Naruto: Heaven Rewards Diligence

In Konoha Village…

Inside a small barrier, Naruto sat cross-legged. His expression shifted between calm focus and sudden bursts of joy, as if countless inspirations were flowing through him.

A faint, almost imperceptible aura surrounded him—yet it burned like a celestial furnace, radiant and overwhelming.

[Qi and Blood +5, Qi and Blood +10… Natural Energy +5, converting… Sage Chakra +6]

Naruto felt as though his head might split open. Insights surged through him like a flood.

What is Taijutsu? What is Martial Arts?

He continued his daily training without fail, careful to maintain the barrier so the sounds of his cultivation wouldn't leak out. Recently, his grasp of Natural Energy had sharpened, his perception growing keener each day.

He had even begun to push his research beyond the realm of the Unbreakable Golden Body. After weeks of exploration, he stood at the edge of a breakthrough.

Heaven rewards diligence. His cultivation surged, as if the world itself were revealing its ultimate truth.

Taijutsu… moves, drills, techniques.

Martial Arts… the culmination of it all.

Naruto realized why Taijutsu was often dismissed. Training the body was painstaking, requiring endless repetition and crude methods to force out hidden potential. Yet it was precisely this difficulty that made the Eight Gates so brilliant—it developed the body's hidden reserves, unlocking potential much like the "gates" described in the martial arts novels of his past life.

The Eight Gates corresponded to the Eight Trigrams. Each gate opened drew out hidden strength, but in a rough, dangerous way. The body could barely withstand the strain, and the side effects were nothing short of agony.

[Crude Martial Arts Concept +50, Crude Martial Arts Concept +80…]

Naruto's path grew clearer.

The progression of Martial Arts: first temper the skin, then strengthen the body, then refine the bones, harden the tendons, and finally polish the five viscera and six organs.

Only then introduce Natural Energy to forge the strongest possible body.

His previous concept of the Unbreakable Golden Body was already being overturned and rebuilt.

Inspired by Taiji, Naruto deepened his understanding of the difference between Taijutsu-nin and Ninjutsu-nin.

One was Yin, the other Yang.

Perhaps Taijutsu practitioners should stand apart, not bound by the framework of Ninjutsu at all.

In this world, before Chakra, Samurai had dominated through relentless training. But Chakra changed everything. Even children barely past six years old could overwhelm Samurai with a single technique. Ninjutsu widened the gap even further, and so the Samurai faded into irrelevance.

Naruto's path was different. His Martial Arts required no Chakra, relying solely on Qi and Blood, before merging with Natural Energy to transcend human limits.

This raised the ceiling of Taijutsu cultivation itself.

Training skin. Strengthening the body. Refining bones. Tempering tendons. Polishing organs.

Step by step, the body was transformed into something terrifying. A path to Kage-level strength—without a drop of Ninjutsu talent.

This was Naruto's creation, forged from the martial concepts of his past life, refined through Heaven Rewards Diligence.

He called it Martial Arts, not Taijutsu.

If Martial Artists were warriors, then Shinobi were like mages.

Warriors started weak, but in time, they could surpass even the strongest Ninja—slaughtering them before they could form a single hand seal.

Which meant that in the future, for a Shinobi to contend with a martial artist, even their hand seals would need to evolve—shorter, faster, more efficient.

A new power stirred within Naruto's body: the power of Qi and Blood.

At the same time, his control of Natural Energy grew sharper. The energy he absorbed transformed steadily into Sage Chakra.

Dark markings began to creep across the corners of his eyes.

Naruto had unconsciously stepped into Sage Mode.

[Natural Energy Affinity +3, Natural Energy Affinity +4…]

As his Martial Arts system evolved, he slowly opened his eyes, his gaze flashing like lightning.

His strength, once at the pseudo–Golden Body realm, was now reorganizing under his new system. He had directly bypassed the stages of skin tempering and body strengthening, stabilizing himself at the bone refinement stage.

The path of Martial Arts had finally begun.

At this stage, Naruto's strength appeared to be only at the level of a Chunin. On the surface, it seemed weaker than before—but in reality, his body had been tempered to an entirely new level.

Even if he were asleep, a Chunin-level strike would not be enough to seriously injure him.

That didn't mean he was invincible—too many such blows could still prove fatal—but his defense was already far beyond that of an ordinary Shinobi.

The Martial Arts Stages

Skin Training grants basic defense. Not enough to completely withstand a Genin's attack, but a step forward.

Body Strengthening greatly boosts durability and physical power, enough to contend evenly with a Genin.

Bone Training pushes endurance and raw strength further, placing one at the Chunin level.

Tendon Training allows the body to generate explosive force, propelling one to the Jonin level.

Viscera Refinement tempers the five organs and six viscera, forging a body of perfect balance. A single casual strike carries mountain-crushing force, and speed easily breaks the sound barrier.

At this final stage, Natural Energy must be introduced. Here, the paths of Ninja and Martial Artists diverge.

Shinobi strengthen their bodies only to better support their Ninjutsu.

Martial Artists strengthen their bodies as the primary weapon—to shatter mountains and split seas with raw strength alone.

At this point, a Martial Artist's power could rival that of a Super Kage.

...

What lies beyond?

Naruto didn't know.

Perhaps by mastering all five basic natures—Wind, Lightning, Water, Fire, and Earth—along with Yin and Yang, the path to the Six Paths realm would reveal itself.

In the original timeline, Uchiha Madara had reached this precipice. But generating true Six Paths power was too difficult, and his lifespan was running out. So he turned to the path of the Ten-Tails.

The Nine Tailed Beasts combined to form the Ten-Tails. And the Ten-Tails itself was born from the Divine Tree—the original source of its power. To obtain the Ten-Tails was to seize control of the power of the Six Paths.

There was also the method of receiving power directly from a Six Paths-level existence. But that was far from easy. Naruto and Sasuke had only managed it because Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths himself, had chosen to grant them his strength. At sixteen years old, they entered the Six Paths realm, gaining Truth-Seeking Orbs.

Their bloodline connection as descendants of Hagoromo made the process easier for them.

But for a Martial Artist, Naruto believed, the road to the Six Paths realm must be tied to Natural Energy—just as the Three Great Sage Lands had endured for centuries, safeguarded by their unique connection to nature itself.

In this world, unless one carried the blood of the Ōtsutsuki Clan, reaching the Six Paths realm through the Shinobi system alone was nearly impossible.

For most Ninja, the Shadow Level was the limit. With the aid of Sage Mode and Natural Energy, one might break into the Super Kage tier. But Chakra itself came with a cost—it wore down the body and shortened lifespan.

And in the battles yet to come, against enemies from the Ōtsutsuki Clan… relying solely on Chakra would be nothing but suicide.

This was why Naruto remained steadfast in cultivating Martial Arts and Taijutsu. Against those who wielded godlike Chakra, he would need something different—something stronger.

...

TN:

⚒️ Pa-treon-com/LordMerlin (+60 Chaps)