"This might feel... weird," Naruto warned. "Like static electricity, or like sticking your hand in a cool stream. Or maybe like getting struck by lightning! I really don't know. Hinata said it tickled."
A faint, nervous smile formed on Sakura's lips. It was strangely comforting that Naruto would demystify a sacred ritual with such an incoherent and contradictory explanation.
Then she felt it: a surge of pure, raw energy shot up her spine, branching out through every nerve ending and making the hair on her arms stand on end.
Naruto, kneeling behind her, held his breath. The world dissolved into a familiar, ethereal blue light as the system interface flooded his vision.
[ACTIVATING FALNA SYSTEM] [COMPATIBLE SUBJECT: SAKURA HARUNO] [CALIBRATION COMPLETE. INITIATING STATUS UPDATE. CONVERTING ACCUMULATED VITAL EXCELIA...]
The numbers began to scroll, fast and fluid.
SAKURA HARUNO LEVEL: 1 STRENGTH: I-0 -> I-15 ENDURANCE: I-0 -> I-25 DEXTERITY: I-0 -> I-55 AGILITY: I-0 -> I-60 CHAKRA POTENTIAL: I-0 -> H-150
Naruto blinked. "Your physical stats are starting low, but... whoa, Sakura-chan, your Chakra Potential is already H-rank! That's huge! It's way higher than mine!"
[ANALYZING QUALITY EXCELIA...] [SIGNIFICANT EVENTS DETECTED: 'ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE', 'PERFECT SCORE ON CHAKRA CONTROL EXAM', 'ANALYTICAL MIND UNDER PRESSURE: BELL TEST', 'EMPATHETIC BREAKTHROUGH: AN APOLOGY UNDER THE STARS'.] [CONVERTING QUALITY EXCELIA INTO ADDITIONAL ATTRIBUTES...]
The numbers shot up again, a surge of progress. The Chakra Potential stat skyrocketed.
STRENGTH: I-15 -> I-45 ENDURANCE: I-25 -> I-70 DEXTERITY: I-55 -> H-110 AGILITY: I-60 -> H-125 CHAKRA POTENTIAL: H-150 -> G-299
"G-rank!" Naruto shouted, his excitement finally breaking his concentration. "You went straight to G-rank in Chakra Potential! That's insane!"
[ATTRIBUTE CONVERSION COMPLETE.] [ANALYZING SUBJECT'S SOUL FOR SKILL OR DEVELOPMENT ABILITY MANIFESTATION...] [DOMINANT ESSENCE DETECTED: 'METICULOUS CONTROL' & 'DESIRE TO BE INDISPENSABLE'.] [CROSS-REFERENCING WITH HIGH CHAKRA POTENTIAL...] [MANIFESTATION FOUND.] [DEVELOPMENT ABILITY UNLOCKED] [POINT BREAK] PASSIVE/ACTIVE ABILITY. ALLOWS THE USER TO FOCUS THEIR CHAKRA INTO A SINGLE, MICRO-SIZED POINT UPON A PHYSICAL IMPACT. INSTEAD OF REINFORCING THE BODY, THIS ABILITY RELEASES THE CHAKRA OUTWARD IN A DESTRUCTIVE, CONCUSSIVE BURST AT THE MOMENT OF CONTACT. THE EFFECTIVENESS IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE USER'S CHAKRA CONTROL.
Naruto's jaw dropped. "Point... Break..." he read aloud, his voice filled with awe. "Sakura-chan, you got a Development Ability. It says... it says you can release chakra like a destructive explosion when you hit something."
[UPDATE COMPLETE. CLOSING CONNECTION.]
The familiar, wrenching drain pulled at Naruto. He gasped, falling back onto the grass as the blue light faded from his vision. He was panting, his forehead beaded with sweat, but a huge, triumphant grin was plastered on his face.
For a moment, silence returned to the clearing. A soft, silver aura enveloped Sakura before dissipating into the night air. She remained completely still, her eyes closed. She opened them slowly and then looked down at her hands, turning them over in the moonlight. They looked exactly the same. Slender, pale, unblemished.
"I..." she began, her voice uncertain. "I don't feel any different."
