"I would hesitate to call anything crafted by one of the Sannin 'mediocre', save perhaps that… 'literature' Jiraiya has been peddling. However, the seal work in you tattoo, it is…"
"Garbage?" I offer, though Hiruko's unusual eyes glare out at me over the rim of his high collar, pinning me in place.
Even so, I'm mostly just grateful it's just his gaze pressing down on me, and not actual restraints like I've seen attached to many of the beds and surgical gurneys in this wing of the massive palace.
It has been several days since we first arrived at Hiruko's (ridiculously large) base of operations and signs of forceful capture and experimentation could be found lingering all over the massive complex, some more gruesome than others. This clinical feeling room was hardly the worst of it, even with its penetrating scent of antiseptic and embalming fluids somehow both overpowering and simultaneously incapable of masking the sheer quantity of blood that had seeped into the stone itself. The worst one had been the central room that Hiruko was preparing his ultimate ritual in, though of course my little ragtag group was barely afforded a peek at the desecrated sanctum, completely stripped bare save for the torture crosses surrounding its center.
Not all of the crosses had been empty…
Thankfully, after some time spent (tensely) waiting, I was eventually led to this wing of the palace where Hiruko seemed to prefer his less invasive experiments and just told to sit down in what almost looked like a medieval version of a dentist's chair as the chimera-man went over my outstretched arm with a critical eye.
"… not yet at the zenith of its potential." He flatly corrected me and I blinked at his choice of words.
'I guess that would make sense for a guy obsessed with stages of the moon to the point he trekked to the literal tallest point on the fucking continent just to look at it better…'
"What makes you say that?" I ask, genuinely curious.
Of course I knew from my past memories that the elixir that the original Mizuki managed to craft ended up literally burning his body until he resembled fried shrimp, but I sorely lacked the knowledge to understand how it was so damaging, when there are other mutations out there with greater power-ups and less severe drawbacks.
Well, most of those do come with a serious dose of mental instability (looking at you, Juugo), but then the original Mizuki had hardly needed to turn into his fursona for that little drawback to shine through, having managed just fine in that department all on his own.
"Because of the indirect application. This is more a recipe than a technique that alters the very flesh. Even from a glance, I can tell that the resultant concoction will alter your physicality, depending on potency, but it lacks the required components to sink that change into your very being. Something that is merely applied to you, instead of coming from within. Like donning a new set of clothes." Hiruko says dismissively.
'Not sure I count turning into an eight foot tall bipedal tiger as just swapping to a different shirt, but I get the picture.'
"As it stands, enforcing this change on your person will grant you an increase in strength, if only because your current flesh is so pathetically weak. However, as the change comes from a foreign stimulant, your body will be ill-equipped to handle the sudden additional strain and burn itself out. This concoction will kill you. Considering my friend's expertise with seal work, I am inclined to believe that such a rudimentary power-up was intentionally crippled. Something more fit for a mere underling. A disposable one." Hiruko trails off, his scratchy voice carrying the unmistakable edge of steel as he slowly glances my way through half-lidded eyes.
Despite his relaxed stance, I'm suddenly starkly reminded of the iron grip his spider-like fingers have on my arm. I didn't doubt for a moment that, if he wanted to, he could rip it straight out of the socket. I can't help but feel sweat bead on my forehead under the crazed chimera's cool gaze.
'Gotta stop him from poking anymore holes in my story, before he gets annoyed enough to start poking holes in me instead! Go forth, Bullshit no Jutsu!'
"To a man like Orochimaru-sama, one so close to achieving perfect immortality, all of us serve him with our very lives, as we are but mere mortals. I can find no fault with his thinking that I am ultimately disposable, as this is true for us all, for none can hope to stand as close to immortality as he does." I hurry to say, drawing on what I remember from the stitched man in front of me and his obsession with both his own immorality and the Sannin who had come closest to achieving it.
"Hmm…" Hiruko seems to consider my words for a moment, before letting my arm fall to my side.
"Soon, he shall have a challenger to that title. Very soon, indeed." He says arrogantly, and I quickly nod.
"Indeed, Hiruko-sama. Two immortals marching through the passing of the world itself. Both perfect beings. I can only guess, for I have seen the great Snake Sannin only from afar, but I can only imagine that he would be pleased with the thought of a perfect companion to face eternity with." I lay it on thick, but the strange man in front of me gobbles it up, as expected.
Thinking back to the movie, and the shown flashbacks, I had the very strong suspicion that Hiruko had never actually been friends with the Three Sannin. Acquainted enough for Tsunade and Jiraiya to remember him, sure, but at no point do they seem to regard him as a fallen friend, just an enemy that has come to trouble them once again. None of the flashbacks show any true familiarity as well, just a delirious and dying Hiruko imagining the Sannin smiling at him.
