Godric awoke from his slumber just as the sun rose to greet the mountain village, having chose to sleep out doors the night before as he set up he was able to take in a deep breath of the refreshing mountain air. "What a beautiful day" he said to himself as be stretched out his body popping his back in the process, it wasn't long before he was up and ready to start his day off. He had seen most of the sites the day before and although all of them were interesting there was only one of them on his mind today, the Battle Plateau. He knew he had go push his limits if he wanted to be the best and from what he had heard about it from different villagers he had spoken with it was one of the best places in the village to train. Grabbing his pack that he had been using for a pillow he jumped down off the rooftop he had chosen to lay on and headed off for the plateau. The streets were empty and it was almost silent in village save for the footsteps of the young shinobi and a few birds that he could here chirping throughout the village, he simply assumed that the villagers just had not woken up yet or they were just waking up, and as he came to the Plateau he saw it stood as empty as the streets of the village.

"Perfect" he said aloud to himself he was hoping that there wouldn't want too many people at the plateau as he hated crowds, the fact that it was empty was even better, no one around to get in his way. Sitting his pack down in the center of the plateau, he began stretching each and every muscle before he began his actual training. Once he was done with his stretching he looked around the plateau for any training equipment however there wasn't any really as far actual equipment save for a few boulders that lay scattered around the plateau, that looked as if they were from pieces of the plateau that had been broken apart during someone else's training. "Well that's better than nothing" he thought aloud as he headed over toward one of the larger pieces of rocks. Picking it up he assumed it weighed about forty pounds which although it was a little more than he thought of starting out with didn't really bother him any. He took the boulder lifting it high into the air above his head with both hands holding it. After a little bit he took his left hand away, trying his best to hold it with just his right, that however didn't last very long and he had to quickly move out from under the rock as his hand buckled under the weight and the boulder fell to the ground.

Dusting himself off as he walked back to the boulder, he silently cursed himself for dropping the boulder he knew he had to be better than that if he was going to be the strongest shinobi around. Picking the boulder back up from the ground and lifting it back above his head with both of his hands, this time he didn't wait as long to remove his left hand and was soon holding it up again with just his right hand. As he held the boulder in his right hand he began pumping his arm up and down putting more strain on his muscles as he continued with his training. After a few minutes he started to feel the burning of his muscles, quickly switching to his left hand to avoid dropping the boulder again. Pumping his left arm just as he did with his right, and once the burning sensation began in his left arm he switched back to his right and continued to pump his arms. After probably thirty minutes of this he began taking it a step further, putting a little extra ump behind the boulder as he extended his arm fully launching the boulder slightly into the air catching it in his other hand. As he continued each thrust into the air the boulder went just a little bit higher than the last, and it didnt take long for the tossing and catching of the boulder came easily and without too much strain.

Sweat poured down his face, and began to burn his eyes catching the boulder one last time before throwing it as hard as he could straight into the air above him before walking out from underneath it over towards the water fountain just on the edge of the plateau. Hearing the boulder hit the ground a smile formed across his face, "7 seconds" he said to himself as he bent down to the fountain and took a long drink from it before wiping his face and neck off. For the first time since he arrived at the plateau he looked around the plateau, there were a few around the area but not many and no one near the center where his pack still lied. It didn't look like anyone had messed with it, but with others now on the plateau he decided it best to move it from the center of the area so that no one would trip over it or take what little gear he had from it. Grabbing the pack and moving it over by the fountain, however he took his kunai, his three shuriken, and the last apple he had from it leaving only his cloak in the bag as he laid it against the fountain. Taking another drink from the fountain before washing the apple and sliding down and sitting down beside his pack taking a bite out of the apple as he watched the others that were there training while he took a short rest, they were all in a group of two sparring against each other, he didnt know if they even noticed him there training by himself.

---

WC: 1013

Finishing his apple, Godric tossed the core on the ground by his pack as he stood, there was not a nearby trash can and so he made a mental note to throw it away when he left. Now that his break was finished he wanted to get back to his much needed training, he had not done anything strenuous since he had crossed the boarder into Kaminari no Kuni and although it had been a relaxing journey since then deep down inside he knew they would eventually track him down and try to take him back. Kitaru Arashi the name he has been running from since he was 13 and it was the cause of all of his pain. When he had first fled from his home they sent three guards out after him, he was able to defeat two of them and he allowed the third return hoping that it would show them he did not wish to return home. Of course he should have known better they weren't going to just let him leave, they sent more after him and with each one he defeated they would send two more it its place, for the last four years he has been running from what his elders claim is his destiny. This so called destiny however cost him the life of his only true friend and for that he wanted no part in it, but they would not except no as a answer forcing him to run and hide trying his best to get as far away from them as he could in for the first time in the past four years he finally felt as if he actually got away from them, but he knew he could never truly be safe he had to stay on his guard for the rest of his life constantly looking over his shoulder.



