Dragon Falls, Beast Awakens: A Tale of Young Okuri

The chunnin exam finals. The most prestigious military festival a feudal lord could attend. Jounin and ANBU exams were kept secret, as to keep the enemies of any particular village guessing at their true power. The chunnin exams, however, were not so dark, and viewed as a celebration of the treaties between the hidden villages.

Okuri was attending the finals…heck, he was participating in them! And so there was born the reason for his extreme training.

200 push ups and sit ups after every meal, and 150 jumping jacks every waking hour, on the hour. Then he’d carry out his normal training regime, except he’d try to complete it in half the usual time. Additionally, everytime he took a break-to eat, to drink, or just to rest-he’d run up and down a tree 5 times. And although it almost killed him, it had made him much stronger.

2 days before the finals began, Okuri forced his eyes open. Today was going to be another day of training, harder than the last. He was about to crawl out of bed when he heard the voice again.

“Don’t even bother pup.”

Okuri moaned. “Now what do you want? You said I had to get stronger….”

“Oh, you got stronger alright. In fact, you won’t be able to get any stronger for a while yet.”

Okuri attempted to move again.

“AREN’T YOU LISTENING!?!!? TRAINING WILL DO YOU NO MORE GOOD!!”

“I need…to train…to stay this strong.”

The voice chuckled. “That’s your concern? Very well then. I’ll see too it that you never grow weak again.” Suddenly pain was pulsing throughout Okuri’s body. He tried to scream, but his mouth wouldn’t open. Slowly, the pain faded, and the voice spoke again. “There. I just altered every muscle in your body. They’ll never shrink. From this point, you can only grow stronger, and I’ll do this again everytime you do. Of course, I’ll do it so often, you’ll never notice.”

“What??! You…control my body?!?! Fix my hunger! PLEASE!! I beg you….”

“After all the trouble I went through giving it to you? I think not.”

“What?!? WHY?!?!”

“It’s my way of making sure you’re always feeding yourself. Now, go to sleep, pup. You’ll need to if you’re going to fare well at the chunnin exams.”

And with that, Okuri lost his consciousness.