Chapter 16: Boom
"Heh heh~ Sakura~"
The blond hedgehog-head stood on a step stool, following the cookbook propped up beside him as he tackled a new recipe.
He whisked the eggs in a bowl with practiced hands, then set the mixture into a pot of water to steam.
A full year had passed since Sakura gave him that cookbook.
Naruto had actually developed decent cooking skills. He still had the occasional cup of ramen, but most of the time he either cooked for himself or headed to Ichiraku.
His mind drifted to this evening — that pink-haired girl on the embankment.
That smile. He'd probably never forget it as long as he lived.
Watching the water bubble in the pot, Naruto scooped out a bowl of rice he'd steamed that morning, then pulled yesterday's leftover bone broth from the fridge and popped it in the microwave.
Thanks to his improved habits, Hiruzen had bumped his monthly allowance from five thousand to sixty-five hundred ryō.
Which meant Naruto could now afford meat with nearly every meal.
He'd grown a bit taller over the past year. Filled out a little, too.
Sitting by the window, chin propped in his hand, Naruto stared at the clear night sky.
I wonder what Sakura's doing right now…
Sakura pored over the Enhanced Strength scroll Hiruzen had given her, skipping the technique instructions entirely and zeroing in on the chakra control methodology in the second half.
Chakra was the fusion of spiritual and physical energy. To use ninjutsu, you molded chakra through hand signs.
Looking at Enhanced Strength from a design perspective, Tsunade's original thinking had likely been the same as Minato Namikaze's — eliminate the cumbersome hand signs entirely and execute techniques without seals.
And the existence of Enhanced Strength proved she'd succeeded.
A single punch that hit harder than most ninjutsu. Even the Rasengan couldn't match the raw destructive force of Tsunade's fist.
And it cost a fraction of the chakra.
But every advantage came with a catch. In the original story, only two people had ever mastered Enhanced Strength — Tsunade and Sakura. Even Shizune couldn't pull it off.
Was that because Tsunade refused to teach others?
Now, reading the scroll, Sakura understood. The barrier to entry was absurdly high.
Chakra precision alone filtered out ninety-five percent of all shinobi.
A single hand contained six meridians — Lung, Large Intestine, Heart, Small Intestine…
Both hands together: twelve meridians. To throw one punch, all six in the striking hand had to be managed simultaneously. Essentially, you needed to split your focus six ways at once.
Come to think of it, Sakura mused, this technique would pair perfectly with Nagato and Sasori from the Akatsuki… Operating multiple channels of chakra independently was basically their whole thing.
She shook the stray thought away and kept reading.
In short — using Enhanced Strength was the equivalent of drawing a circle with your left hand, a square with your right, a triangle with your left foot, a star with your right foot, reading a book with your eyes, and singing a song at the same time.
A technique only the most elite players could handle.
Beyond Nagato and Sasori, the only other ninja who came close was Chiyo of the Sand, who could control ten puppets simultaneously in battle.
Luckily, Sakura's cheat meant she didn't need to practice any of this from scratch. The skill was already hardwired into her reflexes.
What she needed now was to apply that instinctive chakra control to other techniques.
She couldn't just coast on her Wartime Sakura toolkit forever. If a single move set was enough to satisfy her, she'd never reach her real goal.
"Sakura! Dinner's ready!"
"I made your favorite — red bean dumplings!"
Mebuki's voice echoed from outside the door.
"Those are way too sweet — can we do bone broth tomorrow?"
The old Sakura's favorite, not hers.
"What? Since when did you change your mind about that?"
BOOM!!!
The quiet of Konoha shattered in an instant. The explosion echoed through the night sky like thunder.
Sakura — already half-asleep under her covers — jolted upright, her whole body flinching.
What the—
She scrambled out of bed and peered through the window. Lights were flickering on in houses across the neighborhood. She wasn't the only one startled.
Looking toward the source of the blast, an absurd thought crossed her mind.
Don't tell me Naruto's gas tank exploded.
She tried to dismiss the idea — but then went silent.
If it's Naruto…
…it's entirely possible.
She crept to her door, eased it open, and checked her parents' room — no movement. She slipped on her sandals and snuck outside.
The closer she got to Naruto's apartment, the bigger the crowd grew.
Shinobi had already arrived on the scene. Sakura used her compact size to squeeze through to the front.
What she saw was rubble. She looked up at Naruto's building.
At least half of it had collapsed.
It really WAS Naruto's apartment.
And the blast zone was centered on the kitchen. Did the gas tank actually blow up?
Still — he should be fine. She remembered that ANBU operatives kept watch over him.
"Oh — Sakura! You're here too?"
A familiar voice piped up just as she was scanning for Naruto.
A pale-blonde girl bounced over, trailed by a middle-aged man with the same hair color.
Inoichi Yamanaka. Ino's father.
"Good evening, Inoichi-san."
Sakura looked up at the man with her best well-behaved expression.
"Sakura — the explosion didn't scare you too badly, did it?"
Inoichi was a mild-mannered man. He knew his daughter's best friend well, and the fact that Sakura was civilian-born had never colored his opinion of her.
"A little. I came out to see what happened — didn't expect it to be Naruto's place."
"Is Naruto okay?"
Genuine worry crossed Sakura's face.
After all, Naruto had never cooked before she'd handed him that cookbook. Now he'd learned to cook — and blown up his apartment.
If something serious had happened to him, the Ashura reincarnation cycle would reset, and who was going to stop Sasuke's Indra arc?
"Don't worry — Naruto is—"
Before Inoichi could finish reassuring her, a voice called out from nearby.
"Huh? Sakura, what are you doing here?"
The blond kid shuffled over in his sleep cap, rubbing his eyes, clearly still half-asleep.
Sakura stared at him — this kid who hadn't even been woken up by an explosion in his own apartment — and sighed.
Truly the Child of Prophecy. Even a point-blank gas explosion couldn't disturb his beauty sleep.