[Deleted]

"Yeah, just - hol- hold it..." Akira was overseeing the development of another one of his cohorts, in the Gym - the weights he'd been encumbered by some time before did not feel as bad. His body was doing much better now and he wasn't being returned to the dirt every time he tried to do a single session.

'If I had to say something about it.. the Gobi probably left something behind...' more the idea that the way a soul entwined with a Bijuu had bolstered Akira's own specific capabilities.

Right now one of the bigger guys in the gym was hoisting almost all of the weights over a single bar - struggling and grunting away much louder than Akira could even hear himself think. It was a good performance nonetheless achieving a good crowd of people around them with Akira at the helm behind the man doing his work yelling their own various forms of engagement and praise to the man. The inevitable noises as he pushed hard: Akira braced his own body as he spread his weight evenly - arms curled at the bars near the other man's own.

It was heavy, that much Akira couldn't deny. The only cause was that Akira could handle it. Not always sure about how he did, but it was significant enough to gain the merit of other people.

---

224

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

Akira was in the zone while he helped the gentleman. Focused on his movements: and he saw the moment it was going to fail when he saw the crumpling of the guy's chest on an exhale: and dominos would fall.

Akira himself activated his core, and despite the heavy weight and not being in the traditional position to hold it grasped it as it slipped out of the other man's hands. "Slih- ouh-" Akira was speaking through gritted teeth as he waited for the man to quickly scooch out from the chest press. With him out of the way, Akira could bring his own body down slightly closer to the floor, enough so that he could bring the bar closer to himself.

There - he could utilise his entire body with some strength to raise the bar up and onto its metal carcass, and Akira would let go as well. The noises didn't stop either: but the nineteen year old couldn't give in to the noise around him, shaking it off quickly. There was still a round of applause - not for Akira himself, but for the man who'd still yet managed to lift more than he'd ever done before.

"Ay' ya gawt me there. appreciate' it." The huge guy would have walked over to Akira, giving him a handshake. "You're welcome." Akira smiled at him, but that meant they could go their separate ways for the time being.

---

237

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

Akira went back to his own gym-ing, lifting weights and stuff. By this point, though, people were asking him for help in other areas, for his smaller frame being able to hoist the same amount of weight as the big man. Of course, shortly after Akira took his leave. Perhaps it was time to graduate from a Gym as he had once before and back into the wild, with the raw materials. It had been a certain point as he'd become a Chuunin - the regular and sometimes manmade things wouldn't cut it and Akira had resorted to more wild methods of training. It was what he had always been used to. But - the places he went to required him to go to much further in the mountains... where he'd used chakra to get there.

Obviously, Akira wasn't going to do that - but at the same time, climbing to the same old places he'd used without chakra, ascending, training and then descending safely would be an issue. He'd need to work around that. It was... difficult.

But in life things were rarely easy, and the important things even more so. He had people to count on, and people who counted on him as well. In the scheme of things, working his strength was less required of people who weren't actually Shinobi, but each day Akira still found himself at work, in a familiar pace that was required in the rigor of a Shinobi. You couldn't quite take the military out of the man.

---

252

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

The man finally found himself a compromise about a day later in searching when he'd recalled an area not used very much, and in the idea of keeping his training more lax and casual (and away from the prying eyes of others) would intentionally wait till midnight to make his way up to a training ground.

It was much colder too at this point in the winter that even with him having dressed so warmly, his fingers and feet and calves were feeling the cold at their extremities. Every breath he took revealed him further by the white clouds of vapor pouring from his mouth, but even still he had come up here with the specific intent of a reason.

And he did find exactly what he was looking for, hands in pockets, staring at a dark mass that in the daylight would have been brown and grey and all sorts of hard in front of him.

"Oh man..." Akira stood before it, a simple enough boulder been created by a Ninja likely earlier in the day that hadn't been cleaned up. The idea of pulling off his gloves would not be a fun one but it was going to aid him in his conditioning, and facing extremes whether of weather or of violence.