Hell, the only time they actually physically share the screen in a flashback, is where they come across his experiments and they look pretty horrified and ready to kill him on the spot.
… to be fair, that was Orochimaru's standard go-to solution pretty much at all time, as three war-torn orphans can attest to.
Something to file away for later use, but for now I'd play on that connection between Hiruko and Orochimaru for as much as it was worth. Hopefully, some of that goodwill would then reflect on me as well.
"So what are the effects of the potion that cause such stress on the body? More importantly, do you know of a way to circumvent these drawbacks? Must I simply condition my body to deal with the increased musculature, or is it more of a chakra thing? Similar to how one conditions their body for use of the Eight Gates?" I hurry to ask, not sure how much time Hiruko is willing to entertain my questions before he gets bored of me.
The man blinks at my waterfall of words, raising a snow white eyebrow.
"You know of the Eight Gates technique? Did Hiruzen not deem them a kinjutsu?"
"Forbidden to train with or train others in, without express permission of the Hokage, yes. However, the existence of the technique is hardly a secret, given the fame of its wielders." I easily explain and Hiruko is silent for a long moment.
"So, you're merely aware of existence, not of it workings then. Or it's cost. Would you like for me to educate you?"
I'm taken aback by the unexpected offer, but before I can say anything, Hiruko's sleeved arm shoots out like a snake, his bandaged hand resting suddenly over my head, just above my left eye, two fingers extended like kunai and my entire body freezes up on the bed.
"The first gate, Kaimon, the Gate of Opening. The first limit your mind imposes on your body. To open it is to unshackle thought from restraint. Located in the left hemisphere of the brain, it removes ones mental inhibitions." He says coldly, a glint of amusement in his pink eyes as his bandaged fingers hover incredibly close right over my forehead.
I lie absolutely still as he slowly moves his hand towards my other temple, now hovering over the right side of my head.
"The second gate, Kyūmon, the Gate of Healing. Located in the right hemisphere, it increases ones physical strength. Not to the extreme of the other gates perhaps, but noticeably nonetheless."
Hiruko reaches further, hand dipping to where the base of my neck rests uncomfortably against the ice cold metal of the gurney, the man clearly enjoying my discomfort as he stays just shy of physical contact.
"The third gate, Seimon, the Gate of Life. When opened, the body burns itself to keep moving. The skin reddens, the veins bulge, pupils contract so tightly they seem to disappear entirely, all to let one fight beyond where they should've rightfully perished." He continues, hand coming away from the base of my neck, instead tracing the outline of my torso as he moves lower.
"Further down along the spine we find the fourth gate, Shōmon, the Gate of Pain, capable of increasing ones speed, though moving like that will tear your muscles with every hastened step." He chuckles.
I try to steady my breathing, but his rhythm controls the room. Every new word comes with a pause, a deliberate silence where I could hear the faint hum of some machine hidden beyond the shadows.
His hand comes up to hover over my torso, just below my solar plexus.
"The fifth gate, Tomon, the Gate of Limit. To release this is to surpass not your own limits, but the limits of nature, of what your body was ever intended to be capable of. A massive increase to strength that makes opening the Second Gate seem like taking a mere soldier pill by comparison. Your muscles become so strong, they crush the bone they are attached to."
His hand lowers until it's hovering above my belly button, two fingers still extended like bandaged spears.
"Within the stomach we find the Gate of View, Keimon. Releasing it will increase all of the wielders abilities, both strength and speed, both mind and body. This is where the body becomes so fast, so alive, that it burns the air itself. Flames born of motion alone. Which is why the body begins to unravel at this state. Most fools who push to this point tend to destroy themselves before they ever manage to land a blow on their opponent."
I swallow hard, my pulse hammering in my ears as Hiruko pauses just a tad longer than before, when he starts dragging his hand even further down my body, his fingers just barely hovering over my now damp shirt. Thankfully, he stops somewhere below my stomach, though it's still uncomfortably close to my personal twin rasengan, ifyouknowwhatimean.
Not that it seems to bother Hirko at all, who is clearly enjoying my squirming on the gurney, pasty bastard.
"Below, the seventh gate, Kyōmon, the Gate of Wonder. The final step before the final breath. You sweat so much, the concentration of it turns it blue, which immediately evaporates, cladding you in an aura of sheer strength, similar to a chakra cloak. You intrude upon a level of power not meant for mortals, and must pay the cost for daring to do so. Your body literally tears itself to shreds, muscle fibres tearing with every single movement."
Hiruko's tone, until now clinical and darkly amused, suddenly becomes a cold whisper, his hand shooting up to abruptly hover above my heart.
"And finally, the eight gate. Shimon, the Gate of Death, located in the heart itself. Unlike the previous gates, this one cannot be opened by sheer willpower and training alone. One must puncture their chest with their fingers and insert chakra directly into the heart."
