Ayumi pursed her lips slightly as she turned this way and that in front of the full-length mirror, unsure quite what to think of her brand-new ninja gear. She was so used to dresses that she almost felt uncomfortable in anything else, and this new outfit was no exception. She had abandoned her flowy sundress and flats for something much more functional- a pair of signature combat boots, a snug-fitting red combat dress with a pair of black shorts underneath with a swoopping neckline that revealed the armored mesh shirt beneath, with a small black jacket that cut off above her midriff. I look ridiculous, she moped and contemplated abandoning the notion altogether.
I can't, she thought with a small sigh. I made a promise to grow stronger, and this is what I have to do. I'm just thinking too much. As her book-filled house suddenly echoed with the sound of someone knocking on the door, she hastily gave herself another once-over before rushing to the front of the house to throw open the door.
"Hi, Miss Ayumi! Wow, you look great!" Shikadai cried in delight as he hopped up onto the threshold of the door to hug her legs happily before pulling back to beam up at her. "Are you ready to train? I am! We're gonna make you so strong, Miss Ayumi!" She laughed at his excitement and leaned down to hug him before glancing up at Shikamaru. His face was pink as he gazed intently at her, and she smiled shyly as she regarded him.
"Well? What do you think?" she asked bashfully, sweeping a few strands of hair behind her ear. He gazed at her for another moment before her inquiry finally reached his ears, and he coughed uncomfortably and straightened up to try and look somewhat dignified.
"L-looks great. Sakura and Ino help you pick it out?" he stammered and gave her a weak smile, and she nodded as she looked down at the new outfit that was strangely growing on her. "It'll do well, then. They wouldn't steer you wrong. Now, are you ready?"
"Mm-hmm!" she confirmed ecstatically, and with that, she exited her household to accompany the esteemed ninja and her ninja pupil to walk down the dirt road towards the nearest training grounds. Ayumi had to admit that it was the perfect day to start her own training- the sky above was charming, filled with a menagerie of fluffy clouds, and despite the fact that autumn was setting in, the air was pleasantly warm, a last-ditch effort by the summer to cling to life. Still, autumn was fighting back with a noticeable wind that swept cooling relief over the trio as they trekked through the village with the sun beaming down on them. Though she had been apprehensive at first, the teacher was more than excited as the road brought them to a small section of forest on the outskirts of her neighborhood. It was not unfamiliar to her; she trained here for the short period that she attended the Academy, and spent many days here poring over history texts while her father conducted his own intense training. She hadn't spent much time here since after his death, as if she subconsciously avoided it. It's hard to believe that I'm back here now to conduct ninja training, of all things, she thought with a mildly amused smirk as they passed into the shade of the small wood. It wasn't long before they came to a small clearing outfitted with three massive logs standing one right next to the other, their once-smooth surface marred by countless scratches from the weapons of aspiring and veteran ninja alike.
"All right, Ayumi. We'll start with some warm-ups. Can't do much of anything if you aren't in shape," Shikamaru smiled before yawning loudly and plopping down among the roots of a sizeable tree.
"Aren't you going to show me?" the confused teacher inquired before Shikadai ran over to her to tug excitedly at her hand, pulling her towards the center of the training clearing.
"Daddy said that I could do the warm-ups! Right, Daddy?" he giggled and looked at the man for confirmation, but Shikamaru had already dozed off to sleep, chin to chest as he snored softly. "Silly Daddy. He's so lazy," the young boy snickered before returning his attention to his delegated task. "Okay!" he cried loudly as he clapped his little hands together. "First, we'll start with push-ups! Gimme one hundred!"
"One hundred?" Ayumi gasped in utter shock, not expecting as nearly as high of a number considering that she was just starting out. Shikadai, however, only grinned widely at her display of obvious abhorrence.
"If you wanna be a strong ninja, Ayumi, you gotta have a strong body! Soon one hundred push-ups will seem like nothing to you! Now come on!" he demanded and stamped his foot, scowling firmly like so many of his teachers did, and with a smile of bemusement Ayumi obediently lowered herself down onto the ground and began to do push-ups with her knees touching the surface of the ground. She cried out in pain as the student sharply kicked her in the side of her leg. "No, no! Not those lady push-ups! Real push-ups!" he commanded, and with a snort she stretched out her legs into the proper position. Seems like I'm not getting away with anything, she thought dryly.
