AN: New chapter.

"Ice-Make: Blizzard Breath!" The same attack he had used to take out Nana was used now in front of a group of watching Shinobi, the snowball/blizzard mix slamming into the targets set up ahead of him. It was his third time using the technique in a short duration.

He breathed out a chilled breath, visible in the air.

"You're doing great Sasuke!" Sakrua cheered him on from the observation deck.

With the, potentially, volatile nature of his Kekkei Genkai taken into account, the tower that laid in the center of the 44th Training Grounds, nicknamed the Forest of Death, was being used as the testing ground.

He offered a shaky thumbs up, breathed out another blast of chilled air. Sensors were keeping eyes on him up above, could report that his Chakra was nowhere near empty, but his body temperature seemed to be plummeting. The Genin wrapped his arms around himself, ineffectively tried to warm himself up.

"W-We've been at this for hours. How much longer?" This was the second day of testing.

"A few more hours at best." All of the Shinobi on the floor with him were currently bundled up in thick jackets, successfully warded off the fierce cold Sasuke's constant use of Ice-Make had caused. A handful were examining the snow covered target dummies, collecting samples, in general busying themselves on the arena floor.

"G-Great." Sasuke went back to his shivering, rubbed his hands together in an ineffective attempt to warm himself up. If anything else, he somehow felt worse than before. "S-Sounds like a blast."

"He's shaking a lot." Naruto didn't get it. "I've seen him throw more ice than that out on missions so what's different now?"

"That's what the Shinobi Board is here to figure out." Kakashi's Sharingan traveled over Sasuke, was keeping track of his Chakra and his health. As good as the Board's sensors were, he was better. "Although it's odd, he's shivering but he's showing no other signs of exposure." The handful of Shinobi who had been closest to Sasuke's attack were, at minimum, rosy cheeked, a few were sniffling, some were taking deep gulps of steaming drinks in an attempt to warm up. The Uchiha, for all of his shivering, wasn't doing much else than just that: shivering. "Interesting."

'Could it be something else? A side-effect of his Kekkei Genkai?'

As Sasuke created blocks of ice for a handful of Shinobi to try and melt with Fire Release, Kakashi kept his eyes on the Genin. In the minutes the test lasted, his shivering remained. Two of the Shinobi tagged out from the arena, breathed out a sigh of relief as they entered the heated upper floors. Sasuke was instructed to attack dummies again, his shivering halting as it became a test of his projectile making speed coupled with rapid targeting.

'Maybe. But why?'

Kakashi shared a glance with Sai. He figured his fellow Jonin understood, had noticed the same as he did: A possible side-effect of Sasuke's Kekkei Genkai.

He silently dropped into the arena, was set to investigate his hypothesis.

He interrupted the current test, a stress test of some kind involving a sheet of ice and an Akimichi striking it. So far, it seemed like it was rather durable.

"Yo." The masked Shinobi lifted a hand in greeting. "Mind if I check something?"

He wasn't really asking but the Chunin in charge nodded regardless, motioned for the rest of the five-man squad to step back.

"I think I get it." Naruto's eyes narrowed as he observed Sasuke on his own. He snapped his fingers as all the pieces finally came together. "He's not shivering because he's cold. His Chakra's making him act cold!"

"What?" Sakura would be the first to admit she had no idea what Naruto was talking about but was willing to listen to him. The blonde could be observant when he wanted to, had a way of figuring out things when he needed to.

"You know how Sasuke doesn't need Hand Seals for his Ice-Make? I'm thinking that's because his Chakra is always in a molded state. He just shapes it into whatever he needs. And that's why he can't use any other Ninjutsu too since he can't change it. He's doing something like what the Hyuga do if they could use their Chakra Nature for the Gentle Fist when he's releasing it from his tenketsu. That's got to mess with him when he's all covered up like that." Naruto threw a hand out, towards where Sasuke stood bundled up in a heavy winter coat. Just like all the other Shinobi down in the arena. "All that stuff he's wearing is messing with his Chakra so instead of it moving around him when he's not using it, it's getting bounced back. He probably feels like a bunch of bugs are crawling on him with how in-tune he is with it. So that's why he's shivering like that."

Naruto folded his arms behind his head, nodded at his answer.

"At least I think." The Uzumaki scratched his head. "I think Hinata could explain all this better since she could see his Chakra moving around him."

"Don't doubt your own conclusions Naruto. They're all rather thought out from simple observation." Sai's words drew the eyes of both of his students. He smiled. "From what I've gathered myself, you're correct."

Sai had seen how Sasuke's Chakra interacted with his own ink during their past training sessions, knew from conversations with Itachi that his Ice-Make was the reason he had failed at all other Ninjutsu he had ever attempted, why all of his techniques were so readily available to him. His eyes shifted away from Naruto to where Sasuke remained standing down below. 'His Kekkei Genkai is full of surprises. And yet another reason he should've been brought to the Shinobi Board years ago.'

Itachi had tried to bring him more than once, perhaps a solid dozen times since he had learned about his Kekkei Genkai.

Sai himself had petitioned twice since gaining the three Genin as his students.

Kakashi had made covert attempts to bring him to the Shinobi Board himself. And one overt attempt where he had simply thrown a confused Sasuke over his shoulder and headed off.

Even Danzo himself had covertly made an attempt to bring Sasuke to the Shinobi Board once.

And Mikoto or Fugaku would get in the way every time. A handful of Fugaku's officers would always be waiting for Sasuke at the building, would state it was a "Uchiha Clan matter". And Sasuke would always quietly insist to go with them, that he wasn't worth his sensei/brother/anyone getting into trouble.

'We're lucky he hasn't caused any permanent damage. If Itachi hadn't trained him…' Sai didn't want to think about Sasuke's Kekkei Genkai getting out of control. He focused on the present instead, the returning masked Joinin.

Judging by the fact that Kakashi had Sasuke's coat thrown over his shoulder, Naruto had been right.

Sasuke's shivering had stopped.

He seemed just as surprised as all the Shinobi down in the arena were that he was fine in the cold. One of the observers scribbled down more than a few notes at the unexpected discovery. The tests resumed with Sasuke creating structures of his ice to mimic diagrams held up in front of him.

"Wait! Does this mean the victory hot chocolate I have isn't going to be as good now?" Sakura was asking the real questions.

Sai merely patted her shoulder.

"I'm sure Sasuke will still appreciate it."

AN: Review/PM if you want.

Peace.