There were many reasons why Ryusei could operate the last two Gates, even the final one, to a degree far beyond what the greatest Inner Gate user of the original story ever achieved.
It wasn't only because of endless basic physical training, the likes of which Duy and Guy did, although his daily regimen also pushed his body to its absolute limits without pause. That was merely the foundation.
The truth was very layered.
He had the innate Senju physique, naturally built to better endure strain that would tear normal bodies apart faster.
He had the Byakugan's perfect internal vision, letting him observe every muscle fiber, tendon, joint, and chakra coil in real time, adjusting micro-movements and flows before damage could even occur.
He had perfect chakra control at microscopic precision, manipulating every tiny circulation pattern and pressure point in his Gates-flooded system.
He had the Byakugō Seal's immense stored chakra, Creation Rebirth cushioning every crack or tear the Gates would normally create.
He had months of micro-quake strengthening, evolving his tissues through controlled internal shock stress.
He had the Shikkotsu Forest's black-pool adaptation, remodelling his anatomy into a semi-fluid, self-correcting organism while the active Slug Sage Mode optimized circulation and shock absorption even more.
And finally, he had the pseudo-immortality Yin–Yang ritual from the Chinoike inheritance and Indra's body, stabilizing even the Gates' conceptual strain at the level of his nervous system.
All of this together allowed his body not to collapse.
Allowed his CNS to endure.
Allowed his mind to stay conscious even through pain that would reduce others to ash.
This was why Ryusei could do what even Might Guy could not in the original timeline.
Guy tore his own body apart from pain and internal entropy, relying purely on monstrous willpower and one final straightforward rush, calling it "Night Guy," turning his whole existence into a single, basic suicidal sprint.
Ryusei wasn't restricted like that.
His body could handle complexity.
His control let him shape way more supervised, leveraged, and powerful "taijutsu" techniques even under the death-load of Gate Eight.
His regeneration let him keep form longer.
His physiology also allowed him to use the Gates and ninjutsu at the same time, something normally impossible because the two functions collided on the most basic logical level.
Any other shinobi would tear their own coils apart trying it.
After all, how could anyone shape and release chakra outward when their entire system was raging like a furnace from the inside?
You needed god-tier chakra control just to survive the attempt, let alone weaponize it for further control like Ryusei did just now.
In fact, Ryusei could not only sustain the Eighth Gate far longer than Guy ever managed, but if he closed it in time, he wouldn't die afterward.
Not even close. For example, if he kept it active for only a few minutes, even dozens, it left almost no short-term damage, let alone anything permanent.
He had carefully tested that repeatedly in the last weeks and months.
But there was a problem.
Battles on this level could not be finished in a matter of a few minutes.
Not against beings like Ashura. Not against all of Konoha at its peak. And Ryusei knew it.
And just as he thought of that, ahead of him, Ashura pivoted sharply again as he composed himself again, slamming both hands together.
A surge of ancient chakra roared upward.
From the earth erupted a colossal wooden titan, easily dwarfing even Hashirama's largest constructs, a living mountain of interlocking roots, spiraling trunks, and glowing core-veins of pure Shinju-like leeching kind of chakra.
Ashura's jutsu name echoed through the battlefield:
Wood Release: Primordial World-Bearing Colossus.
The creature rose higher and higher, its spine curving like a continent lifting itself, its arms sprawling outward like valleys birthing forests.
It was a weapon and a terrain at the same time, built to devastate armies, crush formations, and act as an unending source of pressure.
Ashura himself floated just above its crown, his expression darkening.
He had seen it — Ryusei's Eight Gate.
And the shock hit him harder than he expected.
Because even he, Ashura Ōtsutsuki — with the purest Sage Body, with Shinju atavism, with half of Hagoromo's own blood — could only reach roughly the Seventh and a Half Gate.
The full Eighth would tear even him apart. He could feel it instinctively.
So he abandoned the idea.
So he adapted uniquely in the moment.
Instead, he anchored himself in that permanent 7.5 Gate-like state, letting its stacked power alongside his extreme Yang accumulation function as a constant defensive shell, one he could maintain indefinitely.
Then, switching tactics, he guided the Primordial Colossus downward.
Its titanic arms descended toward the battlefield below, where Ryusei's allies were already struggling against the monk-samurai formations and Konoha's other top-tier elites.
Each movement twisted the land, threatening to erase entire platoons.
Ashura's strategy was clear.
Force Ryusei to burn through chakra. Force him to burn through vitality.
Force him to keep using advanced Gate techniques while holding the Eighth Gate open.
After all, even now, Ashura still surpassed him in raw chakra reserves and life-force longevity.
Ryusei clenched his teeth.
"Attrition, huh…?"
He understood immediately.
Ashura wanted to drag him into a battle of endurance — the one matchup where even his monstrous body wasn't guaranteed a win.
Ryusei didn't hesitate.
He split instantly.
Dozens of new slug-division perfect clones burst into existence around him, each given a calculated share of chakra, each capped at the Sixth or Seventh Gate — stable enough to endure, strong enough to fight.
They shot downward like green-blue meteors.
Several of the strongest among them at once unleashed another, cheaper, efficient variant of his Seventh Gate technique right away:
Gate 7: White Noon Breaker.
Their torsos flashed white.
When Ashura's giant branches descended, each clone let the impact strike, then discharged a spiraling burst of compressed rotational force that absorbed the blow and returned triple the power outward.
The rest of the more numerous Ryusei's Sixth Gate clones crashed into the battlefield as well, their impact less focused but far broader, sweeping through the enemy ranks.
They filled the gaps beside the White Noon Breaker and Seventh Gate clones, completing the formation and pushing the pressure back in a single wide surge of a new technique.
"Taijutsu — Shōten Enbaku!"
Their fists blurred, the air igniting. Flaming swallow-shaped shockwaves burst from each punch, white-blue cores with red wings.
Dozens spiraled out, then hundreds.
They dove like hunters, curving midair, slamming into monks, samurai, and wood constructs.
Each swallow detonated on impact, clearing pressure off Ryusei's allies for a brief moment.
Wood shattered into dust and splinters.
Other clones followed with efficient ninjutsu formations and combinations, short-range taijutsu bursts, and precise strikes that only a body like Ryusei's could withstand or perform.
Below, the pressure finally eased.
Even if only for moments.
Meanwhile, in midair, Ryusei's eyes sharpened.
Ashura was forcing a war of stamina, and Ryusei had to divide attention between the sky and the battlefield below.
Meanwhile, Minato kept up that scissor-like tearing of space, forcing Ryusei to split even more focus and energy just to track him, his Rasenshuriken arcs, and the sudden teleported assaults Ashura funneled through him.
But he had no choice.
He had to protect his people… even if it meant being dragged deeper into Ashura's pace.
'Stall him,' Ryusei thought. 'Just long enough. Madara or that clone better get here soon…'
Because if they didn't… he would be the first to fall, his body eventually giving in to the internal chaos, collapsing into ash or dropping dead from sheer chakra exhaustion first.