Pushing the Limits (Solo Training)

It was early morning just before Dawn as the sky was held a light blue with some clouds shrouding the stars above. The lapping waves of high tide drew ever closer on the beach only to withdraw. Dragging any sand and hidden objects back into the sea until the next wave came along. It's such a consistent movement of back and forth that never tires. Moving along the shore is the young Inarie Yoru-Kaguya, and she is wearing her usual garments that consist of practical clothing such as a linen short sleeved shirt with a pair of navy blue baggy pants. Underneath her shirt is a mesh shirt, and over it is a steel mail shirt. Her hip pouch containing her shuriken and steel wire is set on her belt at her left flank. Also attached to her belt is a weapon belt, or baldric for short, and it holds her sheathed chokuto. Footwear is a pair of sandals, but this time Inarie wears a pair of socks to protect her feet from both irritation of sand and from being burnt by the sun. Finally her Kirigakure headband remains wrapped around her neck with the steel plate facing forward.

Inarie found herself a secluded section of the Hozuki Fisheries, and it was here that Inarie decided to do some agility training in regards of her footwork. First Inarie stretches her legs to warm up those muscles. Then after standing at one spot, Inarie lateral jumps with both feet and sticks to her landing. Keeping the power within the ball of her foot, Inarie jumps back to her original spot and sticks to her landing once again. Muttering under her breath, she counted this to be one. Picking up the pace Inarie steadily lateral jumps back and forth repeatedly as she sticks to her landing every time. As she does so Inarie can feel her ankles and calves starting to burn from the strain.

Once she counted ten of these two lateral jump reps, Inarie took a break as she was a slightly winded from the exercise. Inarie walks over to her bag that held her supplies and brings out a canteen of clean water. After hydrating herself, the young Dragon continued the drill by lateral jump and this time she doesn't stick to her landing. Instead the instant the ball of her foot touched the sand, Inarie jumps back to her original spot. This set of reps was faster, but it was a killer on her legs. After jumping back and forth in a rapid pace for equivalent of ten reps Inarie could feel like her legs are trying to turn into jelly. Slightly winded once again, Inarie back over to her bag to sit down on the sand and drink some more water.

[1]

Inarie took a couple of minutes to rest that she even retrieved two strips of jerky from her bag. As she ate her snack Inarie could feel the muscles in her legs getting better. Washing it down with another gulp of water. Inarie gets back up on her feet and brings out one of her shuriken to plant one end into the sand. Turning on her heel, she faced the direction where beach bend over to the docks. It was about 500 meters away, and frankly Inarie wasn't sure if she really had the stamina for it. However, as some people would say no pain, no gain.

Taking a couple of deep breaths as she stretches her back and legs. Inarie began to jog with her knees high along the beach. She couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed if someone caught her. However Inarie kept her pace and only jogged normally when her legs started to feel really strained. Luckily that only happened after crossing the 100 meter mark and her stamina took her to the limits. While running as the docks slowly came into view some of the sailors who were already up and ready gave Inarie some curious looks. Inarie was polite enough to wave at a couple of them as she continued her jog. Her breathing was gradually starting to become harsh as she could feel not only her legs straining, but her core as well. It was strange to Inarie on how the center of her body was straining. Still it just meant that she was doing something.

Finally she crossed the 500 meter mark of her jog and the deck was just a couple dozen meters away from her as well. Inarie was more than winded this time as it felt like her lungs were on fire right now. This time the Kaguya had to sit down and take a few minutes to catch her breath. Exhausted she was, but she dreaded the thought of having to return. Inarie felt the temptation of just walking there, but she felt like there would be no point in this if she took it easy. However pushing herself so far is gonna have repercussions later on.

[2]

As much as Inarie was internally whining about her predicament, she got up on her feet and dusted the sand off her clothes. She really hated the feeling of sand on her body, and yet she loved the ocean. It was a weird selection of likeness and dislikeness. However if sand didn’t get everywhere and constantly made it feel like something is trying to peel her skin off then maybe Inarie wouldn’t complain about it so much. Her scales in particular doesn’t seem to be fazed by it too much thank the gods.

Inarie made sure to stretch her legs first to warm up those muscles again and made sure to take in several deep breaths. Once she was warmed up and those muscles were loose. Inarie begins jogging back to her starting point. At first she felt fine as the lapping waves rise and fall onto the beach. It was a pleasant sound when she wasn’t running, and somewhere along the way Inarie’s mind grew distant as she thought of the other Kaguya. How they snicker and whisper nasty things behind her back. Their eyes mocking her as it reveals how dark and twisted their sense of humor was. It did nothing except pissed her off that sparks of electricity flicker almost constantly around her scales. It drew some attention from the fishermen as it literally looked like her body was coated in raiton chakra as she ran.

In just a little over a minute Inarie spots the shuriken standing up in the sand along with her bag. She felt winded as her breathing was ragged from the running. The aura of raiton still present as her eyes brimmed with sheer anger. Her delicate hands curl into fists as Inarie recalls every single one of their faces as their whispers linger in her head. How they always usher just Inarie out whenever they have guests or an event is going on. Inarie was always left to be alone, and her mother is still paying the price for falling in love with Inarie’s father. Despite this, her mother’s words still ring clear in her head that distracts her mind.

