"Musashi, are you ready?"
"Ready."
Konoha Training Grounds.
Under Might Guy's supervision, Musashi nodded.
Guy said solemnly:
"Then let's begin, Musashi. If you get hurt, I'm here."
"I can get you to the Konoha Hospital in record time."
Musashi didn't say anything more. He closed his eyes, silently sensing the chakra within him and the location of the limiters—the Eight Gates.
Under Guy's guidance, he had simulated this many times. He navigated the familiar path to the first limiter. His chakra surged forward, swift and controlled.
"First Gate: Gate of Opening... OPEN!"
Breaking through the first barrier came with a slight stinging pain. But the moment the gate was forced open, Musashi felt the change instantly.
A shackle on his body had been shattered.
A sense of heightened control over his own body flooded his mind.
The Gate of Opening, the first of the Eight Gates, removes the brain's limiters, allowing the user to access 100% of their physical capabilities.
Simply put, you get admin privileges over your own body, but it's also much easier to crash the system.
Guy's voice rang in his ears. "Musashi, carefully sense your current power."
"The Eight Gates is classified as a Forbidden Jutsu in Konoha not just because it's difficult to master, but because the user is prone to severe injury or death."
"To truly master the Eight Gates, you need immense 'Guts.' You must temper your spirit and forge your body day after day, achieving a level of control far beyond anyone else."
"Now, go test your strength."
Musashi opened his eyes. Under Guy's watchful gaze, he walked slowly toward a tree as thick as a barrel.
He raised his fist and threw a tentative punch!
BANG!! The tree shook violently.
His body could take it. He could use more force.
BANG!!
BANG!!!
CRACK!
The trunk shattered, and the crown of the tree crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Looking at his fist, Musashi smiled with satisfaction.
The difficulty of the Eight Gates wasn't just in opening the gates.
In fact, if they knew the trick, a Jonin or even a Chunin could probably force them open.
The problem was that without the proper foundation, the power would be weak, they'd get severely injured, and oh yeah—they'd die very quickly. Just a few minor drawbacks.
The true source of the Eight Gates' power lies in the user's physical body.
If the user is strong, the Eight Gates are strong.
If the user is weak, they can open six gates and still just be a glorified cheerleader on the sidelines!
Therefore, grueling, painful physical training is the first hurdle to unlocking the true power of the Eight Gates.
The second hurdle is body control.
From the third gate (Gate of Life) to the seventh (Gate of Wonder), the technique constantly boosts the user's physical power. The most dangerous gates are actually the first two and the eighth. The eighth goes without saying—open it, and you die.
The first gate removes the brain's limiters; the second gate (Gate of Healing) removes physical fatigue limiters. Without absolute control over the body, you'd snap your own limbs just by attacking.
Take Might Guy for example. From the seventh gate onward, his moves like Daytime Tiger utilize air pressure for attacks. Partly because if he made direct physical contact in that state, his body might disintegrate.
After the Eighth Gate, physical attacks become one-hit wonders—a fleeting moment of glory before the end.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Carefully sensing the increase in power and his body's tolerance, Musashi got accustomed to the feeling and stopped.
"Big Brother Guy, I'm going further."
"Do it! Musashi."
"...Second Gate: Gate of Healing, OPEN!"
"Third Gate: Gate of Life, OPEN!"
Blood pumped furiously, and the energy stored within his flesh began to surge through his body. Musashi's skin began to turn red.
"Excellent work! Musashi. Now, slowly feel this power until you can control it!"
"Don't worry, I'll carry you home later."
Energy was rampaging through his body. Musashi, focusing entirely on control, didn't hear Guy's words.
A sense of power he had never felt before filled his heart. In this moment, if the Nine-Tails was in front of him, he'd want to kick it in the face.
Steady. Steady!
The chakra flow is too fast. This won't work.
It's hard to accurately gauge stamina consumption. I can't be reckless.
Musashi began to try and control this powerful body bit by bit.
A punch, a palm strike, a whip kick, a jump.
He felt he could try opening the next gate, but there was no need.
Feeling he had reached his limit for now, he tried to retract the energy.
To close the floodgates within his body.
But it wasn't easy.
Guy said, "You feel it, right, Musashi?"
"Opening the Eight Gates isn't easy, and closing them isn't easy either. Turning it off at will is no small feat."
"If you can't close them voluntarily, you have to wait until the explosive energy is vented completely. You'll enter a period of extreme fatigue."
Musashi gritted his teeth. "I will try my best, Big Brother Guy!"
Guy said, "Good!"
"Starting from the Third Gate, each subsequent gate becomes harder to close. No one who has opened the Eighth Gate has ever closed it; they all burned their life force until death."
"How well you can control this technique, Musashi, depends on how far you train in the days to come. Go for it, young man!"
