We left the land of water and headed through the land of hot springs again and into the land of frost which was a distinctly unpleasant trip. The further north you went the colder it got and I had no clothes for that sort of environment. My own innate durability meant I didn’t need to worry about frostbite but by no means did that mean I enjoyed the cold. Luckily we came across a merchant coming from there that had a bear pelt that I bought to bundle up.-
“You look like a giant walking furball!” my sensei exclaimed with uproarious laughter after I got covered.
“Well excuse me if I wasn’t told we were going to the arctic north at any point. I’ll get it made into proper clothes once we find a tailor.” I said with an annoyed huff.
The pelt was way too big for me and looked puffy and odd on me but I was warm and that was all that mattered.
“Don’t you know a shinobi is supposed to be prepared for any scenario they find themselves in?” she teased.
“Oh is that right? Well then you must be a terrible shinobi since you always look surprised when you lose!” I shot back before flickering away before she could try and hit me.
“Get back here you brat!” she yelled angrily as she started chasing after me.
“You’ll never take me alive!” I yelled while laughing my fool head off, it was a good time.
We eventually came across a village that had been taken over by bandits which we freed in exchange for my pelt getting turned into a proper outfit that consisted of a long cloak that covered my torso and most of my legs and had long sleeves that covered my arms.-
I still looked a bit weird since the dark brown fur of the pelt blended with my own rough dark brown hair that I kept short since it got irritating when long.
“Eh? Not bad brat, it matches that whole wild vibe you have going on.” my sensei complimented once I got the cloak on.
“It’s a bit restrictive on my movement but I can live with it.” I said not all that impressed with it.
“Brat!” a voice said that sounded exactly like my sensei but clearly wasn’t since I was looking at her.
We both looked around and I spotted a large black bird sitting on the nearby fence.
“Brat!” it spoke and I was tempted to blow it up.
It wasn’t a chakra beast but just a particularly clever bird that had copied my sensei’s speech.
“Brat! Brat! Brat! Brat!” the bird spoke the word over and over again and my sensei ended up rolling on the ground in tears as she laughed.
I sighed but chose to ignore the annoying avian and left the village. The bird clearly wasn’t okay with that and followed us for the next three days screaming that one word in an obvious attempt at ingratiating itself to me. If it had chosen literally any other word I probably would have been fine bringing it along and taking care of it but as it stood i was constantly tempted to kill it. The bird wasn’t really at fault since it didn’t know better and that was the only thing staying my hand.
My sensei had no such issue. “That was amusing the first few times but it’s just irritating to listen to now.” she said casually after snapping the birds neck to shut it up.
“If I wasn’t fairly certain that it would have just come back if we tried to scare it off I would say that was needlessly cruel.” I said honestly.
“Blame it on your weird ability to attract animals to you.” she said with a shrug.
The bird was unfortunately too clever for it’s own good in this case as I had commanded it to go away and it obeyed like always, only to come back after leaving. The damn thing used a loophole in what I said and was simply too stubborn for it’s own good which cost it it’s life in the end.-
It wasn’t all weirdness as we traveled through the land of frost though as we stopped at a few villages to give treatment and to gamble. My sensei was as always terrible at it but I never walked away with less than I started. The land of frost had it’s own unique types of illnesses and plants that my sensei taught me how to treat and I was getting pretty damn good at Iryonin jutsu if I say so myself. They tried to hide it but I noticed that I was nearly on par with Shizune in all regards or in some on par with my sensei.-
I could diagnose, treat and create antidotes in very quick times in nearly every case we found with even other shinobi praising me. She tried to hide it but it was clear to me that my sensei was running out of things to teach me. What this meant was equally obvious, my discipleship was almost at it’s end nearly a year after it had started. One day she brought it up as we were leaving the land of frost and entering the land of fire again.
“After we finish refining that taijutsu of yours I’m going to apply for you to get promoted the Chunin.” she said with a conflicted expression.
“I assumed something like that. No offense but you are clearly running out of things to teach me, it’s because I’m a guy right?” I asked calmly and she looked ashamed.
“The yin seal and strength of a hundred seals are meant exclusively for women so I can’t teach them to you and you are confusingly resistant to learning to summon Katsuyu so I am truly running out of things to teach you. Ninjutsu as you know is not a subject I am very adept at and in terms of iryonin jutsu the only thing you lack is experience to match me.” she said honestly.
“I’m surprised you are so bothered by the idea of graduating me, if anything i figured you’d be trying to get me out of your hair faster so you can go back to drinking whenever you want without your booze going missing.” I said with a chuckle.
“I knew that was you!” she said laughing.
“You are worried that I’ll go off and get myself killed right?” I asked calmly and her smile faded and she nodded.
“How about we make a bet on it? I’ll outlive you and you’ll stop drinking so much, that sounds fair I think.” I said with a grin.
“Alright I’ll take that bet!” she said holding out her hand which I shook before she slammed me into the ground hard. “a shinobi must always expect betrayal!” she said with a laugh that I shared as we dispelled the serious atmosphere.