Chapter 19 - Limits

"Not as bad as I expected!" Jiraiya said jovially, as Hinata had finished showing him her senbon skills. That had been the last thing that she had to demonstrate before he had seen her entire repertoire.

"A little rough around the edges but that's mainly due to age and experience. I can work with this!" Jiraiya sat down in the grass. "Alright, now where should we begin.."

"You didn't have a plan already?" Hinata asked skeptically.

"It's hard to have a plan when you don't know what you're working with." He said simple. "Now that I do though, I can tailor the training to cover your weak points and even out what you're lacking."

"Your offense is good, between your taijutsu and kenjutsu, you pose quite the threat to someone around your level. In a head on fight, barring ninjutsu, you can match up against most below-average chūnin. When you master your skills with senbon, you'll be even more formidable and be able to cover your weakness at long range. As of this moment you're strictly a close to mid range fighter." Jiraiya gave his analysis.

"I honestly wish I could train you in a few more years, when you were able to change chakra into the elements, but I couldn't wait any longer for Hayate to start his training. Hmm.." He rubbed his chin, talking mainly to himself.

"Sealing is my specialty, but I honestly don't think that you should learn anymore than the basics of how to recognize and break seals. Being able to create standard sealing scrolls to carry equipment would also be a good thing to teach you. No… Hayate can teach you that though." Jiraiya eyed her up and down.

Hinata sighed and sat down in the grass across from him. She felt like she'd be waiting for a while. They'd been out here for about 3 hours already and she was starting to get hungry, but it wasn't unusual for her to eat dinner late due to training until well after dark.

"Jiraiya-sensei? I have a question." Hinata spoke up

"What's that?

"Why haven't you taken Naruto under your wing yet?" Hinata asked, deciding to just be as blunt as possible.

"Huh..?" Jiraiya was expecting a question about advice for training, or when he'd be teaching her a cool new jutsu, or about how to talk to boys or something. He didn't expect this.

"You know?" He asked, after a moment of silence.

"Mhm. I mean, come on it's obvious. Minato-san was your student right? Naruto look just like him. His surname might be Uzumaki, but changing it to his mother's surname isn't much of a disguise."

"Have you told him?" Jiraiya looked pained.

"No. I figured you should." Hinata said, picking at a piece of grass.

"I see.." Jiraiya sighed and looked up at the clouds. "It's a long story that boils down to his parents having too many enemies. Not to mention there are certain… aspects.. About Naruto that we have to keep under wraps. Me training him would just put him under the spotlight."

"You mean you don't want people finding out he's the jinchūriki right?" Hinata looked up at him.

"How did you know that?" Jiraiya looked shocked. Figuring out he was Minato's son was one thing, but figuring out he was the jinchūriki was another.

"Really? No, I mean really? Doesn't everyone know that?" Hinata asked. "Isn't that why he was ostracized his entire life and spent his childhood all alone? Because people are small minded and believe what they want to believe even if it means blaming a child for something that wasn't his fault?"

Jiraiya just stared at her. "He was what?"

"Wait… You didn't know?" It was Hinata's turn to be shocked.

"I knew some people blamed him but… Was it really that bad for him..?" Jiraiya asked in a weak voice, looking pained.

"It was horrible for him. When we were three I met him once. He was all alone wandering the streets. I was crying at the time and he comforted me. He told me "I don't have anyone, but I never cry." honestly it broke my heart."

He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. 'Minato.. I'm so sorry..' He thought to himself.

"I was busy hunting Orochimaru after he defected… Hiruzen told me he'd be taken care of…" Jiraiya stumbled over his words.

"Well he had a palace to live if you consider that being taken care of." Hinata scoffed. "Frankly the village failed him." She didn't want to outright tell Jiraiya he failed, even if she was thinking it. She'd be stuck with him for the next six months after all.

"Hmm.." Jiraiya looked serious all of a sudden. "It seems I need to have a talk with Naruto soon."

"Tomorrow." Hinata said. "Don't put it off anymore."

