[Training] A Magician's Studies

[Nafan~]

Stat Training 1Show

Stat: Ninjutsu
Word Count: 1142/1000
Cost: 5 points

Senji's light footsteps made little sound as he moved down the hard stone road, through the mountain village toward the training grounds near the academy building. Senji planned to practice his ninjutsu tonight in order to reach his desired level of skill in his favourite area. It was getting late, but he preferred to do his training at night, it stopped him from getting all hot and sweaty. Soon, he arrived at the training fields, passing a few academy students and other Genin who had just finished their own practice sessions.

Taking a seat in the centre of the field, Senji folded his legs. Inhaling he reverently placed his hands together, exhaling while they descended toward his lap from his chest. With intense concentration he felt deep within himself, reaching with his mind to become aware of his chakra system. Senji was the best channeller of all the Genin in the village, a fact which stood as a testament to his outstanding chakra control. This merit was well earned, as he was soon aware of the coursing energy moving through his chakra network. The feeling of the combination of spiritual and physical power cascading through each point, welling at the gates before entering the next section. He followed this mystical river through to his centre, the origin of it all. Slowly he opened his eyes, peering out over the flattened surface that stood before him. He was ready to begin.

Slowly his left arm lifted palm downwards, twisting quickly as it reached the apex of its ascent. At this moment he commanded his chakra, his magical essence, to pulse up from its origin toward his shoulder and down through his arm to be released in a brilliant blue orb. It blasted up through the air, bursting at the end of its ten meter range. The sky was filled with an eerie blue hue as it exploded like a small firework and Senji felt his control over the chakra slip as it did so. Senji looked up slightly as the light faded with a smirk. His right hand moved now from where it lay in his lap. Two threads of chakra burst from between his fingers, spiralling around each other into the sky in a brilliant double helix. After cutting the chakra supplying them off, he followed up by flourishing his right wrist, causing the slowly fading chakra cords to erupt, bursting open in a similar explosion to the orb before. Senji bathed in the brilliant light, beginning to giggle as he created his own fireworks show.

He placed his hands together quickly, performing a string of hand seals. The way that hand seals interacted with and formed his chakra was so much different to when he was simply willing it into shape. The precise movements which had descended from ancestors centuries past caused predetermined reactions from the energy within him, calculated responses determined by some past scholar desperately grasping at newfound power. His chakra gathered beneath him, lifting him several inches off of the ground. The coating power around his legs and buttocks lifted him slowly from the smooth stone surface, giving him an unearthly appearance as his coattails trailed on the ground beneath him. Suddenly he thrust his legs out from beneath him, lifting him further off the ground to compensate for his added height. It was time for the finale.

Arms outstretched Senji poured chakra from his body, conscious of the rushing river that poured from all three hundred and sixty one points and positively erupt from the eight points known as the gates. Slowly it pooled on the ground below him, before he moulded it expertly into a massive circle that encompassed the floor of the training field. The circle gave off an unearthly glow, giving light to the otherwise dark training ground. A soft 'ooh' came from a group of Genin that had come to train much like Senji himself. The boy mage had to pause for a while as he gathered himself, concentrating on the depleting source of chakra within him. With immense effort, Senji pushed chakra out of him at a constant rate, casting a long string of ninjutsu in a magnificent display of lumiscent blue shapes that curled through the night.

Several casts of stellar swathe emerged from the edge of Senji's magic circle, arcing back toward the center in amazing swirls and elaborate loops. As they met above Senji's head he reached up to touch them as they twirled around eachother in a great knot. Further energy was expended as he forced chakra up his arm in a second stellar strike, touching the knot and carrying it further into the air before reaching its ten meter peak and exploding. The orb of chakra's sudden expansion was awesome to behold as the ropes of blue energy fizzled, slowly unravelling into shining particles from top to bottom. During this time, further spectators arrived as one of the Genin had run to get his friends. Senji had his own crowd to observe the light show as it unfolded in brilliance and grace.
Further channelling into the magic circle saw several tendrils of chakra reach up from beneath Senji, weaving and circling into a writhing orb of light around him. In his suspended state he closed in on himself, curling up into a small ball and shutting his eyes as he concentrated wholly on his next technique. Soon after the ball of squirming blue tentacles had formed, a burst of light pushed through a single part. Another beam of chakra emerged from another random point, shattering some of the ropes as it went. The entire orb began to shake as pressure welled up within it. With intense force the ball of chakra burst open, hurling a blue wave of light in all directions as Senji unravelled into a spread-eagled position slightly off the ground. The chakra slowly faded, the previous darkness returning to the training field.

