Ice Element Affinity

"[Water Release: Water Ripple]!" Unlike [Lightning Release: Earth Flow], Water Ripple had worked perfectly. Yamanaka Tohru checked his chakra reserves. He could use a technique like Water Ripple around ten times, judging by the original story's standards. Holy crap! Did that mean he had as much chakra as an average Chunin? For the first time, Yamanaka Tohru felt he actually had a Golden Finger.

"Right! Where the hell is my Golden Finger?" It had been four years since Yamanaka Tohru had crossed over, and the Ice Element Affinity he'd won in a draw still hadn't shown up. He'd nearly forgotten about his transmigration "Golden Finger."

"What exactly is Ice Element Affinity? Maybe I should try a piece of ice." Yamanaka Tohru had always been the sort to act on an idea as soon as it came to him. He went straight into the kitchen and took a large block of ice from the freezer.

"I knew it!" Yamanaka Tohru found that even while holding the ice, he couldn't feel the slightest chill. The block showed no sign of melting in his hands, either. "Holy crap! Is my Golden Finger just that I don't get cold?"

Yamanaka Tohru didn't think his Golden Finger could be so simple. He'd been promised a skill that would help him survive. How could it be this weak?

Yamanaka Tohru slowly fed his chakra into the block of ice. Its interior suddenly unfolded before his eyes, and he felt himself become the ice—not just physically, but in his thoughts as well. He was absolutely calm, undisturbed by anything.

"Hm? What's this?" In that state, Yamanaka Tohru realized his body was changing. Every cell in his body began transforming toward the molecular structure of ice.

Once the change was complete, Yamanaka Tohru tried controlling his cells with chakra. He directed chakra into the cells in his left hand, and it turned to ice. He did the same with his right hand, and it turned to ice, too.

The transformation reminded Yamanaka Tohru of another anime that had been wildly popular in his previous life, One Piece. Aokiji, a former Navy admiral, had eaten the Logia-type Ice-Ice Fruit and could turn his body into ice to avoid physical attacks. Could he do the same?

The thought broke the special state of mind Yamanaka Tohru had entered. He desperately wanted to know if he could use Elementalization.

If he really could use Ice Release Elementalization, physical attacks would be useless against him. And there was no Haki in the Naruto world. Yamanaka Tohru couldn't hold back any longer.

He ran back into the kitchen and found the small knife his mother usually used to peel fruit. Then he used chakra to turn his body into ice, grabbed a strand of hair with his right hand, and cut down with the knife.

The knife sliced through the strand. The hair was cut, and the ice became a thin thread. Yamanaka Tohru immediately ended the frozen state and found that the strand of hair was still there.

He really could use Elementalization! Yamanaka Tohru ran all kinds of tests and finally confirmed three things: he could use Elementalization, control ice, and turn water directly into ice.

"[Water Release: Water Ripple]! Freeze!" Yamanaka Tohru then discovered he could turn the water into ice the instant he released a Water Release technique.

Yamanaka Tohru could also teleport, appearing where an ice element infused with his chakra was located. It was similar to the Flying Thunder God, but the Flying Thunder God was Space-Time Ninjutsu and could ignore distance, while he had to sense the ice infused with his chakra. His range was only about fifty meters.

Still, being able to teleport within fifty meters without using any chakra was more than enough to satisfy Yamanaka Tohru.

The one drawback was that freezing Water Release techniques took a great deal of chakra. With Yamanaka Tohru's current reserves, he could use [Water Release: Water Ripple] and freeze it at most three times.

Yamanaka Tohru had thought that having the chakra reserves of an average Chunin at four years old was already enough. He hadn't expected freezing a single C-rank technique to consume a third of his chakra.

Yamanaka Tohru recalled the ways to increase chakra reserves from the anime. There were two solutions in the Naruto world: 1. Fuse with Hashirama Senju's cells. 2. Capture a Tailed Beast and become its Jinchuriki.

Yamanaka Tohru thought it over. First, First Hokage's Cells were out of the question. Fusing with them was too risky. Yamanaka Tohru didn't have a Sharingan, so he couldn't suppress the cells. Before they could fully fuse with him, they'd devour him.

Then there were the Tailed Beasts. That was possible, but Yamanaka Tohru would need to be strong enough first. Of the One- to Nine-Tails, the Nine-Tails was out of the question. It was Konoha's Tailed Beast, after all, and Yamanaka Tohru had no plans to defect. Besides, the Nine-Tails was too powerful for him to handle.

After turning it over in his mind, only the Three-Tails and Six-Tails seemed compatible with Yamanaka Tohru's nature. The Three-Tails had also been unclaimed for a long time after the Fourth Mizukage died. But none of that was something he could get his hands on right now.

"In the end, I'm still not strong enough! Whatever, today's been a huge success. I'll get some sleep."

In Konoha Year 38, Konoha White Fang Hatake Sakumo killed Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law on the battlefield in the Land of Wind. After losing two Quasi-Kage-level experts, the Sand Shinobi could no longer keep fighting 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, Yamanaka Tohru had mastered the [Three Body Technique] and become proficient at using [Lightning Release: Earth Flow]. Besides [Water Release: Water Ripple], he'd also learned a disruptive technique, [Water Release: Water Wall].

Perhaps because of his Ice Element Affinity, Yamanaka Tohru had far more talent for Water Release than Lightning Release. In his hands, Water Wall had become a highly defensive technique: Ice Wall.

A year had also brought a slight increase in Yamanaka Tohru's chakra reserves. He used to be able to cast ten C-rank techniques; now he could cast thirteen or fourteen.

Even without using Ice Release (from now on, Ice Element Affinity would be called Ice Release), Yamanaka Tohru could beat the Genin in the original story. With Ice Release, he should be able to beat an elite ninja. He was definitely stronger than Kakashi, who had graduated at five.

"Aki Dō! Kakashi graduated in Konoha Year 39! That means next year? He hasn't even started school this year! How's he going to graduate next year?" Yamanaka Tohru felt his whole world turning upside down. He was starting school this year, too, so his classmates should be Kakashi, Obito, Rin, Might Guy, Yūhi Kurenai, and Asuma—all key figures in Konoha once the story began.

"Ugh! What a pain!"

"Tohru! That Shikaku fellow's been a bad influence on you! Why do you keep calling everything a pain?"

"Brother Inoichi! You're back from your mission?" Now that Yamanaka Inoichi was home, Yamanaka Tohru's uncle should be back soon, too.

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

"Yes, Brother Inoichi!" Yamanaka Tohru replied with a pained expression.

A reader asked why Ice Release didn't require a Wind nature. That was because his nature was tested in Chapter 3, while he awakened Ice Release in Chapter 4.