The room Naruto had found was large, very large in fact. There were two balconies on either side overlooking the tiled floor. At the end of the room was a statue of hands making the shinobi seal of confrontation and in its shadow was a throne.
"Wonder what this room is used for?" Kiba questioned.
"Probably for fighting evaluations, the Hokage sits there and watches the fights. Spectators stand in the balcony above or maybe other evaluators," guessed Shikamaru.
"Anyway, time to train," said Naruto, looking around the room. Naruto grinned and walked up one of the walls below the balconies. Naruto kept walking until he was hanging upside down.
"Ooh, you can walk up walls, you're so special," joked Kiba, laughing at his own joke.
Naruto glared for a moment before moving on to the reason he'd walked up there. He had to bonus stat points to earn. The funny looks stopped when Naruto did his first hanging sit-up.
Combining the training of two separate skills into one exercise causes your WIS to go up by 1.
Naruto smiled happily about that but continued with the exercise. He was surprised to see Kiba join him in the same exercise. He paused a moment to see what everyone was doing. Shikamaru was sprinting from one end of the room to the other. Hinata was going through some kind of kata he wasn't familiar with. Sakura and Ino were challenging each other running up and down the balcony stairs. On the other side of the room, Chouji and Shino were both running up and down the other balcony stairs but there was no challenge between them.
"Oi, if you keep spacing out, I'm going to beat you," said Kiba, drawing Naruto's attention.
"Beat me? At what?"
"Uh, the 'who can do the most hanging sit-ups challenge'," he answered quickly, a small quaver in his voice.
"You just made that up," said Naruto, narrowing his eyes and glaring at him.
"So?"
Naruto paused for a minute then shrugged. Kiba was right, it didn't matter if he just made it up, he just had to win and shut the mutt up once and for all.
The boys were determined to beat each other, so even after Naruto got his two points for strength he kept going. It was surprising to him that had gained another stat point, but this time for vitality. It just increased Naruto's determination to keep going to get that last point of vitality especially if he could beat Kiba in the process.
"Troublesome," complained Shikamaru, watching the two. "Hey, if you two are done being stupid, I had an idea."
"But I'm winning," they both said at the same time.
"Hah, as if," again in a single voice.
Before they could both retort again, Sakura jumped up and grabbed both of them by an ear, forcing them to let go of the balcony ceiling.
"Ow, Sakura-chan," pouted Naruto, rubbing his paining ear.
"So, I had a training idea," Shikamaru started, before anymore complaining or arguing could start.
"What have you got for us, Shikamaru?" asked Chouji, snacking on a bag of chips during the lull in activity.
"Shinobi tag," he answered seriously.
Kiba barked out a laugh.
"What are we, four?" asked Ino, crossing her arms and glaring at him.
"Why tag?" asked Sakura, she looked to be considering his suggestion.
"Dexterity training," said Shikamaru. "We can all improve our dexterity by playing shinobi tag. You can use [Chakra Speed] and [Tree Climbing] only. No fighting allowed, this has to be about control and finesse."
Kiba snorted rudely when he heard the word 'finesse'.
"Yes, Kiba, I said 'finesse' as in being delicate and not smashing everything in your path," said Shikamaru. "As to the rest of the rules, once you 'tag' someone you're out until the next round. Whoever lasts longest will be 'it' to start the next round. Any questions?"
"This may seem childish, however, logically this is most beneficial to our training as shinobi. Why? Increasing our dexterity and speed improves our chances of survival. However, would we not benefit more from having two of us being 'it' per round to make the rounds both faster and require us to pay more attention to those eliminated and who replaces them?" Shino didn't talk much or often but when he did, the guy had some really good suggestions.
"I like it," said Naruto, grinning. He really liked Shino's suggestion.
"Troublesome, he's right, it would be more beneficial," said Shikamaru. "A lot more work but definitely more beneficial. So, any volunteers to go first?"
"I will," squeaked Hinata, her voice soft, nervous, and gentle all at once.
"Me too," said Naruto, grinning. He'd go first this time. With the speed he expected this to proceed at it wasn't a big sacrifice if he was out first.
"Okay, then start," said Shikamaru, leaping away and putting on some speed.
"Let's get them, Hinata," crowed Naruto excitedly, giving immediate chase for Kiba.
Hinata nodded nervously then began her own chase, her target though was Sakura.
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