His hand comes down, slowly, almost gently if not for the dangerous gleam in his strange eyes and even though the touch of his bandaged fingers is feather-light, the sudden contact is enough to make me jerk in place, knuckles white with how tightly I'm clenching my fists, feeling as if an impossible weight is pushing me back into the gurney.
"A declaration, an acceptance of the inevitable end and the cost that one has incurred. Your heart pumps at maximum speed, granting you power a hundred times greater than any Kage. Boiling blood rages throughout your body, forcing itself up through your skin, covering you in a blood rest mist. The sheer friction caused by your heartbeat, as well as the heat coming off the metabolic processes of the body, begin heating it up. With every movement, with every breath, with every heartbeat, you raise the temperature of your body until you're literally cooking yourself in your own blood. The heat keeps rising until the body burns up completely, until nothing but ash remains."
'Huh, that sounds like eerily similar to what ended up happening to the original Mizuki before Tsunade managed to stabilize him.'
For a moment, neither one of us speaks or moves, before Hiruko's eyes slowly glance towards me, trapping me with his gaze, even though the tips of his fingers are still resting idly against the skin above my heart.
"Tell me, Oniyuri Mizuki… do you still wish to unlock the powers, and the dangers, of the Eight Gates?"
"… well, perhaps not all Eight at once." I hazard, and I can see genuine surprise flicker over Hiruko's face.
"Even knowing the dangers, you would challenge the impossible?" he trails off, his voice still as scratchy as before, but now lacking the oppressive danger from before, and I take a deep breath before I plough on.
"Look, I don't have any special powers, no special ancestry or clan or back up or anything. Which is why I am so grateful to Orochimaru-sama, of course, because he gave me a means to surpass the mediocrity I was always cursed with from birth. What use is training my bones until they break, exhaust my chakra until I lose consciousness, if a genius can just awaken some special bloodline and surpass me in power without any effort whatsoever? How is that fair? How is one to persist, to grow, in the face of such inequality? The gods have not made all men equal, but Orochimaru-sama's gift can change that! I must make use of it! If my body is currently incapable of sustaining the gift, then the answer is clear: it must be either trained or altered so that it can take in this new influx of power and stand on equal footing with those that fate has favored from birth!"
Part of it is a careful lie, tailored to the mania I know has possessed Hiruko from the day he met the Sannin, but part of it is truth. This world is bullshit.
Clan backing? Bullshit.
Secret jutsu reserved only for the named characters? Bullshit.
Special bloodlines that are essentially just one big 'fuck you, I win' card? Bullshit.
Getting your ass kicked, only to automatically win when you're defending 'precious people', or bowing your head and remembering a school swing set and suddenly your rasengan does tear a hole through the bad guy, even though it didn't the 99 times before that? Bullshit.
Hashirama cells? Bull. Shit.
Fucking Uchiha eyes? Uber hax bullshit.
What did I have? What did the original Mizuki have? In episode 1, just two big shuriken, whoop di fucking doo. Even in the filler arc centered about him, even with the greatest powerup of all, the Timeskip no Jutsu, Mizuki got his fucking ass kicked by pre-Shippuden Naruto to the point that his comeback didn't even qualify for the canon timeline, being relegated to mere filler instead.
And I'd rather actually follow Orochimaru for real, before I'd let myself become one of the endless fodders this world killed off as a cheap pay off for a mediocre story beat.
'I am the captain of my own plot. I am a master of my own story arcs.' I thought to myself, though I was quickly shaken from my musings by Hiruko's sudden reaction to my words.
The man was… crying?
"Y-you… you understand." He says almost reverently, before he coughs into his oversized sleeve and turns his head from me.
For a moment, we fall silent again, though rather than the cold, clinical danger from before, this time it's filled by awkwardness instead.
"… I will look over your bloodwork. Whipping up the potion itself will hardly be a bother, but it can be further refined to be more compatible with the properties of your body. This shall be further supported with certain medications, which you will take as instructed. As for training your body to deal with the strain, going up to the Second Gate and acclimating to it should go some way into preparing your body at least. Or it might compound the stresses of the transformation instead, I suspect only Orochimaru himself could tell at this point. I cannot tell you how to unlock the first two Gates, however. While I looked into the technique when I was younger, my body…"
Hiruko trails off and I can see him raise a bandaged hand in front of his face, before clenching his fist and bowing his head, his scratchy voice heavy with emotion.
"I quickly was forced to realize that such a way to power was not meant for one such as me. As such, I have no scrolls on how to learn the technique, though I suppose physical and medical conditioning will form the fundamentals. You might also want to spend some effort in familiarizing yourself with your own chakra network, feel out where your body has placed its limitations upon itself."
"T-thank you, Hiruko-sama." I say, taken off guard, and Hiruko glances back at me over his shoulder.
