Hey there,

Just wanted to quickly inform you, that I have found a Beta-Reader who has already set to work on the first chapters. I hope this works.

Hope you enjoy the new Chapter,

Ceies

**~/~**

Running Circle

When he left the Hatake Estate Akane was still sleeping. She must have been really tired, so he let her sleep in. Sanae had been in the kitchen looking hungover and miserable. He'd joked a bit with her … to her annoyance more like. She had been summoned for a mission and was altogether disagreeable. Seeing his little sister so miserable in the early morning was admittedly a little rewarding. He didn't mock her too much though, else she'd get a need for revenge and he wouldn't be able to relax in his own house for the next few months.

"You here for dinner tonight?" she asked after him in a hoarse voice. He only waved in acknowledgment.

His team was already waiting on the training ground. Well, Shikaku had fallen asleep on a tree. Sakumo scowled up at him for a moment, until he ran out of patience for the boy to wake up by himself. Really the kid had no shinobi sense. Any shinobi, even tiny little Genin should have realized that they were watched now. So, instead of waiting any longer, Sakumo shunshined onto the same thick branch Shikaku was sprawled over. The wood, no matter how sturdy it looked cracked and wavered with the sudden weight. Shikaku woke up immediately but not fast enough to catch himself before the fall. Half impressed Sakumo thought for a moment the kid had already righted himself mid-air and would deftly land on his feet. Instead, the Nara landed sidelong in the mud, so that Choza laughed loudly and Inoichi crossed his arms disapprovingly.

"Alright," started Sakumo clapping enthusiastically while Shikaku muttered and cursed in the mud. "I we have hardly even two weeks to prepare you for the exams. You keep up with the theoretical knowledge yourself. If you have questions, you can of course ask, but we will focus on your other skills." He clapped again. Heaving Akane back made him cheerier than he usually was, and his students obviously noticed. At last Inoichi looked almost distrustful. "I need you to run a few rounds around the training ground."

The instruction seemed surprising to the children, but they followed it regardless, albeit Shikaku with a bit of a sour face.

"How long do we need to run?" Choza wheezed after about an hour. Shikaku seemed even more exhausted. Inoichi was the only one who kept running quietly.

Sakumo shrugged. He hadn't run with them but trained a few Kata's to get himself back into shape.

"I thought, maybe all day," said Sakumo with a broad smile as Choza stared with wide eyes and Shikaku almost dropped to the ground from shock. "Our last encounters with enemies have shown me one thing. You all have to little stamina." He shrugged. "Choza has the most chakra out of you three, but even his aren't all that big. Inoichi has the best physical stamina, but again, it's not all that special. Inoichi and Shikaku, you two rely too much on your Ninjutsu. But your Ninjutsu needs a lot of chakra, so you constantly run out of it, and then you're completely useless to the rest of the team. Choza you rely heavily on physical strength. That needs a lot of stamina to uphold, which means, while you don't drop from chakra exhaustion most of the time, you keep getting slower and weaker with attack. We can't have that. In short, I'll have you run circles, until your body can't take it anymore. Then I'll have you run even more, so you're forced to use your chakra to propel yourself even further forward." He shrugged with a devious smile. "Maybe if I get too bored, I'll let you make some Jutsu instead to deplete your chakra."

Shikaku seemed horrified. Inoichi too, Sakumo thought, though it was hard to tell, as he stoically kept running his circles. He had already overtaken the other two once. Choza however looked oddly excited. "So, we'll have greater Stamina and Chakra for the Exams. Yeah, that would help!" He grabbed Shikaku's wrist and basically dragged him along.

Sakumo grinned happily. Oh, Choza was so useful to have. Other than Inoichi, who never really complained, but was also never really happy or excited about anything, or than Shikaku, who was rather unwilling when it came to exercise, Choza might sometimes need an explanation why something was done, but then he was all in and determined to do the best he could.

Sakumo hoped the strategy would have the wished effect. It was rather easy to work up physical stamina. Or … well, easy … It was physically demanding and took time, but the body would change and grow with its needs. If you only trained hard enough, you'd ultimately become stronger, faster or in this case get more stamina. With Chakra it wasn't quite that easy. Sure, just like an other body function it would increase and get better the more it was used, but at the end of the day, genetics decided how much chakra you had, and while you might be able to make a difference with exercise, Sakumo feared Choza would be disappointed with his Chakra increase at the end of this training. It was still important, though. At the moment they all needed physical stamina more than chakra enhancement. This was something often forgotten in basic shinobi training. Even at the academy. Often, when shinobi tried to get stronger, their way to achieve that was by learning a completely new and more powerful Jutsu. Such a strategy was maybe viable if one had chakra to spare, but for most shinobi – and that included Sakumo – a giant Jutsu only served to immediately zap them of all their chakra with just one or two attacks. Sakumo's rule of thumb was, that if a shinobi couldn't use a Jutsu at least three times in a single battle, and still be able to hold their own in Taijutsu or at least have the stamina to run away, it wasn't suitable for battle at all. No, for most people the best way to get stronger was to work on the basics: Strength, speed, stamina, chakra control, strategy, instinct, perception, technique and elemental control, if necessary.

