2 Ice Phoenix

I'd gotten used to opening my eyes and not being able to see. But this time was even worse. I couldn't open my eyes. As hard as I tried, my body didn't seem to want to function.

Instead, I could only sit there lazily and enjoy the darkness and the warm, slightly sticky, extremely disgusting, liquid that enveloped me. I had the felt the cord extending out from my stomach. I naturally understood the situation I was in. Although I was grateful not to have been reincarnated as a sperm cell, I was definitely not looking forward to spending months enveloped in amniotic fluid.

'Well, everyone else this happens to starts practicing chakra control as a fetus. Might as well as try that.' I said to myself.

'Hmmm... Sense the natural energy around you...'

I my muscles worked, my face would have scrunched up in all sorts of unimaginable ways. I tried everything I could think of. But no matter how I tried to relax my mind and open my senses up to the world around me, I couldn't sense a thing.

'Maybe it's too early? Maybe my chakra network hasn't completely formed yet? *Sigh* Well, I guess I can only try again after sleeping for a while.'

I had never had a problem with taking time to sleep.

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Days slowly passed by, alone in the darkness with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. It was so boring I ended up trying to sense chakra every day. Finally, after maybe 6 months, it happened.

I was, same as every other day, meditating in my warm and sticky home, when suddenly I felt as if something clicked and unlocked in my brain. A wave of information suddenly assaulted my senses, almost overloading my little brain. I could suddenly sense a mist-like energy drifting around me. A small amount of it flowed through my body even.

'Finally! I can finally start gathering chakra!' I would have pumped my tiny fists in joy if I could have. I eagerly attempted to control the energy around me, trying to pull it towards my body.... I failed. There was no response at all to my attempt at controlling the energy.

'Uhm... This is not supposed to happen.... No no no no... Why.... Argh! No!' I couldn't accept this result. I furiously tried again, exerting all my willpower in an attempt to pull chakra towards me. Still no response.

'Could it be... I can't absorb the chakra in my mother's stomach... Cause it's already under her control?'

'Uggghhhh... That means months more of just sitting in this nasty fluid...' When was the last time I had felt such despair....

( ɵ̥̥ ˑ̫ ɵ̥̥)

'Wait! Even if I can't do anything with my mom's chakra, I can still practice controlling my own chakra! Even if the amount is a bit pitiful.'

I concentrated my senses inward. I could feel a small amount of chakra gathered near the gate of wonder below my stomach, and more flowing through my chakra pathways. I tried controlling the flow of chakra through my body - speeding it up, slowing it down, all sorts of things with minor success. Somehow I was able to sense the inner workings of my body when I focused. Maybe a benefit of the tempering a soul underwent when it experienced death?

'Hmm, if I can open my mindscape I'll be able to learn more about my chakra system.'

I continued probing around my body and chakra network, wondering exactly where and what a mindscape was. What kind of weirdos were the people who reincarnated in web novels to already know what a mindscape was?

I tried to feel the entirety of my chakra network, feeling how my chakra entered the eight gates.

'It's called a mindscape so I guess I'll look at the chakra centers in my head.' I thought.

However, before I could direct my focus towards my mind I suddenly felt an irresistible suction force pulling at my conscience. I felt as if I was being pulled into a different plane of existence.

When I regained my senses, I found, to my astonishment and joy, that I could now open my eyes. I was awestruck by the imperial majesty of the scene present before me.

Towering mountains proudly pierced the heavens, their peaks concealed by the clouds above. They were covered in a thick layer of snow and ice, radiating a sense of cold and imposing majesty. I stood in a valley between these mountains, in front of a large icy blue lake. Somehow, even in this freezing environment, an enormous tree had grown on the side of the water. Its fiery red leaves stood in stark contrast to the pale background of white and blue.

