A Hyūga's Gate Between Worlds

After successfully performing two rounds of surgery to remove the Caged Bird on both his shadow clone and the rabbit, Tanaka felt as if a massive burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

Ever since the curse seal was imprinted on him, he had constantly felt as if an invisible mountain was pressing down—not just on his chest, but on his very soul.

Every moment was suffocating, filled with despair.

Now, he had removed half of that mountain, and soon, the other half would be gone too.

With that thought, he deactivated his Byakugan and leaned against a tree.

His Byakugan had been active all this time.

He had repeatedly used the abilities of the Op-Op Fruit.

Both his chakra and stamina had been heavily depleted.

Since the surgery involved removing his own Caged Bird, he couldn't afford any mistakes. He had to fully restore his mental state, physical condition, and chakra reserves to their peak.

"Strange... My chakra, stamina, and mental recovery speed are all faster than before."

"Could it be because of my past-life memories?" At that moment, he realized that his recovery abilities had significantly improved compared to the past.

Before awakening his past-life memories, when he practiced the Gentle Fist, used his Byakugan, and exhausted his chakra and stamina, his recovery speed was nowhere near this fast.

"No, it must be because I traveled to the One Piece world and participated in the battle for Devil Fruit."

"Fighting life-and-death battles, consuming the Op-Op Fruit, engaging in consecutive battles, confronting Doflamingo, and continuously using and developing the Op-Op Fruit—these experiences have made me stronger."

He suddenly recalled something—a small detail he had overlooked.

After wiping out Barrels' pirate crew and consuming the Op-Op Fruit, he had been waiting for Rosinante while eating roasted meat at the pirates' base.

"Ah, it's the food. The One Piece world is rich in species, and the animals, insects, and other creatures there are far superior in size and strength compared to here."

"The roasted meat I ate wasn't even from a Sea King or Sea Beast, just regular cattle."

"But even those animals were enormous..."

Tanaka fell into deep thought again.

In the One Piece world, people don't have chakra, yet their endurance was incredible. Some were born as monsters, like Kaido and Big Mom.

They could leap from ten thousand meters in the sky and land without a scratch.

Even without Haki, beings like Kaido and Big Mom could dominate the world purely through their natural physical strength.

One of the reasons why the One Piece world produced such a variety of powerful races and monstrous individuals like Kaido and Big Mom was its environment and food.

Especially food.

The nutritional value there far surpassed anything in the Naruto world.

"It looks like after dealing with the Caged Bird and the clan's issues, I should switch all my meals."

Tanaka made up his mind.

He was only eight years old, still in his developmental years—not even in his teenage growth spurt yet, let alone his physical peak.

With the intense training in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, he needed a tremendous amount of nutrients.

If he combined Naruto-style taijutsu training with One Piece-style physical conditioning and supplemented it with the high-nutrition meat from the One Piece world, even if he couldn't match monsters like Kaido and Big Mom, he would still far surpass ordinary ninjas.

Maybe he wouldn't be completely invulnerable, but at the very least, he wouldn't be as frail as most ninjas.

Especially his endurance.

If he reached the power level of a Yonko, even someone like Hashirama might not have a longer health bar than him.

Moreover, with a strong body and spirit developed from long-term consumption of high-nutrient One Piece world food, he wouldn't have to worry about issues like genetic disorders from bloodline limits.

After all, many bloodline diseases occurred because the body wasn't strong enough to support the power of the bloodline limit.

If his body was strong enough and properly nourished, the risk of bloodline-related illnesses would likely be significantly reduced.

Then there was the issue of ninjas having a short prime.

Take Hiruzen, for example—by the time he was in his fifties or sixties, he had already declined to an extreme degree.

Meanwhile, Kaido, at 59 years old, was carrying Onigashima on his back in Wano, fighting non-stop in multiple one-on-one and group battles. If only he had a habit of finishing off his enemies properly, he would have dominated the battlefield.

Even Whitebeard, at 72 years old, was suffering from severe illnesses and had been stabbed by his own "son," yet he still fought Akainu, challenged Blackbeard, and held his ground throughout the Summit War of Marineford.

"In the end, strength isn't just about techniques or abilities—it's about the body's foundation, and that starts with what you eat."

After resting on the tree for half an hour and fully recovering his chakra, stamina, and mental energy, Tanaka flickered away and moved deeper into the forest.

Once he was far enough from Konoha's streets, he activated his Byakugan, scanning a three-kilometer radius. After confirming that no ninjas were nearby and that he wasn't being watched, he formed a hand seal and created another shadow clone.

"There's something I want to verify. That is—can a shadow clone use ROOM?"

Tanaka looked at his shadow clone with great interest.

This was something he had been wondering about ever since consuming the Op-Op Fruit.

Shadow Clone Jutsu, from a "bug" perspective, was arguably the second most broken jutsu in the shinobi world—only surpassed by Edo Tensei.

Because shadow clones didn't just replicate the user's ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu—they could even use forbidden techniques, secret arts, and bloodline limits.

For example, Madara's wood clones could activate Susanoo.

And Six Paths Naruto's shadow clones could enter Six Paths Sage Mode.

So, as his own shadow clone, could it also use the Op-Op Fruit's power?

"I wouldn't have even thought about this if you hadn't mentioned it." The shadow clone was momentarily stunned before its eyes lit up with excitement.

"Let's test it" Tanaka gestured for the shadow clone to proceed.

"ROOM." The shadow clone nodded, raising its right hand with excitement.

Whoosh!

With a surge of energy, a spherical space expanded outward from the shadow clone, but it quickly stopped growing.

"This is the correct way to use shadow clones."

"Two Op-Op Fruit users."

"Tobirama, you were truly a genius."

Although others couldn't see the ROOM, as an Op-Op Fruit user, Tanaka could clearly see the space his shadow clone had created.

"Around 7.5 meters in diameter. Hm... It must be due to chakra distribution."

"Since half of my chakra was allocated to the shadow clone, its ROOM is only half as large as mine."

"As ROOM expands, the shadow clone's chakra is steadily decreasing."

"This means that since half of the chakra forming the shadow clone comes from my physical energy, using the fruit's abilities directly consumes chakra."

Tanaka measured the shadow clone's ROOM—it was indeed half the size of his own. Meanwhile, the shadow clone's chakra was depleting at a steady rate.

After thinking for a moment, he understood.

The size and strength of the shadow clone's ROOM depended entirely on how chakra was distributed at the time of creation.

Realizing this, Tanaka suddenly felt envious of Madara's limbo clones.

After all, limbo clones didn't consume the original body's chakra, and each one possessed at least half of the original's power, while also being able to use all of its abilities.

And Madara could create four of them.