Chapter 20: Boot Camp

"Boot camp you say?" I find myself asking as people started whispering all around me, quietly voicing their displeasure at the idea, at least, the girls were. Most of the boys sounded quite eager to get started. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Well, I'm going to put you all through some basic training," he tells us as he cracks his knuckles, the action not settling the rising nerves within the room one bit. "I need to see what I have to work with here. You all are completely new to me, and I to you. So, by putting you through some tests, I'm going to learn your physical strengths and weaknesses. But first things first . . ."

Suddenly, the shoji doors slid open to reveal Shinji, who was holding one of those scales that measured both height and weight. Following behind him was a woman with short black hair with a royal blue streak in the front, dressed in a dark blue tracksuit and black sneakers. She was carrying a small roll of measuring tape in her right hand and a clipboard in her left.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Isane. She's one of the head trainers here at the gym, and pretty much serves as my right-hand lady. Also, on slow days, Shinji here serves as an assistant trainer, so he will also be helping out today."

"If I get distracted during the workout, I guess I know exactly who to blame." I hear Ino mumble from somewhere on my right, her sentiment finding approval with Matsuri, and Sakura of all people. Luckily for her, Shinji was too far away to hear her, so her opinion was still relatively a secret, for now.

"It's nice to meet you all. I hope you all enjoy your time here, and fingers crossed that some of you don't curse us out before you leave." she says, her voice a lower than I expected it to be.

"Anyway, now that we got the intros out of the way, it's time we got down to business. As models, you are expected to keep your bodies at a specific set of measurements. These measurements help to determine how well you can fit into the designer's clothes and sample sizes. If you're not the right size, then, well, you're out of the job," Guy calmly explains as Shinji set up the scale. "There are four main measurements that the industry considers: your height, your weight, your waist, and your hips. These days, weight is the one that matters the least. . . For designers, the general rule of thumb is that if you fit in the clothes and make them look good, they don't care how much you weigh."

"The ideal height for ladies is between 5'9 to 6'0. If you're a little bit taller or shorter than that, you are granted some leeway, of course, if you can still fit into the clothes and do the job that is. For the men, it's a bit different," Isane adds as she starts swinging around her measuring tape like it was a lasso. "In male modeling, the usual height range is 5'10 to 6'2. Again, you can still be taller or shorter than that range, as long as you look good and you make the clothes look good."

"Alright, the scale is all set," cries Shinji as he moves away from the device. "Who wants to be the first volunteer?"

"I'll go!" cries Matsuri, moving right toward the scale before anyone else had a chance to, much to Ino's ire.

"Hm, love the enthusiasm. Anyway, step onto the scale please," Matsuri was quick to do as she was told, stepping onto the scale and staying as still as possible so Shinji and Isane could get a proper measurement. Once all her numbers were determined, she moved out of the way for Ino, who stepped forward before anyone else could.

One by one, we all took our turns on the scale, staying still as the trainers took an accurate read on our measurements. Choji ended up being the last one to take his turn, and once he was done, the three trainers gathered to talk about the results in a corner of the room, leaving the rest of us to our own devices.

"What do you think they're talking about?"

"I don't know Naruto," I mumble as I watched the three converse, quite animatedly in fact. "For all I know, they're probably discussing the many ways they can torture us."

"It's definitely possible," I hear Gaara mutter as he comes up to us. "I've heard that Guy's training regimens can be quite an excruciating experience. I'm not looking forward to it."

"That doesn't make me feel better. Not one bit." I grumble as I spot Lee already doing some stretches nearby. "At least one of us looks happy to do this thing."

"He must be living the dream," I hear TenTen mumble. When I turned my head, she was standing on Naruto's other side, and Neji was standing right next to her. "You can tell how much he worships the man by how much he looks like him. He's pretty much Guy's mini-me!"

"You gotta appreciate the dedication though. Some people may call it creepy, others: hero worship, appreciation, or straight up obsession." Naruto sagely adds as the trainers finally break from their huddle.

"Ok everyone! It's safe to say that most of you fit the usual requirements agencies and designers look for, more or less, so congrats on that. However, just because you're in the required range doesn't mean you'll always stay there, and that's where diet, exercise, and people like us come in," Guy says with a smirk as he gestures to himself and his trainers. "Ok, I think we should start things off with a good ten lap run around the track. Then we'll come back in here for some calisthenics, and then we'll get you all on the machines. Let's move people!"

Turns out one of the windows of the back wall was a sliding door. Once Isane had it open, it was as if she was releasing a pack of wolves, with about a third of the boys racing ahead, leaving the rest of us in their collective dust.

"Boys! Always trying to show off!" I mumble as I got in line with Hinata, TenTen, and Temari, forming a little jogging group of our own.

"But is it really that surprising though?" Temari asks as we fall into a comfortable pace, nowhere close to the kind of speed Lee was utilizing to stay ahead of the rest of the pack. "They're boys! Wanting to one up each other is a part of their DNA. Look ahead of us right now. Lee may be running this fast just to impress Guy, but the ones running right behind him look like they're jockeying for second and third place as if it was first."

