"Fight me?"
Kiyohara looked at Guy.
His chakra reserves were becoming larger and larger, and along with that, the strength of his physical body had also risen tremendously.
Not to mention that he possessed the bloodline of the Yotsuki Clan along with the bloodlines of the White Snake and the Toads. In terms of physique, Kiyohara could practically be said to have stacked countless buffs on himself.
Because of that, ever since a long time ago, Kiyohara had never once lost during his sparring matches with Guy.
Still, Kiyohara was curious about how far Guy had progressed in training the Eight Gates.
Guy was also a genius, except his genius lay entirely in taijutsu.
Throughout the entire story, there were actually many people who practiced the Eight Gates. Even Lee could open the Fifth Gate alongside other taijutsu specialist shinobis and form the Crane Wing Formation to shatter half of the gigantic meteor falling toward Konoha.
But among all of them, only Guy and his father had managed to train the technique to the level of the Eighth Gate.
And it was precisely because the ultimate move led to certain death that this technique had been classified as a forbidden art.
Of course, since almost nobody could actually train it that far, and because nobody originally imagined it could become so powerful, the learning threshold for the technique itself was not particularly high.
"Then come on, Guy."
Kiyohara spoke.
Perfect timing. He also wanted to organize and refine his own taijutsu.
Sometimes, even finding a suitable punching bag was difficult for Kiyohara.
After all, Kakashi and the others were nowhere near Guy's level when it came to taijutsu.
"Kiyohara and Guy are sparring?"
Kakashi turned his gaze toward them. He was very curious to see just how many Gates Kiyohara had managed to open now.
In truth, Kakashi himself had also been training the Eight Gates whenever he had spare time.
However, at present, he could only open up to the Second Gate. Even that was thanks to the assistance of the Power of the White Snake Kiyohara had given him.
To break through the limitations of the Gates, one needed to constantly push the body beyond its limits during everyday training, allowing the body to adapt to that kind of burden.
"Alright!"
Guy shouted energetically.
"Let me see just how brightly our youth is burning!"
Looking at the excited Guy, Kiyohara removed his green shinobi flak jacket, revealing only the black, tightly woven metal mesh armor underneath.
The inner layer clung closely to his sturdy physique, and the sharply defined contours of his muscles were clearly visible.
Rin secretly glanced at him before quickly looking away.
"I'll hold your flak jacket for you, Kiyohara-kun. The ground is dirty."
Rin spoke softly.
"Sure."
Kiyohara, who had originally intended to toss it directly onto the ground, changed his mind and handed the flak jacket to Rin instead.
After receiving it, Rin carefully folded the jacket neatly and held it against her chest.
Kiyohara turned around.
He was now wearing only the black chain armor.
"Come."
Kiyohara said.
Guy took a deep breath.
He lowered himself into a crouch, one palm pressing against the ground while his spine arched upward like a gigantic bow stretched to its absolute limit.
Green steam burst out from every pore of his body, its color even denser than when he had fought Kakashi earlier.
Fifth Gate: Gate of Limit… Open!
Facing Kiyohara, Guy did not dare show the slightest carelessness.
He immediately started with the Fifth Gate, afraid that Kiyohara would instantly defeat him before he even had the chance to use his later techniques.
"Kiyohara, here I come!"
The ground exploded beneath Guy's feet.
At the exact moment shattered stones flew into the air, his figure had already crossed fifty meters, his right leg sweeping horizontally with overwhelming force.
"Dynamic Leaf King Force Whirlwind!"
This was an enhanced version of the Leaf Strong Whirlwind, capable of unleashing a spinning kick with terrifying speed and power.
Kiyohara could clearly see chakra condensing around Guy's leg into visible blue flames. Wherever the kick swept through, the air itself erupted with explosive sounds.
Kiyohara raised his left arm.
His palm firmly blocked Guy's shin.
A circular shockwave exploded outward from the center of the two men, cracking the ground and sending dust flying everywhere.
'Guy definitely didn't kick me that hard earlier…'
Kakashi thought inwardly.
If that kick had been aimed at him, he would never have dared block it head on. He would only evade.
Because Kakashi felt that if he tried to take that attack directly, his arm might actually be kicked clean off.
'How exactly do they train?'
The taijutsu side of things left even a ninjutsu genius like Kakashi feeling utterly powerless.
He finally understood what others must have felt when looking at the S rank ninjutsu he had created himself.
Talent really was different from no talent.
Kakashi's taijutsu was already considered quite good compared to many shinobis, but compared to Kiyohara and Guy, the gap was enormous.
"Kiyohara-kun…"
Rin tightened her grip on Kiyohara's flak jacket.
