After leaving the little grove by the Uchiha compound, Kakashi headed straight for the Hokage's office.
Seeing Kakashi arrive, the Third Hokage asked, "Did you convey my order to Uchiha Ryosuke?"
He cared a great deal about this. Every extra day Uchiha Ryosuke spent with Naruto chipped away at his plan.
He had to keep the piece named Naruto Uzumaki firmly in his own hand.
Kakashi answered truthfully. "Lord Hokage, he refused."
The Third Hokage grunted, then his expression shifted. "What did you say—he refused?"
How dare he defy the Hokage's order?
"Exactly what did he say?"
Kakashi reported it word for word.
Hearing Ryosuke's phrasing, the Third Hokage's anger flared. The damned Uchiha—trying to ruin his business.
But he swallowed it down.
He'd already had the kid's background checked: the only grandson of the Uchiha clan's Great Elder. Touch him, and the clan would revolt—the elder was widely respected.
And with negotiations with Kumogakure imminent, he couldn't afford to worsen relations with the Uchiha.
He needed a different tack.
"In that case, let him meet the boy," he said. "But tell him he is absolutely forbidden from revealing that Naruto is the Fourth Hokage's son. Otherwise, Naruto will draw the vengeance of the Fourth's old enemies."
With that leash in place, the villagers would continue to despise Naruto, while he could keep playing the kindly face and indoctrinate the boy with the Will of Fire.
If he treated Naruto even better than Uchiha Ryosuke did, drawing the boy in would be easy.
Children are the easiest to win. He was confident. This was his specialty.
Kakashi accepted the order and slipped away to the grove to find Ryosuke again, relaying the Hokage's decision.
Ryosuke nodded. He hadn't expected that a little firmness would make the Third back down.
Maybe it was because those peace talks with the Cloud were close.
Whatever the reason—so long as they didn't stop him from seeing Naruto.
He smiled at Kakashi. "Tell the Third Hokage I'll keep the secret."
Maybe the Fourth's former enemies really would target Naruto.
Still, in Ryosuke's view, letting word of Naruto being the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki leak already made things dangerously risky.
A tailed beast was a village's strategic weapon—especially the strongest one.
What other villages wouldn't covet such power?
Naruto was just a child. If someone kidnapped him, any price paid would be worth it: control the Nine-Tails, forge a jinchūriki, and you gained massive combat power.
Difficult as controlling the Nine-Tails was, plenty of factions would try.
Seeing Ryosuke agree, Kakashi couldn't help but feel relieved.
He promptly reported back to the Third.
In the blink of an eye, more than two months passed.
During that period, Konoha's leadership made no moves against the Uchiha.
Ryosuke, meanwhile, trained in peace.
Every day he pushed his physical stats; if he wasn't sparring with Guy, he followed One-Punch Man Saitama-sensei's regimen on his own.
It still raised his body's attributes.
By now, in pure taijutsu alone, he'd reached jōnin level.
Sparring with Guy, he'd begun to take the upper hand—and in taijutsu, Guy was unquestionably at a jōnin's level, even if only the baseline.
Ryosuke couldn't say exactly how far he'd climbed—only that he wasn't a pushover anymore.
And the Eight Gates (Hachimon): because he didn't fear pain, in just two months he'd managed to open four.
The Third Gate [Life Gate] and the Fourth Gate [Pain Gate] hurt even worse than the first two.
Those two sat along the spine.
Opening them made Ryosuke feel like his lower back was about to explode; he was afraid to walk afterward.
Thankfully, a single night's rest set him right again.
That was the system's doing.
Otherwise, no matter how pain-tolerant he was, he wouldn't have dared train so recklessly.
For anyone else, training like this would make your head explode—and your kidneys too.
That's why even the grittiest taijutsu users needed twenty years to reach all Eight Gates.
Might Guy had watched Ryosuke's meteoric growth the whole time, stunned.
He felt inferior to Ryosuke's capacity to suffer.
It had taken Guy seven or eight years to reach four gates, then another two or three to open one more.
Ryosuke was just one gate shy of catching up.
Even so, Guy felt no jealousy.
Or rather, even the sort who envy others' strength wouldn't, if they'd seen what Ryosuke put himself through.
It was sheer, death-defying grind—most shinobi couldn't do it. Envy had no foothold; only astonishment.
Guy also realized Ryosuke's physique was special. No matter how suicidal the training, the kid was fine the next day.
That body was too strong—made for taijutsu.
Endurance is the only secret to taijutsu—provided your body can take it.
Ryosuke had both. It would have been strange if he didn't grow stronger.
In the morning, as usual, Ryosuke went to the small grove by the compound to train.
One set of Saitama-sensei's regimen no longer tired him out—no fatigue, no stat gain.
Easy fix: add a second set.
It took longer, sure—but if it raised his stats, it was worth it.
While he was in the middle of training, a clansman approached the grove slowly: Uchiha Inaho.
Elder Hachidai had told him to stay away from Ryosuke.
Ryosuke was dangerous—beyond the radicals, practically a madman, talking about wiping out Konoha's entire leadership.
But of the clan's three great geniuses, Ryosuke was the only one squarely on the Uchiha's side.
Extreme or not… it wasn't impossible.
If the leadership really could be eliminated, the Uchiha would finally sleep easy.
So Inaho wanted to see how strong Ryosuke had become.
He'd skyrocketed before—what about after another two months?
If he'd leapt again, then what Ryosuke had said wasn't madness at all—it was the confidence of someone with the power to match.