Learning the Eight Gates

Might Duy stared solemnly at Chihane, looking at the ambitious boy before him as he said, "Using forbidden techniques always carries risks, especially the Eight Gates of Death. Opening all eight gates grants you power at the cost of your life. Are you still sure you want to learn it?"

"I can accept that!"

Chihane answered calmly.

Seeing Chihane's calm expression, Might Duy instantly teared up. He hugged Chihane and sobbed, "Boo-hoo! This is wonderful, just wonderful!"

Chihane's face darkened with exasperation. He was gradually getting used to Might Duy's behavior...

"This is the training method for the Eight Gates of Death."

Might Duy sat there and carefully explained it to Chihane:

"To use this forbidden technique, you need a strong body. I noticed earlier that yours is frighteningly strong. You can already start learning the basics and try opening the first gate."

"But the stronger your body, the easier it is to open the gates, and the more powerful you'll become after opening them. If your body doesn't meet the requirements and you force the next gate open, though, the side effects will be severe. You might even destroy yourself. Understand?"

Chihane understood most of what Might Duy explained, but he still listened quietly.

As Might Duy continued, however, Chihane grew increasingly excited and occasionally asked questions.

Might Duy was surprised, too. Most of Chihane's questions concerned things he had never considered. After all, ever since obtaining the Eight Gates of Death, he had followed the training instructions step by step, never considering why he had to train that way.

Still, he drew on his own experience to tell Chihane everything he knew, and openly admitted it whenever he didn't know an answer.

The more Chihane learned from Duy, the more ideas sprang up in his mind.

After all, the ninja of this world were used to training according to methods developed by their predecessors, while Chihane was a soul from another world.

Ninjutsu had been developed by people, too. Since he was already standing on the shoulders of those who came before him, why couldn't he improve on their work?

Since the Eight Gates of Death was a forbidden technique that relied on physical strength, could Chihane take that to mean that using it would damage a body that only just met the training requirements, but that the damage would be reduced if the body far exceeded those requirements?

And with his One Piece physique, any injury could heal as long as he had meat to eat. There was nothing eating meat couldn't solve. If eating meat couldn't solve it, a good night's sleep would.

Thinking of the tremendous power unleashed by opening all eight gates in the original story, he wondered whether a body far stronger than the required standard, combined with Haki, would let him open all eight gates, suffer serious injuries, eat meat, and sleep. The next day, he could open all eight gates again, eat meat, and sleep. On the third day, fully recovered, he could keep opening them, eating meat, and sleeping.

As Chihane thought about it, a goofy grin gradually spread across his face.

Watching Chihane grin foolishly, Might Duy assumed he was overjoyed at learning the Eight Gates of Death. At the thought that he, too, had finally met someone who loved Taijutsu, he couldn't help crying again.

Might Guy watched the two of them face each other, one crying and the other laughing. With no idea what either of them was thinking, he could only shout, "Ah! This is youth!"

Night

The Hatake Clan residence

After obtaining the Eight Gates training method from Might Duy, Chihane went straight home and completed his usual sword training.

Lying quietly in bed amid the chaos of the Shinobi World, he finally began to feel that he possessed strength of his own-the means to survive in this world.

He quietly considered how the Eight Gates of Death removed the body's limits, breaking through its original boundaries.

Starting with the two gates in the head were the Gate of Opening, the Gate of Healing, the Gate of Life, the Gate of Pain, and the Gate of Limit,

then the Gate of View, the Gate of Wonder, and the Gate of Death. There were eight gates in total, extending downward through the chest and abdomen before finally returning to the heart. Breaking through the final gate in the heart, the Gate of Death, completed the Eight Gates of Death, also known as the Eight Gates Released Formation.

"The heart holds the final gate, the Gate of Death. Starting with the Gate of Opening, you force your way through the veins one after another. By the end, if you blow your heart apart, of course you'll die. How could anyone live without a heart?"

Chihane muttered to himself as he thought.

"The heart is so fragile that an eruption of power means certain death. But if I could use Armament Haki to strengthen and protect my heart, wouldn't I be able to open the Gate of Death as often as I wanted?"

Chihane already had an idea, but Armament Haki was his secret. He couldn't let anyone know about it until he was strong enough. Besides, he didn't know whether people in this world could learn Haki.

As he pondered these things, Chihane gradually fell asleep.

One month later

The Ninja Academy

"Chihane, lately you disappear every day as soon as school's over. I can't even find you in the woods behind the Back Mountain. Where have you been going?"

Kurenai Yuhi blocked Chihane's path, her wide eyes glaring at him and her hands planted on her hips as she demanded an answer.

How could Chihane not know how Kurenai felt? But they were still children, for one thing. Besides, he didn't even know how he would survive the approaching war in the Shinobi World. How could he dare think about anything more?

Still, Chihane had long since developed his own strategy for dealing with Kurenai.

Without any hurry, Chihane took a milk candy from his pocket and handed it to her.

"Come on, Kurenai. Let's go to the back mountain so I can show you the results of my secret training. Even Kakashi doesn't know about this!"

With that, he strode toward the back mountain.

"I knew you'd pull this again. You're still treating me like a little kid."

Kurenai looked at the milk candy in her hand and muttered under her breath.

Still, she clutched the candy tightly in her palm and followed him.

The back mountain

Beside the stream

"Kurenai, let me show you the results of my training."

Chihane drew the three wooden swords he carried, clamped one between his teeth, and held one in each hand as he spoke to Kurenai Yuhi.

"Mm!"

Seeing Chihane speak normally even with a wooden sword between his teeth, Kurenai knew he must have put a great deal of effort into this. Blushing, she nodded.

"Three-Sword Style: Tiger Hunt!" With a roar, Chihane charged at a tree so thick it would take three people to encircle it. He swept past it the instant they met, then turned around and walked toward Kurenai Yuhi without even looking at the tree.

As he walked, bark kept falling from the tree behind him. By the time Chihane reached Kurenai and put away his wooden swords, marks resembling tiger stripes had appeared on the trunk.

Looking at Chihane before her and the beautiful pattern on the tree behind him, Kurenai Yuhi couldn't imagine how long he had trained or how much hardship he had endured.

In the woods

Beside the stream

Chihane and Kurenai Yuhi were building a campfire and grilling fish beside the stream. Chihane's superb fish-grilling skills were now on full display, honed by training on the back mountain every day and grilling fish whenever he got hungry.

"How's my cooking?" Chihane asked with a smile as he watched Kurenai take small bites of her fish.