"Senior Kimura, even though you drove those guys off with your words, they don't look like the type to let this go. This could be trouble."
"No worries. Lee can handle it."
"Yeah, leave it to me, Tuoye!"
Kimura Takuya patted Lee on the shoulder, showing how much confidence he had in him. Lee was greatly encouraged.
Nearby, Ino watched Choji eat the heart-shaped lunch she'd made and pouted unhappily.
But when Tuoye looked over, she immediately greeted him with a bright smile.
Shikamaru looked at Lee's thick eyebrows and wide eyes, but couldn't see anything impressive about him.
Yet Kimura Takuya seemed to trust Lee completely.
"Can he really do it? Those guys are planning to get back at you this afternoon, right?"
"No problem. The afternoon Taijutsu exam comes after the basic physical fitness test, and it's a student sparring match.
Anyone can issue a challenge. Lee just has to challenge all five of them. That'll teach them to behave.
And after graduation, we probably won't run into them much anyway."
After speaking, Kimura Takuya yawned. He looked like he hadn't slept well and wanted to take a nap.
"Tuoye, go get some rest. We'll come watch your exam this afternoon and cheer you on!"
Not wanting to disturb Tuoye's rest, Ino dragged the Shika-Cho duo away.
Shikamaru grumbled that it was a pain to be dragged back here in the afternoon when he'd finally gotten a day off.
In truth, he was curious about Tuoye and Lee's actual strength.
He just wouldn't admit it, so he'd found himself an excuse to come back later.
Choji tipped his lunchbox upside down.
He'd finished it, but he still wasn't full. He'd have to bring more tasty food this afternoon!
Once the three of them had left, Kimura Takuya—who'd been yawning and looked ready for a nap—
sat up. He didn't look sleepy in the slightest.
Graduation was coming up.
He needed to get a few things figured out.
He and Lee, along with the others, were in the same class and would graduate a year before the protagonists, Naruto and Sasuke.
In other words, the story would begin in a year.
Orochimaru's attack during the Chunin Ninja Exams was still more than a year away.
The Fourth Shinobi World War was only five years away.
Surpassing those overpowered freaks before then would be difficult.
But it wasn't impossible. At the very least, his actual chakra reserves were already on par with a Jonin's.
As for ninjutsu—
Aside from the Three Basic Techniques, he knew Medical Ninjutsu and a few auxiliary techniques he'd developed himself.
The only other one was Rasengan, a simple hand-seal-less technique. As long as you had good chakra control and understood how it worked, you could learn it, right?
For Kimura Takuya, it was as easy as one-two-three.
Personally, though, he thought the original version of the technique was pretty useless.
If you could get right up in someone's face, what difference did it make whether you stabbed them with a knife or a ball of chakra?
Konohamaru had an interesting take on Rasengan.
Of course you should throw the ball! Holding it in your hand made it far too easy to hurt yourself while only managing to injure your opponent a little.
So far, Kimura Takuya had developed several Rasengan variations, including but not limited to:
The regular Rasengan.
The Big Ball Rasengan.
The Long-Range Rasengan.
The single-handed version of the Rapid-Fire Long-Range Rasengan.
The two-handed version of the Rapid-Fire Long-Range Rasengan.
And a protective Rasengan that surrounded his whole body, supposedly offering absolute defense, modeled after the Eight Trigrams Palms: Heavenly Spin.
But all of these were based on Rasengan. If he suddenly used them, there'd be no way to explain them.
So he needed to wait for an opportunity: first, watch Rotation and "figure out" the Spiral Protection Shield.
Then, by shrinking the Spiral Protection Shield, "figure out" the one-handed Rasengan, and gradually "figure out" the Big Ball Rasengan, the Long-Range Rasengan, and the Rapid-Fire Long-Range Rasengan.
That would give him a perfect ninjutsu development pipeline.
But Naruto could keep making Rasengan variations from start to finish because he had a cheat. The Rasengan's power could increase without limit.
The power of Naruto's Rasengan was directly proportional to the chakra he put into it. He could even make a Tailed Beast Bomb, and the Tailed Beast Bomb Rasenshuriken was far more ridiculous than a plain Tailed Beast Bomb.
But he didn't have a tailed beast, and he didn't want to become a Jinchuriki.
Keeping a tailed beast as a pet was fine, but putting one inside his belly to use as a power bank? That was just weird.
Wouldn't it be like broadcasting everything live when he was doing something intimate?
What kind of person could calmly get down to "business" in front of someone else?
That was way too messed up. He couldn't even stand the thought of it.
Since he couldn't accept that and still wanted to surpass those overpowered freaks, there was only one way.
The Eight Inner Gates Formation.
This forbidden technique—
the ultimate secret Taijutsu technique, the one that had created the legend of an ordinary man standing shoulder to shoulder with the gods.
With this technique, Might Guy opened all eight gates and nearly kicked off the grand finale.
Six Paths Madara called him the strongest.
And so the Emperor of Taijutsu was born. That was how the name Emperor Guy came to be!
Now that was what you called awesome.
In fact, plenty of viewers in his previous life thought that if Kishimoto hadn't stopped him, Six Paths Madara wouldn't have survived either.
Kimura Takuya settled on his choice. Then an idea began to take shape in his mind.
As he considered his current situation, the idea grew clearer and clearer. The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed!
What idea?
Infinite Eight Gates!
When Emperor Guy fought Six Paths Madara, opening all eight gates should have meant certain death.
Decades of effort, gone in a fleeting moment—like a flower that bloomed for only a moment.
Everyone thought he was beyond saving, but Naruto used Yang Release Chakra to keep Emperor Guy alive.
By then, Guy's body had already been burned to charcoal by the powerful chakra released when he opened all eight gates of the Eight Inner Gates Formation. And he still survived.
So if he raised his Medical Ninjutsu level just a tiny bit and added his own Immortality, wouldn't opening all eight gates be a piece of cake?
Once the gates opened, whoever came at him would die.
So you're Uchiha Madara, huh? Do you know how Obito died?
Just thinking about it made him excited.
It was decided. After graduation, he'd work at the hospital first, then look for an opportunity to get close to Might Guy and obtain the training method for the Eight Inner Gates Formation.
Getting close to Lee was one part of his plan.
Working at the hospital was the second. Taijutsu users were more likely to get injured.
As for hoping to be like Lee, earn Guy's approval through hard work, and become his student—
That was just too ridiculous. He wasn't actually bad at ninjutsu. In fact, he had quite a talent for it.
With that kind of talent, spending all his time training in Taijutsu would be putting the cart before the horse.
Kimura Takuya mapped out his famous future, and time slipped by.
Before long, it was around two in the afternoon.
"Everyone, gather up and head to the training ground. The Taijutsu exam is about to start."
"Yeah, let's go."
The basic physical fitness test on the training ground was soon over, and everyone passed.
Aside from the fact that the average time for a hundred-meter dash was easily under ten seconds, and even the girls could smash a dozen or more bricks with a single punch, it wasn't all that different from a physical education test in his previous life.
The boost chakra gave to their physical abilities meant these eleven- and twelve-year-old children were already far fitter than ordinary adults.
The sparring portion began.
The Five Tigers' riffraff were itching for a fight and were just about to step forward and issue their challenge.
Kimura Takuya slapped Lee on the shoulder, making a face as he tried to look a little fatter.
"Quit sleeping and wake up. This is the graduation exam. Get up there and don't let them leave alive!"
"Huh? I wasn't asleep! It's just an exam. Isn't killing them a little too much?"
"Ah, no one understands my world. Maybe I should just destroy it."
Kimura Takuya lifted a foot and kicked Lee out into the ring.
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