Starts In Konoha: Unlocking Shadow Clone

"Guy-sensei, didn't you say the Eight Gates were extremely difficult? How come he's unlocking them so easily?"

Lee looked at Naruto, who was advancing through the gates with such ease, and felt like he might burst into tears.

Guy was momentarily at a loss for words and said, "Lee, don't be discouraged. Kakashi must have secretly taught him."

"Taught him? I can only open the first gate… I haven't even reached the Gate of Healing."

Kakashi's casual remark left Guy even more speechless.

After a long pause, Guy finally said, "Lee, it's likely that Naruto has been training diligently in the past, so after understanding the principles, he's just able to progress faster. But that's it. The further you go, the more difficult the Eight Gates will be."

Hearing this, Lee nodded, then turned his head to look at Naruto. He found that Naruto had a bitter look on his face, which restored his confidence.

"Now it's getting tough!"

Naruto said with a bitter face.

[Eight Gates: Current Status, Gate of Healing.]

[Requirement to unlock the Gate of Life: Perform 3 to the power of 3 push-ups.]

Looking at the system panel, Naruto began to suspect a pattern.

'Will it be 4 to the power of 4 next time?'

With this thought in mind, Naruto quickly did 27 push-ups. Almost immediately, the system chimed again.

[It has been detected that the host has met the condition. Gate of Life activated successfully.]

[Gate of Life: Further boosts attack and speed; the body begins to turn red from increased blood flow, emitting green energy. This is the last 'safe zone' of the Eight Gates.]

As the system's message faded, Naruto felt something within him shatter. His pale skin flushed a vivid red, and a powerful green energy began to glow around him.

"Guy-sensei, look at him!"

Lee's newly regained confidence was dealt another heavy blow instantly.

"This, this, this…"

Guy was at a complete loss. He wanted to come up with a logical explanation, but no matter how he looked at it, Naruto's progress was entirely unscientific!

Even for someone as strong as him, mastering the Eight Gates had come at a tremendous cost. So he didn't know how could Naruto unlock them so effortlessly.

Naruto, however, ignored the whispers around him. Now wasn't the time to flaunt his power, and he quickly checked the system panel to confirm his hunch.

[Eight Gates: Current Status, Gate of Life.]

[Requirement to unlock the Gate of Pain: Perform 4 to the power of 4 push-ups.]

Seeing this, Naruto couldn't help but let out a deep sigh, 'So it really is like that. This is going to be a nightmare...'

'4 to the power of 4 wasn't impossible… 256 push-ups were still manageable. But won't the final Gate of Death at 8 to the power of 8?'

'That was as impossible as jumping to the moon.'

After a quick mental calculation, Naruto realized that 8 to the power of 8 meant 16,777,246 push-ups… over sixteen million! No way could he finish that without dying from exhaustion.

'Who thought up this absurd requirement?!'

Naruto already had a plan: if he ever faced an unbeatable enemy, he would use the Eight Gates, open the ultimate Gate of Death as a last resort, and then revive himself with his one-time resurrection coin.

But at this rate, even doing 10,000 push-ups a day would mean more than four years of training just to open the final gate. Naruto simply cannot bear such hardship.

'What should I do?'

Naruto couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

'Should I give up the Eight Gates and move on to the next plan?'

Besides the Eight Gates, Naruto still had one more plan in mind.

In the original work, after the preliminary matches, Naruto will meet Jiraiya, who is hiding in Konoha looking for materials, and then Naruto will undergoe a period of intense training with him.

If he goes with Jiraiya to Mount Myoboku, he'll definitely gain some great rewards.

However, Naruto was unwilling to give up the Eight Gates just like that.

'Wait!'

'Jiraiya?'

Thinking of Jiraiya, Naruto's eyes suddenly lit up.

'After following Jiraiya to Myoboku Mountain to learn Senjutsu, one of the things Naruto was best at was to gather Senjutsu Chakra through meditation using shadow clones, and then disband the shadow clones to transfer the Senjutsu Chakra to the main body.'

'In that case, if I use shadow clones to do push-ups, it should work the same way, right?'

The more Naruto thought about it, the more excited Naruto became. He immediately began to try it out.

Bang, bang, bang!

Naruto created 256 clones, and they all dropped down to do a single push-up together.

After he was done, Naruto waited expectantly for the system notification sound, but it did not come.

'Could it be that I couldn't exploit this bug?'

Naruto's excited heart cooled down again. He reluctantly dispelled the clones.

However, at the next moment, a system prompt sounded in Naruto's mind.

[It has been detected that the host has met the condition. Gate of Pain activated successfully. ]

[Gate of Pain: Further increases attack and speed. The body begins to take damage, entering the dangerous zone of the Eight Gates, officially mastering the Eight Gates Technique.]

Feeling the changes in his body, Naruto's heart nearly jumped out of his chest from the excitement.

'It turns out that doing push-ups with shadow clones is effective. I just needed to dispel them and return to the main body to complete the process.'

'In any case, since this method works, then mastering the Eight Gates will be easy.'

'Since I don't need the shadow clones for combat, I can just make them perform push-ups.'

With that in mind, Naruto formed the necessary hand seals and summoned as many clones as possible.

Bang, bang, bang!

White smoke rose continuously as more and more shadow clones appeared. Although these shadow clones have low health and would disappear with a single hit, this resulted in a full shadow 10,000 clones being created!

[Eight Gates: Current state, Gate of Pain.]

[Requirement to unlock the Gate of Limit: Perform 5 to the power of 5 push-ups.]

Five to the power of five means 3,125 push-ups.

For Naruto now, it's just a piece of cake.

After one round of push-ups, he successfully activated the Gate of Limit.

'Awesome!'

In his excitement, Naruto continued down the path of quickly unlocking the Eight Gates.

With 10,000 clones, each clone doing 30 push-ups per minute, in just an hour he completed an astounding 18 million push-ups, surpassing the remaining requirement of 17,647,415 by over 350,000.

He exceeded all the training requirements for the Eight Gates.

[It has been detected that the host has met the condition. Gate of Death activated successfully.]

[Gate of Death: The ultimate final gate that results in death upon use. When all the Eight Gates are opened, it's called the 'Eight Gates Formation'. The body releases red steam from evaporating blood, bestowing power dozens of times beyond the Kage-level. It can create air-shattering punches or facilitate aerial movement. Can be used briefly until death or consume all life force in a single attack that produces energy waves strong enough to distort space.]

[Warm reminder: Since the Eight Gates is a system sign-in reward, it will not cause damage to the host within five seconds of use every day.]

'Five seconds without any damage… isn't that the legendary five-second invincibility!'

Hearing the system's additional message, Naruto smiled happily.

After all, five seconds may not seem like much, but in a duel between experts, a single move often determines victory, so five seconds is more than enough!