The Lame Eight Inner Gates

The next month was as ordinary and dull as could be.

Uchiha Mai often followed Might Duy to learn kicking techniques, studied Jean-Claude Van Damme's legwork, and beat up Might Guy whenever he had some free time, calling it a sparring match.

The situation in the Ninja World was too dire. The Third Shinobi World War was inevitable, and even if he made it through that, there was still the night of the Uchiha Clan Massacre, and the Fourth Great Ninja War...

The Sharingan had given Mai almost limitless possibilities, but it had also dragged him into a world of conflict. When the nest was overturned, no egg would remain intact. He couldn't just let Konoha destroy the Uchiha, could he?

Was he going to pin all his hopes on these eyes?

The Uchiha's eyes were undeniably powerful, but it was the Mangekyo Sharingan, the Eternal Eye, and the Rinnegan that were truly incredible. Mai couldn't guarantee that he'd awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Besides, was it too pathetic to do nothing every day but wait for his eyes to awaken?

He had to learn something, at least, and try to become a well-rounded ninja, excelling in virtue, intellect, physique, aesthetics, and labor.

Only hard work and sweat would never betray you. The loneliness endured during training would be repaid when you showed off later.

As the saying went, the higher your skill, the lonelier you became. The strong were forged from endless solitude. If you couldn't endure loneliness, you couldn't become a master.

After a month of hard training, Uchiha Mai had finally mastered Might Duy's kicking techniques. He'd also thoroughly studied Jean-Claude Van Damme's legwork and incorporated it into his own style.

Mai Style Ancient Martial Arts, which Mai had ripped off from Yagami-Style Ancient Martial Arts, had also gained several new moves and become more complete.

During that time, after getting close with Might Guy and his father, Uchiha Mai shamelessly asked to learn the Eight Inner Gates.

He wanted to see if he could pull off the same tricks as his fellow transmigrators: activating the Eight Gates without injury, keeping them open permanently, or reversing their practice.

After all, it was the technique that had kicked Six Paths Madara half to death. It was hard not to covet it.

Might Duy didn't keep the technique to himself. After thinking it over for a few minutes, he taught the Eight Inner Gates to Uchiha Mai. And don't give me that "your secret technique" or "my family's secret technique" nonsense. It all belonged to Konoha!

This was the beginning of Uchiha Mai's breakdown.

After carefully going over the technique, Mai felt like his head was about to explode. The Eight Inner Gates weren't at all what he'd imagined. They were far more difficult to practice than he'd expected.

After some investigation, Mai finally understood the situation. There was a reason that, in the original story, only Might Duy and Might Guy had mastered the coolest and toughest technique around: the Eight Inner Gates.

No one knew who'd created this ultimate secret technique, but it probably wasn't Tobirama Senju. Before Might Duy acquired it, the Eight Inner Gates had been even more useless, practically impossible to learn.

It was like the protagonist's Star Core Transformation technique in the novel Stellar Transformations. It was incredible in theory, but actually practicing it meant certain death.

Might Duy had spent over twenty years annotating the Eight Inner Gates and filling in its gaps. Only then had he managed to improve this secret technique, which had previously been only theoretically practicable, and make success even remotely possible.

Even so, it was still just a work in progress.

The accompanying taijutsu from the original story, such as Front Lotus, Reverse Lotus, and Morning Peacock, didn't exist yet. For the Eight Inner Gates to truly reach its full potential, Guy would have to carry on Duy's legacy and keep developing it.

What's more, even if Guy perfected the Eight Inner Gates to the level it had reached by the Fourth Great Ninja War, the technique still wouldn't necessarily suit anyone else.

Morning Peacock, Daytime Tiger, Evening Elephant, and Night Guy were all techniques Guy had created to suit his own strengths. They wouldn't necessarily work for others.

Rock Lee could open the Five Gates during the Chunin Ninja Exams, yet he ultimately faded into obscurity. Perhaps he simply lacked Guy's talent and couldn't develop his own taijutsu to accompany the Eight Gates.

