It’s Over

"Wait a moment," he murmured, his eyes gleaming with understanding. "This isn't a side effect in the traditional sense."

The problem wasn't that the technique was too dangerous for him; it was that his body, despite all its superhuman strength, simply wasn't prepared to contain the immense power the Third Gate unleashed.

Frowning, he vividly recalled the overwhelming sensation he had experienced when trying to open the gate.

A chill involuntarily ran down his spine.

"The Eight Inner Gates... They truly deserve to be called a Forbidden Technique."

As he contemplated the implications of this discovery, a new determination formed in his mind.

"It seems I need to keep unlocking Homelander's template."

In summary...

The Eight Inner Gates experience a qualitative leap in power when the Third Gate is opened.

The First Gate, located in the brain, allowed the user to use 100% of their muscular strength instead of the usual 20%. The Second Gate, also located in the brain, provided an additional boost of physical strength and a temporary re-energization of the body.

Opening these first two gates had already granted him tremendous power. However, the power he felt when trying to open the Third Gate was of a completely different magnitude, almost unbearable even for his body.

"It seems I'm too strong," he murmured with an ironic smile.

He was aware that each subsequent gate would carry increasingly severe side effects on the body. The Eight Gates Formation, in particular, was notorious for practically destroying the user's body, offering only a brief period of unimaginable power before inevitable death.

Unless he was faced with an absolutely critical life-or-death situation, Luo Lei decided it would be wise to refrain from forcing open more gates.

Besides, what opponent in the current world would be formidable enough to force him to use the Eight Gates Formation?

"It's just that... there's still some energy left," he murmured as excitement coursed through every part of his body, clenching his fist tightly.

His eyes rose toward the sun high above, his gaze defiant as if he wanted to absorb the strength of the very star.

Suddenly, something caught his attention. A familiar presence...

"Mmmh?" Luo Lei frowned. "Seems like there's someone I know nearby..."

'...ANBU... from Konoha... Her,' he thought, a lustful smile forming on his lips. "Interesting..."

Without a moment's hesitation, he made a decision.

WHOOSH!

With a barely perceptible sound, Luo Lei's body vanished from the spot.

______

At the borders of the Land of Grass, a dense jungle spread out.

In this primal setting, a figure moved with grace. It was a Konoha ANBU ninja.

The ANBU's long purple hair fluttered behind her as she leapt between the branches. The cat mask covering her face, adorned with three red stripes, glowed faintly in the filtered light. On her right shoulder, the red ANBU tattoo seemed to pulse with life.

Suddenly, the silence of the jungle was broken by a sound.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Three shuriken cut through the air, their trajectories converging from impossible angles toward the ANBU.

"Damn..." the ANBU murmured, her feminine voice cutting through the buzzing of the approaching shuriken.

With a fluid motion, she unsheathed her samurai sword. "Crescent Moon Dance," she exclaimed as her blade sliced through the air in an elegant arc.

CLANG! CLANG!

The metallic sound of her sword meeting the shuriken echoed. Two of the shuriken were precisely deflected, but the third continued on course.

'It's too late...' she thought, turning her head in a desperate attempt to dodge, but the shuriken grazed her, cutting horizontally across her cat mask.

CRACK!

The mask shattered, falling in pieces and revealing a face of stunning beauty. Large, expressive eyes, delicate features, and flawless skin.

But there was no time to recover. The ground beneath her feet began to tremble violently.

BOOM! BOOM!

Cracks opened in the earth, and from them emerged thirteen Iwagakure ninjas.

"I'm surrounded," the kunoichi thought, her face paling at the gravity of the situation. Now perched atop a tree, she observed the Iwagakure ninjas encircling her.

Her heart pounded...

All she wanted was to reach the Konoha army in the Land of Grass to find Luo Lei-sama.

Now, that mission seemed impossible. 'It's all over...' Yūgao Uzuki thought.

The Iwagakure ninjas' eyes, once cold, now gleamed with surprise and barely contained desire as they looked at Yūgao.

"J-Leader," one of them said, his voice trembling with awe and lust, "Are all Konoha kunoichi this beautiful?"

Another ninja let out a rough laugh. "Haha, let's take her back. Shibito-sama will be more than pleased."

"Finally," growled a third, licking his lips, "We were waiting to catch something interesting. I wanted to go to the Konoha camp, but this... this is much better."