Begrudgingly, he pulled off his gloves.

---

220

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

He placed his hands over the cold rock, wincing at it: the cold was not kind nor polite to him in this weather, and he began to feel it out: it was wet. Slippery, mostly cold but not exactly iced over- he could see its rough enough shape in order to have chosen it.

This was just a test of strength at this point. He'd spent enough time mastering the gym in order to get out here. 'This is necessary.' Though his mind definitely wanted to be curled up by a fire and/or by Yoko, she was busy at work today so even if that were an option, it wasn't an option. So instead, he was out here in the cold.

For now he actually needed a more accurate measure of how strong he was. But that would be the later point of the exercise - instead he was feeling up the different parts of the rock as awful as that had initially sounded: his main exercise was to summarise the objective in mind.

Stepping back, walking around it - and the roll of his shoulders and shake of his head, reminding himself the purpose of being outside and why it mattered meant that the man would charge at the object: lo and behold his body crashed against it and it began to move. Not by much, slowing to a stop quite quickly.

"Well. That's not bad..." He murmured to himself.

---

240

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

It didn't stop there, because it was lifting it next. Which as you could expect of a recently minted civilian, was proving to be quite difficult. Having a great conducive strength didn't completely translate to a static one, and though he could run into it and roll it over, didn't help in picking it up. Its shape, unlike metals were un-uniformed - all over the place. It made picking something up like it (and without chakra) so much more difficult.

On the bright side, the cold winter winds made for a harsh partner - the movement was warming him up. Slightly. It would be necessary to prevent him from getting frostbite and subsequently finding himself in a hospital if he didn't just completely succumb to the cold in the mountains. He just needed to keep it up. It wasn't just a job that could be completed from a single attack: he hadn't needed to leave the Gym just because it was what he felt like doing, but his body was losing out on the ability to grow from weights that no longer challenged him.

Something more dynamic, harder: uneven. This was more his style, rounding out his body than more in just the key muscle groups. The man's body was already in very good condition, he just wanted to be able to back that up. That single night spent out there completing different exercises with the new, untalking training partner went by quickly. Quickly because Akira quickly abandoned it in the dropping temperatures.

---

251

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

The second, third and fourth nights after each day when Akira returned to the same place, he was getting headway. That was the easiest way to put it, because he was learning. Before, Akira had seldom made use of his body but without Genjutsu and the weaponry to support him, he had felt it best to be strong by his own body.

It had become clear through that time that while the Gym had become enough for Akira to graduate from, the object was still very difficult to move. Akira could easily rip parts from it, and could move it with movement - there was weight and power behind his strikes consisting of speed and strength. But by itself, his raw strength seemed to be lacking. And so: that's where more ingenuity had come into handy. With a spool of rope, had managed to find a spot above it where he could hoist the rope. Several bounds later - with the boulder looking more like a desired object for transportation, was now ready to be lift by two thick, strings of rope - tightly wound together by Akira himself.

But... it made it more difficult in certain aspects because without something like a tree, or a well placed crevice - the boulder was pulling against and causing friction against the wall itself, making it even harder. But, that was the cost of training.

So his workouts consisted of using different muscle groups in hoisting the boulder into the air, and lifting it from the group using that pulley sort of system. Biceps, back: and it was all worth it because he was amassing a sort of drawing in the floor from his respective movements. He could only keep this up for a little while at a time, as that strength was still going.

---

299

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

"cam'an ya wuss!" He was being shouted at, by another one of his fellow cohorts. Another Okada - Akira's fighting partner for the night and for their show, which: was its own sort of fun, on top of the physical training duties, he had become a source of entertainment for others. When you began to ignore the noise, it was actually more fun than one could give credit for. It was an art form, although he could say he wasn't the best at said art form...

