[Training] The way of the Drunken Fist.

(Now, there's been lots of questions about training and such, so this will be a perfect time to demonstrate how to do it properly. In this thread, Enishi will be teaching me (Eki Gisou) how to use the drunken fist style of fighting. First, we will be learning the style, then moving on to different stances which are ranked and will each take a set amount of time. I'll be explaining along the way for anyone who wishes to read through and follow along.)

Waiting at the training fields, Eki looked up towards the sun, not far above the tree tops now. Sunrise was possibly twenty minutes ago, and Enishi had told the newly appointed jounin to meet him here half an hour prior to that sunrise. Glancing back down towards the tree line, there seemed to be a small glimmer of something moving. Crossing his arms, Eki leaned back against his own tree, waiting patiently. When he could see that it was Enishi, he called out.

"Over here Sensei!"

Enishi noticed the man waving and shouting out to him and raised his hand in the air, but forgot he was holding his gourd, and wound up shaking the gourd at the guy. As Enishi got closer, Eki could see that Enishi was carrying a large pot twice the size of his chest, a pack with unknown contents, and several sticks and logs sticking out of the pot. Once Enishi got closer, he set down the pot, letting it slam to the ground with a large thud and kicking up a good amount of dust. "Good morning Eki, glad to see you actually showed up." Setting down the pack next to the pot, he took a sip from his gourd and continued. "I must warn you though, this training will be rough, chances are it will be tougher than any training you've had before."

((As a side note, training itself does not need to be done in this section, although it's easier to establish any setting you want here. As long as you place [Training] at the start of the thread title, a mod will try and look at it.))

Eki raised an eyebrow, thinking Enishi may have been a little upset with him, shaking his gourd like that. Listening to his sensei for the next little while, Eki opened his mouth to speak, trying to keep respect in his voice, the man had been a jounin far longer then he.

"That's understood Sensei, I am up for any challenge. We may begin whenever you deem I am ready. I will not disappoint."

Taking a bow, EKi rose up again, placing a fist within his palm, he bowed his head, ready to start.

"Oh you don't have to be so formal with me, after all, we will be drinking together sooner or later" Smiling, Enishi reached into the pot and pulled out four small posts and told Eki "First off, i'm going to test your stamina, take these two, and walk out that way 100 meters that way, and place these 5 meters apart." He handed the two posts to Eki, than continued "I"ll put these out that way," pointing in the opposite direction than he told Eki and said "and than we will meet back here once we put them there."

Eki nodded, accepting the posts and starting his walk. It must be for a run, possibly a race. Thinking back to all his prior training, he gave a sigh and grin, noting that this would be an easy task for him, if he was right about it being a race that was. A two-hundred meter dash wasn't all that hard, was it?

Having paced out one-hundred meters, tehn drove the poles into the ground. He then realized he could not remember if he had been told to return or not. Craning his head to look back, he slowly began to jog his way back to his teacher, being well out of earshot, even for a shout.

Enishi had paced out the 100 meters and planted the posts, and had started his walk back to where he started. On his way back, he saw that Eki was jogging back to the start and said to himself, "That fool, wasting his energy jogging back." Chuckling slightly, he took his leisure time returning to the center. Meeting Eki there, Enishi looked him over and said "Well, now that we have the route set up, i want to to run.." he paused for a moment to think of how many laps to have Eki run, than continued "how ever many laps it takes for you to get so tired you can't run any more." Smiling, Enishi pulled out a small stool and sat it down next to the stool to wait until Eki had finished.

Eki nodded, and began running full out for one of the pegs. Naturally, there was no point in pacing himself, then Enishi would only tell him to go faster, or longer. That was normally how training went. These thoughts passed however, and Eki's mind became obsessed with continuing, attempting to get in a proper mind set. After four or five laps, each one being naturally four hundred and ten meters, Eki was starting to feel the wear and tear. Although he kept his speed up, his breathing soon began to get more erratic. Although his mental state was trained to push him through this, there was no telling how long that would actually last.

Enishi was sitting in his chair, taking a sip from his gourd every once in a while as Eki passed by. After a while, Enishi started to shout to Eki as he passed by "You know, this isn't to see how fast you can go." He waited for a moment for Eki to pass again going the other way. "This is just to see how long you can go." Eki again past by, this time Enishi took a sip from his gourd as he waited. "You could jog for all I care, as long as you don't walk." He again took a sip as Eki passes by and waited for what his response would be.

