Chapter 05: Training and Routine

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The next day…

Akio had already woken up and quickly finished his breakfast, before heading toward the backyard – where father stood. It seemed he had been expecting him already.

"So, are you ready for your first day of training," Hagiro exclaimed with a smug smile on his face.

Yesterday, Hagiro had already proposed to train before he had even said anything – and of course – without hesitation, he accepted.

Unexpectedly, the training was today – just the day after he had said it. Now he realised how much his father wanted to invest in his son's dream. Mostly because it was his dream as well, but that didn't matter – as long as he got stronger then he would gladly accept the proposal. Already his mind was set on becoming a shinobi.

Akio had a stern look and nodded.

Seeing this, he said, "Okay – first thing… sprint – and I mean sprint around the field. Don't stop until I say so."

To his father's reply, he glanced at the massive field, in the many acres of land this backyard had. It was still new to Akio how big of a property this mansion was.

'A fallen clan still had its leftover assets after all.'

So he walked over to a part of the field and took a firm stance before shooting off as fast as he could. Keeping his breath steady, he tried his best to push harder and faster – not stopping for a second as his sandals just dug into the cut grass.

A few seconds passed before he felt his calves beginning to burn as he breathed in short gasps. He felt his whole body working; his leg muscles running warm, fresh air entered his lungs and blood flowed into his limbs.

Soon, he began to groan in between breaths, at the gut-wrenching and heart-pumping feeling – after several thrusts, his legs became tired, coming to a stop.

He couldn't contain his desperate plea for some air – heavily gasping every second whilst he clutched his knees as he bent down. Droplets of sweat dropped down from his neck, forehead and onto the grass.

"Seems that's all you got; you barely got past three minutes…. We definitely have a lot of work to do," Hagiro explained in an expected sort of tone.

It wasn't hard to figure out that Akio's body couldn't go past the two-hundred-metre mark before gassing out. The kid's body was basically a skeleton with no sort of conditioning. Contrary to Ariza, who had trained his body since long before the academy – not just a few months.

Whilst his breathing had finally calmed down, Hagiro was still speaking to him, "I'm going to pass you down a specific regimen for you to follow. It's on you if you want to follow it; if you don't… well say bye to becoming a shinobi."

Akio knew this meant he didn't want to spoon-feed him. It all mattered on him; whether he was independent enough to do it himself. That didn't mean he couldn't ask for help if he didn't understand something, but basic traits like: hard-working, diligence and smart can't be taught.

Akio spoke slowly – seemingly thoughtful about something. "I understand. It's just… well.. is three months enough?"

Seeing him nervous, Hagiro sighed, knowing what he was thinking. It was natural – after all, the annoyance of being weaker than others may fuel a person but could cause impatience and downfall too.

So he just honestly replied, "Three months is nowhere near enough. Depending on your attitude, your progress could: exceed, be on or not reach expectations.

Hagiro expected his son to be disappointed by this but instead, he shook his head in understanding.

"So, it all depends on me then but the chances of catching up are slim to none," he casually said, like he was running a scenario to himself. Hagiro nodded.

He had already thought about this time and time again – knowing it was impossible to have some sort of boost in strength. He asked only to get a perspective. Who else than his father – a jonin provides this better?

"We have to get your body up to a certain standard, then I'll explain to you the next step," he carried on.

'Three months… in three months I must do these to the best of my ability; I must train and gather as much knowledge as I can.'

Days passed…

–7 am–

An alarm echoed, sounding in Akio's ears – he stretched and groaned as he stood up from his bed. Wiping away the buildup from the corner of his eyes, he made his way to his door and opened it.

With some grogginess to him; he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen, where he started taking out various utensils. For a moment, he closed his eyes; his pupils bulged, flickering around like they were searching for something.

After he had stopped, his hands started cutting up various vegetables and cracking eggs into a bowl. Whilst whisking, he added the vegetables into a blender with some water and turned it on.

'Then, he pulled out some bacon and various meat which he added to the frying pan with the eggs – whilst waiting he thought, 'These cookbooks were really helpful.'

As he went in and out of the library these past few days, Akio decided to learn how to cook for himself. This body needed to gain its nutrition and weight, he was still in his development phase. All he needed to do was flick through the memory of him reading it and look at the instructions. Voila… he didn't even need the cookbook.

Before he knew it, his breakfast had already been cooked so he served it and downed it with proper chewing.

After finishing the meal, he poured the green juice from the blender into a bottle; he breathed in and out, not looking forward to drinking it, and immediately downed it as he winced and squeezed his nose shut.

He had finished his breakfast for the day.

