Naruto: Snow Cold

[Amai's POV.]

Time sure does fly by fast. The months passed by very quickly, and we almost reached the end of the year. November 9th.

You may be wondering, 'What exactly have you been doing during this time, Amai?'

I'm glad you asked, my imaginary fan.

I must say, I've received an overall improvement in every aspect. For example, physically, I can now withstand 180 kilos— a whopping 90% of the gravity seal during training. Around 130 while idle. Which means I'll sadly have to let this one go soon and get a new one. My muscles have really adapted to the pressure, so it's time to kick it up a notch if I want to keep pushing my limits.

Speaking of pushing one's limits... Sora has already surpassed me physically. He still had some trouble moving around in the full 200 kilos that the seal provided, but could manage. We'd have to order a mid-tier gravity seal for him. I think they can go up to 500 kilos or so? I don't know.

My chakra has grown exponentially with daily usage—around an 85% boost, I assume? Thanks to daily exhaustion and good nutrition, along with the natural growth of my body, yahoo! I think I've grown around 6 centimeters? From 124 cm to 130. In freedom units, 4 feet and 3 inches.

Yeah, come at me! I'll still call them freedom units no matter what, the American spirit lives on!

Anyway, my chakra field seems to have expanded during this time, just as Yamahiro-sensei told me. No, I'm not genuinely calling him 'Big Bro Yama,' that's ridiculous. It probably covers a radius of a little over 120 meters while active, and exactly 15 meters passively. All of this is a product of training at the facilities three times a week, along with just general growth from consistent usage.

As for my Frigid Compass? I guess it's... slightly more useful now? With my passive sensory range, I can feel these auras without the need for actively concentrating, but the pull is only a little stronger than before—back when my chakra field barely covered 11 meters. I haven't gotten much practice with it, but I suppose it helps when it comes to sparring. Makes it slightly easier.

Honestly... Since when did I start monologuing so much? What's even the point of that?

Maybe I just do it to escape frustration.

I sighed, resting against a tree on the training grounds I always practiced at. No matter what I do, the rubber ball won't explode, or even bulge slightly. The potency of my chakra is still not enough, either that, or I just have to keep trying.

Can you believe that I've been here for almost eight years now and still haven't managed to learn the Rasengan, let alone the second step?

Whatever. It's still a good way to burn through chakra. At least I can use the rotation from the first step to apply it in other techniques, right? Like a barrage of spinning ice shards, using the spin to add piercing power—kind of like a drill.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah.

Ice, huh? I could freeze an entire barrel's worth of water in no time now—takes me about a minute, tops. I dunno if I should move on to larger bodies of water or start experimenting with techniques already, but... I want them to be as powerful as can be when I do it.

By the way, I have been trying to kind of 'compress' the ice, by slowly forming it and avoiding as much air pockets as possible, then repeating this same process over and over again, faster each time, before moving onto larger pieces. The most I could do was a dense brick of ice, taking me around eight seconds.

Still pretty slow, but hey! Progress is progress.

As for my elements in general, I've been sneaking in twigs to academy hours and cutting them with wind chakra alone, which was definitely a lot harder than trying to cut a leaf. I've barely cut around six in half throughout my time doing it. Water? In the Academy's library, I found a scroll that listed some methods to train your affinity in the D-Rank section.

Surprisingly, the amount of sections available go up to B-Rank. Amazing, right? Not that I can use any of these yet. Or maybe I could, and I just need to learn them. My chakra has grown to be at least mid-genin, I think. I hope so.

The Shadow Clone jutsu would be really helpful once I finally learn it, especially for learning theory. I could even start sending a clone in my place to the Academy, and not even have to go! Fuinjutsu would become a hundred times easier, and I could finally progress past producing just Explosion Tags and other basic seals.

Either way, I've been practicing one of the methods from that Water Release scroll. It consisted of producing water merely with your chakra, and filling up vases and other containers with it. How is this different from jutsu, you may ask? Simple. You don't use any hand seals to assist you with it, and you condense your chakra to create humidity. From that humidity, it is used to create water.

I haven't managed much, but I've created around a liter at once on my best attempt. It actually reminds me a bit of Mushoku Tensei's Water Ball spell.

