The sky had only just begun to pale, and the residential district of Konoha was still steeped in a thin veil of morning mist when wisps of white smoke rose from the kitchen of the little cottage where Uzumaki Genshin lived.
The heat over the stove was just right—fried eggs sizzled and popped in oil in the frying pan, paired with well-marinated smoked meat and soft, glutinous rice balls.
The clean-sweet fragrance of wheat mingled with the aroma of cooked meat, drifting through the cracks in the window and out into the silent street.
Today he needed to make breakfast for two, plus boxed lunches for four.
One serving of breakfast was set aside for Naruto to eat in a little while.
That little guy could never drag himself out of bed in the mornings, and if he didn’t get some food in his stomach first, he’d surely crash from low blood sugar halfway through morning training—head drooping, listless and out of it.
As for the remaining three boxed lunches, one was left for Naruto to eat during the day, and the other two were made especially for Tsunade and Shizune.
The reason he’d been able to pull off a high-quality knockoff of the Chakra Enhanced Strength when he sparred with Shisui was thanks entirely to the meticulous guidance of Tsunade and Shizune.
Thanking them with mere words felt far too thin, so he’d decided to make a lunch of gratitude with his own hands.
Before long the kitchen filled with fragrance—golden fried eggs speckled with finely chopped scallions, rice balls stuffed with pickled plum and smoked meat seared to a crisp, savory char, and a rich vegetable-and-beef soup kept warm in an insulated container, all neatly arranged.
Yes—this bizarre world even had insulated lunchboxes, even though the ninja still fought each other to the death with cold steel in hand.
Knock knock!
Someone rapped at the door outside.
Genshin lightly tapped the floor with the tip of his toe, and a ripple of Hamon raced along the ground straight up to the keyhole in the door—while at the same time his hands never stopped, packing the lunch he was taking with him into a bag.
Click!
The door opened.
This stretch of training had elevated Genshin’s precise control over Hamon to a whole new level; a trifle like opening a door from a distance came to him with effortless ease.
“Big Bro Genshin!
I’m here!”
In came a goofily grinning, socially fearless little blond ball of energy.
Their time together had finally transformed the once socially anxious kid into a total social butterfly.
Because Genshin dragged Naruto out running for morning training every single day, Naruto’s body clock was now perfectly in sync with Genshin’s—eating on time every day like a healthy person, early to bed and early to rise.
This way he shouldn’t end up shorter than both Sasuke and Sakura Haruno like at the start of the original story, right?
“Right on time today, for once.
Wash your hands first, and after we eat and rest a bit we’ll head out for our run.”
“You got it, Big Bro Genshin!”
Once they’d finished eating and finished their run, Genshin slung the bag holding the three boxed lunches over his shoulder and turned to hurry toward the training field on the Senju clan grounds.
By now the sky was fully bright, the thin snow melted away by the morning sun, the road surface damp and faintly cool.
When he arrived at the grounds, Shizune was tidying the training equipment alone, but Tsunade was nowhere to be seen.
“Good morning, Shizune.” Genshin flashed a brilliant customer-service smile and held out two exquisitely made lunches, packed to the brim with side dishes.
“Thank you for all your hard work yesterday, Shizune, and Master Tsunade too, for teaching me.
This is a lunch I made myself this morning—just a small token of my feelings.”
Held captive by Genshin’s smile, Shizune abruptly froze on the spot.
This child…
was he an angel?
Taking the warm lunchbox with both trembling hands, her fingertips shaking, she stammered incoherently: “F-for me?
Something this lavish…
can I really eat it?
Won’t I just die of happiness right here on the spot?!”
Then she hugged the lunch, crouched down, and began muttering to herself things like how in all her years this was the first time she’d ever received a boxed lunch from a boy—words that sounded downright laughable to anyone listening.
She even worried she might never get another one, and made up her mind to take this lunch home and enshrine it.
“What kind of nonsense are you up to first thing in the morning?”
Tsunade came strolling over, rubbing her bleary, sleep-heavy eyes.
She’d gone to bed late the night before and, for once, slept in this morning, so she hadn’t had time to eat any breakfast.
The moment she caught the smell of the food, her stomach let out a distinct, growling rumble.
Her gaze fixed dead-on onto the lunchbox in Shizune’s hands.
Without the slightest hesitation she snatched one of the boxes away, pulled off the lid—the rice balls, fried eggs, and side dishes were paired just right, savory and fresh in the mouth without being greasy.
