[Shirai Tetsumaki]

Normally, Tetsumaki Shirai was the kind of woman who wouldn't be coming to teach the academy students. Not when she had Genin to teach. However, today was an exception. An older girl returned, and it was clear that she needed to be caught up to speed. With a good role model that could help her develop her skills and abilities. A sensei. So. It was on this bidding day that Itagaki Mitsumi was to meet with Tetsumaki Shirai. She was given on the last weekend a letter informing her of her private tutor. The best part was, it was a tutor that was completely free of charge. Consider it an investment of the village into its future.

They'd meet on the rooftop of the academy. The sun shining down past the clouds as she sees a scantily clad and yet seemingly excited woman before her. "Yosh! Glad to see you here. You're my student aren't you?! Come and take a seat. Introduce yourself. We'll start simple. Name. Age. And dreams for the future." Tetsumaki Shirai was interested on why a girl so old was looking to re-enter the academy. Why she was looking to become a ninja. Most importantly, Shirai was looking to see if it was a dream worth talking about. Shirai was all about stepping up to new challenges to advance oneself, but she knew better than most that this kind of life wasn't for everyone.  

"My name is Tetsumaki Shirai. But you can call me Sensei, Shirai, Raiga, or mam." With a flashing smile, she leans back, resting her arms behind her head. 

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

Reentering the academy was nerve-wracking enough. Mitsumi was at that uncomfortable point where she was not only older than most of her peers, by a significant margin, but she knew less than most of them, too. She remembered a fair bit - she wasn't that far off graduation before she was waylaid by tragedy - but she had forgotten a lot. And there was more to learn, and she was only beginning to learn how much she had to learn.

The offer of a tutor frayed her nerves. She questioned the motive. Was this a prank? An act of pity? Or simple charity? Whatever the case, and though even perceived special treatment grated against her, Mitsumi couldn't refuse it.

It wasn't going to be enough to barely qualify as a genin. She needed to excel. And without a bloodline or secret techniques to give her an edge, she could never rest on her laurels. Not that she had laurels to rest on.

Mitsumi pulled herself up onto the rooftop, and regarded her apparent teacher with a mixture of nervousness and apprehension. Mitsumi nodded to confirm that she was indeed a student. She had come dressed to physically train; a lightweight blue jacket over a dark bodysuit, concealing almost everything, in stark contrast to her teacher. Mitsumi tugged at her hair, unsure if she was jealous of her confidence, or simply surprised by it. She shook her head, and then dipped it in a polite but simple bow.
"S-sensei, then," Mitsumi's voice quivered, and she winced. A breath to stabilize herself, gaze sliding off of Shirai, and to the ground. She sat as instructed, formulating an answer to the order she had received. "I'm Itagaki Mitsumi. Seventeen. As for the future..." She trailed off, and looked down at her hands, staring for a moment at the scars snaking around two of her fingers. Another steadying breath, then she met her teacher's gaze.

Still uncertain and nervous, but there was a spark of determination in the eye not obscured by her hair. "I want to be strong. As strong as I can get." A simple, shapeless dream.

And one she'd make a reality.

[Shirai Tetsumaki]

"Oh geeze." She says, running her right thumb along her nose, before then looking towards her. "Kid, that's a good spirit, but...Why do you want to get stronger? What is it you want to do with that power?" Standing upright and to her full height, she slowly looks towards her and the scars along her hands. "Those that want to get strong for the sake of getting strong? They never prosper. Trust me. I'd know Mitsumi." She says, before promptly looking upon that shaking girl.

"But it's when we fight for something precious. Something we want to protect with our every being. That's when we become truly strong." Taking the liberty to gaze upon her, she steps forward and offers a fist out to her. "There's no reason to get all pent up and worried. Not at all! Because I'm here to make you into one of Kumogakure's best." She says, looking her over. There was a layer of insecurity that seemed burrowed deep inside of her. What Shirai felt like this girl needed was confidence and someone that was going to be there for her, but also someone who wasn't going to judge.

"So...Tell me. What do you want to be strong for?" It was alright if she didn't know yet, but that was a question she wanted her pupil to think about. After giving Mitsumi some time to think about it? Shirai would find herself giving her a bright smile. "I read you've been out of the academy for quite some time. So today, I'm going to get you physically active. Which is why? You and I are going to run a hundred laps around the academy yard." Whether or not Mitsumi heard correctly or not was another thing.

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

Mitsumi pressed her lips together at Shirai's words, and looked away. It wasn't like she could refute them. Getting strong for its own sake sounded stupid. And putting into words took a level of honesty and vulnerability few had earned, and her teacher was certainly not one of them. She struggled to find an answer that sounded halfway passable, then up at the offered fist. Shame filled her as she did not bump it, as was clearly requested. Sparring was one thing, but this was still a bridge too far for her. For now, anyway.