Another technique I've been practicing involves using the Ox seal to mix my chakra into existing water, allowing me to manipulate it for as long as possible. I think it's supposed to improve both control and affinity for Water Release? At least, that's what the theory implies—the more water you can control at once, the better.

So far, I've managed to hold about five liters, a little over a gallon, for around forty seconds before my control starts to slip. Any more than that, whether in mass or duration, and it gets unstable as hell. Not to mention that it is really, really damn slow to move. And heavy, for some reason.

I've splashed myself more times than I'd like to admit, honestly.

Still, I think I could apply this in combat. I could take a few liters of water from a distance and form ice constructs from it. Walls, spears, shards—maybe even try to create a budget hailstorm. Too bad that I can't even fucking move while holding the liquid. If I could, I-

A sudden gust of wind swept through the training ground, rustling the leaves scattered across the dirt. A faint whoosh followed before a voice spoke up from behind me.

"Yo."

Of course. Sora.

I exhaled through my nose, not bothering to turn around. "You really like doing that, huh?"

"What can I say?" Sora stepped forward, casually dusting off his sleeve with a small, satisfied smile. "It's a pretty cool aspect of the Body Flicker. Not to mention, it makes getting places way faster. Saves a ton of time."

The Body Flicker... Yeah, I've made a lot of progress with it too. I don't even need the seal anymore, and I can cover up to 150 meters in a single burst before tunnel vision starts creeping in and I lose control over my footing.

Only bad thing is that each use eats up about one percent of my chakra—if I were to spam it to hypothetically escape an enemy, it would drain me quickly. Not to mention they may be stronger and faster than me.

Did you really have to show off like that, though?

"So, what'cha been doing?"

"Not much. Just trying to figure out why I keep failing the second step to the Rasengan."

Sora raised an eyebrow. "You're still trying to learn that? Just wait until your chakra reserves grow enough. There's a reason why only people like Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Naruto use that jutsu."

"Eh... Good point. One day I'll learn it, though."

"Same here. There are so many things you could do with it and so many techniques you could build off it. Rotation, power, and containment, right? For example, if you push containment to the limit, you could create actual landmines."

"At that point, just use Explosion Tags."

"Yeah, but these landmines would be more convenient and made on the go. Plus, the power of the explosion could scale with your control and how much chakra you put into it."

I frowned, mulling it over. "That... actually sounds kind of terrifying. Just planting pure chakra bombs wherever you want?"

Sora nodded. "Exactly. Imagine layering them, too—delayed detonation, chain reactions, traps within traps."

"That'd need a massive amount of control, though. And chakra."

"Why do you think I'm giving you these ideas? You're more than fit for them. I think that out of everyone in our class, you have the best chakra control. If you tried becoming a medic-nin, you'd probably manage with only a few difficulties."

I blinked, caught off guard. I mean, that is to be expected, but hearing it from someone else? It felt... different. Validating, almost.

Both my hearing and sense of touch have gone up a notch during this time. I had been maintaining the magnifying effect daily, to the point of being able to subconsciously do it. I had also learned to filter out unnecessary noises and got used to the load of information that this technique gave me.

As a result, I only obtained the benefits of enhancement, and would only start suffering if I increased the chakra directed to those receptors, tissues and organs.

This is the reason I had heard him arrive from behind, if you haven't realized yet.

Sora leaned against the tree I was resting on, before continuing. "I should probably try learning the Mystical Palm Technique later, once my control is good enough. It'd be helpful for treating exhaustion, and accelerating our training. Do you know of any madman that would even use this on themselves and heal the tears in their muscles, just to keep going?"

I looked up at him, horrified.

Does Rock Lee have someone to do this for him? I shook my head, trying to clear the thought. No, no, more importantly… is this guy really gonna learn it just to train more?!

"Thought so. Actually, can it even be used on your own body? How does it work again?"

"I... doubt it, since it kind of needs someone else to be projecting chakra into a person's injury to accelerate the healing process."

Wait, is that why I normally don't feel any kind of ache after sleeping? Because our cells are more active and are working more than normal, our body repairs itself faster. Training like we are should definitely leave you sore.

Agh, so many things I still don't fucking know!