Naruto: Snow Cold

Rays of light rained down on my face from the window, blinding me. I woke up from my slumber. Why directly at my face?!

I squinted my eyes, trying to avoid the light, and I stretched out my limbs as I stared around my room. It's going to take some time to get adjusted to... Oh, my parents are up. I can hear them from the corridor.

Then I heard the door open, revealing my dad.

"Oh, you're already up? An early bloomer, aren't you?"

"Yaaaaawn... Yeah, somewhat."

"You should get dressed. We're going to have breakfast in a bit, and then I'll take you to the training grounds and teach you some real stuff."

That woke me the hell up.

"For real?! I'm getting up; wait for me!"

"Hah, there's no rush. Hikari's still making breakfast for the three of us. Need help getting dressed?"

"Huh. No, I can do it myself."

"Alright then, I'll leave you to it." He exited the room, and I got out from under the covers, gathering my clothes to get dressed. I didn't bother brushing my teeth; it would be pointless since we're going to eat in a bit after all.

I got out of the room, fully ready, and saw my dad sitting on one of the chairs at the table, looking excited. My mom was cooking in the compact kitchen. This smell... pancakes? I sat down as well, my enthusiasm noticeable. I haven't had pancakes in so long. Imagine if I had some ice cream to go with it... Wait. Ice cream. That's actually possible, compared to Coke.

I can melt down granulated sugar and turn it into a syrup, pour it onto the cream, mix, and add any other flavorings that would go well with it, then add the mixture into a small container. Put that inside a bigger container filled with ice and salt, and mix, mix, mix... I'm such a genius.

"Excited for Mom's cooking?"

"You bet I am, Mom."

She served a plate with a stack of pancakes and syrup on top for the three of us. We sat for a while, eating and admiring the taste. Me, especially.

My dad finished first, and he got up to wash everything as we complimented Hikari's food.

Soon after, Jun and I bid Mom goodbye, heading out. I'm actually excited for this. It will get me a step closer to my goal. A small step, but a step nonetheless.

"Amai, have you ever fought someone?" he asked, curious.

"No. I had some problems at the orphanage, but it never got physical." Screw the kids who didn't let me play football with them.

"... I see."

We kept walking through the streets of Konoha, and the walk didn't take long—about 15 minutes or so. We passed by the Konoha Stadium and the Hatake Clan compounds, eventually arriving at Training Ground 5, the closest one to us. Luckily, it was empty.

It was surrounded by a forest. There were target logs and lots of flat, green space to practice on. Perfect for throwing shuriken, sparring, or using ninjutsu. Not that I can use ninjutsu yet.

I stared in awe at my surroundings, noticing the grin on my father's face.

"You ready? We're going to be here for a decent while."

"Yeah, I am! What are you going to teach me?! How to summon elemental dragons?! Are we going to make hundreds of clones? Are you going to teach me how to nuke an entire province?!"

I managed to get a laugh out of him with that last part. Worth it.

"Wha—pfft, no, no, no... We have to start from the basics. You have been learning shurikenjutsu with your mother, right?"

I nodded once more, and he gave me a pouch he brought with him. I opened it, and it was full of shurikens, with a few kunai in the other part.

"So? Go ahead."

I grabbed a handful of shurikens with my left hand, handing one over to my right hand, getting into position. The logs are a bit farther away than what I'm used to, but I should manage.

I threw it after concentrating for a bit, successfully lodging it into the log.

"Great job, Amai. You really did learn, although there's still a lot of room to improve. For example, your throwing speed. Your enemy is not going to wait for you to aim, so we'll have to improve that."

"I see..."

"We'll do it later. For now, let's try something chakra-related. You were excited for that, weren't you?"

"Yeah!"

He handed me a few leaves. I knew what this was.

"You may wonder why I gave you these. You can circulate your chakra around your entire body, right? Place one of these on your forehead, and let it flow towards that specific spot for as long as you can without dropping it. Don't do too much or too little, because it'll either blow off or slip. This will make your overall chakra control better and, therefore, make it easier to learn cool jutsu while wasting less chakra."

Hahaha. Little does he know I can do this for over 20 minutes. I put one on my forehead and let the chakra flow towards it, causing it to stick.

He sat in silence, not wanting to interrupt my concentration. The minutes passed, and I eventually dropped it after 22 minutes and 41 seconds. A little rusty, but eh.

'Impressive! I wasn't able to hold it for this long the first time I tried it. Unless...?'

"Amai, have you done this before?" He took a good look at my body language, and I didn't even notice.

"Nope. First time," I said proudly and shamelessly.

"I can tell when you're lying. You've been doing it at the orphanage, weren't you?" He called me out. Shit, how could he tell?! "I won't ask how you know about it since you're our little genius. How long?"

"...Three weeks. I figured it out after sticking some stuff to myself using my chakra. I also felt that it slightly increased the size of it." I said sheepishly.

"Hmmm... Yup, no wonder you started off so well. It's very good that you decided to train on your own, though. How about we move on to something more physical? Let's do some exercise." He said, with an evil grin plastered on his face.

Oh man, this is gonna burn...

I'm totally screwed, aren't I?