Orochimaru Appears

"You seemed eager to know your own strength. I saw your pursuit of power in your eyes."

"Though I believe blindly pursuing power is wrong, a young man must have his reasons for having no choice but to seek it."

Might Duy spoke with the air of an adult.

Jin rubbed at his eye socket. How could he see something like that?

All he could see was other people's eye gunk. If there was a way to see someone's intentions, wouldn't that let you spot spies at a glance?

Might Duy had no idea where Jin's thoughts had wandered off to.

"Then I'll teach you the Eight Gates Formation, and you can guide me through getting started with Basic Inner Cultivation ninjutsu."

Might Duy was doing his own calculations as well.

Jin did want the Eight Gates Formation, but he had not expected things to be so straightforward.

Might Duy sat up, his face turning solemn as he began to explain.

"I'm only a genin, yet I train every day. It took me more than ten years, and I still haven't fully mastered this technique. Still, I've gained some understanding of it."

"When using this technique, you must impose one strict condition on yourself."

"That is self-restraint."

Jin listened dismissively. Setting survival aside, his main purpose in cultivating was to do whatever he wanted. If there had to be a time limit on that, he hoped it would be forever.

Under Might Duy's explanation, Jin gradually came to understand the Eight Gates Formation.

It was far simpler than he had imagined—and countless times more difficult.

The content was simple; the training was difficult.

Not only was the Eight Gates Formation brief, it was easy to understand. Anyone could quickly learn it and begin training.

But actually succeeding at it was extraordinarily difficult.

Put simply, the Eight Gates Formation was about constantly breaking through one's physical limits—the Eight Gates that restrained and controlled Chakra within the body.

The Eight Gates existed as restrictions meant to protect the human body.

Like the limiters of the human body spoken of in his previous life: in moments of crisis, many people had unlocked those limiters. Even a frail woman could lift a car, but the price was severe injury or death.

The Eight Gates were Chakra limiters, which explained why opening them harmed the user.

The Eight Gates Formation did not open those restrictions through life-or-death crises. Instead, one had to slowly push past their physical limits through training, crack the Gates open by a sliver, then pour Chakra into them and unleash all the Chakra within.

Physical limits were not so easily surpassed. An ordinary ninja might manage it once, but each successive limit became exponentially harder to overcome.

No wonder Kakashi had been shocked that Lee had mastered the Fourth Gate in the future. That was not something effort alone could accomplish.

The Fourth Gate also meant that Lee had surpassed his physical limits four times.

Just thinking about it was unbelievable.

"This taijutsu doesn't suit me."

Jin shook his head regretfully. He was confident in his perseverance when it came to constantly surpassing his physical limits, but the immense time and energy required would be enough for him to create even stronger ninjutsu.

He could not do what those predecessors did, opening the Eight Gates after only a few months or even days of training.

By his own estimate, reaching the level where Might Duy could open the Fifth Gate would take him at least ten years. Going from the Fifth Gate to the Seventh Gate would take another ten-plus years. The Eighth Gate was actually the easiest, but it was fatal.

The Eighth Gate was the most unusual of the Eight Gates. Compared to the first seven, it was much easier. Once the first five Gates were opened, the Eighth Gate could be opened at any time—but the cost was one's life.

At that moment, he understood why Might Duy's Eight Gates were inferior to Might Guy's.

When Might Duy opened the Eight Gates, he probably had not yet trained to the Seventh Gate.

Because according to the Eight Gates Formation's method of cultivation, those who reached the Eighth Gate should have roughly comparable strength.

Jin looked thoughtfully at Might Duy.

"Young man, there's no such thing as suitable or unsuitable. Perhaps there is someone you may need to protect by letting your youth bloom."

Might Duy gave Jin a thumbs-up.

Was he cursing him to death?

He definitely was, right?

Forget it. Jin did not want to argue with him. Mainly because his injuries would not allow it.

Now it was his turn to teach.

"How far have you gotten with Basic Inner Cultivation?"

Jin sat up as well.

Might Duy pondered for a moment. "Weaving seals."

Jin: ...

Wasn't that just the first step?

Then he might as well start explaining from the beginning.

Might Duy went home; after all, he still had a wife to care for.

Jin looked up at the sky.

A faint reddish glow tinged the clouds.

"His aptitude is truly unbelievable."

He was still immersed in the matter of teaching Duy just now. He simply could not imagine that someone could be so foolish.

No, it should not be called foolish. It was more like someone without the qualifications to be a ninja forcibly condensing Chakra.

Everyone in this world had more or less Chakra in their bodies, but extracting it from their cells required a prerequisite.

Sensitivity to Chakra. Only those who could sense Chakra could refine it, and quite a few Ninja Clans were naturally gifted in this regard.

The Uchiha Clan was especially outstanding. At least ninety percent of its members had the qualifications to become ninja.

After all, this was a world that seemingly played with ninjutsu but actually ran on bloodlines.

