Fear wasn't something that the Kazekage felt often. She was never afraid for herself. She knew that a time would come when she would have to die and leave this world behind - be it alone at home or during battle. She had come to accept that fact, which was why she lived her life to the fullest, basically doing what she wanted to do whenever she wanted to do it. But along the way, there were certain things and certain people that she had gotten attached to. Them, she couldn't bear to lose. And with the new responsibility that came with being Kazekage, that feeling extended to the entire village. She was meant to be their protector, their leader. It wasn't something that she took lightly, despite appearances. For this very reason, Gin found herself climbing to the peak of a mountain in the outskirts of Sunagakure. She headed to her personal training room - one of the perks that came from having the title of Kazekage. She didn't know if the place was initially meant to be a training room. All she knew was that it wad a wide enough space and sturdy walls that would keep the room from collapsing on itself if things got serious.

Gin haphazardly wore her Kazekage uniform, throwing the haori on as if it were a cloak, using it to protect herself from the wind and sand that often got in the way. She tried to remember where it was again that this place was. She had hardly ever used it. So now, facing a fork in the road, she paused before remembering to head right. Only a few minutes later, she came across the hidden entrance and stepped inside. Her footsteps echoed within the room, which was otherwise dead silent. She could her her breathing clearly. Now, if only she had somewhere where she could play music or something along those lines. She made a mental note to get someone to install a speaker system in the room and smirked. It would be her own personal touch - a gift for the Kazekages to come.

The young Kazekage threw her haori haphazardly on the ground, along with the black scabbard that designated her as her clan's leader. Such things would only get in the way of her training. It had been a while since she had last trained her ninjutsu skills, since the young Kuroka always relied on her swords and weapons. However, she knew that such things weren't enough sometimes. And with the new and unknown threats that the shinobi world was facing now, Gin couldn't help but feel nervous. She had only recently been named Kazekage. She knew she wasn't as strong as the other village leaders that had been in power for years, now. And if someone could kill the Mizukage so easily, she was sure she wouldn't stand a chance against his assassin. So, she thought she might as well do something about that power gap. Gin walked to the center of the room, the sounf of her footsteps still echoing off of the walls.

Gin cracked her knuckles and began concentrating on how her chakra flowed through her body. She would do some basic exercises first to warm up. In other words, she would run several laps around he room's walls and ceiling, using her chakra to prevent herself from falling to the ground. After that, she would practice her wind jutsu, though she didn't really have a target in mind. Maybe she could make a clone or something along those lines. The Kazekage shrugged. She would get to that later.

[605/2000]

Gin closed her eyes for a brief moment. She made chakra rush steadily towards her feet - child's play for someone of her stature. The again, this was just a warm up. She got into a stance, though not before lightly stretching her legs beforehand. And then she ran. With all her speed, Gin ran towards the walls of the room. Her feet clung perfectly to the smooth surface, just as if it were the ground itself. The young Kazekage would use the ceiling as her race track as well. After running a few meters, she decided to leap to leap towards the ceiling to continue her run. "This is too easy, even for a warm up..." She thought. She stopped for a moment. She hadn't even broken a sweat yet. She stood on the ceiling, thinking of how she could switch things up a bit. "This would be so much easier if I had someone to train with..." She mumbled under her breath in slight annoyance. Maybe she should go outside to get someone... She considered the idea briefly but decided against it for two reasons. First of all, she would probably get dragged back to her office to face the mountain of paperwork that she had left behind. Secondly, she wasn't quite sure if she wanted someone to come into her private training area. Gin shook her head lightly. For now, this place would be reserved for her eyes only.

Nevertheless, she still had training to do. She snapped her fingers, having thought of something to do. She wold concentrate her chakra on a tiny, minuscule spot on her feet. That would only be enough for her to stick to the ceiling and walls for less than a second, which would force her to run even faster. She liked the idea. She let herself go from the ceiling, releasing her concentrated chakra. The young woman landed gracefully on the ground. She got into a stance once again. She rushed to the base of the wall, her chakra concentrated only on one point in the balls of her feet. As she thought, she found herself pushing her legs to gain more speed, lest she fall onto the ground. She had to concentrate to change the point where she was concentrating her energy from one point to the other. She had never professed to be a master of chakra control, but she had to admit to herself that she was doing quite a good job at it. She jumped from one side of the room to the other and found herself almost losing her balance in the process a couple of times.

