Under the slate-gray skies of Amegakure, the training grounds felt more like a crucible than a field.
Team Hollow stood shoulder-to-shoulder, chests still heaving from the punishing laps they'd just finished. Rain clung to their skin like a second layer, seeping through fabric and pooling in the grooves of their brows. Every breath tasted of metal and mist.
Manju didn't give them time to catch their breath.
"On the ground," he barked.
No hesitation. The four dropped into plank position.
"Your body," Manju said, pacing slowly before them, "is your first weapon. Not a kunai. Not any ninjutsu. This—" he slammed a boot beside Rei's trembling forearm "—this is what keeps you alive long enough to use the rest."
He let that sink in before stopping in front of Dazuro.
"Push-ups. Start. Until I say stop."
Groans followed, but no one disobeyed. Their arms pumped, slow at first, then faster, finding rhythm. Kagerō's small form trembled but didn't falter. Rei's teeth were clenched, knuckles pale. Yuni, beside him, exhaled hard every tenth rep, muttering something under her breath. Probably curses or jokes, both equally likely.
Dazuro looked like he might fall asleep mid-movement.
After what felt like a hundred, Manju snapped, "Switch. Sit-ups."
The ground was cold. Mud stuck to the smalls of their backs. Still, they obeyed. Kagerō locked eyes with the cloudy sky and focused on movement. Up, down, breathe, again. His abdominal muscles screamed, but so did everything else.
Yuni gasped between reps. "Hey, Rei. You… still alive…?"
"I am…" Rei wheezed, "...contemplating… defection."
"Wait till after squats," Dazuro said without opening his eyes.
Manju's voice cracked through their fatigue.
"Stand. You'll do squats until your legs give out. That's how you find the limits. And then you drag those limits screaming one step further."
And they did.
The burn came quick, sharp and deep in their thighs. Yuni whimpered through clenched teeth. Rei's jaw locked, posture perfect even when he shook. Kagerō's legs trembled, but his breath was calm. Inhale. Exhale. He was good at slow things. Quiet things. Even pain.
Dazuro… was squatting. Somehow. In rhythm.
"Now," Manju said after what felt like forever, "the crawl. Low. Over gravel. For ten meters. Go."
Their bodies protested, but they dropped to their elbows and knees, dragging themselves over the rough stone path. Every scrape sent needles through their skin. Mud clung to their palms. Yuni hissed in pain when her elbow grazed a sharp corner. Rei grunted, lips tight. Kagerō felt blood warm against one knee.
Still, no one stopped.
When they reached the end, Manju stood waiting with arms crossed.
"You'll do this every day. Push until you break. Then sleep. That's the only way you survive in this village. You sleep well when your body knows it's done all it can. That's what earns you one more day alive."
He crouched to meet their eye level.
"That's your reward. A full night's sleep."
Kagerō, still on all fours, nodded.
It made sense.
---
The moon was pale and veiled behind drifting clouds as Kagerō slipped from his cot and pulled the dormitory door shut with a careful hand.
The others were still asleep, or near enough. Yuni had tossed her blanket off and was mumbling nonsense. Rei slept with arms crossed, like he was expecting to wake in battle. Dazuro hadn't moved since he lay down. Kagerō paused just long enough to tuck his ration bar under his blanket, then padded silently through the corridors of the dilapidated factory-housing and out into the chill night air.
Amegakure's sky always looked like it was mourning something. Low clouds. Long shadows. The scent of rust and damp.
He liked it.
The woods outside the academy weren't large, but they were dense enough. Just a few minutes and he was beneath the canopy, where the dripping rain was muffled and the world felt still. He looked up at the slick tree trunks, wiped his hands on his knees, and drew chakra to his soles.
The first step up the bark came easily.
He'd practiced this since the chakra tile tests.
Kagerō climbed until he was a dozen feet above the ground. He clung there, body flat against the trunk, and let his chakra settle into his limbs.
Then he began.
Push-ups.
Not on the ground, but on the vertical surface of the tree.
His body screamed in protest almost immediately. Arms strained, feet struggled to maintain an even flow. A slip could mean a fall, but that was the point.
He gritted his teeth and forced another rep. Then another.
Every movement now demanded dual focus, muscle and chakra, breath and stability.
When his arms couldn't hold him, he flipped upside down, feet pressed flat against the bark, head dangling toward the earth, and did sit-ups, curling his core while keeping chakra balanced to stay inverted.
Rain tickled his forehead. Blood rushed to his head. Still, he moved.
Then came squats, performed sideways along a branch, forcing him to balance with his hands while adjusting chakra output along his feet with every dip.
This… this was the edge he needed.
Not just physical drills. Not just chakra control.
Both. Simultaneously.
He grunted as he shifted positions, one hand on the bark, the other tucked to his chest as he began one-armed pushups, this time while walking along the branch. His chakra flared, slipped, corrected.
Fall. Correct. Repeat.
Every wobble told him where his control broke.
Every slip was a new note in his mental ledger.
It wasn't perfect. But it was his.
At one point, he hung from a branch with only his legs, back arched toward the sky, arms outstretched like wings.
He held it. Just long enough to feel the burn.
Then he dropped to the forest floor, knees bending to absorb the fall.
Breathing hard. Hands shaking.
He wiped his palms against his shirt and reached into his pocket, pulling out his notebook.
The page was soaked with rain, but he wrote anyway.
"Integration of physical and chakra exercises shows promise. The strain multiplies, but hopefully, the results are better this way. Failure triggers recalibration."
A pause.
Then, he shut the book.
The rain continued to fall. But for the first time that day, it felt like it was washing something away.
He stood again and climbed.