Naruto: Snow Cold

Months slipped by, from March to December, and many things happened.

Our main character spent this time following her daily training routine. What did it consist of, you ask? Two hours of physical exercises, pushing her limits every day to build up strength and endurance. This led to her Chakra Enhancement to finally last throughout the whole workout, flowing through every muscle at once. It also meant that her focus, chakra control and reserves greatly improved as compared to before.

Her chakra pool was almost the size of a lake now, probably Genin level—This was the result of almost exhausting her chakra every single day by practicing her jutsus and Ice Release exercises.

Speaking of ninja techniques, she's finally able to flawlessly use all the techniques she's learned so far without seals. The list included Gale Palm, Wind Pull, Push and Redirection, Transformation, Clone Jutsu, and the Body Replacement Jutsu, although she recently started learning the last one.

Amai did not forget about her Ice Release either, because she kept working on the drills she created for herself. The potency of it grew massively, along with her proficiency in controlling and shaping it. On one occasion, she had even made three hand-sized, detailed ice constructs of her mother, father and Sora—each perfectly shaped and lifelike.

Using the Gale Palm as a principle, by following the same flow pattern, she could use her ice-natured chakra to create very cold ice at her palm, which could be expanded the more chakra was poured into it, or shaped as her control allowed.

Fuinjutsu hadn't been overlooked, either, but she eventually dropped it because she simply didn't have the talent for it. As a result, she stopped at being able to produce Explosion Tag Seals.

Her studies had gone quite well at the academy, too. Although she didn't participate much, if at all, due to being shy, she still performed well in her exams and almost every subject, absorbing all the knowledge from Konohagakure's History, basic Geography, Chakra Theory, Shuriken Practice, and other subjects.

Sparring was... Okay. They sparred once every week. Sometimes she lost, and sometimes she won. The kids were working hard. There was some notable talents, such as Hyuuga Kenzo, and Hatake Kiyoshi.

What astounded her, though, was the fact that they were already using multiplication and division to resolve problems. Just how advanced would these classes get?! This stuff is supposed to be for, like, 3rd graders!

Of course, Sora didn't slack off either. He often sparred with Amai at the training grounds and exercised alongside her, pushing each other to improve. Instead of perfecting what he already had, he chose to learn a variety of E-ranked Fire and Lightning Release techniques, such as: Heatwave Palm, Flame Burst, Cinder Strike, and even a D-ranked Lightning jutsu, Lightning Pulse.

As a gift for his birthday, Amai had bought him a Gravity Seal similar to hers and an acoustic guitar as well, using her savings earned through the Akimichi Contract.

It all came up to be around 9,600 ryo, a somewhat big expenditure, but just about a month's worth of savings for Amai, which was practically nothing since she had been saving up for more than two years now.

At the moment, it was snowing, and yet there they were at the training grounds. The soft flakes fell gently from the sky, coating the ground in a thin layer of white. Despite the chilling atmosphere (no pun intended), the young kunoichi stood with a sturdy water balloon in hand, a basket filled with them next to her.

She focused, put her other palm over the balloon, and channeled her chakra, causing the water to swirl around and cause small bulges all over the balloon. Amai was trying to spin the chakra in multiple directions at once. Yes, this was the first training step for the Rasengan!

Thud, thud, thud!

Sora was finished training his shurikenjutsu, looking satisfied with his progress. His gaze then turned to Amai, and he approached her.

"Are you really trying to learn the Rasengan? You know how much chakra that stuff takes," he said, his arms crossed. 'We probably barely even have enough for a shadow clone, heh,' Sora thought, a small, amused smirk on his face as he watched her struggle with the water balloon.

"Shut up, dude, I'm trying to concentrate here!" Amai's gaze flickered to him, then quickly back to the balloon. It bulged with the strain of her chakra, but at no point did it ever look like it was going to pop.

"Come on, come on!" she muttered under her breath, her brow furrowed in frustration as she forced more chakra into the water balloon. It was always just shy of bursting, the pressure building but not quite enough.

"Honestly, I don't know about you, but if someone catches us doing this... We are probably finished."

