"Um... Claire-chan?"
"Yeah?"
"You're eating more than usual."
Yokka stared wide-eyed at the bowl of rice on Claire's part of the table. She never asked for second servings!
"Am I?" she asked, shoveling another mouthful of rice into her mouth. "I'm probably just growing. I'll be taller than you in no time, heh."
"No waaay!"
"So, uh... Claire, how has the hospital treated you?" Ren asked from the side with a small frown, tilting his head. "They're scary. I heard they've got needles and all sorts of pointy stuff."
"Yeah, plus... you had us really worried. I didn't even know you were going through all of that while talking to me," Yokka muttered, slumping onto the table. 'Even though I kind of suspected it, the way you were acting.'
Claire took a moment to finish eating the last few bites of rice on her bowl, before setting the chopsticks down.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, guys. It was kind of terrifying," she admitted. In truth, it really was, all things considered. "Like you're dreaming, but... not? It's hard to describe, honestly."
"That really does sound scary...! Still, I'm glad that you're alright, Claire." Ren said with a reassuring smile.
Yokka wasn't very fond of the answer, though.
"Well, I don't care!" Yokka exclaimed, clearly exasperated. "Don't scare us like that again, dummy!"
In fact, the moment Claire returned from the hospital, Yokka was practically all over her out of sheer worry. She recalled how much the girl complained about missing her. It was almost heartwarming.
"...Crybaby."
"Who are you calling a crybaby?!"
///
Two months and a half before the admission exams began. That was how much time Claire estimated she had left, considering how much she already wasted.
'Getting into the academy is essential if I want any kind of backing in the future. As an orphan, if I fail the exam, that means staying an ordinary civilian for the rest of my life, and that's kind of bad, for several reasons. Protection, influ—influence? Yes, influence, that's the word. I'm gonna need plenty of all that stuff if I wanna get far.'
That was her reasoning for starting her training as soon as she could.
Initially, she began running with the other children at the playgrounds, masking it as a simple 'chase' game. The caretakers didn't mind, as long as they didn't cause trouble or get hurt.
Why specifically running and not actual exercise?
That had one simple explanation.
Her stamina.
Along with needing to build her speed, being bedridden for a week really did a number on your body. So, plenty of her stamina had been lost, and as a result of that, she ran out of breath quite easily.
As a solution, she decided that running would be the best for building it back up. It was an excellent exercise, specifically for that task.
Actually starting physical exercises out of nowhere would be too suspicious. Why would this child suddenly start conditioning herself with such unnatural conviction? She'd have to ask the matron for help on that—or maybe they'd instruct them later on?
It was kind of weird how no one else seemed concerned about preparing themselves for the Academy, after all. Like they're betting it all on luck.
Not like it mattered, either way. As long as you weren't an insanely lazy idiot like Shikamaru, you'd easily pass both the physical conditioning test and whatever other test there could be.
'Still have no idea how that guy managed to scrape through the academy with such poor work ethic. I don't care if he's a genius and has an IQ of 200, you cannot possibly tell me he actually got through the admission exam like that!'
Setting that thought aside, she gave it one week. If they didn't do anything by then, she'd ask the matron directly.
For now, the plan was simple: run until her legs gave out and her lungs felt like they were about to burst, rest, then keep running. Obviously, this came with a few flaws—mainly, the kids around her weren't exactly dedicated. They'd give up halfway, complain about being tired, or simply stop treating it seriously.
The days passed by quickly, and Claire noticed one very important thing. In this world, one could improve far quicker when it came to their own physicality! In barely five days, she regained most of her stamina, and even felt slightly faster. If she had to estimate it, it would be around a 15% increase?
Not to mention, the baseline was higher. One could easily run a kilometer on a child's body if they truly gave it their all, which was kind of terrifying.
During this time, she also tried feeling her chakra core. Unsurprisingly, despite her efforts... she still had no luck unlocking it. So, that meant no access to it until later on, sadly.
She secretly hoped they would have some kind of specialist for that stuff, otherwise, she was basically done for!
A few more days passed.
Much to her surprise, the older children that aged between 6-7, including herself, Yokka and Ren, were made to gather in the courtyard one morning, and the younger ones stayed inside the orphanage.