It is not your fault dear… You just keep going forward one step at a time, and eventually you will get over that mountain. At the time Inarie’s young mind had no idea what mountain her mother was referring to. However, now she is getting a grasp of it as the raiton calms down. Inarie’s eyes raises up to the sky as dawn was now upon her. Painting the sky in a scarlet red with fluffy white clouds. It had only been a few minutes since she was running. Still Inarie decided to collect her shuriken and collect her things. From there Inarie retreated to the shack that these men temporarily lets her stay in. In return she helped them with some of their tasks such as untangling the nets, and other things.

[3]

The next day Inarie returns to this secluded area of this beach after eating breakfast that consist of hot tea and cooked pagrus major. This time Inarie decides to work on some more agility training. For starters, Inarie stretches her body to reduce the risk of injuring herself. Her body was already sore from yesterday, but she figured to go a bit light today. Inarie kept that in mind as she begins to run sideways. Simply done by coordinating the feet to push off while the other is positioned to land safely at the ball. So that the second her feet touches the sand she can more or less hop again. All while swaying her arms from shoulder length to cross over her chest at the same pace as she moves. Strangely this helps with her balance Inarie noticed.

She will repeatedly do this until she gets to the 100 meter mark. Once her foot touched the sand at that point Inarie stopped. Taking a couple of deep breaths. The pain from yesterday was gradually returning in a lingering way into her legs and lungs. Luckily the lateral running gives her legs somewhat a break when she is mid-air. Only for half a second though, so it wasn’t exactly that helpful. Inarie found herself staring out into the horizon as the ocean seems to send wave after wave like giant ripples onto the land. She couldn’t help except to wonder how far does her own potential go. Does it go as deep as this ocean or is it shallow?

[4]

After taking a minute to collect herself. Inarie begins to lateral run back towards her starting point. From push one leg to cross the other leg before landing on her foot. Maintaining her momentum and balance so when her feet touch the sand. Inarie can keep going without pausing even for a moment. She wasn’t going particularly fast as she didn’t want to burn herself out just yet.

Inarie could feel the muscles in her legs straining with each push, but it was a light squeeze that Inarie was able to ignore it for the time being. A breeze rolls through the shore that combs through her hair and was carrying the loose strands over to the north side of the beach. The wind would be nice if it wasn’t sending lots of sand against her ankles and shin. It was a rough sensation like it is trying to dig beneath her skin. Inarie ignored it the best she could as she was practically leaping over the low current of sand. It was a bit surprising to literally be able to see veils of sand over the beach. Thankfully it stayed low, but every time Inarie puts her foot down she gets assaulted by the sand.

Inarie decided to deal with it for now. When she finally reached the hundred meter mark back. Inarie immediately went for her bag to pick it up and begins walking away from the beach. Where she will seek shelter from the irritating sand, and it was only then that Inarie understood why. The Hozuki Fisheries was hurrying to get things done and not so far away from them is a set of large dark clouds that seemed to stretch as far as the horizon goes just south from there. Inarie wagered she might have an hour left at most.

[5]

Once Inarie finds herself a nice spot that didn’t have sand and was mostly secluded from the public eye. She arrives at a clearing surrounded by a couple of palm trees and some patches of tall wild grass. Inarie sets her bag down with a sigh escaping from her lips before looking back up at the clouds looming over her. By all accounts she should start heading for shelter since the storm can get pretty bad around here. However with a clenched fist Inarie was determined to get better even if it means a hurricane is coming her way.

Setting her bag down against a palm tree, Inarie takes out a shuriken and begins to mark an ‘x’ into the dirt. Inarie made sure it was deep to where even if she stepped on it the mark could still be seen. Then she repeated this process four more times. Each ‘x’ was about three feet apart that formed like a box with the fifth ‘x’ in the middle. Essentially it looked like something a kid could play hopscotch on. Speaking of hopscotch, Inarie stows the shuriken back into her hip pouch and gets into position of the two ‘x’ at the bottom of this square. One foot on each, she hops forward to plant both feet in the middle. With no time to waste, she continued to hop at the top two ‘x’. Without turning Inarie hopped back to plant her feet at the middle once again and then hops back to her starting point. Inarie will keep doing this same process four more times where she will take a quick break to drink some water from her canteen.

[6]

Next up was pretty simple and very similar to hopscotch. The only difference is that this time Inarie places both feet on one ‘x’. Taking a couple of breaths to prepare herself mentally. Even now Inarie can hear the faint rumbling of thunder in the distance. Inarie hops to the other ‘x’ and then proceed to hop on each one afterwards. Effectively forming a line shaped like a Z shape. Then Inarie will hop back from one 'x' to the other until she was back to where she was.

Not stopping to rest now, Inarie hops over to one dot to the other as fast and accurate as she could make it. Unfortunately there were a couple of times when her foot did not make it on the dot, and thus Inarie considered that as a failure. So she wouldn't count that as a set and will try again. Even if her legs were straining from the pressure and the gust picked up to where Inarie could barely see the dots now. Still rather than focusing with her sight she just remembered where they were. Eventually she completed her sets, but those clouds are definitely above her now. With the crackling thunder as flashes of lightning arcs across the dark clouds. Inarie could feel a drop of water splattered on her cheek against the scales. Upon impact albeit light Raiton flickered around her scales. With a sigh, Inarie picks up her bag and leaves from this place. Thanking everyone for their time and shelter. Inarie makes way for Kirigakure once again as she braves the storm.

[Exit to Kirigakure]