"First, it's the [Eight Gates]."
"Gate of Opening, Gate of Rest, Gate of Life-open!"
Bang!
Chakra burst from Akira Senju's body in violent waves. Wind pressure slammed outward across the courtyard as dust scattered off the stones. He stared down at his reddened arms, fists clenched. With no sensation of pain or touch, he couldn't gauge the pressure in his limbs at any accurate level.
"I don't feel pain-not even strength-so..."
He stepped forward with one punch. The impact tore open the stone beneath him with clean force. The courtyard cracked from the strike, leaving behind scattered debris and stunned silence.
"Grandpa Akira, what are you doing..."
Tsunade's small hand clutched one of the gate beams as she peeked out from behind it. Her eyes were wide with disbelief.
"It's nothing. Just practicing ninjutsu," Akira replied without looking at her.
"It looks like you're tearing down the house!"
Tsunade stepped back warily while dust crumbled down from behind her.
Boom!
Akira vanished in a second blur. A crater replaced the ground beneath his feet. A moment later, the newly renovated hall wall caved in with another collision-this time shaped exactly like his outline.
"Wow..."
Tsunade gaped through the hole in amazement. Ninjutsu was one thing-but she'd seen repairs be destroyed only days after they were finished before... and this was worse.
Akira lay flat among debris, back against the fractured tile floor, limbs already trying to regenerate.
"I pushed too fast. This body's numb-three gates open at once? I couldn't process anything..."
He pulled into himself, trying to sit up, when weakness swept across his stomach and spine with no warning. A different kind of ache ran down his skin now-foreign and pulsing in its pressure.
"What the hell?"
It shocked him into focus. This body shouldn't experience fatigue-and the chakra was rapidly thinning out beneath his ribs.
Green chakra formed beneath his skin as Akira stilled. He closed his eyes to trace its path through his network-and then he saw it. There was far less blood than there should have been.
"...No way-is it actually that...?"
To make sure, he formed seals for a Shadow Clone and gave it one instruction: open the first gate only-the Gate of Opening.
Bang!
Pressure erupted again-and the clone vanished instantly in front of him. Thin trails of wind scraped across the yard again.
Akira narrowed his eyes at what he'd just confirmed.
"So that's it. The red skin is from chakra pushing blood to capillaries... Shit-that forum thread said Impure World Reincarnated bodies could use Eight Gates freely. Lucky I didn't believe them completely-or I'd already be dead again."
He exhaled sharply through clenched teeth.
"I'll have Mito on standby next time-if I use this again, it might kill me for good."
His eyes turned back to Tsunade as her head popped through another hole at the edge of what used to be their back wall. He waved her over instead of walking-his knees were barely functional now.
"Tsunade-go find your grandmother Mito."
"Oh! Okay!" Tsunade nodded sharply before bolting for the inner courtyard without delay.
Akira pressed his palm to his temple and looked toward the stack of scrolls left on the stone bench beside him. He grabbed one at random and unsealed it lazily.
"Spiritual Transformation Technique...? That's one from Kato Dan's clan."
His eyes followed where Tsunade had disappeared and he grinned faintly as he clicked his tongue against his teeth.
"If you want to chase our Tsunade down someday... this will have to be your gift to me first."
With no time to waste on jokes longer than that, Akira dropped into full focus and scanned through the contents of the scroll without blinking once. It wasn't long before he stopped reading and closed it with one hand.
"Huh... That's it? Feels straightforward enough."
Curiosity took over before practicality even tried to step in. He sat upright and rolled his shoulders once before saying under his breath:
"Let's see if this works."
Seals formed under his fingers without hesitation. Chakra surged up behind his tongue-and then darkness twisted sideways in his vision as his soul abruptly left its shell.
For several seconds, Akira floated midair above his own body, arms loose at his sides as he adjusted to the new point of view.
"...It really is that simple?"
He tested movement instinctively-forward and back, left and right, up and down. He flew across the room once just for fun, spinning slightly at the end as he laughed aloud to himself over how easy it felt.
"Humans are made for flying after-"
Everything tilted suddenly. Dizziness washed over his senses just as fast as the chakra had surged earlier-and Akira froze mid-roll as he looked down toward his own corpse-like shell laid out across rubble.
Pieces of it were fading away into grey residue near the joints and limbs-and worse-another figure had appeared beside it now.
"...What is that?"
It didn't take long to recognize its cloudy white outline-and when Akira did, frustration crashed through him instantly.
White Zetsu was easing toward the Impure World body in slow movement-and Akira couldn't move fast enough through the air to stop him now that he was depleted mid-soulform.
"Fuck-you picked now?!"
...
White Zetsu narrowed his eyes as he approached the fallen shell left by Akira Senju. He had hidden himself for weeks-waiting for any single opportunity-and now finally–
"Spore Art."
White foam bloomed across Akira's torso and spread downward with growing speed until it wrapped over every inch of exposed flesh like expanding webbing. Within seconds, the entire figure became covered in one large irregular white cocoon-like sphere.
"I actually fucking did it..."
White Zetsu trembled slightly where he hovered-too stunned to celebrate properly at first. Slowly though-he giggled out loud and whispered to himself again with disbelief so thick it cracked:
"I killed Senju and Thousand Stars..."
Too many attempts had failed before. Akira had been too alert-impossibly perceptive-even when asleep or distracted by Mito's presence near him most hours of the day. White Zetsu had started thinking there'd been some seal blocking his approach outright-
And now...
"Haha... at last!"
With euphoria cloaking him fully now-he dove underground immediately with what scraps remained from Spore Art trailing behind him-racing toward Black Zetsu with every ounce of momentum left in his stolen chakra veins.
Behind him-above ground-Akira floated silently in place for six seconds before letting out one long breath through clenched teeth.
He'd seen enough.
"He really thought that worked? What, does he think I left my soul behind by accident?"
Empty chakra pulsed once inside him-then went dim again instantly as he reached the edge of his stamina limit midair.
"What's worse is-I was planning on switching bodies soon anyway... Might as well treat this like early cleanup."
Akira watched White Zetsu retreat into dirt below-then turned slowly toward Mito's courtyard again-and flew low toward it with what little energy he had left in reserve.
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