Ice, Ice Baby [Solo,NK]

“It’s freezing…” Layla said, as she kept rubbing her (literally slowly freezing) arms in the pouring rain. It was admittedly her fault wearing a single white shirt outside in a village literally called “The Village Hidden in the Mist”. And anyway who had the pleasure of living there for more than a month knew that the sun was a lie told to them by Konoha sympathizers aiming to make the leaf village even more money than they already had, so they could get ahead of Kiri in the tech game (which was, as every Kiri citizen told themselves every night before going to sleep, impossible). Next to this young adult with long ginger hair was Nero, who answered her sorrow with the solution she deserved. “Not really… It’s almost kind of warm actually…” he said, pulling back the sleeves of his three-layered water-resistant jacket. “How long have you been here in Kiri again?”. At that point, Layla’s chin had literally started shaking, so she found it hard to speak what was in her mind, “A fff-eeew m-mmmonthsss.”.

Nero chuckled, “Your voice is tingling.” He leaned backwards just bit, “Weak. And you’re a girl, too. Aren’t girls bodies usually, like naturally a little bit warmer than guys’? I don’t really know, I didn’t really pay much attention in school, but I vaguely remember about something like that. Maybe it’s the opposite. Either way, I’m pretty used to cold whether, also I’m a Yuki, so I’m, like naturally even more resistant to cold. I think. Or maybe it just comes from being at close proximity to the ice element. So maybe it wouldn’t really effect me yet; but maybe after I learn to use Ice Release techniques, I will become even more resistant to natural cold. I don’t know. Either way, it’s not really that cold to be honest.”. When he finally finished speaking, he realised that there was an emptiness beside him, where Layla used to be. “Did she perish out of the cold? Was I blind to her suffering?” Nero thought, this time managing to do so silently, with using his ‘inner voice’, that he was taught by Kite.

He looked around, and saw Layla’s cold body lying on the ground. “Oh she didn’t disappear into the wind. That’s cool.”. This time he thought out loud. He walked slowly towards the girl, then crouched to check her pulse. He felt one. “Oh great,” he thought, once again out loud, “She’s not dead, that’s a double win.”. He then picked her up and started carrying her on his right shoulder. Needless to say, this gathered quite a bit of attention from the citizens in the street. “Nothing to see here, folks.” Nero said, “I’m a ninja of the village. I’ll return her to safety.”. At least a few of the citizens seemed to have been convinced, others still kept an eye on the genin. Nero stood there solid for a few minutes, trying to recall where Layla lived exactly. He tried his best, but he either hadn’t ever paid any attention to that, or he had an awful memory loss that was conveniently effecting him only now and only about this subject.
“So… I think I need to get her somewhere warmer if I don’t want her to freeze to death.”. He looked over from his shoulder to the girl, “No I don’t want that I guess… So since I don’t know where she lives. I think. Did I once go there? I can’t recall. Either way, I should get her somewhere warmer soon.”. He then snapped his fingers, “Kite’s it is.”. He started skipping happily towards Kite’s home. Kite was slowly but surely becoming Nero’s new best friend. His former best friend (and he didn’t like to mention this, but) had died a horrible death by an unfortunate, tragic, horrid (but kind of funny) accident. A dead bear fell on her. When it was explained that way, it mainly sounded funny and it also sounded kind of dumb; but in truth, and at that moment, it was an awful sight. It happened right before Nero’s eyes. Everything was way more graphic than he had expected.

And it went something like this;


Nero was still a wanderer at the time, going from job to job, village to village, with the hope of one day returning home to Kiri. He had only departed from his parents a months ago, and was trying to figure out how to make a living for himself, and live an independent life. By now he hadn’t really learned a lot about any professions yet, so he was more relying on the fighting skills (the bare minimum he had) that he picked up from the minimal training his parents gave him.


One day, he was picked up as a mercenary by a private company from a minor village (that Nero had long forgotten the name of, even if he knew at some point; which he might not have because he wouldn’t be getting as much jobs as he was if he was asking questions). The team Nero was a part of was tasked with guiding and protecting the client through the swamps and marshes outside Amegakure. Nero was on the job with his old friend Seranine, who was a tall knight-like ninja of the Snow Country, which she left, choosing the life of a mercenary.  The two have went on a couple of jobs together, many of them only needed them to stand around most of the time; and neither of them were really getting tired from doing just that. Seranine was getting bored though, she would tell Nero on many occasions that she would have preferred these missions to get at least a little bit more dangerous, and that her sword was rusting and so were her skills because she wasn’t needing either for the jobs she has been getting lately. But they were enjoying each other’s company, and were growing more fond of each other in every job where all they practically did was sit around and talk.


