First day of training disaster

Shizuka sighs and gets up from what had been her resting spot for the last two hours. "I really need to do some training.” Even to her the idea of a shinobi with the running speed of a slug seemed preposterous. She knew that running up and downhill would ultimately result in an increase of her sprinting speed, but God was it boring. “Ok, 20 more laps and then I can take another break.” She stats running, slowly increasing her speed as she went along. Soon enough a familiar pain forms in her chest. She contemplates giving up smoking for the 58^th time but damn it, she comes from a clan specializing in transforming into smoke for God’s sake! It’s practically become second nature to her. Her breathing becomes heavier as she works her way uphill. Once she reaches flatter terrain she decides to change it a bit: she starts off with jogging the first 70 meters, then sprinting the last 30, gradually reducing the distance jogged and increasing the sprinting one. After a few sets of this she finally goes downhill “I wouldn’t be surprised if I coughed up a lung once I’m done with all this”. Ever since she left her village she had become less and less motivated and had greatly neglected her training. Hell, if it hadn’t been for THAT incident, she probably wouldn’t have trained at all. She cringes at the memory of how she almost got captured by a group of Gennin much younger than her. She barely managed to escape with only minor injuries due by using her clan’s Smoke Transformation technique. “Maybe I really am getting old”, she wonders, anger slowly welling up inside of her as she increases her speed again. By now she is an aching mess, but she won’t stop. “I’ll be damned if I let myself lose to a bunch of kids!” She lets loose a long list of profanities as she finishes her final lap and lets herself fall on the grass. The cold ground soothes her aching muscles as she looks to the sky, mentally preparing herself for another go. She sits up and starts running again, this time at a steady pace. While observing the scenery, she can’t help but notice how beautiful the Fire country is. She thinks to herself that maybe this is not so bad after all. Lost in thought, she manages to trip over a stone and falls face first. “That’s it, I’m done!” she yells, wiping her bloody nose. “I hate training…”

[WC: 422, +2 stats]