Chapter 53: Chapter 53
In an instant, the jōnin finished forming his hand signs and a huge amount of chakra gathered in his throat, and he spat a massive sphere of water toward Kiriya, like a river bursting through a broken dam.
If that hit him directly, even with three gates open, Kiriya would have his bones shattered and his tendons torn apart by the sheer water pressure.
So Kiriya did not choose to take it head-on.
He tapped the tip of his foot against a rock, and his body accelerated sharply once again.
Rumble!
Thousands upon thousands of tons of water came crashing down, toppling countless trees with groaning cracks.
A Water Release technique of this scale was truly worthy of a jōnin from Kirigakure.
Yet the jōnin felt no joy at all.
Because within those raging waves, he could not see Kiriya anywhere.
"Where the hell..." His teeth nearly ground together. "Where did he go?"
"I’m right here."
Kiriya’s voice sounded beside his ear, rougher and deeper than usual.
Without even thinking, the jōnin stabbed out with the kunai in his right hand, but all he struck was an afterimage.
Bang!
A whip-like kick slammed into his waist, sending his entire body flying out of control.
Crack, crack!
While he was still in midair, he could clearly hear the sound of bones breaking inside his own body.
’Is... is this really a human strength?’
The jōnin vomited mouthfuls of blood, too shocked to speak.
But this was only the beginning.
Kiriya stepped on the air itself, his body carving out afterimage after afterimage.
Every time, he managed to appear in front of the flying jōnin and drive another fist into his body.
Bang, bang, bang!
A dense series of impacts echoed through the air.
The jōnin’s body was knocked back and forth like a ball, completely unable to defend himself.
By now, there was no telling how many bones had been broken.
After only a few seconds, Kiriya could feel that there were hardly any intact bones left under his fists, so he decided to give the battle a flashy finish.
He stepped through the air and appeared above the jōnin, raising his right leg high before smashing it down like a giant axe.
Boom!
The jōnin’s body slammed heavily into the ground, crashing into a massive rock.
Cracks spread across the stone before it completely shattered.
The force of that single kick was terrifying!
"He... he flew?" Ebisu’s eyes widened so much they nearly popped out.
"That’s just... unbelievable..." Genma Shiranui’s lips trembled nonstop. "Can a human body really do something like that?"
"Of course!"
Might Duy raised his thumb.
"As long as you train your body until it’s strong enough, you can do it too!"
"Please spare me."
Both Genma and Ebisu’s mouths turned bitter.
They really did not want to be compared to monsters like that.
They were not worthy!
Everyone present was shaken by what they had seen.
Only Guy lowered his head slightly, looking a little dejected.
Might Duy had been paying attention to his son the entire time, so he noticed the change immediately.
"What’s wrong, Guy?"
As always, he spoke directly.
"Dad, am I too stupid?"
Might Guy did not quite dare raise his head. His eyes stayed fixed on the tips of his shoes.
"I trained for so long before I could barely open the fourth gate. But Kiriya-san heard the method once and succeeded right away. I... I really am useless—"
Before he could finish, a solid punch landed on his face, swelling one cheek up into a huge lump.
"Dad?"
Guy looked at his father, not understanding why he had suddenly been hit.
Ebisu and Genma were also startled.
"Guy, you idiot!"
Tears filled Might Duy’s tiger-like eyes as he scolded him loudly.
"Is this all your youth amounts to?"
Guy clutched his face, lost for what to do. He apologized instinctively.
"I’m sorry, Dad."
"You don’t need to apologize for your effort. If you do, then you’re betraying everything you’ve worked so hard for."
Might Duy was clearly scolding him, but tears were already streaming down his face.
"Guy, do you feel frustrated? Good! That’s a wonderful thing! That frustration is proof that you haven’t become satisfied with yourself, proof that you can still charge toward greater heights!"
"Dad!"
Guy seemed to realize something, and his expression began to brighten again.
"Chase after that man, Guy! Challenge yourself again and again, surpass yourself again and again—that is the true color of youth! That is proof that your hot blood is burning!"
As Might Duy shouted, roaring flames seemed to rise around him.
The intensity of it startled both Genma and Ebisu beside him!
"Yes, Dad!"
Might Guy shouted back, his eyes bright as torches.
That was the flame called burning youth!
Seeing it, Might Duy, the old father, was moved to tears all over again.
He hugged his son, and the two of them began crying together once more.
Kiriya: "..."
’Could someone please tell me what had just happened?’
He had only just finished a fight, so how had this father and son started crying again?
What kind of bodies were they built with?
Their tear glands were way too developed.
As the third gate closed, the aura around Kiriya settled back down, and he once again became that handsome, graceful young man.
If they had not seen it with their own eyes, Genma and Ebisu never would have believed that this was the same berserker who had just fought with such wide, violent movements, like a demon let loose.
Might Duy also finished his daily father-son bonding and walked over, asking with concern.
