New Talent

"Four hundred ninety-seven... four hundred ninety-eight..."

Chiba hammered the wooden post with one punch after another, knocking off layers of splinters.

That day, Kakashi had brought him back to the village instead of tossing him directly into his home far from it.

He had made Chiba stay properly in the village clinic for a day.

During that time, Yukina's father, Hyuga Shinsuke, came to visit him and expressed his gratitude, leaving him with the words, "Come visit our home sometime."

Chiba was overjoyed. "Come visit our home sometime" meant that they acknowledged his existence—perhaps even that the doors of the Hyuga Clan were open to him.

He had never expected that rescuing Yukina would earn such a significant response from the Hyuga Clan. At the time, Chiba had thought he had misheard.

"Just who is Yukina?" Chiba threw his five-hundredth punch, then began doing squats.

As for school, after Kakashi reported the matter to the Third Hokage, he had been given five days off for Chiba. At the same time, Chiba had been told not to spread word of what happened.

If people learned that enemy ninjas had abducted a pure-blooded descendant of Konoha's noble Hyuga Clan right under Konoha's nose, who knew what chaos it would cause? At the Third Hokage's instruction, the matter had been concealed.

The day Chiba was hospitalized, the Third Hokage had come by to give him a few instructions.

Naturally, Chiba had nodded and agreed. However, the Third Hokage's faint final words as he left—"Before I knew it, you've already grown this much"—had bothered Chiba.

From the Third Hokage's tone, he had not seemed suspicious of Chiba because he was the Traitor's Son. He had even sounded somewhat wistful, which made Chiba feel that something was off.

Still, it had only been one sentence. Although Chiba cared a little, he would not dig too deeply into it. He had more important matters to attend to now.

Through that battle, Chiba had also realized his own weakness. The joy of developing Eight Gates Mode had completely vanished.

Even a severely wounded Jonin had still possessed enough strength to kill him. If Yukina had not been there to cooperate with him, the one who died would likely have been him rather than that Jonin.

He was far too weak!

Even in the clinic, Chiba had not idled around. He began slowly revising his usual training schedule in his mind.

First was basic physical training.

Second was Monster Strength training.

Third was ninjutsu training.

Ninjutsu was an unexpected delight. That day, bored out of his mind in the clinic, Chiba had repeatedly replayed that battle in his head, drawing experience from his only real combat encounter. As he thought, he discovered that he actually remembered the hand seal sequence for the Jonin's final ninjutsu.

He had only caught a brief glimpse at the time, yet he remembered the entire sequence of seals.

After leaving the clinic and returning home, Chiba had immediately activated Gate of Life Mode to test the ninjutsu. To his surprise, he had succeeded.

Chiba suddenly understood.

It seemed that he possessed Ninjutsu Talent—and exceptionally strong Ninjutsu Talent at that.

Eight Gates Mode and Ninjutsu Talent... Chiba could hardly believe it.

Now, Chiba finally understood. It was not that the god of transmigration had failed to give him the means to become strong; he simply had not yet unlocked his own potential.

Having figured that out, Chiba became even stricter with himself. Although he possessed Ninjutsu Talent, the foundation was still chakra. Without sufficient chakra reserves, any ninjutsu was merely decoration.

In the end, he still needed to further develop Eight Gates Mode.

When he activated Gate of Life Mode for the second time, Chiba also discovered a problem. He still had to open the Gate of Life first, then transform it into Gate of Life Mode. Although it was no longer as difficult as the first time, and he could basically control the Gate of Life chakra perfectly—

That initial opening and transformation still allowed a considerable amount of chakra to dissipate, and it also took quite a bit of time.

This troubled Chiba greatly.

After all, he would not always activate Gate of Life Mode before entering a battle. Sometimes, he would need to activate it during battle, or even activate it instantly and counterattack the moment he was ambushed.

He had to enter Gate of Life Mode directly the instant the Gate of Life opened.

Otherwise, Gate of Life Mode would be rather useless.

However, Chiba had thought of a solution.

As he opened the Gate of Life and transformed it into Gate of Life Mode, he would form hand seals and cast ninjutsu at the same time. His goal was to enter the mode and successfully cast the ninjutsu by the time he completed one sequence of hand seals.

Moreover, Chiba's hand seal speed was not slow. Even before obtaining the Eight Gates, he had practiced forming all kinds of seals. It took him around two or three seconds to complete a set of hand seals, which meant he had to transform the Gate of Life into Gate of Life Mode within two seconds. Otherwise, he would be unable to cast the ninjutsu.

After all, Chiba's original chakra reserves were limited, so he could not cast this Earth Release ninjutsu. The Gate of Life chakra under the Eight Gates was too violent to use for a technique as well.

Only by transforming the violent Gate of Life chakra into Gate of Life Mode by the time he completed the hand seals, or before that, could he successfully cast the technique.

That way, Eight Gates Mode, hand seal speed, and ninjutsu could all be trained at once, increasing the efficiency of Chiba's limited time.

Over these five days, Chiba had trained madly using this method. At first, he would focus on one thing and forget another. Sometimes he focused on forming seals and forgot to transform the Gate of Life chakra; other times, he concentrated on transforming the Gate of Life chakra and forgot the seals. He had been utterly flustered.

Yet over the past five days, Chiba had trained tirelessly, and at last, he had achieved results.

"Five hundred side kicks, five hundred straight punches, five hundred squats, and a ten-kilometer run, complete! Now, let's start that!" Chiba removed his weights and opened the Opening Gate and the Gate of Healing.

Then he began forming hand seals! At the same time, the Gate of Life opened within him, and green chakra shimmered over his body.

The moment the green chakra appeared, he completed a sequence of seals. At that same moment, the green chakra vanished without a trace, and chakra at the level of a junior Chunin flowed rapidly through his body.

Chiba pressed both hands to the ground.

Earth Release: Earth Spear!

An Earth Cone thrust up sharply from the ground.

Less than two seconds!

A smile curled across Chiba's lips.

Now, Gate of Life Mode could truly be used in actual combat!

But...

Chiba looked at the Earth Cone and sighed inwardly.

Compared to that Jonin... it was still far too lacking! Indeed, whether in size or length, it was much smaller and shorter than that Jonin's Earth Spear.

Well, it did not matter! Once Chiba had chakra reserves at the Jonin level, he would naturally be able to create the same Earth Cone. Besides, at its current size, its killing power was sufficient.

Chiba nodded in satisfaction, but he was not content with that.

Now, Chiba had already begun considering how to open the Fourth Gate.

"Grrr..."

Just as Chiba was making plans, his uncooperative stomach growled.

"Before that, I should eat first!" Chiba looked up at the sky. It was already dark. The last day of his break was coming to an end, and he would be returning to school tomorrow.

Chiba walked into the wooden cabin, grabbed the leftover Konoha Giant Steamed Bun from lunch, and began chewing on it.

As he ate, he gulped down water and continued figuring out how to open the Fourth Gate.