Musashi used every ounce of his will to close the gate, but it wouldn't budge.
Only when the energy fluctuations in his body began to weaken did he let out a roar and finally force the Gate of Life shut.
Closing the first two gates was much easier.
Huff... huff...
Musashi collapsed on the ground, gasping for air.
"Musashi, very good! You were faster than I expected! Looks like you can walk home yourself today."
"Big Brother Guy, with my father and you as my goals, I won't admit defeat. Next time, I'll be faster and stronger!"
"Fantastic! Musashi! This is the power of Youth!"
That Night.
Musashi and Daiki went out together.
Lying in the hot spring, enjoying a back massage from the masseuse, Musashi narrowed his eyes in comfort.
"Well? Not bad, right?"
"Heh. If you hadn't insisted, I wouldn't have come."
"Tch!~" Daiki ignored Musashi's tough act and closed his eyes to enjoy the bath.
Musashi began to reflect on the day's gains.
Successfully opening the Third Gate was a big step forward on the path of Taijutsu.
If he kept up this training regimen, catching up to Might Guy's strength seemed achievable.
However, the difficulty of controlling the Eight Gates worried him.
The early gates were manageable, but the deeper he went, the greater the side effects.
After using it, he'd be as drained as Kakashi after using his Sharingan—out of commission for a long time.
He wasn't satisfied with the status quo.
And he certainly didn't want to die of exhaustion one day just because he couldn't turn off the faucet after opening the Formation of Eight Gates.
How could he make closing the gates easier and more stable?
The basic method was massive amounts of practice, increasing body control to terrifying levels to manually shut the internal valves.
That method was too hard. Not only had no one ever truly mastered it (for the final gate), but theoretically, it wasn't ideal.
It was a conflict of interest: like trying to hit yourself as hard as you can while trying not to hurt yourself.
On one hand, you ignite the body's potential, letting the fire roar. On the other hand, you tell the body to chill out and stop.
What is this, an edging challenge?!
Might Guy's goal for control was simply to be able to close the gates up to the Seventh.
As for the Eighth Gate? Even he just let it ride until the wheels fell off.
Since the path of pure physical control was a dead end, he could try a different approach. Musashi already had an idea.
The Eight Gates works by unlocking the body's limiters and burning life force for immense power.
To save his life, he needed to:
1. Cool down the burning life force and extinguish it.
2. Use external force to forcibly close the unlocked shackles.
He hadn't figured out the first one, but the second one held some promise.
He was different from Might Guy.
Historically, practitioners of the Eight Gates were people with poor or zero Ninjutsu talent.
Might Dai, Might Guy, and later Rock Lee all fit this profile.
They focused on Taijutsu because they had no other choice.
After all, a ninja with Ninjutsu talent wouldn't bet their future on a Forbidden Jutsu that took years of grueling training and was likely to kill them.
But Musashi was different.
Although compared to a genius like Itachi, his talent was trash...
Here? In the niche club of Eight Gates users?
He, Musashi Ryomiya, had the strongest Ninjutsu talent in history!
Just because Guy and Lee couldn't do it didn't mean he couldn't.
In the ninja world, when it came to powerful control techniques, Fuinjutsu (Sealing Jutsu) was king. In the ninja system, it was a high-difficulty discipline independent of the five elemental natures, touching on the realm of Yin-Yang Release.
Four Symbols Seal, Five Elements Seal, Eight Trigrams Seal, Adamantine Sealing Chains.
At high levels, these could seal Tailed Beasts. They should be able to control his own chakra.
His Ninjutsu talent was different from Guy and Lee's; he could totally give this a shot.
If he succeeded, he would take a step in Eight Gates training that no predecessor ever had.
As a former researcher in his past life, the instinct to explore and experiment was in his blood.
If he could truly combine the Eight Gates with Sealing Jutsu, he would be pioneering a new field in Ninjutsu.
Just thinking about it was exciting.
He had the idea; now he needed the execution.
He didn't know anyone around him who knew Sealing Jutsu or Yin-Yang Release.
Who in Konoha knew Sealing Jutsu?
Danzo, the Third Hokage, the Sannin, and a few elite Jonin.
None of them were good sources.
Unless... he exchanged his merit points for it from the Hokage.
Now that Minato Namikaze was in power, it was a good opportunity.
Besides, the birth of Sasuke made his sense of urgency grow stronger. The Nine-Tails Attack and Naruto's birth weren't far off.
He had to increase his toolkit and strength as much as possible.
If he wasn't strong enough, a random boulder sent flying by the Nine-Tails could end his life.
He had to find a way to learn Yin-Yang Release content before the Nine-Tails Attack—and before Minato kicked the bucket!
If he waited until the Third Hokage retook the throne, it would be much more troublesome.
Thinking of this, a plan began to form in Musashi's mind.