"How does your body feel?"
"Not bad."
Kiriya could feel an intense soreness spreading through every muscle in his body, like the fatigue of running nonstop for an entire day.
If his physique had not already improved, that exhaustion alone might have swallowed him whole.
But it was worth it.
Just now, after opening only the first three gates, his strength and speed had increased by at least twofold.
And that was only the first three gates.
What about the fourth gate? The fifth?
What kind of power would that be?
In that state, Kiriya even felt confident he could hammer that toad woman into a flattened toad cake with nothing but his fists.
Compared to the power he had gained, this fatigue and soreness were nothing.
Even torn muscles and broken bones would still have been worth it.
After all, this was real strength.
And as for those injuries...
It was not as if he had no way to deal with them.
"Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality."
Kiriya cast his healing magic on himself.
A cool stream flowed through his body, and the soreness and pain quickly faded.
With the foundation of the ’Sage Body’, along with Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality, Kiriya’s compatibility with the Eight Gates—and his ability to keep using them—was practically maxed out.
"Medical ninjutsu? That really is a perfect ability for you," Might Duy said, his face full of envy.
If he had that trick too, he would not have to constantly endure that pain like being carved apart by a thousand blades.
His combat endurance would also increase tremendously.
"Exactly! So, Uncle Duy, you won’t be getting much rest on the way back."
Might Duy froze for a moment.
Then, meeting Kiriya’s burning fighting spirit, he threw his head back and laughed.
"Hahaha! I couldn’t ask for more! How could a battle filled with such hot-blooded youth leave me out?"
"Me too!"
Might Guy also joined in, pressing his lips together with determination.
"I want to train with you too."
"Good!"
Might Duy was overjoyed.
That was his son!
...
And so, on the road back to the Konoha camp, Kiriya would open the Eight Gates from time to time and fight Might Guy and Might Duy, adapting to the power and combat style brought by the technique.
At the same time, he asked them for guidance on the fundamentals of taijutsu.
It did not matter if he got tired or injured.
One cast of Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality, and the wounds caused by high-intensity combat and training would quickly recover, allowing them to continue their close-quarters exchanges to their hearts’ content.
The only truly miserable ones were Ebisu and Genma Shiranui.
They had originally hoped to return to camp early and rest properly, but these three stamina monsters kept stopping along the way.
Whenever the mood struck, they would start another fight, regardless of whether it was day or night.
As a result, Ebisu and Genma could not eat properly, could not sleep properly, and lost a frightening amount of weight in just two days. Even their eye sockets had sunken in.
If Kiriya had not finally noticed something was wrong with them and healed them with Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality, the two of them might have dropped dead on the spot.
Amid the joyful exchanges—also known as battles—between Might Duy, Might Guy, and Kiriya, and amid the painful suffering of Ebisu and Genma Shiranui, the Konoha camp finally came into view.
"Ah—"
The moment Ebisu and Genma saw the familiar sign at the camp entrance, they collapsed to their knees, tears streaming down their faces.
They were finally here!
Three days!
Did anyone know how they had survived these three days?
Their bodies and minds had been tormented again and again.
They had not slept properly once.
Putting up with those three beasts making a racket whenever they felt like it was one thing, but the worst part was that whenever the mood struck, they would drag Ebisu and Genma in for "a little sparring" too.
Heaven help them.
They were normal people, not stamina monsters!
They needed food and sleep too. Where were they supposed to find the energy to fight those beasts?
At first, they had not wanted to pay any attention to it.
But that bastard Guy kept saying things like, "What’s wrong? You can’t last very long?" and "How can a man say he can’t do it?"
That pissed them off so much that they naturally had to fight with everything they had to protect their dignity as men.
The result?
Their bodies and minds suffered serious trauma!
Every time they remembered the look in Guy’s eyes, as if he were saying, ’I had only just started putting in effort, and you already fell down?’ Ebisu and Genma felt the urge to kill someone.
He was shameless.
If he had the guts, he should compete with them in ninjutsu.
What kind of bullying was it to use the Eight Gates against them?
’If I ever team up with that beast again, I’m a dog!’ x2
The guards at the camp entrance stared at the two boys sobbing uncontrollably, especially at the way they looked like they wanted to kiss the ground, and were completely stunned.
"Why... why are they crying like that?"
The two guards turned to Might Duy in confusion.
Might Duy was an honest man and had no idea how to explain.
In the end, Kiriya was the one who stepped in to smooth things over.
Kiriya then began his speech with a voice full of emotion.
"They simply survived a battle where death brushed past them, returned to their village, and saw their family again! Their feelings are a little hard to control. Please forgive them."
"Oh, so that’s what happened."
The two guards listened, their eyes also turning red.
But then they noticed something was not quite right and looked at Kiriya’s almost unfairly handsome face.
"And who are you?"
"Might Duy, how could you bring a stranger into the camp?"
Their voices immediately turned sharp and cold.
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