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Downpour

Your knees were pressed deeply into the waterlogged soil beneath you. Your arms lay limp at your sides and your head hung low. Each short, shallow gasp of air that you took made your lungs throb. You were entirely out of breath and your whole body ached in exhaustion from the rigorous training you were undertaking.

'This is horrible...' You thought while squinting your eyes as you tried to focus on calming your erratic breathing. It took a few minutes but finally your breathing went back to normal. Once your uneven breaths had calmed down, you closed your eyes and savored the cool rain that fell upon your tired body.

'At least this isn't as bad as the first time I started training with Neji.' You thought as you recalled two years ago when Neji had first started training you.

~Flashback~

You were laying face first in the dirt of the Hyuga training grounds. Your clothes were dirty and you smelt sweaty due to the combination of the hot weather and training. Your entire body ached from practicing taijutsu with Neji.

He had only been teaching you basic taijutsu but it was still hard for you. Especially since Neji wasn't going easy on you at all. He wasn't using any palm techniques on you but he was still a lot stronger than you.

Every time he would land a hit on you he would always follow through with another hit in the same place. It was very painful especially since the second hit was always more forceful.

You would attempt to block him but it did little for you. If you miraculously succeeded in catching his arm before it hit you he would then either use his weight to shove you to the ground or he would try to kick you.

It was during one of these miraculous moments that you had managed to block one of Neji's hits. However, as soon as you had blocked him he had swung his leg up to knee you in the stomach. Instead of kneeing you in the stomach though he had tricked you and swiped your feet out from under you. This had caused you to face plant to the hard ground beneath you. Which was the reason why you were currently laying face first in the dirt.

"You already look like you've hit your limit. Are you sure you still want me to continue training you?" You heard a calm voice ask from in front of you.

You slowly raised your head from the hard earth to be met with Neji's pale eyes. His arms were crossed over his chest and his face held no emotion as he stared down at you.

You thought over what Neji had asked you. 'Did I really want him to still train me after what he just put me through? Could I even handle this? I mean if I can't even get through Neji's training then how was I suppose to survive against other ninja when I'm older?' With that last thought in mind you knew what your answer was.

"Well?" Neji asked impatiently as he gazed down at you.

"Yes. I still want you to train me." You responded confidently as you stared up at Neji with determination in your eyes.

Neji's furrowed his brows in confusion and a frown formed upon his face at your response. He stared at you like that for a few moments before he replied.

"Fine. We'll meet every Saturday and Wednesday in the morning around 6:25 to train." Neji spoke with a hint of annoyance in his voice. He then turned and walked away without another word.

~End of Flashback~

You sighed tiredly at the memory of your first training session with Neji and pushed the memory aside.

You then decided to just focus on the cool rain that fell upon your muddy face. You stayed like that for a few moments until you felt as if someone was standing over you. Slowly you opened your eyes and brought your head up to see that it was Neji. He was soaked in water much like you but he didn't look even the least bit tired.