But on that day, when they were on an escort mission in the swamps, they actually did get what they were looking for; trouble. Since they weren’t experts of the area; they had decided to get out of the swamps from the fastest way out. The fastest way out, however, seemed not to have been the easiest way out, as it turned out to be crossing through the area that was the home of multiple families of bears. Seranine got the fight she was looking for, one that she started with a smirk. Her weapon of choice was a javelin, tried by a rope to her waist. She stormed into the battle, piercing through the animals. Stabbing one in the neck to climb it, from where she would jump onto another one and stick the javelin into its back; slaughtering the animals with ease, and with bloodlust. In the time she took care of most of the beasts, Nero could only manage one, and that with the help of one other mercenary. He thought he was at least of some help when he stuck his blade into the bear’s stomach; only for the bear to stumble back and fall on top of Seranine, who was struggling to pull her javelin out of the face of another bear. She was so focused on the killing that she had lost awareness of the state of the battle. The bear corpse falling onto her crushed her bones, and there was blood everywhere.


The next hours felt unreal to Nero;The mission was a success; his vision was being shrouded by a white flash, he was in shock. He felt like his heart was going to explode when she saw Seranine’s lifeless corpse, after the other mercenaries pulled the bear from on top of her, to check if she could be healed. A bare look at Seranine made it obvious that it was not possible. It was a no brainer, much like the girl herself now. The mission was a success, and Nero was paid for his troubles; and he was given his part of Seranine’s pay as well. On that day, he gave up on mercenary work; and started taking non-violent jobs in cities; which led to his career in dogsitting. He eventually overcame the trauma and allowed himself to try and become a ninja again, after finally making it back to Kirigakure.


And that’s where he was now.

Thinking about the past and her old friend, he didn’t even realize the time that passed. His feet have moved automatically, and brought him to Kite’s door as he had intended. He knocked on the door. At most a few seconds passed, before Nero started the door being unlocked from the inside, and being opened by a topless Kite. The sight Kite himself was greeted by was Nero holding a girl on his right shoulder. Kite’s eyes opened up, and his body froze solid, “What did you do, Nero?” he asked, as sweats started forming on his forehead. Nero seemed almost surprised by the question, “What? I didn’t do anything. Did I leave the fire running again, on the fireplace?”. Kite shook his head. “What? No. I mean the girl. What’s with the girl? Why do you have an unconscious girl on your shoulder?”. Nero went “Oh.”, he checked the girl’s pulse once again. It was still there. “This is Layla. She kind of passed out from the cold I guess. Can we come in?”. Kite nodded, “Of course, do.”, he cleaned the sweat off his forehead. “The cold though?” Kite continued, “Is it even that cold? Isn’t it kind of warm in fact?”. Nero put the girl on the couch in front of the fireplace (that currently had no fire in it), “I know, right?” he answered, as he picked a match from the shelf nearby, “I said the same thing. I think she’s a newcomer to Kiri or something.... Anyway, see you later.”. And he started heading out the door, only to be stopped by Kite’s shouting. “WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOIN?”. Nero shrugged, “I have training to do Kite. How am I going to become the very best like no one ever was?”. Kite sighed, “Nero. You can’t just come in and leave an unconscious girl I don’t know at my house; with no explanation except ‘Her name is Layla, she’s cold.’ and then leave for your training.”. Nero looked down at the ground, embarrassed, “But…” he said, only to be cut off by the furious Kite, “No but’s. You’ll wait for her to regain consciousness. Then you’ll walk her home. Then do your training if you want to.”. Nero sighed, “Fine.”. And so they waited, drinking tea and talking about Nero’s ninja life, and Kite’s life as a ‘scientist of sorts’ as Nero called him with his limited understanding of his friend’s profession.

