You felt like you were dying.
Your hair was stuck to your forehead and neck from the sweat that accumulated through the sprint that you just did.
Uzui was standing there with his hands on his hips and that (annoying) grin on his face unwavering. "Good, you made it! That means you should be able to handle more!" He was unflinching as you looked up at him with an expression that said it all.
Just after finishing the training with Tsuyuri and the girls of the Butterfly estate, Uzui just decides to come by and scoop you up out of nowhere, only to stop at the side of a road telling you to follow him as he sprinted off. He should be happy that you didn't lose him before the sun had set. You gave yourself a once over as you were hunched over, it as if someone landed a heavy punch to your gut and your clothes were disarrayed.
Your lungs and legs were burning from pushing yourself. They felt like lead as refused to move when you tried to take even the smallest step forward. There was no way that if you had only been jogging would you have been able to keep him in your line of sight. It had left you no choice but to run, and then your running turned into a flat out sprint when you saw the trees' shadows getting larger.
It was by some miracle that you were able to catch up with Uzui just as he was beginning to slow down.
"You..." You practically croaked the words out with how try your throat was feeling. "You think I can handle more?" Was that a good thing? It had to be, there would be no other way that you can see yourself getting stronger unless you trained under him.
Wheezing could be heard, as you turned, you see the Kakushi that worked under Kocho finally in sight and reaching where the two of you were. You eyebrows shot up at the sight of them, you thought they'd be... well in better shape than you were seeing as you had a lot of serious bodily injuries just a few weeks ago.
A grin replaced your smile as the Kakushi approached you with a bag in their hands. "For you, from Kocho-sama." Gratefully bowing and taking the bag in your hand, you thanked them before watching them slump over in exhaustion.
Uzui laughed at their state making sure to point them out to you "See what I mean? You're not on the ground like they are after following me. Such flamboyant determination shows that you'll be able to handle what I throw at you!" It wasn't his laughter, but the words he said that sent a cold sweat down the side of your face.
What he throws at me?!
There was no way that you're going to survive this. Would it have been better if you had stayed back at the Butterfly Estate?
You were thankful that Uzui didn't immediately go into training mode. As the sun had set, you followed him into his residence. "Right now you need some rest! And then we start your training first thing in the morning!"
Following him through the doorway, you weren't surprised to see the size of the estate. He was the same ranking as Kocho. However, since it was just Uzui, it seemed to be a bit too big for just one person. Your thoughts trailed off as Uzui called you over to what seemed to be his kitchen.
His kitchen was surprisingly neat (not that you thought it was going to be messy,) and the amount of food he was pulling out of the pantry had your eyes going wide. "You're going to cook?"
More rambunctious laughter escaped Uzui as he glanced at you from his peripherals. "Of course! To train and gain the proper muscles, you must learn to have a proper diet. That being said, it would be best for you to have something to eat now to reenergize for tomorrow's training." Hearing the word training furrowed your brows as it served as a reminder to your aching muscles. You had been dragging your feet while following Uzui around. Your legs felt almost numb from all the running you had done. You were surprised that your right leg hadn't acted up at all.
With that, you were sent back to sit in an adjacent room that you dubbed the dining/living room. There were cushions in the corner for guests to take, and a nice low table in the center of the room. Grabbing one for yourself, you almost fell asleep as soon as you had sat down.
Sitting down at the table, with the sounds of Uzui cooking and the comfort of the soft cushion under you, you were struggling to keep your eyes open. It took you by surprise as your eyes snapped open at the sound of a dish being placed in front of you, snapping you out of the nap you had unknowingly fell into.
"I'm awake!"
Uzui chuckled at your words. "I never asked if you were asleep."
Red blossomed on your face as you picked up the chopsticks. Looking at the meal, it was a simple stir-fry, but it was heaped into the bowl that Uzui gave you. You couldn't help but side eye him as he sat down across from you to eat his own serving. Deciding not to ask about it you dug in.
"Thank you for the meal!"
You almost choked on the first bite from the stare Uzui was giving you. A glint in his eyes as he waited. Did he do something to the food? You had to clear your throat with the tea (he had also provided.) "What?"
"How is it?" Was... Was Uzui worried about the taste of the food he cooked?
You looked back down at the bowl, taking another bite of it. It wasn't bad, but wasn't like the most amazing tasting food you ever had. Something that you would be able to eat every day while training with Uzui without a complaint. "It's good!" Your words brought an almost unrecognizable smile to his face as you looked away to eat some more (you didn't realize how hungry you were until you had that second bite.)
The two of you ate the rest of the food in a comfortable silence. As you (surprisingly) finished all of the food, Uzui took the dishes to wash them quickly. He then guided you down a hallway, pointing out his room before stopping at the guest room. "Alright (Y/N)! I'll be seeing you bright and early tomorrow morning to start training!"
