Chapter 186: The Possibility of Armament Haki
Mugetsu quietly made his way deep into the forest, his Byakugan active the entire time to ensure no other shinobi were nearby.
Only when he confirmed absolute isolation did he finally stop.
He raised his right hand and began his experiment—testing Armament Haki without activating the Eight Gates.
Focusing his Chakra, he swiftly performed Nature Transformation.
Within moments, a thin layer of pitch-black energy spread across his right palm, resembling a perfectly fitted black glove.
Mugetsu drew a kunai with his left hand and thrust it hard toward his Haki-coated palm.
Clang!
A sharp metallic ring echoed through the woods.
The kunai vibrated violently on impact, as if it had struck an unyielding block of steel. Not even a scratch appeared on his hand.
Mugetsu narrowed his eyes. "So, it really does possess this level of density…"
To push the test further, he infused his left hand—and the kunai—with Lightning Release, amplifying its penetrating power.
Zzzt! Zzzt!
Blue lightning crackled fiercely, spreading arcs of electricity that danced along his arm. The kunai stabbed again, bolts surging against the Haki barrier.
Yet, the black coating didn't even flicker. It absorbed the lightning, utterly immovable—like a calm sea that refused to be disturbed.
After several minutes, Mugetsu finally relaxed his arm.
"The defense of Armament Haki's hardening is… quite impressive," he murmured, genuinely satisfied.
---
He recalled another technique of similar concept—Earth Release: Earth Spear.
That jutsu could also harden the body, improving both offense and defense.
However, after comparing them, Mugetsu quickly concluded that Earth Spear's upper limit was far below Armament Haki's—whether in strength, durability, or versatility.
Earth Spear offered simple hardening and couldn't be applied to weapons or perform long-range attacks.
In contrast, Armament Haki could do all that—and more.
The only advantage Earth Spear held was its compatibility; it didn't conflict with Armament Haki. But combining the two felt unnecessary.
"The Haki alone is hard enough," Mugetsu thought. "Layering Earth Spear on top would just waste Chakra."
---
After confirming its defense, Mugetsu formed a Shadow Clone, instructing it to attack with False Darkness.
As the jutsu formed, Mugetsu coated his forearm in black Haki and calmly extended his palm into the blast.
The beam of darkness struck with a deafening crack—yet his arm remained perfectly unharmed.
The False Darkness scattered uselessly into the night.
Its output wasn't weak by any means. If it couldn't leave a mark, then most standard Ninjutsu could already be considered harmless against this defense.
Of course, Mugetsu had no intention of relying solely on endurance in future battles.
Even Armament Haki required Chakra to sustain—its power was not without cost.
---
Next, he tested its limits.
He channeled 10,000 points of Chakra into his right fist, forcing the Haki to compress and thicken.
The black aura grew denser, heavier, until the air itself trembled.
Yet, even at that level, he could sense that he was still far from the upper limit.
Mugetsu exhaled slowly and released the energy. "No need to overdo it. A blast like that might bring the Anbu running."
In Konoha, drawing attention was the last thing he needed.
---
The next test: weapons.
He picked up a standard shuriken and infused it with Armament Haki, coating its edges with that deep, mirror-black sheen.
Then, with a flick of his wrist, he hurled it at a boulder the height of a man.
Whistle—Boom!
The shuriken pierced straight through the stone and continued on, embedding itself in a tree behind it with a dull thud.
Mugetsu nodded in satisfaction. "Excellent penetration."
However, the Chakra expenditure immediately followed. The Haki coating drained more energy than he liked.
"If I tried to throw a whole barrage like that…" he muttered, calculating the loss. "Even my reserves wouldn't last long. It must be treated like Ninjutsu—selective and precise."
---
Curious, he decided to experiment further—testing if Haki could enhance Ninjutsu itself.
He began with Lightning Release.
Forming seals, he generated Chidori, its familiar shrill cry echoing through the woods.
At the same time, he performed Yin Release transformation, weaving Armament Haki into the lightning.
Instantly, the bright blue glow darkened to a menacing black-blue hue, flickering with lethal intensity.
The ground beneath his feet trembled as the lightning swirled violently around his arm.
When he thrust the Chidori forward, everything it touched disintegrated — trees, stone, soil — all obliterated in a storm of crackling destruction.
Mugetsu's eyes gleamed. "Power increased significantly… far beyond normal amplification."
But not every Ninjutsu could handle it.
After extensive testing, he confirmed that only certain techniques—particularly those related to Lightning or Earth Release—were compatible with Armament Haki.
Fire, Wind, and Water techniques, on the other hand, rejected it entirely. Their Chakra natures clashed too much with Yin Release transformation.
The Ninjutsu suitable for Armament Haki enhancement were primarily those performed by hand or small-scale, high-intensity techniques.
This was an excellent discovery — it meant Mugetsu's output ceiling had once again increased, and his instantaneous burst power had become even greater.