Those who could sense Chakra could naturally control it freely as well; only the degree of precision differed. Take Medical Ninja, who had yet to appear—their requirements for Chakra precision were extremely high.

As for Duy, his control over Chakra was not even fifty percent effective.

Where others needed one unit of effort to control their Chakra, he needed five. Jin had never expected that.

The difficulty of ninjutsu for Duy was five times greater than it was for others.

"No wonder he can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu."

For Might Duy, even a C-rank ninjutsu was comparable to a B-rank one. That level of difficulty was already enough to stump most ninja.

Basic Inner Cultivation was simple, with only D-rank learning difficulty, but it still had a threshold.

For Duy, it was C-rank difficulty.

"So ninja aptitude is really that important."

He now deeply understood this world's restrictions on the mediocre, and a technique like the Eight Gates Formation was the only chance for ordinary people to overtake others on a curve.

"Thankfully, my aptitude is pretty good."

Despite appearances, he was actually one of the rare Uchiha ninja with all elemental affinities, possessing the same level of aptitude as Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others.

The pinnacle of such aptitude was Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was known as the Professor of Ninjutsu and the strongest Hokage.

In reality, Orochimaru might have known even more ninjutsu than he did.

He was a Kage who had risen entirely on talent.

In theory, even if Jin simply developed step by step, if he had the chance to awaken the Sharingan, he could surpass Hiruzen Sarutobi.

But Hiruzen Sarutobi had a good teacher named Tobirama Senju, with an enormous reserve of ninjutsu.

Unfortunately, Jin did not.

So it was only theoretically possible.

But if it was merely a comparison with Hiruzen Sarutobi, Jin had never even considered it. His ambitions were far greater than that.

His goal had never been the Kage of this world, nor even a Super Kage, nor the level of Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju.

He was aiming for the sages of the Three Great Sage Regions and the Six Paths level.

Combat power did not really matter. The main thing was that they could live. His goal was—

First, live for a thousand years.

Still, the matter of his all-element affinity could not be exposed either. Once it was, he did not know what Hiruzen Sarutobi would do, but Pot Kage certainly would not allow him to grow.

Weakening and suppressing the Uchiha was Konoha's political correctness.

"I might as well defect. It feels less safe here than outside."

Jin cursed as he left the spot.

He was only saying it. The ninja world was too chaotic right now; he still needed to develop first. Once he had grown strong enough, then—

Uchiha Jin didn't eat beef!

He did not choose to leave the Konoha forest. Instead, he turned and headed deeper into the woods.

There was a ruined, abandoned training ground.

Two figures were rapidly clashing within it.

A closer look revealed that both figures were Jin.

Shadow Clone Jutsu.

One used only taijutsu, while the other attacked with the Three Basic Jutsu and Fire Release ninjutsu.

The Shadow Clone Jutsu was practically a cheating tool.

Although the body and Chakra would not grow, memories could be transmitted back.

Using it to train ninjutsu and gain combat experience through sparring would therefore bring rapid improvement.

That was exactly what Jin was doing.

"The maximum limit is three Shadow Clones."

To maintain them for a full day while receiving their experience, he could only handle three Shadow Clones.

The exhaustion of Shadow Clones accumulated onto the original body. He was not Naruto Uzumaki, who relied on plot armor in the future and could use them however he pleased without suffering much of an impact.

If there were too many, he would die.

At the same time, another Shadow Clone was at home studying ninjutsu.

"Release!"

Jin formed hand seals with both hands, and the two Shadow Clones vanished in two puffs of smoke.

A vast amount of combat experience flooded into his mind.

"Fighting myself really yields far less than fighting Might Duy."

As he savored the battle, he caught movement in the grass from the corner of his eye.

He pulled a kunai from the Ninja Tool Pouch strapped to his leg and threw it over.

Whoosh!

When he walked over, he saw a little white snake pinned tightly to the ground by the kunai, struggling desperately.

"What a rare snake."

Jin sighed, pulled out the kunai, and the little white snake swiftly fled into the distance.

But before the little white snake could escape completely, a Shuriken suddenly spun through the air and severed its head. The headless body writhed frantically, but it still could not escape its fate of death.

Jin's eyes narrowed. He drew a kunai and went on full alert, yet he had not noticed anyone nearby at all.

Basic Inner Cultivation was supposed to enhance his senses.

"Life really is fragile."

A voice sighed.

Then came an overwhelming killing intent.

Even the air seemed stained black.

Jin felt as though heavy shackles had been placed upon him; even breathing became several times more difficult.

In the distance, a long-haired man with deathly pale skin, dressed in a white kimono, slowly approached.

A man like a snake.

He was clearly dressed in ordinary clothes, without the slightest appearance of being ready for battle, yet merely with those approaching footsteps—

Tap, tap... tap...

Jin's heart beat in time with the other man's steps.

The man stopped beside the dead little snake, his expression filled with sorrow, utterly unlike someone who could emit such killing intent.

"Wouldn't you agree, young Uchiha?"

"Orochimaru!"