Naruto: Snow Cold

Moments later, at Training Grounds 27, a lone girl could be seen, excitedly opening up a scroll. Amai barely had to walk due to the Body Flicker jutsu, although it costed her around 20% of her chakra to get here by spamming the hell out of it.

She laid her bag on the ground, and quickly got to work. First, she'd have to go through her usual training routine, before finally moving on to learn the Shadow Clone.

With that in mind, Amai amped up her weight seal from 120 kg to 180, feeling the strain gradually settle over her body. Her muscles protested for a brief moment before adjusting, this heaviness was simply familiar to her.

Amai stretched for a good ten minutes, before finally starting with basic conditioning —push-ups, squats, and sprint drills, and then once she felt warmed up, she moved on to more intense exercises. None of this was for building up visible muscle, but functional strength, which meant she had to shift to other exercises such as explosive push-ups, quick dashes from tree to tree, explosive jumps, and one-legged squats.

She continued like this for about an hour, before taking ten minutes to rest, and continuing for the next 40 minutes.

By the time she finally stopped, her limbs burned with exertion, and sweat dripped down her forehead. The added weight made every movement feel almost ten times as exhausting, but that was the point. If she could move like this under strain, she'd be untouchable once she removed the seal, kind of like Rock Lee.

'Yeah, that sounds fun. Taking my seal off and going ham on someone like Gaara.' She thought through regulated, steady breaths.

A small smirk tugged at her lips. The idea of suddenly becoming a blur on the battlefield, overwhelming her opponent with sheer speed and precision, was just too tempting.

But that was for later, wasn't it? For now, she had to learn one of the most important jutsus that will be in her arsenal.

She settled onto the ground, crossing her legs as she unrolled the scroll once more. 'Let's see how this works.' Her eyes analyzed the contents of it once more.

'Oh, I see, I see... So it's kind of similar to the Clone Jutsu, but at the same time, it's not. Instead of gathering chakra with the intent of creating afterimages, you gather chakra to imitate your bodily structure—giving them chakra pathways to function with, allowing them to use jutsus, and granting them physical form. This means it doesn't just rely on chakra quantity, but control as well. Interesting.'

Amai kept reading through the scroll, absorbing more and more information.

'The chakra signature is automatically imprinted into it, which makes sense, considering it's my own chakra. Can't change it by magic... or can I? Maybe with the Transformation Jutsu?'

She tapped a finger against the parchment, deep in thought.

'Also, nowhere does it explicitly mention memory retention after a clone disperses. Maybe it's to stop idiots from abusing it and going braindead? Of course, that won't stop me, because I can't read!'

She chuckled to herself, recalling an old meme from her past life. The internet was truly a masterpiece.

Her eyes scanned further down the scroll.

'It also says here that once a clone dispels, most of the chakra returns via a temporary chakra network formed during the summoning process. The amount of chakra recovered depends on my mastery over the jutsu and my chakra control. That must be the reason behind the memory recall and why I can control the clones—their thoughts, actions, and purpose.'

She smiled upon seeing the last part.

'The most flexible aspect of this jutsu is that, unlike the forbidden version, this one allows me to choose how much chakra to allocate per clone, rather than evenly splitting it between them. This means I can create clones for various purposes—stealth and intel gathering with the minimum chakra needed to remain corporeal, training with more than half my chakra, or combat.'

With all of this information in mind, she finally got to work.

She rolled up the scroll and stored it, before getting up and using the one hand sign needed for the Shadow Clone as she molded and shaped the chakra inside her, focusing on forming the clone with the necessary structure and pathways. Slowly, her energy drained, but she pushed forward, making sure the clone felt stable. The strain was there, and her chakra was being depleted faster than she liked, but she held firm, determined to get this right.

'Shadow Clone Jutsu!'

She didn't really need to say the name of the technique—it was purely for show—but she thought it sounded cool, so why not?

Once the smoke cleared, she couldn't believe her eyes or what she felt at that moment.

The first thing Amai noticed was that it drained almost half of her chakra, for a single clone. She expected this, but not for it to actually happen! On top of that, the clone was wobbling around as if it had no balance, and still had some flaws appearance-wise. Its edges flickered and shimmered like a poor hologram, and its stance was shaky, as if it might fall apart at any moment.

It was still progress, though.

Amai dispelled the clone, and noted that she would get around three-fourths of the chakra back. The return wasn't instant, but instead it was a gradual process that took about a minute. She wiped a bit of sweat from her brow and took a deep breath.

Once again, she plunged into practice for an hour straight, popping Goraku fruits into her mouth every once in a while to aid with chakra recovery.

'I should probably start buying soldier pills, at least the low grade ones. It should be safe for me to take one at this point, right?'

She paused mid-practice, considering the thought. Soldier pills weren't particularly dangerous when used correctly, but there was still the risk of overuse. Still, the idea of having a faster way to recover chakra during training or missions was tempting.

'Not yet. I gotta ask someone first to confirm if its safe.'

Having said that, Amai refocused on her training.

'One more time!' She weaved the plus hand seal once more, and focused her chakra. This time, she tried to maintain better control, making sure her chakra pathways were well-formed and that the clone wouldn't waver so much.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

A cloud of smoke erupted. Once it cleared, her lips curled into a wide smile.

'Shadow Clone successfully learned!'

A girl with long white hair and frosty cyan eyes stared back at her. She wore a simple short-sleeve white shirt and black pants, looking just like Amai herself.

"Hey, can you talk?"

"Of course I can, duh."

Amai blinked, taken aback. 'What? I don't remember clones being sarcastic, or them having any kind of free will at all.'

"You think of me as just a slave? That hurts. I didn't know my creator would be such an asshole."

Amai opened her mouth, then closed it. 'What the hell?'

"You're... not going to turn against me or go on strike, are you?"

"Why would I do that? I'm not stupid enough to go against my creator. You should know that better than anyone. If you're worried because of that one episode of Naruto, let me remind you that it was just filler. There's no way that a clone could actually develop its own will and betray the original! That's just dumb."

"I... see."

Amai said, straining her face in a forced smile. 'Why was it that my clone was acting like that? Is it because of my spiritual energy? That must be it, since I'm an otherworlder. Otherwise, it wouldn't be acting like this.'

"Anyway, whaddya want me to do?"

"I guess we should start by trying out the memory retaining ability. How about you go out into the forest near this training ground, and write something? Once you're done, dispel and I'll confirm whether it works or not." Having said that, Amai tossed the clone a kunai.

The clone nabbed it out of the air with ease, spinning it between her fingers. "Sure thing!" she shouted, turning toward the forest.

Amai watched her go, already wondering whether it would work or not.

Minutes passed, and she felt a surge of memories rush into her mind. The path taken, the trees, and most importantly, the message. Although once Amai processed it, she was disgusted.

'Out of all things you could have used, why'd you have to write 177013 on the tree?'

Amai buried her face in her hands, groaning. She could see the clone's smug expression while carving that number into the tree.

The internet was both a blessing and a curse.

With a sigh, she made her way into the forest, using the same path the clone had taken. It didn't take long before she spotted the infamous numbers carved deep into the bark, standing out like a mark of shame.

Amai stared at it for a moment, a grimace clear in her face. 'Why the hell am I like this?'

Without hesitation, she flipped her kunai and began scratching at the tree, erasing the cursed digits.

Just as she finished, a thought hit her. 'Wait… if my clones inherit my memories and personality, doesn't that mean they'll always have my sense of humor?'

She paused, eyes widening in horror.

'Oh, God.'

At least they worked as they were intended. She just needed to achieve a higher degree of mastery over the jutsu itself.

Yeah, that should be it.

Definitely.