Jiraiya looked at the 10-year-old girl that was scolding him. "Fine. Tomorrow."

"Good." Hinata smiled at him. "I think you two will get along."

"Alright now, let me think about your training." Jiraiya changed the subject and went back into deep thought.

Hinata just laid on her back and watched the clouds float across the sky. 'I did it Naruto. The rest is up to you and Jiraiya now.'

It was about twenty minutes later that Jiraiya suddenly started rubbing his head with both hands in frustration. "Agh! Screw it. I'm trying to wrack my brain for something cool to teach you, but I can't until you're able to manipulate chakra better! So that's what we're gonna do. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be able to actually learn ninjutsu techniques!"

"Alright!" Jiraiya suddenly got to his feet. "Healthy body, healthy mind! Give me laps, run around the training ground until you collapse!"

"Huh?" Hinata stared blankly at him. "You thought for twenty minutes and came up with making me run laps?"

"Oh no, I was going to make you run laps anyways. I'm going to push you until your body gives out every damn day until you meet my expectations. Honestly speaking, you kids nowadays are too soft." He said, shaking his head. "Having a good mentality and willingness to train doesn't mean much if your body can't keep up with your pace of learning new techniques. Learning a new taijutsu or kenjutsu technique won't help you if you can't move fast enough or hit hard enough."

Hinata frowned. Honestly speaking she did have that problem. She assumed it was due to her age, but even now she wasn't hitting much harder then when she was 8. Her speed had increased noticeably but her endurance hadn't increased by much. 'Oh my god..' She thought horrified. 'I let myself become complacent in my training. When was the last time I increased the amount I ran in the mornings, or pushed myself to my limits?'

"Right!" She suddenly had a lot of energy, and took off running.

"Huh, so she noticed it." Jiraiya said to himself. "Usually there's a lot more complaining involved, when they're told they need to get better physically. Well she's energetic now at least, and her mood seems to have improved! Let's see how long she can keep smiling like that!" Jiraiya chuckled darkly. He was going to enjoy this.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

A few hours earlier.

Hayate had arrived at the specified location that his notice indicated he should go to. It was an out of the way warehouse in a rather deserted section of the village used mainly for storage for businesses. He shrugged and walked inside the warehouse.

As he entered the warehouse he felt a killing intent and instantly drew his sword blocking three kunai that were aimed at different vitals on his body. He instantly went on guard and looked around the nearly empty building.

There were a few crates in the far corner, some farming equipment that was rusty from not being used or maintained, and some piles of lumber. He didn't see anything out of place. The warehouse was large, there were rafters up above and alcoves people could hide in. 'Must have been from up there.' He decided, and jumped up to the rafters.

"Hoh, decent reaction and situational analysis." He heard a voice and saw a man standing in the darkness of an alcove, barely visible.

The man was in ANBU garb and standing there with his arms crossed. He looked casual, but Hayate could tell it wouldn't work out well for him if he attacked him. 'This man is dangerous.' He thought to himself. Hayate sheathed his sword and waited for instructions from the man.

"Good choice. You saw that you couldn't defeat me and chose to stand down. Your guard is still up though and I can see your hand is closer to your sword then it would otherwise be. Relax, I'm not going to attack again. I just wanted to test you." The man said.

"You're Rō?" Hayate asked the man.

"That's right. Hokage-sama instructed me to personally train. I can't tell why though. If it was just because of your apprentice then he would be better off training her himself. Don't give me that look, you said you won't part with her, but I can tell that if Jiraiya pushed, you'd give in. You want what's best for her too, I'm sure Jiraiya also knew that, which means he sees something else in you." The man jumped down to the floor of the warehouse. "I suppose I'll figure it out eventually. Follow me."

Hayate jumped down as well and followed the man over to the crates in the corner. He opened the top of one of the crates and jumped inside falling down a hole in the floor. Hayate watched for a moment before going down, following after him.

