Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this.

I stared at the target board. All of my kunai and shuriken had at least hit the target, which I suppose was a good thing. It was certainly an improvement from before. But the weapons that I had thrown had only hit the target about halfway from the centre. It was… okay, I suppose. Most children my age hadn't even begun to train yet.

But accurate-ish was weak. I was weak and I would die.

It was insufficient.

The other things that I trained with were taijutsu, chakra control, and sensing. Ninjutsu was out, as the small, child-sized chakra reserves that I had at the moment were insufficient for performing most jutsu

Taijutsu was going much the same as shurikenjutsu had been going. My physical fighting was okay- good, even, for my age, but it was still insufficient. I was not satisfied with how my training with both taijutsu and shurikenjutsu had been going.

One of the only places where I excelled was in chakra control. I took to chakra control exercises very quickly. Leaf sticking and tree walking were already accomplished. Water walking proved to be slightly more difficult than the other two, but it was coming along nicely. I would have to make up some new chakra control exercises at this rate.

Sensing was another area that I felt that I was somewhat skilled in. Most ninja of the Yamanaka clan were classified as sensor-nin, as the majority of us were sensitive to chakra to some degree. I was happy to say that my chakra sensing abilities were just fine, even if they only produced vague shadows at this point.

It was unfortunate that sensing and high levels of chakra control would not help me very much in the Academy. Sensing could perhaps aid me in taijutsu spars, being able to see what all of my opponents were doing without even looking. But it would only be applicable if I could get it to a level where I could, first of all, see things with that much accuracy, and second of all, get my sensing skill to the point where I could do it passively, without having to concentrate for long periods of time.

Chakra control, similarly, wouldn't aid me in the Academy. The only jutsu learned in the Academy were the basic three, which I was confident I could do with my current level of chakra control. That was really all you needed in terms of jutsu, so while chakra control would undoubtedly help me in the field, it was not useful at the moment, or even in the near future.

I had pried all of the techniques that I was practising off of various ninja from the clan using a combination of begging and whining. Not that there was a very large difference between the two. After obtaining them, I had thrown myself into practise with vigour. Clearly, it didn't make that much of a difference.

I would have to try harder.

The sun was just beginning to set, and my body had long since begun to tire. But I refused to leave the training field just yet.

There was still more training to be done.

I would return home well past midnight.

This cycle of near obsessive training continued for quite some time. Even with the added vitality that chakra appeared to grant, I began to grow tired. My exhaustion was very apparent. Dark circles that should never be present on a child's face appeared on mine. I took any and all opportunities to cram in extra time to sleep.

Intense, pupiless yellow eyes blinked lethargically in the mirror.

They narrowed and hardened.

I would not stop. I would not rest, even for a single day.

Weakness was a disease. One that had to be terminated.

The only way to be rid of such a disease was to train until one was strong. Strength meant that one would survive. Strength was everything, and weakness was nothing.

I walked out to the kitchen to prepare some tea. I prepared tea less for the taste and more for the energising effects. The caffeine content of tea, or at least the particular variety of tea that I was drinking at the moment, was rather low. However, my younger brain was more sensitive to the stimulating effects of the tea.

As a child, intaking too much caffeine was unhealthy. However, the low caffeine content of tea to begin with, coupled with my low consumption of it made it more or less okay.

I sipped from my cup, feeling the hot liquid run down my throat.

I opened the door and stepped into the cool night.

Training Ground Thirty-two would serve well tonight, I think.

I paused in my throwing of weapons, just for a second, to marvel at my accomplishment.

A kunai was buried dead in the centre of the target board.

Bullseye.

This was the first bullseye that I had ever hit on any target. Over the last few weeks of training, my weapons had found themselves closer and closer to the middle of the board.

My labour had borne fruit.

But the distance between the spot from which I was throwing weapons and the target was rather meagre. It was hardly a fraction of the distance that I would eventually be expected to throw from. And the target was a static one. Moving targets would be far more difficult to hit.

But it was progress, and it was visible progress.

I stepped backwards a sizable distance and threw another kunai.

The increased distance resulted in an increased level of difficulty, and I watched as the shard of metal failed to even glance the target.

Scowling, a tried again.

And again.

And again.

"Chisei, how about you… tone it down… with the training? Please?"

"Hm?," I drowsily raised my head from my arms, blinking sluggishly.

"I asked if you could… well, take it easy?"

Ah. I knew where this was coming from. As a Yamanaka, I interacted with the Nara and Akimichi clan often at joint gatherings.

Even though I attended those gatherings physically, I wasn't exactly invested in them. I chose to try to squeeze some extra sleep in instead. If I were a Nara, this sort of behaviour would be easily dismissed, but I wasn't.

Sleeping during joint gatherings, coupled with my generally exhausted appearance made some people suspicious. Suspicious to the point where people began to question if I had some sort of issue, or if I was being treated well. That sort of thing.

I gave a weary, plain smile, "Sure, mother."

Perhaps I would only stay out a hour after midnight.

…

One and a half.

…

Okay, two, and that's it.

Guest: I'm surprised that people actually look into the titles. Cookies to you! 'Mentium' is the genitive plural form of the Latin word 'mens,' which means mind or intellect. Therefore, 'mentium' means 'of the minds.' I didn't actually know that mentium was a gun mod, so sorry for any confusion