The day after their shopping trip, the Third Raikage returned.
With him was a pale-faced young man named Taku.
On his way to work, Reiji politely stepped aside, letting Raikage-sama go first.
Back in his dust-covered office, Reiji weighed the scroll in his hand, deep in thought.
The Third Raikage's return likely meant the cat had been sealed into the Jinchūriki—but that was only a possibility.
After all, with their extensive advisory team, it wouldn't be surprising if this was just bait to lure out hidden infiltrators.
Their tricks might work on ordinary schemers, but…they were a bit lacking when it came to dealing with Reiji.
After all, the mission he'd taken on wasn't just a basic conspiracy.
Sitting on the bench, Reiji formed a hand seal.
"Heavenly Transfer Technique!"
In an instant, a thick charge of electricity wrapped around the scroll on the desk, and a second later, the scroll vanished.
Soon after, the office door creaked open. Tsuchibune walked in, a massive bump on his head, looking thoroughly unamused.
"Raimei, you've picked up the Heavenly Transfer Technique quickly, but your aim still needs work."
Reiji chuckled awkwardly.
He couldn't help it—he had too much on his plate lately.
Between the Five Elements Seal, the Five Elements Unseal, and the Heavenly Transfer Technique…
Even the Eight Inner Gates had been pushed down his priority list.
"Tsuchibune-sama, does this mean I've got it down? Can I start taking missions now?" Reiji asked.
Tsuchibune's eyes lit up and he nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes, yes, you're fully ready for field duty."
With that, he zipped around the cluttered office like a whirlwind, stopped at Reiji's desk, and promptly pulled a thick stack of papers from his robe.
"Here—Hanmugi Village near the Land of Water, one of our external outposts.
Kirigakure has more or less agreed to us setting up there.
The perks? Light workload, safe environment, and lots of pretty girls.
Downside is you'll only get to return once every two or three years.
Then there's our post in the Land of Snow. The downside? Cold—year-round cold. Plus, there's a moderate risk of exposure.
But the upside? Work's only thirty minutes a day. After that, you're off duty.
Word from previous colleagues is, it's paradise soaking in those open-air hot springs with the local girls."
Reiji silently made note of that last part—definitely a perk. But he cut Tsuchibune off without hesitation, putting on a face full of righteous resolve.
"Tsuchibune-sama, I don't slack off. I'll give all my light and strength to Kumogakure!
Wherever it's most dangerous, that's where I'll go!"
"Good!" Tsuchibune nodded emphatically, looking at Reiji with approval.
Raimei, even though he was close with Miss Amai, never acted arrogant just because he was connected to Raikage-sama.
"That's the spirit. You truly are a man of Kumogakure!"
"Alright then. The Land of Waterfalls and the Land of Rain are fighting in the Land of Grass right now—it's the most dangerous place. You'll go there!"
"Yes!" Reiji nodded firmly, his expression brimming with righteous zeal.
In that moment, the entire office seemed to fill with fiery determination.
Tsuchibune grabbed a pen and swiftly wrote up Reiji's deployment order.
Clutching the appointment scroll, Reiji—dying of secondhand embarrassment—quickly made his way out of the office.
Damn it… once this mission's over, I'm never coming back to this godforsaken Kumogakure. This place is an embarrassment hazard.
After quickly checking in with the Raikage's office, Reiji returned home, feeling pumped, and dispatched his clone.
The clone departed with a Flying Thunder God seal in tow.
Meanwhile, Reiji himself slipped into an underground chamber and began training in the Eight Inner Gates.
Opening the scroll, he carefully studied the training manual.
The Eight Inner Gates weren't labeled a forbidden technique just because unlocking all eight meant certain death.
More critically, every gate opened placed exponentially more strain on the user's body.
And that kind of strain couldn't simply be ignored.
Most shinobi didn't focus much on taijutsu to begin with—let alone devote the time and effort to push their bodies to the limit.
The scroll made it clear: the gates themselves weren't impossibly hard to open.
