"Papa! I’m ready for training!” Choji said with a determined look in his eyes.

“Heh. Here I come Choji!” Choza responded to his son’s excitement.

Choji slowly ran his way towards his dad and brought his right arm back for a big punch. Choza easily readied himself for the punch with a jolly smile on his face. Choji’s tiny hand softly smacked against his father’s large hand. The young Akimichi then unleashed his super attack upon his father. A rapid onslaught of palm strikes that were so fast that a snail would barely be able to react to them!

Choza couldn’t help himself from laughing at his adorable son. He doesn’t know what’s gotten into him lately but he’s been asking him to train him whenever he could. Since he had some time to spare today, he didn’t mind helping his son. Papa Akimichi was proud his son was taking his ninja training seriously.

But as time went on, his son slowly started to change from the jolly young boy he always was into something different. It wasn’t a drastic change but a change that only a parent could notice in their child. Ever since he taught him their clan’s secret jutsu, he hasn’t been the same boy as before. He’s eating far more than before when he learned about how Calorie Control worked, his training has become a bit obsessive for a child his age, and everything has been about becoming the greatest ninja.

Choza tried asking Choji what brought about this change and the boy didn’t want to speak. So, Choza did as any concerned parent would and asked his little friends if anything happened recently. Shikaku’s boy told him that the other kids didn’t let Choji play ninja with them. They said that whoever team got Choji would lose and told him he couldn’t play ninja with them.

‘Kids sure are mean these days, huh?’ Choza gave Shikaku’s son some candy after telling him what happened.

Choza didn’t think that was all that happened though. With the way, Choji has been lately, it can’t be something that simple. The boy was determined, and driven. He was training with all his heart and soul into becoming the best ninja. His registration in the academy isn’t for a few years either!

“I guess he’ll tell me when he’s ready. For now, I guess I better watch over him and make sure he doesn’t hurt himself.” Choza laughed to himself. Even if he couldn’t get his son to speak, the least he could do was support him with his goal.

“Can’t you do that another time Choji?” Shikamaru complained.

“Sorry, Shikamaru. I’m really close this time! I’ll be done in just a second!” Choji apologized.

“Expansion Jutsu!” Choji’s entire torso expanded into a large ball.

The round Akimichi member tucked himself into his clothes and began rapidly spinning as a destructive sphere. He noisily rolled around the grassy plain attempting with all his heart to control himself better while rolling. Shikamaru groaned at his workaholic best friend. All he wanted to do was do some cloud watching today and maybe play a quiet game or something. While Choji wanted to train his body and perfect his family’s jutsus.

“Dang it! I almost had it that time too! Just you wait Shikamaru! I’ll be able to make myself turn on a dime soon and one of the weaknesses of the Human Boulder jutsu will be gone!” Choji told him.

“Yeah... That’s nice and all but are you finished yet?” Shikamaru asked hopefully.

“I’m out of chakra so, I have to take a small break.” Choji took a squat next to Shikamaru and pulled out a bag of chips from his pocket.

“Are you excited to join the academy, Monday?” Choji asked.

“Seems like it’s going to be a drag.” Shikamaru sighed.

“You don’t seem like you want to be a ninja at all Shikamaru.” Choji pointed out.

”I wouldn’t say that. Being a ninja does seem interesting, I guess.”

“But you don’t wanna do any training?”

“Nah. Training just ain’t for me. Way too much work.”

“Shikamaru, I want to become a ninja and be the best ninja there is. That’s why I train so hard every day.”

“Who said that training would be the only way of being a great ninja?” Shikamaru brought up.

This stumped Choji momentarily.

“I guess you’re right.” He agreed.

“Hah... Let’s talk about something else, Choji.”

“I heard that being a ninja isn’t all fun and games. If you’re going to be a ninja, you need to be ready to kill, die, and suffer hardships. You don’t seem like the type to want to take part in any of those three, Shikamaru.”

