"Once again, that crude brute. He really is the perfect match for that useless fool."
The members of the Hyūga clan tried their best to conceal the disgust and disdain in their eyes.
Though they looked down on Might Guy, they did not speak out to bar him from entering the Hyūga compound.
Because if they did so, it would be the Hyūga clan showing rudeness.
"Good morning!"
Meeting their gazes, Might Guy flashed a wide grin, his white teeth gleaming dazzlingly under the sunlight.
He paid no attention to the Hyūga's cold disregard. Brushing some dirt from his clothes, he walked straight in.
"Yosh! Kumokawa, wake up, wake up!"
Walking familiarly toward the Hyūga Kumokawa residence, Might Guy shouted in a voice full of passion:
"The trumpet of morning training has already sounded! Youth does not wait for late sleepers!"
"Please come in, Senior Guy."
Hearing the voice coming from inside the room, Might Guy smiled broadly. After politely calling out "excuse me," he entered the house.
Without even looking toward the bedroom, he headed directly for another room.
"Kumokawa, as I thought, you're…"
Guy spoke while sliding the door open, but his words froze mid-sentence in the next instant.
Not because of the room full of all sorts of bizarre training equipment, but because of the figure standing before the floor-to-ceiling mirror that took up the entire wall.
His upper body was bare as he hung from a horizontal bar, his legs bound with heavy iron blocks for resistance.
Clack! Clack!
Each time he slowly stretched his arms and lowered himself, his movements were precise to the millimeter. Just as his toes brushed the ground, he would pull himself back up again.
The orange-red glow of dawn streamed through the window, shrouding Hyūga Kumokawa's tall, well-defined body in a hazy radiance, as though coating him in a faint circle of golden light.
Guy also noticed the pool of water beneath his feet — clearly the sweat that had accumulated from dripping down. It meant Kumokawa had been maintaining this state for a long time.
"Kumokawa, you…"
The experienced Might Guy stared wide-eyed, watching Kumokawa rise and fall on the bar, and couldn't help asking:
"You didn't stay awake the entire night, did you?"
The muscles of his upper body were taut, veins bulging.
The muscles in his arms were like steel cables, entwined together, straining under the tearing of the weights — Guy could almost hear them groaning.
Kumokawa did not respond, and Guy didn't mind. Instead, his excitement grew.
Because with his trained eyes, he could clearly see — Kumokawa's body was already approaching its limits.
He had even opened the First Gate of the Eight Gates Release Technique — The Gate of Opening.
Releasing the brain's limiters, allowing the body to operate at 100% capacity, burning physical energy at overload, greatly enhancing strength and speed.
Even so, his arms, thighs, and every muscle under strain had all reached their limits. His once flawless movements were starting to slow.
And slowing down meant even greater energy consumption. Every single motion was now a challenge against the body's very limits.
But this...this was youth!
How could youth ever come to a standstill?!
Yet, as time went on and Kumokawa still didn't stop, Guy's smile began to fade, his brow furrowing deeper.
If this continues, his body will be left with hidden injuries, Guy thought.
Even someone as fanatical as him, who broke past his own limits every single day, still had to rely on daily medicinal baths to prevent hidden damage.
At Kumokawa's current intensity, pushing further would become excessive.
"Kumo—"
Just as Guy was about to speak out and stop him, the scene before his eyes suddenly changed.
"Huuh…"
Kumokawa slowly exhaled a dense white mist. White vapor rose from his body as the streams of sweat on his skin instantly evaporated under the sudden heat — a sign of skyrocketing metabolism raising body temperature.
Eight Gates Release — The Gate of Healing.
It released the body's fatigue limit, forcibly squeezing out physical energy to restore stamina, offsetting the exhaustion brought by the Gate of Opening.
In this state, every cell in his body seemed to breathe. Power surged like magma through his veins and bones. His body temperature climbed until it was scorching hot to the touch.
The very ceiling of his stamina was shattered. The threshold of collapse rose once more. Kumokawa's posture stabilized again, his movements now slicing through the air with a roar like crashing tides!
BOOM!!
The heavy training weights finally crashed to the ground, the impact snapping Guy out of his daze.
"Hss!" He drew in a sharp breath at the sight of Kumokawa wiping sweat with a towel.
Then his face broke into an exhilarated, joyous grin as he asked excitedly:
"Kumokawa! You've already mastered the Gate of Healing?!"
Kumokawa slightly lifted his head. But when Guy met his eyes, his body instinctively took a step back.
Those eyes…
He hadn't even seen them clearly — just a stabbing pain flashed across his own eyes, forcing him to blink.
By the time he opened them again, that sensation was gone.
"Senior Guy, what's wrong?"
Kumokawa looked the same as ever, his face carrying that harmless, gentle smile.
"Ah… n-nothing." Guy scratched his head in puzzlement.
But soon, tears welled in his eyes. They streamed down his cheeks as he cried out, voice trembling with emotion:
"Kumokawa, your youth burns far too brightly! It's… it's just too moving, uwaaah! I must learn from you!"
"…Senior Guy." Kumokawa looked a little helpless, and could only smile faintly. "Please wait a moment, Senior Guy. I'll excuse myself for a quick shower first."
"Yes, yes, yes!"
Still nodding furiously while wiping his tears, Guy paid no mind as Kumokawa picked up some clothes and walked into the shower room.
Inside, Kumokawa stripped off and stepped onto the smooth tiles, turning the faucet.
The showerhead hissed softly as cold water ran down his loosened black hair, flowing over the butterfly-shaped lines of his shoulder blades, washing over the hard muscles of his back, gradually soaking his entire body.
The water coursed down like a mountain stream, but its chill did not make him uncomfortable. Not even his surface temperature dropped.
[Bloodline: Ōtsutsuki Clan (5% → 5.5%)]
[Kekkei: Unknown · First Stage (10% → 12%)]
Glancing at the panel, Kumokawa lowered his head, slowly raising and clenching both fists. Bones cracked crisply, and even the air popped with sharp detonations.
Crack! Crack!
He exhaled, heart rate and blood flow easing back down. The overheated muscles and tendons from training gradually cooled to normal.
"To think the Eight Gates could stimulate the potential of my bloodline… refining the purity of my lineage."
Feeling this power, so unlike before, Kumokawa's lips curled into a faint smile.
"It's as if the shackles binding my body have been broken. This sensation… it's truly intoxicating."
He had never once neglected his taijutsu training. His frame had always been lean yet not frail. His muscle contours, though, were never perfectly balanced — like those who train only their upper body and end up with a disproportioned build.
But after the transformation of the Ōtsutsuki bloodline, Kumokawa's musculature gradually reshaped into harmonious proportions, distributed in the most optimal way for exerting strength, not just for appearance.
If, before, he had been like a furnace shackled, flames restrained yet still radiant — then now he was a dormant volcano, silent on the outside yet surging with magma within.
Kumokawa could sense that the Gate of Healing, which had blocked him for two years, was still far from his true limit.
Moreover, he could feel his eyes trembling, only a step away from awakening their ability.
A terrifying, silent power lay hidden in those eyes.
This was the true power that belonged solely to him.
"With this confidence, I can dare to use lies… to overturn the Hyūga clan itself!" Kumokawa felt a surge of impulse within.
Not once did he think to use this power to simply become stronger step by step. His instinct was to wield it as a lever to construct greater deceptions, to fool stronger and stronger people.
Only in doing so did life feel exhilarating.