"What are you doing here?" Sakura grumbled. "Come, I thought we were friends." Kudo chuckled and took the seat in front of her. He ordered, and they ate in silence. After he was done, he stood to leave. "Before I leave, Sakura, you should try to get stronger. No amount of chasing after Sasuke will make him look at someone who is inferior, and the worst part is that you are satisfied with your own mediocrity.
"You have some talent in genjutsu and chakra control; maybe build your ninjutsu because, at the end of the day, you will die," Kudo said, his voice dropping, his eyes fixed on her as she flinched and looked aside. "I'm not interested in finding out that that idiot Naruto got hurt for your sake. If that ever happens, you won't have to worry about enemy shinobi. I will put you down myself. Remember that." Kudo walked away; his words, not quiet, drew some curious glances, some not so friendly, but he didn't care; he just left.
Kakashi looked at his figure, thinking, 'What a mess. As much as I have no interest in training them, the gap between them and her will keep widening especially if someone like him is pulling Naruto forward. Sasuke has his father and clan, hoping to mold him into another Itachi. Still, those are not words that should be said to a comrade.' Kakashi vanished after Kudo.
Kudo went back to the training ground; after a meal and some rest, he started some physical conditioning exercises. Shirtless, he started with a slow jog around the training field under 2G. His aim was to manage his economy of movement, improve it, and develop stronger stamina plus endurance. For an hour he jogged; even as he collapsed, he got back up, pushing himself.
Hidden away in a tree sat Kakashi, reading his Make Out Paradise as he watched the figure below torture himself. 'It seems he is also a genius of effort.' Kakashi thought, his eye opening as he saw Kudo strip to his shorts and dive into the lake. The lake was roughly the size of 3 soccer fields (415 metres). Reducing the seal to 1.5G he started swimming all the way to the other side, his strokes which were haphazard and hardly efficient smoothed out as he kept going. His movements that lacked rhythm soon started to look rhythmic; his breaths were no longer shallow as he came up for air, and he could now dive for longer periods. He spent an hour swimming back and forth from opposite ends of the lake.
Kudo rested for a bit; whether the hidden figure was discovered or not, he kept going, doing his exercise as he now went into strength training and flexibility after exercises. After all that, he wasn't done yet. Walking over to a lain area of the training field, he opened a scroll, biting his thumb, he made a series of seals, "Summoning!" "Puff!"
A wooden figure appeared; it stood in a T shape, looking like a scarecrow. It was made from reinforced wood; other than the massive T-shaped limbs, it had minor wooden staves extending from the body, all segmented into rotating portions, with sparse sections on its body that were vital targets.
Kudo got into a stance, his hands placed firmly at the base of his cheekbones. His leading leg was just a few inches apart from the lagging leg. Taking a firm stance, he exploded with a one-two cross combination, causing the puppet's abdomen sections to spin, heightening his focus; his left elbow blocked a wooden stave while his right fist landed squarely on the face of the puppet, "Cling!" A sudden silver flashed as a blade extended out of the puppet's mouth, causing Kudo to duck left, only to be met by a massive swing of the puppet's T arms. He raised his left knee while bringing down his left elbow, "Bang!" The puppet's fist landed, barely shaking him, as his right knee exploded as he jumped, landing on the side of the puppet's head. "Thwack!" Using the rebound force, he created distance.
He rushed forward; instead of fists this time, his open palms met the rotating wooden staves; he smothered their force as much as possible while he closed the distance. "Bang-Bang!" He quickly exploded into shot of knee and elbow strikes as he stayed tucked into the space of the puppet. With a subtle twist of his torso, a delayed reaction that exchanged blow for blow, he continuously struck back. 1 minute stretched to 2 minutes, then 15 minutes, as Kudo refused to leave that inner space regardless of the dozens of wooden staves rotating and barreling at his body. He protected what he could while he prioritized landing hits that slowed the momentum of the puppet as he fought harder. His blows, which used to take longer intervals between hit and retraction, were longer that way as he retreated after hitting or defending, leaving less time for himself to get caught open after an attack.
After 30 minutes of intense battering, he jumped back, retreating as his figure bearing dozens of purple bruises told a grim story. However, he wasn't done; taking out 4 shuriken per hand, he flung them at the puppet, targeting vital sections that were defended by rotating wooden staves with iron blades extending out of the wooden staves. "Clang-clang!" The puppet deflected the shuriken, but Kudo wasn't done; taking out two kunai, he leapt back at it.
"Rip! Splat!" Blood splattered onto the ground around him as his figure flashed while battling the puppet, small cuts accumulating all over his body as his stamina was rapidly depleting after a day of intense training. But he refused to give in; with every cut, he also stabbed fiercely into whatever opening he could.
'Die-Die-Die-Die…!' He was frantic in his attacks, though, seeming like his discipline was lost; he was surviving by the margins. His thoughts were now incoherent mutterings as his mind flashed back to then, the terror, the pain that had coursed through him as his body gave out. Overwhelming pain shutting his body down. "DIIIIEEE!" He screamed, lunging forward while the puppet had its mouth open and a silver blade flashed out, the exchange seeming like a life for a life.
"That's enough!" Kakashi flashed over, grabbing Kudo by the nape as his hand grabbed onto the puppet's blade out of its mouth. His hands barely had a scratch as he held it back by the tip. Looking at the boy in his arms, he said, "What a bother." Sighing, he flickered away going to the hospital while having cleaned up the training ground, he knew more than everyone that privacy is only extended to those that have the strength to claim it.