Chihane opened the final gate of the Eight Gates of Death, the Gate of Death.
Blood-red steam suddenly erupted from his pores. His muscles visibly swelled, and his short, silver-white hair stood on end.
Waves of astonishing pressure radiated from Chihane, and even the pebbles scattered across the ground slowly began to float.
The numbers on the various instruments in front of Orochimaru and Tsunade also changed rapidly, and the two busied themselves recording the shifting readings.
After a long minute, Orochimaru signaled that Chihane could stop. Chihane's body gave a slight shudder, and he closed the Gate of Death within him.
Peeling off the sensor wires attached to his body, Chihane walked over to Orochimaru and asked, "Teacher Orochimaru, how did it go?"
Tsunade came up behind Chihane and hooked an arm around his neck. "Congratulations, brat. With this complete set of data, we can finish refining this forbidden technique today. Your year of hard work has finally paid off."
Feeling the remarkable softness pressing against his back, Chihane had no intention of breaking free just yet. Still, he said, "Oh, that's great. Tsunade, when you have time, take it over to Uncle Dai."
The newly improved Eight Gates reduced the damage that opening the final five gates inflicted on the body.
Even after opening the Eighth Gate, the Gate of Death, the user would face no danger to their life as long as they closed it within one minute.
But its drawback was also obvious: compared with the original, the improved forbidden technique provided a somewhat smaller boost to the user's strength.
If activating the original Eight Gates Released Formation could amplify a person's strength almost a hundredfold, the new version only provided around fifty times their strength. Its power had effectively been cut in half.
Chihane, however,