“And you are, Choji? No kids our age is ready for stuff like that. We should be doing kiddy stuff like this. Watching clouds, eating snacks, playing with each other. Not learning the best way to kill other humans.”

“I might not be ready but I'm not afraid to face it in my goal of becoming the greatest ninja.”

“I still don’t get why you even want to do something so troublesome. Was it really because those jerks didn’t let you play Ninja?”

“At first, I just wanted to prove that I wouldn’t be a burden to them. That I could be just as fast as them if I tried and wouldn’t bring anyone down. But even after I could catch one of them, they still didn’t let me play with them. That’s when I realized that just being good enough wasn’t always good enough. I needed to become more than good and become the best so that no one could ever doubt me.”

“You went back to those guys after they were mean to you?”

“I wanted to see what they would say after I got faster.”

“Seems like a hassle to me. If someone doesn’t like me, then I'm not going to try and be nice to them. It’s a waste of time.” He yawned.

“If there’s a chance, then there’s a way Shikamaru.” Choji finished his bag of chips and stood up.

With a couple of stretches, Choji got back on the ground and started doing pushups. Shikamaru didn’t comment on this. He knew that his friend had a whole bunch more exercises he planned to do while he watched clouds. Shikamaru already got used to this type of situation happening when they hung out together.

“Want to join me?” Choji asked.

“Nope.” Shikamaru responded as he always did.

“Heh. One day, I’ll get you to say yes to that.” Choji laughed.

“That’ll be the day the sky turns upside down.” Shikamaru said confidently.

“Come on! A little exercise wouldn’t kill you Shikamaru. Just 10 jumping jacks.” Choji tried to motivate his friend.

“No way.” His arms rested behind his head.

“What if I...” Choji had trouble thinking of something that his lazy best friend could possibly want.

“Not gonna happen.” He didn’t even let him think of something to grab his attention.

“Okay, but what if!” And interrupted again.

“Not even if you tried to bribe me with a free meal at your uncle’s restaurant.”

“I won’t give up Shikamaru.” A frightening glint was present in Choji’s eyes.

“Please do. I’m too lazy for something that in the first place. In fact, you work too hard. I don’t see how you can do this every single day.” Shikamaru was genuinely curious.

“It’s called having a goal, Shikamaru! I don’t plan to let a little pain stop me from reaching my goal.”

“So, it does hurt.”

“It hurts so bad...” Weakness filled his voice. “But progress can’t be made without it!” Choji pushed himself to work through the pain and continue to do more pushups.

“Hah... What a troublesome friend I had to make.” Shikamaru smiled.

“And what a lazy friend I had to find myself with.” Choji’s body has been pushed to its limits.

“I’m not carrying you home by the way.” Shikamaru reminded him.

“Shikamaru, please! I’ll die out here! I’m actually paralyzed in pain. I can’t move my muscles.”

“Should’ve thought about that earlier.” He shrugged his shoulders as he stood up from the grass.

“At least feed me something!” Choji soon regretted asking his friend anything.

Shikamaru snatched some grass blades and held them in front of his mouth.

“Open up pal. Here’s your dinner for tonight.” He snickered.

“I’m not a cow!” Choji blew the grass out of the Nara clan heir’s hand.

“And here I was trying to help you. Guess you're stuck here for tonight.” He turned his back on Choji and began to walk away.

He wouldn’t actually leave him here, would he? No, that’s crazy. He’s just joking around. They’re friends, he wouldn’t do something like that. Especially when it was getting dark out and he couldn’t move anything below his neck without feeling horrible pain.

Choji started to panic when the back of his best friend started to get smaller in the distance.

“Shikamaru!!!” He cried.

The pineapple head boy laughed loudly to himself as he came slowly walking back. Choji glared at the boy for the trick he pulled on him.

“No need to start crying Choji, jeez. It was just a joke.” He dragged him along by the leg, knowing he couldn’t possibly bear all of Choji’s weight on his body.

“I’ll show you a joke...” Choji promised for the future.