Chuunin Exams or Bust

If he could remember the area his mother had taken him, he would not have to do all this as they had done it there before. Training logs and even a few actual dummies that his mother had acquired, and various other things he could use to train. Since he didn't have his mother's campsite, Nao resolved to make do with what he had. Once the log was upright, he would pack the dirt in to make it as sturdy as possible. He wasn't going to be using the strong fist on this, this was for his gentle fist practice just as the one at his mother's camp was.

Taking out his Kunai, Nao would picture the one at his mother's camp and begin carving into the log. When he was finished he would take a step back, comparing his work to the mental image of the one his mother had made. It wasn't perfect, of course it was also possible that his memory of his mother's was wrong as well, but he would make do with it. Finishing with the log, Nao would take the time to setup a few more training items. Creating what his mother had called the training obstacle course, something he had used as part of his training regiment his mother had set for him.

While he had improved tremendously since those days, it did not hurt to return to basics every now and again. This regiment could help him in the coming days for the Chuunin Exams, and he would take every advantage he could get. From Kunai and Shuriken targets to a few targets made from trees and other items, Nao would make what he could remember and then begin some training with the log. Sweat would pour from Nao's brow as he struck away at the wooden log, the forest was silent aside from the thumps of his fist on the wood and the occasional bird chirp.

It was late, the sun had started its descent behind the mountains and the air began to grow cool. The sunlight painted long shadows of the trees, he had used up so much of the daylight preparing the camp for training that now the day was coming to an end. After another sip from the canteen Nao did a brief cool down where he stretched and massaged his muscles to ensure they didn't get injured. Even something minor like a pulled or sprained muscle could ruin his training for the coming exams or even take away his chances of participating in the exams them self.

Setting up some food to cook on the fire he would take a look around the camp to admire his accomplishment for the day. It was as close to a replica of the one his mother and him had made as he could get it, and it would bring a smile to his face. His byakugan still active, Nao watched the area for signs of trouble as he waited for his food to finish cooking. After eating he would make his way into the hollow once more to get some rest, tomorrow there will be no delay in his training. Everything was in place now and he was going to spend the next few days preparing for the exams and nothing else.

Waking up to the early morning sun once more, Nao spent some time stretching his arms, legs, and back to make sure he didn't pull a muscle. Activating his byakugan, Nao would move out of the hollow and begin his daily warmup. Today he spent a much longer on this part of his training than the day before, since he wouldn't be distracted with other tasks he had to ensure that he was ready for the training. He did basic pushups then moved on to tight hands pushups, wide hands pushups, one handed pushups, side pushups, and lastly pushups on his knuckles. After the pushups he moved to a tree. Hanging himself upside down from the branch of the large tree and doing crunches while hanging.

Fifteen minutes, maybe less, time was a fickle thing. As Nao did crunches, he was almost done with his reps when he heard a snap. The branch would give out from under him, falling face first towards the ground. Luckily he had picked a branch that was high enough to give him time to react, releasing a burst of chakra he would slow his descent and use it to flip himself around landing on his feet.  Nao shuddered. 'That was way to close for comfort, I could have really messed myself up if hadn't landed right when I fell.' He thought to himself, an injury now at this stage would ruin his chances at the chunin exams.

Nao knelt down taking a sip from his canteen, catching his breath before moving on to more training. picking up a large log, holding it over his head while doing squats and lunges in all directions and styles. Continuing in this manner until his legs ached and felt dead, the burning in his muscles returning as though it had never left. Throwing the log to the side, he grabbed his canteen and took another sip before stretching his legs out a bit. He felt like shit and his daily training for today had only just started, but he needed to keep on going if he planned on having any sort of chance at the exams. After catching his breath Nao moved onto improving his speed, balance, and mobility.