The noise snapped Godric back to reality, taking a second to remember where it was that he was, and what he was doing. "Damn it" he said to himself under his breath, the lonesome tapping had returned, "I have got to be more focused" he thought aloud to himself as he looked around to see if there was any difference in what was around him from when he got lost in his thoughts. He was not sure just how long he had been out of touch with reality, but that is not what concerned him, he needed to get back to his training or else it would never get done. Godric cleared his mind preparing himself for his training while he looked around him for anymore items he could use in his training, when he saw five stones laying close to each other. These five stones were about the size of a fist or a little bit bigger, and when he picked one of them up he noticed it was about a fourth of the weight of the chunk of stone he had been using earlier, which still sat in the same spot that he had let it drop. He grabbed up two of the stones, holding one in each hand as he check around to make sure nobody was nearby and would get in his way before chunking the first stone as hard as he could straight up into the air. Since the stone was smaller and lighter than the one from before he figured it would take about twice as long for it to hit the ground and started counting after two seconds he threw the second stone, keeping track of the seconds passed in his head he quickly bent down and picked up the last three, throwing them into the air as hard as he could one after another with only a second in between them. By the time he had thrown the last stone he was up to 13 seconds meaning the first should be about to hit. He did not look for it however instead he simply closed his eyes and strained himself to listen for it coming down through the air. After 17 seconds had passed he had began to wonder if they were going to fall at all when he heard it cutting through the air on its way down, without looking he waited and then jumped into the air and caught the stone in his hand before it hit the ground, the second stone wasn't far behind it and he was able to catchi it simply enough. Keeping his eyes shut tight he dropped the two that he held in his hands and readied himself for the next three, when he heard the sound of the stone cutting through the air again he launched himself in the direction of the disturbance and caught the third and fourth stone, the fifth stone unfortunately he missed and it hit him in the shoulder. He winced slightly from the pain in his arm as he opened his eyes and looked over at the shoulder that was hit, a small trickle of blood ran down his arm from where the stone hit him but it was not something he cared about it was a minor wound and his own fault for not being faster.

Godric rotated his shoulder to judge the damage before he continued, and he was right nothing major he could keep going. This time he held all five of the stones in the air as he threw them straight up into the air one after the other, before he closed his eyes and began to count and listen. It was twenty seconds later when he heard the stone jumping over to the left of where he stood catching it before quickly dropping it and readying for the next which was a few steps in front of where he was. Catching the second stone and dropping it just in time to do the same for the third one, followed closely by the fourth. The fifth stone was coming down but not by where the others had landed, it was off to the far right and Godric had to dive forward in order to catch it. Once all the stones were caught he opened his eyes and looked around him to see where they all were.

---

WC: 1048
TC: 2061

The first four of the stones were pretty close to each other only being a few feet at the most away from each other, the fifth however was almost three meters away from the rest. The only reason he could think of that would cause that to happen was that he lost his concentration when he threw it and it didn't go as straight up as the rest did. He would have to try harder if he want to train the right way he needed to concentrate on the task at hand and not lose his focus anymore, kicking the stray stone Godric turned and walked back to the group of four scattering them around on the plateau. If he truly wanted to push himself then he was going to need heavier stones to train with, as he walked around the plateau looking for something he could use he watched the others that had shown up to train there as well. There were a couple shinobi there that looked as if there were training in their hand to hand, and as he watched them he marvelled at their technique he had never seen whatever style it was that they were training, but he could tell it was nothing like that of his own Guren style. He even witness a few sparring with blades, a weapon Godric had never understood, he once tried to train with a sword however he never could get the hang of it and he just couldn't understand the concept that it was an extension of himself and decided it best to not rely on something that could be taken away or dropped choosing instead to rely on his fist.


"Ugh not again" Godric said quietly to himself as he continued watching the others, no one else seemed to respond to the noise only furthering his belief that he was insane and the tapping was a byproduct of his insanity as the elders of his tribe once told him. As he continued around the plateau watching the others that were there, he came across a couple of stones that were slightly bigger than the ones he just used but still lighter than the first stone he had at the beginning. "These will work" he said aloud mostly to himself since he neither knew the others that were training there nor were they within ear shot for them to know what he was saying, if they did see him they probably would think that he was just a crazy person who stood around talking to himself. Godric bent down and picked up three of the stones and began walking back to the little area of the plateau where he was training.