The breeze caught her hair, revealing at least some of what it tried to hide. An eye surrounded by a lattice of scar tissue, that followed her jaw and down her neck, where it worsened.. Mitsumi soon smoothed it out, even though it was a fruitless gesture. If Shirai had read her record, she likely already knew. Maybe there had even been a warning from her therapist. Who knew?

"There are people I want to protect," She managed after a pause, though it sounded a little half-hearted. While true, it clearly wasn't the real motivation behind her quest for strength. "I- We've lost too much. I don't want to lose any more." That was a bit firmer. A bit closer to the truth. Still a lie by omission.

The topic turned, fortunately. It was true that, compared to other ninja and ninja hopefuls her age, she was behind physically. But she had tried to get into something resembling shape before reentering the Academy. So she had some confidence in her-
"One hundred?!" Mitsumi's eyes bulged, and she searched Shirai's face for sarcasm or a joke. She found none. "Th-that's... I mean..." She struggled for a rationalization, but eventually her shoulders slumped, and she pushed herself back onto her feet. "Sensei, do I just... start?" Mitsumi would fail. Her lungs and legs would give out before she could run a hundred laps.

But it seemed the insecure girl was willing to try, anyway.

[Shirai Tetsumaki]

"Why not?" She says, looking at her with a tilt of her head. "If you're going to be a ninja, you're going to need to be fit. This isn't one of those easy desk jobs you'll find in the administration office, or lounging around." She says with a bright flash of her teeth. "That sounds about right. You just...do it!" She says with a hearty chuckle. Before then hopping on top of the guard railing and then tilting herself backwards with an arch as she falls off the rooftop. Doing a few somersaults, she collides with the floor with a burst of electricity, dispersing into the floor.

Before she reforms a few feet away from the point of impact. "Feel free to make your way down here! We can start running when you arrive!" Seating herself, she was interested in the kid to some extent. Especially since her body told a story. Wasn't every day that you had a girl running about the way she did, with burns and scar marks all around. For some reason, when she said there were people she wanted to protect, she didn't doubt that. However, she felt like the girl wanted to protect herself most of all. A little deep seated intuition. When she arrived? This was the statement.

"I'm going to be running right beside you. So don't go about telling me you can't do it. Because if I can do it? You can do it. You got that?"

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

Mitsumi grit her teeth at the comment, a little irritated at her own naïvety. Becoming a Shinobi was pretty common amongst the residents of the hidden villages, but it wasn't easy. Doing the bare minimum to keep up her fitness wasn't going to cut it.

But one hundred? Could she even do such a thing?

Mitsumi watched with naked awe as her teacher made her way off the rooftop. It seemed impossible, but one day... one day she'd be able to do things like that. She took a breath to steady herself, and mapped out her own route down. Simply jumping off wasn't going to work for her, so...

Mitsumi swallowed the knot of fear and self-doubt, then placed a hand on the railing a d vaulted it. Then she gripped the edge of the roof, and lowered herself down, spying a windowsill she could use as a foothold. She dropped down, and used the ledge as a stepping stone, arresting her downward momentum for a moment, before hitting the ground in a roll to disperse the force of the impact, coming up to her feet. A little slow, a little clumsy, but definitely practiced.

And now she had to run.

She blanched again at the concept, but there was no backing out now. Despite intensely doubting Shirai's words, she felt her confidence buoyed by them.
"Y-yes, Sensei!" She answered affirmatively, then began to run. A slow run, one designed to complete a marathon, not a sprint. She had never measured how far she could run, but this was likely to be well past that. If each lap was four hundred meters, that was almost a full marathon. Even two hundred was pretty much half a marathon. She was going to be here for hours. But...

She could do this. She had to do this.

For at least the first few laps, she wasn't exhausted enough to avoid speaking, a d eventually piped up around the third lap. "Why did you become a kunoichi, Sensei?" Turnabout was fair play, wasn't it?

[Shirai Tetsumaki]

The fact the kid hopped down the way she did was an eye raiser. She was prepared to catch her in case things went sour, but luckily? She was fine. It was there that they began running, and with it, Shirai would run right alongside her, or well, slightly ahead, just as to show that a greater intensity was not only possible, but to act as a marker for Shirai to try to surpass. "...I suppose you could say that in my family, being a Shinobi was kind of expected. Nearly every Tetsumaki clan member is. But the main reason? The real inspiration was to serve my village. And my country."

"And to teach the next generation. Cute little genin like you." She says, and as they moved along, she found herself wanting to maybe go a little more into perspective. Get her more comfortable by sharing some humanizing moments. "I was never afraid and nervous like you, when it came down to this whole thing, but I've seen plenty of people. Nervous. Scared. Especially in recent times. Where tragedy has fallen on Kumo. You could say the clouds turned dark." She says softly, as she gradually increases her speed. "But that's the beauty of it."