"What?!" Naruto scrambled up from the ground, his fatigue forgotten. "No way! The screen said you got super strong! And you got a skill that sounds incredible!"
Sakura flexed her fingers. Nothing. She took a step, then another. She felt normal. Maybe a little lighter. A flicker of her old insecurity returned. What if it hadn't worked on her? What if she was just... incompatible?
"Maybe... maybe it didn't work right," she mumbled, her shoulders slumping.
"Don't be ridiculous," a calm, firm voice cut through the air. It was Kurenai. She stepped forward, her red eyes glowing with an unnerving intensity. "A Development Ability isn't a simple switch you can flip. You don't feel it because it's part of you now, as natural as breathing. You have to learn to use it."
Hinata approached Sakura, offering a reassuring smile. "It's true, Sakura-san. When it happened to me, I felt lighter, faster. But I know my ability, Lioness Heart, will be there for when I need it."
Naruto pointed dramatically at a large gray boulder at the edge of the clearing, about the size of a small cart. "There's only one way to find out! Punch that rock!"
Sakura stared at him, then at the rock. "Are you crazy? I'll break my hand!"
"No, you won't!" Naruto insisted with absolute faith. "The system is never wrong! Just hit it!"
Kurenai crossed her arms, her expression thoughtful. He's crude, but his logic is sound. A practical test is necessary. However, she shouldn't just punch it blindly.
She walked over to Sakura. "Close your eyes again. Remember the Academy. The leaf concentration exercise. Can you still feel that sensation? Drawing your chakra to a specific point?"
Sakura nodded and closed her eyes. She could. It was second nature to her, the one ninjutsu related skill she had always excelled at. The gentle pull, the warm, tingling feeling as the energy gathered where she directed it.
"The ability is called Point Break..." Kurenai continued, her voice like a sensei's in a private lecture. "The name is the key. It implies precision. Your strength isn't in your muscles, Sakura. It's in your control. The system recognized that. Try to focus your chakra into your fist, and as you make contact, imagine releasing it all from your knuckles into a single point."
Sakura took a deep breath.
She walked to the rock, her heart pounding. She stood before its cold, unyielding surface. She was definitely going to break her hand.
No. Trust them. Trust... yourself.
She drew her fist back. She ignored the idea of strength and focused entirely on her chakra. She pulled it from her core, letting it flow down her arm like a focused, controlled river. It pooled in her fist, a warm, vibrating sensation.
"That's it!" Naruto cheered from the sideline. "Now, let 'er rip!"
Sakura swung.
Her fist met the rock with a dull, fleshy thud. A sharp pain shot through her knuckles, and she cried out, pulling her hand back.
Nothing had happened. The rock was completely unscathed. Her knuckles, however, were already starting to swell and turn red.
"Ow, ow, ow!" she yelped, shaking her hand vigorously. "I told you I'd break it!"
Naruto's face fell. "Huh? But... the screen said..."
Kurenai, however, looked intrigued. "No, no. You were close. Your form was wrong, but the principle was right. You kept the chakra in your fist on impact. You tried to use it as reinforcement, like a normal ninja would."
She moved closer. "Think of it like this: your fist is just the delivery system. The chakra is the payload. The goal isn't a powerful punch. The goal is to get the payload to the target. Try again. And this time, at the very last second your skin touches the stone... release the chakra."
Sakura clutched her throbbing hand. She couldn't give up after one try.
She squared her shoulders and faced the rock again, using her left hand this time. She closed her eyes, ignoring the doubt, and focused. Again, she drew on her chakra, a familiar and comforting process. She visualized it swirling in her fist, a small, compressed vortex of blue energy.
She drew her arm back slowly.
Her fist flew forward.
This time, it felt different. She mentally opened the floodgates of the chakra pooled in her hand.
The moment of impact was surreal.
There was a sharp, violent crack. CRACK!
For an instant, she felt no resistance at all. There was no jarring impact, no pain. A flash of pale blue light erupted from her knuckles, and a concussive force blew her hair back.
She staggered back a step, her ears ringing, and stared.
The rock was still standing. But from the exact point where her knuckles had touched it, a web of deep, dark cracks spread across the entire surface.
Naruto was dumbfounded. Hinata gasped, her hands flying to her mouth, her eyes wide with disbelief. Kurenai's professional mask had vanished, replaced by an expression of pure astonishment.