There, the matron—Lady Hoshino, talked to them once again about the upcoming exams, as expected. She instructed them to listen carefully, and that they did, as those would be the last two months before they were actually tested for entry into the famed Academy.
After thoroughly explaining about everything, they were made to undergo their first group assessment.
It was just a simple test to see where everyone stood physically, really. They were lined up to run laps around the courtyard, which was significantly smaller than the playground, but still decently spacious. Around 500 cubic meters in size, Claire estimated.
If you did the math, that meant each lap was around... 90 meters? Considering that it was a rectangle, that honestly wasn't too bad. You'd have to be incredibly lazy to actually struggle with that distance.
"I can't go no more...!"
"Me neither...!"
She quickly noticed quite a few kids already tapping out due to exhaustion.
'Damn, it's barely the sixth lap and they're already dropping the run?' Claire thought, jogging as she glanced behind her.
However, Yokka and Ren were still in, along with around 6 other children. Those were the ones she often played chase with, so she honestly wasn't very surprised to see them—
"I-I caught up to you!"
Yokka gasped out beside her with a grin.
That didn't last long, however, as Claire decided to pick up the pace a little out of sheer pettiness for apparently no reason.
"Wha—Claire!!" Yokka yelped, pumping her arms harder in response as Claire got further away from her. "Rude!"
"Good luck catching up now, ahahaha!"
Messing with people was fun, truly!
By the 7th lap, Yokka dropped out, completely done and fatigued. Only Ren and 3 other kids remained.
'My legs are starting to burn and I'm really feeling the exhaustion. I can still keep going, so long as I control my breathing. I'm pretty sure that's important if one wants to conserve stamina? These memories are so confusing!'
She shook her head, and kept running.
Another lap, another one bites the dust. Claire, Ren and two last kids remained running!
"Is this why you always take chase so seriously...?!" Ren asked beside her between labored breaths, clearly struggling to keep moving.
"Maybe...!" She shot back, feeling the burn intensify. A few more laps, and she'd be done in.
"Hoshino-san, no more!" one of the struggling kids cried out, collapsing to the ground with a wheeze.
Thus, only Claire, Ren, and the last child were left.
'Though, I can't help but get a bad feeling about this. Why? It's just running, so there's really no reason to worry.'
She furrowed her brows as she pressed onward.
Ren finally gave up by the 9th lap, along with the other kid. Claire, however, kept moving!
However, though...
'Oh crap, I'm done.'
On the 11th lap, her legs gave out and she dramatically flopped onto the ground, rolling once before sprawling her limbs out like a Family Guy character.
"Hahaha, Claire-chan, what is that?!"
"Claire?!"
Despite this, the matron was still impressed with her performance, quickly writing the results down on a clipboard, likely to keep track of their progress.
Then, they moved on to actual physical exercises. In this section, they were made to do a series of push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and pull-ups on the bar.
The matron called one of the caretakers forward, and they demonstrated the proper form for each exercise. Claire, of course, had no need for this. She had already internalized proper form from years of training in her 'other life,' after all.
After some fair struggle, Claire noted that she was able to do around 20 push-ups, 30 sit-ups, 56 squats and around 12 pull-ups before fatigue caught up to her. Definitely not bad she thought, considering her weight and age.
Push-ups and pull-ups felt noticeably easier, as ambidexterity allowed her to distribute strength evenly between both arms. This also meant they would have balanced growth! This was big, as that meant neither limb would fall behind the other, as long as none of them exerted more strength than the opposite limb!
This time, unlike the running section, Claire placed second. She didn't mind, though.
From there, the matron told them about the new schedule: which days and at what hours they'd have to train in the courtyard, their designated rest days, and she specifically reminded them to start eating more than usual—not that Claire was complaining. More food was always nice to have.
Since when did she have such a fixation on food? Claire had no idea, but she paid it no mind. All in for extra rice and stew!
'Either way, it seems I will have to follow this same routine until we are ready. The entry exam will likely not be as hard as they say—I doubt ninja production is some impossible standard, given that at least a hundred thousand people live in this village. There has to be a minimum passing threshold, isn't there? Until then...
I have to keep going.'
And for the following months, she did just that.
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