Thud! Thud! Thud!
Sunlight poured down, bathing the log-built camp in bright autumn light.
Behind the office building, rhythmic pounding echoed through the now-empty camp. It was lonely, yet it lent the camp a touch of life.
"Almost done!"
At that moment, Chiba glanced at the cloudless blue sky, set down the thick wooden pole in his hand, and looked at the three wooden stakes he had just planted before him.
Now that Yukina's matter had been resolved and Hirohiko would basically no longer need to return to prison, with much of his guilt offset, the next issue was Chiba himself.
And there was no need to say what his own problem was. It was naturally the condition of his body.
Because of the changes within his body, he could no longer use Eight Gates Mode. Strictly speaking, he could no longer use the Eight Gates, and might need to begin training in the Eight Gates all over again.
Although the changes to his body had brought him quite a few benefits, such as permanently activated cells, poison resistance, and so on, they were nowhere near enough to make up for the loss of Eight Gates Mode, the core of his strength.
Chiba had to account for the worst possibility—that he would need to retrain the Eight Gates. So, he planned to start exercising again now. There was no harm in that.
Moreover, the Ninja Engineering Corps was now fully managed by Kakashi and Yukina, and everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion. According to the documents Kakashi and Yukina had given him yesterday, the early-warning system facility had now been built. With Hirohiko's involvement, the building had also gained many ingeniously designed traps and mechanisms. It could even connect to every relay station and coordinate with the traps there.