Useless, useless! Why was everything Uchiha Mai could learn so impressive to look at, but useless in practice?

After weighing his options, Uchiha Mai gave up on the tempting idea of focusing on the Eight Inner Gates. Like Kakashi in the original story, he'd just learn a little.

All he wanted was to open the second gate someday. That would be enough.

Uchiha Mai could endure loneliness and hardship, but Guy's training regimen in the original story was honestly too terrifying.

Training in the Eight Inner Gates meant giving up everything else and pouring 300 percent of your energy into practice. In the end, you might not even succeed, and even if you did, you might not get many chances to use it.

It wasn't a wise choice.

He had the Sharingan and a cheat ability. The Eight Inner Gates couldn't offer better short-term or long-term returns. There was no need to obsess over them.

After deciding to just learn the technique casually, Uchiha Mai ran into another problem. In theory, his physical strength and chakra reserves were already no worse than Guy's, yet no matter how many times he tried to force open the Gate of Life, it remained firmly shut.

Might Duy explained the reason: the Eight Inner Gates were a taijutsu technique that required the resolve to face death without hesitation.

It required not only physical fitness, but also willpower and determination. Having the right hardware wasn't enough to master it.

It was a secret technique best suited to simpletons and stubborn, single-minded people. Uchiha Mai was too clever when he fought, so the technique clearly wasn't right for him.

Even more useless.

After fully figuring out how the Eight Inner Gates worked, Uchiha Mai lost interest in the technique. What a piece of trash. Even a dog wouldn't train in it.

It was definitely powerful, but it wasn't for everyone.

The Fifth Patriarch said, "The body is the Bodhi tree, the mind a bright mirror stand. Polish it diligently at all times, and let no dust alight."

The Sixth Patriarch Huineng said, "Bodhi is no tree, nor is the bright mirror a stand. Since all is empty from the beginning, where could dust alight?"

The Fifth Patriarch believed Huineng had greater Buddha-nature, so he passed the position of leader of the Chan school and his robe and bowl to him.

Uchiha Mai liked this story, but he didn't think Huineng had necessarily surpassed Shenxiu. It was obvious that Shenxiu's approach suited everyone in this world better.

The Eight Inner Gates were the same.

Learning the Eight Gates was like taking a single chip to Las Vegas and going all in every time, betting on red or black 32 times in a row. Lose once and you'd be killed on the spot.

You could quit along the way, but if you did, you couldn't take your money with you. To leave with your winnings, you had to win all 32 times.

You couldn't focus on the absurdly high payoff at the end and ignore the nearly nonexistent odds of getting there, then claim that it was a bet with an excellent expected return.

A true card shark knew when to fold a hand that looked good but had poor odds of winning.

Uchiha Mai understood this, and he'd act accordingly. So he wouldn't train in the Eight Inner Gates, and he wasn't suited to them anyway.

Not long after giving up on the Eight Inner Gates, graduation day arrived.

The Ninja Academy wasn't unchanging. At this time, it didn't have any flashy graduation exams. Once the ceremony was over, graduates would be assigned to various squads.

After graduating, they'd take a few missions to see how they adjusted. If they could handle them, they could become ninja. If they couldn't, they'd be kicked out and made into ordinary villagers. If they still wanted to be ninja and refused to settle for civilian life, they could gain experience in the reserve force.

They were only Genin. Who needed talent? Stick it out for a few more years and you'd get there.

It was a fairly festive day. Fugaku, the clan head and Uchiha Mai's elder, attended the graduation ceremony on his behalf.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, Yuhi Shinku, and other ninja whose names he'd only ever heard in rumors were also there.

After the ceremony, the parents left the schoolyard chatting and laughing. Some headed home, while others went to the office to talk.

They left a bunch of little brats in the classroom for people to pick from, like cabbages at a market.

A vote for the story wouldn't be too much to ask, right? It's free.