However, even these sights paled in comparison to the regal creature that dominated the middle section of the mountain directly behind the lake. There, resting on a large lip that formed a plateau-like structure on the mountain, lay an enormous blue phoenix. It striking feathered head lay on the edge of the plateau; even with its eyes closed it gave off the feeling of a monarch surveying his realm. Its body was curled behind it, from which a large tail of made of a multitude of feathery segments flowed out. Its feathers were of varying shades of blue: on the crown of its head a deep, oceanic dark blue highlighted its overwhelming presence, its back and tail were a lighter blue, like that of a thick wall of ice and its stomach was a chilling glacial white-blue.

"I...Ice...Ice Phoenix?!" I shouted, unable to control my shock.

A pair of gleaming, haughty blue eyes opened in response.

"Hmph, it's about time you made your way here. I've been waiting in this same place for more than half a year already." A imperious voice rang out, a somehow commanding yet gentle warble.

'At least you didn't spend this time covered in sticky amniotic fluid unable to even open your eyes...' I couldn't help but think.

"Ah... Uhm... My apologies. I too would have wished to come meet you sooner had I been able to."

"Yes, well start by adding on some more mountains around this valley please. And a forest beyond that. I need a change of scenery. Maybe once you've done this I'll accept your apology."

'I'm sorry I'm a fetus... not exactly much I can do about it stinky bird.'

Fortunately, my acting skills kicked in and I put a pleasant smile on my face without giving voice to my complaints.

"Fair enough. Just... How do I do that?"

The bird had the gall to give me a dirty look.

"This is your mindscape. Just imagine it."

"Oh."

I closed my eyes and focused my will on my surroundings, imagining an oval ring of mountains extending around our valley, and then pictured forests beyond them and an ocean surrounding it all, basing all of these images on pictures I had seen in my previous life. I added the lightest of snowfalls as a finishing touch.

Opening my eyes, I was surprised to find that everything I had imagined had indeed appeared around us. A flake of snow landed on my nose.

The phoenix released a happy caw.

"Ahh! Much better! Actually this mountain range and those forests are quite nicely done! Very realistic! And you even added on an ocean! How pleasant! I knew my host couldn't be an incapable person. In fact, now that I look at you, you do have quite a nice appearance. Anyway, you can call me Kiyoshi. As you guessed I'm an ice phoenix, and a ten-tailed chakra beast, although my tails are actually feathers and get tangled up so it looks like I have one tail...."

The beast kept rattling on, spouting random nonsense. Introductions, life stories, hopes, dreams, likes, dislikes... Pretty much every possible conversation topic was covered by the phoenix. It seemed that in fact, it was quite amiable and seemed to like me greatly. Perhaps it was a result of both of us being stuck alone with no one to talk to for such a long time, but conversation flowed easily, with both of us eagerly sharing everything about ourselves. We possessed a great affinity for each other - a love for calm and tranquility, but inherent wish for a reliable companion amongst other things - and quickly a strong bond developed between us.

It was truly a relief to open my eyes and see actual scenery, and be able to talk to someone. The darkness had become almost unbearable in spite of my love of a peaceful, quiet atmosphere. It was technically a form of torture after all... (I secretly suspected God reincarnated me at an early stage of fetal development out of mere pettiness and spite).

'Hmm... It doesn't seem to require any energy to stay in my mindscape. Might as well as stay here until my birth...' I thought.

"Oy, Kiyo (we had already agreed on nicknames, although she was still trying to find a way to shorten my name), there won't be any problems if I stay here until my birth, will there?"

"Nope, shoudn't be. You'll be naturally pulled out from your mindscape when during your birth due to the movement and strain it will place on you."

And so it was decided that I would stay there for the couple months remaining until I finally entered the world of Naruto.

Fortunately, I could now train with the help of Kiyo's chakra. Although I couldn't use it to increase my own chakra reserves (her chakra could be used by me but was a separate reserve), I could use her chakra to sharpen and compress my own as well as run it through my chakra network to increase the size of the pathways, allowing me to send more chakra through them. Moreover, I could train my chakra control using her chakra.

Within a couple months, my chakra was compressed to the point it would likely be visible if I emitted enough of it outside my body, and I could easily control basic shape transformations of Kiyo's chakra.

Time literally flew by in a harmonious routine of training and enjoying Kiyo's company, the day of my birth fast approaching.