"It is so frustrating isn't? Seeing the weakness of your flesh. Being disgusted with its limitations, with yourself and knowing that you are forever trapped within yourself. I am getting ever closer to shattering those bonds, casting off the bondage of my flesh and ascending towards true immortality, cresting the divide between mortal and god. This formula… it will not raise you to such heights, but it is the first step in casting off the shackles of your humanity. It will be interesting to see how much higher you can rise, Oniyuri Mizuki…"
With that, he turns away from me, steadily stalking into the surrounding shadows, throwing idle parting words over his shoulder.
"There is a man, a medical doctor, whose knowledge of healing the body impressed even my friend Orochimaru, who used much of that knowledge in crafting his own Regenerative Techniques. Last I heard, that man is still a doctor in Konoha, wasting his skills on those underserving of his knowledge. He goes by Shinnō, look to him if you wish to find a way to overcome the cost of the Gates' demands of your flesh. Similarly, look towards the south, for a fellow minion of Orochimaru's, one who I trained personally before gifting him to my old friend, by the name of Amachi. The properties of the formula have all the tells of his earlier work and I know that he intended to perfect the hybrid form under Orochimaru's wing. I know not where his secret base is, only that it lies hidden somewhere in the island chain in the Land of the Sea. Both can help you tackle your own enhancement from different directions. Whether or not they shall, depends only upon yourself. I shall aid you no further in this than I have already done."
And with that he was gone, swallowed by the shadows as I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore, the only sound the silent humming of hidden machines in the surrounding darkness.
'Good to have confirmation on the existence of the weird fish guy down south. Might even use the Hiruko-connection to gain his trust, which explains why Orochimaru never thought highly of him or his experiments. He probably considered it more a weird gift by some stalker and he's not even that wrong. Shinnō though, I hadn't really thought about the Land of Sky ninja. Sure, their flying city would make a dope ass base, but I'm nowhere near powerful enough to make a play there. 'Sides, if my Stone of Gelel plan works out, I won't need to worry about regeneration and recovery, at least not from the damage of the Eight Gates. He'd make a good back-up though, considering he managed a similar level of fortitude just using his own techniques and the Dark Chakra.'
I glance down at my sweat soaked body, lifting my hands up in front of my face.
'From what I can remember, the biggest flaw of Mizuki's tiger form… well, the biggest one was that it ended up killing him, but the second biggest flaw was that for all of its strength increase, his speed tanked to the point that strength wasn't even that effective. To paraphrase the great Goku himself: all the strength in the world won't matter if you can't actually hit your opponent. Which means that I might actually need to invest in the Eight Gates technique, at least up to the Fourth Gate. The Gate of Pain… ouch.'
One the one hand, I wasn't looking forwards to the kind of training regime that Might Guy might consider a light warm-up. On the other hand, the pay off was undeniable. Then again, I seriously doubt just running around Konoha on your hands would lead to awesome, godlike power. There was probably a secret or technique that put you on the path to open the chakra pathways and I couldn't even say "well, Lee did it at 15, how hard can it be?" since even a genius like Kakashi noted that for Lee to even open the first gate at his age was a unique case and clear evidence that the strange boy, for all his work ethic, had an unmatched taijutsu affinity. There was nothing to suggest that I would be picking it up any faster than he had and he had spent training it every waking moment for several years.
Though considering the similarities between different power-up techniques, which all revolved around increasing chakra capacity or bodily functions in some way, I doubted that the Eight Gates were the only way to increase the strength of my body so it could accept the tiger elixir better, something that Hiruko later confirmed when he mentioned the Pressure Points of Harm and Death, two tenketsu that, when unblocked sacrifice pure life force for increased chakra.
Apparently, it was something that he had looked into when he had still been a frail boy back in Konoha as a derivative of the Eight Gates. Though he had abandoned it in favor of the Chimera Technique, it was yet something else that he had shared with Orochimaru before the Snake Sannin's own defection some years later, which explained where Guren had picked up the dangerous technique.
Letting that slip further cemented me as a valued henchmen of Orochimaru's in Hiruko's eyes, considering how obsessed both he and the Snake were with kekkai genkai. Guren's was an undisputed powerhouse and as such one that Orochimaru kept closer to his vest than most underlings.
According to him, the fact that I knew so much about the workings of the Crystal Release could only mean that I had been more trusted by Orochimaru than I had originally thought.
I saw no reason to correct him.
Questioning Tsubaki and the Legendary Stupid Brothers didn't really reveal much I didn't already know and Suien got so annoyed with my question he threw me through a wall, before threatening that the next time, he'd throw me clear off the mountain top. Surprisingly, it was Ichi who turned out to be rather helpful, the snake-themed man probably on more friendly terms with me due to my presumed Orochimaru connection.
