripping from his forehead managed to find it's way into Kaito's eyes, momentarily blinding him as he dropped the rock he was struggling to carry. It must have just missed his foot as a dull thud snapped him out of the searing pain in his eyes. He'd been training for hours, slowly jogging down the beech with this big ass rock. He'd found the rock last week during one of his training sessions, it had to be at least thirty pounds and it wasn't exactly smooth to the touch.

Kaito had made sure to wait to do this particular form of training till it was sunny out, hoping the extra heat would tire him out faster, and boy had it done so. It was tough enough getting through the first hour, by hour four, that big ol' rock had Kaito on his knees hitting the rock out of frustration, attempting to get it to budge from where it'd been dropped in the sand after Kaito had stepped on a particularly sharp seashell.

So far the day had been a rough one, at least for Kaito, most of the families and teenagers that had come to the beech to enjoy the sunny weather would look at him oddly until they noticed the Kirigakure headband hidden behind his silver hair. Other than the occasional looks in his direction, no one stopped to ask his silly questions, and on more than one occasion, Kaito had been offered a glass of water by random villagers attempting to due their part to help strength the village's shinobi.

It was a small thing, a glass of water, but it was a big gesture that moved and motivated Kaito not to give up, to keep going, and to fight his body every step of the way so that he'd become a better shinobi for it. The few other shinobi Kaito saw enjoying their time off at the beech would simply give him a nod, though one group of kunoichi had attempted to flirt with him for a while. Not that Kaito was at all interested in the female portion of the village.

As people began to clear from the beach, families going home for the day, and some of the younger crowd coming out to party the night away, Kaito opted to try carrying the rock while running waste deep through the water along the shore. The added effect of the waves crashing into him caused him to drop the rock every dozen or so feet, but soon enough he'd managed to keep his balance under the strain.

His legs and back ached something fierce, but what was really bothering him was the sunburn and the pain in his shoulders. It wasn't just the muscle that hurt in his shoulder, Kaito might not have been one to self-diagnosis often, but he guessed he'd managed to bruise his shoulder blades and overwork the joints carrying the boulder all day long. This wasn't as bad as it might have sounded though, as once healed his shoulders would be all the stronger for it.

Elsewhere in his body, his feet were sore from running across the hot sand all day, and his stomach felt like the skin was being ripped open. It wasn't like his body wouldn't be better in a few days time though, and whenever his arms or legs threatened to give out, he'd just extend some extra chakra to his extremities and keep on going for the finish line. In all honestly though, the rock didn't feel as heavy as it had earlier in the day, and Kaito honestly wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Kaito had at least stopped second guessing himself these past few days. Between his new training regiment and the few sparring sessions he'd done with other genin, he'd realized he was actually capable of doing this after all, being a fully fledged shinobi. Sure medical-nin were widely respected, but only the most skilled among them were ever recognized for their efforts.

Kaito loved saving people, that would never change, but he wasn't the only medical ninja who felt like their worth was only ever measured by the worth of the real ninja they managed to save. It wasn't exactly something Kaito would refer to as degrading, but it was close. It was like his grandmother had always told him, most people judge a sword by the number of people it's killed, and not by the craftsmanship of the smith who forged it. Most people, even most shinobi simply didn't understand or appreciate the time and skill it took to because a trained user of medical ninjutsu.

To a certain extant, Kaito hadn't really taken the time to consider the amount of effort other shinobi put into their own talents either, showcased by how difficult he'd found his first week of training. Putting in all that effort, forcing yourself to undergo the stress and pain that was required to develop the skills he would need down the road had been a process that made Kaito realize now more than ever just how much he loved Kirigakure, how much he respected the headband he wore and the sense of pride he felt when people recognized him as a shinobi of the Hidden Mist.

Kaito finally rook the rock up to the end of a local pier and dropped it at the end. He'd had enough of training for the day and would have prefered to throw it if he'd had had the strength left to do so. Part of him just wanted to take a nap right there on the beach, but it'd be better not to be caught out in the rain after the day he'd had, especially if he fell asleep. Instead, he went home, washed the sand and salt off his skin before cooking up a couple shark steaks for dinner. Tomorrow would be a new day, he'd wait till then to continue his abusive relationship with his body.

