The training ground was quiet at dawn.
Satoru arrived before sunrise, the same clearing near the edge of the Yamanaka compound, now familiar territory. The grass was wet with dew, and a thin mist clung to the ground, softening the edges of the trees. He carried the Eight Gates scroll, his notebook, water, and basic recovery supplies.
He placed the scroll on a flat stone where he could reference it easily. His notebook already had a new heading written on the first page.
First Gate — Controlled Testing.
He wasn't trying to discover whether the Gate worked anymore. He was trying to determine how it worked for him.
His protocol was strict. One activation per day. Activation only at dawn. No Second Gate. No combat simulations yet. He would record activation time, duration, physical sensations, chakra response, maximum output, time until normal mobility returned, headaches or other side effects. He would also record his condition before activation because his recovery status mattered.
If I can't measure it, I can't control it.
He sat down and began meditation.
Day One — Forty Seconds
He found the familiar internal restraint. The subtle tightening. The instinctive withdrawal. The signal that said enough.
He used the same deliberate mental command.
Not today.
The First Gate opened successfully. The activation was noticeably easier than the first time. He immediately began counting. He focused on maintaining the permission rather than repeatedly forcing the Gate open.
For the first several seconds, everything felt controlled. He experimented with tiny movements. Flexing fingers. Rotating shoulders. Shifting his stance. The enhanced state responded immediately.
Around forty seconds, the strain became significantly stronger. His chakra pathways began feeling increasingly stressed. His muscles became difficult to control. He recognised the warning signs.
He closed the Gate rather than trying to squeeze out another few seconds.
The aftermath hit. He dropped to one knee. Breathing heavily. Not as catastrophic as the original activation, but still severe.
He recorded the results. Duration: approximately forty seconds. Recovery: several hours. Side effects: exhaustion, headache, muscle soreness.
Knowing how to activate the Gate doesn't mean knowing how long I can safely maintain it.
Day Two — One Minute Ten Seconds
He returned the next morning. His body had recovered enough for another controlled attempt.
He deliberately approached the Gate differently. Instead of treating activation as a switch, he treated it as maintaining a continuous decision.
The Gate opened. He noticed that maintaining it was easier when his mind remained calm. He reached forty seconds without experiencing the same sudden deterioration. He pushed farther. One minute. Then ten more seconds.
He closed the Gate deliberately before the strain became overwhelming. Still collapsed afterwards. But this time the recovery was noticeably easier.
He wrote down the improvement.
Better mental control reduces unnecessary strain.
Back at his apartment, he reviewed his notes. His notebook had multiple pages dedicated entirely to the First Gate. He compared Day One and Day Two.
Activation was becoming easier. The Gate didn't require constant chakra pressure. Mental stability seemed more important than raw chakra output.
He circled one observation: The Gate responds to intention more than force.
Day Three — The Mistake
He became overconfident.
Not recklessly arrogant. Simply curious about whether the First Gate could be activated more than once.
What happens if I close it, recover briefly, then open it again?
He completed his first activation. Closed it. Waited. His body felt somewhat recovered, but clearly wasn't.
He opened the First Gate again.
The second activation felt dramatically worse. Chakra depletion came faster. His muscles responded sluggishly despite the Gate being open. His head began pounding. His vision started becoming unstable.
He immediately recognised that something was wrong. He shut the Gate.
Almost blacked out. He managed to remain conscious, but barely.
The First Gate isn't a resource that simply resets when closed. The body pays a cumulative cost.
He realised he had just tested exactly what he had previously warned himself against.
Never assume the opponent will give you time to recover.
Except this time, he was his own opponent.
He lay on his bed. Drinking water slowly. Staring at the ceiling.
His head was pounding. His muscles felt like they were made of lead.
He was irritated with himself. Not because he had experimented. Because he had failed to establish a proper control variable first.
I tested repeated activation before understanding recovery requirements.
He updated his protocol. One activation per day remained absolute. He added another rule: no testing while residual fatigue remained.
He closed his eyes.
Eventually fell asleep.
Day Four — The Rhythm
He returned to the training ground.
This time, something felt different. He understood the rhythm of activation.
He didn't think open.
He thought allow.
The First Gate opened almost naturally. The activation was smoother than before. The initial surge was less jarring. He realised that the mental transition itself had become part of his training.
The First Gate doesn't need to be continuously forced open. Once opened, it can remain active through sustained intention.
He was essentially maintaining the original decision: I permit this.
His body stopped fighting him.
He decided to test whether the Gate's effects remained uniform across his body. He started with slow movement. Walked. Changed direction. Raised his arms. Performed basic footwork.