Besides, the fact that his master hadn't dissected me and put my various organs in different jam jars filled with embalming fluid probably went a long way in proving my trustworthiness as far as the henchmen were concerned.
"I'm not familiar with the Eight Gates beyond what the legends tell of their users, but my siblings and I hail from the outskirts of the Land of Wind. Supposedly, there was a clan or family there that specialized in taijutsu as well. No idea how their technique actually works though, but there were rumors that it had to do with breathing of all things." The thin man revealed when I stumbled across him in what I hoped was the mess hall (but also might've been an abbatoir).
Ichi was still chuckling as he left the room, muttering to himself.
"Ha! Who in their right minds thinks breathing is a genuine power-up?"
'Well, I know of at least one demon-slaying franchise that would like a word…' I thought to myself, Ichi's words triggering something in my memory (which I had noticed was way better at remembering Naruto stuff than it had to be, probably a side-effect of Frog's hypnosis back in the jail).
I'm pretty sure there was a rival from Suna for both Neji and Lee during one of the filler Chūnin Exams, who replicated Lee's speed and strength with a breathing technique. Well, taking Hiruko's advice about familiarizing myself with my own chakra network to heart, I foresaw quite a lot of meditation in my future, so focusing on my breathing nicely slotted into that bit of training.
It also reminded me that the Sand guy had also been capable of targeting the pressure points even without a Byakugan, even though he used that to inflict more damage, rather than blocking the tenketsu themselves. Something that led me back to Hiruko's part of the palace complex where I humbly begged for a schematic overview of human anatomy. Strangely, Hiruko seemed to take my request as a confirmation that he and I were alike somehow.
Not only did he give me several books on the human body, he actually dragged me into lectures as he synthesized the formula while simultaneously going over my bloodwork and the alterations that he would make to it.
To be honest, just the idea that this madman would be getting his grubby little hands all up in my biochemistry rose the hairs on my neck, but there was no denying Hiruko's expertise in altering the human body.
Admittedly, I had (somewhat arrogantly) believed that, even though I had no background in biology past what I could remember from high school and various YouTube videos, the fact that I came from a more advanced world would mean that I could easily keep up with the scientific and medical knowledge of even the greatest med nins.
I was proven wrong when I lost what Hiruko was even talking about by the time he started going on about 'somatic gene therapy, enacted through genetic chimeric vectors, to be preceded by epigenetic reprogramming and proteome remodeling' to enact the desired changes in my body, which would apparently then be guided through the transformation process by 'inducing controlled apoptosis suppression alongside angiogenesis induction in order to facilitate the myocyte hypertrophy caused by the serum', though of course none of this was viable before I had finished taking my medicine regiment, meant for 'immunoprivilege cloaking'.
Hiruko had paused in his waterfall of words then to glance at me expectantly, several books and scrolls opened haphazardly on the table in front of us, covering almost the entire surface, along with several beakers and tubes filled with iridescent liquids I couldn't even guess the composition of.
And a dead rat. For… some reason, I guess.
Taken off guard by the chimera's sudden pause and piercing eyes, I could only stammer the first thing that popped in my head, the bio-chemical techno-babble still ringing loudly and incomprehensibly in my ears as I looked to the man beside me.
"O-of course! After all… t-the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell?" my voice becoming softer and softer as I spoke, Hiruko tilting his head at me.
There was a long pause and despite my fears I could feel my eyes being dragged towards the dead rat lying belly up on the table, as if it were an omen. Then, to my surprise, Hiruko's bandaged hand came to rest on my shoulder, though weirdly, it didn't even feel that threatening.
"Not… incorrect, though I see there are several gaps in your education that must be rectified. Now then, pay attention, I will say this only once…"
And so I spent the next few days (I think, it was hard to tell with the sun always being hidden behind a permanent cloud cover and us not really being allowed outside the ancient palace) being enrolled against my will in university levels of biochemistry of the Naruto world. Some of the words were… almost recognizable, whereas others didn't seem to make any context even when taking tenketsu and chakra pathways into account.
It had been years since I had done so much note taking in either life, but I made sure to not complain even once, for two reasons. The first being that Hiruko would like kill me on the spot if I did and the second being that sharing knowledge like this was incredibly rare amongst ninja and I recognized the unique opportunity I was presented with.
The hidden third reason was that I was using Hiruko's goodwill and my access to his knowledge and labs to dig up anything and everything that I could find about the chimera technique. Not the whole thing, mind you, but just enough so that I could incorporate another's blood. It would make accessing both the Gelel Ore and the Dragon Vein much, much easier.
Though Hiruko's goodwill only went so far of course and kept his prized technique close to his chest and I wasn't willing to risk a confrontation just yet.