Kaito wasn't sure if it was gonna work the way he wanted it to, he'd only just read about it in some old book from his days at the academy. To be fair, it sounded like a great training method, but he had his doubts. The idea was simple, set up a small training course filled with traps, preferably ones that you would have difficulty evading, then set up as many targets as you wanted. Once completed, use the Hidden Mist Technique to cover the training course in a thick fog so you couldn;t see, and use the Water Release: Seafoam Jutsu as a means of alerting you to traps while attempting to hit the targets despite the Mist making it impossible to see. Yeah, it was simple.

Or so Kaito thought, and boy was he wrong. During his first attempt at the course he'd set up, he lost his barings and got hit by a log swinging down from above, only to end up causing all of his Seafoam balls to splatter all over himself. By his third run through, he had so many bruses and minor injuries he'd had to sit down to heal his injuries with medical ninjutsu.

Even though he never made any attempt to change the pattern of the traps, it was five hours of some of the toughest training Kaito had ever put his body through before he'd managed to even hit a single target, and that was only because he'd thrown all of his senbon all over the place in frustration.

After getting hit by two Senbon and narrowly dodging the third, Kaito knew he needed to end for the day, if nothing else to heal his injuries not to mention rethink his approuch. It took a while, but he managed to think up a new strategy. Rather than use the Seafoam jutsu to warn him of traps, he'd use them for more offensive defense by using them to purposely trigger the traps ahead of him. The residual chakra signature of the foam could also be used to mark a small area within the Mist, allowing him to pinpoint his location despite not being able to see his surroundings.

It was one thing to try and hone his other sense, but Kaito also needed to learn how to use the jutsu at his disposale for his advantage, especially when he was hindered by something like the Hidden Mist Technique. Otherwise, what was the purpose of this training? To injure oneself? Kaito could take a beating without worring about the cost of medical attention, thanks to his own set of skills, but he still needed to learn how to use those skills outside of the hospital's recovery ward.

Returning to the training course the next morning, Kaito took a quick mesurement of the fading wounds he had earned for himself the previous day. If he wasn't careful, he'd end up reopening some of the cuts and compacting the brusies. Opening his mouth and relseasing the dreaded Hidden Mist his village was known for, Kaito readied himself to continue with his training.

With the new strategy in mind, Kaito released his Seafoam jutsu, keeping only four of them near his body just in case, and the other eight of the floating bubbles in front of him before he jumping up into the trees and ran into his first opstical. He must have forgotten the tripwire he'd set up as three kunai came flying out at him. Kaito managed to dodge the first and block the third, the second one however had managed to cut his left shoulder, though not to any great extent.

The next set of traps didn't give Kaito as much trouble, he'd managed to make it a third of the way through the course without injuring himself again, though he'd missed just under half of the targets so far, his senbon and kunai landing in the mud or lodging themselves in a tree. He'd have to remeber to go fetch those later, before he made his next attempt.

Kaito knew the log was coming, he'd already been hit by that damn thing half a dozen times, but he'd been in the mist too long and didn't know which direction was which anymore. It happened to him every time. The sound of it haunted him, Kaito could swear he'd been hearing it in his dreams the night before, along with the sound of his grandmother laughing at him.

This time though, the sound was real, and he quickly had one of his remaining Seafoam balls fly around him in an arc, waving his hand to mirror the movement. The moment the Seafoam ball popped, Kaito jumped backwards out of the log's path, quickly throwing a round of TIle Shuriken Jutsu at it, causing one of the ropes to snap and the log to fall to the ground with a crash. Shit! He shouldn't have done that, and Kaito knew that now he'd have to fix the log before his next run through the course.

Even with his careless behavior, Kaito was relieved his finally managed to beat that particular trap. Landing one of the senbon on his target, and missing with the second one he'd thrown, Kaito moved on, this time cutting his way threw a net with a kunai before marking the next target with a dull thud as the shuriken dug into the wood.

Kaito carried on like this for two more rounds through the training course, after he fixed the log of course, before he called it quits to heal his injures and tend to a few errands he'd been neglecting in the village. In the end though, he'd only managed to complete the course with about fifty percent accuracy, and he was still having trouble with his Seafoam Jutsu strategy, though he did have an idea on a fix for that problem. Still though, Kaito couldn't help but laugh, being twelve words short.