The next moment, the swirling dust gradually dispersed.
Underneath Kiyohara's black inner armor, the muscles of his forearm bulged into smooth and powerful lines.
Yet he had not retreated even half a step.
Only the ground beneath his feet had cracked apart and sunk dozens of centimeters downward.
"Not bad."
Kiyohara commented.
Seeing this, Guy quickly withdrew his leg, spun his body, and swung his right leg in a half circle through the air, chopping down toward Kiyohara's neck with even greater speed.
Kiyohara tilted his head.
The wind from the kick brushed past his ear, slicing off several strands of floating hair.
At the very same instant, Kiyohara's right leg swept upward from below.
Leaf Whirlwind!
It was the simplest beginner taijutsu technique.
Guy drew back his leg to block.
Shin collided against shin with a heavy, muffled impact.
Guy felt a deep and overwhelming force travel through the point of collision, forcing him back three full steps.
Deep footprints were crushed into the ground beneath his feet.
"The power of the Fifth Gate…"
Guy steadied himself, shock clearly appearing in his eyes.
"For you, was that only a warm up?"
"No. I used a bit of strength too."
Kiyohara shook his head.
"In that case…"
Guy clenched his teeth, yet the smile on his face became even brighter.
"The warm up is over!"
He bent forward.
Every muscle in his body tightened simultaneously.
The flow of chakra inside him abruptly changed direction.
The green steam began taking on a deeper hue, the glow almost shining out from beneath his skin.
Sixth Gate: Gate of View… Open!
"Morning Peacock!"
The moment the Sixth Gate opened, Guy immediately unleashed the technique that could only be performed with the Sixth Gate activated.
The instant his right fist punched forward, the air exploded.
The flaming pressure generated by his punches bloomed like a peacock spreading its tail feathers. Hundreds upon hundreds of crimson trails intertwined into a blazing net that descended toward Kiyohara from the front.
The might of this attack was at least thirty percent stronger than when he had fought Kakashi earlier.
Kiyohara raised his eyes, the three tomoe of his Sharingan slowly spinning.
But it was not the gaze of someone carefully studying an opponent.
"The Sixth Gate…"
Kiyohara murmured softly.
"I can use it too."
The next instant—
Green steam erupted from his entire body!
The ground beneath his feet shattered violently.
Centered around the point where his toes touched the earth, a three meter radius of land collapsed downward in one piece. Broken stones were lifted by the steam, hovering briefly in midair.
Then Kiyohara disappeared.
By the time Guy could finally see Kiyohara's figure clearly again, Kiyohara's right fist had already appeared directly at the center of the blazing net created by Morning Peacock.
Morning Peacock!
Fist collided against fist.
Flames devoured flames.
The countless punch pressures resembling a peacock's open tail were torn apart by Kiyohara with sheer force.
His fist pierced straight through the flaming net.
Unscattered green steam still coiled around his forearm.
The same technique.
But Kiyohara possessed denser chakra, a faster punching frequency, and even more concentrated striking power.
Guy's eyes widened.
He watched as Kiyohara's fist rapidly enlarged within his field of vision.
The fist stopped three inches away from the center of his forehead.
The pressure generated by the punch swept past like blades of wind, cutting open a tiny wound on his forehead.
Then Kiyohara withdrew his fist.
The blue green steam gradually dispersed.
He stood calmly where he was, beneath him the ground completely destroyed, the edges of the deep crater splitting outward in a web of radiating cracks.
"The Sixth Gate…"
Kiyohara looked down at his own fist.
"You opened the Sixth Gate earlier than I did, and your accumulation is deeper than mine. But my total chakra reserves are greater, and my body's upper limit for enduring the burden of the Eight Gates is also higher."
Kiyohara shook his head.
Compared to a sparring match, he felt more like he was teaching Guy.
Kiyohara had already mastered the Seventh Gate as well.
Only the final Eighth Gate, the Gate of Death, was something he had not seriously attempted to study.
If he accidentally opened it and could not close it afterward, that would be ridiculous.
Kiyohara planned to continue researching and improving it together with Guy first.
He even had the idea of combining Tsunade's system with the Eight Gates.
He wanted to see whether it was possible to improve the inevitable death that came after opening the Gate of Death.
If the Gate of Death could someday become a technique that could be used freely like the Seventh Gate or Sixth Gate, then its value would become far greater.
"So under the same number of Gates, I can pour more chakra into every punch."
"And that means faster speed and greater power."
Guy lowered his head and stared at his own hands.
The skin between his thumb and index finger had split open. Blood seeped from his knuckles, and the muscles in his forearms trembled slightly from excessive strain.
