As far as expectations went, the first few months of genin life were underwhelming. On our initiation day, we all met up in our homeroom and people vanished in groups of three when the different teachers arrived to whisk away their new charges. I expected Asuma would have some kind of trial lined up for us to see if we were cut out for shinobi life, but I should’ve known better.

He shrugged and told us to meet up at the Academy’s front gate in the afternoon only to take us out to eat some barbeque—not that I didn’t like it. The days following were slightly better. We met up at 8 AM for morning training on weekdays where Asuma would dedicate the majority of his focus to Choji and Hinata.

Meanwhile, I either focused on keeping my taijutsu sharp, training my chakra control, or trying to master the few jutsu I knew. Wind Release: Frequency Disruption was the most versatile jutsu I had. It used air pressure to screw with sound waves and depending on how much chakra I used, I could obscure more than just the sounds I was making.

Asuma was pretty up-front about our team’s purpose and even though we weren’t a stealth team, with Frequency Disruption and Hinata’s Byakugan, we’d be able to sneak up on targets with ease. Today, our teacher had gone against the grain by instructing us to gather at the village’s North Gate at six in the morning. He didn’t tell us what for, but before anyone could ask, Maito Gai and his team appeared.

Introductions apparently didn’t exist because the minute the man saw us, he threw out what was meant to be a motivational speech and took off running.

“How the hell am I supposed to run towards my youth?” I frowned. “Surely running forward means you’re getting… old?”

Asuma laughed. “Don’t try to think about it, just run.”

I tried to figure it out for a few moments longer but gave up and chased after the pack. Gai’s continued and fervent encouragement drifted from some unknown distance ahead. The remaining seven of us trailed after him at various paces. Lee was doing his best to stay within arm’s length and failing, though he was a sizeable distance ahead of Tenten and Neji, who ran at a constant but enduring pace.

And then there was us.

Choji and I ran side by side and our breathing remained even as the run approached the twentieth minute. Our teacher, meanwhile, made a show of running at our pace to watch us suffer Gai’s supposedly light morning runs.

I looked to my right where Hinata soldiered on, red-faced. Her pace was by no means slow and her stamina was superior to the vast majority of fresh genin but she was the most unconditioned out of everyone here. Choji and I had been going on regular runs for about two years and even he wasn’t having the best time.

In comparison, Team 3 had suffered their teacher’s training regimen since last year—and the two jonin were… well, they were jonin. At the pace we were running, we’d reach the western gates in another twenty minutes and still, Team 3 showed no signs of stopping.

“Why,” I huffed, looking back at Asuma, “in the world would you subject us to Maito Gai’s insane training in the first few months of our careers?”

Asuma snorted. “How do you know about him anyway?”

I shrugged. “What’s with his mini-me? Because last I checked, he didn’t have any kids.”

He chuckled a little, inclining his head in agreement.

“H-How long’s left?” Hinata gulped down a breath. “Because… this is a bit much.”

I grimaced sympathetically for the girl. I’d slaved away for three years and was a freak of nature to begin with but Choji and Hinata hadn’t trained at Team 3’s pace before. Then again, neither had I, but almost all of the training I liked to do was constructed with my inhumanely stupid recovery in mind and I had a lot of energy to begin with.

My two friends… not so much, but the run continued anyway—I pulled ahead, edging closer to Neji and Tenten while the gap between my team and me widened. Asuma remained at the very back, padding behind Hinata and Choji, which was reassurance enough to press on.

I got close enough that my footsteps registered in the two’s ears, though Tenten was the first to turn. She filled out a grey vest and her arms were corded with a surprising amount of muscle. The veins standing out on her forearms were evidence enough of the rumours I’d heard about an upperclassman who’d wield a different weapon every day of the week and still thrash their class.

“Didn’t expect you to be able to keep up,” she said, her brown eyes looking me over appraisingly. “Were you the Rookie of the Year or something?”

Neji sniffed without looking back. “No, that was Sasuke Uchiha.”

“Ah. You must be the Runner-up then. What's your name?”

“Naruto Uzumaki,” I supplied. “And you two?”

“I’m Tenten. The guy next to me is Neji Hyuuga—which you’d probably figure out if he turned around, but he’s shy like that.” She snorted when Neji gave a protesting grunt—though he continued looking straight ahead. “That’s enough chat for now. We’ll see if you can keep up until the end of the warm-up.”

Accepting the dismissal for what it was, I brought my focus back to the run, squinting at the distance to see how far ahead of us Gai was. Somehow, his encouragement came at us loud and clear.

