How Did This Kid Train Like That??

"Stand still."

Kakashi still looked as lazy as ever. Once Naruto was standing properly, he began poking and prodding at various spots on his body.

Naruto felt ticklish from all the poking and couldn't stop squirming, nearly making Kakashi lose his temper and smack the kid.

"Here... and here. That's about it."

"If you circulate your Chakra along this route, you'll be able to break through the Gate of Opening."

"Of course, using the Eight Gates requires a long period of taijutsu training."

Naruto tried circulating his Chakra along the route Kakashi had described several times, only to find that he couldn't do it at all.

Never mind opening the first gate of the Eight Gates, the Gate of Opening.

Just as Kakashi had said...

While circulating it earlier, Naruto had noticed that some of the pathways in his body were blocked. His Chakra kept catching and stalling as it moved.

He roughly understood how the Eight Gates worked.

Normal training probably involved widening the body's pathways and strengthening its endurance. Only then could one use the Eight Gates.

Naruto had the hardware now, but the software inside him was a complete mess. How could he possibly run a program like the Eight Gates?

Still...

He hadn't planned on learning the Eight Gates in the first place.

"Uncle, how long does it take to learn this?"

Naruto still couldn't help asking.

After all, when he had read fanfiction in his previous life, the protagonists in those stories would start training in the Eight Gates from childhood, making it seem incredibly easy.

But Naruto felt that if this technique weren't difficult to learn, it would have long since been widely taught to civilian ninja. Konoha wouldn't have classified it as a forbidden technique.

"A year if you're quick. Two or three years if you're slow."

"But I don't recommend that you take this path."

Kakashi stared at him with a very serious expression.

The Eight Gates were only suitable for those who specialized in taijutsu and couldn't use ninjutsu.

That was because the Chakra accumulated through daily training had to be used to break through the barriers of the "gates" within the body.

That was also why he had only trained in the first gate of the Eight Gates.

After all...

His Sharingan couldn't be turned off and constantly consumed Chakra. The Chakra needed to open the first gate was just barely manageable.

If he continued training the Eight Gates, Kakashi figured that the moment he entered the Eight Gates state, his Chakra would be depleted and he would die of exhaustion.

Naruto certainly had enough Chakra, but there was no need for it.

Training in the Eight Gates required a huge amount of time.

If this kid started training the Eight Gates...

Kakashi figured the Third Hokage would hang him up and beat him.

"So long..."

Naruto was still somewhat disappointed after hearing that.

Spending several years just to open one gate really wasn't worth much to him.

"You haven't tested your Chakra yet, have you?"

He decided to guide the boy onto the proper path of specializing in ninjutsu.

That way, he wouldn't spend every day training taijutsu to the point of death.

Kakashi somehow pulled out a sheet of Chakra Paper and held it in front of Naruto.

"Try it."

Chakra Paper?

Naruto took it and examined it from side to side, wanting to see what was so special about the thing.

But after looking at it for quite a while, he realized he couldn't make heads or tails of it.

Seeing Naruto practically about to fold the Chakra Paper into a paper airplane, Kakashi covered his forehead with one hand and sighed before reminding him.

"Put Chakra into it!"

"Oh..."

Naruto gave up on the idea of making a paper airplane and obediently followed Kakashi's instructions, pouring Chakra into the paper.

Actually, he already knew without testing...

Unless something had changed drastically, based on what he knew from the anime in his previous life, his Chakra affinities seemed to be Wind and Earth.

Riiip—

The instant Naruto infused the paper with Chakra, it first split in two, then crumbled apart.

"Wind and Earth..."

Kakashi muttered as he watched, and Naruto confirmed his Chakra affinities as well.

At that moment, Naruto appeared to be spacing out.

"Big Fox, can Lightning Release stimulate cells and temporarily increase strength?"

"Yes. Why are you asking?"

Inside the Sealing Space, Kurama was somewhat baffled by Naruto's question.

Didn't you hear what that white-haired guy just said, brat...?

Your Chakra affinities are Wind and Earth. Where would you get Lightning from?

"Then is there a possibility..."

"That I can do the same thing with Wind Release."

After thinking it over, Naruto felt that Wind Release ought to be capable of producing a similar effect somehow.

Although it couldn't stimulate the cells in his body like Lightning Release, Wind Release should be able to create a gust of wind around him and increase his speed, right?

Having received nine years of compulsory education, Naruto also understood one principle.

That was... the faster the speed, the greater the mass.

Speed = power.

"Idiot."

Kurama mocked him disdainfully.

This brat was simply indulging in wild fantasies.

Kurama didn't know much about ninjutsu, but it still knew that this was impossible.

Naruto paid no attention to Kurama's mockery.

After all, how could a local like Big Fox possibly have an imagination like his, one that had been shaped by an explosion of information?

There were plenty of wind-based abilities in the movies, television shows, and games from his previous life.

Ignoring both the fox inside him and Kakashi's incessant chatter outside, Naruto stood where he was and recalled the scroll the Third Hokage had given him earlier. He began gathering Wind-natured Chakra on his own.

As he condensed it, he also thought of the Chakra pathways for the Gate of Opening that Kakashi had pointed out earlier...