She says, wagging her right finger towards Mitsumi. "We have the power to create change and live better lives. Make goodness. We weather the storm, and at the end? The sky is clear and beautiful. Even if it's cloudy at times, and we can't see through them. It doesn't mean we shouldn't try." She says, and with it, as they move along, the liger finds herself pretty pleased by the notion. "You get me?"

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

How was she able to talk so much while running ahead of her? Even though they had just gotten started, Mitsumi could already feel her lungs begin to ache, and her legs begin to burn. Listening to Shirai's unexpectedly eloquent words was difficult enough. Responding was going to be another matter entirely.

Mitsumi had her misgivings about becoming a Shinobi merely because it was expected, but maybe she wasn't in the best place to protest. After all, she was following in her own mother's footsteps. Her feet pounded on the ground, trying to find a rhythm to her breathing, to her steps. To focus on Shirai's words. Anything to distract herself from the urge to stop running.
"Not... a genin... yet..." Mitsumi corrected, more to motivate herself than to actually point out the mistake. Her body screamed at her, but she forced herself to match Shirai's increase in pace. She could already feel the sweat beading on her face, in her hair, under her clothes.

She made a mental note to at least take tomorrow easy.

Her breathing be and increasingly ragged as they continued to run. A question was posed to her, and Mitsumi blinked, taking a moment to ripe stinging sweat out of her eyes with her sleeve.
"I... get... you..." That was, basically, what she was trying to do here. Change herself for the better. And maybe help change things for the better, for the people she cared about.

Mitsumi realized that she had lost count of the number of laps. "How... many... more?" Her stamina had begun to flag, but her determination had not.

[Shirai Tetsumaki]

"Don't worry. You will be." She says, and with it, as they moved along, she found herself honestly idling, not really noticing any real form of strain at moving at this pace. Though, as they did, she found herself slowly looking towards Mitsumi. "Oh...You know? I was never actually keeping track." She says, slowly sticking her tongue out with a slight bonk on her forehead with her right hand. "Let's just say it's one." She said, as they continued their pace along. Glad to see the girl picking up the pace.

"After this? I'll get you something nice to eat. Maybe some yogurt if you're up for it." It must have been crazy to look at Shirai and see that she hadn't seemingly even bust a sweat yet, idling by as she lets her arms swing out behind her. "Remember. Work hard and strive to reach newer heights. Push yourself to your limits every day, and beyond!" Shirai wasn't sure if she was the best role model out there, but she had hoped to make an impression. Especially since she planned on taking this academy student and whipping her up to shape. Make her a training and workout regimen. By the time she graduated, she'd be in the fittest condition of her life.

If she took it seriously that is.

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

The encouragement was trite, but it worked. Do many people in her life encouraged her to do something quiet, low-stress. Write books, help with the family business, something, anything other than being a shinobi. It was good to hear unqualified encouragement.

"No way!" She despaired at the attempt at erasing almost all of her work, but kept herself moving. It had to have been at least ten laps, right? Mitsumi groaned, the physical strain leaving her with less mental energy to guard her emotions. What else could she do, but keep running? Stopping meant admitting defeat. And she wouldn't do that until she literally collapsed.

She felt like a mess, running form already becoming slippy as Shirai had yet to even display a hint of effort. There was a gap in fitness, sure, but surely the gap in experience couldn't do all that on its own, right? Mitsumi barely managed an affirmative grunt to the offered carrot and the further encouragement to push past her limits.

In a desperate bid to find some way to keep herself going for longer, she turned her attention inward. Trying to at least regulate and refine the flow of chakra within her, to make it less wasteful. It wasn't much, and it didn't restore her lost stamina, but her gait straightened out a bit, legs stabilizing as she managed to find a second wind. She wasn't blessed with an excess of power, so she had to use what she had wisely.

As minutes would bleed into hours, Mitsumi became less and less able to speak, running herself ragged as her muscles, lungs, bones, everything screamed at her to stop.

Mitsumi started to fall behind, and seemed unable to keep up the prior pace. "Keep... moving... dammit!" She swore at herself, but her pace continued to flag.

If she had to break through her limits, now was the time. As her limit was fast approaching. Were third winds a thing?

[Shirai Tetsumaki]

In truth. Maybe she was going a little bit hard on the kid, but it was true. It was all for her own good. As they made their way running laps, Shirai seemed well accustomed to this kind of workload, and at going at this pace. As Mitsumi found herself starting to fall behind, and she was starting to flag? That was the moment Shirai looked upon her and proceeded to grasp her right arm and place it around Shirai's shoulder. "If you can talk. You can run kid. Keep it going. Never give up until it's over." She says, and with it, she'd force Mitsumi to run at the same pace and speed as she was before.