“THAT’S IT, EVERYONE! KEEP AT IT!”

Upping the pace with snort, I veered around Tenten and Neji, the former warning me not to overdo it. I chuckled as the distance between me and Lee shortened with each stride. Even if I did overdo it, I’d be as right as rain tomorrow morning. When I was within arm’s reach, I tapped his shoulder.

“You have been training hard, Neji,” said Lee, not looking over his shoulder. He turned around and almost jumped away but regained his composure quickly. “...You’re more impressive than I’ve heard, Naruto Uzumaki.”

“And what have you heard?” I asked

“That you lost the Rookie of the Year position to Sasuke Uchiha.” Lee’s eyes were intense before his face broke out into a grin. “But the Academy is not all-knowing, right?”

“Right on.” I smiled back and we shared an amused silence. “What’s your name, friend?”

He grinned and stuck out his thumb. “I am Rock Lee.”

“Good to meet you. You already know my name, so there’s no point in introducing myself. Instead, how about we have ourselves a wager? Whoever catches up to your teacher has to do an extra set of whatever exercise he makes us do.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Deal,” he said with a smile. “I’m quite confident in my physical ability, you know.”

Grinning, I counted us down, taking a lungful of air before blasting off. I was expecting him to be slower but he was slightly ahead of me, his long strides taking him further than mine could.

Maybe he hadn’t started training for the Eight Inner Gates yet.

I kept up and we continued sprinting after Maito Gai in the distance. He led us out of the village, turning right to come off the beaten path straight ahead from the gate and we hugged the side of the village’s outer walls, padding through the tall grass. Green-vested chunin patrolled from above, their idle chatter drifting to the grass below.

Gai raised an arm to the sky. “Morning all!”

They laughed together, one shouting back, “Are you training your genin again, Gai? If so, you might want to look back before these two get lost in the grass.”

His friends laughed and Gai turned back, his thick eyebrow disappearing into his bowl cut.

A challenging smirk crawled onto his face and he upped the pace. Lee and I abandoned all attempts to conserve our energy and ran after him as fast as our legs would carry. A few minutes in I could taste blood, my rapid breaths rising above the rustle of grass in my ears, only second to Lee’s encouragement as we came out onto a field.

Gai stood a few metres away, shining with sweat. He fixed a proud grin as Lee and I thudded to a stop before him, panting and heaving. “Well done, boys! I’ll admit, I did not expect you to be on par with Lee, young Naruto.”

I looked and used my shirt to wipe the sweat off my face. “T-That a fact?”

He nodded firmly. “Lee, you also did well. Training harder than last time is a must and so now, we will now do two hundred pushups.”

“Yes, Gai-sensei!” Lee straightened. “You’re welcome to join us, Naruto.”

I stepped back. “...Is that all at once or in sets?”

“All at once, of course,” said Gai. “The pain shall stoke the fires of your youth and elevate you unto greater heights!”

“Uh…” I looked back to see whether everyone else was any closer to arriving. They weren’t so I sighed and assumed the push-up position. “...Alright, let’s do this.”

Tenten and Neji arrived at the twenty push-up mark and joined in after taking a few breaths. Hinata, Choji, and Asuma arrived another twenty pushups later, but the three of them decided to sit under the shade of a tree while I went at it. I didn’t really blame my two friends but Asuma?

“You’re not going all the way down!”

I glared at him and blinked away the sting of sweat from my eyes.

He jutted his chin and lit a cigarette while fighting an amused smile. Thankfully, they joined in once we were done with the pushups, jogging at a relaxed pace behind Gai as he led us to the next spot. This time, we were grouped up together, hanging back a decent distance from Gai to avoid tiring ourselves out.

Tenten was sandwiched between Hinata and Neji, looking pretty uncomfortable. It wasn’t like the two were being hostile to each other or anything, but there was an air of awkwardness between them. What could it be about? Hinata had grown a lot over the past few years, which should have led to a better relationship with Neji… right?

Then again, her not being a pushover would only fuel his destiny schtick. I gave the two a second look and Hinata caught me staring, shaking her head. I sighed and caught up with Choji and Lee.

“Where are we going?” I asked Lee. “These are the shinobi training grounds, right?”

He nodded. “There are several dozens of them behind Hokage Mountain, serving different purposes. The ones closer to the waterfall are mostly for chakra control training but it’s also useful for Water-Release users.”

