Konan and Rei finished with their sparring match and alongside still flabbergasted Yugito, they went towards the training ground where Mei prepared something special for her kitty charge.
The second Yugito showed her face, excited Mei dragged her towards the middle of an... obstacle course if it still could be called that. Rei could somewhat see parts of the obstacle course used to train ANBU ramped up to insanity levels. Lethal traps, maiming traps, and worse yet...
'So this is why Mei wanted those area-effective chakra constricting seals, gravity-heightening seals, and water-like environment simulating seals.' Rei thought with a sweatdrop as his throat went dry.
'And they say my training methods are brutal.' Konan mentally deadpanned at the clueless Mei. She couldn't help but feel proud.
'Does she want to kill me?' Yugito did the clever thing and fearfully took a step back.
"This," Mei proudly gestured towards the huge death trap she prepared, "is my masterpiece! As the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi, you are naturally nimble and agile so training those aspects is a must!" She exclaimed with twinkling eyes, making everyone's face twitch. "So I asked myself, 'Hey, Mei, how could we help Yugi-chan?' and the answer was obvious! Obstacle course!"
"Uh... M-Mei...s-sensei?" Yugito asked unsurely, looking at the obstacle course. "A-And the corpses around?" She pointed towards the bodies or parts of bodies still strewn all over the course.
"Ah, that?" Mei dismissively waved her hand around, "Don't worry. I just borrowed them for testing purposes!"
Rei facepalmed.
Konan approvingly snickered.
Yugito gulped.
Only now that she took a closer look did she notice... 'They are all B and A-ranked rogue ninjas from the Bingo Book. All of them are jonin level!' She mentally freaked out.
Not paying attention to the fidgeting blond Jinchuuriki next to her, Mei tilted her head in a pondering manner. "Though, I am not really sure why they all decided to take a permanent vacation from this realm after starting the obstacle course. The best of them didn't even get half-way through..." Mei shook her head in disappointment. "Yare, yare."
'Permanent... vacation?' Yugito took another step back. She didn't need a permanent vacation from her living state. 'Maybe I should have stayed in Kumo...'
"Mei," Rei butted in. "Maybe it would be prudent to shroud Yugito in your Steam Armor to ensure she is not fatally injured." Jinchuuriki or not, he didn't see a twelve-year-old finishing even ten percent of the insane death sentence of an obstacle course Mei prepared. Not when experienced jonins apparently died, not getting past one-fourth of it.
Mei looked a bit conflicted at making it easier for Yugito. She clearly had great expectations of the younger blonde but...
"Mei," Konan gave the girl a meaningful but amused look, making her flinch and quickly nod in acceptance. "Good girl." Konan smiled at Mei while inwardly she was facepalming. 'No matter how you look at it, with all those restrictive seals affecting the entire area of the obstacle course... even chunins would be reduced to civilians. Just the water-simulating seal would make this almost impossible ordeal unless one had incredible body strength but...'
Rei walked towards the two girls, wrapping his right arm around Mei's shoulder to cheer her up while wrapping his left around Yugito's to make her feel better. He felt there were things that just had to be said. After all, this was also training for Mei on how to train someone.
"Mei you are expecting too much of Yugito. She is barely high genin to low chunin level right now. You can't compare her to yourself when you were twelve. You were already training for years with us at such an age. Yugito didn't have personal trainers. If you want to help her train, you gotta start slowly and be mindful of her needs. Not..." His voice turned awkward, "try to kill her with the first exercise."
It took some persuasion but in the end, Mei relented to go easier... much easier on Yugito. Needless to say, the resident kitty-holder was elated at hearing her life was spared from having any restricting seals placed on her during the course and the fact her life was safeguarded by Mei's Jutsu, Rei's seals, and to give her a bit more comfort, even Konan created full body underwear from her earth-chakra-hardened paper slices for the girl. Much to Yugito's dismay, they didn't have the heart to outright cancel it since Mei put her heart into preparing it.
Half-hour later, Yugito stood in front of the entry point of the course, nervous as all hell while she felt up the invisible Steam Armor shrouding her. Seeing she needed encouragement, Mei walked closer to her and gave her a brief hug.
