Training with Miki

It's been a couple of months since I started training my body, and I've never felt better. I have so much energy, my strength has been compounding on itself, and I feel accomplished. These feelings are entirely new to me, and I can't help but feel like I missed out on something in my old life.

But that's in the past now. I don't need anything from that life anymore.

Anyway, getting back to the present, as I went out to train today, I saw a familiar figure with black hair: Miki. Although Miki and I have been spending a lot of time together over the past couple of months, exploring the places near our compounds, I usually don't see her this early in the morning.

"Hey, Miki, what brings you to our compound this early in the morning?"

Is that sweat trickling from her head? And why is she breathing so hard? Was she running from someone? My eyes immediately grew cold at the thought, but before I could ask any questions, Miki cut me off.

"Well, I've started working out, so I figured we could train together since I know you train by yourself every morning."

My eyes returned to normal, and I sweatdropped. Why did I assume the worst-case scenario? We're in the village with so many of our shinobi around. If someone attempted to kidnap at this time, they might as well throw themselves into one of the thousand whirlpools surrounding the island.

"Oh yeah, that sounds like a fun idea," I said, my eyes lighting up at the thought of getting stronger and encouraging my close friend to do the same.

"Alright, let's do it then. The first one to Training Ground 23 wins!"

Miki took off running towards the training ground, leaving me a little speechless.

"The audacity to give herself a head start and not even count down a start time," I thought, smirking internally, already anticipating how much I was about to beat her by.

The next moment, I disappeared with nothing but a cloud of dust following me. It was as if I was riding on the clouds.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

My feet smacked the gravel as I caught up to Miki with every step. Miki must've heard my footsteps because she turned her head, her face paling at the sight of a concentrated Shiran coming at her with all his speed.

'Was this a bad idea to challenge him?' She thought as I zoomed past her like she was standing still.

The moment I passed, I shot a smirk over my shoulder at her, as if saying 'way too slow.' Needless to say, that fired her up, driving her to sprint even faster to the training ground.

The only problem was that every time she drew nearer, I would speed up as if playing a game of cat and mouse.

A minute later, we arrived at the training ground. I looked no worse for wear, while Miki looked too out of breath to say anything.

After a minute of catching her breath, she looked at me with a hint of curiosity and voiced her thoughts.

"How are you that fast already? Sure, you started training two months ago, but that shouldn't have been enough to reach genin-level speed already."

"True, maybe for most people, but us Uzumaki have a special body, a physique that outclasses everyone and can adapt pretty easily to any external training. Think of it as one part of our kekkei genkai."

"I think I understand. It's kind of like our ice release, an advantage that someone can be born with."

I nodded, confirming her thoughts on the matter.

"The only difference there seems to be is that my ice release, from what my mom said, usually unlocks when there is enough of an emotional outburst to shatter a barrier inside your mind. Although some people do unlock it without any kind of emotional outburst, most of our clan experienced some sort of intense emotion—like excitement, sadness, sorrow, or happiness—that helped shatter their limits."

I paused for a second, thinking to myself, 'Interesting, I didn't know that's how it worked. I always thought her bloodline would awaken like most of the bloodlines in our village's clans do, triggered when we unlock our chakra.'

"You know, now that I think about it, my dad did say something similar when he was talking about our adamantine sealing chains and Mind's Eye of Kagura ability," I remarked. "He mentioned that they usually unlock naturally with time, but there are some instances when you can forcefully open the door to either of those abilities if put under a great amount of stress."

A chill went down my spine at the thought of a situation where my body would feel the need to open either of those abilities to protect me. Miki must have sensed my apprehension at the information we both revealed, so she spoke up.

"So how have you been working out to get that fast anyway?" Her attention was fully on me, as if trying to extract my workout regimen from the deepest corner of my soul.

"Well, right now I'm running around 30 laps of this training ground, doing 200 pushups and 300 squats and crunches alternately."

I swear I heard her jaw hit the ground with a clang as I finished uttering the last of my morning training routine.

"What? Is it really that much?" I asked with a smile, knowing darn well that no kid should ever be able to do that every single day. Even in the Uzumaki clan, the kids training to be ninjas did maybe a quarter of what I was doing every day.

"I'm not even going to respond to what you just said," came the disdainful reply of the annoyed little girl in front of me.

"Alright then, I'm gonna start my training," I said, turning towards the perimeter of the field to begin my daily laps and body exercises.

Miki watched me go off and started her own training, likely the routine her mom gave her to ensure she exercised every day.

After finishing my physical exercises and turning to the trees that lined the west side of the field, I took out a few ninja stars and kunai from my pouch.

Miki, still curious, walked up to me, sweat still on her face. "Your parents are letting you throw ninja tools already?"

"Yeah, but they aren't too sharp, just enough to stick into the trees but nothing else, so don't worry," I replied with a reassuring smile, aiming to calm her nerves.

"Oh, okay. I guess that's okay then," she said with a small smile, glad that her friend cared about her.

She was about to turn around and walk back to where she was sitting before she stopped halfway.

"Do you mind if I give it a try?"

Looking at Miki's hopeful eyes, I couldn't help but say yes. She might be a little kid, but I truly saw her as a little sister, and sometimes you have to spoil the closest people to you.

"Okay, but let me show you how to not cut yourself while doing it."

Miki vigorously nodded up and down, as if afraid I would take away this opportunity from her.

Internally, I laughed at her display, but I had to maintain a serious facade so she knew I wasn't kidding around.

I showed her how to throw it, and when she stepped up to throw it, it curved wide left. Her face fell, and I almost laughed out loud at her crestfallen expression.

"You put too much weight forward and not enough wrist into the throw."

Miki nodded and tried again.

We stayed at that training ground for a few hours until we headed back to our respective compounds.

As I got closer to home, a ninja I recognized as Shuji suddenly appeared in front of me.

"Clan leader Haru has sent me to grab you and take you to the hospital. Your mother's water has broken."