"Gate of Death, open!"
As the movie-exclusive character who had given Orochimaru the Living Corpse Reincarnation jutsu and had single-handedly developed the Zero-Tails, Shinno certainly had a lot of black technology up his sleeve. But what Nagi hadn't expected was that the man could even open the Gate of Death. Learning the Eight Gates wasn't that rare; any medical-nin could do it. The difficult part was opening all eight gates, and even more difficult was having a body strong enough to withstand the side effects.
However, Shinno had just shattered Nagi's understanding of the world with his own black technology. He had directly used his bio-tech to open all eight gates. But then again, perhaps it was all within the realm of reason. After all, Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation had come from his research... And even more black-tech was the fact that Shinno seemed to have a way to avoid the certain death that came with opening the Gate of Death.
The Eight Gates was a technique that could allow even a genin to instantly reach the level of a jonin. For Shinno, even though his own strength was mediocre at best—on par with Asuma, perhaps—the moment he opened the Gate of Death, Nagi immediately sensed a threat. The man's chakra had skyrocketed to the Kage level.
"Hahahaha! Didn't expect this, did you? I can even open the Gate of Death!" Shinno laughed maniacally. "An Uchiha? Perfect! I happen to be interested in the Sharingan myself. Thank you for delivering a perfect pair of eyes to me. To repay you, I will give your corpse a warm welcome."
Nagi replied flatly, "Then I thank you."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Nagi turned and fled. Before Shinno could even react, he was gone.
Shinno froze. He's actually scared of me? He ran? Realizing this, he flew into a rage and immediately gave chase at incredible speed.
"Coward! Don't run!"
Run? Of course he wasn't just running. This was playing to his strengths and avoiding his weaknesses. When Itachi fought, he would always analyze his own and his enemy's intelligence and combat power to play to his advantages. Even if he had encountered Guy with his gates open, he would have probably run at first, waiting for the side effects to kick in before launching a counterattack. Only a blockhead like Sasuke would charge in headfirst, trying to compete with his enemy in their area of greatest strength. Nagi was the same. The last time he had fought Guy, the moment Guy opened the Seventh Gate, he had vanished without a trace, leaving Guy fuming.
The two of them, one in front and one behind, raced through the fortress. In terms of speed, Nagi was of course no match for Shinno with the Gate of Death open. But he had many tricks up his sleeve. The Flying Thunder God, the Susanoo... he left Shinno grinding his teeth in frustration behind him. And to avoid damaging his own Sky Fortress, Shinno didn't dare to use any of his big moves.
Shinno was seething. The Eight Gates was not a technique that could be maintained for long. Even if his black-tech medical ninjutsu could solve the certain-death problem of the Gate of Death, it still came at a great cost. If Nagi hadn't cut off his arm in the first exchange, Shinno wouldn't have risked opening the Gate of Death. That first attack had truly scared him to death.
In a few moments, the two of them had raced out of the underground Sky Fortress and into the open. Once outside, Nagi was no longer so polite. So what if Shinno had opened the Eight Gates? Had he trained his taijutsu to the extreme like Guy? With the Gate of Death open, he might not even be able to beat Guy's Seventh Gate, or even his Sixth. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been defeated by a young Naruto.
"Finally stopped running, heh heh." Having chased him outside, Shinno looked at Nagi with a savage grin. It was unclear what kind of black-tech medical ninjutsu he had used, but in that short time, his arm had already grown back.
"Yes, I've stopped running. It's better to fight outside, after all." Nagi rolled his neck, warming up. With a few soft cracks from his joints, he drew his Nichirin Blade, Raikiri, once more.
The moment Raikiri was unsheathed, the surrounding sunlight began to dim, as all the light and heat were drawn into the blade.
"Sun Breathing, First Form..."
Shinno: ".QAQ.!?"
"Die!" Shinno roared, attacking Nagi.
The two clashed. The Nichirin Blade, which had previously cut through everything like a hot knife through butter, was now blocked by Shinno. Nagi looked closely and saw that Shinno's hand was covered in a layer of black chakra...
A Tailed Beast cloak.
This guy was having a grand old time with the Zero-Tails, even managing to produce a Tailed Beast cloak. The chakra, filled with negative emotions, flooded Shinno's body. It was different from a Tailed Beast's chakra. A Tailed Beast's evil chakra had a pure, natural feel to it, like an energy from the heavens and the earth. But Shinno's negative chakra was mixed with the negative emotions of many humans, making it even more unpleasant than a Tailed Beast's.
"Sun Breathing, Second Form..."
"Third Form..."
Shinno fought with increasing ferocity. With the Gate of Death open, even if his taijutsu was inferior to Guy's or Nagi's, the full-body enhancement it provided allowed him to trade blows with Nagi.