Once she found herself panting slightly, the young Kazekage would once again let herself drop onto the floor. She was sweating lightly, but she didn't bother to wipe it off of her forehead. It hardly got in her way. She stretched her back, which in turned made a light cracking noise. Now the real part of her training began. She would focus on making her ninjutsu stronger. She would practice using her wind jutsu against the wall and testing out its destructive power. She would concentrate on increasing its power, of course. She would only be satisfied when she could blow a hole the size of a tunnel into the wall. It was a high standard, especially considering the fact that the strongest ninjutsu she had was only a C-rank. Nevertheless, that didn't mean that the young Kazekage wouldn't try. All the contrary, actually. She saw it as a challenge to her strength and to her power. She would make sure that she wouldn't leave the room until she felt herself grow stronger.

[1220/2000]

Gin closed her eyes momentarily. She focused on every point of her chakra flow. Gin had always thought that meditation was an important aspect of gaining control over her chakra. It helped her trace the flow of her own energy. It helped her know where to direct it to give her additional speed or strength and even to keep herself attached to other surfaces like walls or trees, as she had been doing until now. The young Kazekage pushed her chakra towards her mouth and hand. She took a deep breath and exhaled. "Wind Release: Spiraling Wind Ball!" She shouted. A small spiral of wind appeared on the Kazekage's hand. It danced rapidly, picking up speed as Gin directed more chakra towards the jutsu. She was confident. She knew she could open a decent sized hole in the wall. She was confident in her power and skill. Without thinking twice, she Kazekage released the jutsu. The ball of wind spiraled towards the wall of the room at a rapid pace. Gin narrowed her eyes and deepened her gaze, carefully looking at her jutsu. For a brief moment, she wondered if she had overdone it. Nevertheless, her questioned was answered but a second later when the spiraling wind ball hit the wall with a sickening crack that echoed throughout the entire room. Gin closed her eyes to prevent dust from falling into her eyes. But something was amiss.

Gin slowly opened one eye to look at the effects of her jutsu. There was barely a crack on the wall. "What the hell?!" Her yell echoed inside the room. She had put all of her power into that... Well, not all of it. Still, it was meant to be powerful enough. She growled, remembering what the elders had told her when they had shown the young Kazekage the room. "These walls are reinforced with a special type of concrete. Not to mention the fact that the room is within a mountain, which makes the mountain itself a part of the wall," The old man had said. "The room is essentially a bunker." So maybe the problem wasn't her lack of skill. Nevertheless, this just added an extra challenge to the Kazekage's training. And like she had said before, she wouldn't leave the room until she had carved a cave into the wall using her Wind Realease: Spiraling Wind Ball. "Best get started," She said to herself.

[1624/2000]

To be truly honest, Gin had lost track of time. The room lacked any windows, which made it impossible to tell if it was day or night. She didn't have a watch on her, nor anything that could tell time if she ever wanted to know. However, she had hardly paid attention to that. She hadn't even bothered to wonder if it had been minutes, hours or even days that she had been training. She honestly didn't care. She would keep on pushing herself until her body collapsed from exhaustion. By this time, she was half way there. She could feel cold sweat running down her face and down her back. She was panting lightly. The amount of chakra she had used had taken its toll on her body, adding to the exhaustion, fatigue and accumulated stress. The young Kazekage looked at her work. There was a fairly large dent in the wall, but it still wasn't enough. If she knew ninjutsu of a higher rank, she was sure she could have gotten this over with hours upon hours ago. Nevertheless, that was the exact reason why she was training: Because she didn't have ninjutsu of a stronger level. Truth be told, she was still weak in any combat that didn't involve a sword. She knew that if she had summoned either of her weapons - Setsudan-fu or Hachidori - she would have already torn the room in half.

But the young Kazekage had to limit herself, otherwise, everything she set herself to do while training on her own would become much too easy. She couldn't allow herself time to breathe - there was no such thing during battle. She concentrated once again, focusing her chakra in her hand and mouth to execute the same justu as before. She had lost count of the amount of times she has preformed it already. All she knew was that she had done so over ten times. She had lost count after that. She released the chakra she had concentrated on her hand and mouth. "Wind Release: Spiraling Wind ball!" She shouted. This would be her last attempt, she knew it. After that, she would likely collapse from exhaustion, only to get back to the mountain of paperwork that awaited her on her desk when she woke up. Nevertheless, that was hardly the point, at the moment. The young Kunoichi swung her arm back, to give her jutsu an additional amount of strength. She threw the ball of wind with all her strenght towards the wall, pouring all of the energy that she had left into it. It sped at an amazing speed towards the young Kazekage's target. Gin smiled to herself. She knew she'd done it this time. The spiraling wind ball crashed against the wall, carving a small tunnel into it. Gin panted and smirked. She was satisfied now.

[2102/2000]