Tsunade Takes Office

After mastering the Eight Inner Gates Formation and exchanging pointers with Might Guy on controlling chakra while opening the Gates,🍫 🎀  🎀 🍫

Kimura Takuya returned from the taijutsu training ground. By then, it was already late.

At Kimura Takuya's home.

After a simple dinner, he lay on his bed, thinking about the Eight Inner Gates Formation.

He had an idea.

The Eight Inner Gates Formation had three major problems.

First, the difficulty of opening all eight Gates.

Second, the power it granted once opened.

Third, the risk of death when opening the Gate of Death.

The difficulty of opening the Gates depended on the body's and mind's ability to withstand the strain.

His earlier idea of severing his pain nerves had proven, in practice, that it could bypass the limits of his mental endurance.

As for his body's strength, Natural Energy was slowly improving it.

So, for him, the problem of opening the Gates could be considered solved.

The second problem was power. Different people had different chakra quality and different base quantities.

So the power of opening the Gates and the amount of chakra gained varied from person to person.

If Guy ran into the Seven Ninja Swordsmen again, opening the Sixth Gate would be giving them too much credit. If he opened the Seventh Gate, not a single one of them would get away.

The Eighth Gate? What kind of joke was that? Did Guy need to risk his life to fight a bunch of elite jonin?

But Guy's father, Might Duy, had needed to open the Eighth Gate, and even then, he could only kill four and injure three.

That showed just how much stronger Guy's chakra quality was than his father's.

If power depended on chakra quality, then—

His earlier idea of using Senjutsu Chakra to open the Gates had been right, too. His Senjutsu Chakra training was still at the first stage.

But at least he had made a start, and Kimura Takuya's own chakra quality wasn't bad either.

After all, his spiritual energy was exceptionally high in quality.

His physical energy was a little lacking, but the two balanced each other out. The chakra they formed was no worse than Guy's.

There was a gap, but it wasn't large.

Once his body grew stronger, his chakra quality would steadily surpass Might Guy's.

The second problem was solved as well.

As for the third problem, opening the Gate of Death was said to mean certain death.

But in the original anime, Emperor Guy opened the Gate of Death in the end and was saved by Naruto's Yang Release Chakra.

Naruto didn't know Medical Ninjutsu, either. He had simply released Yang Release Chakra, and that was enough to save Guy's life.

Kimura Takuya was confident that his own abilities should be able to keep him alive, too.

But was merely staying alive enough?

For an ordinary person, this was a question of survival. But what Kimura Takuya wanted was to use the Eight Gates indefinitely.

In other words, he wanted to use the Eight Inner Gates Formation without any restrictions, making it part of his normal combat style.

Not unleash one explosive burst and then be left in a slump forever.

A real man had to be fierce, but he also had to last!

Although the Flesh Substitution Technique could instantly restore his body to its previous state,

it came at a cost: healthy cells had to be used to replace dead ones.

Kimura Takuya couldn't conjure cells out of thin air, either. He could only make an equivalent exchange, which was why the technique was called the Flesh Substitution Technique.

But opening the Gates continually damaged his body's cells.

In that situation, how many times could Kimura Takuya use his fat cells to repair himself?

Even if he ate until he looked like someone from the Akimichi Clan, the final result would probably be that he lasted only a few seconds longer than Emperor Guy.

And that clearly wasn't what Kimura Takuya wanted.

He wanted to use the Gates without limits, which meant he needed an unlimited ability to recover.

And as it happened, he had just such an ability.

It was his Immortality, the ability he relied on to save his life!

After devouring the monster Ido, his ability had improved considerably, by about thirty percent.

A small wound that had once taken all night to heal now recovered in just six or seven hours.

But that clearly wasn't enough.

That rate of recovery couldn't keep up with the toll of the Gate of Death.

So now the solution was obvious.

He needed to find a way to improve his Immortality.

He had improved it before by devouring the monster Ido.

So where could he find more now?

It wasn't as if he could ask Yakumo to make another monster, right?

That monster was just her negative energy.

Wait, negative energy?

That monster wasn't a soul. It was negative energy born within a soul!

And didn't the Tailed Beasts' chakra contain a huge amount of negative emotions, too?

The Tailed Beasts also had Immortality!

So did the Immortality of his soul come from negative energy?

Was it the resentment born from his unwillingness to accept his death in his previous life?

So was he actually a ghost?

A vengeful spirit born of resentment?

Or was he actually a Tailed Beast, too?

The more Kimura Takuya thought about it, the more absurd it got.

He shook his head and pulled the covers over himself.

"Anyway, I've somehow circled back to the Tailed Beasts again. I hadn't wanted to get involved with that stuff; it just felt a little strange. But it looks like I'll have to get myself a Tailed Beast after all. Mm, that settles it. Time to sleep!"

Having made up his mind, Kimura Takuya slept until dawn.

Early the next morning.

Kimura Takuya was sprawled across his bed, sleeping soundly.

Knock, knock, knock! Knock, knock, knock!

Urgent knocks sounded at the door.

"Kimura Takuya! Kimura Takuya!"

Roused by the knocking, Kimura Takuya got up and opened the door.

"Who is it?"

"Kimura Takuya, the Fifth Hokage will see you after her inauguration ceremony. Come with me!"

And just like that, Kimura Takuya was taken to the Hokage Building.

A crowd had already gathered in front of the building.

Besides the notified shinobi, there were also countless ordinary people.

The announcement had only gone out yesterday, yet the villagers had already arrived in front of the building that morning.

The reason they had come so quickly was—television.

That's right, the Naruto world had televisions, and plenty of big stars, too.

There were quite a few official TV stations as well.

Even the Ninja Academy had a school news channel. They often put out rankings of the top ten beauties and heartthrobs.

For an important historical moment like this, plenty of cameras and microphones had naturally gathered around the scene.

On the roof of the Hokage Building, the village's senior officials, the heads of the clans, and several Kage Level jonin were there to witness the ceremony.

Below the building stood countless ordinary shinobi and civilians.

After Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi gave his speech, he handed his Hokage hat to Tsunade.

Tsunade took the hat and put it on.

Then she announced to the crowd that she had become the Fifth Hokage of Konoha and gave her own speech.

"From now on, I am the Fifth Hokage!

"I will make this village better. Reforming Medical Ninjutsu will not only reduce casualties among shinobi but also greatly benefit ordinary people.

"I'm back. I am Senju Tsunade, the strongest medical ninja in the Ninja World, and the Fifth Hokage!"

"Woohoo!"

Below the building, the crowd cheered.

In the middle of it, Kimura Takuya was held on either side by two Anbu and forced to look up at the ceremony.

The two Anbu were Uzuki Yugao and Oda Lang.

"Sorry, Tuoye. This is Lady Tsunade's arrangement. I'm really sorry. I'll treat you to barbecue later."

"Right, barbecue—two meals!

"One from the captain and one from me.

"I can't help it either, Tuoye. I never expected that woman to be Lady Tsunade, let alone that she'd come back to take over as Hokage.

"When I first got the order, I was so scared I nearly turned into a leopard!"

Kimura Takuya looked utterly speechless. He stared up at Tsunade on the building and saw her look back at him with a smug expression.

Wasn't that the same look he'd put on for Tsunade yesterday?

That last line had obviously been aimed at me, hadn't it?

Were all women like this?

Terrifying!

Kimura Takuya put on a frightened expression.

That seemed to satisfy Tsunade's mischievous streak.

With a smug smile, Tsunade waved toward them, signaling Uzuki Yugao and Oda Lang to bring Kimura Takuya to see her.

Then she turned and went to the Hokage's office.