Jiraiya would sometimes frown at the training he did. When Jiraiya came back from training, he always had another flashy Jutsu. Sakumo often enough didn't come out of training with a new Jutsu at all. Still, in most situations Sakumo was sure he could take Jiraiya one on one. Well, maybe not in a straight slugging match in a small and restricted arena-like area, where he had nowhere to hide. Jiraiya had once asked him about it: Why he wouldn't just learn a really awesome fancy lightning Jutsu, because he'd definitely have the talent for it. The answer was simple, really. Whatever Jiraiya … or really many of his friends, who all had copious amounts of chakra, thought, he did in fact not have the talent for a giant fancy lightning Jutsu, or any giant and fancy Jutsu, really. Just summoning Jiraiya's toad, he was pretty sure, would send him straight to the hospital from chakra exhaustion. The problem of the little people, something that chakra-beasts like Jiraiya would never understand.

His team was like him in that regard. They had even less chakra than him. Maybe an adult Choza would reach or even surpass Sakumo's own Chakra reserves. Inoichi had decent enough chakra. In the end, shinobi from clan families almost always had more natural chakra than civilian shinobi. But considering the fact that most shinobi, at least most Jonin still came from the old Clans, his chakra was just about average. Shikaku however … Maybe it ran in the Nara family but even in Shikaruma Sakumo hardly sensed more chakra than in a civilian. To be able to keep up not only with their peers but with their enemies in the war, they needed to be in top physical shape.

He in the end decided to have them use some Jutsu to get rid of their chakra a bit faster. It wasn't really what he had wanted, thinking it would be better to deplete their chakra as slow as possible, but they were shinobi after all and maybe he had forgotten that part. They were able to run until long after noon before they even had to properly tap into their chakra amounts. Choza was the first who ran out of physical stamina, but he'd also be the one who'd be able to sustain himself on chakra alone longest. Inoichi was able to run almost two hours longer than the other two before Inoichi could sense his chakra depleting more rapidly. After that though, it went rapidly downhill with the Yamanaka and especially with Shikaku. However, it was winter, so nightfall came predictably early and he still planned to catch dinner with Sanae. The main reason he stopped them, though, was that they still needed proper meals and sleep to regenerate.

Well, by the time he told them to stop, Shikaku was pretty much already done. He told the other two to run over water, which would require them to use a bit more chakra than just running on solid ground would. It didn't take long for Inoichi to slip up and crash into the cold water. He was sour and bad-tempered when he came up again, to keep running, and he was relieved when Sakumo called to him to stop and come over and rest like Shikaku. Choza was done only shortly after Inoichi.

"Well," Sakumo waited for the Akimichi to drag himself back to shore. Both he and Inoichi where cold, trying and failing to keep themselves warm despite their wet clothes. "I don't want you to catch a cold, so get inside and get warm before you get sick." He pointed at a public bath close by.

His three charges looked like the walking dead, as they dragged their way to the bath and into the changing room. Sakumo talked to his team again before they jumped into the hot water.

"The way your body feels now, I want you to remember this feeling. I made you stop at the first moment, your chakra completely gave out on you. This is the point, where you can't fight anymore. It's your limit. Now, don't get me wrong. If you push it, if you're desperate, especially if there's danger and you're on adrenaline you'll be able to push past that limit and fight a bit longer still, maybe even win a fight. But don't get fooled, especially not buy your adrenaline or despair. At this point your body is still able to function, your chakra will be able to support you. But what you cannot do at this point, is fight. Because after this point, every other Jutsu, ever other move could make you collapse from exhaustion." It looked like Shikaku was the only one who really understood. "So what do you do, when you are in a fight and you arrive at that point?"

There was a stubborn look on Choza's face as if he wholeheartedly believed he should fight on anyway, even though he knew that this was the wrong answer. It was the reason he didn't answer.

"Give up," said Shikaku with a shrug.

Inoichi glared at him. "What you want to get captured?" Shikaku shrugged half-heartedly. He was obviously not thinking about a battle situation but about the chunin exams, where torture and death would probably not await them should they surrender. "We run," declared Inoichi self-confidently.

Choza stuck his tongue out in disapproval, but he didn't say anything against it.

"Correct," said Sakumo.

"But shouldn't we at least try to win? What if it's necessary for the mission, or to protect somebody? I don't want to run from a fight. I want to be able to win." He glowered untypically dark, maybe remembering how they had run from the enemy in Uzushiogakure.

