BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BE- Kiba's hand slammed down onto the alarm clock sending it tumbling to the floor. With an irritated groan he slowly pushed himself up. His entire body was sore, every muscle and joint felt like it was either on fire or malfunctioning. Stretching his arms over his head and wincing at the rather loud crack that resounded from the action he leaned over the bed and began to try and wake Shino. Yesterday's training regime seemed to come from Hell. It was Tuesday and tomorrow was their first match, too bad they all felt like they had been put through a meat grinder.
"Shino get up," Kiba called shaking the taller teen. A mumbling sound was Kiba's answer as Shino delved deeper into the covers. Kiba sighed, took a deep breath, and yelled, "GET UP!" Shino shot up and look around expecting to see either fire or something just as threatening. When he saw nothing of the sort, only Kiba getting out of bed and Akamaru wagging his tail, he went to lie back down. "Go back to bed and I'll dump water on you," Kiba threatened as he pulled on a pair of track pants.
"What time is it?" Shino asked as he also finally got out of bed. He figured it was better to do has Kiba said, seeing as he would most likely follow through with his threat.
"Time to go," was all Kiba said before grabbing a light sweater and heading for the door. "Kakashi-sensei will be pissed if we're late, so hurry up Shino."
Shino watched as Kiba left the room leaving him alone and still half asleep. Mumbling under his breath he stood and got dressed himself. As he reached for the door Matsui flew to his shoulder and the two left the room and headed for the practice pit. As he went he met up with Kankuro and Sai. "You guys have a hard time waking up too?" Shino asked looking over to the obviously exhausted pair.
"Of course," Kankuro answered, "Who in their right mind gets up at 3:45 AM?"
"Us apparently," Sai answered not even bothering to hide the irritation he was feeling at having his sleep taken from him.
Kakashi had deemed that practice was to start at 4 AM every morning from now on until 7 AM when they would be released to have breakfast and get ready for class. During lunch they were to gather and discuss strategy. Finally after class at 4 PM the teams were to practice from 4:30 PM to 7 PM. After that came dinner and another 2 hours of practice. Most of the team was finding it hard to keep up, but then again they were also trying to make up for the time they had lost because of the whole fairy incident. It wasn't fun, it wasn't easy, and it was extremely draining still they wouldn't complain after all Kakashi-sensei was showing up on time to drill them. If that teacher could be on time then so could they!
Arriving at the practice area they instantly paired off and started stretching. The first hour would be dedicated to simple exercises to loosen up and get their blood flowing, apparently it was Gai-sensei's idea. Of course it being Gai-sensei's idea meant that simple exercises meant extreme levels. The only ones who really liked the first hour of practice were Naruto and Lee, they loved it actually.
Shino and Kiba paired up to help each other with their warm ups as did the other partners, or roommates for those without partners. This allowed them to intermingle before they broke off into teams and started the really training, hours of hellish simulations that would leave them all wanting to cry by the end of the morning.
By the time the sun had risen the two teams were panting and sweating. Their legs shook and their arms ached but with it the earlier lethargic pain was gone and now adrenalin was pumping through their veins fueling them to push further and harder. They had been running through different approaches over and over. They had been using both Shikamaru's and Itachi's strategies as well as Kakashi-sensei's advice to find weaknesses so that they could be fixed.
Kakashi finally blew the whistle at 7 calling an end to the morning's practice. Kiba fell to the ground panting and wiping sweat from his brow, though it really was pointless. His entire body felt like it was submerged despite it being only around 50 degrees outside. "Here," Shino handed Kiba a bottle of water. The brunet smiled before taking it and drinking nearly half of it in one go.
