The next morning came early, and Sukuna was already at their usual training spot — a quiet clearing near the edge of the forest.
He expected Naruto to show up, and maybe Lee too, if he wasn't already halfway past the track, almost done with his run for the day and entering into his strength training regimen.
After all, those two never missed training.
But what surprised him was seeing Sasuke there by the time he arrived, already bickering with Naruto. There was someone else as well. Kiyomi.
Both were there in their training gear. It was clear that they were there to train...
"Troublesome..." Sukuna sighed.
Sasuke walked over with his usual grumpy face, arms crossed. Kiyomi followed, a little quieter, trying not to meet Sukuna's eyes.
Sukuna raised an eyebrow and looked at Sasuke. "So, you actually showed up. I wasn't expecting you here, honestly."
Sasuke huffed. "You said you had a training method that made you strong."
Sukuna snorted. "I was half-joking, you know. I didn't think the great Uchiha Sasuke would take me seriously."
Sasuke just narrowed his eyes and didn't say anything.
Sukuna then turned his gaze toward Kiyomi, who stood awkwardly beside her brother.
"Why are you here?" he asked, squinting.
Kiyomi looked away and mumbled, "No reason. I just wanted to… see how you train."
"Ah... is that so." He noticed the girl was much more at ease around him now. The fact that she too was wearing training gear wasn't lost on anyone, though.
Sukuna blinked, then shrugged. "Whatever."
The training was about to start — well, after ten more minutes of Naruto and Sasuke arguing about who was stronger.
Sukuna ignored them and began stretching.
Finally, the training kicked off.
"600 Push-ups, 600 Sit-ups, 600 Squats, and a 60-kilometre run for us three..." He looked at both Naruto and Lee.
"And you two start with 100 of each, followed by a 10-kilometre run..." He then addressed the Uchiha siblings.
"Tch... you think I can't do what this dobe here can do? I'll follow the same regimen as you all," Sasuke declared. Sukuna already had a premonition of how this would end.
"You sure? We've been training for a long time. It would be hard for you to start with something this intense. I'd advise you to change your mind." Sukuna at least tried to convince the duck-haired boy. If that darn Uchiha didn't accept his goodwill, then it wasn't his fault.
Sasuke soon learned that the training was harder than he anticipated it to be.
Sukuna's training was intense — sprinting uphill, push-ups on fingers, balancing with weights, and more running. No fancy jutsu. No flashy techniques. Just raw, brutal physical work.
Within minutes, Sasuke realized this wasn't what he expected.
'No wonder he beat me so easily,' Sasuke thought, gasping as he tried to keep up.
Kiyomi, on the other hand, surprised him.
She wasn't as fast as Sukuna or Lee, but she was keeping up — barely. Even Naruto, for all his goofiness, pushed past him.
But Sasuke? He was falling behind. His pride screamed at him to push harder, but his legs were giving out. His breath was short. His muscles were burning.
He hated it.
He hated falling behind.
Even his sister was doing better than him.
So, he pushed even harder. His arms trembled. His legs shook. He barely noticed when his vision started to blur.
By the time Sukuna called the end of training, Sasuke collapsed to the ground. Face down. Sweating. Gasping like a fish out of water.
He didn't complete the training — there wasn't enough time for that. Kiyomi, however, did. Her physical condition was far superior to his.
He couldn't help but grit his teeth.
Naruto plopped beside him, panting, "Man… that was awesome!"
Lee gave a thumbs-up with a sparkle in his eyes. "Youthful training! This is the path to strength!"
Kiyomi sat nearby, wiping her forehead with her sleeve. Though she pulled through the training, that was only because of her superhuman physical capabilities.
"Maki was amazing..." she muttered to herself. This was the first time she had exerted herself this much. She was a mess — her breathing was erratic, and her legs almost felt like giving up. However, she knew that for someone who kind of training for the first time, what she accomplished was, in a sense, a miracle.
No one was supposed to be able to do something like this on their first day.
The talk she had with Sukuna once again came to her mind. A combination of both, he said.
If what he said was true, then once again, Mai just realised how powerful her sister was. This wasn't the first time she noticed her own physical power — it had always been there. However, this was the first time she got to push this new body of hers this far.
