Ice Element Affinity

"[Water Release: Water Ripple]!" Unlike [Lightning Release: Ground Run], Water Ripple was released successfully. Yamanaka Tohru checked his chakra reserves—he could release this technique about ten times, estimating from the original work. "Holy crap! Doesn't that mean I have the chakra of an average chunin?" Tohru felt for the first time that he really did have a Golden Finger.

"That's right! Where's my Golden Finger!" Tohru had been in this world for four years, and the Ice Element Affinity he'd drawn from the lottery had never manifested, making him forget this "Golden Finger" of his transmigration.

"What exactly is Ice Element Affinity? How about I try holding a piece of ice?" Tohru always acted on impulse. He went straight to the kitchen and pulled a large block of ice from the freezer.

"Just as I thought!" Tohru realized that holding the ice didn't feel cold at all, and the ice showed no signs of melting in his hands. "Holy crap! My Golden Finger isn't just being immune to cold, is it!"

Tohru didn't think his Golden Finger could be that simple. It was supposed to be a life-saving skill—how could it be this weak?

Tohru slowly infused his chakra into the ice block. Suddenly, the inside of the ice unfolded before his eyes. Tohru felt as though he had become that block of ice—both in body and mind. Absolute calm, undisturbed by anything.

"Huh? What's this?" In this state, Tohru noticed changes in his body. All the cells within him began to shift toward the molecular structure of ice.

Once the transformation was complete, Tohru tried controlling his cells with chakra. He channeled chakra to his left hand, and it turned into ice. He controlled his right hand, and it turned into ice too.

This bodily change reminded Tohru of another anime that had swept across the world in his past life—One Piece. The former Marine Admiral Aokiji, who ate the Logia-type Ice-Ice Fruit, could turn his body into ice to avoid physical damage. Could his ability be the same?

This thought shattered the special state of mind Tohru had entered. He urgently needed to know if he could truly achieve elemental transformation.

If he really could perform Ice Release, it meant physical attacks would be useless against him, and the world of Naruto had no Haki. Thinking this, Tohru couldn't hold back any longer.

He ran back to the kitchen, found the small knife his mother usually used to peel fruit, then controlled his chakra to turn his body into ice. Holding the fruit knife in his right hand, he grabbed a strand of hair and sliced it.

The knife cut through the hair, and it turned into a fine thread of ice. Tohru immediately canceled the frozen state and found that his hair was still intact.

It really was elemental transformation! Tohru then conducted various experiments and finally confirmed one thing: he could turn into ice, control ice, and directly convert water into ice.

"[Water Release: Water Ripple]! Freeze!" Tohru then discovered that he could turn water into ice the instant he released a water-style jutsu.

Tohru could also instantly teleport to the location of any ice containing his chakra, similar to the Flying Thunder God technique. The difference was that Flying Thunder God was a Space-Time Ninjutsu that ignored distance, while his required sensing ice elements imbued with his chakra, with a maximum range of fifty meters.

Still, being able to teleport within fifty meters with no chakra cost was already satisfying enough for Tohru.

The only downside was that freezing a water-style jutsu currently required a massive amount of chakra. In his current state, he could release [Water Release: Water Ripple] and freeze it at most three times.

Tohru had originally thought that having the chakra level of an average chunin at age four was enough, but he hadn't expected freezing a single C-rank jutsu to consume a third of his reserves.

Tohru recalled methods from the anime to increase chakra. In the Naruto world, there were two solutions: 1) merge with Hashirama Senju's cells, or 2) capture a tailed beast and become a Jinchuriki.

Tohru thought it over. First, the First Hokage's Cells were out of the question. The risk of merging with them was too great. Without a Sharingan, he couldn't suppress the First Generation Cells at all. Before they could fully integrate with him, they would devour him instead.

As for tailed beasts, that was possible, but it required Tohru to be strong enough. From the One-Tails to the Nine-Tails—the Nine-Tails was definitely out. After all, it was Konoha's tailed beast, and Tohru had no intention of defecting. Besides, the Nine-Tails was far too powerful for him to handle.

After much deliberation, it seemed only the Three-Tails and Six-Tails matched his affinity. The Three-Tails, in particular, had been masterless for a long time after the Fourth Mizukage's death. But none of these were things he could obtain now.

"In the end, I'm just not strong enough! Forget it. Today's gains are already huge. Time to sleep!"

In Konoha Year 38, the Konoha White Fang, Hatake Sakumo, killed the son and daughter-in-law of the Sand Shinobi's strongest puppeteer, Chiyo, on the Land of Wind battlefield. After losing two Quasi-Kage-level experts, the Sand Shinobi had no strength left to fight and chose to surrender.

In Konoha Year 38, five-year-old Yamanaka Tohru reached the age to enter the Ninja Academy. Over the past year, Tohru had mastered the [Three Body Technique] and could release [Lightning Release: Ground Run] proficiently. Besides [Water Release: Water Ripple], he had also learned the interference-type jutsu [Water Release: Water Wall].

Perhaps because of his Ice Element Affinity, Tohru's talent for water-style jutsu far exceeded his lightning-style. And the Water Wall technique, in Tohru's hands, became a highly defensive jutsu—the Ice Wall.

A year's time had also slightly increased Tohru's chakra reserves. Previously, he could release ten C-rank jutsu; now he could release thirteen to fourteen.

At this point, even without using Ice Release (from now on, Ice Element Affinity would be called Ice Release), Tohru could defeat the average genin from the original story. Using Ice Release, he should be able to beat an Elite Shinobi, and he was certainly stronger than Kakashi, who graduated at age five.

"Aki Dō! Kakashi graduated in Konoha Year 39? That's next year? He hasn't even started school this year! How is he graduating next year?" Tohru felt terrible. He was also starting school this year, which meant his classmates would be Kakashi, Obito, Rin, Might Guy, Yūhi Kurenai, and Asuma—the future backbone of Konoha after the plot began.

"Tch, what a pain!"

"Tohru! You've been corrupted by Shikaku! Always saying 'what a pain'!"

"Brother Inoichi! Mission's over?" Yamanaka Inoichi was home, which meant Tohru's cheap uncle should be back too.

"Yeah, mission's over! The war's about to end too. Tohru, you'll be starting the Ninja Academy in a few days. Do your best!"

"Yes, Brother Inoichi!" Tohru replied with a grimace.