The leader of the group stepped forward. "She's too weak."

The Iwagakure ninjas exchanged glances. What had originally been a hunting mission had turned into something else. Yūgao's beauty had awakened a desire in them.

In their minds, they were already planning how to have fun with her before handing her over to their captain. The idea of sharing such a prize with their superiors only added to their excitement.

With her back against the tree and surrounded, Yūgao felt her heart pounding. Her hands gripped her samurai sword tightly.

"Damn it," she muttered through clenched teeth, her mind racing through all the possible options.

She wouldn't give up without a fight, that much was clear. But deep inside, a feeling of regret began to grow.

She remembered her graduation from the ninja academy. Then, her assignment to ANBU, an achievement that had filled her with excitement and determination.

But the most vivid memory, the one that now seemed to shine with an almost painful intensity, was the day she was assigned as the secretary to ANBU Vice-Captain Luo Lei. Those days working together had changed her life in ways she never expected.

Yūgao recalled how, little by little, her feelings for Luo Lei had grown, transforming from professional admiration into a deep and unrequited love.

Despite her subtle attempts to get closer, Luo Lei had always remained distant, like a man of steel, impenetrable and unreachable.

And now, with Luo Lei having become a living legend, famous throughout the world, Yūgao had made the decision to seek him out.

She wanted to confront him.

She wanted to confess her feelings once and for all. It was a personal mission, driven by a heart that could no longer contain its emotions.

"Do it!" ordered the Iwagakure Jōnin leader. "Attention everyone, she's just one. We must capture—"

But before his words finished echoing in the clearing, something unimaginable happened.

SPLAT!

The Jōnin leader's body exploded as if struck by an invisible and unstoppable force.

Blood, viscera, and fragments of bone sprayed in all directions, splattering the nearby ninjas and staining the vegetation red.

For an instant, it seemed as if a residual image, barely perceptible, had passed through the leader's body at an incomprehensible speed.

The twelve remaining ninjas were frozen, their faces stained with the blood of their leader, their minds unable to process what they had just witnessed.

The Jōnin's head, cleanly severed from the body, fell from the sky with a dull thud, rolling to a stop at the feet of one of the terrified ninjas.

"What... what the hell just happened?" one murmured.

"Enemy attack!" shouted another, panic evident in his voice. "We're under attack!"

The ninjas, gripped by terror, dropped to the ground in a desperate attempt to take cover.

But it was already too late.

VWOOM! VWOOM!

Out of nowhere, two bright red laser beams cut through the air, warping the atmosphere in their path.

The heat was so intense that the very air seemed to burn.

BOOM! BOOM!

The ninjas' screams were drowned out by the sound of explosions. The beams, with terrifying precision, struck each of the remaining twelve ninjas.

In an instant, their bodies vaporized, leaving not even ashes as evidence of their existence.

...

The scene in the jungle shifted from a hell of violence to an eerie silence in mere seconds.

Yūgao, who moments before had been bracing for the worst, suddenly found herself in a state of absolute shock.

Her wide eyes scanned the now empty jungle.

There was no trace of the Iwagakure ninjas who had cornered her, save for the metallic smell of blood. The reality of what had just happened seemed too fantastical to be true.

"This... what just happened?" she murmured, trembling.

Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded, making her heart skip a beat.

"Yūgao!"

Luo Lei appeared before her with a smile, materializing at the top of the tree as if he had been summoned by her thoughts.

Yūgao froze, her mind struggling to process the presence she had longed for.

Her lips moved, but no sound came out. The object of her affection, and the reason for her journey, was there, but under such surreal circumstances that it felt like a dream... or a nightmare.

Sensing her shock and feeling his body burning with desire, Luo Lei wasted no time in explanations.

When he had been in ANBU, he had known that Yūgao was in love with him, but at the time, his only focus had been becoming stronger. Back then, women had seemed like a distraction, something that would hinder his training.

"Forget it, we have to leave," he said urgently.

In an instant, he appeared right in front of Yūgao. Without any warning, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into an embrace. Under any other circumstances, this would have been the fulfillment of her dreams, but in that moment, overwhelmed by the recent events, Yūgao could barely register the sensation before the world around her began to blur.

Luo Lei and Yūgao vanished from the clearing.

________

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