Boom

"Hehe~~ Sakura~~"

With his spiky blonde hair, Naruto stood on a stool, studying a cookbook for new dishes.

He skillfully stirred the eggs in a bowl, then placed it in a pot of water to steam.

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

Naruto had managed to pick up some decent cooking skills. At least, while he still occasionally ate instant noodles, he mostly cooked for himself or went to Ichiraku Ramen to satisfy his hunger.

Naruto couldn't help but recall the girl with the cherry-blossom pink hair from that evening.

He probably wouldn't forget that smile for his entire life…

Watching the water in the pot bubble, Naruto first scooped a bowl of rice he had steamed before leaving home that morning, then took out the leftover bone broth from yesterday and put it in the microwave to heat.

Thanks to Naruto's good behavior recently, Hiruzen Sarutobi had increased his living expenses from five thousand to six thousand five hundred Ryo.

This meant Naruto could afford meat at almost every meal.

At least Naruto had grown taller and stronger over the past year.

Naruto sat at the table by the window, propping his cheek with his hand as he gazed at the clear night sky, lost in thought.

What was Sakura doing at this time…

Sakura flipped through the Superhuman Strength scroll gifted by Hiruzen Sarutobi, completely ignoring the cultivation methods in the first half and focusing intently on the latter part concerning Chakra.

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

Judging by Superhuman Strength, Tsunade's initial idea was likely the same as Namikaze Minato's: to discard the complicated step of Hand Seals and directly use ninjutsu without them.

The creation of Superhuman Strength proved Tsunade's goal was successful.

A single punch could deliver more power than most ninjutsu.

Even the Rasengan couldn't match the power of Tsunade's punch.

Furthermore, Superhuman Strength consumed far less Chakra than the Rasengan.

But every advantage had a disadvantage. In the original work, only Tsunade and Haruno Sakura could use Superhuman Strength; even Shizune couldn't.

Was it that Tsunade didn't teach it?

It wasn't until she saw this Superhuman Strength scroll that Sakura understood the extremely high barrier to entry for this technique.

The precise manipulation of Chakra alone filtered out ninety-five percent of ninjas.

One hand alone 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…

With twelve meridians in both hands, to unleash a punch, all six meridians had to be managed simultaneously, which was akin to using six minds at once.

Huh?

Thinking this, Sakura suddenly and inexplicably thought of Nagato Uzumaki and Sasori of the Akatsuki Organization. This technique would pair well with those two…

Sakura shook her head, discarding the bizarre thought from her mind, and continued reading.

In essence, to use Superhuman Strength, the Chakra requirements were almost equivalent to drawing a circle with your left hand, a square with your right, a triangle with your left foot, a pentagram with your right foot, reading a book, and singing a song all at the same time…

It was a Jutsu only playable by super high-level players.

While this seemed almost impossible, there were ninjas in the ninja world who could meet these requirements.

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

Fortunately, thanks to her cheat, Sakura no longer needed to practice specifically; this kind of control was already ingrained in her instinctive reactions.

What Sakura needed to do now was apply these learned Chakra control techniques to other Jutsu.

Sakura couldn't simply rely on her abilities as War Arc Sakura. If she were satisfied with just that, her goals would be too far away.

"Sakura, come eat!"

"We have your favorite red bean soup dumplings today."

Haruno Meiko's call echoed from outside the door.

"That stuff is too sweet. Let's make some bone broth tomorrow~~"

That was what the original Sakura liked to eat, not what the current Sakura liked.

"Huh? Why do you change so easily, child?"

Night

BOOM!!!

Konoha's peace was instantly shattered by an explosion, and the reverberations seemed to linger in the night sky.

Haruno Sakura, who had been fast asleep under her covers, jolted awake, her whole body trembling.

What happened?

Sakura got out of bed and looked out the window, noticing that lights had already come on in many houses, clearly startled by the sudden loud noise.

Sakura found it somewhat amusing as she looked in the direction of the loud noise, thinking, Could Naruto's gas tank have exploded?

Just as Sakura was about to dismiss the absurd thought, she fell silent.

If it were Naruto...

It was entirely possible!

Carefully pushing open her door, Sakura slipped on her slippers and looked at her parents' quiet house before quietly sneaking out.

As she got closer to Naruto's home, the number of people around increased.

Seeing that quite a few ninja had already arrived at the scene, Sakura used her smaller stature to squeeze her way in.

What greeted her eyes was a field of ruins. Sakura looked up at Naruto's house.

At least half of it had collapsed.

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

And it was the kitchen, too. Could it really have been a gas tank explosion?

But Naruto should be fine, right? Sakura remembered he had Anbu protecting him.

"Huh? Sakura, you're here too?"

Just as Sakura was thinking about looking for Naruto, she heard a familiar shout.

A little girl with light blonde hair came bouncing up to her.

Behind her was a middle-aged man with similarly light blonde hair.

Yamanaka Inoichi, Ino's father.

"Uncle Inoichi," Sakura said, looking obediently at the man before her.

"Sakura, you weren't too scared just now, were you?"

Yamanaka Inoichi had a gentle disposition. He knew Sakura was his daughter's best friend and didn't think less of her for being a civilian.

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

"Uncle Inoichi, how is Naruto now?"

A look of worry appeared on Sakura's face.

After all, Naruto wasn't supposed to be cooking, and now he'd learned to cook and blown up his house.

If something terrible had happened, then Asura would have a reincarnation, and who would stop Sasuke, the reincarnation of Indra?

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

Just as Yamanaka Inoichi was about to comfort Sakura, a voice rang out from not far away.

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

The blonde kid, wearing a sleeping cap, rubbed his eyes with a sleepy, dazed expression, looking like he hadn't woken up yet.

Sakura looked at the still groggy guy before her and couldn't help but let out a helpless sigh.

He truly was the Child of Prophecy. Even a gas tank right under his nose didn't manage to wake him up