Naruto：Immortality and the Eight Inner Gates[Double agent]

Just as they were about to gouge out Rinjin's eyes, a soft "poof" broke the silence.

The Rinjin buried in the ground before Isamu Inoue suddenly burst into a cloud of white smoke. In its place, a wooden log materialized in the earthen pit.

"Substitution Jutsu!" 

Isamu's pupils contracted sharply as waves of shock coursed through his mind. Damn it! All their experiments had shown that the immortal monster couldn't extract chakra! How was this possible? Where did that Substitution Jutsu come from?!

While he stood there dumbfounded, a paper-wrapped, still-beating heart had somehow materialized beneath his feet. A faint but unmistakable "hissing" sound cut through his thoughts.

"No! A paper bomb!"

But before his body could even respond, the explosive flash consumed him entirely. With a deafening boom that shook the ground, the entire dark alley blazed as bright as daylight.

Deep in the alley, Rinjin's figure slowly emerged from the shadows, his clothes soaked through, one hand clutching his chest. His eyes reflected the dancing flames, his face a complex mixture of agony and triumph.

"Well, well," he mused, "Kōhei's ninja pouch really is a lifesaver! Complete with jutsu scrolls and paper bombs. Though it's a shame the paper bombs are all used up now."

Following the violent explosion, a mangled body was thrown through the air before crashing heavily to the ground, motionless. Upon closer inspection, it was Isamu Inoue. Gone was his previous arrogance - his body was covered in severe burns, and both legs had been blown off at the knees.

Rinjin's face was deathly pale. Though immortal, he could still feel pain. The agony of losing his heart contorted his youthful features into a grimace.

Clutching his chest, Rinjin slowly approached Isamu's corpse, carefully examining this key figure of the Jashin Cult. Despite the point-blank explosion that had taken his legs, the hood still covered Isamu's head. For some reason, Rinjin felt compelled to see the face of this murderous executioner.

With one hand pressed against his chest wound, he slowly reached out with the other to lift this beast's veil.

Suddenly, Isamu's eyes snapped open - they were completely black, without any whites visible.

"*Genjutsu: Mind Control Technique!*"

In the next instant, Rinjin's body froze as if struck by a paralysis jutsu. Both his outstretched hand and the one pressed to his chest remained fixed in place.

On the ground, the black in Isamu's eyes quickly receded as he coughed up a mouthful of black blood, his hand signs falling limply.

"Damn you, you cunning little fox!" he snarled through blood-stained teeth. "I swear, you'll spend the rest of your life suffering under my torture!"

Though the torrential rain had extinguished the explosion's flames, the thunderous blast would surely attract Hidden Rain ninja. They needed to leave immediately.

Thank goodness I still had one Mind Control Technique left to control this monster, Isamu thought. Otherwise, I would have fallen to this brat today.

At this thought, his rage boiled over, causing another surge of blood to spew from his mouth.

"Damn monster, get over here and carry me away from this place!" Isamu glared hatefully at Rinjin's innocent face, wishing he could tear him apart with his bare hands. Unfortunately, he needed the boy's help to escape.

Under the genjutsu's control, Rinjin extended his arms and effortlessly lifted Isamu in a princess carry.

"Let's go!" Isamu was about to command when suddenly, a terrifyingly familiar sound reached his ears.

"Hiss... hiss..."

"Hiss... hiss..."

"What's that sound?!" Isamu's soul nearly left his body in terror.

That sound... it was unmistakably a paper bomb! And why was it so close?!

At that moment, a blinding white light suddenly blazed from beneath Rinjin's clothes.

The next second, a violent explosion erupted between them!

White light and flames instantly engulfed them both. In his final moment of consciousness, Isamu recalled the warning from the old man in the white lab coat before he left: "When you find the immortal, dismember him and bring him back immediately. Don't waste time talking!"

"Didn't you say you were out of paper bombs? Damn it all to hell!"

Whether he would survive was uncertain, but the one holding him would definitely live - after all, the bastard was immortal!

The flames raged as two figures were blown in opposite directions - one toward life, one toward death. Two dull thuds followed as Rinjin and Isamu hit the ground one after another.

The intense pain jolted Rinjin awake. His burned eyelids struggled open and, taking in the scene before him, he immediately understood. A grim smile slowly spread across his burned face as he muttered:

"Ah~ Why couldn't you just die quietly? Had to make things complicated."