This training consisted of stacking logs of varying height around the grove that had become his campsite. After stacking the many, many logs upright around the grove yesterday, Nao was already prepared for it and lept onto one of the upturned logs. He leapt from log to log in random directions, working on his speed and leg strength but also balance. He dodged and jumped from upturned log to upturned log until he couldn't anymore. After taking another sip from his canteen he sat down on one of the stumps to let his muscles recover a little bit from the vigorous exercise and the beating they had taken in the past few days as part of this extreme workout he was doing.

He took another long sip from his canteen and took a deep breath, massaging his legs and then one arm muscles followed by the other as he sat on the stump. He didn't want to waste too much time resting, after all this was his fourth day out and he had barely gotten any real training done. With the exception of the first day, it's all been warmups and preparation. He had to keep going while there was still time, the Chuunin Exams were drawing nearer by the day. Once he had rested long enough, he would leap down from the log moving to his training dummy log. Carved with small points across its surface to symbolize the positioning of Tenketsu points.

Going to work on the would be dummy, Nao would strike it with the sixty four palms. Unlike how he had trained on the tree his first day out, Nao would be using the gentle fist style and so he was simply tapping the wood. He didn't release any chakra with the strike, as the log had no chakra to interrupt with the attack. This was more about working on the speed of his strikes and his accuracy, of course the accuracy would vary in the real world application. He could come across an opponent that could block his strikes, or even avoid them altogether as Tengoku had. 

While the real world application of the sixty four palms could vary depending on his opponent, Nao would not let that distract him. Focusing solely on the carved dots in the wood as he imagined them being the Tenketsu points of an opponent, after repeating the process a few times Nao decided to change it up a bit. Taking out his Kunai, he would move around the log carving new dots into it. The idea behind this was to simulate an opponent moving during the attack, or at the very least that was what he was going for. With the new dots carved into the wood, Nao would take up his position again and then launch into striking with the sixty four palms once more.

As he launched his attack, Nao would imagine an opponent striking out at him. Dodging the imagined strike he would strike a few points, quickly dodging another imagined steike Nao would strike more of the points on the log. Twisting and turning his body as he moved around the log, dodging imagined strike after imagined strike. Nao would strike the newly made dots in the wood, hitting each one with precision as he moved. He would repeat this process for several hours before moving on to other training. He couldn't rely on the sixty four palms to solve all his problems in the exams. He needed to work on his range fighting as well.

Positioning himself in front of several targets he had set up at a range, Nao would begin. Forming string of hand seals after string of hand seals, never stopping his momentum as he blasted the targets with lightning over and over again. His training with Raiton had improved since his training with Tengoku, but he still had a long way to go before he was a master like Tengoku was. He continued until he felt exhausted from the exertion of chakra, finally agreeing with himself to call it a day. He would slowly make his way over to his campfire, placing new logs upon it and starting the blaze.

Despite his lack of energy he knew he needed to check his traps, the meat he had obtained wasn't going to keep forever and he was soon going to need to find alternatives. Moving from trap to trap, collecting what was caught and resetting the traps, Nao would make his way back to his camp. It had been relatively quiet since that second day, there were no wolves or other animals trying to get at him or his dinner. He was sure that he had discovered the method to keeping them at bay and his supplies safe. Tomorrow he would go on another hunt, but for now he needed to turn what he had left from the previous hunt to jerky before it went bad.

After many hours of training and cooking the meat down to jerky, Nao returned to his tree hollow and shutting the make shift door that was just a large stump of wood in front of the opening. He was worn out, collapsing onto the ground he would fall quickly to sleep. That night, Nao's sleep was devoid of dreams, or at least he didn't remember them when he woke. It was always a hard thing to tell if you didn't dream or if you simply did not remember the dream, Nao was no scholar so he wasn't in a position to debate the issue with himself.

