You Need a Dad Who Can Open the Eight Gates

The brief disturbance did not affect the normal lives of Konoha's residents.

Under the blazing sun, the streets rang with endless cries of vendors, haggling, and provocations.

"Let's settle this once and for all, Kakashi!"

"No!"

Kakashi gave Might Guy a dead-fish stare, then shifted a step to the left as he walked and said,

"Guy, I've joined the Anbu now. My hands are stained with lives every day. I'm no longer in the mood to compete with you so innocently."

"Then find it again. Find the original spirit you had when competing with me."

At that, Kakashi looked up at the sun. The blinding light slowly narrowed his eyes.

The original spirit of competing...

Whenever I went to the bathroom, you stood on the wall. Whenever I took a bath, you popped out of my bathtub. Even when I slept, I could feel like there was someone under the bed... Thinking of those years when Might Guy had forced him into competitions, Kakashi looked at the flames burning in the other man's eyes. After pondering for a moment, he said helplessly,

"Rock Paper Scissors. Best three out of five."

"Kakashi, you're fooling Guy again."

A voice suddenly came from behind them.

Hearing that familiar voice, Kakashi's mouth twitched. He immediately put on his dead-fish expression and lowered his head to watch ants crawling across the ground.

That guy really was impossible to like.

"Kakashi, a man who never forgets the spirit of youth is the most lovable kind."

Kakashi turned to look at Uchiha Asuka and said lazily,

"It doesn't matter if I'm not lovable."

Hm? Once he clearly saw the female ninja draped over Asuka's back, Kakashi's expression hardened, and his entire bearing changed in an instant.

A Sand Ninja?

Was that Pakura? How had she ended up like this?

Pakura was covered in dirt, and beads of sweat as large as soybeans streamed down her cheeks and dripped continuously onto Asuka's clothes.

Her chin rested on Asuka's shoulder as she gulped down fresh air. Her arms hung limply over his chest as though they had been broken.

"Tch!"

Asuka came to the two of them and bounced Pakura up slightly. Then, supporting her thighs with both hands, he turned to Might Guy and said somewhat breathlessly,

"Guy, remember this: youth has no price tag, and the Eight Gates are meant to be used now.

You're definitely winning today's match."

Kakashi's face went pale at those words. Seeing Might Guy tremble with excitement, he used the Body Flicker Technique to appear beside Asuka and hurriedly changed the subject.

"Why is Pakura here?"

"Oh!"

Asuka's eyes shifted slightly. After glancing at Pakura, whose chin rested on his shoulder, he said casually,

"She came to the village with Ebizo for negotiations. While I was distracted, she kicked me more than ten meters away, and then we started fighting in the forest outside the village.

The outcome was obvious. I won. I couldn't just leave her lying there to die, and I couldn't treat her on the spot, so I had no choice but to carry her to the hospital."

"Despicable."

Pakura forced out those two words through clenched teeth, then began gasping heavily again.

"Ha, who told you that all Uchiha jonin are combat-type ninja?"

Hearing that, Pakura's eyes instantly widened. She felt less and less air entering her lungs. That bastard was still carrying her on his back, her chest pressed against his back, making it even harder for her to breathe.

Once my injuries heal, I'm definitely going to kill him. "Has your strength already reached such a level?"

"Not at all. This woman was simply too confident in her own strength. She didn't even bother gathering information before fighting someone.

I cut some of the muscles in her limbs and her intercostal muscles too. She can barely breathe right now. Where would she get the strength to fight?"

With that, Asuka waved at the two of them. As he headed toward the hospital, he called back to Guy,

"Guy, youth only lasts thirty thousand days. Every day that passes is one less. Treasure today."

"Mm!" Guy clenched his fists. His eyes seemed to have been filled with natural gas as they blazed fiercely. Looking at Asuka's departing back, he turned to Kakashi and said excitedly,

"Kakashi, before today's youth comes to an end, let's settle this once and for all."

"No—"

Before he could finish, Kakashi felt a large hand clamp tightly onto his shoulder. Then his feet left the ground, and a fierce whooshing wind rang in his ears.

Uchiha Asuka really was impossible to like.

He always riled Guy up like this.

"Heh."