However, Rinjin's most pressing concern wasn't disposing of Isamu's corpse, but dealing with the approaching Hidden Rain ninja. If they discovered his immortality secret, he'd likely end up as another test subject for dissection.

Realizing this, Rinjin ignored his missing organs and the extensive burns covering his front. Fighting through the pain of his tearing skin, he reached into Kōhei's ninja pouch on his back and pulled out several food pills, shoving them into his mouth.

This was experience gained from his long period as a research subject - with enough food, his wounds would heal slightly faster. Besides, unlike Hidan, he hadn't been blown to pieces by countless paper bombs.

There had only been two paper bombs in Kōhei's ninja pouch - one had destroyed his cursed heart and Isamu's legs, while the other had killed Isamu and blown out his own internal organs.

Thinking of this, Rinjin gave a bitter smile. Good thing he wasn't Tsunade's brother Nawaki, or he'd be dead beyond dead.

While stuffing food pills into his mouth and stripping off his tattered hemp clothes, Rinjin quickly ducked deeper into the alley to wait for his body to heal.

Meanwhile, a strange thought occurred to him.

If... if he learned the Eight Gates, wouldn't that mean:

"A peacock by dawn, a tiger by day,

An elephant at dusk, and Guy's dance by night;

Opening the Eight Gates as I please,

Dancing in the streets with the Gate of Death released?"

The thought actually got him a little excited!

To hell with genjutsu, ninjutsu, and dōjutsu - they were nothing before his Eight Gates Plus! Even the Sage of Six Paths - one kick and he'd go flying! If one kick wasn't enough, just keep kicking until you reach the finale!

The thought filled Rinjin with confidence.

However, he remembered that Guy's father, Might Dai, though he defeated the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, was still considerably weaker than Guy in terms of combat ability.

Indeed, the Eight Gates varied in effectiveness depending on the user. Those strong in taijutsu gained more from the Eight Gates. He would have to stay committed to the path of taijutsu!

Sitting in the darkness of the deep alley, Rinjin pulled at the skin on either side of his abdominal wound. There wasn't enough time for his organs to regrow completely - he could only let the skin heal together first. The organs beneath would have to regenerate gradually over time.

Watching the wound slowly close, Rinjin felt somewhat anxious, regretting that he hadn't learned sewing skills. After all, if he could stitch the wound, it would heal much faster.

Rinjin's immortality wasn't much different from Hidan's as he remembered it, just without Hidan's bug-like *Curse Technique: Death Controlling Possessed Blood*. In essence, it was a nerfed version of immortality.

However, according to the old man in the white coat at the lab, this type of immortality wasn't a blessing from Lord Jashin, but rather seemed more like a curse.

Rinjin mostly agreed with this view.

First was the pain - unlike Hidan who enjoyed suffering, Rinjin hated pain. Even after half a year of being cut, burned, electrocuted, and dried out, he still hadn't adapted to this soul-crushing physical agony.

The most excruciating part was the pain of healing. Rinjin still vividly remembered the maddening itch that emerged from the depths of his soul as his crushed bones slowly regenerated.

Then there was the chakra issue.

To be precise, Rinjin had already mastered chakra extraction techniques in the underground facility. This was one of the old man in the white coat's experiments.

Although Rinjin outwardly pretended he couldn't extract chakra at all, he had privately tested and confirmed that his body could indeed extract chakra. The amount was just extremely small.

He had observed another test subject in the lab, a child named Haruto. If Haruto's chakra extraction speed was like normal urination, then Rinjin's was like having kidney stones - dripping slowly and frustratingly.

However, the fortunate thing was that his immortal cells seemed capable of extracting chakra indefinitely, without concern for his life force. This meant that given enough time, he could eventually accumulate a significant amount, drop by drop.

But to Rinjin, none of this was particularly important.

What mattered most was that Rinjin's body was only seven years old, and he was delighted to discover that his immortality didn't affect his growth. In other words, his body could grow up, and little Rinjin would grow with age too.

At the same time, his physical capabilities could be enhanced through training. Due to the numerous impacts his body had endured, his bone density was incredibly high. Even with a paper bomb exploding against his body...

Look at Isamu not far away - his upper and lower body were barely connected by a single spine. As for himself? Apart from his organs being completely blown out, his sternum had merely cracked.

As Rinjin pondered these thoughts, a series of hurried footsteps splashing through puddles rapidly approached from the distance.

"Stay alert! The explosion occurred right here!"

At the entrance of the alley, a mature and magnetic male voice rang out.