Morning Peacock had been shattered head on.
The same technique.
The same number of Gates.
The ultimate move that he had always been proud of, the secret art he had trained in bitter hardship for years after learning it from his father, Might Duy, had been completely overwhelmed in front of Kiyohara.
This was the gap created by talent.
"But it's not over yet."
Guy raised his head.
There was no frustration in his eyes.
Only an almost feverish excitement.
"Kiyohara."
He slowly stood up. Every muscle in his body tightened from excitement. Blood trickled down from the small wound on his forehead, sliding past his brow bone and the corner of his eye, yet he seemed completely unaware of it.
"I still have the Seventh Gate!"
He bent forward.
Both palms pressed against the ground.
At this moment, the chakra throughout his body no longer compressed inward.
Instead, it burst outward.
"Seventh Gate: Gate of Shock… Open!"
Boom!
Blue steam exploded violently from Guy's entire body!
The steam surged high into the sky.
His skin gradually began turning red.
That was a sign of capillaries rupturing under the overwhelming chakra burden.
Bulging veins appeared across his forehead, neck, and arms, winding around him like creeping vines.
"Daytime Tiger!"
His hands formed a strange seal.
The surrounding air currents instantly surged toward him, and then Guy threw out a punch.
The air compressed violently, condensing into a visible white tiger shape that released an earth shaking roar.
The massive white tiger formed from compressed air opened its jaws wide and charged toward Kiyohara with enough force to crush everything in its path.
Kiyohara remained standing calmly where he was.
He looked at the roaring white tiger rushing toward him.
Blue green steam erupted explosively from his entire body.
Seventh Gate: Gate of Shock… Open!
However, instead of using Daytime Tiger, he still chose Morning Peacock.
Kiyohara was worried that if he used Daytime Tiger, he might fail to control his strength and accidentally kill Guy for real.
Hundreds upon hundreds of flaming punches exploded from his fists, every single one hotter, faster, and denser than before.
BOOM!
The two attacks collided.
The blazing fists of Morning Peacock surged into the giant maw of Daytime Tiger like a flock of birds returning to their nest, detonating the solid tiger body from within.
The white tiger shattered apart in midair.
The shockwave swept outward from the collision point in every direction.
Rin tightly hugged the jacket in her arms as the violent gust forced her back several steps.
Kakashi raised an arm in front of his face, his mask pressed tightly against his nose and mouth by the wind.
When they lowered their arms again, the dust had already settled.
Guy was kneeling on the ground.
Both hands supported his body as he gasped heavily for breath.
Sweat mixed with blood seeped from every inch of his skin, staining the earth beneath him dark red.
His arms were trembling.
His knees were trembling.
Every muscle in his body screamed in pain from the excessive strain.
Yet he still raised his head.
His gaze locked onto the figure standing twenty meters away.
Kiyohara also breathed heavily a few times, but compared to the battered state of Guy, he looked far better.
Then after several more breaths, Kiyohara's condition visibly improved.
The blue steam around him gradually dispersed as well.
"You're incredible, Kiyohara."
Guy said with genuine admiration.
He grinned widely.
Blood seeped through the gaps between his teeth, staining his trademark white smile a faint red.
Yet his smile remained brighter than ever.
If he had trained in taijutsu alone all this time, Guy would inevitably have felt lonely.
But now, with such a powerful opponent before him, he felt even more inspired.
At the very least, he finally had someone to chase after, and someone from whom he could learn.
"I knew it! Your youth has definitely burned to this extent!"
He pushed against the ground, trying to stand.
But his knees weakened, and he immediately dropped back down again.
In the end, he gave up on standing altogether and simply knelt there on the ruined training ground, looking up at Kiyohara with astonishing brightness in his eyes.
"The Seventh Gate… You completely mastered the Seventh Gate a long time ago, didn't you?"
Kiyohara did not deny it.
"Yeah."
"And that last attack…"
Guy panted heavily, his words quickening from excitement.
"You held back, didn't you? You were afraid of seriously injuring me."
Kiyohara nodded.
"You really are a taijutsu shinobi."
Kiyohara said.
"The force of the collision, the flow of chakra, the contraction of muscles. Your body understands those things better than your brain does."
Guy lowered his head.
He looked at his blood covered, trembling hands.
"I always believed that as long as I worked hard enough, one day I could catch up to geniuses."
He spoke softly.
"When I was younger, I chased after Kakashi."
"And later, I chased after you."
"When I was chasing Kakashi, I thought the difference between us was talent."
"When I was chasing you, I thought the difference was accumulation."
"But now I understand."
He lifted his head again.
His smile was as clean and pure as it had been during the year he first entered the academy.
