Naruto: Snow Cold

That day after class, Amai decided to stay and roam through the Academy's library. Her reasoning was that her social battery had almost completely drained, and she needed time to recharge. Yup, totally not because she was antisocial or anything like that.

'Okay, what the hell is this voice that keeps criticizing me in stereo? I'm plenty social, I'll have you know!'

Yeah, sure. Just carry on whatever you are doing.

Amai scowled, feeling as though she was being judged by her own brain. 'I really need to get my intrusive thoughts in check!' she thought, exasperated.

With a sigh, she refocused on the rows of books and scrolls before her, determined to find something useful.

At least the library was mostly empty today, with only a few students present—most of them either quietly flipping through scrolls or scribbling notes.

She couldn't help but think about how busy her schedule has been, looking at the many scrolls and books on the shelves. Every day, she woke up, had breakfast, went to the academy from 7 AM to 12 AM having lunch during this time, about an hour of free time—which she was currently using to spend in the library.

After that, she goes home and eats once more, then goes out to train her body at the training grounds, practice her jutsus and exhaust her chakra.

'Shocker, I know.' She rolled her eyes at her own thoughts. 'I have to eat that much because of how much energy my body requires to keep up with everything—especially with how chakra affects my cells, metabolism, and pretty much every bodily function.'

She usually spent between four and five hours there before going home to wash up. By then, her muscles would be sore, her chakra reserves low, and her body running on fumes.

After a quick bath and a singing session with the shampoo bottle as a mic, she ate yet another meal from the fridge. She had taken quite a liking to meal prepping with her mother a long time ago since it saved both money and time—and, most importantly, it was convenient. After that, she usually studied theory and had dinner alone with her mother, as her father was often away on missions, before going to sleep. Rinse and repeat.

Amai found the theory ridiculous, especially the math. They were learning about fractions, decimals, percentages, and even starting pre-algebra! What the hell was next, motherfucking logarithms? It was unbelievable to her that they were teaching this to seven-year-old kids.

At least it was easy, and the theory was useful in some way. It gave her general knowledge about the outside world—things such as the economic model, Konoha's history and geography, and even a bit of politics. She found it fascinating how each village maintained a delicate balance of power, with trade agreements, military strength, and political maneuvering all playing a role. Even if they weren't diving deep into the gritty details, the foundation was there, and she knew she'd need to understand it all someday.

On days she didn't feel like eating the same thing, she usually went out to Ichiraku, which happened about twice a week. It wasn't just because of hunger, but because there was a slight chance she'd meet Naruto. So far, she'd had no luck, and she didn't really have the option to ask around for him.

It would be insanely suspicious for anyone to suddenly ask about the Jinchuuriki of the Leaf Village, after all.

'Actually, why do they even treat Naruto like crap?' Amai thought, beginning to ponder as she flipped through a scroll absently.

The Nine Tails affected many lives, including hers, and caused more deaths than she could count. Naruto didn't have any part in that, and had no choice but to be used as the vessel for the tailed beast, because he was the only suitable one available at the time.

In fact, he should be treated as a savior. By sealing the beast inside of him, its rampage was halted. He prevented further destruction, but no one ever saw it that way. For some reason, the villagers absolutely hated him. Almost no one respected the Fourth Hokage's wishes.

How can you treat what's basically your village's nuclear bomb like that? And even worse, the Third allowed it to happen. What the fuck is a law supposed to do if basically everyone and their mother in the village know about his furry problem? And it doesn't take half a brain cell to figure out he's the Fourth's son. No one here has blonde hair as bright as him and they have basically the same eyes!

Amai's thoughts simmered with frustration. She understood that Minato had a lot of enemies due to his exploits, but at least try to get someone to care for him. Anyone.

The only logical reason she thought would be why they hated him was because humans naturally search for things to blame their misfortune on. It was easier to direct their anger at a single person, to make him the scapegoat for all the suffering the village endured after the Nine Tails' attack. It didn't matter that Naruto was just a child, that he had no choice in being the vessel.

He was an easy target.

It was a wonder he didn't turn out to become a villain. With the amount of hatred he endured, Amai couldn't even begin to imagine how he kept his head up. She definitely wouldn't want to fight a nuke with practically boundless chakra and stamina!

Moving on... One day she'd get to meet him. It'd be amazing to teach him some jutsu and see what chaos would unfold. Considering how good he will be at pranking, he'd probably become the biggest menace with a bit of training!

'Teuchi-san would surely have a good laugh hearing of his antics.' Amai mused, before closing the scroll with a snap, putting it back in its place and walking up the stairs to get to the B-Ranked section. She needed to get a move on already, otherwise she wouldn't get anything done today.

She made her way up the stairs, her fingers lightly trailing along the wooden railing as she glanced around. Almost no one was up here, only two older students. They looked like an Inuzuka and an Uchiha.

Amai kept her steps light as she walked past the two students, not wanting to draw any unnecessary attention.

Why did she choose to get up here, you may ask? Naturally, she's only here for the famous Shadow Clone Jutsu!

If she couldn't use the Rasengan, she'd settle for at least one fully corporeal clone, even if it drained half of her chakra. With it, she could boost her training efficiency by an insane amount. Or even better, once it lasted long enough, she could just send a clone to class and not worry about having to go, thus clearing up a lot of her schedule.

She'd have to get used to it, though. Five hours of content all at once is no joke, even on days they barely learn anything. Or maybe it wouldn't be that bad and just a minor headache?

Chakra just makes people, as she would say in her old world, built different.

She glanced across the shelves, seeing Genjutsu scrolls neatly organized along one of the rows. 'Not this one,' Amai dismissed it, before moving onto others. Ninjutsu, yes! This was it.

She opened a few scrolls, one by one.

'Water Dragon Jutsu... Holy shit. forty-three seals just for this one? No wonder it's just a B-Rank! If it wasn't for the excessive amount of hand seals, it could be A-Ranked. I'm not looking for this, though. Maybe another day,'

She continued flipping through, her eyes scanning quickly. 'Wind Blade? Might be helpful if my tanto ever breaks for some reason, and I could adjust the sharpness depending on how far I've gotten with training my affinity towards Wind Release. Around twelve hand seals... It's good, however, I'm not looking for this either.'

Her fingers kept moving, almost on autopilot as she dismissed technique after technique. None of them were what she truly wanted today.

It was truly a blessing that the other students were so absorbed in their own studying. No need to communicate or make small talk with anyone.

'Finally, here it is!' Her face lit up upon seeing the contents of the scroll that was currently opened up in her hands, and her heart raced with excitement.

This was the Shadow Clone jutsu, at last! Learning this one technique was the dream of basically every Naruto fan.

Amai couldn't help but feel a rush of excitement as she skimmed through the scroll. The description seemed simple enough, having to do the signature clone seal and molding your chakra a specific way, before expelling it and giving it shape and form to make a physical clone come to life.

Apparently you needed at least Jonin levels of chakra to use it safely, but as long as you didnt maintain them for more than half an hour, it'd be fine. Although, what she lacked in quantity, she made up for it in control, which meant she could learn this and not instantly pass out, because the chakra isn't wasted.

She'd read over the details later at the training grounds, and then get to actually learning it.

For now, she had to go back down and check out the scroll so she could practice with it. Amai rolled it up, slipped it into her bag, and made her way back down the stairs.

With this, she'd be one step closer to becoming the strongest kunoichi!