And so I fell into an oddly soothing rhythm of waking up to do my morning calisthenics like I had done in my jail cell, now supplemented with long meditation sessions, during which I spent extra effort in expanding my lung capacity and circulating chakra throughout my network and notes, eventually managing to locate all the eight gates, though I had no clue how to breach them. This usually left me completely exhausted and as hungry as the two Brothers, so I took a quick shower and lunch after, followed by lectures from Hiruko for however long the man felt interested enough to teach me, before seeking out Suien for our daily spar, which was apparently the highlight of his day, the Taki jōnin bored out of his mind whenever he wasn't hounding Ni's steps, since he had no interest in medical ninjutsu and (apparently) the Legendary Stupid Brothers didn't make for good sparring partners.
Apparently he had challenged the twin brothers to a 2v1 match once. The mountain top had shaken that day and Suien had declined sparring against me for several days afterwards, walking with a noticeable limp and smelling faintly of smoke.
He had simply spit on the ground (shaping the spit into a water needle for effect, show-off) and told me I "should see the other guys" when I had asked him about it, which was a bit difficult to do considering I hadn't seen Ichi and San since.
I don't think that Suien killed them, since Hiruko would (probably) destroy us all if he had, but it was pretty telling that I didn't dismiss the possibility completely, making his complaint about the Stupid Brothers playing too rough to be proper sparring partners somewhat ironic.
In my personal opinion, he probably made for a worse sparring partner, since Suien apparently didn't know the concept of 'going easy', often beating me into the ground (or putting me through a wall… again) with an undeniably gleeful bloodlust. It wasn't unusual for me to seek out Tsubaki afterwards for medical attention.
After healing me for the umpteenth time, the normally gentle woman had exploded at me, near tears.
"Why do you keep doing this to yourself Mizuki?! First the medicines and potions that… that man keeps feeding you! Who even knows what it's doing to your body?! And then these endless fights! Why keep challenging Suien when he's so much stronger!?"
I was lying on the bare cot in her sparsely furnished room in what was either the guest or the prisoner wing of the palace. I wasn't entirely sure that Hiruko even knew the difference between the two. Shakily, I raised one finger (the one that wasn't currently bent at an awkward angle), parting my split and bloodied lips and wheezing out a single word.
"Chakra." I said as explanation.
It was something that Hiruko and I had had several discussions about these past few days.
Being made up of both physical and mental energies, merely training your body would result in better physical attributes such as strength and speed, sure, but there were other factors at play in becoming truly powerful in this world. Experience counted for a lot as well. Getting into life or death battles, experiencing combat and experiencing your body pushing towards its limits and failing could lead to an increase in chakra as well. It wasn't exactly the same as a zenkai boost, but it was a possible explanation for why some people grew to become the legends and nightmares of this world.
At least, I really hope so. What frustrated Hiruko and me in equal measure was that this made so-called geniuses even more of an anomaly than they already were. Itachi finished the Academy in literal months to become an ANBU at eleven. While barely out of the Academy, Minato was capable of taking out a full Kumo squad capable of evading the entirety of Konoha's forces and make it look laughably easy.
Still, even if Hiruko's theory turned out to be a bunch of hopeful pseudo-science, there was another reason why I kept volunteering to get my face kicked in day after day, not that I could tell Tsubaki that.
Because, honestly, getting kicked down over and over again, only to keep rising up and ask for more? Is there even a more shonen protagonist way of training?
It even seemed to be paying off, in my opinion. Either Tsubaki was a better med nin than I had originally thought (she was reading some of Hiruko's library at her own pace whenever she wasn't getting extra practice in healing me after Suien was done with me) or Hiruko's medicine was more effective than he had let on, but day after day, no matter how broken I went to bed, the next day I was ready for another bout of sparring, layering fresh cuts on rapidly fading bruises.
With such a high intensity routine, I began to notice subtle changes in the way my fights with the Taki nin would go.
I lasted (ever so slightly) longer these past few days then when I had first challenged him and a big part of that was a development that on the surface sounded incredibly simple: I could see him move now.
Though I took great pains (literally at that) to not let Suien notice that, pretending that he was still easily capable of catching me off guard. While I kept ramping up my speed and combat awareness, Suien still underestimated me just like had done when we first crossed into Taki.
If anything, him kicking me around the training hall all week long ensured that he thought even less of me than before.
By my best guestimate, it was almost two weeks since we had first climbed Mount Shumisen that we were summoned to the same medical wing where Hiruko had 'explained' the Eight Gates to me. To my surprise, all of us were assembled, both my motley crew and Hiruko's henchmen, which led to a bit of tension as Suien alternated between leering at Ni and glaring at Ichi and San, who glared back with equal amounts of poison in their gaze.