No longer able to sustain it, the magic circle shattered into small blue particles starting from the outermost ring. Just as the point directly below him had dissipated his feet touched the ground signalling the end of his hover jutsu as well. As his weight transferred to his legs, Senji found his knees could not support him and he fell to the ground quite awkwardly. He realised that in the heat of the moment, he had forgotten to breathe. Applause erupted from the small crowd that had watched his display, with much whistling and cheering. With a hand on the ground he tried and failed to stand, rocking back into a sitting position. Breathing heavily, Senji placed his hand on his forehead trying to dispel the haze between his ears. Instead of clearing, it only intensified and he continued on his backward fall, lying splayed out on the ground completely exhausted.

[Nafan~]

Stat Training 2Show

Stat: Ninjutsu
Word Count: 1169/1000
Cost: 5 points

With a spring in his step Senji walked quickly down one of the busier streets of Kumogakure. He was headed to the hospital today to train his Iijutsu, and the thought of helping people in need was cheering him up considerably. As he travelled toward his destination he got a few looks because of his weird clothes, but he was used to people disagreeing with his tastes. Following recent events, there had been quite a few people in critical condition in the hospital, and their welfare was much more important than Senji's fashion sense. At least, that's what the little Genin thought.

After arriving at the hospital, Senji waved his way through the doors with a simple gesture towards the Kumagure symbol stitched into the front of his massive blue hat. He moved through the sterile environment looking for his usual supervisor in order to sign on for the morning. With a deep breath he breathed in the scent of disinfectant and sickness. The contrast of the two in the same place always seemed ironic to Senji, to have the totally spotless and the very dirty in such close proximity. After finding the man, he was given a room to report to in order to see the person within. However, on his way over an elderly man called out for help from his wife's bedside.

Senji hurried over, losing his hat in his rush. As he arrived he looked at the woman, realising she was having trouble breathing. He performed his hand seals carefully, doing his best not to lose his calm as the woman struggled for breath. Chakra coursed through his body, travelling form point to point as it moved from his abdomen up through his arms. A green haze appeared in his palms as he leaned over the woman, placing them on her chest. The chakra came into contact with her clothing and passed right through, penetrating through her skins pores to enter her body. Senji forced his energy through the layers of gelatinous fat and aged, tired flesh to reach the heart and lungs beneath it all. The chakra stimulated the lungs and forced itself up through her throat, expelling all the fluid and any possible blockages in her airways. It also reached inside her heart, touching each cell that passed through it, oxygenating it through Senji's chakra rather than through the function of the lungs. As she recovered, Senji slowly retracted his jutsu, feeling the energy move back out of her chest. He was careful not to rush, just in case he caused some kind of instability in her body.

After being thanked by the old couple for his assistance, Senji moved on to where he was supposed to be. As he entered the cubicle, he was dismayed by what he saw. A shinobi laid in a hospital bed, unconscious. The bandages and stitching covering his body made it obvious that the man had been brought in here a few hours ago, but his wounds weren't closing because of his almost constant movement. Senji moved over to stitch up the wounds that had opened as sympathy filled his heart. The poor man couldn't get comfortable in the bed, but couldn't move to a comfortable place because it opened his wounds. Green chakra flooded up through his body again. He concentrated intensely to force the required energy up through his shoulders and into his arms. Every point in his chakra system responded in turn to the energy flowing through the system as Senji cast his jutsu, covering his hands in preparation for treatment. Senji moved forward to place his finger on one side of a wound. Slowly he criss-crossed chakra in a pattern across the wound, before pulling it through to close it up. The chakra stitches closed the wound mostly, but it still wept blood slowly. Senji performed another set of hand seals, channelling chakra through to his hands once more. He placed his palms on the patient, sending his energy into the wound. The chakra moved amongst the red blood cells, stimulating them to coagulate and form a scab in order to seal the blood beneath inside the shinobi's body. This fully sealed the wound, keeping it totally closed and preventing it from leaking, which would lead to anaemia in the patient.

