Natsuki dared to raise the gravity level to ten times because he had confidence in himself. But adjusting to it would take time—and even then, he was still far from someone like Son Goku who could destroy planets.
That, of course, wasn't Natsuki's fault—it was the power ceiling of this world.
Also, for the time being, he didn't dare to recklessly open the seventh gate again.
"Not a big deal if I don't open the seventh gate," Natsuki thought. "I'll use the technique of Asa Kujaku (Morning Peacock) with the sixth gate as a reference point to develop other moves. At the same time, I need to adapt to the rhythm of prolonged combat while in the sixth gate state."
Asa Kujaku was strong, but not always the best option. Developing other techniques would be useful—and even if the attempts failed, it would still serve as good training.
After all, the Akatsuki and Uchiha Madara weren't foes that could be defeated easily. Long-term endurance was crucial. The Eight Gates only granted short-term bursts of power.
Once the user ran out of stamina, they'd fall into a dangerous disadvantage. Ideally, he needed to extend the duration of combat within the Eight Gates state to become truly effective.
Having made that plan, Natsuki finally allowed himself to relax.
He had spent all these years constantly thinking about getting stronger, rarely enjoying any real downtime.
Well—not entirely. Time with Tenten was always relaxing. Compared to being alone and constantly overthinking, having someone by his side brought him happiness.
He was truly glad he had pursued Tenten. With her, he'd found a home in this world.
Tenten was more than just pretty and cute—she was kind, thoughtful, occasionally sarcastic and funny, and she made him feel at ease every moment.
Natsuki genuinely liked her—and was determined to protect her forever.
"Guy's team has been established for a month. We're probably going to start missions outside the village soon… Time to prepare some gear for our family's little Dora La Explo-Tenten."
With that thought, Natsuki drifted off into sleep.
—
Early the next morning, someone suddenly knocked on the door—loudly enough to wake Natsuki. It clearly wasn't Tenten; she had a key. And it wasn't Shino; he'd just send bugs inside.
"Who the hell is knocking this early?"
Natsuki opened the door with bedhead and bleary eyes—only to see a certain spiky blond kid staring up at him with hopeful eyes.
He instantly deflated. "Naruto… what do you want this early in the morning? I was dreaming about marrying Tenten and having kids. You ruined it!"
Naruto, however, was full of urgency. "Natsuki! I've gone a whole month without playing cards! Doesn't that mean you should finally give me the Third Hokage character card?!"
Oh… right. That.
Natsuki had honestly forgotten.
Still—not a good enough reason to be banging on someone's door at the crack of dawn!
With a tired face, Natsuki retrieved the Hokage card and tossed it to him. "Here. Take it and go. I'm going back to sleep!"
Naruto left happily—while Natsuki was now wide awake.
So instead of trying to go back to sleep, he decided to prep some field gear—things like a flashlight, flint, raincoat, dried meat, hot sauce… anything that might be useful for camping outside the village.
When Tenten arrived and saw him sorting through all that stuff, she looked puzzled. "Natsuki, what's all this?"
Natsuki quickly pulled her over and gestured to the pile. "Your team's been together for a month, right? I figured you'll be doing missions outside the village soon. So I'm prepping supplies you might need. Take a look—see what else you want, or just take it all. Your scroll can hold anything anyway."
"You know what… that's actually a good idea. We probably will be going out soon."
Tenten didn't refuse. She opened a scroll and began sealing everything inside. "Better to bring everything. You never know what'll come in handy."
Once they finished packing, their eyes met.
And then—hug.
Yup. Today's kiss tasted like meat buns.
xxxxxxx
Afterward, with their lips slightly swollen, Natsuki headed to the academy while Tenten went to the Hokage building.
To her surprise, they really did receive a C-rank mission to eliminate bandits outside the village. She couldn't help but admire how on-point her boyfriend's intuition was.
Though they had a 30-minute window to go home and prepare after receiving the mission, being prepped in advance was obviously better than rushing.
Tenten returned home, packed a few more things, informed her dad, and asked him to pass the message on to Natsuki. Then she headed for the village gate.
—
Meanwhile, Natsuki had just arrived at class when he noticed Naruto slumped over at his desk, looking completely defeated.
"What happened to him?"
Natsuki tried to hold back a smile—he could already guess.
"You already know, don't you?"
Shino's tone was as calm as ever. "Naruto showed up this morning and started flaunting the Hokage card. But then everyone else pulled out their Hokage cards—and a bunch of new character cards. That's when he realized the card set got updated yesterday and everyone else had already queued up to buy them. All his bragging amounted to nothing."
Even Shino nearly cracked a smile.
Naruto had spent a whole month suppressing his card addiction just to get that Hokage card from Natsuki. He even covered his ears when people talked about cards to avoid temptation… and in doing so, completely missed the update.
Their classmates had played along—keeping quiet on purpose so he wouldn't relapse.
And that led to today's tragedy.
It was a little sad, honestly—but also his fault. The kid was addicted. If they didn't intervene, he might've spiraled further.
"Natsuki… how could you do this to me…"
Naruto sulked over, his voice full of betrayal. "The cards got updated and you didn't tell me!"
Natsuki feigned innocence. "I did tell you a month ago. I said the Hokage gave me permission to sell these cards and that new characters would be released later. Wasn't I clear enough? You just remembered the Hokage card and ignored everything else I said!"
Naruto couldn't argue with that—but he still felt wronged.
He had waited so long—only to proudly wave around a "rare" Hokage card, thinking he'd be the center of attention, only to get clowned.
He wanted to cry. Seriously.
"Hey, look on the bright side—you didn't have to pay for yours!" Natsuki tried to console him.
"Sure, the Hokage card was free… but now everyone's playing with the new deck. My old cards can't even keep up anymore!"
The Ninja Killer card game was actually quite expensive. For someone like Naruto, who was already scraping by, buying a new set meant going hungry for a few days.
Sure, his friends like Shikamaru and Chōji would let him join their games—but Naruto loved pulling out his own cards and inviting people to play. That was about pride.
Imagine going up to someone and saying, "Hey, wanna play Ninja Killer?"
And they respond: "Do you even have cards?"
That one sentence alone would crush Naruto's soul for the whole day.
(End of Chapter)
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