Chapter 14: train, train, and train

Training was interesting, to say the least, over the course of six months Shikamaru's skills had significantly increased, he mastered the two chakra control exercises within the first month of training and from then on had started training with his mother, and she was brutal.

He had to wake up at 5 in the morning, which wasn't pleasant, especially since the first 4 months he had to take an ice-cold bucket of water to the face every morning.

After waking up he would go through severe physical conditioning, he had trained parts of his body that he didn't even know existed and by the end of the day, even his hair would hurt.

Other than that he had started training with a Kusarigama, it was just a normal iron training Kusarigama but it took him countless days to get even basic master over it, just spinning it was hard in the beginning and he had hit himself more times than he could count but that didn't stop him, and his mother was a true perfectionist when it came to weapons, she made sure every movement he made was perfect and calculated.

Training with his father was nothing compared to the training with his mother but that was only physically, every day he would play shogi with his father, and he would lose every single time, but over time he slowly began seeing the tactics his father was using, and when his father noticed that he changed his game style entirely resulting in even more losses on Shikamaru's side.

They continued meditating regularly, they also started sparring every night in pitch black, while Shikamaru hadn't made many advancements in night combat it had helped him by training his senses other than sight, he had to rely mostly on his hearing since no matter how much he adapted to the darkness the night seemed to get darker every time he adapted to it, he figured that his father was using some kind of technique perhaps a type of genjutsu.

His mornings were physical training and his evening's mental training, he had studied a lot in many different things like basic math and history, math was easy to do since he already knew all the basics, out of his studies history was the most interesting, it helped him understand the world and the actions of the villages, while during wartime the strength of a village mattered the most, during peacetime the politics were the most important aspect, especially inside a village, because if there was civil unrest the other villages would take full advantages of that.

Another thing he found interesting was medicine, there were only a few people who stood out in the field of medicine namely: Tsunade Senju, Hashirama Senju, and Tobirama Senju, all three were in a league of their own if you looked at their medical skills, if it wasn't for them, medical ninjutsu would have most likely been lost forever in time, many considered it a subject far too hard to study and that caused many to give up on becoming a medical ninja, but then came the three geniuses who revived the art of healing.

Hashirama Senju simply because of his phenomenal healing capabilities, Tsunade Senju because of the many medical techniques and cures she had created, and Tobirama Senju because of the dark techniques he had created, like the Shadow Clones and the Edo-Tensei, though there wasn't much information on how exactly he used medical techniques to create his jutsu's it was stated by himself that medical techniques were essential to the creation of many of his techniques.

He had read up on poison making and found out that Konoha was the weakest if you considered poisons, while it was debatable as to who came in first place most said that it was Suna but many also said that Kiri was in first place because of their many natural poisons.

Another thing that was interesting was pill making, it wasn't anything magical but it was fascinating that there was a pill that could restore your chakra and a pill that could give you enough nutrients to fight for 3 days straight, while the process of creating pills was long and arduous the end result always paid off.

While he wasn't very interested in becoming a pill maker he had to learn the recipe and the technique to create the pills that the Akimichi used, since the Akimichi didn't own the rights to make the pills the Nara clan had to supply them with the pills, but other than that he didn't do too much with pills.

But he desperately wanted to learn as much about medical techniques as possible since if someone could raise the dead with it, it was something to invest in.

Right now Shikamaru was visiting Choji, they had become very good friends over the last six months, Shikamaru had taught Choji some cooking recipes, which put Shikamaru first place in Choji's friend list, and since Shikamaru wasn't as lazy as the original Choji was forced to train with Shikamaru since Shikamaru didn't do any cloud gazing and mostly trained Choji didn't want to be left out and also trained.

While Choji was nowhere near as fit as Shikamaru he was most definitely stronger physically, he could exert more strength than Shikamaru, but Shikamaru had the advantage of chakra, Shikamaru managed to enhance his body with chakra making his strength comparable to those of adult ninjas.

Even right now they were training together, Choji had recently learned the basic chakra training exercise and had asked Shikamaru for help since Shikamaru had already managed to master the chakra control exercises.

"Shikamaru, I still don't get how you managed to control your chakra." Choji whined to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru sighed and said "Choji, I already explained how I did it, I just grabbed it with my mind and moved it the way I want."

Choji pouted, "But dad told me that I had to control chakra with a handing, he said that it would help me learn to control it naturally."

"Well my way worked for me, while it may not work for you, you will eventually manage to do it, so you just need to keep practicing." Shikamaru smiled at Choji.

"Argh, I can't focus like this! Let's go eat some food." Choji jumped up and started walking towards the restaurant where they frequently ate.

Shikamaru just stood up and followed after Choji.

"So what are you gonna eat today?" Shikamaru asked

Choji stood with his hand on his chin thinking about what to eat, "Today I will get one of everything since I trained so hard today."

Shikamaru deadpanned at him, "Seriously? at least don't eat all the desserts."

Choji glared at Shikamaru and in an exasparated voice said "How dare you even suggest me that! I need all the body fat possible! Its what I will use for my special techniques after all." Choji finished with a nod.

Shikamaru just sighed and silently followed his friend.