"Ugh, it's that crude brute again. He and that useless fool are a perfect match."
Members of the Hyuga Clan hid the disgust and disdain in their eyes as they watched Might Guy approach.
Though they looked down on him, they did not speak up to bar him from entering the clan compound; doing so would only bring shame upon the Hyuga name.
"Good morning!"
Meeting their gazes head-on, Might Guy flashed a blinding smile, his white teeth gleaming in the morning sun.
He paid no mind to their cold silence, brushing the dust off his clothes as he strode inside.
"Yosh! Arata! Rise and shine!"
Stopping before Hyuga Arata's home, he bellowed with his usual fiery passion, "The horn of morning training has sounded! Youth waits for no one who oversleeps!"
"Come in, Senior Guy."
Hearing the voice from within, Guy grinned and, after announcing his entrance, stepped inside the house.
Without glancing toward the bedroom, he walked straight to another room.
"Arata, I bet you're- "
He slid open the door mid-sentence, only for his words to freeze in his throat.
Not because of the clutter of training equipment filling the room, but because of the figure before the full-length mirror covering the wall.
Bare-chested, Arata hung from a horizontal bar, his legs wrapped with heavy iron weights.
Clack! Clack!
Each time he lowered himself with slow, deliberate control, his movements were flawless, precise to the millimeter. His toes brushed the floor, and then he pulled himself up again.
The orange dawn light filtered through the window, wrapping his lean, sculpted figure in a faint golden glow.
Guy also noticed the shallow pool beneath him, sweat that had dripped for so long it had begun to collect. He must have held that form for hours.
"Arata, you…"
Even the battle-hardened Might Guy was stunned. Watching Arata rise and fall on the bar, he couldn't help blurting out, "You didn't… stay up all night, did you?"
The youth's upper body was tight with strain, veins bulging, muscles wound together like steel cables, trembling under the weight's pull. You could almost hear the muscles groan.
Arata didn't respond. Guy didn't mind; instead, excitement flared in his chest.
With his experience, he could tell: Arata's body was nearing its limit. He had likely opened the First Gate of the Eight Gates, the Gate of Opening.
By removing the brain's limiter, one could draw out 100% of their body's potential, burning energy to enhance power and speed beyond the norm.
Even so, every muscle and tendon in Arata's body had reached the brink. His once-perfect form began to slow, each motion becoming heavier, more taxing.
And the slower the movement, the greater the exhaustion. Every repetition was a battle against the limits of flesh.
But that's youth! And youth must never stand still!
Yet, as the moments dragged on, Arata did not stop. Guy's smile faded, his brow furrowing.
"If he keeps this up, he'll damage his body," he thought grimly.
Even Guy, who lived to surpass himself daily, made sure to soak in medicinal baths to avoid lasting injuries. Arata's intensity right now he was pushing too far.
"Ara- "
Just as Guy opened his mouth to intervene, the scene before him changed.
Whoosh.
Arata exhaled, releasing a thick, white mist. Steam rose from his skin as the sweat on the floor evaporated instantly. His body temperature spiked, driven by a burst of metabolic energy.
Eight Gates: Gate of Rest (Kyūmon).
This gate releases the body from fatigue, overdriving cellular regeneration to restore stamina, counteracting the exhaustion caused by the earlier gate.
At that moment, every cell in Arata's body seemed to breathe. Power flowed through his veins and bones like molten magma, his body radiating heat like a furnace.
His physical limits shattered once more, the threshold of collapse was forced even higher. His movements regained rhythm, each pull-up slicing through the air like crashing waves!
BOOM!
At last, the heavy weights fell to the floor with a thunderous crash, snapping Guy out of his trance.
"Whew!" He sucked in a sharp breath as Arata wiped the sweat from his face with a towel. Then, realizing what he had just witnessed, Guy's face lit up with astonishment and joy.
"Arata! You've opened the Gate of Rest already?!"
Arata lifted his head slightly, and the moment Guy met his gaze, he instinctively stepped back.
Those eyes…
Guy couldn't make out what he saw, only that they made his vision sting. He blinked, and when he looked again, the feeling was gone.
"Senior Guy? What's wrong?"
Arata's gentle smile was unchanged, kind and harmless as ever.
"Ah, nothing! Nothing at all," Guy said, scratching his head in confusion.
But then, tears welled up in his eyes. His voice trembled as he cried, "Arata! Your youth burns so brightly! I-I'm so moved! I must learn from you!"
"…Senior Guy." Arata sighed with a helpless smile. "Please wait a moment. I'll go take a shower first."
"Mm! Mm! Of course!"
Still dabbing at his tears, Guy nodded vigorously. Arata picked up his clothes and walked to the shower.
He stepped inside, undressed, and turned the handle.
The shower hissed to life, cold water flowing over his loosened black hair, cascading down his back along the lines of his shoulder blades, washing over his firm muscles until his entire body was drenched.
The chill didn't bother him; it couldn't even cool his burning skin.
[Bloodline: Ōtsutsuki Clan (5% → 5.5%)]
[Kekkei: Unknown – Stage 1 (10% → 12%)]
Glancing at his inner panel, Arata lowered his head and clenched his fists. His bones cracked audibly, and the air popped under the tension.
Crack! Crack!
He exhaled slowly. His heartbeat and blood flow steadied, overheated muscles easing back to normal.
"I didn't expect the Eight Gates to stimulate the potential of my bloodline, to refine it."
Feeling the new power coursing through him, Arata smirked. "It's like breaking the shackles on my body. This feeling… it's intoxicating."
He had never slacked in his taijutsu training. Though slim, he was never frail, his build compact and toned. But now, the Ōtsutsuki blood had refined him further, reshaping his muscles into perfect balance for explosive strength rather than bulk.
If before he was a bright furnace contained by its shell.
Now, he was a volcano, calm on the surface but surging with magma beneath.
Arata could tell, his long-stalled progress at the Gate of Rest was far from his new limit.
And deeper still, his eyes… were stirring. He was on the brink of awakening something fearsome, silent, and powerful.
At last, this was the strength that was truly his own.
"With this power," he thought, a spark of mischief flashing in his eyes, "I can shake the Hyuga clan with my lies!"
He never once thought of using his power to simply grow stronger. No, his instinct was to use it to deceive, to manipulate, to toy with the mighty.
Only through that… did he feel truly alive.