Fujin and Raijin were oblivious to the byplay, happily munching away on several large pieces of the weird gargantuan cacti that grew on the upper layers of the mountain. Apparently, Tsubaki spent most of her day babysitting the two giants and had taken to harvesting the cacti for the brothers so they didn't need to keep digging out needles the size of kunai from their tongues and cheeks.
Which apparently led to the two trailing Mizuki's fiancé like two overgrown mastiffs, even going so far as to call her "Little Miss Boss".
The mountain tension between Suien and Hiruko's henchmen was abruptly cut short when the man himself entered the room, carrying a large vial of bright purple liquid in his bandaged hands.
I had only been present during some of the steps of preparing the potion, but I recognized it immediately. Hiruko, seeing my gaze snap to the vial, gave a confirming nod.
"The first part of the elixir." He explained, setting the large vial (an Erlenmeyer I remember thanks to my 'lessons' with the chimera) on a nearby instrument cart.
He reached into one of his oversized sleeves, producing a thick wad of paper with an intricate seal script on the front.
"The second part will complete the full transformation, though as we discussed previously, it would require your body to be conditioned or preferably altered enough to deal with the increase in power. I will leave it to your discretion to find out when you've reached that point." He says gravely, placing the heavy paper stack next to the vial.
"As for the first part, due to the changes the medications have already made to your body, alongside my own superior skills in chemistry, you will find that not only is this intermediate potion of much higher potency than you would've been capable of producing on your own, your body will respond much better to it. Though it will likely fix your body in a permanently altered state until you finish the transformation properly. At that point, in theory, you should be able to switch forms at will. As I advised you before, Amachi in the Land of the Sea should be capable of aiding you in completing that step." Hiruko explains, motioning towards the gurney.
"Take of your shirt please. With the projected growth of your musculature, you're likely to rip it anyways and without it I'll be able to better monitor you." He instructed clinically.
Taking my place with some hesitation as I followed his instruction, I glance to the ominously large vial with some trepidation.
'Well, depending on how altered I become, I can always use the Henge to change my appearance back to normal. If it's good enough for a Sannin, it's good enough for me. Besides, this first part of the potion should only give me a couple of stripes.'
"So, what do I do?" I question as Hiruko hands me the purple potion.
"You drink it of course."
"… that's it?"
"I would suggest making sure to swallow properly. It wouldn't do to come this far and then choke in your first powerup." Hiruko responds idly, and his rough scratchy voice makes it impossible to tell if he's being serious or not.
"Well then… bottoms up." I mutter, before closing my eyes and placing the vial to my lips.
I had expected it to taste foul and hurt worse. I've never hated being right more before in my life. I can only imagine this is what drinking antifreeze would be like and Hiruko's suggestion, light-hearted as it had sounded at first, became a genuine challenge as every single fibre in my body, my soul even, screamed at me to spit it out. Screwing my eyes shut and ignoring the reflexive heaving of my body was genuinely one of the hardest things I had to do in this new life, which is saying something considering that life began with needing to escape a ninja prison on an island in the middle of an active volcano.
I forced myself to keep the vial at my lips, gulping it down and suppressing the urge to cough and sputter and rinse out my mouth down to the back of my throat with water and soap. On and on I chocked the vile concoction down, each draught an almost physical punch that I could feel forcing its way down my oesophagus and slamming into my stomach.
My mouth was on fire, my lungs were burning, my throat felt as if I had swallowed glass and my stomach felt as if it was seconds away of making it all for nothing by ending it back up the wrong way again. At last the vial was empty and thoroughly exhausted now and trembling, I let it fall from my shaking hand as it smashed to pieces against the floor.
I just lied there on the gurney, dry heaving and doubled over, clutching at my stomach, my throat, wiping desperately at my mouth. Sweat pooled on my face as ragged breaths tore out my throat and I could almost swear I saw toxic fumes escape my lips with every laboured breath.
'The aftertaste… is somehow worse… AND WHY DOES IT NOT GO AWAY?! Fuck me, this is like eating a can of Surtromming stuffed with Carolina Reapers…'
I'll be honest, it wasn't just sweat pouring down my face, but a fair amount of tears too.
"W-what… h-happens… n-next…?" I barely managed to force past my clenched teeth, looking up to see Hiruko's pink eyes startlingly close, his gaze eerily intent.
"Now… you change." The hissed whisper echoed throughout the large empty chamber and I didn't realize much else after that.
It seemed almost laughable to complain about drinking the potion now. That had just been utterly vile and mildly painful and only located in my throat and stomach. This?
Everywhere.
My skin right down to the bone and every muscle in between. Every nerve was on fire, it felt like every blood vessel was about to pop. I began to trash on the gurney, in too much pain to even notice how bandages whipped out from Hiruko's sleeves to tie me down and secure my flailing and contracting limbs.
Vaguely I could hear Tsubaki shout in the distance, but there was some sort of scuffle as the Legendary Brothers easily restrained her. Not that I could notice much more, eyes screwed shut and stars exploding in my vision.
