After Might Guy finished telling Haku, he went to find Might Duy, saying he was going to teach Duy. The last of one's youth should be raised to its peak in the flames, not allowed to fade away in silence.
Watching Might Guy's departing figure, Haku began thinking over the techniques he had just taught him—or rather, the secret arts of the Eight Inner Gates Formation Technique, a secret technique unique to the Might Family.
Under normal circumstances, opening a gate required enough physical strength to bear the strain. Each additional gate required about 1.5 times the physical strength of the previous one. Ultimately, the stronger one's physique, the greater the power one could bring out.
But the Might Family had relied on the Eight Gates for years to establish itself and thrive in the Shinobi World. They had found a way to bypass the physical-strength requirement and force the gates open, though the strain on the body increased exponentially.
After opening one gate, a user could open the next at a specific time, drawing on the chakra released by the previous gate to force open the next, all the way to the final Gate of Death. But this method increased the strain on the body, and after opening all eight gates, one might have strength left for only a single strike.
This secret technique really is powerful when you're fighting for your life. It could save you at a critical moment, so I should practice it when I have time. Then there are the Might Family's theories and experimental records on controlling chakra after opening the Eight Gates.
According to the Might Family's experiments with this technique, opening the Eight Gates increased the amount of chakra, which in turn increased its flow through the body's pathways. Shinobi couldn't control such a vast amount of chakra, so they couldn't use ninjutsu. The chakra they couldn't expend would escape from their bodies, forming chakra vapor of different colors around them.
If someone could control this rampaging chakra and then use ninjutsu, the techniques would become many times more powerful, and their total chakra would increase as well.
But no one in the Might Family had ever managed it. Their ancestors suspected it required powerful chakra control—in other words, a strong talent for ninjutsu. But the Might Family only had talent for taijutsu, and none of them excelled at ninjutsu, so the experiments had never yielded any results.
Haku read this and immediately thought it sounded a bit like a Saiyan's Super Saiyan transformation! There ought to be a lot he could do with it later.
In the days that followed, Haku also set aside time every day to practice controlling chakra.
The days passed, and the village had finished assembling the shinobi unit that would reinforce the front lines.
Watching the unit—made up of fifty Jonin and two hundred Chunin—leave through Konoha Gate under the command of the current Nara clan head, Haku knew it wouldn't be long before he was sent to the front lines too.
War, huh? I'd better go back and get ready. Our mission should be coming soon, too!
He turned to look at Hyuga Riko and Uchiha Yu, then said with a sigh, "I wonder how many of those shinobi will make it back. A lot of those Chunin were only just promoted."
"Yeah. Most of our classmates chose to graduate early. I wonder if they'll be sent to the battlefield."
Uchiha Yu's voice sounded somewhat subdued.
"There's nothing we can do about it. We can't change anything right now, so let's keep training. As long as we're strong enough, we'll find a way."
Haku wasn't very good at comforting people, but Uchiha Yu understood what he meant and smiled.
"That's right. We'll find a way someday."
Hyuga Riko listened quietly to their conversation without saying anything. She clenched her fist, said her family had called her back to train, and hurried away.
Haku's guess had been right. Seven days after the shinobi unit departed, their squad received a mission from the village. They were to team up with another squad and transport supplies to the front lines.
"You've all read the mission, right?"
At Training Ground 83, Haku spoke to Uchiha Yu and Hyuga Riko.
"Yeah, I've read it."
"Yeah, I'm ready too!"
Uchiha Yu and Hyuga Riko answered in turn.
"We leave on the mission tomorrow. Let's first go over how much stronger each of us has gotten over the past three months, then spend the afternoon gathering supplies."
Over the past three months, Hyuga Riko had received special training from her family. She could now perform sixteen strikes with the Hyuga clan's taijutsu, Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm, and had gained an initial grasp of the defensive secret technique, Rotation. She could also see up to a thousand meters with her Byakugan and use it continuously for an hour and a half. Overall, her strength was around that of a Special Jonin.
With support from the Uchiha clan over the past few months, Uchiha Yu had brought her Sharingan to the peak of the Two Tomoe stage. She felt its visual prowess might advance to the Three Tomoe level at any moment.
She had also learned several of her clan's Fire Style techniques, and had reached the strength of a Special Jonin.
Haku had also noticed that when Hyuga Riko said her Byakugan could see a thousand meters, Uchiha Yu hadn't looked surprised. It seemed the visual prowess of her Byakugan was probably about the same.
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