Moving over to the nearby river, Nao would underdress and wash himself as well as his clothes. It wouldn't be perfect by any means, but it would at least wash away the stink of the past few days and all the sweat and grime he had accumulated during his training. Putting on his change of clothes, which looked exactly like his other clothes, Nao would set the wet clothes to dry from a small line he set up between a couple of branches.Today Nao decided that he wanted to do something new, the repetition of his previous training sessions had bored him.

Boring made it so much harder for him to progress because he didn't enjoy the methods he was using to get better and improve himself. Instead of his normal regiment, for today's training Nao decided he'd do something pretty special and a lot different then what he would normal do for his typical daily training. Rather than training there at his campsite like he had been, Nao went for a jog through the forest towards the hokage monument. Approaching it from the outside of the village walls it looked like a simple mountain, or at least a simple mountain under the military.

Shinobi patrolled the entire area, ensuring that his headband was in place Nao would begin his climb up the side of the mountain. Some of those that saw him, would question what he was doing to which he would simply answer that he was training for the exams and they would leave him be. Despite the fact that they weren't hovering over him, Nao could still feel their eyes upon him, watching him to ensure he didn't do something nefarious. It was to be expected however, protection of the village was paramount. They couldn't just let anybody walk up to the mountain, especially from the outside of the village.

He could have used the supernatural walking practice to simply walk up the mountain side, but that wouldn't really have been training. Nao would climb it like a civilian mountain climber that didn't know how to use chakra, pulling himself up with his arms and legs a foothold at a time. He climbed for what felt like hours.. actually it probably was at least a couple hours, the cliff the the Hokage monument was carved into was quite tall and treacherous. Finally, Nao would reach his first resting point, a tiny little ledge that jutted out from the side of the near flat cliff face.

After pulling himself onto the ledge he sat, resting his muscles and allowing himaelf to recover the bit of energy he had exerted. Nao took a sip from his canteen and wiped the sweat from his brow as he looked out over the huge forest that surrounded the village hidden in the leaves. Even from this vantage point he could not see beyond the trees of the forest, high above the trees but it was as if looking out at a sea of trees with nothing else on the horizon. It was the equivalent of being on an island in the middle of the ocean from his perspective, and yet he would see such beauty in it.

It was the forest created by the Senju, and one of the villages greatest defenses against attacks. It was but a small part of the greater picture, just as every Shinobi of the hidden leaf village defended it, so too did the trees of this forest. Having enough of the awing over the forest below, Nao would stand up on his tiny ledge. Checking his gear and other supplies, he would resume his climb up the side of the mountain cliff. He began to scaled the near cliff face but found it to be much harder from here up. It was almost completely flat, worn almost smooth from decades of wind and rain eroding it to a flat plane.

The only hand holds were ones made by trickles of water, small indents in the near completely sheer cliff face, and the occasional rock jutting from the cliff. Another defense against just anybody climbing to the top and gaining access to the village, it wouldn't stop a Shinobi from walking up it but that's what the guards were for. After scaling for the better part of the day Nao's arms and legs ached, its quite common to hear the phrase "No pain, No gain" among buff body builders and more physical shinobi, but Nao was living it right now.

He was begining to have trouble moving his limbs in their full range of motion, and he nearly slipped more than a hand full of times just since leaving that ledge. After a grueling climb he finally crested the top of the cliff, his hand gripping onto the edge and holstered himself onto the top of the cliff. Collapsing into the grass and weeds that grew up on the top of this side of the mountain, using this time to catch his breath and let his limps rest. He had used the last bit of his energy to pull himself over the top, and now he didn't want to move.

He simply laid there in the grass soaking in the sunlight, his breath heavy and fast as he tried to collect himself and slow his breathing. Once he finally got his breathing under control, Nao would practically drag himself across the ground to a nearby rock. Forcing himself up on his legs and climbing onto the large rock he would sit down and pull out his canteen. Drinking what was left in the canteen as he slowly turn to face the village from his new vantage point on top of the Hokage mountain. It had taken most of the day to reach, but looking out he knew it was worth the effort.