Chapter 2
Understanding
'This is incredible' Naruto thought as he gazed upon the sight in front of him. He was floating in a voidlike space; darkness surrounding his entire being. Floating in front of him was a translucent blue sphere sized at a little over half his height.
The inside of the sphere was as violent as a hurricane as a sort of blue energy whirled chaotically. At first glance Naruto knew the energy was chakra; specifically his. What he didn't understand was the sphere containing it.
He looked around him-At the seemingly never ending darkness which his chakra could expand to then back to the ball. Whatever this constriction was he would find a way to get rid of it and allow his chakra to expand. On the other hand he was afraid of the consequences of doing so.
Would he die? Would breaking the sphere somehow cripple his ability to use chakra. Would-
Oh? It has been a long time since a human has delved this deep into their mind
Naruto looked around, scanning every angle to find nothing. He gulped as he was a sitting duck. "Who are you? Show yourself!" He commanded anxious and fearful for his well being. Deep snickers could be heard from the being.
Oh me? Well, you wouldn't know me and I kind of can't show myself in my current… situation. Although it has been quite a long time since I have met a human who has reached their core energy… I shall humor you.
I am a being who has lived for thousands of years. I have seen the fall of the greatest empires, the discovery of revolutionary technology, the extinction of species… You may ask me one question and I will answer it to the best of my abilities.
Naruto looked startled. The being was giving him the opportunity to ask any question he desired but it had to be within it's wisdom. Without a question Naruto knew asking about the sphere was the safest choice but there were so many things he wished he could ask.
Who were his parents? What is the single greatest wisdom you could give to me? What came first, the egg or the chicken? Instead of those Naruto chose the one he was most curious about.
"Tell me all you know about this core energy" Naruto demanded while pointing at the sphere of energy. The being cleared his throat.
That sphere is not the core energy itself although it is a very important part of it. You see this whole place you see is your core energy or rather you humans have named it 'the gate of death'.
As you may know the human body has 361 tenketsu's all systematically placed throughout the body. With these nodes shinobi are able to manipulate chakra; changing the energies properties into the elements, adhesives and healing just to name a few usages.
Each of the tenketsu are encoded with laws or rules on how to manipulate chakra. Every node is encoded the same way except 8.
"The 8 gates, am I correct?" Naruto cut off the being as his curiosity was at its peak.
Do not cut me off again or I am going to stop. Do you understand?
Naruto nodded.
Now, the 8 gates are special. Each one of them is bigger than all the other tenketsu put together. This in turn makes their passage ways able to transverse chakra much faster in much more abundance to the body. The problem is the other tenketsus other than the 8 are much smaller meaning if they were to oversend chakra to the regulars the node would implode.
At their current state they are used as limiters. That limit varies person to person; for a civilian that percentage would be miniscule compared to a kage. However, limiters were not the 8's main design.
Opening, Healing, Pain, Limit, View, Wonder and 'Death'
Most of the names appointed by you humans point associate with their main purpose but some are just misleading. For example, the Gate of Opening is thought to remove the users mental inhibitions allowing them to use 100% of their brain.
Instead the gate of opening does what its name implies. The name is only half right as the gate can also shrink or close the users tenketsus all together. This controls the size of all tenketsus, in the process controlling all energy flow throughout the body.
The gates of Healing, Pain and Limit are all very similar and yet have distinct enough differences. Healing rapidly increases the users healing capabilities to extraordinary speed. The only drawback is that the faster the user force heals the more stored fat and energy. If all the fat on the user's body is eaten it will start eating away at muscle then organs and bones. The gate can kill without the user knowing.
The gate of pain is the opposite of the gate of healing as chakra is sent to all pain receptors in the body and shut off putting the user in a zombie-like state. Any damage is not felt by the user but its effects still exist. In fact the user is more likely to die in this state than any other.
The gate of limit is the most stable of all the nodes as it takes chakra is distributed evenly among all parts of the body increasing every aspect of the users body multiple folds.
View and Wonder are wildcards. They vary for each person but from what I have seen they each surround the ideology of their names.
And lastly the gate of death. The name is misleading as opening this gate is the cause of death. In reality this gate should be called the gate of law as with it the user can directly change the way it handles chakra. The reason every user dies when they open the gate is because they have all the gates open.
Now, before I get into the rest… Any questions?
"I thought I could only ask one question"
So you don't have any questions On to the ne-
"No, nonono I have a question. How does opening all the gates kill you? Are there any exceptions to which gates can be open at the same time?"
Hmm well the easiest way to explain your first question is they simply expend energy faster than they can replenish it. Opening one of the gates is exhausting; the user is usually in a state of duress to the point of being unable to stand without support but when they open all 8? They are just asking for death.
For your next question hmm. It is possible but it depends on the abilities of your wildcard tenketsus. For example a man I knew was able to open 3 nodes at a time because one of his wildcards had the ability to convert nature energy from around him into his chakra... As I said, it depends on your wildcards.
"Hmm is there anyway to tell which wildcard nodes I have?"
No
"Shoot… proceed"
Alright! Now as I said before that sphere in front of you is not your core energy. That sphere is the encoding of your tenketsus.
"Hmm so all the tenketsus in my body except the 8 look like this but much smaller?"
"Human what did I- ah whatever. Yes- oh... well actually no."
"What do you mean no?"
"Well, under… certain circumstances all your tenketsus are the same size…"
"..."
"..."
"Well aren't you going to explain? I thought you said that my regular nodes were suppose to be smaller than the 8?"
"Well I would but… I have never seen this before. You know what, just go touch it and you'll understand what's wrong with you… weirdo ok bye!"
"Wait… I don't know how to move in here" Naruto called out to the being only to be met with silence. 'Well, this is my mind so…' Naruto thought before trying to command the sphere to come to him. He threw his hand out and made a come over here gesture with his fingers only to avail no response.
Next he tried to butterfly stroke but still stayed in the same place. He stopped a minute later and began to think. 'How am I going to do this? Ugh, I wish I asked before he left. It's not like I can say come and it wou-' "oof!" Naruto let out as the sphere launched into his stomach.
He didn't register the pain as right when the sphere made contact his mind was flooded with information.
"T-this…" Naruto trailed off with his mouth wide open but if anyone could see his eyes they could tell he wasn't there. He saw everything, he understood everything.
Slowly the world around him began to crumble; the darkness gained cracks and not long after shattered leaving a dark, murky gray. Under Naruto a platform spreading further than the eye could see appeared and he began to levitate down.
When his feet touched the floor he regained consciousness. He looked at his hands starting from his left making his way to the right. He had never felt anything like it. Not after gaining a grandfather, meeting his sensei/older brother nor his first bowl of ramen could ever compare.
For the first time he felt complete. Unknowingly to him as he was too busy processing the information given to him two energies in his body merged. One a beautiful blue the other a cloudy murder red to make a seductive purple. He closed his eyes and when he opened them they were pitch black.
In front of him were his sensei and grandfather. He understood what he needed to do.
"I'm leaving konoha"