Might Guy's mission payout finally went through.
Because the assignment was "ongoing," the frugal Sarutobi Hiruzen only cleared a partial payment of eighty thousand ryō as a milestone reward.
Hiruzen also handed him a new directive:
Continue monitoring Konome Taketori and, as her guardian, guide her thinking and conduct at all times to strengthen her commitment to the Will of Fire.
Compensation raised to three hundred thousand.
Guy accepted the task and bounced out of the Hokage's office, literally hopping away. Since Konome had derailed his morning routine, he decided to finish his training on the spot and started frog-jumping from the Hokage Tower steps.
The sight made Hiruzen scratch his face in secondhand embarrassment.
He was no longer sure whether letting Guy "guide" Konome was a good idea or a terrible one.
He could only hope she inherited Guy's Will of Fire and only the Will of Fire.
…
"As long as there are leaves to fall, there will be flames to kindle. The fire's shadow will shine upon the village, and new leaves will sprout again. This is our Will of Fire."
First-year elite class.
Iruka Umino stood at the podium and delivered the creed with a ringing voice.
Every day, first period was civics and history. A lesson on the history of Konohagakure and a dose of ideological education, planting the Will of Fire early.
"Naruto, you don't need notes for this one."
"Oh."
Uzumaki Naruto happily shoved his notebook under the desk. He had promised Konome he would try harder, but these dry lectures still made his skin crawl.
"Konome, when can I get stronger?"
He tilted his head, eyes bright with expectation.
Watching Konome flatten Sasuke yesterday had kept him buzzing half the night. All he could think about was getting strong enough to smack Sasuke down in sparring.
"Right now."
Konome took two blue ankle weights from her bag and handed them over.
She had bought them at Ningu Mantendō yesterday for Naruto. Ten kilograms each, twenty total. Heavy.
For an ordinary person in her previous life, that weight would have wrecked their knees in days. But ninja bodies were different. Chakra buffered bone and muscle even as it powered movement.
For a little monster like Naruto, whose life force brimmed over, she could have gone heavier. Since he was just starting, she opted for caution. They could scale up as he adapted.
"So heavy!"
Naruto's arm dipped hard under the weights. Off guard, he nearly wrenched his wrist.
"From today on, you run with those in your bag. When you get used to it, strap them to your calves. Only take them off to sleep or bathe.
"After that, move them to your arms and practice punching.
"When you really settle in, you can go pound those three bullies into the infirmary."
It was a simple regimen.
Because the Nine Tails' leaking chakra interfered with his ninjutsu, Naruto was a perfect fit for Might-style taijutsu, which happened to play nicely with the Eight Gates' violent chakra.
A style that did not ask the brain to do much suited him perfectly.
It would also test Iruka's theory. With Naruto's life force, just how far could a body be pushed.
"Th… thanks!"
Naruto hesitated for half a second, then stuffed the weights into his bag and hauled it onto his shoulders. The straps bit almost immediately, but he clenched his teeth and bore it.
He trusted Konome would not hurt him.
More than that, he could not stand the thought of disappointing her.
Get strong.
Stronger than everyone.
He would beat the bully trio, shake off the label of monster, beat Sasuke, become Hokage, and then…
He glanced sideways at Konome.
His spirits surged, and strength flooded his limbs.
Konome had no idea what he was imagining.
Naruto's path could unfold step by step. Her own road was still misted ahead.
She closed her eyes.
Her Byakugan slipped inward, mapping every layer.
Skin and subcutaneous fat wrapped the body in a thin sheath. Beneath lay bone membrane dense as the hide of a plated beast. Not human. Her alien steel skeleton held taut, cable-like muscles twisted along it like rebar.
Muscle and bone guarded the delicate organs within.
In the skull and chest, four clear loci remained shut, locking life force inside. A thought, and she could open them, unleashing power with a flicker.
For now she would stop at four gates.
The Eight Gates' strength was not simple. Every threshold asked you to provoke your survival instinct, to break another layer of the brain's control.
Her Byakugan's pupil power still had limits.
"Flesh Sovereignty" let her rule her body, but not absolutely. Even forcing with ocular will, she found it hard to push her body into a true brink state.
Maybe in a real fight to the death, pressure would punch through. Otherwise she needed her Byakugan to grow until it could permeate down to the cellular level.
This much was enough for now.
She had learned the Eight Gates to supplement limited chakra, not to blow all eight and die together with an enemy.
With the Gates covering her shortfall, and a measure of self-preservation secured, her immediate goals were met.
Before her life force ever ran dry, she could push her power forward without worrying about slamming into a chakra ceiling.
Yet the Eight Gates had taught her something else about life energy.
A new idea bloomed.
Chakra came from life force. That was beyond dispute. When the God Tree ripened chakra fruit, it drank the planet's natural energy and devoured human life force.
The Eight Gates were keys that opened human life force.
What if she reversed the process?
What if she devoured someone else's life force and sent it backward through the Eight Gates, infusing it into her cells. Would that not mean an inexhaustible reservoir of life and chakra.
The thought felt strangely familiar.
As soon as "devour life force" crossed her mind, she knew she had seen its shadow somewhere.
Of course.
Hashirama cells.
Like a spark, the realization flashed. Another of this world's great cheat codes.
The effects of Hashirama's cells were legion. Emergency healing. Calming the Sharingan. Restoring Mangekyo sight. Granting Mokuton. Fortifying the body. The First Hokage's cells brimmed with life, all-purpose and terrifying.
They were said to possess a cancerous immortality, devouring normal cells and proliferating without end.
Which matched her reverse Eight Gates concept almost perfectly.
No wonder Senju Hashirama was so absurd.
His Wood Release likely absorbed more than chakra. It drank life.
Hashirama and Uchiha Madara pacified an age of war. How many shinobi's life force did he absorb along the way. Add Asura's Sage Body, and even his cells mutated into something monstrous.
Dead for years, yet those cells still lived.
Grafted into others, they even sprouted Hashirama's face, as if groping toward resurrection.
The more she thought, the more it fit.
Hashirama's life force was abnormal. Naruto had the Uzumaki line's Sage Body and was Asura's reincarnation, yet his cells never did anything as grotesque.
If her guess was right, then by mastering a reverse Eight Gates and devouring external life force, she might cultivate a Sage Body after the fact, no Hashirama transplant required.
Her pulse quickened at the thought of what that would mean.
When she entered the village, she had seen the great forest beyond the gates.
Hashirama had willed all of that into being with one jutsu. She could not even imagine how much chakra it consumed.
Without outside life to feed on, even opening all eight gates might not reach that scale.
If she could complete the reverse Eight Gates, it could become the keystone secret art of her future.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't forget to add this story to your Library, drop a review, and leave a Power Stone if you enjoyed it!
Craving more chapters? Join my Patron to unlock advance releases and dive deeper into the story!
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"