After examining the patient again, now that his largest gash had been closed, he realised there was a large burn on the man's chest. Forming a series of hand seals, Senji channelled chakra through to his hands once more. A bead of sweat broke out on his forehead, a symbol of the exertion of energy required to cast jutsu consecutively like this. With a green aura surrounding his palms, Senji placed his hands on the burn and began to generate skin on the area of the otherwise sparingly treated wound. Senji could feel the chakra moving over the wound and approaching the existing skin surrounding it. He commanded it to mingle with the skin, and enter its cells. A confident smile crept over his face as he watched the skin slowly grow in towards the centre of the wound. The chakra reacted with the cells on an individual basis, instigating mitosis for each of them and providing the required energy to massively increase its regeneration speed. Slowly the skin began to knit together in a scar, slowly approaching a point at which the skin would meet and completely seal the tender flesh of the burn.

Turning over and washing his hands, Senji prepared to leave. That was when the male shinobi woke up. "Please.." he said, "Stop the pain." Tears came to Senji's eyes as he pivoted on his heels. He couldn't just stand by while this man suffered. His heart threatened to burst out of his chest, such was the pain of his sympathy. A few quick steps saw him by the man's side once more, and he performed another set of hand seals, feeling the toll of spending even more chakra. He became slightly light headed, but he didn't care. The chakra wove its way through his fingertips and into the man's body. Slowly he concentrated until the chakra forked out between the flesh of his entire torso. With extensive effort, Senji concentrated the chakra down into the nervous system, blocking off the bio-electrical signals which would carry pain back to the man's brain. Even though he knew the jutsu would not be able to take away all of his pain, it was all he could do to lessen it for the poor man at the moment. It was a temporary relief, a futile act of kindness that would change nothing. Senji felt the chakra flow stem as the jutsu was complete, the contact breaking off from his palms.

On his way out of the hospital, he grabbed his hat and buried his face in it. Soon after leaving via the front door, Senji had to sit down on a bench outside. Tears soaked through the fabric as he sobbed, distraught at the unfairness of the world.

[Nafan~]

Sensory Training 1Show

Jutsu: Beyond Senses
Word Count: 1577/1500

Senji sat in the middle of his bedroom on the floor, various books and utensils shoved atop his bed in order to make sufficient room on the carpeted floor for him to sit. Before him was a single scroll, unfurled and revealing to him the exact method to perform the first technique of the Mind's Eye Sensory style, Beyond Senses. Senji's mother had prepared the scroll for him, after he had expressed an interest in the sensory arts. He had made his way straight up to his room from the ground floor in order to excitedly begin his study of his new skill.

Senji studied the scroll intently, reading each word as if it were a command from the gods themselves. The scroll's instructions were read once, twice, and three times before Senji even thought about trying what it explained to do. The scroll explained that in order to begin to sense the world around him through Mind's Eye, he would have to send his own chakra out around him. Having always been adept at chakra control, he had no qualms about that. However, the concept of feeling other's chakra with his own was foreign to him, as he had never really been able to feel through his chakra before. Senji pursed his lips as he looked over the scroll again and again. No matter how many times he read it, he couldn't grasp an understanding of exactly how he was meant to feel with his chakra. He had only ever had that vague awareness of ones own chakra as most ninja can manage.

Senji shrugged as he realised that there was no way for him to get a theoretical grasp upon what he was supposed to be doing, so he'd just have to give it a crack. He performed the string of hand seals that the scroll outlined for him, channelling his chakra throughout his system. His chakra seeped through his skin, moving through the air slowly as Senji carefully concentrated on his chakra's feeling. His chakra extended out in wispy tendrils, moving through the walls and out to create a field. Suddenly, the chakra dissipated, recoiling back into Senji's body as he failed to correctly cast the technique. After a small gasp, Senji bit his lip in frustration. He hadn't even managed to create the field, let alone feel through it.

With a grunt, he began to perform the hand seals once again. His chakra moved slowly from his tenketsu, into the air surrounding him. This time, he concentrated more on rounding out the chakra to allow it to spread evenly through the distance. The chakra moved slowly out from his body, moving toward the walls of his room. It passes low into the ground floor below him, and his mother noticed. As the chakra extended around him be began to concentrate more on the effect of the chakra itself. The chakra reached out to the 25 yard mark, and began to seal itself properly into a solid sphere. The chakra knit itself together smoothly, connecting slowly as Senji concentrated as hard as he could on the chakra's movements. He felt a pulse run through it as the sphere completed itself, sealing itself properly in a stable state unlike his previous attempt. His conciousness touched his sphere of chakra, as it tried to connect with the movements of the strange form of energy. His chakra began to waver as his concentration changed from sustaining the orb to connecting his senses to his chakra. After noticing the flaw, Senji turned his attention over to maintaining the orb and unfortunately rushed the process, causing his senses to split from the chakra as he'd tried to connect them. The recoil from the sudden severance caused a lance of pain to pierce his mind, dropping his concentration altogether.

