The elevator doors opened.
Yoru walked down the long corridor and pushed open the heavy iron door to the premium training room.
The door hinges lacked oil and let out a teeth-grating creak.
A powerful stench of sweat hit him head-on, mixed with the burnt rubber smell from the floor mats, rushing straight up his nose.
Naruto and Sasuke lay sprawled on the floor like two puddles of mud.
Naruto was lying flat on his back, his chest heaving violently. A glistening string of drool hung from the corner of his mouth, running down his chin onto his filthy collar.
Sasuke leaned against the wall. His black short-sleeved shirt was soaked through with sweat and clung tightly to his body, while his pant legs were covered in dust from rolling around on the ground.
"Get up." Yoru kicked the doorframe, producing a loud clang.
"Uncle Yoru... what do you want now...?"
Naruto rolled over and rubbed his eyes with the back of his dust-covered hand, smearing the dirt across his face even more evenly. He looked like a stray cat freshly dug out of a mud pit.
"I really can't train anymore today. I don't even have the strength to lift a finger."
Sasuke said nothing.
His face was cold as he gritted his back teeth and braced himself against the sweat-stained wall, slowly forcing himself upright.
His knees still trembled uncontrollably, and the muscles in his calves kept twitching.
"Enough talk. Get over here."
Yoru walked to the pockmarked stone table in the center of the room and pulled two metal tubes from his pocket.
He slapped them onto the table with a smack.
Under the flickering fluorescent lights overhead, which had a bad connection somewhere, the metal tubes gleamed coldly.
One contained a golden-red liquid, the other a