"Did... did I do that?" Sakura whispered, looking at her left hand. It was perfectly fine. Not a scratch, not a bruise. It didn't even hurt.
"You... you did that," Naruto finally managed, his voice choked with emotion. He walked slowly toward the rock, as if it might explode. He reached out a trembling finger and touched one of the cracks. A small piece of granite crumbled away, turning to dust.
He whipped his head around to look at her, his blue eyes burning with an excitement that overshadowed anything he had shown before.
"THAT! WAS! AWESOME!" he roared, leaping into the air. "You didn't even punch it hard! It just shattered! You have a super punch! A demolition punch! We gotta give it a cool name! How about 'Sakura's Rock Smashing Petal Dance of Doom'?"
A laugh erupted from Sakura's chest. It wasn't the short, relieved laugh from before. It was a full, joyous, and disbelieving laugh. The tension, the fear, the years of feeling useless and left behind, it all seemed to crumble away.
"You idiot," she said, wiping away a tear of laughter. The word was pure affection.
Kurenai finally composed herself, though she couldn't completely hide the amazement in her voice. "That... is beyond anything I could have imagined. It's not a simple strength enhancing jutsu. It is a fundamental reapplication of chakra principles. The potential for devastation is..." her voice trailed off as she looked at Sakura's slender hands with a newfound respect, "...immense."
Sakura stared at the fractured boulder, then back at her own hand. Kurenai was right. She hadn't punched it. She had simply... touched it and commanded her chakra to break it. A new feeling began to dawn on her: not just relief, but confidence. A deep, solid, unshakable confidence. The fear of tomorrow's battle on the bridge was still there, but it was different now. It was no longer the fear of a helpless underdog. It was the nervous anticipation of a warrior.
"So," Naruto said, bouncing on the balls of his feet, radiating energy. "Now we're both superpowered. Me with my new guide, and you with your rock bursting fists of justice!" He pointed between them. "I knew it! When I get stronger, you get stronger! When you get stronger, I get stronger! This is the best jutsu in the world!"
He was practically vibrating with excitement.
Sakura looked at Naruto, truly looked at him. She saw past the goofy grin and the loud proclamations. She saw the boy who had sat alone on the swing, who had seen a strength in her that she couldn't see herself, and who, without a moment's hesitation, had shared his incredible, impossible secret with her. He hadn't just given her power. He had given her his trust.
"Thank you, Naruto," she said, and her words carried a weight they never had before. "For everything."
Naruto's bravado faltered. He scratched his cheek, a faint blush on his face. "Eh, don't mention it. We're a team, right?"
He then glanced at her and then at Hinata, who was examining the cracked rock with fascination. "Actually, a bigger team now, I guess. Team 7 plus honorary members!"
Sakura followed his gaze and smiled at Hinata. She walked over and stood beside her. "Thanks for being here, Hinata. I was... really nervous."
Hinata turned, her pale eyes soft. "I knew you could do it, Sakura-san. Your spirit has always been strong."
The four of them stood there for a moment in a comfortable silence. A genjutsu master jounin, a Hyuga heiress, the village pariah, and the girl who had just discovered a new and terrifying strength.
"Alright," Kurenai said finally, clapping her hands together, her leader persona returning. "That's enough excitement for one night. The enemy could be back tomorrow. Everyone needs to get some sleep. Naruto, you're on watch with Kakashi early tomorrow. Sakura, Hinata, you need to rest well. Now, go."
Naruto and Hinata nodded and headed back to the house. But Sakura paused for a second. She turned back to Kurenai.
"Sensei... how do I control this?" she asked quietly. "If I hit someone... could I...?"
Kurenai's expression softened. "You'll learn. Your greatest strength, your control, is precisely what will allow you to master it. You'll learn to measure the output. A touch to disable, a strike to shatter. We'll work on it. I promise."
The elite jounin's reassurance dispelled Sakura's last fears. She nodded gratefully and turned to follow the others.
As she walked back toward the warm lights of Tazuna's house, she held up her left hand again, observing it in the moonlight. It didn't look like a weapon. It looked like her own hand. But for the first time in her life, she understood it could be both.