Naruto : Monsters: Chapter 49

"Exactly," Kakashi chimed in. "Which is why I designed a completely different training program for Hikaru than the rest of you. While Shikamaru and you will be broadening your skill-set and be learning earth elemental techniques, Hikaru here will concentrate one mastering his lightning techniques and perfecting his current fighting style."

And he had, he actually had. I couldn't believe it at first, but Kakashi really did create a training program for us.

...

It had been over two weeks since the end of our disastrous first D-rank mission, and since then life has begun to fall into a predictable pattern. Every morning at the crack of dawn we would gather at our training ground at 7 am sharp, with Kakashi now only a half an hour late rather than the usual three or four hours. 

I had no idea what the Hokage did to him that day in the office, but whatever it was it worked wonders because ever since Kakashi has actually begun training us, and proper ninja training too.

For all of the shit I talked about the guy, Kakashi clearly knew what he was doing. The workouts he developed for us were gruelling and backbreaking stuff, even by my standards but I couldn't deny the results. Sparring, team exercises, ninjutsu training, chakra control exercises, physical training, strategy, the works. It was shocking to discover that Kakashi was a really good teacher.

Though I'd never admit it to his face of course, the man had too big an ego as it is without me inflating it even more.

Of course Kakashi, being Kakashi, still tried to skip out of training whenever possible, making up of the most convoluted excuses to delay or postpone training entirely in favour of lazing about, so we often ended up having to hunt the man down and drag him to the practice field before he would be willing to start training us. But once we got him going the man did his genuine best to train us.

It was one of those things that I could never figure out about the Copy Ninja. I wanted to blame it on Kakashi simply being lazy, but that didn't hold water when I took into account the sheer amount of effort he puts into thinking up his excuses, it honestly outweighed the work he would have needed to do if he had just up and trained us.

Plus while Kakashi was generally as easy-going a person as you could hope to find, once training commenced he turned into a total slave-driver, pushing my teammates and me to our absolute limits every time until we all but collapsed in exhaustion. It was a total contrast to his usual self, I swear it was like we were training under Maito Gai.

When I brought it up to the others Shikamaru just shrugged and guessed that Kakashi just didn't want to train us but felt as if he had no choice but to. And if he had to train us then it was better to just get it over with and do a good job, rather than half-ass it and having to retrain us from scratch all over again.

I had a different guess as to why Kakashi behaved as he did.

Maybe it was because I knew a little bit about his history and it coloured my views of him, but I didn't think Kakashi liked the idea of training us. And by us, I didn't mean Naruto, Shikamaru and me specifically but kids in general. I think that after the childhood he had, the idea of turning kids into child soldiers like he had been was unappealing.

Naruto just thought the guy was just being an ass.

Speaking of people trying to skip out of training, Kakashi wasn't the only person that we had to drag to the training ground. Shikamaru was proving to be almost equally big of a challenge.

I had to resist the urge to let loose an evil chuckle. Poor kid. I honestly couldn't blame Shikamaru for wanting to ditch training, Kakashi's methods of motivating his students were rather extreme compared to the Academy instructors. Or at least I doubted that the Academy instructors would have allowed dogs to chase Shikamaru during running practice, with orders to take a bite out of his ass if he was starting to slack off.

Then there was what Naruto and I did to keep him motivated.

Between my willingness to shamelessly tattle on him to his mother combined with Naruto's pranks – the poor bastard had learned to never fall asleep during practice unless he wanted to wake up with a shirt full of spiders - along with my eyes that could find him wherever he tried to hide, he quickly realized it would simply be less troublesome to go through with the training than avoid it.

He still managed to outsmart us and slip his leash from time to time, he wasn't a genius for nothing, so we had to buy a few Shogi and Go boards for him to play with as bribes. It may not have been the typical kind of training you'd expect from ninjas but mental exercises were still a legitimate form of training. Besides, Naruto needed to exercise her brain a bit more and she was far more receptive to strategy games than books.

By this point, I felt that I had recovered enough energy to move around a bit, so I pushed myself up into a sitting position. "Remind me again," I asked, turning to face Kakashi, "why the hell do I have to do all of these push-ups with your fat ass sitting on my back?"

"Again, not fat but awesome. Say it with me, 'my Sensei has an awesome ass'. Repeat it in your head until you get it right." Kakashi flipped over another page, his single eye bulging out of his head as he read a particularly raunchy line followed by him letting loose another perverse giggle. 

"As for why we're doing this, it's because your upper body strength sucks. For someone who's supposed to be the top of your class in taijutsu, you have rather scrawny arms."

"First, I'm not scrawny, I'm lean. There is a very big difference between the two." I made sure to point out. I worked my ass off getting my body in such good shape and I wasn't about to let anyone diss it. "Second, I'm a Gentle Fist user. What the hell would I need bulky arms for? I can kill someone with a touch of my fingers, I don't need or even want the extra punching power."

"Nevertheless, you still need to bulk up a little bit more if you ever want to master the Lightning Release." Kakashi reached out and tapped my right shoulder, the same one that I had dislocated in my fight with him. 

"That jutsu puts a massive strain on the user's body, both from the lightning coursing through them and from how hard the muscles are forced to work. Even if you mastered the technique today you won't be able to use it to its complete potential, not without tearing your body apart.

"As you are now, I doubt you could last more than ten seconds, if that. Your muscles, your bones and most importantly you tendons, are all too weak to withstand it. If you tried to swing a punch in your current state with the Lightning Release fully activated you're far more likely to end up with a dislocating shoulder than actually hit anything."

"And here I thought I was physically strong for my age," I grumbled to myself. It was really frustrating that after all my years of non-stop training it still wasn't enough.

"Now ducky, don't feel too bad." The prick had the audacity to pat me on the head again. I would have felt more comforted by the gesture if I hadn't seen him pet his dogs in the very same manner just a couple of days earlier. 

"You're fine physically, or your legs and core muscles are at least. It's your upper body that needs work. That's the problem with you Hyuugas. 

You guys can run with the best of them, have bodies so flexible that circus acrobats would turn green with envy but when it comes to lifting weights, you lot are worthless. I know twelve years old girls with more arm strength than anyone in your entire Clan."

"Hey! Comparing us to Naruto isn't exactly fair." I objected to the slight, ignoring Naruto as she laughed her ass off. She had apparently ditched the Go game entirely in favour of listening in on us.

"Wait!" I blanched in horror as a terrifying realization dawned on me. "Does that mean I have to bulk up like the Raikage to learn the Lightning Release?" Almost retching at the idea.

Trust me, Hyuugas are simply not meant to have that much muscle on us, we'd look horrible.

Kakashi chuckled, looking away from his book for the first time. "No, not unless you want to. The Raikage needs all the extra bulk because it suits his style. Unlike you and me who are only looking for speed, the Raikage wants the brute strength that comes with the technique in addition to the speed. 

He likes using his body like a battering ram to crush his enemies. When I said to bulk up, I was thinking more along the lines of Gai or me." He outright snickered at the palpable relief on my face. "Don't worry Ducky, you don't have to bulk up anywhere near as them unless you want to."

"Thank god for small blessings then." I heaved out a sigh of relief as I dropped back onto the ground.

I didn't consider myself a vain person by any means, but the idea of turning into one of those musclebound body-builders that I used to see in the gym all the time was simply unappealing to me.

"By the way Sensei," I spoke up a moment later as I laid on the grass, face to the sky. "Naruto and me won't be able to make it to training tomorrow."

...

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