The runner's high usually kicked in after you felt like your shittiest point. So hopefully, that was going to be pretty soon. Placing her hand along Mitsumi's back, namely near the lungs, she'd find herself utilizing her hijutsu. The Kami no Kaminari no Jutsu to transmit an electrical signal into her. To stimulate her reflexes, and to begin hitting her with a quite literal and metaphorical electrical feeling. To get her cells working and active, but not in such a way that it'd cause any harm that is. Assuming Mitsumi felt the energy fill her and jolt her, Shirai would let her go. Before proceeding to sprint forward at rapid speeds, dashing at speeds that might seem impossible, akin to supernatural.

Inhuman. Animal like as she then turns and begins running backwards with a bit of a cocky smirk on her face. "Come on kid! Just another couple laps!"

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

Mitsumi only groaned in response to the chiding. Another groan as she was pulled along. It felt like she had been running forever. Her legs didn't even hurt anymore. Her mouth felt dry. And her lungs hurt. What she wouldn't do for a drink of water... Or just to stop running. To her credit, she kept going. She would go until she literally couldn't.

It was frustrating to be face-to-face with such a seemingly insurmountable goal. Shirai was seemingly indefatigable and inhumanly fast. If she trained hard enough, could she do that, too? If she got that strong, would people see her like Mitsumi saw Shirai?

Mitsumi yelped in surprise as electricity flowed into her. She looked at Shirai with a mixture of surprise and hurt, and... she was feeling revitalized? Her body was still a mixture of numb and sore, but she felt lively. Maybe even more than when they had first started. Mitsumi even started to feel... good? Was this the "runner's high" people talked about? It was a new experience for her, but she felt like she could finally understand people who did endurance runs for fun. At least a little, anyway.

She groaned in effort as she forced herself to resume her prior pace. Lured by the promise of all of this ending after a couple more laps. One limit pushed through. Another fast approaching.

[Shirai Tetsumaki]

At the end of the road now. Mitsumi would eventually find herself meeting the end of the road. Where when she came to and would likely collapse along the floor in a disheveled, sweaty, and tired heap? Shirai would stand over, and would proceed to be there, forcing her to stand. "You lose your gains that way. Breath." She says, reaching for her side and taking a metal canteen, pouring water over her head, as well as giving her a birdie of water into her mouth. Patting her firmly. "You're doing good. Doing great." She said.

"And like I promised. I'll get you something nice to eat. You deserve it." She proclaims, for the girl had indeed earned everything that was coming to her. Though, she did wonder. How was she supposed to explain to the girl that this was just the beginning of what would probably be a fairly regular workout for her pupil? That she was probably going to need to participate in harsher training if she was going to be brought back to snuff into becoming a proper ninja? Ah. Well. That could be done later. Patting her firmly, Shirai spoke. "You did good Mitsumi. Fantastic." They proclaim with shining bright teeth.

"You train like this every day? And you'll be one of the best out there." A promise was made. Now then. They ought to go and get a bite...

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

As soon as her mental count reached one hundred, every bit of will that was keeping her body moving drained from her. Like a puppet with cut strings, she collapsed into a heap on the ground, shoulder and chest heaving as she sucked in greedy gulps of air. Her legs felt like jelly. Her chest hurt, and spots danced in her vision. She had never felt so tired, yet her nerves were alive in a way she had never felt before. Her heart still pounded in her ears as she gradually caught her breath.

Then her teacher dragged her to her feet. Mitsumi couldn't stand up straight, knees bent and wobbly, but she did stand. She felt numb. But proud. Mitsumi had come a long way since... no. Now was not the time to dwell on the past. It never would be. Just had to keep moving forward.

"I'm just... trying to do my best." She responded to the praise, though Mitsumi's humble response couldn't hide the proud smile spreading on her sweat-streaked face. She had really done it, by some insane miracle.

"The, uh... nausea goes away, right?" The promise of food gave her mixed feelings. But yoghurt? Something cool and wet on her parched throat? That she could get behind. They staggered with the firm pat, legs still very unsteady, but she followed Shirai as best she could. Her eyes bulged a bit at the notion of doing this every day, and some part of her mind wanted to counter with the need for the body to rest, to recover, but she swallowed that logical response.

If she was going to succeed at this, without the experience, the specialized training, the bloodlines that so many of her peers had, the only way was to compensate with sheer brute effort. "Maybe every other day, to start with?" It was an attempt at a joke, but the resolve was there.

It may have been a lesson in building physical endurance, but the greater lesson was just how hard she would have to work to get where she wanted to be. And how hard Mitsumi could push even her unrefined physique. How far was she going to be able to go?