Taijutsu was not one of my specialties. In fact if I had a choice I would never have to use my fists in a fight, ever. But unfortunately an over specialised ninja is a dead ninja... or is it a super specialised ninja is a good ninja. Damn it I can’t remember! Anyways, that little bit of wisdom, lead me out of my beautiful, comfortable and warm bed and brought me to the cold, damp and dreary clearing of training ground 4 at 5 o'clock in the morning. What was I doing in said training ground at such a ridiculous hour? I’ll tell you. I was punching a block of wood... A KAMI FORSAKEN BLOCK OF WOOD!

I sighed, pausing a moment to regain my composer and heal up the cuts that started to form on my knuckles using Hovering Hands (ホバリング手 ~ Hobaringu-te). Why did I have to do this to myself? I’m fine at ninjutsu and medical-ninjutsu. I can survive with that right? No, I can’t, at least not if my opponent gets close to me. I need to be able to fight hand-to-hand when the time comes to it. Grimacing I fell back into my stance and began to punch the wood again. 1, 2, 3, block, 1, 2, 3 block, over and over again till the pain became too much.

Hovering Hands | 140/150 Chakra:

“Damn it!” I screamed at the inanimate object. “I hate you! Why don’t you just burn in hell! I swear if I had a Katon affinity.” I sunk down onto my knees watching the blood from my knuckles run onto the dirt beneath me. “Why is this so hard? Why can’t I do this?” I wasn’t weak but every punch I threw felt off, every time I hit that log it felt like my hand was going to break in half. I paused for a moment re-raping my hands in gauze and thinking.

‘Maybe, I’ve been looking at this the wrong way. I’m not using chakra enhancements so I can’t help hurting myself on a solid object. Even if I’m trying to build a pain tolerance this isn’t going to help me in the long run when I’m facing a real, moving opponent. So maybe instead of punching something till your knuckles bleed I should fight something that moves around and has a bit more give to it. Something that requires me to actually fight. But what can I…’ I cut my thoughts off, an idea popping into my head, never before had I felt so smart yet so stupid. Making my way away from the clearing and towards a nearby river I performed Water Release: Water Clone Technique (水遁・水分身の術 ~ Suiton: Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu) to make 4 water based clones of myself.

Water Release:

They may not be super sturdy but I just needed them to move around a bit and not cause my hands agonising pain. And I had a few spare for when I did eventually break a clone. “OK training, time to get serious!”

I instructed the water clones to follow me back to the clearing I had punched the log in and asked one of them to stand ready for a spar in the centre. “Only Taijutsu, no Suiton jutsu or weapons.” Falling back into a familiar stance I faced the clone. “Ready, set go!”

The clone ran at me, possibly hoping to catch me off guard. Dodging the weak kick it sent at my stomach I tried to grab the clone’s leg to pull it off balance. The clone pulled its leg back however, and went for another kick this time to the head. Barely leaning back in time I used the momentum of my dodge to lash out a forward kick at the clones stomach. It struck, forcing the clone backwards away from me. Following up my kick, I returned to my basic stance and went in for a jab to the throat. My attempt was easily blocked by my clone, however, who returned with its own jab to my stomach. Grunting I used the opening this left me to give my clone a nasty right hook to the head, causing it to stagger backwards towards the other three clones. I rushed forward grabbing the clone by the hair and kneeing it in the face repeatedly. Breathing heavily I turned towards my three remaining clones and smiled. ‘Now this is the kind of training I can get behind.’

WC = 751
Training END (E-0 -> D-0) = 751/750

[exit]