Eki managed to spit out a couple words as he was passing.

"Better to... measure my... endurance... when I'm at my limits... isn't it?"

Whether Enishi saw it that way or not, Eki did. Nothing being said, he kept up the run, his pace begin to slow at the forty mark or so. At this point, he was mentally tired, as well, as physically exhausted, he was pretty sure he had accidently gone through the middle atleast once, for he was now going the other way from how he had started, regardless, he was still running. Eventually, surpassing the hundred lap mark, he dropped to his knees. Attempting to get up, he dropped evern further laying flat on his stomach, bile splattering from his mouth. He then raised himself onto his hands and knees, thinking how it was good that he had not eaten anything.

walking over to Eki, Enishi grabbed his arm and calmly and friendly helped him up. "Well i've got to admit, you did go longer than i thought you would, i was just expecting you to just stop from fatigue, i didn't think you would go all the way to collapsing and vomiting." Enishi walked back to the center and began to set up the next stage. "but i will admit that you do show commitment." In a few moments, Enishi had set up something about 7 feet tall, with a slot at the top on one side to lock in your feet. At the top, opposite the foot holds, was a large, empty, 5gallon bucket. At the bottom were two 3 gallon buckets filled up. On the rim of each bucket was a small sake cup, that barely held half an oz. each.

Eki coughed, allowing Enishi to help him move over to the next task.

"Heh, not to worry... I'll have my strength back in a few minutes." He grunted as he lifted more of his own weight, delving into some of his chakra to aid him. He then took a seat as Enishi began assembling the next trial.

"Let me guess, move the water from the buckets, to the top bucket, with only the cups?"

"These cups are what you will use to move the water." Enishi just smiled as he slid his feet into the holds, leaving him hanging upside down with his back against the pole. Grabbing the two sake cups, one in each hand, he held the same way he would if he were drinking sake, than began to demonstrate what Eki would be doing. "Now this is rather simple, you take the sake cups, and fill them up down here." he didn't fill them up, just mearly demonstrated, "than you will pull your body up like this" his body bent upward, almost completely in half so that his head was at his knees. "and than you dump the water into the bucket up here" he reached bast his legs to the hanging bucket and mad it look as if he had poured water in from the cups. Sliding his feet out, Enishi held on to the pole and gently eased himself down, than turned to Eki and said "just repeat that until the bucket at the top is full."

Eki did not complain.

"Will do."

Although he probably wasn't fully recovered, he was still determined as ever. Even if his abdomen had already taken a bit of a beating from the running, he was prepared to mulch it even more, it would be all that much stronger tomorrow.

Hopping to his feet, Eki grabbed the pole with an arm, swinging up and upside down into the stirrups. He then let his body hang, shaking his arms out and steadying his nerves before grasping the cups (or rather shot glasses) in a loose hold, trying to imitate the way Enishi had held them. He then dunked them, being sure not to get too much water on his hands, for if he spilled more then a gallon of it, he would fail. He then reached up, careful not to spill, trying to get used to the flexing of his lower back, and poured them. He then let himself lean back down, slowly, using his back muscles to regulate his descent, as to not crash into the pole itself.

Repeat.

Enishi sat there watch Eki for a few moments. "Well so far so good, about 50 down and only..." Enishi paused and thought of the last time he had actually done it, trying to remember how many times he had doubled himself over filling the bucket, "about 600 more to go." realizing that Eki would take a while, considering that it would get much harder as it went on, and go much slower too, Enishi pulled a small hat over his head and laid down in the sun to take a little nap while Eki worked on filling the top bucket.

Eki continued, almost smiling at Enishi's words. His stomach already burned, his lower limbs were beginning to feel it as well, his back felt like it was being worked over by someone with inch wide knuckles, and the blood running to his head and back was starting to make him light headed. So far, his arms were fine.

As he continued, Eki went over the values of the training. Stamina definitely came to mind. Balance. Strength. Perseverance. The list went on. As more values came to mind, the more Eki lost track of where he was. Eventually, he had to reach farther and farther just to collect water from the buckets below him. He was finally woken from this trance, as a splash of water hit him dead in the face. The bucket was practically overflowing.

He let himself down, his back muscles failing to support his weight on their own, his body hitting the ground for the second time today. He twisted his head, noticing that the sun was nearly down behind the trees on the other side of the clearing.

"Heh... done...."