Senji clasped his head in pain, rolling around the floor of his room as he kicked in the air, trying to dispel the headache that held him firmly in its grasp. After a few moments of shaking off the pain, Senji laid spread eagled on the floor, trying to get his intellectual bearing. He had managed to fail twice now, and he looked despairingly up at the ceiling. His mind was in turmoil as he considered what he should do next. Normally chakra control was his speciality, but somehow this new version of ninjutsu was almost entirely different from everything he had attempted before. Why can't I get this? he considered in torment. He reached up and pulled his hat down over his face as he bit his lip to prevent himself from sobbing. Tears of frustration welled up in his eyes. Ninjutsu was his life, it was all he was interested in and all that he had ever thought of himself doing. Having so much trouble with Sensory techniques, a school of jutsu that stood at the pinnacle of chakra control, was a massive blow to Senji's pride, as he had placed much stock into his chakra abilities. He took a few moments to just lay and breathe, stopping himself from becoming incredibly distressed. He cursed himself for being so emotional, especially after so silly as failing only twice.

After his break of consideration over his problems performing the technique, Senji sits up on the spot to stare at the wall instead. He read the scroll one more time, considering exactly what his mother had written out for him. He carefully practised the hand seals one more time as a trial run, just to make sure he didn't screw it up this time. Then, he began again, performing them at a natural speed this time, sending chakra out of his body to form the orb again. The chakra moved across through the 10 feet range, Senji carefully keeping his eye on the extension of the chakra emanating from his body. Carefully, cautiously and slowly, Senji approached the maximum 25 yard range with his orb of chakra. The small boy breathed in slowly, before exhaling at a gradual pace to refocus his mind on the task at hand. Senji carefully interwove his chakra in a complex pattern to stabilise the sphere around him so that it could hold its shape despite his slightly diverted attention. He quickly seeped his chakra into his own body at the same time, attempting to attach it to his senses. He concentrated on his inner mind, trying to open up his sixth sense within his body in order to feel for the chakra around him. He patiently concentrated on reaching down inside himself, trying to reach for a deep connection to his chakra that went beyond the normal conscious awareness of his combined spiritual and physical energies.

As he inhaled once more, Senji found a spark of something different inside him. Reaching desperately for it, Senji approached this small seed of ability stored deep within him as he reflected quickly within his own mind. As his chakra touched the sense within him, he finally awakened his sensory power, connecting it with his chakra. After intense concentration and long deliberation, Senji slowly wove his chakra in and around this newly found ability within him. He could feel his energy circling and moving through each tenketsu as he attempted to project his senses through his chakra, in order to use his weak, newly awakened sixth sense through sensory ninjutsu. A wave of awareness shuddered through his chakra sphere, moving slowly outwards at a slow pace. The encroaching awareness moved throughout his projected chakra, completely ignoring solid surfaces, objects and other living creatures. Fortunately, his mother passed just underneath his feet, well within the ten feet range of the total awareness range of the technique he was attempting to master. The single wave of knowledge and awareness that he had managed to connect for a moment touched his mother briefly, alerting him to her chakra. Upon encountering the chakra of his mother, he was able to make out her position and the shape of the swirling power within her body. The sudden feeling surprised him, and he opened his eyes with a quick gasp.

He felt his grasp over the chakra sphere that surrounded him waver, and his ability to feel anything within the range of his incomplete technique was lost completely. Senji quickly closed his eyes again, attempting to regain control over his wayward technique. He focussed all of his available concentration into his final attempt at the sensory technique, reinstating his power of the chakra sphere that extended out from him. He reached again, deep inside himself for the source of that sixth sense that he had managed to access earlier and project through his chakra. Senji's sense seeped out through the chakra field, moving in a slow wave through to the ten feet mark, giving him total awareness throughout that area. With a slow, focussed effort Senji forced his sense to extend beyond the ten feet mark, moving at a weakened state through to the twenty five yard extreme of the chakra sphere that enveloped him. With a massive grin and a cry of elation, Senji realised that he had succeeded in learning his first Sensory technique. He jumped up and threw his arms wide for emphasis, which caused him to lose the technique. He dropped his arms bashfully as he realised he'd cancelled his own technique with his jubilation. With a bashful rub of the back of his head, Senji packed his stuff up as he got ready for the day.

