Having nothing else to do, Hidetada dropped out onto the floor to do push-ups. A shinobi needed to maintain their body no matter what situation they were in. He fell toward the dirt, the scent of pine and crushed grass filling his nostrils, before pushing himself back up as he completed one rep. Honestly, it was surprising the amount of torture ninjas put their bodies through on a daily basis. In his original world, most people would have died just attempting the rigorous routine, but over here, it was nothing to be worried about. The physics themselves did not make much sense in this world, as no matter what chakra bullshit you are using, you shouldn't be able to stand sideways on a wall or a tree without your legs getting separated from the main body.
Effortlessly pushing his arms up and down, Hidetada completed fifty push-ups, not stopping and heading for even more. Even the children of this world did not make any sense; most three-year-olds should not even be able to make comprehensible sentences, yet they were over here pushing their bodies to the limit and killing enemies while speaking of philosophy—looking at you Itachi—it was simply baffling. The whole thing was a mess, a glorious mess perhaps.
Completing a hundred push-ups, Hidetada still did not slow down even a second and resumed his activity without stopping. And even after going through all the trauma of seeing your comrades get killed and killing your enemies, there were no psychologists in the world, none at all. Even the Yamanaka Clan hadn't thought about the psychological effects that seeing all the atrocities these shinobis were committing against each other would cause some major emotional damage to the brain.
At most, the only help that was available was in the form of your Jonin-sensei, who you could speak to about anything that troubled you, still most of the ninjas did not do that. The most surprising fact in spite of all this was that there were no veteran shinobi who had any sort of PTSD whatsoever; if you asked them about their own careers, they would either laugh about it or say how much better things used to be back then.
With the increase in the life expectancy rate as a result of the formation of the Ninja Villages, there were still not many people who were permanently mentally scarred due to their experiences in this line of work.
It made him wonder if everyone here was a psychopath.
Stopping to wipe the sweat off his forehead after completing one thousand push-ups, Hidetada leaned back with a sigh. Getting up, he put his hands behind his head and got ready to do some sit-ups as well.
Everyone here was simply built different, from the men to the women and even the babies.
Dropping his weight down, he completed one sit-up before pushing himself back up again. All these thoughts made him think about the current war that was going on. He couldn't help but wonder how Tsunade was doing.
The thought of her made him sigh. Tsunade Senju, the previous heir to their clan before he was born. She was not removed because of being a girl, but because he was simply better.
And no, he wasn't joking when he said that. Her position as the clan heir was already under threat when his Mokuton had manifested, but after displaying how he behaved like a sponge whenever it came to anything related to learning the various techniques that were handed to him, she was removed from her position.
Their relationship probably would have been anything but close had it not been for Hidetada's foresight and maturity. Knowing the effect that it would have on her brain due to constantly being sidelined and judged for not being as good as him, he had done things to make sure that she never hated him. Honestly, if it was not for his manipulation skills, she would have resented him since he was born. But being trapped in a newborn baby's body had its own benefits.
Then things had deteriorated as the war happened, pushing them apart until the bursting point of when she was going to be deployed to the war front.
A frown appeared on his face as he thought about that before he stopped, realizing that he had completed one thousand sit-ups already.
Looking toward his creation, he discovered that Duy was still sitting deep inside the wooden dome. Hidetada wondered whether he should check up on him before deciding against it. He did not know how hard it would be to open the Gate of Opening, but considering that Duy had been able to access it in the original anime, it should probably not take that long. Had he not used it against the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist?
Jumping up, Hidetada's hands reached for a hold to do pull-ups. Testing the weight of the sturdy oak branch, he realized that it was good enough and started to do pull-ups.
The Eight Inner Gates were actually sort of terrifying in their prowess; they had granted Might Guy the ability to go against Jubi-Madara and almost kill him. It had resulted in his death before being revived by Naruto, but it was still pretty damn powerful.
Wait a second, if future Naruto had gotten Hashirama cells for himself to regenerate his destroyed arm, why hadn't they done the same thing for Guy's legs?
Actually, if artificially replicated Hashirama cells could regenerate a limb, would that mean that he could as well? But the color of Naruto's hand had been a strange white, not his normal skin color. So perhaps not. Hidetada did not wish to check if it could or could not regenerate a limb anytime soon, thank you very much.
"Nine hundred and ninety-nine," he muttered with the sweat dripping into his eyes, he let himself hang for a second to regain enough energy before pulling himself back up, "One thousand."
With a huff, Hidetada released his hold on the tree and dropped back down to the earth, the dust getting blown around due to the impact of his feet against the ground.
Wiping off the sweat with the back of his hand, he paused; it seemed that Duy was finished with his mental chakra control exercise.