The thud of Eki falling to the ground jolted Enishi awake. Shooting into an upright sitting position, Enishi's hat went flying as he looked around, trying figure out what caused the noise that woke him. Seeing Eki laying on the ground, he walked over and again helped him up, this time allowing him to sit in the chair Enishi was using earlier. "Wow, you seem really worn out, that's the second time today you've collapsed. Need something to eat." Enishi brought our a large bowl of walnuts, all still in their shell and said "Dig in and enjoy, only thing is, you can only open them the same way i do." He held up a shell in his hand so that Eki could see, and moved it so that he pinched it between his index finger and thumb. Than, without even trying, Enishi broke the shell as if it were an egg, than picked up the nut from inside and ate it. "Enjoy."

Once again, Eki did not complain.

"I will."

Reaching for a blossom in his pocket, he plucked at it, the foliage instantly restoring his chakra. Standing, he looked down at the large bowl. Already he could tell he wouldn't be able to do this off the bat. Picking up the first walnut, he charged chakra to his fingertips, then released it while clamping down, shattering the shell easily. Knowing he could do that much, it was now about using less and less chakra, and using more and more strength. On went trial number three.

Enishi sat there watching as Eki continued to crack the thick shelled walnuts. In the time he had to sit there and think, he began to wonder to himself if Eki had any idea what all of this was leading up to, or if Eki was just like himself when he had this training, completely clueless. After a while, the bowl was about 2/3 empty, and Enishi looked up at Eki who was still cracking shells with his fingers. "So how does your hand feel, i must be starting to hurt a little, or at the least getting rather tired and weak, i'd say you've broken open at least 40 nuts."

Eki barely payed attention, the walnut he was currently on almost refused to crack, and he had only removed 80% of the initial chakra he had been using. The next one didn't break at all.

"My hand does hurt, and I'm not sure how to generate enough force to continue cracking these through sheer strength alone. I may need a bit of a pointer."

The walnut was balanced in his pal, Eki's eyes dancing over it.

"Ah, but there is the problem, there is no pointer to help with this, only sheer brute force. the ability to reach out to an opponent, and to rip out a chunk of their body using nothing but your thumb and index finger." Enishi again picked up a walnut this his thumb and finger and again, easily shattered it before eating the nut inside. "There isn't anymore to it that pure finger strength, all i can say is to practice, and train. Now i'll let you decide, you can either stay here and break nuts all day, or we can move on and train your body to move in nice, fluid motions."

Eki nodded, placing the walnut in his fingertips again.

"Nope, no moving on until the current task is complete."

He then sat down, still applying pressure to the walnut, but from a different approach. Now his eyes were closed, his mind attempting to reach a state of meditation.

Hours later, the walnut cracked, then shattered. Opening his eyes, Eki grabbed another, performing the same task, this time only take fifteen minutes. The next, two minutes, then thirty seconds, then instantly.

"Got it." It was now well into the night.

"Ok than, time to move on to getting the movements into your little head" In the time that Eki had been cracking the nuts, Enishi had readied what he needed for the the next stage. He was holding a long roped, almost 8 ft. long, with two hollow poles on it, each about 3 ft. long, being kept from sliding off the end of the rope by a loop on each end. Holding the two poles in his left hand he walked over so that he was a good distance from the other things, and motioned for Eki to come over and join him.

Eki laughed, "Something tells me your head is about the same size as mine... just on average." Following Enishi, he eyed the rope and pole combo.

"Eh, is that a weapon of sorts?"

This one Eki couldn't figure out quite by himself. Where is the other trials had been pretty rudimentary, this one was likely to be a little more challenging.

Enishi chuckled before he began to explain the tool he was holding. "This is not a weapon, far from it. This is a tool for me to use to teach your body to have fluid movements." he walked up to Eki and put the loops of rope around his wrists, tightening them just enough so that they wouldn't fall off. Enishi than positioned himself so that he held one of the poles in each hand and the rope went around his back. "this is much faster than if i explained and demonstrated while you tried over and over to get it right."

Eki listened intently, feeling a little imprisoned as the ropes tightened around his wrists.

"Ummm. Alright then, I'm ready whenever you are."

He shook his hands loosely, realizing that if Enishi pulled the ropes tight he wouldn't have much control at all, although that was probably the general idea. He then raised his arms in front of him, looking at Enishi expectantly. The poles were strong too, this might hurt.