To the max [Training/Solo]

Another day, another time to train.

Nova pushed on her back to create a satisfying pop before looking around the training ground for a suitably heavy object. She’d trained herself enough by now that the only thing that remained for her to improve was her strength, something that she’d noticed was comparatively low after receiving her customised staff from the blacksmith. It was true with her current strength she was probably in the upper tiers of raw physical might, but she still wanted to be stronger. Until she could literally rip trees out of the ground she wouldn’t be satisfied with her strength.

She got down to the ground and got started on doing some basic warmup exercises. Press ups, stretches. She still had yet to fully train out of the atrophy her muscles had gone through in her week-long stay in her flat, and leaping right into hard strength training was a bad idea. Her using the gates to deal with the missing ninja the other day had been hard enough on her body, she wasn’t looking to make it worse.

While she worked on regaining her lost strength, Nova summoned two shadow clones to work on a new technique. Exactly what technique they would be working on Nova wasn’t sure, but she’d been researching many new techniques to add to her arsenal and learning even one of them would dramatically increase her combat potential. One of them was a reactive dodge that would almost double her speed when it came to last split-second dodges, the other was a strike that would slow down and weaken an opponent and potentially throw them into the vulnerable position of the air. Both strong and potentially fight-winning, but she unfortunately didn’t have the time to learn both today.

“Right, me and Nova-Three over here will discuss what would be best to train, and then give you all our memories when we finish learning it. You finish working on that lean, mean fighting machine of a body we call our own, and the next versions of us will be in tip-top fighting shape!” Nova-Two smiled off-puttingly and Nova-Prime briefly wondered if that was actually how she looked while smiling, or if it was just her clone doing clone-things. Good thing she rarely smiled, if the former option was true.

“Sounds good, me!” Nova-Two whooped. The two clones shared a fist-bump, picked up the two technique scrolls from where they lay on the ground next to Nova-Prime, and left to the other side of the training platform. As they walked, Nova could see them both chatting about god knows what and she just let out a sigh of confusion. Was it weird to find exact replica clones of yourself annoying? Whatever the case may be, Nova just wished her clones would behave themselves a bit more. If she wasn’t there to keep an eye on them, and they weren’t on a timer… Nova dreaded to think what strange plans the two of them would concoct together.

Nova got up off the ground and dusted her hands off before continuing to warm up by stretching. Despite not really doing that much physical exertion yet, Nova was beginning to work up a sweat. To be fair to the genin, it was a rather hot day in Kumogakure. However, she did not let that excuse take hold in her mind; she was sweating, not because of the heat, but because she was rusty. She’d allowed herself to grow weak following the mission with Shin-Fist-Lee. It was disconcerting to the young woman the rut she had gotten herself into, she’d only gotten out of it thanks to the help of a Shadow Clone.

Finally finished with her warm-ups, Nova continued her search on the Training Ground platform for something heavy to train her strength. The only things she could find were either too heavy or too big to get proper leverage on. There were a few sparse trees dotted around the area, but, well, Nova didn’t think the higher ups in Kumogakure would appreciate a lowly genin ripping up the sparse wild-life they had left.

Eventually, Nova found the perfect training weight. A simple huge rock, about four meters in diameter. Other rocks its size would be too large for Nova to gain the proper leverage to lift, but this rock was different. It was special. A truly beautiful specimen of a rock. You see, on the side facing Nova there were two holes that were perfect for a person of her height and stature to use as leverage. Nova nodded appreciatively and walked towards the rock. Yeah, this’ll do.

She planted her feet on the ground, rubbed her hands together, and placed her two arms in the holes in the rock. First thing she noticed was that they didn’t go quite as deep as she’d initially thought; meaning she wouldn’t quite be able to get the leverage she needed to lift such a heavy rock. Second, just from her initial tests, she could tell that this rock was heavy. Like, exceedingly heavy. Nova just grit her teeth in a savage expression approximating a smile. This rock would be her meter-stick for strength. Once she could lift it, she’d know she was ready.

She started to heave; muscles already shaking from the exertion. Spit started to fly out between her grit teeth as her whole body shook. Legs buckling, Nova felt the huge rock start to shift and move in response to her strength. It wasn’t enough, though. She could feel just how outclassed by the weight of the rock she was. A vein started to push at the skin of her forehead as the violent woman completely refused to give in. Every one of her muscles were being engaged; her whole body vibrating.

The rock shifted again, but this time it left the ground for a second. She couldn’t hold it for long, however, and the rock fell back to the ground with a heavy thud. As the dust from the ground rose, Nova had to take a step back to avoid damaging her lungs. Unfortunately, she still accidentally inhaled some of the dust which sent her into a coughing fit as she reversed. She spat on to the floor and growled angrily; she had been so close. She was almost strong enough. It was tempting to just use the Gates to prove a point, but at that point she’d be injuring herself for nothing. She didn’t have to prove anything except to herself, and the rock, she guessed.

“C’mon Nova, you got this.” The genin whispered to herself. She ran the bandaged-back of her hand over her mouth to clean up and closed her eyes for a second, centering herself. When her eyes opened, they were firm with resolution. Anyone watching would be impressed, but also be weirded out by the fact that this young woman was taking a rock so seriously.

She stomped up towards the rock once more and placed her arms into the two holes. She tensed her muscles to get the blood flowing once again, stretched her neck, and heaved.

This time, the effects of her lift were more noticeable. It was raised off the ground an inch, then two, then a whole foot. Fueled by finally making progress, Nova panted as energy surged through her body. Her whole body felt like it was about to break apart at the seams from the sheer physical exertion, but she continued to lift the rock. Another foot off the ground she raised it, and very soon the bottom of the rock was level with her head. Her knees buckled and Nova was struck with the sudden realisation that if she dropped the rock now she’d likely just straight up die. Nova wasn’t a pussy, though, so she carried on.

Finally, after what felt like hours of exertion but was actually less than a minute, Nova had fully raised the rock above her head with her arms outstretched. Her legs were no longer buckling, her form was strong. Somehow, her strength was back and more. Whether the sudden increase of strength was a glitch in mother nature or her chakra somehow finding a new route to power her muscles, Nova had no idea. But she wasn’t complaining. She was finally at her peak, the strongest she’d ever be.

She put the rock down gently and popped her back once again. So, this was it: her peak. It felt weird to think that from now on the only thing that would improve would be her repertoire and experience. In a way it was disappointing, but in other ways it was exciting. She’d come a long way since leaving the fighting pits, and she had to wonder if the fighting pits had somehow been holding her back. Her power had basically tripled in the past few weeks, weeks of constant training somehow beating a lifetime of fighting.

Nova nodded, satisfied. The only way was up.

WC: 1504
Claims:

• 13 stats (All into strength)
  
• 4AP
  
• 700 words into Eight Inner Gates (Gate of Pain) | Other words trained here
  
• 800 words into B-Rank Split Second