[Nafan~]

Stat Training 3Show

Stat: Genjutsu
Word Count: 1020/1000
Points: 5

Senji stood up and stepped away from the bench he had been sitting upon until a moment before. He had just decided that instead of lazing around like a bum, he should totally go do some training. So off he went down the path to find a suitable training partner. Why did he need a partner while he usually just trained by himself? Well you see, this time he was training genjutsu, and that generally required a soft, malleable mind to practice on. So, Senji walked down the way until he found an awesome other genin. Upon meeting he immediately asked them if he would subject himself to being a training dummy for Senji to practice some genjutsu. Any normal person would obviously just say no, but this idiot did. Senji sat the other boy down and prepared for a long, rigorous, repetitive training session that would feel like absolute death to write an account of.

So, Senji thought he would start by casting that one, single genjutsu he had current and complete mastery over. Senji checked his partner was ready before he began his casting. With a slight intake of breath, he closed his eyes to begin the channelling. He steadied his breathing with a meditation technique so that he could focus his concentration. He felt down within himself, forcing his mind into introspective thought. He felt his chakra within him flowing through the tenketsu, moving around his body. With an application of his will he began to force it from its natural pathways, as you do with any and all jutsu casting. The only difference being that this technique did not actually require hand seals. He felt his chakra change from it's natural pathways of bouncing from point to point throughout his chakra network. He willed the energy to leave his body, take from his flesh and exude itself from his flesh into the air around him. The blue halo that surrounded him betrayed the fact that he was casting a technique as he stood there, channelling his chakra. The luminous aura that surrounded him flashed as the chakra began to diffuse more naturally into the air and toward his target.

Carefully, so careful as to not disturb his chakra flow, he raised his hands to chest height. The hands hung there momentarily as he focussed his chakra quite thickly into those small, soft palms. With a sudden opening of his eyes, he slammed them together in a loud clap. The reverberating wave of sounds shuddered its way through the air charged with Senji's spiritually focussed chakra. The energy was invisible as it was carried by the vibrating sounds as they flew their way toward the boy, his heart prepared to undergo a terrible genjutsu of unknown proportions. The sound rung in his ears as it reached him, circling around and around in his eardrum. The chakra riding on the sound injected itself into the target's brain, influencing their senses. There was a moment of struggle as the boy's chakra system resisted Senji's influence, before giving way through to Senji's power. The Genjutsu took full control of the boy and began to change his ocular sensory stimuli. Before his eyes the target saw a flash of light about the same as a single standard issue pre-written flash tag. As his chakra calmed down, Senji watched the older boy's eyes widen and the pupils dilate before returning to normal. The other boy smiled and praised Senji on his innovative custom created genjutsu, and to create one before learning any of the mainstream techniques was, supposedly, really impressive.

However the other boy stepped forth and began his own hand seals with a mischievous grim. "My turn." He said before he turned and ran away. Senji had no idea what the other boy was on about until he tried to catch up. The buildings on the street side loomed above him as he sped after his training partner. No matter how many streets he turned or alleyways he entered everything looked the same. It was befuddling. How could he have possibly gotten lost in his own home city? Then it struck him. He was caught in the other boy ninja's skilled genjutsu. Senji placed his hands together and made the correct hand seals for the genjutsu release technique, something taught in all shinobi schools all over the world. Each sign invoked a different movement of the chakra that flowed throughout his body, flitting from tenketsu to tenketsu. His chakra, his energy, his life force exuded itself from his body in a vain attempt to break the enchantment that so strongly held his mind. He thought he had felt it move correctly, felt the confusing spell lift, but he was wrong. As he ran off again the streets continued in their traitorously monotonous appearance.

