Training I

Kiryu looked intently at his teacher as he listened to him. After the spar, Hayate had first bought him something to eat, which he felt extremely grateful for before returning to the training ground where Hayate would break down and analyse Kiryu's flaws and strengths with him.

"Well kid, let's start with what you're good at. You're fast and relentless, if you went against someone around your skill level they'd have a very hard time as you give little to no time to even formulate a plan. As far as that goes keep it up, it's what helped you pass the test", Hayate explained, causing a smile to appear on Kiryu's face as he heard the compliment.

Hayate then continued, "However, your weaknesses drag you down greatly. First off, and this isn't entirely your fault since you're fresh out the academy, you don't have a diverse skillset. While we fought you sort of repeated what you were doing by only using Bukijutsu and Taijutsu. No Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, or even any other sort of differentiation to your attacks. You need to expand your repertoire. Secondly, your physique. While I don't expect you to be extremely jacked or anything at your age, you are really skinny, limiting the potential of your explosive attacks.".

Hayate let the boy process and absorb this information and saw a frown forming on his face before speaking once again. "To fix your flaws, we'll first work on your body. You'll start every morning and end every evening with body strengthening training while following a diet that I'll sort out for you. In between that time, we'll rotate each day between completing missions, and training. I'll teach you what I'm good at, Kenjutsu, stealth and tracking, and before you learn anything jutsu related, I'll have you master tree walking and water walking. Any questions?".

"No sensei", Kiryu shook his head. Hayate's training plan had gotten him excited and energised once again. This is precisely what he wanted, to get stronger!

"All right, then for today you're dismissed. Come here tomorrow at 7:30 and don't eat breakfast, I'll prepare it", Hayate instructed. Kiryu nodded and bid his sensei farewell before returning to his house.

It was only 5 o'clock when Kiryu got home, however all the exhaustion that was built up through the day attacked him in one big wave and he passed out as soon as he hit his bed, going to the comfortable embrace of sleep. That night Kiryu had slept like a newborn baby.

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Kiryu arrived about 15 minutes before the set time as he woke up early. He saw that his teacher was already there, warming up by polishing his Kenjutsu skills. The way that Hayate waved his sword around had almost made it seem like a dance, a piece of art, rather than a killing technique to Kiryu.

"You're here", Hayate said without even turning around, having sensed the boy's presence. Another display of skill that had impressed Kiryu and made the respect he held for his teacher even greater. "First you should eat breakfast, there's a bento over on that rock by the dummies", Hayate said, finishing his own warm up and grabbing his own bento. Kiryu thanked his sensei before eating his meal.

After the meal was finished, Hayate took out what Kiryu recognised to be a sealing scroll. After infusing some chakra into it, a cloud of smoke appeared and then cleared away to reveal wrist and ankle weights. "From now on, always wear these. These will give you the most growth within the shortest amount of time, building up your strength and also your speed"

"Thank you sensei", Kiryu said before putting the weights on. The effect was immediate as he felt resistance and his movements became sluggish. "Uhm, how much weight is this?", Kiryu asked, he felt as if his sensei was trying to kill him with this amount of weight.

"It's only 150 kilograms on each limb, nothing to heavy. Now run 20 laps around the training ground to start off", Hayate said casually, giving Kiryu his first exercise of the day.

'He's definitely trying to kill me...', Kiryu thought nervously to himself as he felt his forehead suddenly sweating. After receiving a look from Hayate that told him to get going, he had no choice but to start running. 'It's okay the results will make it worth it', he reassured himself.

The little assurance and confidence he managed to build up disappeared soon after as only 12 laps in, what started as a run was reduced to a sluggish jog, he was sure his soul was going to leave his body. 'If that ends up happening I swear I'm going to end up haunting you sensei', a promise was made and Kiryu would make sure to uphold it.

Over in the middle of the training ground, Hayate lay against the wooden dummy, trying his best not to fall asleep while waiting for his student. He thought that his student wouldn't take more than 40 minutes, but it's been 35 minutes and he still had a few more laps to go. "Did I overestimate him?", Hayate asked himself before shrugging it off. "Nah. He's got it". Immediately after Hayate let out a bellow of a sneeze that made his head feel a little bit light for a few seconds. "Yugao must be thinking about me", he said to himself with a huge smile plastered onto his face.

It took Kiryu and additional 20 minutes to finish those final 8 laps. His face looked devoid of life and his clothes had been drenched in so much sweat that someone might have thought that he fell into a river. After completing them he walked back to the middle where Hayate was waiting for him and collapsed onto the ground.

"Ah, you're done. Here have some wat-", Hayate couldn't even complete his sentence, as the water bottle he was handing over was yanked out of his hand, and emptied in seconds. "Well, alright then".

Kiryu's rest was short-lived as a few minutes later Hayate gave him his next set of exercises. "2000 crunches, 2000 sit ups, 2000 press-ups and a 15 minute plank. In that order".

"Kill me now", Kiryu pleaded as despair settled on his face once more.

"C'mon it's not that bad. After this is done I'll start teaching you Kenjutsu", Hayate smiled. Kiryu sighed depressedly at how easy he was swayed by an incentive like that before getting to work starting with his crunches.