Land of Fire.
Border region.
Led by Orochimaru, nearly a hundred ninjas, including Kaede, arrived at a small town.
The entire town had already been reduced to ruins. Some areas were still burning, and many corpses lay scattered around.
"Report, Orochimaru-sama! These are traces of a battle from three days ago!"
A ninja quickly scouted the town and reported back to Orochimaru.
A dangerous gleam flickered in Orochimaru's snake-like eyes as he swept his gaze across the ruined settlement. In a hoarse voice, he said, "The traces are from three days ago. Iwagakure's forces must already be gone, but we're now inside their area of activity. It's only a matter of time before we encounter them."
"Settle down and make camp here."
Orochimaru issued the order.
Since they were already at the Land of Fire's border, where conflict could break out at any time, the group had traveled an entire day to get here. Though they remained combat-ready, pressing forward any further would consume more energy. If they were to walk into an ambush by Hidden Stone ninja in that state, it would be extremely dangerous.
"Yes, sir!"
The Chunin responded immediately.
The nearby ninjas exchanged glances and quickly moved into the town. They began clearing away the bodies, extinguishing the fires on the damaged buildings, and setting up a simple camp.
Once the camp was set up, in the central tent, Orochimaru stood in front of a stone platform, gazing at a map spread out across it, a thoughtful expression on his face.
After a few moments of silence, Orochimaru suddenly said:
"Where do you think the Hidden Stone ninja are now?"
Only Orochimaru and Kaede were present in the command tent. Kaede stood to the side, also looking at the map. Upon hearing Orochimaru's question, he pondered for a moment and replied, "Since Iwagakure's advance force came to conduct harassment attacks, they probably wouldn't return to the Land of Grass this quickly."
Orochimaru let out a low chuckle. "Not a bad deduction. I think the same. And I also believe they wouldn't dare to push deeper into the Land of Fire. That leaves only these two possible directions."
As he spoke, he placed two small markers on the map to indicate the routes.
After finishing, he paused briefly and then said, "Go bring the Third and Fourth Squads here."
Kaede nodded and left the tent. Before long, he returned with two squads, eight people in total.
The captains of the squads were both jonin: one from the Hyuga clan, and the other from the Uchiha clan. The elite Chunin in the teams were all skilled in sensory and scouting techniques.
"Hyuga Setsuna, take your squad and scout in this direction…"
"Uchiha Tsuki, you'll scout in this direction…"
Orochimaru gave the two squads their orders and warned in a deep voice, "If you encounter an isolated Hidden Stone ninja, try to gather intel. In any other case, do not act recklessly."
"Yes, sir."
The two captains responded respectfully.
Although they were from the prestigious Hyuga and Uchiha clans, they still held great respect for Orochimaru, whose legendary feats in the Second Great Ninja War had earned him renown across the shinobi world.
After watching the two squads depart, Orochimaru tilted his head and gave Kaede a faint smile. "You can go back and rest now, Kaede. Be prepared. We may be facing a battle soon."
Kaede nodded and left the tent.
Upon returning to his own tent, Kaede didn't go straight to sleep. Instead, after eating something, he began training.
He hadn't stopped his training even once since leaving Konoha, and as a result, the Fourth Gate of the Eight Inner Gates was now on the verge of opening thanks to his constant effort.
For someone like him, who had mastered the ability to reverse time, once he opened the Fourth Gate, he could theoretically use its power without limit.
Just how fast would he be under quadruple speed with the Fourth Gate open?
Kaede couldn't say for sure, but he estimated that at that speed, he'd be able to unleash Morning Peacock. In other words, his sheer speed alone would make it nearly impossible for even Kage-level opponents to keep up with him.
With that kind of speed, combined with the power of time reversal, there would be few who could pose any threat to him on the battlefield of the Third Great Ninja War.
And the number of enemy ninjas he could kill would drastically increase.
Even regular jonin and elite jonin would be no match for him in the Fourth Gate's quadruple-speed state. Even quasi-Kage-level opponents would find it nearly impossible to escape death once targeted by him!
Hoo...
Taking a deep breath, Kaede began doing basic push-ups inside the tent.
When it came to training in the Eight Gates, there were no shortcuts. opening the gates required simple but relentless physical training: push-ups, squats, and more. Thousands upon thousands of repetitions were necessary to gradually strengthen the body, loosening the internal constraints of the Eight Gates one step at a time.
Kaede wore weighted gear during training.
Thanks to his ability to reverse time, he didn't have to worry about being too exhausted to fight in case of a surprise attack. If necessary, he could just rewind his body to its pre-training state, wasting only a bit of training time.
So along the way, he carried the heaviest weights he could manage and trained rigorously whenever they made camp. This was already his fourth intense session.
331.
332.
333…
Kaede moved quickly through the push-ups. only after passing 300 did his speed start to slow. His movements became more rigid, and his arms began to tremble slightly.
486.
487.
Counting silently in his heart, the soreness in his arms grew stronger and stronger, but Kaede didn't stop. His willpower endured the pain and pressed forward.
To be honest, after unlocking the power of time reversal, Kaede didn't need to continue cultivating the Eight Gates. With just regular ninjutsu and taijutsu, he could already dominate most of the shinobi world.
But after some thought, he decided not to abandon the Eight Gates.
Partly because the Eight Gates still suited him well.
Partly because, truth be told, his willpower wasn't particularly strong, and the grueling training of the Eight Gates helped temper his spirit and mind, allowing him to grow not just physically but mentally.
And there was one more, critical reason:
The Eight Gates granted near-complete immunity to most genjutsu!
Genjutsu worked by disturbing the chakra within the opponent's body, throwing off their mental state and trapping them in illusions.
But the Eight Gates technique forced chakra to explode through the brain and body from the very first gate. From the Second Gate all the way to the Eighth, the chakra was in a rampaging state!
Trying to cast genjutsu on someone in that condition was nearly impossible, because even the user of the Eight Gates couldn't fully control their own chakra while in that state. How could anyone else hope to disrupt it?
And genjutsu happened to be one of Kaede's weaknesses.
His skill in genjutsu was mediocre at best. If someone like Orochimaru, a Kage-level expert, were to cast genjutsu on him, he likely wouldn't be able to resist.
But if he mastered the Eight Gates, things would be different. The more gates he opened, the more violent his chakra became, and the harder it would be to fall into genjutsu!
Once he reached the Fifth Gate, he'd already be immune to the vast majority of genjutsu.
As for the Eighth Gate…
Even Madara Uchiha, in his Six Paths mode, didn't bother trying genjutsu on Might Guy in the Eighth Gate state. With all of Madara's vast combat experience, there could only be one reason for that:
Genjutsu simply didn't work on someone in the "Eight Gates Formation" state.
When your chakra was rampaging to the very limit, like it was for "Death Gate Guy", not even the Rinnegan's ocular power at the level of the Sage of Six Paths could disturb it.