Standing there, watching as Uzui entered his room, you contemplated about how much sleep you would actually get. However, as soon as you changed into one of the clean Gi that Kocho must have put into your bag (along with your sweats,) you were out in an instant.
~~~~~
It felt as if you had only blinked, that you didn't sleep at all. No dreams had accompanied you that night, and you awoke to Uzui's bursting into your room as a means of waking you up.
"(Y/N)! Time to get moving!"
Holding back a groan, you got up and got ready for the day of training.
Breakfast went by in a blur, your mind was preoccupied with what Uzui was going to be throwing at you as soon as you stepped out of this place.
Since you already changed into the other Gi that was provided in your bag, there wasn't anything else to hold you back from starting your training. You had to psych yourself up as you stood before Uzui. His usual happy face now stern as he looked down at you.
"No time as flamboyant as the present! We begin your training now."
The first step was easy enough to understand, stamina.
Uzui had you running laps around the training ground he had at his estate. Not once did he tell you how many laps you had to do, you lost count after the 10th. Keeping yourself from losing your mind as you could feel your legs begging to stop, you spaced out looking at what else he had laying around outside.
There were 4 training dummies that you knew had seen better days. You lapped around them on your run enough times to see how torn and scorched they were. Uzui is basically a ninja so it's not surprising to see how battered these are. As you crossed in front of the building (the dummies were set directly across from the estate,) you finally noticed the weapon rack. It was filled with many wooden swords. Some were short, others long, single sided and double bladed.
Does that mean he'll teach you how to wield a sword?
You were stopped as Uzui waved you down. "Here, have some water." The cup was emptied as soon as you had taken it from him. The water soothing your dry throat.
The next step was strength and core growth.
"Now that you're warmed up, let's start the exercises!"
Horror.
"You're kidding me?!"
It was to your horror that Uzui was not joking at all (Every morning after he would make you do a slow increase of the agonizing of laps to work on your stamina.)
His grin was nothing short of malicious as he shoved something into your hands. The weight of it dragging you down to the ground. After shaking yourself out of the sudden stupor, you looked to see that he handed you a pole. Not just any pole but a shoulder pole* with two buckets filled with water on the very ends of them.
Looking back up at him, Uzui waved his hand at you to hurry and shoulder the pole "I'm going to have you lunge around the field to the river. Dump and refill the buckets, and then do a lap again."
Your heart shattered. More laps?
You placed yourself under the pole in a squat, cause you already knew that you weren't going to be able to pick it up with just your hands. Tightening your core, and pushing up with your legs, you lifted the shoulder pole. The buckets of water swung dangerously, almost tipping you over and knocking you to the ground.
There was definitely no going back now. You had already finished the warm up and were now on to the actual exercise. Steadying yourself, you took a few tentative steps. Hearing Uzui tutting at you from behind got you to grind your teeth.
After letting out a deep breath, you increased your speed. Doing your best to keep the buckets from flipping the water out, you didn't have any option of walking a straight line to the river. Your steps all over the place as you did your best to balance it all on your shoulders.
By the time you finally reached the river, you could have filled one of the buckets with your sweat alone. You were able to relieve your shoulders as you dumped the water out. Only to have your legs cramp up on you as you bent down to refill them. You legs failed you and you almost fell face first into the river if Uzui wasn't there to catch you from the back of your Gi. "Careful there, that wouldn't have been such a flamboyant dive from you." His voice was stern, and you knew that he was right.
The one lap you had taken to get there was enough to take your legs out of commission for at least half of the day.
Uzui pulled you up and away from both the river and the shoulder pole. "Let's do some stretches before we move on to the next part."
Sweat was still running down your back as you followed Uzui's stretches, copying each of his movement the best you could without collapsing. It was different from when you were doing the stretching exercise with the girls of the Butterfly Estate. Back there, the stretching would have been the first thing you did as a way to help warm your body up.
Now the stretching, though with the same implications, was a lot harder to do when your muscles were already aching and threatening to spasm at any moment.
After a few more stretches, Uzui motioned you back to the shoulder pole. The buckets were only filled up to the halfway point this time, and you watched as Uzui picked it up with one hand to place it in both of yours. "Raise your arms."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Raise your arms."
Baffled, you essentially did a standing shoulder press* You eyes lit up at the familiarity of the exercise and dropped the shoulder pole. "Uzui! It would be much better if I used something like..." You tried hard to think of something that would be just like dumbbells. If Uzui was going to train you, you were going to at least make sure you weren't going to cripple your body in doing so.
You pulled the buckets of water off of the shoulder pole, holding them individually in both your hands. You repeated the movement he wanted you to do. You could see his eyes light up in understanding. He motioned you to continue what you were doing as he made his way to the weapon rack.
