In the forests behind Konoha!
"First Gate, Gate of Opening, open!"
Naruto let out a sharp cry, and a powerful wave of energy erupted around his entire body, the air currents surging violently!
"Second Gate, Gate of Healing, open!"
The energy wave transformed, surging into a solid-looking tide of blue chakra.
The Uzumaki constitution truly is something else.
Standing to the side, Kakashi kept his expression neutral, but inside he was stunned.
Under ordinary circumstances, the Eight Inner Gates didn't produce a visibly solid-looking chakra surge until the Fourth Gate was opened, sometimes not even until the Fifth. Yet Naruto had produced one at just the Second Gate.
"Third Gate, Gate of Life..."
Naruto continued pushing through the Eight Inner Gates.
The chakra wave around him grew thick and dense, as if it were about to take shape into a full chakra cloak wrapping around his body.
Then it collapsed. The chakra around Naruto snapped like a bowstring pulled past its limit, and the dense concentration of energy vanished instantly into nothing.
"Why!? Teacher Kakashi, why can I only get through two gates? Why can't I keep going?"
Naruto bellowed with open frustration. "My physical conditioning is way better than Bushy Brows's, and he can open five gates. Why am I stuck at two?"
"You're missing one thing, Naruto."
Kakashi gave a mild cough and explained calmly. "The reason you can only reach the Gate of Healing right now isn't just that you're still new to the Eight Inner Gates. There's another key factor: limits. Or rather, your own personal threshold."
"Threshold?"
Naruto's brow furrowed. Kakashi smiled slightly and continued. "Opening each Gate of the Eight Inner Gates requires a certain baseline of physical conditioning, otherwise the body breaks down completely. But once that baseline is met, it's not as simple as saying that a stronger body means easier access to the Gates. It's actually the opposite. The stronger your body, the harder the Gates are to open, precisely because of those limits."
"Do you remember what I told you before? The Eight Inner Gates is a forbidden technique built around pushing past your own limits. Think of it like long-distance running. When you approach a certain threshold during training, your chest tightens, your breathing becomes labored, your limbs go heavy, and you feel like you simply cannot continue. This is called the 'dead point.' But if you push through it with sheer willpower, deepen your breathing, and adjust your pace, after some time your breathing evens out and your body feels light and capable again. That phenomenon is called the 'second wind.'"
Naruto nodded, and Kakashi went on. "Opening each Gate of the Eight Inner Gates is that same process of breaking through. The First Gate is the first second wind, the Gate of Healing is the second. The reason you couldn't open the Third Gate, the Gate of Life, is because you haven't yet broken through the third physical threshold and reached your fourth wind."
"To sum it up: aside from still being unfamiliar with the Eight Inner Gates, the root problem is that your base physical conditioning is too exceptional. And more than that, your recovery ability is absurdly strong."
There was a trace of envy in Kakashi's voice, mixed with something wry.
"I imagine you've noticed that yourself over years of physical training, haven't you?"
"Yeah." Naruto crossed his arms and nodded. Even with his slow mind, he had figured that much out over the years.
No matter how brutal the training he put himself through, he would bounce back in a remarkably short time.
He had never dug too deeply into why. He'd just filed it under the idea that people's constitutions were different and left it at that.
"Of course, it cuts both ways. The power of the Eight Inner Gates isn't determined by how many Gates you can open. It's not that more Gates automatically means more strength. What truly determines the power is your underlying physical condition. The stronger your body, the more force each Gate releases once you do open it. Do you understand?"
Kakashi smiled slightly. "I'm sure you've noticed, even at just the Gate of Healing right now, you're already considerably stronger than Lee was when he was at the Gate of Pain."
Naruto nodded, then pressed forward. "Teacher Kakashi, so how do I break through the third threshold?"
"Honestly, I don't have much to offer there. Only you can truly know where your own limits are. The fact that you opened two Gates this quickly already exceeded what I expected." Kakashi spread his hands with a helpless shrug. "That said, I do have one suggestion, though it's not much of one. In your day-to-day training, try using the Eight Inner Gates repeatedly. Keep attempting it. Maybe something will click."
Naruto pulled a face. "That's genuinely useless advice."