But! Without an incredibly tough body, using the Eight Inner Gates would cause extensive internal injuries, drastically shortening one's lifespan.
Luckily, none of that was an issue for Reiji.
He was immortal. Those hidden injuries would only strengthen his body further.
Now that he understood how the technique worked, Reiji rose slowly, clenched his fists, and focused on the chakra flowing through his body.
"Open! Open up!" he shouted.
Nothing happened.
Reiji froze, eyes wide in disbelief.
He could feel it—the first gate inside his head, the Gate of Opening—it didn't even acknowledge him.
What the hell? Wasn't it supposed to open as long as I willed it?
Refusing to believe it, Reiji grabbed the scroll and began reading every word carefully.
"No way. Old man Sarutobi wouldn't mess with me—he has nothing to gain from that. So what's the problem?"
Still skeptical, he set the scroll aside, closed his eyes, and focused all his chakra toward the Gate of Opening.
Time passed—he didn't know how long.
His face was flushed red from strain, so much that he felt like he might burst a vein.
And still, the gate wouldn't open.
"Something's wrong. I must be doing it wrong!
Could it be… because of my immortality?"
Panting heavily, Reiji looked down at the scroll with a twisted expression. Suddenly, a bold idea popped into his mind.
He pulled a long senbon from his ninja pouch.
Using the meridian diagram on the scroll as a reference, he lined the senbon up with his head.
Time for a 'physical override.'
In other words, he was going to jam the senbon into the Gate of Opening's acupoint to try and break through the blockage.
He found the spot and drove the needle in.
Ding~ A light metallic sound echoed—and the senbon snapped.
Reiji's face went pitch black with frustration.
Damn it! My skull's too hard!
Unwilling to give up, he reached back into his pouch and pulled out a small bag of iron sand, muttering through gritted teeth,
"I refuse to believe this is impossible!"
He shoved the iron sand into his mouth and rapidly formed hand seals.
The iron particles traveled through his throat, into his bloodstream, and under his command…a stream of powdered iron sand coursed through his veins, slipping into his brain and heading straight toward the Gate of Opening's acupoint.
He stirred.
Still nothing!
So even the physical method won't work?
Totally clueless about medical ninjutsu and chakra pathways, Reiji rubbed his forehead and collapsed onto the floor in defeat.
Then, a beautiful face flashed in his mind.
"Right! Tsunade!"
Of course—Tsunade. She'd go on to become the top Medical-nin in the entire ninja world. If anyone could help him unlock a stubborn acupoint, it would be her.
And he wasn't wrong.
To put it simply, acupoints were like holes in a wall. Under normal conditions, chakra passed through them.
For ordinary people using the Eight Inner Gates, they'd force those holes wide open—until it was like the whole wall had been smashed through.
But for Reiji, with his immortal body, the 'wall' constantly regenerated. No matter how much chakra he poured in, it would just heal itself.
So he tried brute force.
But all that did was smash things up, leaving debris to clog the acupoint even more.
What he needed now was someone with precise chakra control—someone skilled in medical ninjutsu—to help him open it properly.
Or, he'd have to learn medical ninjutsu himself.
Putting the Eight Inner Gates aside for now, Reiji adjusted his mood and refocused on the next part of his plan.
Right now, the Two-Tails mattered more than anything.
The Two-Tails directly affected his progress in mastering the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, and that progress, in turn, determined his physical strength—which directly influenced how powerful he'd be once he could actually use the Eight Inner Gates.
After all, the Eight Inner Gates didn't just hand you power dozens of times stronger than the Five Kage.
Its true strength depended entirely on the user's own physical foundation.
Imagine pairing it with a body that's practically indestructible—invulnerable to blades, unmatched in toughness.
The thought fired Reiji up all over again.
First things first—get stronger. In this world, for a man, strength was everything!
At that moment, his clone had already arrived in the Land of Waterfalls, placing Flying Thunder God markers along the way. It was time to wrap things up.