The man stopped, adjusting his own ... tight pants. "Pathetic work, kid. You do better than this." he'd been standing while Akira was still staring at the ceiling, gathering his energy again. In truth, Akira's body was feeling ragged. The multiple days of physical training for his work, and then retruning after dark to a different kind of battlefield in the cold was making Akira feel all types of awkward in his body. "Sumimasen! [lit: sorry]" Akira would bow courteously.

The constant days of stress against his body were mounting against him. The rest period would be much longer and for the next week, Akira didn't revisit the area. The rest of the time had been spent equally with family and doing another assortment of things that needed to be done from his own home. Instead just focusing on other things, until such a time that it was a bit easier on his body and he was revitalised. That, and dealing with the mental aspect of going out during such bad weather.

---

256

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

"Come.... on..." Similar to his grunts a few days earlier, his endurance of will would hopefully be the becoming of him this time, his hands held the rock mercilessly - a grip he had accrued by his training with the Okada and his own study in Judo.

The difference between today and the other days is that while he'd been training his strength now he was trying to test it. If this excess work had been paying off, the extra workload in his mind was trying to return to the space he'd been before as a Jinchuuriki, able to train heavily for most of the day.

There was nothing: to the onlooker, it looked like Akira was just trying to hold a boulder: a more trained eye would see the jitter of his muscles working overtime. At the very bottom of said boulder, it was moving lightly leaving a trail of grit and inches of deeper earth than the space around it. Akira was trying to rip the boulder in half.

His hands were freezing - face and nose were numb by this point, his core on the other hand was more than warm. The silent determination was the most roaring aspect of this as he worked through the night. It was of no concern that moving at speed, his strength was strong enough to damage this object: but his static strength. That was just.. the natural stuff. And that wouldn't come easy.

---

241

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

It was becoming a race of whether nature or will would give out: he didn't feel any closer to his provided goal. A battle for the ages, except there was little danger to the rock as it was never alive and more danger to Akira for being outside at this time - so high, and so cold.

And yet in those facts it didn't stop Akira any more from in the passing minutes to rip it apart, minutes passing of his body depleting its own endurance. He could do this - he knew he could. The cold had numbed his hands to where now they felt like mittens. A sign of his mind that he needed to stop, get warm. So Akira would - unfortunately. Nature won this time.

He shivered away in the noise of wind, the man put his hands in his jacket pocket and began to move: just doing simple exercises. Squats (again, hands in pockets) or jumping on the spot. Anything to warm his body up.

The sign of his work though was becoming apparent: the rock now had two hand shaped imprints from his continued barrage of attack. The man called it there. He would begin again- tomorrow- in the daylight. That night, Akira was feeling sorry for himself. A human emotion, of course. Frustrated at himself, wanting to push more than every before.

---

226

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

As expected, the day was much warmer although his position felt a little more compromised in the light and at least being in view of other people. But, Akira overestimated the importance he held with other people going about their own daily business. He would be happily ignored in favour of their own agendas.

Akira stretched, did some warming up - using his own body. Now, it felt a little bit like before: doing pull ups and his body scarcely winced at the thought of lifting his own body weight. Getting so much better at it than before. Not quite annoyed but determined to take on the task in front of him. Other people could do it: why not him?

This was sheer force of will in action. His body stood before, and he placed his hands on the rock, two imprints now so clearly visible from his actions, it stood bigger than him. Only for today, so he thought. Though - he was so wrapped in the doing, that he was forgetting about the why of the action. It was just out of sight in his conscious brain, about the reasoning for doing such - so, he placed himself into a stance of one foot forward, hands forming a triangle. Akira closed his eyes, feeling at the earth- preparing himself. Rather than throwing himself into it at a hundred percent, Akira would ramp it up over the course of some twenty seconds. He could pick it up, he could move it: he just needed to be stronger.

---

255

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

And the rustle of friction between his hands and the rock would do nothing: he kept at it, his muscles straining underneath the more powerful being of mass, his arms and fingers were beginning to tingle as his grip threatened to leave his hands on the rock where his wrists would go in a completely different direction. It had been a while and this fight wasn't going to finish any time soon.