It wasn't just Maki's heavenly restriction body that she had; she also possessed her own curse technique and cursed energy — if not more.
'I was just wasting this talent on nothing...' She pursed her lips. A resolve to get stronger was lighting up inside her.
However, just as the resolve came, it also vanished. Her eyes went to Sasuke. He couldn't even stand back up after the training ended. This training was too much for his relatively normal body.
She herself, as Mai Zenin, never found her body physically weaker than any normal person. However, it never compared to an absurd monster like Maki.
Maki was a monster by only relying on her physical power alone. That was her heavenly restriction.
However, this never made her physically weak — at least when it was compared to a normal person.
So, upon seeing Sasuke not being able to keep up, she didn't understand the real reason. She only thought that Sasuke's was the normal reaction — it was the current her or Maki back then who were strange.
Sukuna, however, knew better. Kiyomi might not understand, but Sukuna knew that comparing Sasuke's physical fitness with an average kid, even with chakra, was unfair.
He might not be a Senju or an Uzumaki, but as a Uchiha, his body should be far beyond any normal kid.
And yet, here Sasuke was, almost dying from this much training. Sukuna could only sigh and look towards Kiyomi.
This was the balance that had happened between them. Sukuna, unlike Kiyomi, had more insight on the matter thanks to his testing and actively looking for answers between him and Sakura.
"It's a completely opposite kind of heavenly restriction compared to me and Sakura. She was the one receiving the heavenly restriction in my case — gaining stronger physical power, almost similar to pre-awakened Maki — while I got most of the CE, or Yin energy.
However, in their case, it was Kiyomi who got the physical enhancement while still retaining more CE than Maki. However, definitely a large part of Yin energy has seeped inside Sasuke, if his early awakening of Sharingan was any indication." Sukuna could now see it.
How the heavenly restriction had worked out between both siblings — even when the exact twin curse wasn't active, being siblings had altered their fate.
He slowly walked up to the panting Sasuke and said, "You need more physical training. Don't push your body so much, or you'll just end up back in Konoha Hospital."
He pointed at Kiyomi. "Don't compare yourself to her; she has a stronger body." This snapped Kiyomi's attention toward him, a little anxious about what he might say to Sasuke.
Sasuke didn't like it one bit, but he wasn't in any condition to even retort right now.
"Listen... there are times when one sibling is better at one thing and the other at another. This is especially prominent between the two of you. She scored the lottery when it came to the body. Don't bother trying to compare yourself to that — she'll always be better than you as long as both of your efforts are similar..." Sukuna tried to explain without going into the entire Twin Theory he had. That would be troublesome.
Kiyomi, on the side, pursed her lips. She had long wished to tell the same thing to Sasuke — that she was cheating. But she couldn't. She had no idea how to explain it to him. He might have just thought she was trying to console him.
Sasuke, of course, was defiant. He couldn't speak right now, but his eyes said everything — he wouldn't listen.
"Sigh... troublesome Uchiha. If you wish to chase after someone like her, me, Naruto, or my sister, then do as you please. But it'll take you far more effort to be as good. Effort that you could put into something you're actually good at.
I bet you're great at Ninjutsu, right?" Sukuna, of course, didn't know that — he had never seen Sasuke use any Ninjutsu — but his logic had worked out so far, so he just made an educated guess.
And he was spot on. Sasuke's lips pursed. Because he was indeed gifted in Ninjutsu. So much so that at a young age, he came close to his Itachi, who was five years older than him.
"You can become far stronger if you put more effort into Ninjutsu and Genjutsu over Taijutsu." Sukuna, seeing the change in Sasuke's eyes, knew he hit the mark.
"However, my estimation stands. You need more physical training. The body is the foundation of everything, after all. But your real specialisation should lie in Ninjutsu.
As for what you decide to do, it's on you..." Sukuna commented offhandedly. This was his honest estimate. What Sasuke did after this was up to him. He didn't care.
"And you... both of you are welcome to join tomorrow as well if you wish." Sukuna looked at Kiyomi and said.
Both Kiyomi and Sasuke were left behind to ponder.
xxx
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