Naruto: Snow Cold

[Amai's POV]

I had brought an entire barrel to the training grounds. Yup, crazy, I know. My mother helped me find a place to buy one. When I told her that it was for "training," she didn't question any further and just gave in.

It was decently large, not very heavy, but still somewhat of a pain to drag all the way here. I would be thrown off as well, if I saw someone hauling a barrel like this into the middle of a training field.

"Did you seriously bring a barrel? What do you even need one for? You gonna use it to train your Ice Release?" Sora asked, genuinely curious, abruptly stopping his practice of the Body Replacement Jutsu. He'd started coming earlier than usual, which was kind of surprising, considering I had never seen him wanting to try this hard before.

"Exactly," I said proudly, putting the barrel down with a little more effort than I'd anticipated. "I'm going to try and freeze some water in this. This is actually perfect, since I can adjust how much water is in the barrel, and therefore, the difficulty."

"Ooooh, I see. That's kind of smart. This way, you can increase the potency of your ice, right?"

"Bingo." I gave him a confident smile, before proceeding to weave my hands into the Dog hand seal, to spam the Splash Wave Jutsu. One handsign. I still needed to master this thing... Annoying. Not much water from it, but what choice do I have? There's no water bodies near us.

Sora merely went back to doing his own thing, and after a while, I finally managed to raise the water level in the barrel to an acceptable level. I rolled up my sleeves and plunged my hands into the cold water, feeling the chill seep into my skin.

The cool sensation gave me a brief moment of clarity as I focused on the flow of chakra inside me. I closed my eyes and recalled the familiar feeling of the energy smoothly traveling throughout my pathways. This is it!

I opened my eyes, determination sparking within them, and released a pulse of ice-natured chakra that reverberated throughout the water in the barrel. The temperature was dropping, a faint chill emanating from the surface, but it wasn't enough. The water resisted, stubbornly clinging to its liquid form. I gotta keep going.

Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself, and went for it once again. The chakra in my core swirled and surged, and this time, I funneled it through with more power and precision. I could actually feel the cold now—in fact, frost was already forming on the surface.

The thin layer of ice began to spread outward, delicate and crystalline, its jagged edges slowly screeping toward the center of the barrel. Come on... just a bit more. My eyes narrowed, and my focus sharpened as I poured more and more chakra into the water, each pulse amplifying the cold.

And so, I continued like this until I exhausted my chakra—not to an extreme point, though.

...

I laid against the training post, my back pressed against the rough wood as I caught my breath. The cool breeze felt like a welcome relief against the lingering heat from the chakra I had expended.

Sora was just as tired as me, his own chest rising and falling with deep, measured breaths. I'm curious... I know that the Substitution Jutsu is useful in many ways, but why exactly is he focusing so much on this one technique?

I glanced over at him, noticing the almost obsessive focus in his eyes as he covered his mouth with his hands, fingers apart. He seemed to be deep in thought, as if mentally rehearsing the technique over and over.

He sighed one last time and reached for his bag. His hand pulled out some kind of... fruit? Is that a vegetable?

I squinted at it, unsure of what exactly it was. It had the shape of a raisin, except it was bigger—about the size of a large grape, with a wrinkled, dark green skin. I couldn't help but ponder where the hell he found something so... unusual.

Sora noticed my gaze and his lips curled into a smile. "Never seen one of these before?"

"Uh, no. What are they? They kinda remind me of raisins." I asked, eyeing the strange fruit in his hand with mild suspicion.

"This is a Goraku fruit, I found it on the ninja market. Apparently it helps with stimulating chakra generation and recovery, kinda like one of those Bocco fruits from some anime. Can't remember which, though," Sora said, throwing me one of them.

I caught it easily, eyeing the strange fruit. How come I've never heard of this? Was it not mentioned in the series? If it did exist this whole time, why did I not come across it before?

"It looks weird," I muttered, still inspecting the fruit with suspicion.

He chuckled, amused at my hesitation. "Just try it, it doesn't taste that bad. This stuff actually goes through an industrial process, gets dried up completely and then crushed. After that, it's used to make soldier pills, I think? I read it in a book."

I eyed the fruit in my hand, still uncertain. "Soldier pills... The same soldier pills that help you regain your chakra, at the cost of making you feel like crap?"

He nodded, chewing on his own piece. "Yup, except the raw fruit is way milder. It helps by giving you a small boost. Not much, but it works. If you're worried about the downsides, just know that the only thing bad about these is the taste."

I frowned, glancing down at the fruit in my hand. The wrinkled skin and strange texture weren't exactly appetizing. "Well, it... doesn't look that bad." I muttered, still doubtful whether I should eat it or not.

"Don't overthink it, and just eat it. It helps, I swear."

With a sigh, I bit into the fruit. The bitter taste hit me immediately, but I forced myself to swallow, trying not to grimace. It was kind of earthy, and the texture was dry, almost like chewing on something tough and fibrous, but not entirely unpleasant once I got past the initial shock of it. Kind of an spicy aftertaste, surprisingly?

I didn't feel anything yet, though. Probably gotta digest it first.

I stared at the half-eaten fruit in my hand, waiting for some kind of immediate change, but there was nothing—at least not yet.

"It may be strange at first. I somewhat like the spice on it," he said, still chewing on another piece.

"It's... not that bad. I feel... It's like a subtle warmth," I said, my words trailing off as I focused on the sensation building in my chest. It was gentle, like a soft fire kindling just beneath my ribs. "Like I'm getting some energy back."

Sora hummed, as if expecting this response, "Mhm. It's basically like a child-friendly soldier pill. Convenient."

I should probably stock up on those later. Anything, as small as it could be, that could help me train longer was a good idea to have. Even though the effects were subtle, every little bit helped when it came to pushing my limits.

After a small pause, I talked again. "Hey, since we are talking about chakra and stuff... What do you think of sensors? I've been wanting to start sensor training for a while now, but I sort of forgot about it."

Hearing my question, he tilted his head, clearly considering it for a moment before responding. "Sensors..." he said, almost as if tasting the word. "They're like radars, aren't they? Everyone has some sort of chakra field around them, and their own signature. A sensor expands their field by using their own chakra in order to 'detect' those signatures, right?"

I nodded thoughtfully, intrigued by his explanation. "Yeah, they do that. Thing is... I don't know how exactly they start training for it. Do they shut off every single sense and focus only on chakra? Or is there another method?"

Sora narrowed his eyes, looking like he was carefully considering my question. "Probably. Maybe it's like some kind of reverse meditation, where instead of shutting off your surroundings to clear your mind completely, you do it to focus on something else entirely."

"Oooh, I see. Makes sense," I nodded as the idea clicked. It mostly aligned with what I knew about Naruto.

"We should try getting a tutor for it and learn the ability as soon as we can. It might be insanely helpful in the future if someone tries to sneak up on us. One second we'd be checking our spoils, and the next thing we know, our heads would be rolling on the ground." I said, grimacing at the idea.

Sora nodded, clearly imagining the scenario. "That's true. I don't wanna go out like that, either. Like some kind of background character who gets taken out without even knowing what's happening." He shuddered slightly at the thought, his eyes narrowing as he thought about how easily things could go wrong.

"Alright," he continued, getting up on his feet once more, his resolve clear in his posture. "I'm ready to keep going. Are you game?"

"Ha," I chuckled, grinning as I stood up, brushing off the dirt from my pants, "You bet I am."

I will give it my best shot, I swear.