6 Full Potential?!

"Get down in a plank position." Yoritomo said as he picked up the buckets of water. The two got down with their backs straight and waited as Yoritomo put the buckets of water on their backs.

"Don't let the bucket fall over. Stay like that till I say stop." He ordered. For the next 30 minutes they sat in that position with their abdomen, bicep, and shoulders burning.

"Good." He said as he took the bucketz off them before they dropped to the ground. They got up after a 30 second break and started with the next exercise.

"Put your backs against the tree and start squatting. Don't lean on the tree too much and keep your back straight. Align your knees and but. They should be straight and not downward slanted." He said as he put the bucket back in their laps.

If they were down by the slightest degree some water would drip out. They sat there squatting for an hour straight before the old man took the buckets off. He looked at them and smiled as he told them they could stop.

'Kids usually fail that test.' He thought. If they dropped immediately then they would have to start over.

"The foundation of the sword lies where, Takeru?"

"The legs."

"Right. So we'll be working a lot on leg strength, proper footwork and arm strength. Once a samurai loses their balance just consider yourself dead." He said.

"Now then, let's get back to it." He said. And so, for about 5 hours, they did multiple workouts. Squats, Pendulum Lunges, Romanian Deadlift(with heavy weights), Hip Bridges, Push-ups, Tricep Dips, Plank taps, Bicep Curls, Pull-ups, Hanging Sit-ups, Crunches, and Russian twists.

Of course they had some breaks in between for water and air.it was now sundown and now they had just gotten through mediation.

"Alright, you can head off to the small lake for a bath afterwards you are free to do whatever." The old man said to them. They nodded and sighed as they stood up and stretched.

"Meditating always leaves me stiff." Toyohisa said as he popped his neck.

"Same." Takeru replied and popped his back. He slouched and sighed as he straightened up. They walked a bit away from the shoo and down a hill as they took off their kimonos and hopped into the lake.

"Is this where you get the water from?" Takeru asked.

"No, there's a tap on the other side of the shop." Toyohisa answered.

"Good good."

With that they got washed down and dried off with their towels before putting the kimonos back on. They would definitely need some washing or they would get a new one. They had a smell to them, but it wasn't must or anything. It smelled like a dog.

Anyways, Toyohisa decided that he'd go to sleep since he was exhausted. Takeru didn't feel sleepy though, so he chose to stay up and practice some moves Zoro used in his one sword style.

After all, he wished for Zoro's sword style which means his sword style in general. He received all of his sword style from 1 to 9.

He started off with Zoro's first attack with the one sword style. Ittoryu Iai: Shishi Sonson. He breathed in as he put his bokken to his waist. With his right hand he grabbed the handle in a reverse grip and with his left he held it like it was sheathed.

He put his right foot forward and dashed at the tree in front of him. With all his strength he let the bokken rip as he appeared on the other side of the tree. Putting his bokken back into his left hand like he was sheathing it, he heard a loud crunching sound.

Turning around he looked at the tree. There was a huge cut mark on it, but there wasn't a deep cut.

"Let's go again." He mumbled to himself. For the rest of the night he practiced that move over and over and over again. At some point he got lost in the swing of his blade even as his hands dripped with blood from blisters that had been torn by the wood.

Out of all 2000 strikes he managed to get only 10 good ones. While engrossed in practice he failed to notice that Toyohisa and Yoritomo were watching him silently. Toyohisa decided that he'd train more seriously while Yoritomo decided that he'd up the training since he wanted to see these kids full potential.

—Two Weeks Later—

Surprisingly they were able to keep up with the harsh training methods. Even though their sleep was only 4 hours long they still persisted and made tremendous progress.

"Come on, remember you can't always PARRY!!" Yoritomo said as he slashed his bokken at Takeru. He was sent flying back, but was able to gain his footing and recover. He didn't have time to think before he saw Yoritomo rushing at him.

"Tch." He clicked his tongue and dashed towards him as well. He saw Yoritomo bring his sword up and so he lowered it to his waist as he put all his strength into his legs.

Dashing forward he swung his bokken horizontally and with all his strength…

*CRACK*

He vanished on the other side of the old man and looked at his bokken. It was broken in half. With a sigh he turned and looked at Yoritomo. He watched as he turned around and saw that his sword was also broken, but he looked down at his kimono and saw that it had been ripped.

Past it you can see his skin had a cut going clean across his stomach which was seeping with blood and had some burned skin around it like a carpet burn.

"Nice job kid. If that was a real sword you would've split me in two." Yoritomo praised Takeru. At the top of his Kimono was a long vertical cut, but he wasn't bleeding. That was from Toyohisa who's crazy fighting style let him adapt mid fight. He was like some beast that got better with time.

"Alright, take a water break and then we'll get started with 200 push-ups." He instructed as he walked off towards the shop. Opening the door and going behind his desk he got some bandages and took off his kimono.

He had a body like Bang from OPM, but it wasn't as durable. As he wrapped his torso up, he looked to his feet at the four katanas he handpicked from his basement.

One was a wakizashi with a black handle and red diamond shapes in the handle. When the blade was unsheathed, you would see it being pitch black and had the design of a dragon around the bottom of the blade. Next to it was a normal katana that matched the wakizashi.

The only difference was that the blade and handle was longer to fit two hands leaving a space in the middle of the handle.

The other two were both a wakizashi and katana, but the sheaths were a pale blue. The handles were black and once unsheathed the blade was a dark ocean blue with a wave pattern on the blade.

He picked them out as a graduation gift which he saw he'd be giving away in due time. He tightened the bandages and pushed himself up as he walked back outside and saw thT they were already down doing push-ups.

He could hear their faint words as they counted off.

"147…148…149…150…" He walked in front of them and sat in the tree on a branch as he looked down at them with a smile.

After they were done they did the usual and after the day ended even Takeru was tired so he went off to sleep.

(Yoritomo POV)

As the night fell and the boys went to sleep, I waited outside by the tree in the shadows. After a while of waiting, I saw three figures coming over the hill and walking towards my shop.

As they got closer, I stepped from the shadows and tilted my roningasa down a bit as it shadowed my eyes. Walking over to the three figures I spoke.

"Have you done what was requested?" I asked in a neutral tone.

"Yeah, the carriage is gone and the bodies lead in a different direction. There won't be any samurai down the parts. You have the payment, correct?" One of the masked ronin asked with a tone equal to my own.

I dug in my sleeves and pulled out a tanto. Before they could react, I slit the middle guy's throat. The guy to the right went to unsheath his blade, but was late as I slit his throat as well. The last guy on my far left, had his blade unsheathed and swung it down on me.

Sidestepping to the left, I dashed forward and plunged the tanto into his head. He froze with his sword still in hand. I took my tanto out and he dropped to the ground.

"Can't have any loose ends now can I?" I asked myself.

I went back to the tree and grabbed the shovel I hid behind it as I dragged all of their bodies back over the hill and started digging their graves without so much as a prayer. Not that they deserved one.

After doing that, I started covering up the trail of blood with other dirt, by flipping it over and patting it down. Afterwards I used my feet to cover and pat down the ground to make it look like the road was never dug up.

"I wonder how far those boys will go before it's time." I wondered. I then took the shovel and dumped it in my basement. Luckily those kids were asleep. Their senses are extremely sharp for kids and so is their strength.

'Cursed blood of the king. To think it awakened in two kids. I guess this generation will also have its legends.' With that thought I went into my room and went to sleep.

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