Sakumo shook his head. "At this point your chances of success drop to almost zero. There are, of course some situation where it's still worth a try. If you have a viable strategy, or if your opponents are beyond their limit as well, or if the only way to achieve your subjective is by fighting, no matter whether you win or lose. For example, when you don't need to win, but you need to by time. Objectively assessing the situation you might decide, that staying and fighting is still preferable. But in most cases, it is not."

"But I can't just drop everything and run," cried Choza in frustration. "What about the mission or my team?"

"What about your team?" This was Inoichi cutting in. "If you drop from Chakra exhaustion, one of us has to drag you along. That would limit our chances of success massively. If you died, we'd be one man down so the chances to succeed on our mission would be the same as if you had fled. That is, if we're not distracted or traumatized from seeing our comrade die in front of us. And on top of that Konoha would have lost a shinobi. It's a lose-lose-situation."

Choza stared at Inoichi. Sakumo saw that his stubbornness was still waring with his logical understanding. Sakumo of course had expected that. He was even somewhat surprised that Inoichi so easily understood and accepted that lesson. Of course, he was smart enough to, but of the three he was the most dedicated to the shinobi rules. And all Genin learned early in the academy that they were only tools for their mission, that their mission was the most important, that their lives and feelings did not matter. An altogether horrible lesson to give to a bunch of children with the sole purpose of raising emotional child soldiers who would not blink at the idea of a suicide mission or attack. Sakumo saw that clearly, when it were these three children following the lessons, but it didn't change the fact that he himself also followed the same teachings. He might put his comrades before the mission, of course, but his own life was still worth preciously little to him. Even the reason he prioritizes flight over death wasn't to save his own life, but because of the objective advantage to his village if the shinobi was still alive even if the mission was lost either way.

"I know it goes against your instincts and teachings to run from an opponent. But the only reason you feel like you still have to fight is pride. Every shinobi feels that way. But for you to lose your life or the village to lose a shinobi out of pride is not worth it. Even more so if you should get captured and tortured. Even more so, considering the fact that most missions don't necessarily require you to win any battles. They can often still be fulfilled after you relinquish victory. You lose the battle, but you win the war."

As Choza slowly seemed to accept that, he glanced to the other two. "Knowing and recognizing your limits is the most important ability for any shinobi. Right after knowing and recognizing the limits of your teammates, and opponents. How fast are they? How strong? How long can they attack, before they need to catch their breath? So memorize the way you feel now."

"Yosh!" cried Choza suddenly happy again. Maybe the fact hat Sakumo had called this their most important skill was what had hyped him up again. He was always excited when he felt he had learned something new and important.

"Now, get clean," Sakumo smiled glancing at Shikaku's arms where the mud from this morning had long dried, then mixed with the sweat and then dried again.

After another hour or so, they left the public bath and Sakumo told his team to eat well, sleep, have a good early breakfast, that would give them the strength for the next day and meet back up at 7 am tomorrow.

He arrived a bit late for dinner and joined Sanae and Akane already sitting at the table.

"How are the little shits?" asked Sanae.

"Tired, I reckon."

"Poor bastards," Sanae smiled a bit flippantly. "I'm really glad you're not my Sensei."

He had trained Sanae a bit before she became a Genin, but that was it. So he wondered, how she knew anything about his methods.

"What did you make them do?" asked Akane.

"Stamina."

"So, what? You had them run circles for hours, didn't you?" She laughed. He shrugged in acknowledgement. "Your training methods where always somewhat uninspired."

They kissed as he sat down to eat with them.

"But you're good with them," she smiled at him. "And you like it. I can see it in your face, that you like them."

"Sure," he answered as he shovelled rice in his mouth.

"I wonder …" Her thoughtful tones made him look up.

"What?"

"Do you want to have children?"

He stared at her, then he dropped his bowl and chopsticks. "Children?" It wasn't like they had ever decided not to have them. After their marriage they had even actively tried to get pregnant. Only for a few months though. It hadn't worked at first, then work and life and missions had happened, then the war.

"You want to try again?" He asked after a moment.

"I don't … Yes, but I'm not sure, if it's the right time." She shrugged. "I just thought you really like children."

"I don't like children," he answered immediately but then he smiled relenting as both Sanae and Akane raised an eye-brow at him. Well, okay, maybe he liked children a bit more than he had a few months ago. It wasn't like he ever actually despised kids, he had just never really cared for them. He did however grow to like his team very much.

"We could wait until the war …," she didn't even finish the sentence. They were young, sure, they had years, still. But it didn't look like this war would end any time soon.

"It's not ideal," he relented. "But if you want children, and I want children …" He shrugged. "We're shinobi. It's not like we'll ever live a save life. If it's this war or the next …" It was a sad reality, but theirs nonetheless.

Akane nodded. "Then let's try again."

As he nodded, he could see his sister blush a bit and quietly – almost shyly eat the last bit of her rice.