Half an hour later, Layla woke up. “Wha- Where am I?” she asked as her eyes tried to adjust to the brightness of the room. Nero welcomed her with a smile, “Kite’s place, of course.”. She looked around, there was no kite, no Kite. “Who’s Kite?” the girl asked, Nero looked around. He too realised that Kite wasn’t in the room anymore. “Nevermind.” he said, “Let’s bail.”. The girl raised her right hand towards the fireplace. “But the warmth…” she mumbled. “You wanna stay here?” Nero asked sarcastically, Layla sighed, “Well, no…”. They got up and left. It was a little bit colder than before. “So,” Nero asked while following Layla home (wherever it was), “Are you feeling better?”. Layla nodded, “Kite gifting me his sweater helped quite a bit. I would have loved to thank him. Another day, perhaps.”. Nero’s forehead got sweaty, “Yeah… Uh. Sure but here’s the thing, he really doesn’t like being thanked and gets real shy when people do, so, like, don’t even mention it to him, even if you come across him one day.”. Layla’s eyebrows raised with the sign of being surprised, “Oh. Okay, I won’t even mention it then… Are you not feeling cold by the way? It’s freezing.”.
“Oh? It is?” Nero answered, making clear he was not really registering the cold, “I don’t know. I don’t really get cold. It probably has to do with me being a Yuki.”. Layla turned towards Nero, “A Yuki?”. Nero opened his mouth but wasn’t sure what to say, “I… Umm… They’re the Ice clan? Strong members can use the Ice element. And I guess it has to do with that that we’re kind of resistant to the cold.”. Layla nodded, “Oh, cool.”. Nero was intrigued by the nonchalant answer, “What?” he asked. Layla shrugged, “Nothing.”. Nero asked again, and got the same answer; then asked again and once again got the same answer. He asked once more. “Fine…” Layla answered this time, “It’s just that… You know. Like, the Uchiha have Sharingan; that’s super interesting, and like I don’t even know what the Shinkou have; that’s super mysterious and like cool. The Hozuki can turn into water, the Hyuuga both have Byakugan and they have their own lightweight fighting technique.... And you just have like, ice…”. Nero was shocked, “So?” he asked. “Nothing…” she brushed Nero off.

“Ice is cool.” Nero exclaimed, obviously offended by Layla’s attitude towards his heritage, “Ice is totally cool. Who doesn’t like ice?”. Layla shrugged, “Ice is fine.”. “Ice is great.” Nero answered. “Fine, show me.”. Layla stopped, waiting for a demonstration by Nero. Nero looked down in shame, “I… I can’t yet…”. Layla sighed, “Okay, Nero.”. “I-I’ll show you once I’ve mastered it. It’ll be really cool.”. “Okay…” Layla answered enthusiastically. Nero then realized Layla hadn’t stopped to give more emphasis to what they were talking about, but the two have reached her house. “See you later Nero.” Layla said, confirming Nero’s theory, hugging him sincerely while doing so. “See you.” Nero would answer, watching her enter home.

“I’ll show her.” he thought, as he started walking away,  “Literally. I’ll show her some Ice Release techniques when we meet next time.”. He started walking towards his favourite rooftop to train on. “It probably wouldn’t even take that long. I learned the Water element in no time. The Ou Tsuba Fish Spit. I’m a master. ‘Ice is fine?’. Ice is not fine- Ice is amazing, it’s like both cold and also like shiny, and it is solid but it’s surface is always like kind of wet, it’s great. What’s there not to love about ice?”. He kept repeating those thoughts in his head until he reached his destination. He started climbing the building using his academy techniques. When he reached the top, as he has done lots of times before, he would walk to the center of it and sit down. Then he started doing what he always ended up doing here, meditating; learning and training.

“Now let’s think for a second… I’ve already learned two elements before, so this should be pretty easy. Also, this is the Ice element, my heritage. It’s literally (well maybe not ‘literally’ literally but in a metaphorical literal way) in my blood. It should theoretically hopefully be easier than both times I’ve trained an element. Let’s see. Ice. It should be pretty obvious. I’ll meditate on water, wind; and the cold. And the first key word I have to add into my meditation is ‘solid’. Let’s give it a go.”. Nero then sat on his usual meditation pose; his legs crossed, with his hands on his knees, his palms facing the sky, his back straight and his eyes closed. He started meditating on the wind that was blowing against his entire body. The water in the raindrops falling everywhere. The coldness, that caused Layla to pass out and postponed Nero’s training.
He then opened his eyes, looking at his right palm, focusing on the cold, the wind and the rain specifically he was feeling around that area. He then manifested chakra into his right hand. He was now proficient in the infusion of chakra, and he had just recently learned how to manifest the water element (so the manifestation of an element was fresh in his mind), so it was going much faster and much easier than before; and even more so than he had expected himself (and he had a tendency to overestimate himself). His chakra started flowing more strongly towards his right hand than the rest of his body.  