Hearing the commotion behind her, Pakura could not help but sneer as she gasped violently.

"You Konoha freaks really are everywhere. That freak was actually wearing a skintight suit. And it was green. Now not only do my muscles hurt, but my eyes hurt too."

"Well, well."

Asuka shook his head and said with some feeling,

"The freak in your eyes is the ceiling of ordinary ninja. Whenever all the other ninja fall, that training fanatic will stand back up, transform into a red beast, and become absurdly powerful.

Oh, you may not have heard of him yet, but his father is somewhat famous in the ninja world.

His father crippled three and killed four members of Kirigakure's first Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist."

At that, Pakura immediately recalled an earth-shattering rumor from last year.

Sunagakure and Kirigakure also had a deep grudge against each other, and they knew something about the other side's trump cards.

It was said that the first Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist had been prepared specifically for Sunagakure.

Yet only a few days after the seven left their village, just as they were preparing to spread the terror of Kirigakure's ninja, they were crippled by a single Konoha Ninja.

"The Eight Gates Release Formation... Might Duy?"

"So you know."

"Mm."

After humming in acknowledgment, Pakura lay on Asuka's back and fell into a rare silence.

Konoha seemed blessed by heaven. Whenever danger struck, a whole group of monstrously powerful ninja would emerge.

Sunagakure, on the other hand, was not only constrained financially by the daimyo, but was also a whole tier below Konoha in terms of Martial Power, let alone when it came to freaks like that.

This time, she had escorted Ebizo here to sign a negotiation agreement. Along the way, Ebizo had revealed some of the negotiation terms.

In summary, there was only one point: Sunagakure could not defeat Konoha, so the Sand Village's bottom line in negotiations was extremely flexible.

"Hey... can you tell me about Konoha?"

When Pakura, who had been silent for so long, suddenly said that, Asuka paused briefly before resuming his normal pace. Since the hospital was still some distance away, he spoke up.

"What do you want to hear?"

"I... I don't know."

Pakura shook her head. Looking at this Konoha street, which was several times more prosperous than Sunagakure's busiest street, she said somewhat despondently,

"Tell me about yourself first."

"What's there to tell about me?"

"When you fought me, you must have held back a lot of trump cards, right?

I remember that the Uchiha Sharingan can copy any ninjutsu. You couldn't possibly not know such a powerful technique as the Eight Gates Release Formation."

"Hey, hey, the Uchiha aren't as amazing as you think.

There are limits to copying. I can only open the first gate.

And the requirements for advancing that technique are simply too difficult.

1. Stay up late training and work extremely hard.

2. Wear a skintight suit, and it can't bulge.

3. Have the determination and conviction to not fear embarrassing yourself.

4. You also need a dad who can open the Eight Gates.

Miss even one of those four conditions, and you won't be able to open the Eight Gates."

After saying that, Asuka caught the faint scent of lavender in the air, and his gaze could not help but drift.

Why did those senior transmigrators all choose the Eight Gates as their skill?

That thing was just too hard to train.

As night fell, Asuka once again appeared at the Nara Clan Grounds.

"How much longer until my son can become normal?"

Hearing Nara Ryoko's anxious voice beside him, Asuka looked down at the sleeping child on the bed. After thinking for a moment, he said,

"After six more treatments, your son will be able to live like a normal person. But he'll still need follow-up observation. If Tsunade returns to the village, you can pay her to take a look at him."

Looking at her pale-faced son, Ryoko said with heartache,

"Tsunade hasn't returned to the village since my son was born."

"Don't worry. That woman has probably lost almost all her money by now. She'll likely be back within half a year."

Thinking of the last reply he had received, Asuka's mouth twitched.

There had only been a few words in the letter.

The general meaning was that he was a decent person, but since creditors had come to collect debts, she did not have time to write much. Goodbye.

The granddaughter of Hashirama Senju, the Clan Head of the Senju Clan, one of Konoha's Legendary Sannin—borrowing money and not repaying it, running off carrying a pig, injuring creditors... the thought processes of these people in the ninja world were truly baffling.

What were the people who lent Tsunade money thinking? Did they enjoy her not paying it back?

Should I also borrow money outside under the Uchiha name?

The Senju House's reputation was already ruined anyway.