The man talked as they walked and Hayate's second impression of the man was that he talked a lot considering he was the head of ANBU. Hayate had expected the strong silent type, like most ANBU were.

"I believe Jiraiya should be training your apprentice by now, which means she's probably hating her life in a little bit, if she isn't already. It was his goal to lay the foundation now to get her body to a point where she'll be able to physically handle the training you'll be putting her through in the future." He explained.

"Meaning?" Hayate asked, getting a bad feeling.

"Jiraiya is going to run her ragged. I expect a lot of pain and frustration at first, until she gets used to it of course. Honestly speaking, you've been too soft on her. I've watched your training sessions a few times and she has talent but you don't push her to her limits enough."

"She's 10. She has plenty of time to build up her strength." Hayate argued.

"That's the problem with your thinking. I joined ANBU when I was 11. If you want her to survive and be the best she can be, then you have to constantly push her. Has she ever complained that you were training too much or pushing her too hard?" Rō asked Hayate.

"No, she's very diligent in her training. She works hard."

"That's when you know you're going too easy, you see? It's when they start complaining that you know you're doing something right!" He laughed. "At least for the diligent ones. There are some that are just pansies and won't amount to anything higher than chūnin, or maybe jōnin if they're lucky. But being afraid of being hurt and not pushing yourself dooms you to a life of mediocrity." Rō said, eventually stopping at a door at the end of the hallway.

"I'm going to break you down and turn you into a crying mess of a man before rebuilding you. Then you're going to do the same to her." Rō laughed again, walking through the door.

Hayate suddenly felt like he might have made a mistake agreeing to this.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"Hah.. Hah.. Hah.." Hinata was panting hard and she suddenly felt her foot give out from beneath her and she could just watch as she fell face first. 'Oh the ground is getting closer.' She thought to herself as she fell.

She landed hard on her face. "No.. more.. please.." She begged to whatever god was listening.

"Alright, your running is done. I want you doing crunches now, work those stomach muscles. Give me 200 and we'll take a break." Jiraiya said with a grin.

"Ughhh" Hinata groaned as she flipped over onto her back. She didn't know how many laps she had just finished but her legs were killing her and she physically cringed as she bent her knees to get into position to do crunches.

Jiraiya watched as the girl started. "You're at the age where your body is like wet clay. It's easy to mold. It's much harder to push yourself to the limits and rapidly increase your growth when you're older. It's easier to set a standard routine when you're young as well."

"I want you to forget everything you've done before this, in terms of physical training. My goal is to get you to point to be ready for the real training when Hayate comes back from ANBU."

"Real.. training..?" Hinata panted out, confused and horrified at the implications of that statement.

"That's right. This is just the basics, but you'll figure out what I mean when your shishou gets back." Jiraiya commented.

He sat and waited for her to finish. It took her about 3 minutes to do all 200.

"I'm done.." Hinata said, as she laid flat on her back.

"Good, do 200 more." Jiraiya said, finding too much amusement in his order.

"Huh!? You said I'd get a break!" Hinata felt indignant.

"I lied. If you have enough energy to argue, you have enough energy to do more crunches." Jiraiya laughed.

Hinata was starting to hate that laugh. This man was too laid back and jovial considering what he was putting her though. 'He's getting too much amusement out of my suffering.' She thought to herself.

She eventually finished the second set and he tossed a bottle of water to her. She started chugging it down, but stopped when she started to choke.

"Whoa there. Slow down and take sips of it. You can take a ten minute break to catch your breath. I recommend doing stretches."

Hinata glared at him, but did what he said. She stretched and massaged her aching legs until the break was over.

"Alright, 200 pushups."

Hinata cried. She did the pushups, but she cried too.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Hayate groaned as he finished his set of pushups, only to be told he was to start running again. They were currently in a large underground training center, with a track going around a training field set up with training dummies and targets.

"Put up with it! You consider yourself a jōnin? Pathetic!" Rō yelled at him as he ran. "You're a goddamn disgrace to Konoha! A rat that's pretending he's a shinobi! Fucking pathetic!"