The exercise was easy enough, at first, when she fell into a somewhat steady rhythm. However, after about her tenth one, her arms began to ache terribly and wobble as she struggled to push herself up. Shikadai pranced around her like playful colt, bleating at her to go faster and straighten out her back. Ugh, this hurts so much- and it's only the first warm-up! She whined silently as she spat a piece of her sweaty hair out of her mouth and smacked her lips at the undesirable salty taste. After about thirty minutes of incredible effort, she managed to finish the task and immediately collapsed onto the ground, groaning into the dirt.
"No more," she moaned as the muscles in her arms throbbed painfully. She groaned some more when Shikadai stepped onto her back and dug in his heels.
"No laying about! You took way too long! In no time we'll have you down to one hundred push-ups a minute!" he squealed and tugged at her ponytail in an attempt to revive her. "Get up! It's time for crunches!" He hopped off her with a giggle as she forced herself to roll onto her back, then skittered to hold her feet. "Okay! One hundred crunches! Go!"
"You're going to kill me, Shikadai," she whined, but obediently put her hands behind her head and began pushing up her upper body to reach her raised knees. It took even less time for her core to begin burning like a raging fire, and sweat poured down her face as she panted with the effort. She was dimly aware of Shikamaru, apparently awake, watching her with one eye cracked open and a smile on his face. Somehow that seemed to encourage her a little more, and she managed to finish the crunches in about ten minutes. She flopped back against the cool grass with a strangled groan while Shikadai ran circles around her, screaming happily.
"Ten minutes! Not bad! Next one, next one! We're gonna run, run, run!" he howled with delight, grabbing a stick to repeatedly prod Ayumi until she dragged herself to her feet. She wobbled unsteadily for a moment, already exhausted, before she righted herself and looked down at the energetic lad between lidded eyes. "Okay! One hundred laps around the circle! Go!" he shouted, and all Ayumi could do was whine miserably in protest before she forced her feet to move and she began to jog around the clearing. Shikadai chased her around the clearing with his stick, hitting her in the back or her behind whenever he decided that she was going too slow. After about the fifth hit, she shot a glare at her boyfriend as she passed.
"Aren't you going to do something about this?" she screeched.
"What? I think he's a great teacher," the Jonin mused as he picked up a discarded leaf and waved it at her, and she stuck out her tongue at him before she had to turn back around to make the curve. These two are having way too much fun watching me struggle, she whined in self-pity as she continued to jog, hastening her pace to appease the sadistic little athletic trainer who was scampering after her brandishing his stick. She managed to finish the run in twenty minutes, and once she hit the end of the final lap she ran to the center and flopped down on her back in the grass, her face scrunched up as she fought for every breath.
"I'm dying. It feels like I'm dying," she moped pathetically as she heard the crunching of grass that were Shikamaru's footsteps. She couldn't help but smile as his shadow fell over her, cooling her a little, at it wasn't until he reached down and poked her in the cheek that she cracked her eyes open. He was smiling wickedly, obviously enjoying himself. "I hate you. You let me do this. Why couldn't you have been a better boyfriend and told you that you would just protect me?" she complained playfully as she looked up at him, leaning over her with one foot on either side of her hips and his arms crossed.
"Because I knew this would be amusing," he chuckled before unbuckling a canteen of water from his belt and holding it out to her. As she snatched it from his hands and prepared to guzzle the entire contents, he gave her a pointed look and warned, "That's all I brought, so if you drink it all now that'll be all you get." As he gazed intently down at her, she blushed and took care to only drink enough of the water to satisfy her thirst before handing it back to him.
"I feel like death, and I know I must look like it," she panted with a slight scowl, to which he smirked and tilted his head slightly to the side.
"I think it's kinda hot, actually," he mused. "All sweaty and breathless- what can a guy not find attractive?" She thought he was only kidding with her, but when she looked back up at him with a retort she saw that familiar fire burning in his black eyes that got her all hot and bothered, and shut her mouth right up. He stared down at her with that heat-filled gaze for a while.
"Aren't you going to kiss me?" she asked when he did nothing, quite uncharacteristically for him, and he shrugged while his smirk widened, then leaned down until he was a foot away from her face.
"Sorry. You're gonna have to come to me," he laughed, and she pouted at such mean trickery.
"But I'm so tired!" she whined and grabbed a handful of dead leaves to toss them at the side of his head, to which he only laughed and pulled the few that clung to his hair.