For that matter, it felt like the rest of me was exploding as well.
Time loses all meaning in such a state. It could've been minutes, it could've been hours. It certainly felt like an eternity. Only slowly, very, very slowly, did the burning, searing sensation from my muscles and joints fall from unbearable to merely extremely painful. It felt like I had injured literally every single part of my body in a training accident or something. It reminded me of those videos where bodybuilders literally tear off their pecs from their tendons during a overly ambitious bench press, the muscle and meat visibly moving underneath the skin, except everywhere.
Eventually even that faded into a deep-seated burning, exhausted feeling, as if I had done several triathlons back to back to back with a full-grown Akimichi wrapped around each leg and both Legendary Brothers perched on my back.
Blinking the sweat (and yet more tears) from my eyes, I finally managed to look through fluttering eyelids at the group now standing cautiously around my gurney. Glancing down, I could see that the odd chair had been twisted and mangled as if a giant picked it up, crushed it and threw it into an equally giant blender.
"Did… did I do that?" I asked hoarsely, surprised to hear a deeper, gruffer voice coming from Mizuki's mouth, probably at least in part due to having my vocal chords several times over I suspect.
Tsubaki nods, wide-eyed, mouth agape and next to her Suien wordlessly goes through a few handseals before there's a small pulse of chakra and a thin sheet of water appears in mid-air in front of me, allowing me to see my reflection for the first time in a long while.
I had been well on my way in turning Mizuki's body into the prison-jacked version of himself, but this blew that entire process straight out of the water. With a physique like this, I felt I could stand next to the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno and, if not win, at least have a good shot at being ranked in the top 3. Wide shoulders, a deep chest and powerful muscles that smoothly moved with clear hidden power.
'Sleek' was the word that first came to mind when I saw my build, though the other changes became more apparent once my shock wore off a bit.
Mizuki's silver hair had lengthened, to the point where it now fell just past my shoulders in a shaggy style that wouldn't look out of place on an Inuzuka. His face shape had also become somewhat broader and from behind my parted lips I could spot lengthened canines. My gaze moving up, I was surprised to look myself in the eyes and find slitted pupils looking back at me. Glancing briefly away from the mirror, I looked towards the rest of the cavern and to my surprise I could finally see beyond the surrounding darkness held only at bay by the medical lamp next to my ruined gurney. I could even see the far walls of the massive room now!
Glancing back towards the mirror, my eyes trailed over the most obvious changes however.
The stripes.
Three thick black horizontal ones, going down from my delts to over my upper arms, with two smaller ones going horizontally over my forearms. One stripe went over each trap, tapering to a point somewhere on my mid-pec and twisting my torso around a bit, I could see they ended just underneath my rear delts. It also allowed me to see yet another four horizontal stripes going over my spine to the small of my back.
The most striking ones perhaps, even if they weren't the largest ones, were the one on my face. One went down my forehead to the bridge of my nose, its sides ragged, almost furry looking. Ironically, considering the original Mizuki's hatred of him, I now also sported stripes over my cheeks much like a certain famous loudmouthed blonde. I had only the two though, pointed and thick, looking more like his whiskers when he turns up the Kyuubi chakra.
"Congratulations, Boss! It worked, you're all stripey now!"
"Yeah, that's a good thing! … right?"
Ignoring the Legendary Brothers for now, Tsubaki approaches me hesitantly, reaching out to gently run a hand over the stripes on my upper arm. They aren't made out of fur or anything, somewhat to my surprise considering I know what the second tier of this transformation is supposed to look like. They just feels like slightly raised areas of toughened skin, pretty much almost exactly like how a regular tattoo would feel.
'Though I am fairly certain that the original Mizuki hadn't been as altered as me when he took the potion… then again, he's probably a lot worse at esoteric biochemistry and faux-cursed seal implementation that Hiruko…' I think to myself, though I'm shaken from my thoughts at Tsubaki's questioning voice.
"Mizuki? How do you feel?" she asks, clearly worried.
I raise one striped arm in front of my face, spotting the curved nails my fingers are now tipped with, before slowly clenching my hand into a fist, seeing my muscles raise underneath my skin, feeling the sheer strength lying dormant underneath.
My slitted eyes slowly flit over to meet Tsubaki's worried ones and my grin becomes wide enough to show off my gleaming canines.
"Good. I feel… very good."
Which is, of course, when Hiruko's palace was suddenly attacked.
Fun Fact: The etymology for the word Chakra (चक्र) translates as "Wheel", "Circle"; this also pertains as to how chakra is produced within one's body: physical energy and spiritual energy are effectively "spun" into functional chakra. The direction of this spinning (clockwise or counter-clockwise) can be determined by checking how one's hair grows, as it influenced such spinning.