Konoha: I Have a Gravity Training Room

Still, he had made Tenten and Shino worry. That last stunt really shouldn't have been attempted. It had hurt like hell.

After Tenten recovered, she planted her hands on her hips and demanded, "Explain yourself. If you don't make this clear, then from now on, from now on, I'll never speak to you again!"

She looked like she was about to cry again, so Xia Mu hurriedly got up and pulled her into his arms to soothe her.

Shino added, "Xia Mu, you really went too far this time. I don't know exactly how you conduct your research, but Tenten and I were truly worried."

Hearing that, Xia Mu sighed.

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly lowered his voice. "Shino, check whether anyone is eavesdropping nearby."

Shino understood that Xia Mu was finally going to explain. He sent out his insects to monitor the surroundings, and only after confirming that no one was there did he nod. Then he pricked up his ears and waited for Xia Mu to speak.

Tenten also raised her head and stared straight into Xia Mu's eyes, refusing to let him lie.

Xia Mu changed his explanation. "Actually, on the night of the first day of every month, I enter a place that's sort of like a dream. I can't be harmed there, and I have unlimited stamina and Chakra. It's especially suitable for researching ninjutsu, secret techniques, and even forbidden techniques. Everything new I've created before was researched there."

Although Tenten and Shino found it absurd, this seemed to be the only possible explanation.

And judging from Xia Mu's eyes, he did not seem to be lying.

"What about this time?" Tenten stared into Xia Mu's eyes, unwilling to miss even the slightest change.

"This time, I was training the Eight Gates."

Xia Mu was somewhat frustrated as well. "That place may make me immune to injury, but pain still exists. I tried opening the Eight Gates to the Seventh Gate and even used Might Guy's ultimate move, Daytime Tiger. Its power was incredibly strong, but the pain in my body was real. It hurt so badly that I passed out. I made you worry. I'm really sorry. Honestly, I was scared too."

So that was what had happened!

Tenten believed him, because she had privately asked Might Guy about the Eight Gates before.

Opening the first three gates would not cause any harm at most, it would only bring fatigue. That was why Xia Mu only allowed her to open the first three gates.

But opening the final four gates would damage the body. One needed sufficient physical strength and an unyielding will to use them. Otherwise, not only would the body fail to withstand it, but the mind would also be unable to endure the terrifying pain.

Urgency

Xia Mu had dared to act recklessly because he would not be harmed in that special place, but he had overestimated his willpower—or underestimated the pain of opening the Seventh Gate. Either way, the pain had knocked him unconscious. It was clear that the price of obtaining great power was truly immense.

Given Xia Mu's strength, how much pain would it take to make him pass out from it? It was truly hard to imagine.

Fortunately, Xia Mu had not recklessly opened the Eighth Gate. Otherwise, the pain might have killed him.

Tenten finally sighed in relief, then suddenly grabbed Xia Mu's ear and twisted it, scolding him indignantly. "That's for acting recklessly! That's for acting recklessly! Do you want me to become a widow before I'm even married? Will you dare do it again?"

"I won't, I won't! Wife, go easy on me!" Xia Mu pleaded exaggeratedly.

"Pah! Who's your wife?"

Tenten spat at him with a flushed face. Seeing him put on such an act improved her mood considerably. Earlier, he had truly scared her half to death.

Shino had been force-fed plenty of affection, but he was used to it by now.

Still, he asked, "Xia Mu, is the Eight Gates really that strong?"

Xia Mu immediately turned serious. "Very strong! When I opened the Seventh Gate earlier, I felt that defeating the Hokage wouldn't even be difficult. But with my current body, opening the Sixth Gate is already my limit. I'll need to train even harder. I look forward to the day when I can open the Seventh Gate and kick the Sage of Six Paths into retirement!"

Kick the Sage of Six Paths into retirement?

What lofty ambitions you had!

But Shino did not doubt him, because his friend was truly mysterious.

He could enter a special dream on the first day of every month and train madly with almost no risk. How could he possibly not become strong?

Shino immediately felt a sense of urgency. His friend would definitely become exceptionally powerful in the future, and he could not afford to fall behind. Otherwise, how could his friend trust him with his back?

At that moment, Shino's expression shifted. "Someone's coming."

Xia Mu and Tenten immediately stopped fooling around. Before long, someone knocked and entered. To their surprise, it was Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Sakura, Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba Inuzuka. Even Sasuke was standing outside in the hallway.

All their friends had come!

Ino smiled. "We could hear someone begging his wife for mercy from outside the hospital. Who was that? So thick-skinned, already calling someone his wife!"

Xia Mu and Tenten could not help blushing. They could fool around however they wanted between themselves, and it was no big deal if Shino heard them, but being overheard by everyone else was rather embarrassing.

"Ah! Tenten's blushing!" Ino and Sakura laughed so hard they could barely close their mouths.

