{Just to let you know there would be info dumps in the chapter}
Two months had passed since Ren's encounter with Obito and his receipt of the Eight Gates and Rasengan techniques. When he went back home after learning the Rasengan, the system awarded him for learning his first A-Rank jutsu with 5 advanced-level mastery points. Including the previous ones he had, he now had 10 advanced mastery points in total, which meant he could directly push one of his masteries in the advanced level by 20%.
During this time, he dedicated himself to improving the Eight Inner Gates, focusing on employing seals to mitigate their drawbacks. He and his clones worked tirelessly, spending the entire two months refining the seal. When they finally succeeded, the process alone boosted his Fuinjutsu mastery by 5%, bringing it to 29%.
The seal he developed needed to be drawn on his forehead, as the first limiter was located in the brain. Ren sat in the basement, a single shadow clone positioned in front of him. Today was the day he would finally engrave the seal on himself. He had already conducted numerous tests using clones and was confident that the seal was entirely safe.
The clone carefully took out a thin brush, dipped it into chakra ink, and began crafting the intricate pattern on Ren's forehead. Using the entire forehead as his canvas, the clone drew several stable symbols first and then connected them with focus symbols. Although the pattern only used these two symbols, the real challenge had been finding the optimal combination to make the seal work efficiently. After 30 minutes of meticulous work, the clone made the final stroke and dispelled itself.
As soon as the clone vanished, the seal started to contract on its own, shrinking down to form a small waterdrop shape in the center of Ren's forehead. This technique of compressing the seal into a small symbol was something Ren had learned from the Fuinjutsu book. It was an advanced trick that used Fuinjutsu itself to condense vast patterns into a manageable size. Satisfied that the seal was complete, Ren stood up and steadied himself.
The purpose of the seal that Ren had designed was to stabilize the excess waves of chakra that flood through the body after opening the first gate. Even though the eight gates is a Taijutsu technique it is still dependent on chakra for function. It is through the excess chakra that is released the body is able to reach its state where it can maintain 100% muscle strength.
When the additional chakra is stabilized, the seal then focuses on helping him maintain focus. This is necessary because that additional chakra is like a drug to the human body, since the body is not used to having such high amounts of chakra.
The chakra that is released is the latent chakra that the human body has stored inside it but does not use. When the gate is opened, the brain is informed that it can stop suppressing the latent chakra and then release it. When the latent chakra gets released, the body gets induced with a high level of pleasure, due to which it becomes very difficult to maintain focus, which is why, while using the Eight Gates, the user is only able to attack using brute force, and their technique is not very sophisticated.
To use the Eight Gates Technique, Ren needed to locate the limiters and force them open with chakra. He had already identified the all the limiters but had never tried to unlock them. Focusing his chakra through the pathways in his brain, he soon sensed a blockage. Gathering his chakra with the intent to break through in one go, he pushed. The block opened, and an instant wave of clarity washed over him. He felt more alive, his senses heightened, and his strength vastly amplified.
The First Gate unlocked 100% of his muscle strength, significantly boosting both speed and power. Eager to test it out, Ren moved toward the training dummies in the basement. These dummies were specially designed to absorb and disperse damage, making them practically indestructible. Ren's movements felt almost effortless, even faster than when he enhanced himself with Wind Chakra.
He struck one of the dummies with a powerful punch, and it caved in before returning to its original shape. The force behind his strike was impressive, enough to be comparable to the capabilities of most Jonin, highlighting just how significant the strength boost was.
Next, he focused on chakra molding while the gate was still active. Normally, the intense chakra flooding caused by the Eight Gates made molding chakra almost impossible, but Ren discovered that he could still manage it, albeit with reduced control. It wasn't as good as the 25% control he had even before the academy, but it was remarkable considering the usual drawbacks of the technique.
He realized that the Focus Seal played a critical role, helping him maintain clarity and basic control, unlike the original technique where molding chakra was completely impossible.
Despite the reduced chakra control, Ren was satisfied. This was just his first time using the Eight Gates, and with practice, he was confident that he could master it further. He kept the gate open for more tests but noticed that it automatically closed after 15 minutes. Apparently, that was his current limit.
When the gate closed, he felt tired but not excessively drained, and his body showed no signs of injury or pain a clear indicator of the seal's success. It proved that the stable symbols that he had employed in making the seal did their work of stabilizing the flow of excess chakra which would have otherwise caused injuries extremely well.
He sat down to analyze how the experiment went. The chakra that was released from start to finish was never unstable. It always flowed in a stabilized manner. Unlike in the original technique, this was also why he was able to maintain his chakra control to some extent. The second point was that he was able to maintain his clarity while the gate opened; even though it was only the first gate, it proved that his methods of employing Fuinjutsu to improve the eight gates had worked.