"Twelfth Form: Flame Dance!"
Finally, under the enhancement of the sun, the Twelfth Form, Flame Dance, broke through Shinno's Tailed Beast cloak and struck his body.
And then, without Shinno even noticing, Nagi had placed a Flying Thunder God: Second Step marker on him, just as Minato Namikaze had done to Killer Bee without him realizing it.
Cough!
Mortally wounded, Shinno spat out a large mouthful of blood and glared at Nagi in fury.
"You think you've won? You're too naive! With the Gate of Death open, I am immortal! Hahaha!" As soon as the words left his mouth, the grievously wounded Shinno, his body covered in cuts, began to rapidly heal. It was clear he had a jutsu similar to Orochimaru's snake-shedding or Tsunade's Creation Rebirth. As expected of a scientist on par with Orochimaru...
But—
"I'll let you win today. We'll fight again another day."
With a swoosh, Nagi vanished without a trace, leaving a bewildered Shinno behind.
"He's... gone? What kind of jutsu was that? The Flying Thunder God Technique?"
Evidently, Shinno was not a part of the bounty-hunting world and didn't know that the recently bounty-posted Uchiha Nagi had the highest price on his head. He spent all his time hiding in his base doing research and rarely went out. But he did recognize space-time ninjutsu. Although he had never fought Minato Namikaze, he had heard of the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Shinno's expression grew serious. Space-time ninjutsu... This is trouble. How did I provoke such an opponent? The most troublesome thing about space-time ninjutsu users was their ability to come and go as they pleased.
After some thought, Shinno decided to pack his things and lie low for a while. It was unknown what his opponent was after, but he was definitely in danger...
After deactivating the Eight Gates, Shinno hurriedly made his way back to his laboratory.
"Huff... huff... The side effects... are still... too great..."
Halfway there, Shinno's skin began to shrink, wrinkles rapidly appearing on his face. His tall, straight back hunched over. The burly man, who had been comparable to the Raikage, had instantly aged into a man of seventy or eighty.
"Cough, cough... Damn it... that bastard..."
Shinno staggered into his laboratory, took out a tube of red potion, and drank it down. He let out a sigh of relief, but his eighty-year-old appearance did not change.
"I heard that Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation came from you. It seems your ability to open the Gate of Death without dying is also related to that jutsu."
A familiar voice suddenly rang out, so startling Shinno that he nearly had a heart attack and died on the spot.
"You... you..." Shinno pointed a trembling finger at Nagi, just short of saying, "I'm really impressed by you, you sly old fox..."
Nagi gave a wicked smile. "Are you going to open the Eight Gates again this time? Go on, open the Gate of Death."
Shu—
With a flash of the Flying Thunder God: Second Step, Nagi appeared in front of Shinno, his hand already on his stomach.
"Seal!"
A sealing jutsu from the Uzumaki clan, combined with the techniques Nagi had stolen from Shukaku, was slammed into Shinno's abdomen. Tadpole-like formulas immediately crawled all over his body. For Shinno, who was in the midst of the side effects, his body weak and unable to mobilize his chakra, this seal was fatal. It had isolated him from the Zero-Tails within his body. This meant he could no longer receive chakra from it. Before Nagi, he was just a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
"You... you..."
"Playing to my strengths and avoiding my weaknesses. I'm sorry to have defeated you in this way," Nagi said with a smile, revealing a row of perfectly white teeth.
"Be more careful in your next life. Remember to run when you see the Flying Thunder God."
Mangekyo Sharingan!
After a wave of dizziness, this time, Shinno was truly caught in the Mangekyo's genjutsu. Nagi also breathed a sigh of relief. It was finally over.
Although Shinno wasn't as strong as Guy when he opened the Eight Gates, and because his taijutsu was unrefined, his overall strength was probably only equivalent to Guy's Sixth Gate, he still had the Zero-Tails inside him. Nagi wasn't sure how much chakra he had. Besides, fighting smart, playing to one's strengths and avoiding one's weaknesses, was the way of the intelligent. Although Nagi could have won in a head-on clash, why bother? Why not use an easier method? Wait for the side effects of the Eight Gates to kick in, and the problem would solve itself. See how easy it was now...
"Tell me everything about this Sky Fortress, and about the Zero-Tails inside you," Nagi said, staring at Shinno.
"Yes," Shinno said, his eyes glazed. "The Zero-Tails is still in its infancy. Its chakra is not enough to power the entire Sky Fortress's flight. So I planned to transplant it into a little girl, cultivate her inner love from a young age, and then completely corrupt her to make the Zero-Tails obtain sufficient dark energy, thus becoming a complete body..."
The Zero-Tails... it was just as Nagi had thought. It needed to absorb an immense amount of negative emotions, as well as a sufficient amount of chakra, to grow into its complete form.