Rō had been yelling insults at him for the better part of five hours since he started this hellish workout. Every time Hayate slowed down or fell over he'd get a kunai thrown at him, forcing him to dodge or block. Hayate was at his breaking point, and he'd gotten fed up. He signed up for training, not getting insulted over and over again.

"You think you're able to teach an apprentice!?" Rō yelled. "I wouldn't let you near one of Kumo's trainees, let alone one of ours!"

"Shut up!" Hayate yelled at him, turning to face him. "Enough with the insults! You want me to work, fine, I'll work. But I don't have to listen to you run your mouth for hours!"

"Hoh?" Rō suddenly laughed. "Say that again."

"I said, shut up." Hayate hissed, right before he felt a punch land solidly on his stomach. Hayate never saw it coming.

Rō followed up with a hook and punched Hayate in the face, knocking him to the ground. He then kicked Hayate in the stomach, rolling him across the ground.

"You think you have the right to talk back to me!?" Rō shouted. "Stand up maggot!"

Hayate, nose bleeding, struggled to his feet and took a shaking fighting stance.

Rō disappeared from where he was standing and kicked Hayate in the back, sending him flying face first into the ground again.

"I said I'd break you, and I will!" Rō continued shouting. "From now on, whenever you talk, the first and last word out of your mouth better be 'Sir", you understand me maggot!?"

"Go.. fuck.. Yourself.." Hayate said, mouth full of blood.

Rō kicked him in the stomach again, sending him back to the ground. "I asked if you understood me!"

Hayate, struggling to his feet, spat out: "Sir, go fuck yourself, sir."

"Heh, get back to running maggot. I never told you to stop."

Hayate glared at him before backing down and continued his run, albeit limping a bit now.

Rō, however, quit his insults. Choosing to remain silent as he watched. 'Took him longer to snap than I thought. He can put up with quite a bit of abuse, before he loses his cool. That's good.'

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Jiraiya dropped Hinata off at her house late into the night. She had been too tired to walk home, so he carried her under one arm. Jiraiya looked at the limp puddle that was Hinata and knocked on the door.

Hiashi opened the door. "Hokage-sama?" He said before he noticed Hinata laying on the ground groaning. "Hinata!? What happened?"

"Oh, just physical conditioning. She's just tired, not hurt." Jiraiya grinned. "I told you we were starting today didn't I?" He rubbed his head, not actually sure if he'd informed Hiashi or not.

"Ah, you did mention something like that. But this… Seems like a bit much isn't it?" He asked looking at his daughter, who was doing her best impression of a snail, crawling past him into the house.

"This coming from you? I heard you started her training when she was 2!" Jiraiya laughed. "You're going soft on me Hiashi! You should join us sometime, maybe if she has company, she'll work harder!"

"I'll pass… Just try not to break my daughter please, if you would." Hiashi said, still looking at his daughter working her way down the hall now.

He saw her stop mid crawl, and heard a whimper come from her that sounded suspiciously like words.

"Hinata?" Hiashi asked.

She turned around and Hiashi was surprised and concerned to see such an evil look coming from his own daughter.

Her mouth twisting into a grin that looked more like a grimace as she spat out a single word. "Shask. Nrt." Or at least she tried to speak, but it came out a slurred mess.

"Them?" Jiraiya thought to himself before shrugging. "I suppose they can join us for the physical training."

"You understood what she said?" Hiashi turned to look at Jiraiya.

"Mhm. Not my first time listening to a student too tired to talk." Jiraiya suddenly looked a little downcast as he remembered his old students. It didn't take him too long to perk up though and return to his normal jovial self.

"Ah." Hiashi said, turning back to watch his daughter once again resume crawling her way to her room. "Alright Hokage-sama, I'm going to go help her into bed. Have a good evening."