Everything felt enhanced. But when he concentrated on a particular movement, something strange happened.
The power seemed to concentrate toward the muscles he was actively using. When he shifted his stance, his legs felt especially powerful. When he raised an arm, his upper body became more responsive.
The Gate isn't simply dumping an equal amount of additional energy into every muscle. My body is utilising available capacity where it is needed.
The Punch Test
He chose a training post rather than a living target.
He activated the First Gate. Took his stance. Focused on one punch. His Sharingan wasn't even necessary. He simply wanted to observe physical output.
He threw the punch.
CRACK!
The training post splintered. Pieces of wood broke away.
He froze.
He stared at his fist. Then at the damaged post.
This was dramatically beyond his normal physical strength.
But he noticed something else. The rest of his body felt momentarily weaker. The enhanced sensation around the punching arm faded slightly. Chakra appeared to have surged toward the muscles responsible for the strike.
The First Gate increases available performance capacity. The body still decides where that capacity is spent.
Testing Speed
He set up a short, straight-line sprint. Nothing elaborate. Just enough distance to measure acceleration.
He opened the First Gate. Took off.
His body accelerated far faster than expected. Chakra surged violently through his pathways. The scarred sections of his network reacted badly.
He experienced a sharp internal protest.
He immediately recognized the difference between muscles capable of producing output and chakra pathways capable of supporting that output.
He stopped immediately. Closed the Gate. His breathing became heavy. He sat down rather than risking another movement.
He focused inward. His pathways felt like they were burning under the strain.
The problem wasn't his muscles. The First Gate had successfully removed the neurological limiter. His physical capacity was available. But his damaged chakra network couldn't safely support the full output for long.
The Gate removed the limiter. It did not remove the damage. The bottleneck has simply moved.
Before: Brain → limiter → muscles.
Now: Brain → no limiter → damaged chakra pathways → muscles.
He retrieved his notebook and wrote a clear conclusion.
"The Gate removes the brain's limiter. It does not remove the body's damage. My pathways are the bottleneck now. I need to heal before I can fully utilise even the First Gate."
He underlined the body's damage.
Then underlined bottleneck.
He thought back to Tadashi's warnings. His pathways were still healing. His Yin-Yang balance remained delicate. The First Gate was exposing exactly how much his body had yet to recover.
I may have learned the First Gate faster than my body is capable of safely using it.
This was frustrating. But it was also useful information.
His recovery period now had a concrete purpose. Healing wasn't merely medical recovery. It was increasing the amount of power he could safely extract from the technique.
Day Five and Six — Refinement
He didn't attempt the Second Gate. He didn't try to extend his First Gate duration dramatically.
Instead, he worked on efficiency. Daily activation. Controlled movement. Controlled shutdown. Monitoring his pathways.
He practised maintaining the permission state without mental strain. His activation became increasingly consistent.
The First Gate began feeling less like a foreign technique. The initial surge became familiar. He learned what early warning signs felt like. He recognised muscle fatigue, chakra pathway strain, headache onset, loss of precision.
He began shutting the Gate before reaching the point of collapse.
Day Seven — Ninety Seconds
By the end of the week, he began his final test.
The forest was familiar now. Same clearing. Same stone. Same scroll. Same notebook.
But Satoru himself had changed.
He opened the First Gate. Maintained it calmly. Moved through a series of controlled exercises.
He reached one minute. One minute fifteen. One minute thirty.
Ninety seconds.
He didn't wait until his body screamed. He deliberately closed the Gate.
The exhaustion arrived. But this time he remained upright. He breathed through it.
He had learned how to shut down before reaching catastrophic fatigue.
He recorded the final numbers.
Reliable First Gate duration: approximately ninety seconds. Recovery before normal functionality: approximately six hours.
Still not suitable for sustained combat. Still dangerous. Still limited by his recovering chakra pathways.
But now activation was reliable. Shutdown was deliberate. Warning signs were recognisable. Duration was measurable.
He considered this a genuine foundation.
He looked at his notes. The First Gate wasn't battlefield-ready yet. If he used it in combat, ninety seconds was short. Recovery afterwards was severe. His damaged pathways created another vulnerability.
But he didn't consider the week a failure. He had transformed an unknown technique into something measurable.
Don't maximise power. Maximise usable power.
This fit directly with his broader post-poison philosophy. Make every unit of chakra worth more. Make every opening count. Make every weakness predictable.
A faint smile appeared.
He muttered, "Tomorrow, I find Might Guy."
Brief pause.
"Let's see what the Green Beast has to teach me."
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