Whoosh! Whoosh!
Accompanied by sharp, sonic-boom-like whistles, Kagami’s figure left a trail of afterimages beneath the brilliant midday sun. His movements were so rapid that they somehow made the otherwise spacious training ground feel strangely crowded.
"So this is the Eight Gates..."
As he sped across the training ground, Kagami found himself becoming increasingly absorbed in the experience.
Thanks to Orochimaru’s teachings, Kagami had always been accustomed to keeping a trump card up his sleeve and leaving himself some room to maneuver. He rarely went all out, preferring to avoid situations where he would be forced into a desperate battle to the death.
This habit had helped him survive countless crises and allowed him to grow safely into the person he was today.
However, it was precisely this same habit that had caused him to miss out on the exhilarating satisfaction of giving something his absolute all, as well as the extraordinary thrill that could only be experienced when life and death hung by a thread!
And to master the Eight Gates, he would have to overcome this habit of holding something in reserve.
Unlike other secret techniques and forbidden techniques, the Eight Gates focused on one thing and one thing alone: unlocking the potential hidden within the human body.
To train in it and truly master it, one had to give everything they had, push themselves to the very limits of their abilities, and then, without the slightest hesitation, surpass those limits!
In other words, training in the Eight Gates was essentially a continuous process of surpassing one’s own limitations.
If he continued holding back, he would never discover where his limits truly lay, much less find a way to surpass them.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In what seemed like an instant, Kagami accurately struck several targets positioned at different locations and angles.
Then, with a flicker of his figure, he landed steadily in the very center of the training ground.
In the past, Kagami had also been capable of striking multiple targets simultaneously, but he had never been able to do so with such ease or precision.
Yet after opening the first two gates, the Gate of Opening and the Gate of Healing, and pushing his body to its limits, something that had once required considerable effort had become astonishingly simple.
Clenching and unclenching his fist, Kagami murmured, "This feeling..."
Only after pushing his body to its absolute limits without holding anything back did Kagami belatedly realize that his Yin Release true body had already grown far stronger than he had imagined.
"It seems I really haven’t explored my body’s potential thoroughly enough. To think I’ve actually developed a cognitive bias regarding my own physical limits."
Had he not begun training in the Eight Gates, Kagami suspected that this misconception about his own limits would have persisted indefinitely, perhaps even growing increasingly severe.
After all, if a shinobi lacked a clear understanding of their own limits, it meant they had yet to achieve sufficient mastery over their own body.
For an ordinary shinobi, this might not be a particularly serious problem. But for Kagami, who was attempting to attain the supreme Kekkei Mora, it was a hidden danger he absolutely could not afford to overlook.
Only by achieving absolute control over his own body could he hope to master the fusion of all seven chakra natures—Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements—and take that elusive final step toward attaining Kekkei Mora.
If he couldn’t even achieve complete mastery over his own body, then attempting to attain Kekkei Mora would be nothing more than a joke!
Having realized this, Kagami began to attach even greater importance to the Eight Gates.
To him, the Eight Gates was no longer merely a means of achieving an explosive increase in chakra. It had also become a tool for exploring his own potential and refining his control over his body.
Whoosh!
Just then, Shisui’s figure flickered into view at the edge of the training ground.
Kagami walked over to meet him. Picking up a towel and casually wiping the sweat from his body, he asked, "Did you manage to send those two little brats away?"
There was no doubt that Kagami had long since noticed Neji and Sasuke quietly approaching the training ground. He simply couldn’t be bothered to deal with them personally, so he had sent Shisui to turn the two little brats away.
Shisui replied, "Yes, I’ve already warned them."
Kagami smiled. "It was Neji who noticed something first, wasn’t it?"
After designating this place as his private training ground, Kagami had set up sealing formulas around its perimeter to block the perception of sensory-type shinobi.
However, these sealing formulas could only interfere with ordinary sensory ninjutsu. They couldn’t completely block the Byakugan’s ability to detect things at close range.
At greater distances, the seals worked reasonably well. But if someone activated their Byakugan within the academy grounds, their effectiveness would be considerably reduced.
That was why Kagami suspected that Neji, who possessed the Byakugan, had been the first to notice something unusual about the training ground.
Shisui smiled. "That’s right. Neji noticed it with his Byakugan first, and Sasuke got curious and followed him over."
"Those two little brats just can’t resist sticking their noses into everything. Looks like they still haven’t learned their lesson!"
After joking about the two boys, Kagami asked, "When will the Barrier Team arrive?"
If he wanted to completely block outside detection, sealing formulas alone wouldn’t be enough. He would also need the Barrier Team to erect a specialized barrier capable of concealing everything within the training ground.
Shisui promptly replied, "I’ve already submitted a request for assistance to the Barrier Team in your name, senpai. They should be sending someone over very soon."
Kagami tossed aside the towel in his hand.
"Make sure it’s taken care of by the end of today. I don’t want any unnecessary complications."
Shisui nodded. "Understood!"
He had barely begun training before attracting Neji and Sasuke’s attention. With that in mind, Kagami decided not to continue his workout for the time being.
Instead, he returned to the principal’s office, intending to resume his training only after the Barrier Team had finished erecting the concealment barrier.
...
On the academy’s training field.
Neji and Sasuke were still somewhat shaken. Their little adventure in the woods had left them trembling even now, and the whole experience felt almost like a dream.
Sasuke suddenly asked, "Hey, what just happened was real, right? We really did go into those woods, didn’t we?"
Neji glanced at Sasuke. "Of course it was real. Why are you asking?"
Sasuke curled his lips. "You wouldn’t understand. There’s a famous saying in our Uchiha clan: ’What you see with your eyes and hear with your ears isn’t necessarily the truth.’ As long as our visual prowess is powerful enough, we Uchiha can use genjutsu to make people unable to distinguish reality from illusion."
Neji froze for a moment. "You suspect we were just caught in a genjutsu?"
Sasuke nodded slightly and said solemnly, "Brother Shisui possesses the Mangekyo Sharingan. If he cast a genjutsu on us, my Sharingan wouldn’t be able to resist it."
Neji was speechless.
"Then why would Shisui-sensei cast a genjutsu on us? That doesn’t make any sense!"
Sasuke immediately shot back, "Then why is the principal so powerful? According to what you said, the principal should be even stronger than the Hokage! But how is that possible? How could the principal possibly be stronger than the Hokage? That doesn’t make any sense either!"
"Well..."
Neji was left completely speechless by Sasuke’s questioning.
Sasuke looked at Neji smugly and declared, "See? My theory makes much more sense, doesn’t it? We must have been caught in a genjutsu just now. That’s definitely what happened!"
Neji turned his head and gazed toward the woods they had just visited.
"Could Sensei really... really be even stronger than the Hokage?"