"Right. I'll see you tomorrow Hinata-chan!" He said, laughing as he heard a whimper coming from Hinata.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Hinata woke up when the morning light shone through her window as usual. She didn't even curse it this time. She was too tired and sore to be angry. 'This is my life now' She thought. 'Too tired to move, doomed to have the sunshine in my face for all eternity.'

Hinata heard a tapping at her window. She ignored it. Soon after the window opened and Hanabi was climbing into her room.

"You going running?" Hanabi asked, looking at her sister.

Hinata just hissed at her.

"Is that a no? Orr.."

"No." Hinata grunted.

"Is everything ok?" Hanabi asked, walking over to her. She poked her sister as if checking to see if she was dead, and heard a whimper.

"I just hurt from training. Please don't poke me." Hinata begged.

"Training did this to you? What the crap type of training did this?"

"It was hell Hanabi. It was hell."

"Well as long as you're ok.. I'm going to head out." Hanabi moved towards the window again.

"Wait." Hinata called out to her. "Help me to the bath. I smell like shit and feel disgusting."

Hanabi walked back over and helped her sister out of bed. Hinata just flopped onto Hanabi's shoulder, and Hanabi crinkled up her nose. "You do stink."

"Shut it." Hinata grumbled.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Hinata walked slowly to the academy that day. She somehow made her way to the classroom and collapsed in a seat next to Sasuke, thankful that he sat in the front of the classroom.

Sasuke looked over at her. "You look like shit."

Hinata wanted to retort, but was too tired.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow up. Usually she would say something witty or tell him to go bite himself.

"Training?" Sasuke asked his sore friend.

Hinata, who was laying her head down on the desk, suddenly thought of something. She didn't answer him, but turned to look at him with a grin on her face.

Sasuke had a bad premonition, but he couldn't figure out her grin was so unsettling.

The door to the classroom opened and Hinata turned her head to see Naruto walk in with a lost look on his face.

'I guess Jiraiya talked to him.' Hinata thought.

Naruto just walked over and plopped down into his seat next to Hinata. He laid his head down on the desk next to her.

"Yep." Hinata said. "I know that feeling."

Naruto turned his head to look at her as if he just noticed she was there. Sasuke just watched his two deskmates, heads down on the desk, staring at each other. 'What is going on today?'

"Mhm.." Naruto mumbled. "Turns out I'm joining you for training starting today."

"So's he." Hinata turned her head to look at Sasuke.

"I am?" Sasuke actually looked excited, even if he tried to hide it behind a mask of indifference.

'He'll learn. They'll both learn.' Hinata chuckled to herself darkly. "Yep."

"Ughhhh" Naruto sighed.

Hinata looked back over at him. "I thought you'd be excited after talking to him. Why are you depressed?"

"It's more of a shock, really." Naruto said, smiling. "I thought I was all alone."

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Hayate struggled to keep up with the training he was being subjected to. He had been running laps without stop since he had gotten here, over 16 hours ago. He only got to stop if he needed to take a piss, which he had to do under supervision to make sure he wasn't just taking a break.

It wasn't that Hayate couldn't run for this long, in fact he'd done it on missions several times before. When you have to get to a location as fast as possible to deliver a report or message to someone, you sometimes have to run long distances for several hours, or even days at a time. What was killing him was the pace. When on a mission you set your own pace and get into a rhythm allowing you almost fall into a meditative state, just running for hours on end. Here, he constantly had to be on edge, getting kunai thrown at him if he ever broke the pace set by Rō.

Speed up, slow down, sprint. The pace was constantly changing and Hayate was starting to run out of steam.

'At least he's not constantly shouting insults at me anymore.' He smiled wryly to himself.

"Sprint maggot!" Rō shouted.

Hayate broke into a sprint, feeling his legs scream out in protest. He kept sprinting for another hour before he finally collapsed.

"17 hours, 32 minutes. Not bad, maggot." Rō said, walking over to crouch next to him. "We're done for today, I've found your limit. Let me show you to your quarters."