“What about the one we’re in now?” asked Choji.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Lee grinned and patted his bicep. “Physical training! But there are other grounds too. Like forests with canopies so thick, it’s always dark. We had a week-long survival training a while ago. There were snakes and everything…” He gave a small shudder. “Today, it’s all about physical training.”

“Any sparring?” I asked, slapping a fist against my palm.

“Unfortunately not. Sparring was yesterday and we need to do a D-rank today.”

“Damn. Same here—on the mission count, but we’re probably going to spar in the afternoon.”

Choji groaned.

Lee patted his shoulder. “Don’t be like that, friend. Every spar is a chance to grow.”

“Don’t let him fool you,” I said with a smirk. “He’s plenty strong and has giant fists and everything. If he hits you with a solid one, the fight’s over.”

“So?” Choji twisted his neck and glared. “How am I meant to land anything when you hang back and knock me on my ass all the time?”

“See, that’s when—”

We came to a stop and Gai clapped his hands, spreading out his arms with a wide smile. “We are here!”

I stepped onto the rubber floor, enjoying the way the ground absorbed my weight. Our next training spot was an entire callisthenics gym, equipped with bars… and there were a lot of them—bars for pullups, dips, and ground-level ones for pushups. A set of monkey bars boxed in the rest of the equipment, containing us under a massive rectangle.

“What are we doing here?” I asked. “There any particular routine?”

Gai snapped his fingers. “There is indeed and it goes by the name of circuit training—everyone pick a number.”

Team 3’s responses were lightning-quick.

“Three,” said Tenten.

“Four,” said Neji.

Lee grinned and gave Gai a thumbs-up. “One.”

I looked back at Asuma and he shrugged. “I guess I’ll take two then. Choji?”

“Five.”

Each of the numbers corresponded to a particular exercise and over the next three minutes, we rotated between them, taking a minute of rest after each one. By the end, I was feeling a pleasant burn across my body and my shirt was an entire shade darker. Gai hadn’t declared any real end to the circuit so I assumed we were meant to continue until complete failure.

Choji was the first to go after about twenty-five minutes, followed by Hinata not too long afterwards. Neji was next, lasting barely five minutes after Hinata and he seemed pretty annoyed about it too. Me, Tenten, and Lee were going strong for a long while after them, alternating between the exercises. Eventually, Tenten threw in the towel and I followed after her, seeing no real sense in going until I dropped involuntarily.

Lee, on the other hand, continued until he was barely able to move. Gai pulled several bottles of water from his duffel bag alongside orange sweat towels. He wandered about, ruffling everyone’s hair. No one protested because we were simply too tired to do anything beyond existing.

“Good work today, everyone,” said Gai. “You have a good bunch, Asuma. Feel free to join us in morning training whenever you’d like.”

Lee nodded. “It’s nice to meet new friends.”

“I don’t mind,” said Asuma, smirking at us. “It all depends on what these three say. What do you think about training with Team 3 again?”

Choji gave a feeble-sounding groan, lying down on the warm rubber floor.

Hinata wiped her face. “I… wouldn’t mind but maybe we should wait until we’re stronger?”

Neji snorted, but when we all looked at him, he grunted and refused to say anything.

“What about you, Naruto?” asked Lee. “Would you like to train with us again?”

“Why not?” I ran a hand through my hair. “Choji and I are up at six for my morning run anyway and my team meets at eight so we can swing by. I’ve got a couple of hours to kill so why not?”

“Then join us,” said Gai. “Today was a special occasion because of the joint training but Tenten, Lee, and I go on our morning run at six regardless.”

“What about Neji?”

The ivory-eyed teen looked at me directly for the first time, tilting his head to this side as if he didn’t know what to make of me.

“Neji does not go on the runs, but he trains with us afterwards,” said Lee, placing a hand on my shoulder. “But I look forward to running with you.”

“Likewise.” I tilted my head down and emptied the rest of my bottle over the back of my head. I shook out my hair and Choji recoiled, showing more energy than ever. I laughed. “It’s just a bit of water.”

He huffed and eyed the distance between us warily and after a little rest, we returned to the village and entered the nearest breakfast place. We ate in complete silence for the most part. After a training session like that, there was no room for chatter. The only thing anyone cared about was refuelling. As hungry as I was, I made sure not to overeat, tapping out once I’d had my fill anymore and chasing down my meal with a glass of water.

All in all, my first meeting with Team 3 had gone about as well as it could have and I was looking forward to training with them—even Neji, as sour as he seemed because with the Chunin Exams barely half a year away, training with Gai would always be welcome.