'Uhh… I can't get over how full I get every time.'

Akio's belly felt like it was going to burst any second, but the large burp was a kind of relief as he walked back up to his room.

He changed into some joggers and sandals – and walked out of the house to go for a run. He would have used the backyard but Ariza always comes to disturb him so he just decided to run through the streets of Konoha.

At a light pace, he jogged around for a long period before stopping. Then, he carried on again; then stopped again after half an hour. This carried on until he had finally reached the two-hour mark.

'When will I be able to do the full two hours without stopping?' Inwardly he sighed.

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, he thought of his progress. Previously, he couldn't even go twenty minutes without stopping – at least it had gone up by ten minutes. Akio bit his lip at this progress… truthfully, it just felt too slow but it had to be necessary.

–10 am–

Next, he started doing various stretches before conditioning himself with bodily exercises. This consisted of push-ups, sit-ups and the normal stuff to improve strength and endurance. Straight after a run, it felt like hell to do – he even felt like giving up a few times but he tried his best to do them.

Thinking about war fueled his desire to get stronger, it even overcame his own judgement – this showed how much he feared death.

–12 pm–

After he had finished his bodily exercises, he decided to head back home. It was nearly noon and he wanted to freshen up and eat; he was pretty hungry after a hard session.

As he entered the house, he quickly went upstairs to immediately shower. When he was done; he went back downstairs and into the kitchen. There were all kinds of food left on the table for him to eat – and just like that, he gobbled most he could, down. The more he eats; the more it would benefit him.

Later in the afternoon, Akio sat in a lotus position with his eyes closed. A few seconds passed…. A few minutes passed – it turned into twenty minutes before he opened his eyes.

Straight after he did, Akio had a calculative gaze.

'Twenty minutes, a two-minute improvement from yesterday.'

He was quite happy with his progress in meditation. At first, he could only concentrate for a few minutes before his mind wandered – now it boosted up to around twenty minutes. Compared to his physical training gains which were gradually showing – this was clearly rising.

So Akio kept doing it until two hours passed – of course, he didn't do it consistently as he took breaks in between; he couldn't just keep meditating for two hours straight at this point in time.

Akio already knew why his father gave him this regimen – first – it was to build up his physical energy. Second – to build up his spiritual energy. All those books he stored had been slowly revised by him in his head, gaining more knowledge. Even the show helped with these things but Akio knew more in-depth stuff. This is why he wanted to memorise the information – and not just keep it for when he needed to use it.

A knock on his door came to which Akio walked over and opened it. Strangely, his face looked expectant, knowing who it was. In front of him, stood Hagiro with a few books in his hand all piled up.

He spoke whilst barging into his room. "Since you asked me for books – here… books."

A whole pile of them stacked was put onto his bedside table – and he carried on speaking.

"There are books in there ranging from: autobiographies of shinobi, stories concerning shinobi and weapon knowledge. These will suffice in helping with your mentality – read as much of these as you can and you'll be able to figure out your nindo way. Lastly, I got you some advanced chakra theory books, you wouldn't get them for now but because you wanted them, I had no choice."

Akio was satisfied with all these books as he thanked his father. "I will definitely work hard, and exceed your expectations."

"That's what I hope too," he replied – now walking out of the room.

He was quite pleased with his son being a bookworm – it was good to have this trait if one wanted to thrive in knowledge. Even whilst doing his physical training, he didn't slack off… well he did slack off quite a bit at first but his determination was still there. As time goes on, he'll reckon his son will be doing it like drinking water.

Smart, hardworking and disciplined are the words he'd use to describe his son…. No, he was the epitome of these for a kid his age.

'But I'm worried about how he just trains all day and never interacts or plays with other children. He truly doesn't act like a normal kid – maybe I should take him to the park sooner or later.'

Whilst his father had these thoughts, Akio had already started properly reading: [Advanced Chakra Theory]

His father was right… some parts felt blank – no – most parts did. As he kept reading on, most of it flew over his head but just for curiosity, he flickered through.

'Hmm, it seems further depth is required to read this book. You had to be in the academy – I'm sure of it.'

Putting the book down, he looked at the others. Akio started to just inspect: [My Experience]

There were all sorts of fascinating stories written by the previous shinobi which he read through. People who were in the genin corps to Jonins dying on missions. It was interesting though so he put the book down to read for later.

'Time to start grinding out everything… In three months, I will become as strong as I can be. The second shinobi war will be coming soon.'

That all loomed in the back of his head… the war – something he would have to sooner or later fight in so he wasn't taking these. Opportunities lightly.

He could die after all…

Something he isn't planning on succumbing to again…

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