Kakashi cleared his throat and smiled pleasantly. "I don't have anything better. But there's someone else who might. Come back here tomorrow. Someone else will be guiding you for the stretch ahead."
Naruto's curiosity immediately flared. "Who? Who is it, Teacher Kakashi!?"
"Come tomorrow and you'll find out."
Kakashi said this with a deliberately mysterious air.
---
... How do I break through the Third Gate faster?
After parting ways with Kakashi, Naruto walked home alone, hands folded behind his head.
With the Gate of Healing, he was considerably stronger than before. But that wasn't nearly enough to beat Sasuke.
Right now, there was nothing Naruto wanted more urgently than a way to open more of the Eight Inner Gates.
Hm?
Lost in thought, Naruto caught something out of the corner of his eye and stopped short. His gaze cooled immediately.
On a nearby rooftop, a middle-aged man with long silver-white hair was peering through a telescope, completely absorbed in what appeared to be an open-air bathhouse in the distance. Every so often, a low, distinctly creepy chuckle escaped him.
Leaf Great Whirlwind!
Smack!
The man was so thoroughly engrossed he never saw it coming. Naruto's kick sent him flying.
"What was that for! What is wrong with you, you little brat!? Why are you attacking me out of nowhere?"
"Peeping on people in broad daylight, right here in Konoha. You had the bad luck of running into the righteous Naruto, so you've got no one to blame but yourself!"
"Peeping! That word is so uncharitable! This is research. Research! Can you even call it peeping when a writer is gathering material?"
"Less talking. Take this!"
Bam bam bam!
After a brief scuffle.
"Peeping Uncle, you're saying Teacher Kakashi sent you to coach me?"
Naruto stood with his arms crossed, looking at Jiraiya with open skepticism.
Jiraiya nodded, his expression brimming with self-satisfaction. "That's right. The kid actually had to beg me for quite a while before I agreed."
"And don't call me Peeping Uncle. I am the Legendary Sannin, Toad Sage, the White-Haired Shinobi, Jiraiya, whose name is known across all four corners of the world!"
With that declaration, Jiraiya tossed his hair back and struck what he clearly believed was an exceptionally cool pose.
"Sure then, Pervy Sage. What are you going to teach me?"
"Don't call me Pervy Sage, it's Toad Sage!"
"Got it, Pervy Sage."
"..."
Jiraiya fell silent for a moment, then extended his right palm. Dense, solid-looking chakra began spinning rapidly, condensing and coiling together into a glowing sphere.
"Brat, bet you've never seen ninjutsu this powerful before. Want to learn? If you do, I can..."
Before he could finish, Naruto raised his own hand and held up a Rasengan, glancing at Jiraiya out of the corner of his eye.
Jiraiya: "..."
Jiraiya laughed it off with a hearty ha-ha and pressed on. "Ah ha ha, well, learning the Rasengan is only the beginning. Combining it with your own unique traits and creating a new..."
Mid-sentence, Jiraiya watched as the fist-sized Rasengan in Naruto's hand abruptly expanded into a massive blue sphere the size of a person's head.
The Big Ball Rasengan! (Odama Rasengan)
Jiraiya: "..."
This infuriating brat.
---
Kubisaki Marsh.
At the very same moment Naruto was crossing paths with Jiraiya, Sasuke, who had been sitting motionless on the ground for a long while, finally rose.
He slowly unwound the bandages wrapped around his eyes.
He blinked gently, letting himself readjust to the light he hadn't seen in nearly twenty days.
Then the clear black-and-white of his eyes shifted, flooding into a fierce, vivid crimson.
At the same moment, an immense surge of Yin Release energy erupted around Sasuke, assembling itself into the skeletal frame of a massive form.
Three black tomoe spun faster and faster. Muscle and sinew spread across the skeleton's frame, wrapped in a layer of chakra that resembled flowing robes.
The form grew larger and larger, condensing suddenly into the shape of a towering giant.
Finally, the giant was clad in a magnificent set of Tengu armor. In its hands, two weapons materialized: a long blade wreathed in black flames, and a long sword crackling with violet lightning.
Within his eyes, the three tomoe transformed. A white six-pointed star formed around the outside, and at the center, a curved black triangular shuriken shape emerged, with three small black dots arranged around it.
Strange and beautiful. Mysterious and foreboding.
The Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.
___
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