"Yugi-chan..." She firmly addressed her. When she was sure she had Yugito's full attention, her voice softened, "I know you had a very hard and sad upbringing. I had too. I remember every rock, punch, or kick thrown at me. The only advice I can give you is to not try to forget but remember and steel your resolve. Train so it can't happen to you again. Train so nobody can treat you like trash again. I can give you training. I can teach you. But... it is you who needs to repeatedly break your limits. It will be painful and at times you will cry in hopelessness but trust me, it is worth it." Mei said with a gentle encouraging smile.
'A bit flimsy speech at cheering her up but it would do.' Rei chuckled, shaking his head.
'How cringy.' Konan who sat in Rei's lap slightly smiled and leaned her back into his chest. 'Then again... that might be exactly how she felt training under me and Rei.'
They watched as Yugito gained a determined look and turned towards the obstacle course.
And then, it started.
Yugito ran inside, masterfully running through the first corridor which was riddled to the brim with projectile trap seals that spewed kunais when somebody was near them. She almost made it look easy.
"Eh... She is actually using Surface Walking to run on the wall where the amount of trap seals is the lowest. At least we can be sure she can use her brain well." Konan pointedly commented, causing Mei to be a bit depressed when she remembered the numerous hours of Konan telling her she was doing cool-looking but moronic things.
Yugito reached the second obstacle. Vertically laid poles in a sea of swirling fog that kept close to the ground. The half-melted slowly sizzling bodies in the fog gave Yugito a clear image of what would happen should she fall.
With a gulp, she used all the nimbleness and dexterity of a cat she could muster in order to jump from pole to pole, trying to get through the obstacle as fast as possible. She stepped on the third pole... and discovered the room was not as simple as it first appeared.
"Ah, gravity enhancing seals with an area of effect around the pole, isn't it?" Konan asked, observing the panicky blonde as she almost fell into the melting fog.
"Yup, some poles have none, others have seals with different gravity-scaling. This entire exercise is built to make her control her balance at will and become accustomed to gravity or pressure shifts in the environment." Mei said, proud of herself to come up with it.
"Look! She managed to land on the fourth pole!" Rei said, changing the topic.
He was not about to discuss how asinine this entire exercise was. One misstep and you are in a melting mist. Yugito had to step on very small poles of various sizes. The smallest could fit only one tiptoe while the largest barely had place for one and half of her small foot. Needless to say, the ones on the smaller side were more common. She also needed to be capable of adjusting her gravity center in a split second to adjust to sudden gravity pressure change due to the seals. The only thing that was missing would be something to force Yugito to go quickly instead of her own pace. Now that would make the creator into one right asshole.
Yugito was doing well, she noticed she had time to adjust so she jumped from pole to pole, taking at least five minutes to get used to the sudden gravity shift on each pole. Even those that didn't have gravity seals were quite challenging since she was expecting the gravity shift and when it didn't come, she got unbalanced. Many times did Rei think she would finally fall as she flailed her hands, only her natural cat-like balance saving her.
Konan could see Mei getting excited as Yugito was about to jump from the tenth pole to the eleventh. She only managed one 'Uh-oh.' before...
Rei deadpanned, seeing the pole under Yugito fall down a second after she landed on it, causing her to fall into the melting fog. Only the Steam Armor around her prevented the girl from being made into a mushy goo by the fog. Rei slowly turned his gaze towards Mei and gave her a dry look.
"Really?" Now he understood why so many jonins died without even completing one-fourth of the course. It was the work of a completely sadistic bastard! The whole thing was made to be impossible to pass.
"Yup. It wouldn't be an obstacle course without proper traps to give her a bit of a push!" Mei brightly smiled before frowning. "But to think she would fail at the second obstacle out of twenty... You were right, Rei, Yugi-chan needs a more refined approach!"
'I am not gonna ask what exactly refined means. Clearly, Mei got her inspiration and training ideas from somewhere,' He glanced at amused Konan, 'Sorry, Yugito. It's for your own benefit. This concerned observer is unable to ease your suffering!'