Naruto: Tango with Death

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While I was nerding myself out, Guy patted his chest and said, "What I just showed you was the technique I want to teach you, the Eight Gates."

My attention went back to him as I asked, "How does it work?"

Guy slowly traced a path from his head down his spine as he said, "Our mind limits our body's strength at all times so that it wouldn't injure itself, because it wouldn't be able to resist it's own strength. The Gates are the physical limits placed by the brain on our body."

He continued, "This technique needs you to unlock those gates with your mind, which will allow you to garner a much greater strength than normal. However, those limiters were there for a reason in the first place."

This time, I said, "You injure yourself as you open the gates, right?"

Guy nodded and explained, "The more gates you open, the worse the strain on your body. As for the final gate, the Eight Gate, while it would give you an incredible power, it would also kill you, so it must only be used in cases of extreme peril."

I nodded, before asking, "So, how am I supposed to open these gates?"

Guy grinned and replied, "It all starts with the first gate, the Gate of Opening. Opening it is rather simple. All you need to do is push your body to it's limits, and when you feel you cannot move anymore, you may feel a strange sensation."

I smiled and asked with some excitement, "Then, what are we waiting for?"

Guy grinned, and so we started our training for today. In our training together, I had massively improved physically, and although I couldn't yet reach the requirements he had given me, I was getting closer every day.

I, again, trained, to my limit. Unfortunately, I did not feel the tingle Guy talked about. But with time, I am confident I will eventually manage to master this technique.

We trained for a good part of the afternoon, after which I cleaned myself, changed into my Anbu clothes, which had been cleaned, and headed for the Hokage's Tower.

At 8.50 PM, I reached the Hokage's Tower, and I saw my team was already there, waiting for me. I appeared next to them, and heard Itachi say, "Spider."

I nodded, "Karasu."

Next to us, Yugao, or Cat, said, "News of what happened in the Land of Forests has started spreading. Were you even there?"

I smiled slightly under my mask, and muttered, "I was."

I turned to Itachi and Bear, and said, "By the way, sorry for the reinforcements you encountered, that was me. I had to give some info to finish my mission."

Bear snorted, "A few more punks did not change anything."

Itachi added, "Considering the small number of reinforcements, you must have used the intel quite late. Thank you for that."

I nodded, before asking, "So, are we going?"

Itachi nodded, and together we walked into the tower.

The staff looked at us from a distance, not daring to get close. Anbu was always quite intimidating.

We didn't have to wait for long before we got inside the Hokage's office.

Minato looked at us seriously as the moment the door was closed, he said, "Team Ro, you have completed the mission with success. The reward for this S Rank Mission is 6 million Ryo."

My teammates did not show much of a response to that, so Minato added, "You will be splitting this among yourselves."

His eyes then moved to me, and he added, "Spider, you were impressive for your first mission, and I believe bonuses are due."

I sent a peek at my teammates, but only saw nods. Surprising, although I guess working with Itachi for several years did help.

Minato took out a scroll and said, "First off, you provided the village with quite a few bodies of ninjas from the Hidden Mist, some Jonins and Tokubetsu Jonins, and even a member of the Yuki Clan, as well as an S Rank Missing Nin from their village. Their collective bounty goes up to 8.65 million Ryo, for their death."

I quipped in at that moment, "I didn't personally kill all of them, only Juzo and the Yuki clan member. The others… I only participated."

Minato frowned and said, "You resulted in their death, so the bounty goes to you. Bringing their bodies back for research doubles the bounty, so 17.3 Million Ryo."

I am fucking rich!

And Minato wasn't even done.

"You also led one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, Kisame Hoshigaki, in betraying the Hidden Mist, bringing with him one of their swords. This severely weakened one of our enemies, and pushed back a possible conflict with them by several years at least. Bonus of 5 Million."

22.3 Million. Yay.

"Finally, I think we can all agree your mission evaluation should be beyond perfect, you completed all your objectives, did not leave a single trace of Konoha being the source, and even set up a scene for Konoha to come in and take over the country. I think adding another 5 Million is only due. SO that makes a total bonus of 27.3 Million Ryo."

I felt several pats in the back from my teammates, and although I could only see their eyes, I could see they were smiling, bereft of any jealousy.

I smiled myself, and asked, "Lord Hokage, may I ask for a different payment?"

Minato nodded, smiling this time, and said, "I guessed you would say that. If you want, you can exchange 25 Million Ryo for an S Rank Jutsu and 5 A Rank Jutsus, if you choose well."

I nodded, excited I was finally getting my first S Rank Jutsu.

The thing about S Rank Jutsus, and even A Rank ones, is that they can't just be bought with money. Instead, certain achievements had to be met. Here, for example, I completed an S Rank Mission, a particularly important one, so I was given the choice.

Minato then gave me a little booklet, filled with Konoha's strongest Jutsus, and turned to my Teammates, to ask for their preferred rewards, as well as their bonuses.

As for me, I read the booklet, first looking at the S Rank techniques.

The village had more S Rank techniques than I thought they would, there was even the Flying Thunder God Technique. It was tempting, I could get the technique that made Minato a legend for only 25 Million Ryo, but I quickly looked away from it.

It was powerful, but I wasn't searching for power. Instead, what I aimed for was to find a technique with a great number of hand seals, which would save me days of work with my research on my Tenketsu Points.

And the Flying Thunder God, for all of it's power, was not really Ninjutsu, but rather a mix of Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu. No handsigns were needed for this Jutsu, only a mastery of Fuinjutsu, as well as excellent Chakra Control and Body Control.

I didn't doubt I fulfilled the requirements to learn the technique, but it unfortunately wasn't time for me to learn it. I hope I will learn it one day, but doing so today would be foolish.

So instead I turned to the real Ninjutsu, more precisely the Suiton chapter, because while I was going for the jutsus with the most handsigns, I also would like to learn said jutsu, for its power.

And I didn't take long to find the technique I wanted.

Suiton: Water Severing Wave.

The user would mould chakra in their body to create a large amount of water, before spitting it a high powered stream of water. Well, they describe it as a stream, but it essentially works as a laser.

As for its power… well, I think I remember Tobirama cutting off the God Tree's roots with this jutsu, so it should be good enough power wise.

It also required quite a few handsigns, the booklet didn't say which ones it was or anyone reading this could learn every jutsu without paying, but it did say the number of handsigns, so one may choose according to their preference.