It was doing something, in that marks were being made from his hands being in the same place, a series of noises was being made, the peeling of rock between his hands that he could see directly in front of him, the very outside of the boulder was giving way. But, the slowness of this was fruitful - at once, there was little going on. The next second, hell seemed to break loose (figuratively speaking).

It had stood resolute as a frame: and dispersed into different directions all at once as Akira was able to crack through it: kicking up all kinds of dirt and dust as they fell in two main directions. In Akira's hands, two rocks held in his hands from being ripped off the main body of the beast.

He would bring his hands closer to himself and push the two rocks together, and pushed: they would crumble between his hands, and into dust - he would let of the rest of the fragments, rocks falling between his fingers and dust remaining.

---

245

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

Staring at the dust in his hads falling between his fingers - didn't really bring him satisfaction in being considerably strong again. Or closer to it. It reminded Akira instead of the helplessness that he'd thought he was. Instead it gave him some great pause, for the looming concerns it brought.

Ultimately, Akira wanted to do better in this life than in the previous and it began with inner strength. In fact, the man stood there, brushing himself off - standing in front of the mess he'd created and not being able to correctly enunciate his thoughts and feelings at the time.

The issue became was how Akira would apply that strength. Of course, up until now he'd done all of it just so he himself could feel a bit more like his former self in a better frame of mind. Now Akira wasn't so sure. He needed to be strong for other people - for Yoko's sake, he was a target in this day and age.

Akira wanted to be an icon of peace, of strength. To offer people a second chance and to protect people, which required him to take a certain measure of it. No, this was going to be something that require more than just a single thought: he would need to take time and reflect with his God.

But, the power was there, that was for certain...

So everything he'd done up until now was only a preparation for the real battle. There was strength in his body, but he needed to learn how he wanted to use it. How it needed to be used.

---

267

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

On his balcony and overlooking a larger portion of Iwagakure no Sato, Akira sat on a Zaisu, staring out: even in a blanket, ignoring the cold winds and quite warm underneath his clothing and positioning - open to a good view of the world as he reflected.

The man had already taken time from his day to pray, feeling more virtuous than before in the day, to his left, a coffee table low to the floor for a pot of tea quickly growing colder by the minute, but for now, wisps of steam rose from both the cup and the kettle.

And externally not a lot was going on. Ocassionally, an arm would emerge from the little cocoon to enjoy a sip of matcha tea. But otherwise nothing else. Internally was a different story, his mind focused on this-is' and that's- going into so many different directions that he'd managed to begin to organise into thoughts here and there. Everything was getting tagged and put into order.

One of the things he needed to achieve was a harmony and unity between his thoughts and feelings, and that of Jihi's ideology. It was a straining exercise, given that there was nobody to tell him logically whether what he was doing was right or wrong. It was all up to him. Naturally, this brought a lot of issues in the legitimacy of his desires.

---

231

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Deleted]

One of those former desires rose again. He could become the Tsuchikage. The last time he'd thought of that, he'd been executed. Not for those reasons, but because of a view of the people around him, which had been seeing a shift (in his mind) to be much more neutral if not slightly positive. He had been regarded as a powerful Ninja, but he was no longer a ninja.

Fewer people also knew that he was not at the strength he had been, though it felt implied when he was no longer the Jinchuuriki of Iwagakure. Perhaps some level of dishonor to him? Akira wouldn't - or couldn't tell.

Would that have really mattered, because people could hopefully judge him on who he was now, as opposed to back then. The logistics of that desire was much harder. It would require input from other people, to do better.

The reward would've been... greater. Harder, but worth it. The ability to shape the world and somewhat vicariously through Jihi. That would have been able to apply his strength for the better.

A hand would rise to his brow, sighing - so many different things being raised in his mind in a for and against scenario. The difficulties, the threats. Whether it agreed with his own thoughts - whether it was probable or even if it was something he should strive for. Would it agree with him? Family? Friends? Yoko?

He couldn't just go into something without having conviction.

---

244

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