Eight Gates — eight special points located along the chakra circulation system that limit its flow in the body. In their normal state, these gates restrain physical potential, preventing the body from using more than twenty percent of its true capabilities in order to protect the organism from destruction. Through special training, a shinobi learns to "open" these gates, removing the limiters one by one. Each opened gate grants access to additional volumes of chakra, multiplying physical strength and speed many times over, but simultaneously inflicts severe damage to the body. From the sequential opening of all gates, the user dies, because the eighth gate passes so much chakra through the heart that the blood vaporizes and the body burns to ashes.
The First Gate (Gate of Opening) removes mental blocks and allows the execution of the Primary Lotus. The Second (Gate of Healing) increases physical strength and accelerates recovery. The Third (Gate of Life) turns the skin red and makes the pupils disappear; with it, the Reverse Lotus is possible. The Fourth and Fifth gates enhance speed and power, but begin to tear muscle fibers and break bones. The Sixth (Gate of View) emits a noticeable aura around the user and allows the execution of the Morning Peacock, whose strikes ignite flames through friction with the air. The Seventh (Gate of Wonder) causes the body to secrete blue evaporating sweat, forming a radiance around the fighter, and allows the execution of the Afternoon Tiger — a single compressed air blast comparable in power to a shockwave. The Eighth (Gate of Death) is opened by piercing the chest near the heart; the heartbeat accelerates to the limit, granting power many times greater than that of the five Kage, and the body emits a bloody vapor resembling scarlet flames. In this state, the Evening Elephant and Night Guy are available — techniques capable of distorting space from monstrous pressure.
The technique is akin to kinjutsu due to its colossal risk. Might Duy, who devoted twenty years to training, learned to open all eight gates and passed the knowledge to his son Might Guy, who in turn passed it to his student Rock Lee. By the age of thirteen, Rock Lee had mastered five gates, later six, and in adulthood mastered all of them. Kakashi Hatake is capable of opening the first gate. The gates are used only when the lives of those whom the shinobi swore to protect are at stake — there is no other justification for such a sacrifice.
