Bang

"Hehe~~ Sakura~~"

The blond, spiky-haired boy stood on a stool, studying new dishes from the cookbook set beside him.

He skillfully whisked the eggs in a bowl, then placed them into a pot of water to steam.

A year had passed since Sakura had given him that cookbook.

Naruto had developed decent cooking skills. Although he still ate instant noodles occasionally, he made his own meals most of the time or went to Ichiraku Ramen to fill his stomach.

Naruto could not help recalling the pink-haired girl from that evening.

That smile... he would probably never forget it for the rest of his life...

As the water in the pot bubbled away, Naruto first served himself a bowl of rice that had been steamed before he left that morning, then took out the leftover bone broth from yesterday and heated it in the microwave.

Since Naruto had been behaving well lately, Hiruzen Sarutobi had increased his living allowance from five thousand ryo to six thousand five hundred.

This meant Naruto could afford meat with nearly every meal.

At the very least, over the past year, Naruto had grown a little taller and sturdier.

Sitting at the table beside the window, Naruto propped up his cheek and stared blankly at the clear night sky outside.

What was Sakura doing right now...?

Sakura flipped through the Monstrous Strength scroll Hiruzen Sarutobi had given her, directly skipping over the training methods at the front and focusing intently on the latter half concerning Chakra training.

Chakra was formed from the combination of a person's spiritual and physical energy. To use ninjutsu, one had to use Chakra in conjunction with Hand Seals to release it.

Judging from Monstrous Strength, Tsunade's original idea had most likely been the same as Namikaze Minato's: to discard the cumbersome process of Hand Seals and directly use seal-less ninjutsu.

And the birth of Monstrous Strength proved that Tsunade had succeeded.

A single punch could produce greater power than most ninjutsu.

Even the Rasengan could not compare to the might of one of Tsunade's punches.

Moreover, Monstrous Strength consumed far less Chakra than the Rasengan.

Every advantage came with a drawback. In the original work, only Tsunade and Haruno Sakura could use Monstrous Strength; even Shizune could not.

Was it because Tsunade refused to teach it?

Only after reading this Monstrous Strength scroll did Sakura understand that the threshold for it was simply too high.

The required precision in Chakra control alone would eliminate ninety-five percent of all ninja.

One hand had six meridians: the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian, the Hand Yangming Large Intestine Meridian, the Hand Shaoyin Heart Meridian, the Hand Taiyang Small Intestine Meridian...

Both hands had twelve meridians in total. To throw a punch, she had to attend to all six meridians in one hand at once, which was roughly equivalent to doing six things at once.

Huh?

As Sakura thought of this, Nagato Uzumaki and Sasori of the Akatsuki Organization suddenly came to mind for no apparent reason. This technique actually suited those two quite well...

Sakura shook her head, tossing that bizarre thought out of her mind before continuing to read.

In short, using Monstrous Strength required Chakra control akin to drawing a circle with her left hand, a square with her right, a triangle with her left foot, and a five-pointed star with her right foot, all while reading a book with her eyes and singing with her mouth...

It was a technique only super-skilled players could handle.

Although it seemed nearly impossible, there were ninja in the shinobi world who could meet such requirements.

Besides Nagato Uzumaki and Sasori, there was Chiyo of Sunagakure, who could control ten puppets in battle.

Fortunately, thanks to her cheat, Sakura no longer needed to practice deliberately. This level of control had already been etched into her instinctive reactions.

What Sakura needed to do now was apply the Chakra control techniques her body had already learned to other techniques.

Sakura could not simply coast on Warring States Sakura's foundation. If one Warring States Sakura was enough to satisfy her, then she would be far too distant from her goal.

"Sakura, come eat!"

"Your favorite red bean dumplings are on the table today."

Haruno Meiko called from outside the door.

"That stuff is too sweet. Make bone broth tomorrow instead~~"

Those had been the original Sakura's favorite, not the current Sakura's.

"Huh? How did you change your mind so suddenly, child?"

Night

Bang!!!

Konoha's peace was shattered in an instant by an explosion, its echo seeming to linger in the night sky.

Haruno Sakura, who had nearly fallen asleep beneath her blankets, jolted awake and trembled all over.

What happened?

Sakura climbed out of bed and looked out the window. Quite a few homes had already lit their lamps, clearly startled by the sudden thunderous noise as well.

Looking toward where the blast had come from, Sakura amusingly thought, Could Naruto's gas tank have exploded?

Sakura had just been about to dismiss the absurd idea when she fell silent.

If it was Naruto...

It was entirely possible!

Carefully pushing open her bedroom door, Sakura slipped on her slippers. Seeing no activity in her parents' room, she quietly snuck outside.

As she drew closer to Naruto's home, more and more people gathered around her.

Seeing that quite a few ninja had already arrived at the scene, Sakura squeezed inside using her smaller build to her advantage.

What greeted her eyes was a field of ruins. Sakura raised her head and looked toward Naruto's home.

At least half of it had collapsed.

It really was Naruto's house that had exploded...

And it had happened in the kitchen. Could the gas tank really have exploded...?

But Naruto should be fine, right? Sakura remembered that Anbu were protecting him.

"Huh, Sakura? You came too?"

Just as Sakura was thinking of looking for Naruto, she heard a familiar call.

A little girl with pale yellow hair skipped up to her.

Behind her stood a middle-aged man with the same pale yellow hair.

Yamanaka Inoichi, Ino's father.

"Uncle Inoichi."

Sakura looked obediently at the man before her.

"Sakura, that didn't scare you too badly, did it?"

Yamanaka Inoichi had a rather gentle disposition. He knew his daughter was friends with Sakura, and he did not think less of her simply because she was a civilian.

"A little, so I wanted to come out and take a look. I didn't expect it to be Naruto's house."

"Uncle Inoichi, how is Naruto now?"

A trace of concern appeared on Sakura's face.

Naruto originally could not cook, but now he had learned to cook and even blown up his own house.

If something happened to him, Asura would need to reincarnate again. And who would stop Sasuke, Indra's reincarnation?

"Don't worry, Naruto, he..."

Just as Yamanaka Inoichi was about to comfort Sakura, a voice sounded from nearby.

"Huh? Sakura, what are you doing here?"

The Blond Kid wore a nightcap and rubbed his bleary eyes, looking as though he had not fully awakened yet.

Seeing this guy who was still half-asleep, Sakura could not help sighing helplessly.

As expected of the child of destiny. Even a gas tank exploding right beside him had not managed to wake him up...