**Chapter 5 – **
### **Academy Training Ground – Sparring Day**
Naruto lounged against a tree, golden chains idly roasting stolen dango over blue flames that *sang* under his breath. Across the field, Hanabi faced Kiba, her strikes leaving faint frostbite on Akamaru's nose—delicate, controlled, *deliberately unimpressive*.
**Kiba** (snarling): "Weak! That tickles!"
**Hanabi** (sweetly): "Apologies. The cold slows me."
She side-eyed Naruto, whose flames flared mockingly. *'Liar.*
Iruka rubbed his scar. "Hyuga-san, focus on Gentle Fist *basics*."
Hanabi bowed, frost melting under her sandals. "Of course, sensei."
Naruto's laughter crackled. "Basics? *Boring.*"
Her Byakugan pulsed—a flicker of glacial fury. *'Says the boy who burns his own homework.'*
"Is that all you could come up with? Quite boring… as usual." Naruto says with a lazy yawn.
Hanabis sweet smile turn crooked as her eyes narrow slightly.
---
### **
Kakashi watched from a rooftop as ANBU tailed Hanabi home. Her chakra flickered—cold, but muted, like frost on a windowpane.
**Pakkun** (sniffing): "Hyuga kid smells like winter… and something *weird?*."
**Kakashi** (turning *Icha Icha*): "Yuki clan ancestry. Distant, but documented."
He pocketed Hiruzen's orders: *"Monitor Uzumaki. Hyuga anomaly dismissed as bloodline quirk."*
**Pakkun**: "You're ignoring the ice."
**Kakashi** (walking away): "Ice melts. His fire? That's a village-level migraine."
---
##
**
In a damp cave, Orochimaru examined a charred ROOT agent's corpse, the flesh still smoldering.
**Kabuto** (adjusting glasses): "The flames resist preservation. Even sealing scrolls degrade."
**Orochimaru** (hissing): "Fascinating… It *rejects* … mortality."
He traced a blackened bone, oblivious to the frostbitten tissue samples Kabuto had hidden—Hanabi's ice, labeled *"Hyuga Mutation – Noncritical."*
**Orochimaru**: "Send the cursed trio. Let's see how the Phoenix reacts to *pests*."
---
###
Naruto "accidentally" ignited a tofu cart, drawing a crowd as flames shaped into dancing foxes. Hanabi froze a thief's sandals to the ground, her ice brittle and *intentionally flawed*.
**Vendor** (sobbing): "MY TOFU!"
**Naruto** (grinning): "Grilled tofu's a delicacy! You're welcome!"
Kakashi appeared beside Hanabi, eye-smile sharp. "Hyuga-san, your ice release is… **quaint."
**Hanabi** (bowing): "A minor mutation, Hatake-san. My great-aunt was Yuki."
Her breath fogged the air. Kakashi noted the frost *retreating* under her feet—too precise for a ice release user what's worse is that she is just a child.
---
### **Hyuga Compound –
Hiashi stood rigid before the elders, Hanabi kneeling with hands clasped—ice prickling her palms, hidden under silk.
**Elder Hyōga** (sneering): "Her… *quirk* is an embarrassment. The Yuki diluted our purity."
**Hiashi** (cold): "It strengthens the Hyuga. The Ice Release mutation is rare, not weak."
Hanabi's nails bit her skin. *Blood, not frost.* The Caged Bird Seal was a constant hanging threat, it glowed in Hyōga's palm—a silent warning.
**Elder Hyōga**: "Let her prove it. The genin graduations are in 2 years. She will take the first chunin exam Alone. No… *distractions*."
---
**
That night, Naruto lobbed a firework through Hanabi's window. It exploded into harmless sparks, incinerating her math homework.
**Hanabi** (frost creeping up the walls): "*Why*."
**Naruto** (perched on her sill): "Rescuing you from fractions. You're welcome."
He tossed her a scorched scroll—Hyuga ledgers detailing branch family "defects."
**Naruto**: "Wanna burn their stupid archives?"
**Hanabi** (crumbling the scroll to snow): "I'd rather not be branded before I'm twelve."
A knock. Hiashi's voice: "Hanabi. Now."
Naruto vanished. Hanabi's frost swallowed the ash, but not before a spark clung to her sleeve—*Naruto's eyes in the flames*.
---
### **
Three cursed mercenaries cornered Naruto at dusk, their seals glowing with stolen Phoenix fire.
**Leader** (grinning): "The snake wants to *play*."
**Naruto** (yawning): "Tell him I bite."
Chains lashed out. The seals *absorbed* his flames—briefly. Or thats what's should of happened if the tools didn't get overwhelmed and explode.
**Kurama** (snarling): *"Pathetic mimicry. Crush them."*
Naruto's eyes narrowed. *"Nah. Let's… experiment."*
He let the leader grab his wrist—the cursed seal surging.
**Hanabi** (landing silently): "Need help, *arsonist*?"
Her palm struck the leader's chest. Ice *crawled* into the seal—weak, but enough to destabilize it.
**Naruto** (whispering): "Cute trick, Snowflake."
The seal ruptured. The man screamed, flesh crumbling to ash.
---
###
Orochimaru watched through the dying mercenary's eyes as Naruto's flames consumed him.
**Orochimaru** (hissing): "*Mine*."
Unseen, a spark lingered in the ash—Naruto's Phoenix fire, whispering back to its master.
In Konoha, Kakashi studied the battlefield—ice and ash fused into jagged glass.
**Pakkun**: "Hyuga ice plus that unique fire… pretty."
**Kakashi** (pocketing a shard): "Pretty dangerous."
---
### **Chapter 5 End – ❄️