The golden morning rays fell onto Kuroichi's face, beckoning him to get up. As the birds chirping got louder and even squinting his eyes didn't help against the light anymore, Kuroichi was eventually forced to get up.
A few days had passed since the spectacle with the mother boar, and even though he had overcome the incident, mentally speaking, by now, for the most part at least, it still left a lasting impact on him. It gave him a wake-up call about how quick he could lose his life again. so he decided to be more cautious moving forward.
The following days Kuroichi was much more careful in choosing which animal to try to hunt. His aim had gotten a bit better throughout the days, but not enough to make an actual deep impact on his effectiveness.
While he didn't have an abundance of food readily available at any moment, he did have enough to survive, so by now he had already trained his body a few times.
That took more hard work than expected, plus the recovery period felt slow to him. He deeply felt his new youth during moments like that. He knew that it would get better and easier with time, however even in his previous life Kuroichi was not much of a sport enthusiast. The most he'd voluntarily do were some push-ups at 3am in the morning, whenever he got a random burst of motivation.
This meant that consistently working out was something he just had to get used to. There were people like Might Guy, who took their physical power to the extreme, he could not allow himself to fall behind. Generally, taijutsu was one of the most important things any ninja should be strong at, and even at the highest levels possible, the sixth path's level and above, taijutsu became even more important. Fighters on that level could almost always ignore normal ninjutsu. The only things really effective being shinjutsu, fuinjutsu and taijutsu, for the most part at least.
Kuroichi started his workouts with running, simple yet effective. He planned to also incorporate obstacle courses as well as speed/stamina challenges soon.
'I can only try to do everything as smartly and efficiently as possible since I don't have anyone teaching me..' Kuroichi thought as he contemplated his training progress.
As mentioned before, it had only been a few days, but slowly, day by day Kuroichi was beginning to build up his routine.
In the mornings he'd still practice chakra control. The pure concentration needed during his chakra control exercise was a lot, and he always felt that in the mornings his effective span of concentration was larger compared to later during the day.
Actively controlling and manipulating his chakra had become a lot easier by now, the time the leaf stuck to Kuroichi's forehead had been improving consistently. He could already hold it for a few minutes without problem. By then it truly turned into more of a concentration exercise.
'Concentration is still incredibly important for me, any aspiring shinobi really. I need to be able to hold the leaf to my forehead for an unlimited amount of time without even really having to think about it. That is my goal for now!'
As Kuroichi kept performing the leaf concentration exercise, his mental resilience kept increasing bit by bit, but eventually it had become too much for him, making it hard to focus at all.
He took a well deserved rest.Ripping a few dried pieces of meat from the leftover bones sitting close to the embers, that were still alight from last night. Like this, Kuroichi relaxed for a while to get ready for his next training session.
While his body was adapting, not much could truly change withing only a few days, so there was still a long way to go before he reached the standard where he wanted to be.
'No way around it. Let's go!' He thought as he mentally prepared himself for what came next.
Running, then sprinting, again and again and again until he truly couldn't anymore was already exhausting enough. Forcing himself to then also do different exercises that improved mobility and strength was pure torture, for his current level at least.
As the sun began to set, Kuroichi luckily had enough leftover meat from the day before to eat well. Tomorrow he'd have to go hunting again, but for that evening he could just rest, gaining enough strength to do it all over again tomorrow.
He finished the day by meditating, keeping up with the practice he started. It was a good way to regain control, not just over his body, but especially his mind. He could feel all the stress he accumulated training himself over the day simply wash away, following the calming flow of chakra within himself.
As Kuroichi's mind began to settle down for the night, getting ready to fall asleep he couldn't help himself from thinking of all the crazy experiences he had over the past few days.
From getting killed, then dying to almost turning crazy in the void, and then being reincarnated on top of that. Then actually just being alive in the world of Naruto was already intensive enough as it is. The thought of the Ōtsutsuki Clan and enhanced humans on the same level as them again made anxiety bubble up inside of him, but there was nothing he could do about it for now instead of just getting stronger. Strength was the prerequisite for anything in a world like this.
Kuroichi's thoughts wandered to the very real issue of him having to live here in this forest for who knows how long. Other children his physical age were already getting instructions by their respective clans and he'd have to teach it to himself.
'No I chose it this way! I have to remember that. A little more hardship now makes me have much more potential for strength later on. Also there are children in this world as well as my old one that had it way worse than me right now, can't forget about that.
I'd rather train and sleep in the forest with no one around than fighting to survive in some war torn land teeming with foreign shinobi right now.'
With thoughts such as these rolling through his mind, he eventually fell asleep as he lay curled up in his makeshift shelter.