A few bites down and most of her drowsiness scattered.
“Tastes pretty good.” Tsunade swallowed the food in her mouth and lifted her eyes to Genshin.
“Keep bringing them from now on.”
At those words, Shizune—still clutching her lunchbox—lit up.
This was the episode in which she most wholeheartedly supported Tsunade.
Once Tsunade had finished eating, Shizune thoughtfully brewed a pot of warm barley tea, the porcelain cups clinking with a crisp, light sound.
Genshin cupped his tea and took a sip, then took the chance to bring up what he’d gained from yesterday’s sparring.
“Master Tsunade, Shizune—thanks to the two of you teaching me yesterday, I can already use the Chakra Enhanced Strength.
I’d like to ask you to take a look, Master.”
“Mm…
that’s good, then.
Hm?”
What was that?
What did he mean, he could use the Chakra Enhanced Strength?
Since when did I ever teach him that?
Tsunade set down her tea cup and knocked on her own head.
Mm, I must just not be awake yet.
“Say that again.
You said you could use what, now?”
“It’s the Chakra Enhanced Strength, Master Tsunade.”
Genshin rose and walked to the center of the open training field, drew in a deep breath, then slammed his right leg down against the ground.
The Hamon Chakra throughout his entire body gathered all at once into a single point in his right fist, and he swung it downward with a heavy, crushing wind pressure.
BOOM—
The fist smashed into the ground, and the entire training field trembled faintly along with it.
In an instant, spiderweb-like cracks spread out several meters across the earth, and the howling wind pressure tousled the hair of Tsunade and Shizune, who were still holding their tea—leaving the two of them more dumbfounded by the second.
It was a good while before the commotion settled.
Genshin drew his fist back and stood firm, brushing off the nonexistent dust on his hands, and looked back toward Tsunade.
Both Tsunade and Shizune had their mouths hanging wide open, staring at that crack-riddled ground, unable to say a word for the longest time.
“It really is the Chakra Enhanced Strength.”
Tsunade got up and stepped forward, bending down to examine the fist print in the ground.
Her fingertips lightly brushed the residual fluctuations of Chakra, her expression complicated.
She raised a hand and placed it on Genshin’s arm.
“Throw another punch.
Let me watch how your Chakra flows.”
Genshin obediently did as told.
BOOM—
The ground quaked once more.
“It really is a Chakra Enhanced Strength driven by a concentrated burst of Chakra—the effect is nearly identical, but on the inside the two are completely different paths.”
Tsunade spoke slowly; this time she had felt the entire Chakra flow from start to finish.
“My Chakra Enhanced Strength relies purely on precise Chakra manipulation—gathering and compressing the Chakra of my whole body into a single point in the fist and releasing it in an instant.
What it tests is your control over Chakra, down to the finest fraction.”
“But your technique—though it likewise achieves a concentrated Chakra burst—has at its core the physical enhancement of your unique Hamon Chakra.
It relies on the amplification of the body itself to forcibly pile up destructive power.
To put it plainly, it’s pure brute force.
It looks about equal in power, but in truth its force-generation process and energy consumption both have plenty of flaws.”
“Come with me.
Today we’re going to train the Chakra Enhanced Strength.
Shizune, I won’t be going to Konoha Hospital this morning—you go cover my shift for me.”
“Yes, Master Tsunade.”
Watching Shizune head off to work reluctantly, still hugging her lunch, Genshin began his training for the day.
All morning long, the training field rang again and again with the booming crash of fist-wind striking the ground.
Tsunade stood off to the side offering real-time pointers, and whenever Genshin’s force generation went astray, she immediately stepped up to personally correct his muscle exertion points and the routes his Chakra flowed through.
The sun climbed steadily higher, and the morning’s training drew barely to a close.
Genshin wiped the sweat from his forehead and was just about to rest for a moment.
At that moment, Tsunade suddenly spoke up: “Genshin, I’ve noticed you’ve been getting quite close with the Uchiha and the Hyuga these past days.
Let’s set the Hyuga aside for now—I don’t believe you could be unaware of the situation the Uchiha Clan is in within the village right now.
Care to tell me what you’re thinking?”
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan ;)🔥👻
🔥 New history: Naruto: Is it reasonable to beat up an Otsutsuki with Hamon, right?
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