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After Kakashi took off with Sasuke, the brooding teen bent on fratricide, Naruto began searching the hospital for Rock Lee's room.
After combing through one floor, he finally found Lee's room. It didn't appear to be an intensive care unit.
Lee was still unconscious, and since Naruto didn't know medical ninjutsu or understand the records in the room, he could only judge by appearances. Judging from how Lee occasionally threw a punch or kicked in his sleep—though his mouth twitched whenever he moved—it didn't seem too serious.
Naruto left a few apples on the table and waited in the room for Gaara. He remembered that in the original storyline, Gaara had been so consumed by madness that he'd tried to kill Lee even while he was hospitalized.
But after waiting half an hour, there was still no sign of the red-haired boy.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the village, Gaara was clutching his head, his expression twisted in agony, terrifying even Temari, who had come to deliver his food.
Gaara's current state was dire. He still hadn't figured out who it was that caused him such frustration, and it was giving him a massive headache.
Normally, anyone who caused him this much pain would already be dead—but without knowing who it was, he was stuck in a vicious cycle.
Headache → Want to kill them → Who are they? → Can't figure it out → Headache!
It was as if there was a bug in the code when his father created Gaara's personality, leaving him trapped in an endless loop. Only a top-tier developer could fix this mess.
"Why hasn't he shown up yet?" Naruto muttered after waiting for nearly thirty minutes, still not seeing the red-haired teen.
Though Gaara had been intimidating at first, his character arc later shifted dramatically, evolving into something increasingly domesticated—he was practically one apron away from cooking fried rice in the kitchen.
And like another iconic red-haired character from a popular anime, Gaara relied heavily on "saving face."
During the Five Kage Summit, Gaara turned to the Tsuchikage and said, "Old man, give me some face and let's form the Allied Shinobi Forces," and the Tsuchikage agreed.
Once the alliance was formed, tensions ran high among the mixed groups, with insults and fights breaking out left and right, almost turning humans into animals. Then Gaara stepped forward and said, "Everyone, give me some face. Stop fighting each other and focus on defeating our enemies." Even those who didn't know who Gaara was readily agreed to respect his request.
Later, during the battle against Hagaromo, when the Raikage wanted to destroy the moon, Gaara simply said, "Give me ten minutes before you blow it up," and the Raikage complied.
Who knows what kind of persuasion techniques Gaara used—it wasn't just convincing people anymore; it felt like he'd rewritten their systems entirely.
Suddenly, voices echoed outside the door, sounding like Lee's teammates.
Naruto opened a portal and slipped away. He didn't want to meet them because he was preparing a big surprise for Neji.
"Someone was here—and they just left," one of the three visitors noted upon entering, detecting a foreign presence lingering in the air.
Ninja were trained to suppress their chakra, remain calm, and stay hidden.
Naruto, however, lacked these skills—no one had ever taught him, and he'd never attended any lessons.
What was the point of hiding when you could just kill everyone?
Naruto believed that only Madara Uchiha truly understood the definition of a ninja as akin to an assassin.
What kind of assassin refrains from unleashing chaos in a crowd?
Kakashi, Neji, and Tenten scanned the room, their eyes eventually settling on the apples left on the table.
They immediately understood.
These apples, identical no matter how many were taken, were unmistakably Naruto's calling card.
...
Back in the small forest clearing, Naruto resumed dragging iron weights as part of his training. As he ran, he suddenly felt like someone was missing.
[Sasuke still hasn't returned.]
This was becoming a problem. While Naruto didn't particularly care about Sasuke's strength, watching others unleash flashy jutsu mid-battle while he relied solely on taijutsu made him feel overshadowed. How could he compete like this?
As he ran, Naruto pondered solutions.
He wasn't the type to casually bump into Jiraiya while wandering around town—at least not unless Hinata dragged him along. But Hinata wasn't bold enough to invite him to a hot spring for a romantic bath anytime soon.
That left self-reliance. If no one would teach him, he'd have to develop his own techniques.
The Narutoverse was brimming with jutsu, but Naruto couldn't decide which one to replicate.
In the end, his inspiration came from Kurama.
Watching the fox roll over in its sleep and accidentally roast its fur near the furnace, Naruto recalled a past joke he'd made: boiling chakra to its boiling point, similar to how Mukade, the five-tailed beast, unleashed immense power.
Mukade achieved this through Boil Release, raising his chakra temperature to its boiling point to enhance his strength—a unique ability Naruto didn't possess.
Tsunade also wielded incredible strength, achieved through precise chakra control focused on specific body parts. Unfortunately, Naruto doubted he could master that level of finesse.
But what if he combined the two concepts? What if he heated his chakra to its boiling point and then released it explosively? Would it amplify his power?
If anyone asked why he suddenly thought of this idea, he could always say it came to him while boiling water. After all, humanity had advanced to nuclear energy, yet everything ultimately boiled down to heating water.
If you didn't believe him, he could boil a pot right in front of you.
Boiling water was the cornerstone of human progress, after all.
Just as Naruto prepared to begin his experiment, he froze. What exactly was the boiling point of chakra?
Did energy even have a boiling point?
Remembering a line from Iron Man—"Fake it till you make it"—Naruto decided to follow suit.
Who cares what the boiling point is? Just start heating it up.
Summoning a shadow clone, he began his test.
No sane person would try this on themselves, so naturally, the clone volunteered.
The clone started slowly increasing the temperature of its fire-natured chakra within its body.
Before long, steam began rising from its face, turning bright red!
Naruto resisted the urge to slap his clone. Why did it suddenly look like Hinata cosplaying as "Steam Girl"? This wasn't a trait fit for a man.
Still, he held back. The reddening face and sweating were normal reactions to the rising internal temperature.
Suddenly, the clone froze.
"How's it going? Any results?" Naruto asked eagerly. Success on the first try? Things were looking promising!
"Mm-hmm," the clone exhaled.
"What was the effect?"
"Allahu Akbar!!!"
The clone shouted, charging toward the nearby river.
"BOOM!"
Simultaneously, both Naruto's main body and the clone currently sculpting figurines at home collapsed, trembling violently.
As memories synchronized, the excruciating pain reverberated back. The sensation of having exploded yet remaining alive left Naruto disoriented.
He also received a final message from the clone:
[I have one sentence… I absolutely must say.]
The explosion sent mud and debris flying everywhere, splattering the surroundings.
It took Naruto several moments to recover, staring blankly at the dirt covering his body.
He hadn't determined the boiling point of chakra, but the destructive power was undeniable. Whether the enemy survived or not, Naruto would definitely be the first to collapse.
Finding cleaner waters upstream, Naruto began washing himself and his clothes—the river mud reeked.
As he soaked in the water, Naruto examined the massive crater left by his clone. It was already beginning to fill with water. With three clones dividing his chakra equally, each possessed only one-third of his total reserves. Though inefficient, the force generated was still substantial.
Suddenly, a line from Lord of War popped into his mind: "You can't force someone to love you, but you can create opportunities."
Transforming into a beautiful woman using the Sexy Technique to approach Jiraiya and learn the Rasengan? Too obvious and lowbrow for Naruto's taste.
But building an open-air pool? In this heat, it would be perfectly natural to train and cool off afterward. If bikini-clad girls happened to be drawn to the pool, well, that wasn't his fault. And where there were swimsuit beauties, Jiraiya was sure to follow.
Feeling confident in his plan, Naruto quickly cleaned himself and summoned clones to start construction.
No sooner had the clones appeared than one of them blurted out:
"Damn it!"
Oh, come on! Now the clones were speaking in parts?!