Although Might Duy's personality was extremely goofy, Yuya instead felt a strange sense of closeness toward him.
How should he put it?
He might be ridiculous—but he was genuinely sincere.
Yuya could tell that Duy's personality was straightforward, warm, and kind.
After personally experiencing this world, Yuya had long since realized that it wasn't as bright and hot-blooded as the manga portrayed.
Behind the sunlight, there was deep, entrenched darkness.
As a child from another village, what Yuya experienced in Konoha was still not as tragic as Naruto's situation in the original story—but it wasn't much better either.
Might Duy stood in stark contrast to Konoha's upper echelons:
the scheming elders, the hawkish advisor Danzō, and even the arrogant, overbearing Uchiha clan.
No matter how silly Duy seemed, he was completely positive—
open, bright, and without a trace of darkness.
Yuya knew full well that this world contained shadows,
but he still longed to see people like Might Duy—
people who embodied pure light.
"Great!!"
Seeing Yuya nod in agreement, Duy's face lit up with excitement, his eyes nearly filling with tears again.
But the next moment, he wiped them away and looked at Yuya with rare seriousness.
"Young man, this technique is extremely powerful… but it is also a forbidden jutsu.
Do you understand what that means?"
"I do," Yuya replied, nodding.
Duy stared at him with an unusually solemn gaze.
"All forbidden techniques carry risk!"
"I'm willing to bear it," Yuya answered calmly.
Duy looked at him in silence.
Then—
"WAAAH!! This is amazing!! To meet someone like you at last!!"
Tears streamed down Duy's face again.
Yuya's forehead was instantly covered in black lines.
This is really too much…
"This is the training process of the Eight Gates."
Duy sat down properly, raising a finger as he explained seriously.
"Judging by your condition, you should already meet the basic requirements…
but I still recommend further strengthening your body before attempting to open the First Gate."
"The side effects are directly related to physical strength.
The stronger your body, the lower the backlash.
Starting from the Third Gate, each gate afterward carries a tremendous burden."
Yuya already understood most of what Duy said, but he listened attentively anyway.
When Duy finally talked about the Eighth Gate, Yuya's expression became especially serious, his mind racing.
He began asking questions—constantly.
Duy was genuinely surprised by how sharp and critical Yuya's questions were.
Some things even he didn't know, but everything he did know, he answered carefully.
As answers accumulated, a thought gradually formed in Yuya's mind.
A normal ninja would probably learn a jutsu strictly by following existing steps.
But Yuya was different.
His soul came from a world with far broader ways of thinking.
Which meant—
he dared to think bigger, bolder, and further.
"The Eight Gates… were created by humans."
"Since it was created, not something innate…"
"…then it can be improved—perhaps even fundamentally changed."
Yuya's eyes shone brightly.
The Eight Gates were undeniably powerful,
but fully opening them led inevitably to death—something Yuya absolutely refused to accept.
He wanted to change that.
After obtaining the Eight Gates training method from Duy, Yuya didn't train further that night.
He returned home.
That entire night, he devoted himself solely to thinking about the Eight Gates.
The Eight Gates release the body's natural limiters, forcibly breaking past its original constraints.
They begin from the head:
Gate of Opening, Gate of Rest, Gate of Life, Gate of Pain, Gate of Limit, Gate of View, Gate of Wonder, and finally the Gate of Death.
Eight gates in total, cascading downward—
passing through the chest, the abdomen, and ultimately returning to the heart.
Breaking every physical limit, and finally forcing open the heart's final restriction—
this is the complete Formation of the Eight Gates.
"The heart… is the final gate."
"All prior limits converge there. Forcing it open unleashes every last ounce of life force…"
"And what follows is death."
Then a new question arose.
"But… what if the heart weren't the end?"
If the heart was the destination, then of course the result was total life-force combustion.
But what if—
What if the heart were the origin?
If power was gradually cultivated outward from the heart, step by step strengthening the body,
could the catastrophic backlash be avoided?
How to make the heart the origin—that was the key issue.
Yuya didn't rush to experiment.
This wasn't something to joke about.
He planned to discuss it carefully with Might Duy first.
The next morning.
Before dawn had fully broken, Yuya was rudely awakened.
The only person who would barge into his house like this was—without question—Kushina Uzumaki.
After an entire night of intense thinking, Yuya's mind was still foggy.
Being shaken awake by Kushina left him dizzy and half-dead.
But he quickly understood her reason for coming.
It was about his challenge to Uchiha Han.
A student who hadn't even graduated from the Academy challenging an Uchiha chūnin to a death match—
that was unheard of.
It spread like wildfire.
In just one day, the entire village knew.
Naturally, Kushina knew too—and she hadn't slept all night.
Before sunrise, she ran straight to Yuya's house.
Despite being annoyed to death, Yuya felt genuinely touched.
"Aaah! Are you even listening to me?!
I'm telling you to cancel that ridiculous duel right now!
I'll find a way to get you under Senju protection—
the Uchiha won't dare mess around then!"
Kushina grabbed Yuya by the shoulders and shook him violently.
Yuya forced a bitter smile.
"Alright, alright—if you keep shaking me, I'll die from you before anyone else gets the chance."
"Hmph! Who knows what you were thinking—challenging a chūnin!
Were you running a fever or something?!"
"Kushina."
Yuya looked at her seriously and spoke in a low voice.
"This matter… I've already made my decision.
Please don't interfere."
"How can I not interfere?!"
Her voice nearly shattered his eardrums.
Yuya twitched, then sighed again.
"I'm confident," he said calmly.
"In three months, I'll defeat him."
He finished speaking earnestly—
only to find Kushina staring at him as if he were an idiot.
"Three months to beat a chūnin?!
Are you living in a dream or what?!"
Her voice was once again deafening.
But beneath it all was desperation.
How could she possibly watch Yuya walk straight toward his own death?
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