Chapter 18: Training the Ghosts
The sky above Amegakure today was grey as ever, the clouds thick like wet wool, but there was no rain, just a tense kind of stillness. The kind before a blade fell.
Team Hollow stood at the edge of an open yard behind the academy warehouse, facing their instructor.
Manju.
He looked tired. Not in the sleepy sense, more like the exhaustion of someone who'd seen too many children turned into corpses and was preparing to do it again.
"You four," he said, his voice low but sharp. "You've been marked as Hollow. Not because you're exceptional. But because you might survive."
He pointed to the broken ground around them. Cracked tiles. Rusted rings. A warped post missing its top.
"This is where the last Hollow team trained. None came back."
Yuni shuffled awkwardly. Dazuro's eyes barely opened. Rei stiffened, then loosened his shoulders when he noticed Kagerō watching.
Kagerō said nothing, but his fingers curled slightly.
"We'll run the same gauntlets they did," Manju continued. "With one difference. You're not expected to succeed. You're expected to grow fast enough that your deaths buy us time."
No one spoke.
Manju dropped a scroll from his coat. It unfurled at his feet with a puff of chakra, revealing ten seals drawn in looping characters.
"This scroll contains your daily modules. Body. Chakra. Weapon. Tactics. Each day starts at dawn. No breaks. If you vomit, hydrate. If you bleed, bandage."
Yuni raised a hand. "What if we cry?"
"You cry while sprinting," Manju said. "That counts as stamina training."
Kagerō saw Yuni grin. She thrived on that kind of banter.
Rei stepped forward. "Are we training separately or as a unit?"
Manju didn't answer. Instead, he stepped forward and jabbed Rei in the gut. The boy folded, wheezing.
"First lesson: unity is built in pain. You'll bleed together, you'll crawl together. Only then will I call you a team."
He looked at Kagerō next. "You. Climb that pole. Dazuro, climb after him. First to the top doesn't have to do laps."
Yuni whooped. "Oh! I'm joining. Bet I can beat all of you."
Rei staggered upright, scowling. "Unfair. I wasn't ready."
"You think war waits for readiness?" Manju replied. "Move."
Kagerō sprinted for the pole. It wasn't just about climbing, it was the rust, the slipperiness, the chakra control needed to stick his fingers to corroded steel.
He leapt. Slipped. Reapplied chakra. Moved faster.
Beside him, Dazuro ambled upward like a bored cat. Rei charged with more anger than precision. Yuni made it halfway up and did a spin mid-climb just to show off, then almost slipped.
Manju just watched. Not impressed. Nor disappointed. Just watching.
At the top, Kagerō reached out, gripped the final pipe, and pulled himself up. Dazuro appeared beside him a second later.
"You win," Dazuro said, yawning. "But only because I didn't want to miss lunch."
Kagerō chuckled once. "Noted."
Below, Yuni was yelling about rust and Rei had gotten his hand stuck in a groove.
The day had just begun.
But they weren't just kids anymore.
They were Hollow now.
Whatever that meant.
---
"Line up," Manju said.
Team Hollow stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the cracked pavement. Kagerō's tunic clung to his skin from the earlier climb. Yuni was still stretching her arms out theatrically. Rei wiped his palms against his sleeves with forced calm. Dazuro just yawned.
"Your first proper lesson is stamina," Manju continued. "No chakra usage is permitted. No tricks either. Just you, your legs, and the kind of pain that teaches respect."
He gestured toward the far end of the training yard. "That wall. One hundred meters down. One hundred back. Again. And again. Until I tell you to stop."
Rei furrowed his brow. "How many laps?"
"As many as it takes to break you once," Manju replied. "Then we'll begin."
They ran.
At first, it wasn't hard. Yuni shot ahead, light-footed and bounding like a cat in a game. Rei followed close, his pride igniting with every stride. Kagerō paced himself, he didn't want to burn out early. Dazuro… jogged. Sort of.
Two laps in, Yuni was grinning.
Four laps in, the grins faded.
By ten, the ground seemed to tilt. Their breath came in bursts, not rhythms.
Kagerō's legs screamed with a dull, acidic ache. His small frame struggled to match the stride of the older kids. Still, he ran. He adjusted his steps, shortened his exhales, and lowered his arms to reduce drag. Everything in his body was being pushed past where it had ever gone.
By lap sixteen, Rei tripped. Caught himself. Didn't stop.
Yuni's braid stuck to the back of her neck like a whip of wet rope. She didn't say a word now. Just pushed.
Dazuro was still behind them. Always the last one back. But always moving.
Kagerō's head buzzed. Sweat blinded him. His lips had gone dry and cracked.
But he didn't stop.
Couldn't.
Not here.
Not with Manju watching, arms crossed like a vulture, daring one of them to falter.
At lap twenty-three, Yuni collapsed.
Not dramatically. Not like a fall. She just… stopped mid-stride and knelt, panting, hands on her knees.
Rei passed her with a grunt. Then stumbled two paces later.
Kagerō's body was trembling. His knees felt like glass, ready to shatter. His vision blurred at the edges.
"Four more laps," Manju called. "If you can't stand at the end, crawl. If you can't crawl, learn to fly."
Kagerō didn't laugh. He couldn't. But somehow, that line made him stand straighter. Just a bit.
He passed Yuni again. She looked up at him through bleary eyes, face red, teeth clenched.
"You're a machine," she wheezed.
Kagerō didn't respond. Not because he didn't want to.
He just had no breath left.
On the final lap, Dazuro finally passed Kagerō for the first time.
As he did, he murmured, "You'll win the mind games. Let me win this one."
Then he jogged ahead.
Kagerō didn't protest. Just reached the wall. Touched it.
Turned.
Stumbled.
And somehow, crossed the line.
Then fell flat on his back.
Manju approached. He crouched beside Kagerō.
"You're not the fastest," he said quietly. "Not the strongest. But you didn't stop. That's more than I can say for most."
He stood, his voice returning to gravel.
"You're done. Now we begin the real training."
Yuni groaned. "That… wasn't the real training?"
Rei coughed out something between a laugh and a sob.
Dazuro lay on the ground, eyes closed, arms crossed. "Wake me when we die."
Kagerō just closed his eyes and let the sky spin overhead.
This was the beginning.
And Team Hollow?
They would not break easily.