"Well, then, I guess you don't want to be kissed, because that's the deal!" he teased and put his hands on his hips. "So? What'll it be? It's a workout for me to stand like this, you know. My back isn't what it used to be," he joked, and she rolled her eyes at him before flopping her head back into the soft grass.
"Now I see where Shikadai gets it from," she grumbled, then huffed as she pulled up her arm to prop herself up on her elbows and began lifting her upper body. Her arm and abdomen muscles screamed at her in protest, but she endured the pain to lift herself up far enough to where her lips could meet Shikamaru's. As soon as they did, she decided that was ample enough reward for such a rigorous exercise, because all the pain and ache melted away at the sugary-sweet taste of his mouth that she adored so much. She pushed her mouth against his, begging for him to kiss her deeper, but to her frustration he hastily jerked back and grinned stupidly down at her. "Shikamaru!" she whined and flopped back down, kicking her legs slightly in a temper tantrum.
"Come on, now. I have to save something to keep you motivated, don't I?" he teased with a wink before grabbing her by the hand and pulling on her arm. "Get up. We still have work to do." Pouting, she just let him tug at her arm a minute or so before sighing in exasperation and using his weight to pull herself to her feet. Shikadai was sitting on top of one of the logs, munching on a bag of chips, but he grinned happily and tossed them aside when he realized that the training was to resume.
"Hooray! Let's go, Miss Ayumi~!" he squealed and hopped down from his perch.
"Both of you are slave drivers and are not my favorite people right now," Ayumin huffed in response, but couldn't help but smile as the little boy ran over to affectionately hug her legs, as was his custom.
They worked her throughout the afternoon. After the completion of her warm-ups, Shikamaru decided it was time for him to take over, and ran her through the basic exercises of ninja fighting. Though she was severely out of shape, many of the basics had stuck with Ayumi throughout the years, and so she fared much better in this section of her training. He ran her through shuriken- and kunai-throwing exercises, which she performed adequately; her aim was average, but her throws lacked the power needed for a true maiming blow, as most of her weapons didn't even have enough force to embed themselves into the wood and her technique was below average at best. After grilling her through that for an hour, they moved on to hand-to-hand combat. She used the wood as a practice dummy for punches and kicks, and after a little while of that she was certain that her hands and shins were bruised from the forceful contact with the thick wood, and as before, they had barely enough force to do much of any damage. The final trial was a spar session with Shikamaru, and even though he took it quite easy on her, she ended up a heap in the dirt after less than a minute every time.
"Are we done now?" she groaned after her last graceless fall, sprawled out with her legs and arms splayed in all directions as she panted heavily with her hair slicked to her forehead. Shikamaru stood beside her with an amused smirk, one hand on his hip and the other lazily resting at his side with a kunai. He spun the weapon around his finger before securely tucking it in the pouch at his side, then squatted down beside her and ran his fingers through her messy hair. No doubt that the amount of sweat there was disgusting, but he continued to soothingly do so, making Ayumi smile tiredly. "That feels nice."
"You worked hard," he commented.
"I'm terrible," she answered pitifully in response. Truly, it was a wonder to her how she lived at all during the kidnapping experience, much less how she took down four ninja and held her own against a fifth considering her lackluster performance today. I guess there is truth to the idea that adrenaline can make you do superhuman feats, she reasoned with a small sigh.
"You'll get better," he promised. "You have potential. That's more than some people have," he told her, then smiled slightly. "You know, Naruto was a lot worse than you when he was first starting out, and look where he is now."
"You're just saying that," she huffed, but was admittedly intrigued.
"No, really! He couldn't throw a shuriken to save his life, and his ninjutsu was laughable. But, he worked hard every day to make up for his shortcomings, and in the end he became one of the most legendary ninja of all time," he chuckled before leaning down to pull Ayumi onto his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he tucked his arms under her legs, and she smiled as he looked back at her with an endearing look. "You'll get there, in time. You just have to work hard. Just like teaching, yeah?"
"Yeah," she giggled and rested her head against his with a yawn. "But first, a long nap!"
"I second that," Shikamaru laughed and beckoned for his son to follow before setting off down the road carrying the exhausted teacher. Ayumi glanced over her shoulder at the trio of logs, filled with more scratches than before and smeared with her sweat and even a little of her blood.
I'll work harder than I ever have before, she promised before looking down at Shikadai, who was tottering alongside his father and chattering excitedly about his own progress in the Academy. Because I have things that I need to protect now. She held up a hand, flexing it slightly and smiling. I'm already a little stronger, I think.
One step at a time.