After a few more minutes of doing that, the air around his right hand would start feeling colder. “It’s going smoothly.” Nero would think, “Not that I have more experience I think I have a better grasp on how well a training is going. When I started getting water out of my chakra the last time I was training an element, it was just smooth sailing from there. But maybe… I may be skipping an important part here…”. He would then get up from the surface of the roof, and start jumping from one rooftop to another, heading back to Kite’s home. It would take him quite a few minutes, and he would this time get closer to Kite’s home than he has ever before; but he still wouldn’t be able to land right before his door; or find the street on his first try. Either way, he would reach his friend’s home soon enough.

He knocked on the door. Kite didn’t bother who it was anymore (as apparent from the last time, when Nero showed up with Layla on his shoulder), knowing full well that it was Nero with a dumb suggestion, dumb question, or a dumb request. And this time, it was a dumb request. As soon as he opened the door, Kite was greeted by that dumb request in fact, “Hey, Kite! Can I have all the ice you have at home? Can you put them in like a bag for me* Please.”. Kite would sigh, “I… I don’t even want to ask Nero… I really don’t. But I also really do.”. Nero nodded, “I’m gonna rub them all over my body, or alternatively maybe put them down and lie shirtless over them.”. Kite would be breathless for a few seconds. “Wha- Nevermind. Come in, take whatever you want.”. And so Nero did. He went into Kite’s house, and grabbed absolutely every piece of ice cube there was, even the one that was in Kite’s drink. He then put them in a plastic bag and headed back out. “Thanks Kite. I’ll pay you back. I swear.” Nero said, while getting out. Kite just nodded and answered with a smile, “Just do your best and get home safe.”. Nero nodded and smiled. He then left again for his favourite rooftop.

He got to the center, sat down, opened the mouth of the bag, then raised it high, and poured the ice cubes all over himself. “This’ll work.” he thought to himself, convinced by that thought. He started focusing on his chakra, and trying to infuse it with the Ice element. He meditated and focused on that training for minutes. He then realized that the ice cubes weren’t melting. The weather couldn’t have been lower than water’s freezing temperature at the moment. Not only was it raining, and the puddles the rain was creating weren’t freezing at all; but Nero just had a recognition of the cold weather in Kiri, after being exposed to it for such a long time. So he knew that the ice cubes must have been in frozen condition thanks to Nero’s chakra constantly keeping them cold. “It’s working…” he thought, as he once again decided to focus his chakra onto his hand. The chakra now had a much more freezing presence than before.

Then, right before Nero’s eyes, for the first time in his life, Nero saw magic. It wasn’t a jutsu like any other he has seen or used before. The Ice, it looked, it smelt, it felt magic. “It must be because it’s my affinity. There’s probably an explanation. But I don’t need it. I won’t believe it. This. This is magic.”. Out of the coldness around his hand, solid ice started to form. It started off as a cube, one not unlike the ones he was sitting around. Then, second after second it grew, until it became a ball of ice. It wasn’t perfectly shaped like a ball, and there were cracks all around it, but Nero loved it. Tears started forming in his eyes. He loved this feeling. It was unlike anything he had ever seen or felt. He tried again. This time the ball was almost perfect, all the cracks were inside the ball rather than outside, creating a beautiful sight. Nero cleaned the tears off his eyes. “This... “ he thought, “This was what I was looking for… Without even knowing it… I needed this.”. He closed his eyes. He created another small ball out of the ice. Then again, then again, and again. Then he created a kunai, then a shuriken, and then a miniature of Kite’s house. (Nero wasn’t very skilled at using this jutsu yet, so he wasn’t great on getting the details through, but it somewhat resembled the house. He stood there for hours, creating small tokens, and then dropping them to the ground, and repeating.

The next day, in the afternoon, Nero was at Layla’s door. He excitedly jumped around, finding it hard to stay still and wait for her to answer the door. A few seconds later, there she was. “Nero, wha-” she was cut off with Nero raising his index finger to silence her for a second, with a smile on his face. Then he used the technique he learned to create a small rose out of ice, and he offered it to Layla. Layla smiled and accepted the rose. “I’m still working.” Nero answered, “I’ll come back when I’m finished.”. Layla smiled, “See you later.”. Nero smiled back, “See you.”.


[EXIT, WC: 3674

Claiming, 18 Stats


Ice Release (1000/1000)

Ice Release: Token Creation (500/500)
Ice Release Weapons (2000/2000)
174 words towards Yuki Physiology]

>Ice ice baby
>Under pressure
At least you know

Approved