To verify compatibility, Mugetsu also tested whether Armament Haki could coexist with the Breathing Technique Marks, experimenting with each type one by one. The result: all of them worked perfectly.
"Gate of Opening, open!"
Finally, Mugetsu began testing the Eight Gates themselves.
He activated the first gate, channeling Chakra into his hand. A thin layer of black coating immediately appeared over his palm — Armament Haki successfully activated even under the Gate of Opening.
Mugetsu wasn't surprised. The Chakra flow at this level was still relatively stable. With the first gate open, one could even perform standard Ninjutsu.
"Gate of Healing, open! Gate of Life, open!"
He opened two more gates in succession. Instantly, the Chakra within him turned wild and turbulent.
The violent energy of the Third Gate made precise Chakra control almost impossible.
Ninjutsu was now out of the question — but Mugetsu didn't mind.
"If I can't control precisely… then I just won't control it at all."
He released all restraint, letting the overwhelming Chakra surge freely through his body.
The black coating of Armament Haki erupted outward, spreading from his arms across his entire body until he was completely covered — as if wearing a seamless black armor forged from living Chakra.
The consumption was immense.
Mugetsu could feel his Chakra draining at an alarming rate. Maintaining Haki across his full body was vastly more demanding than limiting it to a single limb. And keeping its density stable only accelerated the drain.
"For me, full-body Haki isn't efficient," he muttered to himself. "Against most Ninjutsu, I can simply switch to Lightning Breathing to evade or counter. That consumes far less than tanking hits head-on."
But for Might Guy, it was different.
The Eight Gates drastically amplified Guy's Chakra output — far more than he could ever exhaust through Taijutsu alone.
Unlike Ninjutsu users, Guy fought almost exclusively in close combat, where full-body defense mattered more than anything else.
For him, Armament Haki covering his entire body wasn't wasteful — it was ideal.
---
After completing every test, Mugetsu drew his conclusions.
Armament Haki could indeed be used while in the Eight Gates state, but there was no possibility of precise control.
He couldn't focus it into a single limb for enhanced strikes or confine it to specific areas — it either covered his entire body or didn't activate at all.
Weapon reinforcement was also impossible under this condition; Armament Haki in the Eight Gates state only adhered to his own body.
Mugetsu exhaled softly, his tone calm yet analytical.
"Eight Gates plus Armament Haki… pure brute force. No precision. No finesse."
Still, the raw power was terrifying.
---
He wasn't done experimenting yet.
"Let's see what happens when I combine everything."
Eight Gates + Rock Breathing Mark + Armament Haki.
The result came almost instantly.
As the three overlapped, Mugetsu's Chakra output skyrocketed — and so did his consumption. The energy drain was so extreme that his reserves plummeted within seconds.
Less than three seconds later, he was forced to cancel the state before it devoured him completely.
"The consumption is absurd," Mugetsu admitted, shaking his head. "Even at the Third Gate, my Chakra reserves can't sustain it."
In the end, he concluded that either Eight Gates plus Rock Breathing or Eight Gates plus Armament Haki alone were the optimal combinations — slightly weaker in power, but vastly more efficient and sustainable.
---
"I wonder how long it'll take Guy to learn it," Mugetsu mused, sitting beneath a tree to recover his strength.
Though Armament Haki before mastery relied mostly on brute force, its underlying nature was Yin Release — far more intricate than the five basic Chakra transformations.
Teaching it to someone like Guy… would be a challenge of patience.
Rock Breathing, while demanding, suited Guy's nature perfectly. It was physical, direct, and grounded in perseverance — qualities that matched his spirit.
But Armament Haki was different. It was a pure Yin Release secret technique, requiring mastery of Nature Transformation itself.
Guy wasn't incapable of using Ninjutsu, but his aptitude for it was… abysmal.
Mugetsu's expression darkened slightly as he recalled the last time he tried to teach him the Shadow Clone Technique.
What Shisui had learned instantly, Guy struggled with for over a month — and even then, his proficiency barely reached forty percent.
And that was with Mugetsu's Teaching Skill enhancement active.
In the end, Mugetsu had simply told him to stop.
The Shadow Clone Technique offered little benefit to a Taijutsu-focused fighter like Guy anyway.
Facing such limitations, Mugetsu couldn't help but sigh.
Even with his improved teaching ability, his high Yin Release proficiency, and Perfect-grade Haki as a reference, teaching Guy to even begin grasping Armament Haki would be… painfully slow.
"Maybe not months," he muttered under his breath. "But years."
Still, as he looked up at the moonlight streaming through the trees, Mugetsu's eyes gleamed faintly.
<><><><><><>
Read Advanced Chapters on:
~ [email protected]/FanficLord03
~ Every 100 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter!
~ Push the story in the rankings using your
[Power Stones]
~ https://discord.gg/MntqcdpRZ9