"It was neither."
"You have more talent than me, deeper accumulation than me, and you work even harder than I do."
He grinned.
"That's basically cheating, Kiyohara."
Kiyohara looked at him silently.
In the fading evening light, Guy knelt in the center of the ruined training ground, covered in wounds, blood and sweat mixed together across his body.
Yet he was smiling.
Smiling like someone who had finally found the pursuit of his entire life.
"That's not cheating."
Kiyohara said quietly.
"It's just that we walk different paths."
He paused briefly.
"And the path you walk is one nobody else can walk either."
Guy froze slightly.
Then he lowered his head again, his shoulders beginning to tremble.
This time, it was not from crying.
It was from laughter.
"Kiyohara…"
he said hoarsely.
"Next time, I'll definitely force you to use your full strength."
Kiyohara smiled faintly.
If he truly fought with everything he had, Guy would genuinely die.
The difference in their basic stats was simply too massive.
Not to mention that he also possessed the Sharingan, allowing him to completely track all of Guy's movements.
Afterward, Kiyohara walked over to Guy and began treating his injuries.
The Mystical Palm Technique emitted a soft green glow as Guy's wounds rapidly healed.
"I'll help too."
Rin volunteered immediately.
"Alright. This is a good chance to test Rin's Water Release medical ninjutsu."
Kiyohara nodded and asked Rin to hand his flak jacket back to him.
Then Rin began using the Water Release medical ninjutsu she had learned on Guy.
A sphere of blue water appeared in her hands.
The injuries on Guy's arm rapidly recovered the moment they came into contact with the flowing water.
Deep within the water floated faint green specks of light.
Because of that, from a distance, the entire sphere looked like a glowing green water ball.
"So fast."
Guy watched as Kiyohara and Rin treated him. Before long, most of his injuries had already healed.
The remaining wounds only required a few days of rest.
Still, Guy was already accustomed to being injured.
With the intensity of his training, injuries were simply unavoidable.
"Kakashi, if you have time, you should also learn some medical ninjutsu."
Kiyohara said as he stood up.
"I'll learn a little if I get the chance."
Kakashi nodded.
Although deep down, he felt that he probably did not have enough spare time to seriously study it.
"Kiyohara, have you learned the Eighth Gate yet?"
Kakashi asked curiously.
"Not yet."
Kiyohara shook his head.
Kakashi then asked Guy the same question.
Naturally, Guy also shook his head.
He was still too young and lacked the years of accumulation his future self would possess.
"However, that final kick…"
Guy suddenly grinned.
"I prepared it specially for Kiyohara."
Kiyohara fell silent.
In the original story, there was a rather absurd statement saying that Guy's final kick had been reserved for Kakashi.
Now, apparently, it had been changed to him instead.
"Is that final move really that powerful?"
Rin did not know much about the final Gate of the Eight Gates.
"It's very powerful. At the very least, it can kill the Seven Ninja Swordsmen."
Kakashi replied.
Kiyohara smiled slightly upon hearing that.
Killing the Seven Ninja Swordsmen only happened because they were too scattered and kept fleeing, which resulted in only four of them actually dying.
It was like some people scoring one hundred points because one hundred points was their limit.
While others were capable of scoring one hundred and fifty points, but because the exam paper only allowed one hundred points maximum, they still ended up with one hundred.
The Gate of Death was clearly that kind of situation.
Even without using Night Guy, simply using Daytime Tiger alone could unleash terrifying destructive power.
"I see."
Rin also stood up.
"Alright! Passionate youth still needs to keep burning!"
Guy immediately planned to continue training.
Then he started doing push ups right there on the spot.
"I'm going to train too."
Kakashi had rested enough as well and planned to practice kenjutsu for a while.
He intended to try combining Purple Lightning with his sword techniques.
"Rin, are you still going to keep training?"
Kiyohara asked.
"I can train with you for a little longer."
"Then let's continue for a while."
Rin replied.
Actually, she was already somewhat tired.
But since Kiyohara wanted to accompany her, she decided to continue practicing a bit longer.
Only when evening fully arrived did everyone finally disperse and return to their tents.
Several more days passed.
At last, the day of Kiyohara's appointment with Orochimaru arrived.
While Kiyohara was still wondering what excuse he should use to return to Konoha for a trip, Orochimaru personally came to the camp.
"Kiyohara-kun, it's time for us to depart."
Orochimaru said.
Anko followed behind him, clearly brought along so she could gain some experience.
"Are you two going on some kind of secret mission?"
Kurenai asked curiously.
She had no idea where Kiyohara and Orochimaru were planning to go.
(End of Chapter)