Chapter 19

Each time I concentrated on the trees and roots, I used up more chakra which was beginning to tire me out. When I concentrated on my chakra usage, I ended up either tripping or slamming into a tree. The woman ahead made matters worse by making sure I saw her provocative smirk each time I lifted up my head to see the direction we were moving towards. It pissed me off, forcing me to make more and more mistakes.

I forced myself to calm down and concentrated. What was the use of getting angry? Slowly, I was beginning to ignore the provocation, but kept the fire burning in my heart to become my motivation. If only I had this kind of desire for my gym membership back on earth.

Regardless of what was happening I kept thinking of ways to improve myself. It was slow but I kept coming up and trying a few ideas. However, my mind had begun to blank out. I was dead tired from running and using chakra for so long. I was sure we had not even been doing this for more than an hour, yet, I was able to move for hours on the hokage mountain. It was frustrating.

'Keep running. Keep running.' I kept chanting to myself. I felt nauseous, my entire body screaming at me, begging me to stop but I refused to allow myself to stop. I refused to give her the pleasure of seeing me fail before we got to the first stop.

My mind blanked slightly and the consequence was me heading face first into a tree. This would definitely hurt. I did not know what came over because right at the moment of impact I gathered chakra at the sole of my left feet and just jumped hard to the right.

All I wanted was to force myself to stop, and the only method that came to me was the tree sticking exercise. If it could stop a ninja from falling off a tree while standing upside down it, then it could definitely stop me from slamming into a tree. However, the momentum of the sudden stop might have snapped my ankle so I decided to jump to the side instead.

How I could think of things that quickly in that kind of situation and with such a condition, I had no idea. Right after my jump, everything went black.

….

I slowly opened my eyes and realized I lay underneath a large tree. The rays of the midday sun trickling through the branches of the forest. "Already midday?" I tried to sit myself up before I realized my right arm was in a sling.

"Oh, finally awake, princess?" That annoying voice. Mebuki sat before a fireplace cooking meat over it.

*sigh* "Your daughter is injured; can't you be a little more concerned?" I asked back wearily.

"So overdramatic. Just the first day and already injured." That ticked me. I hated that she knew how to tick me off like that. I moved my arm but there was no pain. It made me wonder why it was in a sling.

"What happened?" I enquired.

Apparently, I still ended up slamming into a different tree to my right. The impact dislocated my right shoulder and knocked me out instantly. It did not really matter to me though. I felt like I had found my answer. What I felt was missing I was missing back then. I felt I had finally found it.

I looked up about to confirm my theory with Mebuki when she cut me off, "Some things are best experienced for oneself to properly understand."

As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. If I had not almost cracked my head open, I might not have found my answer. Regardless, I would be able to confirm when we got back on the road. I nodded to her obediently which made her smile.

"We will move again once we are done with lunch. Eat fast, we have already lost quite a bit of time with you being lazy." I ignored her last statement and busied myself with the food, eating as much as I could while trying not to stuff myself too much.

"Wait, if I dislocated my shoulder then how come it's all better now?" In fact, most of the cuts and bruises I had, were all healed. What was surprising though was the soreness from all that running and dodging had not yet completely gone.

'Allowing the body to heal itself in order to strengthen itself.' I understood the principle behind it. Muscle hypertrophy. There was a fanfic I read where the MC talked about something like that. It seemed medical ninjutsu hastened not just the healing process but the strengthening process as well. However, seeing how Mebuki did not completely heal me, I assume if one did that continuously the body might eventually develop immunity to the strengthening?

60 stones = 1 chapter

120 stones = 3 chapters

300 stones = 5 chapters.

Previous Goal reached= 149.

Current reached = 11