He knew that he wasn't the first one who would've thought about employing different methods to make the eight gates safe. Others would have most definitely tried something, but they didn't continue. Ren was sure if someone like Hiruzen devoted his time, he could have definitely improved the technique, but that's just what it is.
Hiruzen does not want to dedicate time to a technique like this because he knows that the benefit of doing so to someone like him would be minimal. Moreover, others didn't have the advantages Ren had with the system and his abuse of the shadow clone. With these two things he could continue living an entirely normal life, but his strength would still increase.
Ren couldn't help but feel proud of his progress. His efforts to improve the Eight Gates technique had paid off remarkably well. Moreover, once the gate closed, the seal on his forehead vanished, leaving no trace behind. This ensured that no one would suspect he had made such an enhancement, keeping his newfound ability a secret unless he used it.
Even though Ren had successfully unlocked the First Gate, he knew there was still room for improvement so he wasn't in a hurry to start working on the Second Gate just yet. To improve it, he would need to rely on his medical knowledge, something that made him sigh as he glanced at one corner of the room, where layers upon layers of books were stacked.
When Ren first checked the scroll he had received, he expected around 10 or 20 books at most. To his shock, he pulled out over 100 books, and there were still more left inside the scroll. To confirm whether this was normal, he checked with Yugao and Hitoshi, who had each received only 10 books. Realizing that he had been given a mountain of medical knowledge to master, Ren could only accept it, knowing that it would ultimately lead him to mastering the Chakra Enhanced Strength technique.
To manage the workload, Ren created three clones with minimal chakra to handle reading the books. Reading so many books have also given him the Mastery of Iryojutsu- 16% (Beginner). However, even with the clones' efforts, he still wasn't finished, and he knew it would take more time. It was likely that when he finished all the books he wold reach the Basic mastery and any further increase would require practical work rather than theoretical work.
He wanted to speed up the process but couldn't create more clones without compromising his other tasks. The rest of his clones were busy, and he didn't want to stop their ongoing training, as he was seeing consistent improvement in his mastery levels with little to no effort beyond chakra consumption.
Ren couldn't help but feel grateful for the system's unique feature that allowed mastery to directly store knowledge into his brain without suffering from the usual headache and migraines caused by using Shadow Clone Jutsu. Without this feature, he knew he would have definitely gone insane trying to handle so much at once.
~~~
Another month passed, and Ren was almost finished reading all the books, though it would still take a few more days to complete the task. One day, as he was about to leave the training ground after practice, an eagle which was the signal for an emergency mission began circling Training Ground 1. Without hesitation, every member of Team 1 moved toward the gates, despite still being fatigued from the day's training.
This swift reaction was something that Utakata had drilled into them from the beginning: the first dispatch squad should always be ready for a mission unless they were in extremely bad shape. Over the past three months, Team 1 had been sent on two emergency missions, both categorized as B-rank.
The fact that there were so few emergency missions demonstrated Konoha's reputation for thoroughly vetting missions beforehand. If too many emergency missions were dispatched, it would reflect poorly on the village's ability to assess risks properly, thereby endangering its shinobi.
Aside from those B-rank missions, Team 1 continued to complete C-rank missions every week but had stopped taking D-rank missions a month after the Obito incident. Now that the team was well-coordinated and familiar with each other, there was no longer any need to perform chore-like D-rank tasks.
As they reached the village gates, Utakata was about to speak with the gate guard when an ANBU operative suddenly appeared in front of him. The ANBU whispered something into Utakata's ear, and his expression turned serious as he nodded in acknowledgment.
Utakata took the mandatory mission form from the gate guard and immediately led his team out of the village. As Team 1 traveled toward the mission location, he began briefing them on the situation.
"Our mission location is near the border of the Land of Fire, connecting with the Land of Grass," Utakata explained. "A shinobi team assigned to a mission in that area has gone missing in action (MIA). Our objective is to investigate their disappearance and, if possible, retrieve them safely."
He paused for a moment, allowing his students to absorb the information before continuing.
"Additionally, an ANBU squad will be joining us en route," he added. "This is because an ANBU team has also gone missing in the same area. Although there is no confirmed connection yet, the village suspects that the two cases may be linked."
Letting that information settle, Utakata gave his final instructions.
"We will travel nonstop to the mission site, only pausing when we meet up with the ANBU squad. Our orders are to cooperate with them, as both of our teams share the same objective."
With that, he took the lead this time taking his team to their destination.
{I hope I did well in explaining how the seal works so tell me what you think.}
{The next mission would start soon. I hope you remember Hiruko and the Chimera's from the Naruto movie Will of fire.}