"Oh man, you're right." TenTen mumbles as we watch the front pack make the turn to the other side of the track. Lee was running way ahead of the rest of the competition, but Kiba, Suigetsu, Sasuke, Kankuro, Matsuri, Sakura, and my brother all jockeying for space in one big muddled group. "I'm shocked that no one in that group has even tripped yet."

"Yeah, lucky them," I mumble, just as Matsuri almost gets tangled up with Suigetsu. If she hadn't saved herself in time, she would have been kissing the asphalt, no doubt about it. "Ooh, that was a close one . . . Anyway, if they keep that pace up, they're going to run out of steam way too soon."

"Hell, they'll burnout before they reach the third lap." TenTen adds. "Why can't they jog like normal people?"

"Maybe they think there's some hidden challenge happening that we don't know about." Hinata kindly suggests as we move into the turn.

"It's possible Hinata. It wouldn't be the first time a hidden challenge has been sprung in this competition," I mumble, thinking back to all the hidden challenges that have appeared in the past. "However, I'm not sure they would be willing to spring one so early. For now, let's just get this over with as best we can."

"But in a way that would put us in a positive light with the trainers," TenTen quickly adds as we made the turn. "A hidden challenge may not happen this early, but hey, you never know right!?"

We all nodded in agreement, knowing that there was some truth to her words. We did well for ourselves through the ten-lap run, though it was a bit annoying to get lapped by Lee five times before we finished the course. However, it was funny that we ran past the lead group in a quick burst of speed to finish before them. Kankuro's and Naruto's faces were priceless!

"You should have seen the looks on your faces!" Temari belts out as we came to a stop just off the track. We were all winded from the run - some more than others - but Lee didn't even look like he cracked a sweat yet. Instead of resting like the rest of us, he was doing a couple of squats. "Like really now? With the way you guys were running, you should have known that you would slow down enough that people behind y'all would pass you by!"

"But did you have to show us up at the end though?!" he whines as Naruto looks on, shaking his head. "Not cool sis! Not cool!"

"It's y'all's fault for going so fast in the beginning!" TenTen argues as she stabs her finger into his chest. "Ever heard of pacing yourself?"

"But where's the fun in that?" he continues to complain. "When you're in a competition, you better be on your a-game all the time."

"You were never known for being a long-term kind of thinker Kankuro," Temari grumbles, her remark earning her the ire of her sibling. "You always think in the short term. . . Why can't you be like Gaara. He tends to think a lot more rationally on things compared to you, plus, he actually paces himself when he runs!"

She points to the redhead in question, who was still on the track, jogging at a more leisurely pace with Shikamaru, Neji, Shino, and Choji. Judging by how much they were slowing down, it was safe to say that they were coming to the end of their run.

"Ok, so he paces himself, I'll give him that, but dammit Tem! I can think long term too."

"Besides planning your next puppet, name one time you really thought long term?"

Kankuro didn't answer, but he did wear the face of a guy who knew he got caught and had nothing left to offer. He sulked until everyone else was done with their run, his face never changing till we were back inside. That was when Guy really started to put us through our paces.

Sit ups, pushups, jumping jacks, squats, knee bends, leg raises . . . every kind of stretch Guy could think of, he made us do at least twenty times. The worse one was the pull ups. Guy allowed us to go up to 10 for this one, knowing that it would be the toughest one we would do, but most of us failed to go past five. Lee, and surprisingly Neji, were the only ones to do all 10, with Kiba, Sasuke, and Naruto coming in second with nine a piece.

We had spent a good hour and a half going through all kinds of exercises - or pure, unadulterated torture, as Ino lovingly called it - before Guy finally gave us the a-ok to move on to the machines. He, Isane, and Shinji explained each machine before dividing us into two groups: upper body and lower body. Those who were put into the upper body group - me included - had to work on the machines that focused on the waist up. Those in the lower body group had to work waist down.

"What should I try first?" I mumble as I looked around, my eyes landing on the lat pull-down machines two rows away. Figuring that was the best one to go with - and the fact that no one else was making their way there - I made my way over to the closest machine as fast as my tired legs could carry me. Seeing that the machine was set to the lowest weight, I adjusted it to something I was more comfortable with before taking my seat.

"They say the lat pull-down is a great way to get ready for pull-ups. You'll need all the help you can get if you want to improve on that one."

The deep voice was coming from my left, so I turned my head to see Sasuke standing a little off to the side, Suigetsu and Karin standing right beside him. Suigetsu was looking smug for someone who only did three pull ups - he was most likely the one who spoke - and Karin looked way too tired to care about anything now, but Sasuke . . . well, he was watching me.

Like observing, carefully looking, studying competition watching.

"For someone that barely managed to do three, you should be eager as hell to improve on that front huh Suigetsu?" I say with a smirk, which only gets bigger when he scowled at my remark.

"Hm, you really can't argue with that," Karin mumbled as she walked away to one of the treadmills. "I knew you shouldn't be pushing your luck Suigetsu!"

"Then why didn't you say anything in the first place?!" he yells as he went after her.

"Because maybe I like to see you fail! Have you ever thought of that?"

Suigetsu loudly grumbled under his breath, but I did manage to catch a few words, most of them not being proper for any child if they heard it. As he walked away, I turned my attention to Sasuke, but he already had walked off toward the weight rack, not bothering to give me the time of day.

"Well . . . That was odd."

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