Your shoulders and chest were beginning to burn just as much as your legs had by the time Uzui returned.
In his hands was what looked like a plate* made of stone. "Lie down."
Both your fear and anxiety for the next exercise peaked with the idea of knowing what you were going to do next.
After laying down, Uzui hands you the plate. The weight of it knocking the air out of you as you struggled you lift it off of you to breath. Holding the plate on opposite ends, Uzui motions to you to lift your feet, legs, and back from the ground. Leaving you to balance yourself on your butt.
Oh, you did know what this was, and how fast you know your core and arms are going to give out on you. With a grimace, you proceed to do a Russian twist.* After a few reps, and seeing that your hovering feet were swaying, Uzui moves himself to place your feet flat on the ground. Your legs were still bent, and your upper body was hovering at an angle you were struggling to maintain. But as Uzui sat himself in front of you, taking hold on your feet to secure them to the ground, you found it a lot easier to complete the next few reps.
Still, as you were sure you were going to drop the position and bang your head on the ground Uzui told you to stop. Carefully taking the weight from you and helping you up to your feet, Uzui went to put the plate away and you couldn't help but blank out.
You mind was practically as numb as the rest of your body at that point. You didn't even snap out of it until you felt yourself being sat down back inside Uzui's estate.
"It's time for lunch."
Your face went pale at the thought of just lifting your aching arm to eat.
Uzui only laughed at you as he placed lunch in front of you. The tears were welling up in your eyes as you struggled to get the food from the bowl to your mouth.
The rest of lunch went by in a blur of tears, pain and laughter (thanks to Uzui.)
As the food was happily being digested in your stomach, you found yourself back outside. This time standing by the weapons rack.
"Now! Before we get into any real weapons, we will be working on your form!" You blinked blankly at him. Some of the words still flying over year head.
"We're going to work on some basic forms before you even touch any of the weapons here." Uzui repeated himself.
That made it much clearer and was a better explanation as he handed you a wooden sword.
Katanas were a lot bigger than you thought they were. Even though it was wooden, it felt heavy in your hands as you struggled to keep it from hitting the ground. It was almost double the length of your height.
Although your whole body was still recovering from all the earlier exercise, you shouldn't help but smile. This was the most progress you've made in one day. It felt different than when you made progress in your recovery.
Thinking about that, you looked down at your legs. Aside from the numbness of working them out. You weren't feeling any of that pain from when you were back at the Butterfly estate.
You didn't have time to move out of the way from Uzui's foot as he kicked you. You keeled over onto the ground. "Keep your focus forwards and not on your feet!" There was no extra time given to you as Uzui burned holes into your head as he stared at you, forcing yourself up from the ground and taking a stance once more.
Uzui walked around you, using another wooden sword to tap you where your form was wrong. Every time you adjusted it, you'd either get kicked to the ground again or a hearty laugh from the guy. By the time he was satisfied with your stance, the sun was on the horizon ready to set.
"Good job today Y/N!" You could only give Uzui a weak smile as you followed him inside. You could only grunt in reply, flopping face down into the room.
Once again, Uzui had woken you up from the small nap you were taking as he sat down the dishes of food he made. "Thank you for the food!" The smell of the food really woke you up, and you couldn't help yourself from stuffing your face. Uzui laughing all the wile as you did so.
There was no way you weren't going to get a good night's sleep after all that exercise and food.
*A shoulder pole, or a milkmaid's yoke, is a carrying pole/yoke of wood or bamboo, used to carry a load. By load it could be buckets of water, vegetables, clothes etc...
*shoulder press, is an exercise that is normally done with dumbbells. To execute the exercise you hold the dumbbells by your shoulders with your palms facing forwards and your elbows out to the sides and bent as a 90° angle. Without leaning back, extend through your elbows to press the weights above your head. Then slowly return to the starting position.
*A plate, when it comes to exercising, is made of cast iron and normally weighs about 45lbs (or 20.41kgs.)
* Russian Twist, is also known as the seated oblique twist exercise. It targets your abs and obliques. The only thing you need is a medicine ball, or a weight you can easily hold in your hands. To execute this exercise; you must sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor (easier) or raised up off the floor (more difficult.) If you have difficulty holding the position and your feet shift about, try tucking them beneath a stable object. Contract your abs and sit at about a 45-degree angle. Hold the medicine ball (or chosen weight) with both hands, directly in front of you. Contracting your abs, twist slowly from your torso to your right and touch the medicine ball (or chosen weight) to the floor beside you. Pause and hold the position a moment. Quickly, but smoothly, contract your abs and twist your torso back to the center position, and then proceed on to touch the medicine ball (or chosen weight) to the floor on the other side of you. Repeat for the desired number of reps. to end, bring the ball (or weight) to the front of your body and sit up. Carefully place the ball (or weight) on the ground without undue twisting.