Godric shook his head trying to knock the noise out of his head but it didn't work, of course he didn't actually think that it would work he was just trying to make it stop. The tapping continued in the back of his head as he did his best to ignore the noise and push it away so he could focus on his training. He started by just tossing one slightly up into the air and catching it with the same hand while he held the other two in his other hand, once he was sure he could do it the way he was wanting to he was ready to get started. Throwing the first stone as hard as he could straight up into the air before grabbing the second and throwing it as hard as he could right behind the first followed by the third and final one, this time he left his eyes open knowing that he could not afford to make a mistake and needed all of his focus on the task at hand. He saw the first stone coming down just off to the left of him moving over to catch it with his left hand before passing it to the right hand and throwing it back into the sky just in time for him to catch the second stone and doing the same to it before repeating the process with the third. This is what him and Rukasu called extreme juggling back when they were younger and he was going to continue to use it as his training method. The stones began to fall again almost exactly where they fell the last time only slightly to the right, one by one Godric caught the stones in his left hand before passing it to the right hand and throwing them back into the air to continue on with his juggling. Godric's mind went back to when he was younger, to the last time he hand played extreme juggling with his best friend before he was forced to kill him. They had been twelve and having the time of their lives, Godric could still remember the slight breeze that had been blowing that day and the surprise he felt when he had beat Rukasu in their little game, it was the first time in all of the games they had played that Godric was ever able to beat him, if he had known that it would be the last time they would play a game together be would of tried to get him to play more, but it was the last time they had any free time together and then the next time they were together after that was the day they were put in the ring against each other to fight till only one remained, the moment that haunted Godric's very soul. The tapping grew loud in his head again bringing him back to reality just as the stones started their decent from the sky, jumping over to where they would land Godric caught and relaunched the stones one after another, I could do this all day. Godric laughed to himself as he watched the stones on their accent once more.

---

WC: 1002
TC: 3063

The sun was high in the sky by now, and although he was not truly exhorting himself Godric could still feel the trickle of sweat running down his face from the heat of the sun. Of course it was not as hot as it was in the desert, the mere fact that the village Hidden in the Clouds itself was so high in the air Godric could feel the slight breeze of the wind blowing around him as he trained. The stones began their descent from the heavens once more plunging down towards the earth below with Godric standing at the ready to repeat his process of catching and rethrowing the stones back into the sky above him. Moving to the area below the stones he readied himself and one by one he caught the stones transferring them to his other hand and launched them back into the air for the fifth time, the whole ideal behind this extreme juggling was that each time he sent the stones into the air he would put more force behind the throw making it rise higher than the previous and therefore fall faster each time as well, this coupled with the fact that one had to move around to the right position in order to catch the stones and repeat the process was an excellent way to get some training of his speed and reaction time. The highest combo Godric had been able to do in the game against Rukasu was seven, but today his goal was to beat that record and push himself even further.


The forsaken noise was still loud in his head as he moved to catch and relaunch the stones for the sixth time, they were falling faster now making it harder to keep the flow of the stones in sync with each other. Godric planted his feet in the ground and readied himself catching and relaunching the three stones one after another, while his thoughts ran a muck bringing up thoughts of his past that he would of rather stayed burried. Him and Rukasu were trained separately after that day when they were twelve and would not see each other again until the night before the fight, of course back then neither one of them knew that their paths were leading upto them being put in a battle to the death until it was happening. The night before Rukasu had gotten a message to Godric telling him to meet at their secret location to talk about what had happened to each other over the past year. Godric was able to sneak out of the house and made it to the underground shelter they had discovered years ago around nine a clock, excitement filled him at the thought of seeing his friend once more, however that didn't happen that way Godric waited until one in the morning for Rukasu to show up however he never did, fearful that something might of happened to his friend Godric left the shelter and went in search of him. As he neared the place where he had heard that Rukasu was staying he saw his friend standing between two guards in the window and figured he got caught trying to sneak out but as he approached the window he was hit in the back of the head by something.

When Godric finally came to the sun was rising and he found himself in his own bed. And the tribes guards were waiting outside his home where they escorted him to the arena, when he saw Rukasu was there as well his heart jumped for joy, but that all changed when he saw the look of dread in his friends eyes. That was when the village elders came out and explained that they were to fight each other, to the death to determine who would be the great warrior that would reunite the clan that had been scattered to the winds and take their revenge against those that betrayed their anscestors.



The noise broke through his thoughts bringing him back to the present once more, just in time to see the first stone hit the ground, "Damn it!" he shout out as he dove forward to try and catch the others before they hit the ground, but he was not fast enough and could only watch as the other two hit the ground, he lost his focus once again. Godric kicked the dirt around him in frustration he had let his thoughts break his focus and now he was more pissed at himself, he had to lock his emotions away and push on forget about the past and move on. Godric kicked the ground one last time before walking over to the fountain to get a drink and wipe the sweat away, before he grabbed his pack and headed back for the main part of the village he was done training for today. As he head back to the streets of the village he took one final look around the plateau and at all the others that had gathered there to train with a great sadness in his heart, "Rukasu would of loved this place" he thought aloud to himself as he turned back around and began to leave, he may return here later to train but for now he was finished. Godric felt his stomach growl with hunger, realizing that the apple was the only thing he had eaten today and all of his training had worked up quite an appetite he set off in search for a place to eat, perhaps a nice ramen shop or something like that would be good after a long training session.

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WC: 954
TC: 4017

:Exit Thread:

Training complete:
Str: E-rank to D-Rank -750
Spe:E-rank to D-Rank -750
End:E-rank to D-Rank -750
Per:E-rank to D-Rank -750
Rea:E-rank to D-Rank -750
Words remaining: 267