Sora had taken up residen Orochimaru's underground base.

  Orochimaru had already formuted a preheraining pn for him.

  However, Sora had no idea that the ing days would bee his worst nightmare.

  Early the m, before dawn, Sora was rudely awakened by a snake slithering onto his bed.

  Startled, he opened his eyes to find the saring at him. To his surprise, it spoke in human words—it was undoubtedly a Summoni called forth by Orochimaru.

  "Sora-sama, Orochimaru-sama is waiting for you."

  It was the first time anyone—or rather, anything—had addressed him as "sir." The strange formality from the snake left him feeling uled.

  When Sora arrived at Orochimaru's office, he found the Sannin engrossed in reading a ninjutsu scroll.

  "Since you're here, let's begin. Follow me," Orochimaru instructed, rising from his seat.

  Sora followed him to the underground base's training ground. Ohere, Orochimaru immediately summoned a swarm of shat slithered across the arena floor.

  Orochimaru turo Sora and said, "We'll start with taijutsu training this m. You are not allowed to use Lightning Style Chakra to enhance your body. Rely solely on your physical strength and aim to strike as many snakes as you within one minute. When I tell you to stop, you stop. Uood?"

  Sora, who had barely woken up and hadn't eveen breakfast, was caught off guard by the abruptness of the instrus. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he nodded. "Uood, Orochimaru-Sama. I'm ready."

  "Good. Let's begin. The timer starts now."

  Without hesitation, Sora lunged forward, striking the snakes with his hands. Each time he nded a hit, the snakes would vanish in a puff of smoke.

  Meanwhile, Orochimaru casually walked to the edge of the training ground, seated himself on a chair that had already been prepared auro reading his scroll as if the exercise were of no sequence.

  The first minute passed quickly, and Sora found it easy—after all, it was just a short burst of effort.

  As he moved to report that the time , Orochimaru, without even gng up from his scroll, said, "tinue."

  fused but pliant, Sora resumed striking the snakes.

  Another minute passed, then another. Sora quickly lost track of how many minutes had gone by. Each time he thought it was over, Orochimaru repeated the same and in a calm, detached voice.

  "tinue."

  The snakes oraining ground seemed endless, stantly being resummoned. At first, Sora didn't mind; his movements were sharp and precise. But as time dragged on, exhaustion began to creep in.

  By now, Sora had stopped questioning the task and instinctively moved into the round, his mind fully focused on the repetitive strikes.

  He had started at five in the m, and now it was nearly ten. The toll on his body was being evident. His strikes slowed, and his breath grew heavier with each passing minute.

  The one-miraining tinued.

  Sora's movements became slower, his steps heavier, and he was bitten by snakes multiple times. Thankfully, these snakes weren't venomous—otherwise, he would have died tless times by now.

  When Sora was bitten for the first time, Orochimaru allowed him to activate his Sharingan for the training.

  With the Sharingan's enhanced dynamic vision, the task became noticeably easier at first. However, the Sharingan couldn't pensate for Sora's physical exhaustion, and the snakes remained swift aless. Before long, the training grew difficult again.

  Since Sora had stopped asking how much lohe session would st, Orochimaru remained focused on his ninjutsu scrolls, barely aowledging his student. This disregard left Sora feeling frustrated and disheartened.

  Distracted, Sora was bitten on the arm by another snake. He shook it off and prepared to tinue for yet another minute, but Orochimaru's raspy voice finally broke the monotony.

  "Let's end the taijutsu training here."

  Sora had never found Orochimaru's voice so soothing. Colpsing to the ground, he gasped for air, his body trembling with exhaustion.

  The exercise had seemed simple on the surface, but it was anything but. It tested his accuracy, tration, endurance, and speed—all while straining his vision to its limits. Keeping his eyes locked on the snakes' movements for hours left them sore and strained, his vision blurring into double images.

  Orochimaru closed the scroll in his hands, stood, and walked over to Sora.

  "Your problems are signifit," Orochimaru began. "Your speed and endurance are overly reliant on using Lightning Style Chakra to stimute your body."

  He gestured toward the training ground. "At the start, without using Lightning Style Chakra, you mao strike about 120 snakes per minute—approximately two per sed. That's excellent for someone ye. However, for someone aiming to excel in speed, that efficy is uable."

  Orochimaru tinued, "Your endurance is also g. After an hour, your strike speed dropped noticeably. In battle, this would mean your bat effectiveness would diminish signifitly after aended fight.

  "As for your tration, it's passable at best. You sted two hours before the first bite, but your use of the Sharingan was subpar. The Sharingan grants enhanced dynamic visio you focused only on the snakes, just as you did without it. You o fully utilize your vision to anticipate movements across the entire field a proactively."

  He paused, his sharp gaze pierg. "You are far too depe on the enhas of Lightning Style Chakra. To truly improve, you o build your physical foundation first. Only then you use the Lightning Style to enhance your body further. When your physical fitness improves, so will your speed and endurance, even with chakra support."

  Orochimaru cluded, "Starting tomorrow, your physical training will include strength training in addition to this exercise."

  Sora listened ily, accepting the critique humbly, though disappoi lingered in his heart. He had thought of himself as strong, having trained diligently. Yet, by Orochimaru's standards, he fell far short.

  I have to try harder… much harder.

  "Thank you, Orochimaru-sama," Sora said, bowing slightly. "I'll give it my all!"

  Orochimaru nodded. "Good. Now, have dinner. We'll begin ninjutsu training this afternoon."

  Sora followed him out of the training ground. To his surprise, Orochimaru prepared the meal himself: omelette rice. The omurice, drizzled with a rich sauce, looked uedly delicious.

  Taking a bite, Sora realized it was delicious. The trast between Orochimaru's fearsome persona and his ary skills left him feeling bewildered.

  Even as they ate, Orochimaru tinued reading his scroll, provi again his obsession with ninjutsu.

  The afternoon's ninjutsu training proved even mruelling than the m's taijutsu drills.

  Since Sora knew only oeique—Thunder Breathing—Orochimaru began by teag him four basic k teiques: one each from Lightning, Fire, Water, ah Releases. Sora practised them repeatedly, depleting his chakra reserves over and over.

  When his chakra ran out, he meditated on the spot to refine more before resuming practice. These brief moments of chakra refi were the only breaks he got.

  The releraining finally e around six in the evening. After a quid simple dinner, Sora dragged himself to his bed, colpsing into it.

  He had pushed his body to the limit in the m and his chakra reserves to exhaustion iernoon. The first day of training was nothing short of torture.

  As Sora y there, staring at the ceiling, his body trembling with fatigue, he couldn't help but dread what the day would bring.

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