Hayate stood up on shaking legs and followed out of a door into a room with a single cot and toilet on the far side of the room. The floor was slightly slanted towards the middle where there was a drain.

"Really?" Hayate said, flabbergasted.

"What was that maggot!?" Rō shouted in his ear.

"Sir, really, sir?" Hayate shouted back.

"These are your new quarters. You want something better? You'll have to work for it." Rō said. "We'll see about getting you new quarters if you last a month. Now go get some sleep. You'll need it for tomorrow."

Hayate walked into the room and collapsed onto the bed. He closed his eyes and almost instantly fell into a deep sleep.

Hayate had been asleep for a little over an hour when he was suddenly woken up by a massive jet of water spraying him in the face. Rō was standing there with a hose aimed at him.

"What the fuck!?" Hayate tried to shout, but his mouth instantly got filled with water. He choked and rolled out of bed onto his knees, his whole body aching.

"I'm sorry princess, did I wake you up?" Rō asked, turning off the hose. "If that was an enemy attack you'd be dead. Go back to sleep maggot."

Rō turned around and left the room.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Jiraiya was waiting in the middle of training ground 7 when he saw the three kids walking towards him. Hinata looked stiff and was walking behind the other two. As soon as they got near Jiraiya, Hinata got on the ground and started stretching.

'Hah. She's tired and sore, but she still showed up and instantly started stretching. She still hasn't complained yet either, except that one time I lied about the break. You have a good apprentice Hayate.' Jiraiya was in thought as he watched the girl stretching on the ground, and the two boys standing in front of him.

Sasuke and Naruto were looking away from each other, purposefully trying not to see the other person, pretending they didn't exist. Hinata had walked with them all the way here, listening to them argue with each other about the dumbest shit. She was tired and sore and she had to put up with that crap? 'Break them Jiraiya, make them cry. I want them to cry.'

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Jiraiya asked them.

"Huh?" Naruto asked confused. "You haven't told us to do anything yet?"

Sasuke saw Hinata and got the picture though. He started stretching as well, not bothering to say anything.

"Stretches Naruto, get to it." Jiraiya said firmly. "Trust me, you'll be glad for them later."

"Ah." Naruto started to stretch as well.

"Alright, you two listen up. Hinata knows the deal, but I'm not sure how much she told you about what we're going to be doing here." Jiraiya started, but Naruto started talking as soon as he came to a break in what he was saying.

"Nothing! She didn't tell us anything! No matter how much we asked! All she kept saying was 'You'll learn.' and then she'd just laugh to herself under her breath! What are we doing? Is it a cool jutsu?" Naruto asked.

'So full of hope. So young, and naïve,' Hinata started chuckling darkly.

"Just like that!" Naruto pointed to her.

Jiraiya gave Hinata a strange look. "Ah.. We're doing physical conditioning. I plan on getting you three as fit as possible, as fast as possible."

"Awww, that's it? Physical training?" Naruto sounded really disappointed.

Even Sasuke looked skeptical, but he looked at the condition Hinata was in and thought there must be something else going on. He trained with her usually and never saw her this exhausted before. He even landed a blow on her during taijutsu sparring today, which never happened. She couldn't match Iruka's pace for whatever reason, so he had Sasuke spar with her today.

"That's it. For now. If you want more, you're going to have to meet my base standards. So no holding back! I want 110%!" Jiraiya said cheerfully.

"Alright!" Naruto sounded excited at the prospect of just needing to show off a bit before he'd be taught something cool.

Jiraiya waited a bit until they had finished their stretches. When they were done, he just sat in the grass and pointed into the distance. "Start running." He said to them.

And so they ran.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N: Okay people, for the love of god don't take any of the training in this chapter as serious training advice. I shouldn't have to even say this, but I'm just making sure you all know that I know it's awful advice. These are shinobi and they be built different yo.

Also, yes Rō was a complete dick. He's doing it on purpose. Jiraiya sent Hayate to be trained in an Elite ANBU course by the head guy himself. So no, not all ANBU go through the training Hayate is.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!