Holding the Rat handseal, he commanded the pillars in the form of the dome to fall from around the area and return back to the earth. They slid back into the ground, disappearing in motes of invisible chakra and filling the holes in the ground with dirt.
Might Duy was standing inside of the wooden cocoon with a dazed expression on his face. It took him a moment to get used to the sound of the environment and the light pouring into his eyes before he righted himself and stood up straight, "So, how did it go Duy? Did you succeed?" Hidetada said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. The spandex-clad man did not reply, still processing the sudden sensory overload before the light returned back into his eyes.
With a tired grin, Might Duy replied, "Indeed I did, Hidetada-sama. I managed to locate the First Gate out of the Eight." He tapped his head on the spot where it should be located, "And I managed to direct my chakra around it, causing the pressure around it to increase."
His grin seemed to dim as he continued, "Unfortunately, I was not successful in unlocking it."
Hidetada nodded, getting a sudden urge to study biology. He wanted to dissect a human being in this world and poke all their insides. The original human body from his previous world was complex enough, but over here, with the addition of the Chakra Pathways? It should be even more interesting. It made him wonder how something like that would fit inside comfortably.
He was starting to understand Orochimaru now.
"Do not worry Duy, it will not be easy to unlock the first gate, but after you have succeeded, the other ones should be a lot easier." That was what he was assuming for now; for all Hidetada knew, maybe the other Gates would be even harder to open than the first one, but logically the others shouldn't be as hard after the first one was opened.
He rubbed his chin as he continued, "For now, you should focus on pushing the Chakra against the Gate constantly, while you train, eat, or even while sleeping. Through that only, will you be able to make a breakthrough."
Stretching his muscles after the exercise, Hidetada informed Duy about another thing, "The easiest way to open it however would be to put yourself in a life or death situation while maintaining the constant pressure on the First Gate. That can be achieved by pushing yourself in your training like never before and sparring with someone."
Both of Might Duy's eyebrows shot up into the air as he heard him before flashing him his sparkling teeth with his signature thumbs up, "Do not underestimate me when it comes to pushing myself, my eternal rival. From today onwards, I shall stoke the flames of YOUTH LIKE NEVER BEFORE!"
Perhaps it wasn't the best idea informing him about how much he would need to torture himself.
"Hmm, I'll write down all the details that I know about the Eight Inner Gates and give it to you tomorrow. Keep in mind however, I do not really know much about them either."
Duy nodded with his fist pumping up toward the sky, "Yosh! This calls for a celebration! As a result, I'll be running a thousand laps around the Forest of Death and a thousand more around the entire village! And if I am not going to succeed in doing that, then I shall run two thousand more laps around the village on my hands! YOUTH!"
A fire seemed to emerge in Might Duy's eyes as he proclaimed just how rigorously he was going to be training. Hidetada could do nothing except stare at him incredulously.
'No way this guy is serious, right?' The thought of running all those laps around the Forest of Death and the entire village made him feel his muscles throb in a deep ache; this man was not human. How could he train like that and afford to move normally the next day?
Even if you ignored the muscles tearing up, how did Duy have so much time on his hands? It was utterly baffling. The village was huge, and running a single lap around it would take a lot of time, but a thousand?
That was even more insane.
Hidetada watched as the man dashed toward the edge of the training ground to complete his laps, a trail of dust rising behind him. He stared at his back with a flabbergasted expression before sighing and dropping to the ground to train his abs.
One good thing about training with Duy was that everyone around him became filled with motivation to do better and push
themselves. Stretching his abs and pulling his feet back, he lifted up his upper body to perform crunches.
Falling back on the ground, Hidetada performed another crunch. Maybe Might Duy was a failed experiment or something? Dropped off by a mad scientist because he had malformed Tenketsu; his background added up. No one knew who his parents were.
'But no.' Hidetada corrected himself, 'Duy's strength comes through his resilience and iron will, not because of an inheritance.'
And that was the truth of it. Everything that Might Duy had built was through his own efforts, not some supernatural parentage or background.
It made him think of himself actually; would he have been as successful as he was right now had he not been born a Senju? He would like to think that the answer would be yes. While his various teachers and tutors, combined with this body's natural talent, had been a major reason for his prowess, someone else would not have been able to reach the heights he had.
Or that was what he told himself as the afternoon sun began to beat down, turning the clearing into a shimmering oven of heat.
Hours seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye as the morning cool sun transformed into the heated afternoon one. Both Hidetada and Might Duy did their respective exercises, motivated by each other's hard work. Soon, the spandex-clad man had completed his laps and was standing back in the clearing where Hidetada was relaxing after completing a rather taxing workout.
The shadows of the trees had lengthened, stretching across the dirt like long, dark fingers.
As he looked at Duy, who was drenched in sweat but still vibrating with energy, he got an idea.
"Might Duy, I challenge you to a spar!"
...
Word Count: 2145.