Inazuma Stamina building exercise

-Kuyo once again found himself in his dark nearly windowless home, sitting crisscross on the floor cleaning his weapons, he was barefoot and shirtless, his baggy shinobi pants resting low on his hips as he was polishing his kunai, the late afternoon air flowing in lightly from the other room, a mix of low light from the doorway and a trio of candles on the counter in front of him were the only sources of light in the room as he sighed deeply, enjoying the peace and quiet and soaking in a bit of ego he had built for himself. Just last week he had managed to beat his sensei in a training session, albeit from sneaky tactics and the element of surprise, but you couldn't blame Kuyo for being a ninja, he smiled out of the corner of his mouth before leaning back, slipping the polished Kunai back into a pouch sitting on the bed, but he stopped in mid motion, his smile turning into a light scoff- "Come on Jozai, i know you can sneak better then that" -in one swift motion he flicked his Kunai into the dark corner of the room, a man standing there un-moving as the Kunai deflected off his metal cheek and clattered to the floor, the man smiling and stepping forward out of the shadows into the range of the candlelight- "is that how you welcome all your guests Kuyo?" -Kuyo chuckled and hopped to his feet walking forward, interlocking forearms and hugging the man who seemed in his early 20s with long black hair, an anbu mask held in his other hand- "only old friends, how have you been Jozai? I haven't seen you in weeks, and before that not since you guarded Noriko back at Mizo Fortress" -Jozai sat down on the bed stretching out his shoulders, disturbing the dozens of of empty plastic water bottles piled in the trash can next to the bed- "I've been deep in it for almost 5 years now, made anbu in 4, now i get all the dirt i could ever need on these Star ninja clowns, i told you last time i dropped by"- "I remember, that info on the crystal sisters last time was some crazy shit to swallow, how did the 9 tails even get in that nutjob's hands?

"Hey man, some things even the anbu don't know about these two, or at least they're not telling me about it, the point is the Grandmaster wants everyone inside the Star to watch them closely, and that includes you Kuyo" -Kuyo slipped on his flak jacket and was in the process of slipping on his boots- "Father wants me to keep an eye on her too? He must have big plans for that little brat, or at the very least Noriko must want to dissect her for study" -Jozai tilted his head back and laughed thunderously for what seemed like a few minutes, the young man who had helped guard his family, eventually catching his breath- "I wouldn't put that past her, just so you know Kuyo, i wont be around to bail you out of any trouble you get yourself into this time around, your on your own" -Kuyo smiled, it had been quite some time since he hadnt had to put up a false image of himself to everyone around him- "Im headed out for a bit of old fashioned training, you know what im talking about, can you do me a favor and give me eveything the village records have on Team 2? god knows a bit of dirt on them would be very helpful in the future.- "No problem at all Kuyo, sounds like your starting to get invested in your own ruse, be careful with that old friend, i see that uve been waterlogging yourself, heading out for the clan training again?" "Ive been chugging enough water this week to kill a cactus, i feel like a balloon, but thats beside the point, father sent me here to learn how to be the best, as well as spy, so i might as well be the best here as well" -Kuyo made his way toward the doorway, speaking as he walked- "And no need to worry about me old friend, subtlety has always been my speci.." -as Kuyo turned around Jozai had disappeared, in a room with one door, one which he was standing in, no windows, and no vents- "That sneaky little bastard, he better teach me how to do that one of these days" -Kuyo muttered to himself as he leaped out of the window in the other room into the bustling streets 3 stories below-

-After a relatively short trip across the rooftops of the village and through the thick brush of the outlying forest, Kuyo found what he was looking for, a small pond about 8 feet deep at its lowest, and a pile of massive boulders in a decently large stack near a hill just to the left of the pond, as he walked over, hefting the largest boulder over his head and walking over towards the pond, he couldn't help but become moderately nostalgic, every morning after breakfast Kuyo and his father Kaizo would go to the fortress reflecting pool and practice this since he was a small child, he smiled as he stepped out onto the water, having to now focus both his strength and stamina on the rock over his head, as well as his chakra on his feet to keep him floating on top of the water, back then he didn't use rocks, staying afloat was mentally and physically taxing enough on its own at that age, but it was no longer good enough. As Kuyo slowly made his way into the center of the pond, he cursed himself for not regularly doing this training, his arms were already beginning to become sore from holding the boulder over his head.- "oh boy, this is gonna hurt like hell, here goes nothing" -He breathed in sharply, then activated his steel release.-

-As a child, at first every time he would try this with his father he would drop, sinking like an anchor to the bottom of the reflecting pool, just to come back to the surface back in normal form, sputtering and coughing up a storm of water, now as he stood there as a genin of the hidden star he gasped loudly, his knees almost buckling but he managed to regain his balance, he had done this thousands of times before, as a child, and as a young pre-teen, of course he never had to worry about the rock back then. every last inch of his body dripped with sweat, soaking right through his flak jacket and pants, his every muscle ached and he could feel his chakra burning away slowly. Although Kuyo did not know exactly who invented this certain method of training or as his younger siblings used to call it, torture, though his father Kaizo always jokingly took credit for it, was a genius ahead of his/her time. The training combined and increased your physical strength, your chakra, and your physical and mental stamina all at the same time, as well as shedding almost 5 pounds of water weight every time it is implemented. While you could use your chakra to reinforce your legs and the soles of your feet to keep the massive weight of the steel release and the boulder just barely afloat, you would still need to hold the boulder over your head without the help of the majority of your chakra. No matter how you attempt to distribute your chakra to reinforce our body, you would end up using all your chakra, as well as every muscle in your body you possess to keep yourself standing, it was truly physical anguish the likes of which nobody outside of the Inazuma clan had ever felt, it truly felt like Atlas holding up the sky, or as close to that as a human could get, but there was nothing in the world that was better training.

Kuyo was heaving, his breaths were more growls and gasps, his body caked in sweat and his hair matted down like he had just gone for a swim, yet his arms remained firm and didn't wobble, not yet, this was not the first time Kuyo had done this training, and certainly not the last, it was at times like this where his emotions bubbled to the surface, as he silently cried, shouted out loud, and questioned everything he had ever done, at this point of near total exhaustion. As the minutes slipped into hours and the sun began to make its descent, Kuyo was determine to outlast it. Silently taunting the sun in his head as he continued gasping for breath, finally, as the last bits of the sun dipped beneath the horizon, leaving only a pink glow on the clouds, Kuyo steadily walked to the edge of the pond, reaching the shore and placing the boulder down slowly, only to fall upon it. Kuyo continued to lay there unconscious for about an hour, before finally regaining consciousness, continuing to just lay there breathing heavily for a time before finally forcing himself to his feet, beginning the slow walk back to the village, a smile on his still sweat soaked face.- "Another successful day sealed, now all i need is a shower and some food. Wonder if anything's open this late." -With that, he limped, stumbled, and tripped repeatedly off into the sunset-

-Fin-