"Not just Tenten. Even Xia Mu, that thick-skinned guy, is blushing."

Shikamaru and the others set down their fruit baskets. They only relaxed after seeing that Xia Mu was fine, but they still asked, "What happened, Xia Mu? We heard you passed out from pain, but you don't look injured."

Xia Mu explained, "I was practicing a certain secret technique at home last night. It hurt so much that I passed out."

Everyone was stunned when they heard that. They immediately realized how powerful that secret technique must be. If it could make Xia Mu pass out from pain without injuring him, it was definitely extraordinary.

They had not expected Xia Mu to work so hard!

It looked like graduation was approaching, so Xia Mu must have gotten anxious too!

For a while, everyone felt a sense of urgency. Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba Inuzuka, and the other clan heirs began wondering whether they should start learning their clans' secret techniques as well. Ino and Hinata said that they had already begun learning them; they simply did not show it normally.

Naruto could only feel envy.

He envied Xia Mu for having secret techniques to train in, and he also envied him for having a girlfriend.

Damn it, they were obviously the same age, so how had Xia Mu managed to win over such a cute girl as Tenten? He was even calling her his wife already.

There was simply no comparison between people!

Sasuke's eyes flashed, and the urgency in his heart grew even stronger.

He had only learned Tree Climbing and Water Walking in the past few days. He had already fallen so far behind Xia Mu that he did not even know by how much. Now Xia Mu had begun training secret techniques, and from the sound of it, they were incredibly powerful. Wouldn't that mean he would be left far behind, never able to defeat Xia Mu again?

It was not that he was obsessed with defeating Xia Mu. He simply felt that if he could not even defeat someone his own age, how could he avenge himself against his older brother?

"As long as you're fine."

Sasuke left those words behind and turned to leave. He had no more time to waste.

The others did not disturb him for long either. After checking on him, they all said their goodbyes and left. Even Shino departed, leaving the space to the couple.

But Xia Mu had no intention of staying in the hospital. He called over a doctor for an examination, and after confirming that he was fine, he went home with Tenten. They happened to run into the shop owner, who was carrying a lunchbox and preparing to leave.

The shop owner was stunned to see Xia Mu was fine and instinctively hid the lunchbox. "Didn't they say you fainted? Why are you already out of the hospital?"

Xia Mu smiled. "Sorry for making you worry, Father-in-law. It was just a side effect from training a secret technique. The doctor said I'm fine and suggested I go home and get some rest. Were you going to visit me? Let me see what tasty food is in that lunchbox!"

As he spoke, he snatched the lunchbox away without giving the shop owner any chance to react.

The shop owner secretly sighed in relief, but his face turned annoyed. "I was planning to feed that to the cat!"

Xia Mu had already opened the lunchbox and started eating. "Yes, yes, I'm the cat. Your cooking is pretty good, Father-in-law!"

The shop owner choked on his words and turned away to ignore him, but there was a smile at the corner of his lips. Tenten saw it all, and her eyes were smiling too, though she was also somewhat impatient.

I really, really want to grow up quickly and get married...

Over the next few days, Xia Mu did not dare mess around. He obediently rested.

The pain of opening the Gate of Wonder still haunted him. He needed several days to recover from it and refine his training plan.

By now, he had raised the Gravity Training Room to eight times gravity and planned to increase it to ten times later.

Do not think ten times gravity was insignificant. Those claims online that ten times gravity simply meant carrying ten times one's body weight were completely wrong. Gravity and added weight were entirely different things.

Added weight merely meant supporting an object of a certain weight, while gravity acted on the entire body.

The blood, bones, internal organs, and even the brain all had to endure that force. It was not something added weight could compare to.

When people rode elevators or roller coasters, the brief sensation of increased gravity could make them dizzy. The additional gravity was minuscule, yet the human body still could not bear it.

By a simple estimate, an ordinary person could generally only withstand two or three times gravity. At five times gravity, they would pass out immediately.

Astronauts had greater tolerance and could briefly withstand ten times gravity, likely the peak overload during a rocket launch, but even they could only endure it for a short time.

In Dragon Ball, Son Goku often trained under gravity as well.

After dying for the first time, he went to King Kai's Planet. Just ten times gravity made training difficult for him. At that point, he already had the strength to destroy Earth at any moment, yet he still needed quite some time to adapt to ten times gravity. That showed how formidable ten times gravity truly was. As for one hundred times gravity, that had been Son Goku's limit when he traveled to Namek by spaceship. After completing that training, he beat the Ginyu Force senseless. Their captain had already approached light speed at the time, yet he still could not defeat Son Goku.

The topic had drifted far afield, but the main point remained unchanged.

Gravity training was highly effective, but one had to work within one's limits.

Leaving the Village

Xia Mu dared to set the gravity to ten times because he had some confidence, but adapting to it would take a long time. Even after adapting, he would still be far inferior to Son Goku, because he could not destroy planets.