"Like I care, ROOT shouldn't have enough agents to spy on children like us. What would ANBU even spy on us for? And even if they did, what are they gonna do? Torture little children?"

Sora raised an eyebrow, smirking. "You say that now, but you'd be surprised how far those people would go for a mission. Y'know what they say, right? Fuck around and find out."

That broke her concentration, causing her to snort and for the water to stop swirling. The balloon wobbled in her hands before it settled, the pressure fading.

"You prick, you just had to pop that joke in, didn't you? I was so close to actually popping the balloon." Our protagonist grumbled, but despite that, her words were laced with amusement.

"I know, I'm just funny like that. Anyway, how much weight can you hold from your gravity seal? It's like 200 kilos at maximum, right?"

Amai hmm'd in response, and said, "Around 30%, I think? Like 60 kilos."

"Damn, I can barely even take 30 kg. You're really strong! If we were in some kind of generic isekai, you'd probably be like five or six levels above me." Sora grinned, nudging her with his elbow.

"You're a boy, you can catch up fast. It's not like you've been at it as long as I did." Amai shrugged, her eyes still focused on the water balloon in her hands, trying to maintain her concentration. 'Let's do this once more. I'm not leaving until I pop this darn balloon!' she thought as the determination in her eyes sharpened.

The chakra swirled once more, the bulges becoming bigger and more prominent as the water inside the balloon shifted, each rotation pushing her closer to her goal.

"You can do it, keep going," he encouraged Amai, causing her to increase the rotation speed of her chakra. Then...

POP! Splash!

"Hey, not on my face, you idiot! It's cold as hell!"

"Sorry, ahahaha! I finally did it! I did it! I learned the first step!"

Sora wiped the water from his face, smiling slightly, "Yeah, sure, you did. Good job. Actually... Come to think of it, isn't it December 24th?"

Amai blinked at that, and something clicked for her. "Oh. OH! Back in our world, we would be celebrating Christmas, right? And it's even snowing, as well!"

Sora looked up at the snow-filled sky, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. He stretched out a hand, watching as the soft snowflakes drifted down and melted on his palm. "Yeah, I guess so. It kinda makes me miss home, you know? Being with my family and having a good time with them. It's funny how something so small could remind you of things so simple, yet so far away."

"That's true... But honestly? I don't even want to go back. I love this world, despite all the trauma it's given me. Life is never boring when stuff like ninjutsu exists."

Sora chuckled at her response, "Yup, I get what you mean. It's definitely way more exciting than the place we came from, but still... Is it really worth all the trouble? Freaks like Itachi, the Raikage, Pain, the tailed beasts and even Kaguya exist. There's just too much for us to handle... How are we supposed to get as strong as those monsters?"

"I think we should stop worrying about them and focus on ourselves. I'm here for a good time, not a long one. So what if we know we're probably screwed? What really matters is having some fun along the way. Naruto and Sasuke will probably handle the big stuff anyway, so why should we feel obligated to take on every main threat? We're not the main characters of some story, are we?"

"Eh, you're right," he shrugged, "Oh yeah, speaking of freaks... Did you hear about Itachi? He graduated a week ago, and this absolute monster is still 7. Seeing it on the internet is one thing, but actually living it? Absolutely insane."

"Yeah, the guys talent is monstrous. If we ever encounter him during his time in Akatsuki, we better pray for ninja Jesus Christ to save us."

Sora laughed at Amai's comment, shaking his head. "Pffft—hahaha! Yeah, probably." He then glanced up at the sky, the snow still falling lightly. "Honestly, we should probably get back home. Mika's probably worried about me."

"I guess. Today's been really productive, so I think we should wrap it up too."

"By the way, Amai..."

"Hmm?" She glanced at him, curious.

"Merry Christmas."

A small smile spread across her face. "Merry Christmas to you too, Sora."

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(A/N: Hey there guys, how are you doing? I hope you're having a jolly time! I wanted to announce that I would be taking a week off, so that I can properly study the series and plan out my story. Also so that I can spend some quality time with my family. Merry Christmas!!)