Senji growled furiously in base annoyance and profound frustration as he set his hands to work a second time. He tried to force his chakra to work against the illusory visions he saw about him, to break free from its predetermined movements controlled by his temporary adversary. He concentrated hard on controlling his energy, on grasping firm control over his chakra from its genisis in his stomach. With each hand seal he paused, attempting to force the movements through sheer iron will and focussed, unwavering concentration. With a great heave something clicked. He felt his chakra move just as he wanted it to. He felt the opposing force that held his mind and body in a devilish charming trance give way to his valiant, persistent efforts. The illusionary mirage that had plagued him for the last few minutes of little Senji's life cracked at the seems, before it seemed that the whole world shattered around him. As the pieces of his training partner's supplied genjutsu fell apart completely, the world returned to normal. The buildings no longer loomed impossibly overheaad, nor did they seem unfamiliar or endless in number. He turned on his heels and walked back to where he had left his partner, a grin on his face. He had managed to break his first genjutsu, and he was mighty proud.

[Nafan~]

Stat Training 4Show

Stat: Strength
Word Count: 836/800

Senji had spent some time wondering about how he could stop himself from being quite so pathetic in terms of physical strength. He knew he had absolutely no talent for Taijutsu or anything even slightly related to physical combat. Throwing kunai and shuriken, punching, jumping, running, his body was quite possibly in the worst possible shape for a shinobi, short of being ridiculously obese. He was short, and skinny, and was basically skin and bone with almost no muscle mass. He had been teased for it during his academy days, in the same way that children always tease, with taunting words and scathing remarks. It was only now that he had actually begun his life as a shinobi that he realised jsut how right their cries of 'weakling' and 'pathetic' were. So, the boy magician decided that today was the day he was going to do something about that. He would shut up those nagging voices in the back of his head once and for all.

There he stood, in the middle of the training grounds. It had been so long that he had tried to build some kind of strength that he had actually forgotten how he should go about it. He decided that some push-ups would probably be a good start. He laid himself down perpendicular to the ground, flat on his stomach. His arms he lifted to be beside him, out ninety degree angles from his shoulders and palms face down on the ground. He began to exert all of his effort into forcing his arms straight, pushing down against the cold stone beneath him. A few struggling grunts were emitted from his throat as he pushed himself up from the ground, forcing his body millimetre by millimetre off the ground. It took him a while, a lot longer than it should have, but he finally completed his very first push up in two years since his graduation from the academy. And boy did he hate every moment of it. Senji then carefully lowered himself back down to the ground so as to not bash his head into the grey rock below him. His hat flopped into his eyes momentarily as he lowered himself ever so slowly onto the ground. He felt every muscle in his arms scream for relief as it held his body aloft. Holding the boy up off the ground was the legs job, and his arms were incredibly bitter about being forced to substitute. They screamed in retaliation and burned him for daring to put them under such intense pressure and strain. They were weak arms, pampered arms, arms for reading and learning, not arms for such coarse things as physical labour.

Then Senji repeated the process all over again. He forced his little shoulders to push down onto his arms, which then pushed themselves against the ground. Despite the constant pain and torturous complaints from his body, the boy magician managed to complete a second push up. And a third. He continued and actually managed a full ten before his stamina fell out from just how weak he was. He plopped ungracefully down onto the ground and felt his lungs burn, while he gasped desperately to regain his breath. He laid there for a while, refusing to move his sore body more than necessary to simply continue being alive. Clearly he had left it far too long since he had last done any kind of physical training. His lack of physical strength was a testament to just how much he had neglected his body, and for just how long.

The boy was determined not to lose to simple negativity though. Not a second time. He rolled over and placed his hands back on the ground, body stretched out and ready to start again. Senji forced his barely existent muscles back to work, pushing himself up off the ground again. His arms wobbled and wavered as he tried to lift himself up from the cold ground, and he clenched his jaw to force them to hold him up above it for even just a short time. The boy magician began to lower himself down to the ground and his left arm gave way, so he knocked his head on the uncovered ground below. With a short exclamation of "Ow!" Senji put his hands back in position and simply breathed for a bit, readying himself to continue the gruelling ordeal he was putting himself through.

This was not the only day that Senji did this, however, such a single time could not increase his strength truly. He came back to the training ground every day for weeks to simply do push ups until his arms would just refuse to work. Each time he slipped and hit the ground he would get back up and continue going. Over time he came to be able to do more push ups at once than he would ever have thought he would do, and he smiled. Soon, he would catch up to his old classmates, that would show them.