That was simply because this world's power level was too low. Xia Mu could not be blamed for that.

Besides, Xia Mu did not dare recklessly open the Seventh Gate anytime soon.

"It's fine if I don't open the Seventh Gate. I'll first use the Sixth Gate's Morning Peacock as a reference to develop some other techniques and get used to the rhythm of fighting for extended periods with the Sixth Gate open."

Morning Peacock was very powerful, but it would not necessarily be suitable for every situation. It was necessary to develop other techniques. Even if he failed to develop anything, he could treat it as adaptation training. No matter how he looked at it, he would not lose out.

Furthermore, Akatsuki and Madara Uchiha were very powerful and could not be defeated easily, so he needed to prepare for prolonged battles. The Eight Gates were only a brief burst of power. Once he could no longer maintain them, he would fall into a disadvantageous position. It would be best to gradually adapt to combat in the Eight Gates state and strive to last longer.

After making his plan, Xia Mu lay down leisurely.

Over the years, he had always been thinking about becoming stronger. He had never truly relaxed.

Well, that was not entirely true. He felt relaxed when he was with Tenten too. Compared with the loneliness and wild thoughts he had when he was alone, having someone by his side really did make him happier.

Xia Mu was very glad that he had won Tenten over. She had given him a home in this world.

Tenten truly was a wonderful girl. Her cuteness and beauty were secondary; she was gentle and considerate, and she would occasionally tease him and make him laugh. He never felt anything unpleasant when he was with her.

Xia Mu truly liked her and had made up his mind to protect her.

"Might Guy's Team has been formed for a month. It should be about time for them to take missions outside the village, right? I should prepare more things for our Doraemon Tenten."

With that thought, Xia Mu drifted off to sleep.

But early the next morning, someone unexpectedly knocked on the door, making too much noise for Xia Mu to continue sleeping. It was definitely not Tenten, because she had a key. It would not be Shino either, because Shino would send insects inside first.

"Who is it this early in the morning?"

Xia Mu opened the door with his hair sticking up like a bird's nest and saw a blond-haired boy standing there eagerly.

For a moment, he was completely speechless. "Naruto, what do you want this early in the morning? I was just dreaming about marrying Tenten and having children, and you ruined it!"

But Naruto asked anxiously, "Xia Mu, Xia Mu, I've gone a month without playing cards. Shouldn't you give me the Third Hokage's character card now?"

So that was what this was about. Xia Mu had completely forgotten about it if Naruto had not mentioned it.

But that was still no reason for this blond brat to knock on his door so early in the morning!

With a dark expression, Xia Mu went back inside, grabbed a Hokage Card, and tossed it to Naruto. He waved him off. "Fine, fine, the Hokage Card is yours. I still need to catch up on sleep, so go play by yourself!"

Naruto left happily, but Xia Mu had lost all desire to sleep.

He simply gave up on it and started preparing things needed for camping outdoors, such as flashlights, flint, raincoats, jerky, chili sauce, and everything else he could think of.

When Tenten arrived, she saw Xia Mu sorting through all those miscellaneous things and was immediately puzzled. "Xia Mu, what are you doing?"

Xia Mu quickly pulled her over and pointed at the pile. "Your team has been formed for a month now, right? I was thinking that you should be taking missions outside the village soon, so I wanted to prepare more things you might need for camping in the wild. Take a look and see what you need—or just take everything. Your scroll can hold it all anyway."

"Now that you mention it, it does seem like it's almost time for us to leave the village."

Tenten did not refuse. She took out a scroll and began storing the items. "Then I'll take it all. We don't know what situations we might run into, and we can't be sure which things will be useful."

After putting everything away, the two instinctively looked at each other, then embraced.

Mm, today's kiss tasted like meat buns.

Afterward, they separated with slightly swollen lips. Xia Mu went to school, while Tenten headed to the Hokage Building.

But to Tenten's surprise, they really did receive a C-rank mission to leave the village and suppress bandits that day. She could not help marveling at her boyfriend's foresight.

Although they were given half an hour after accepting the mission to go home and prepare, preparing beforehand was better than scrambling at the last minute.

Tenten went home as well, prepared a few more things, informed her father, and asked him to remember to tell Xia Mu. Then she hurried toward the village gate.

As soon as Xia Mu entered the classroom, he saw Naruto sitting at his desk with a dejected expression.

"What happened to him?" Xia Mu suppressed a smile. He had actually already guessed.

"Don't you know?"

Shino's tone remained unchanged. "Naruto came early this morning and showed off his Hokage Card. He did not expect the other students to take out Hokage Cards too, along with other new character cards. That was when he learned that the Ninja Tool Shop had updated its character cards yesterday. Everyone had already lined up to buy them, so his showing off amounted to nothing."

Even Shino almost could not help laughing when he mentioned it.