Inside the human body there are eight gates which regulate the flow of energy through the person’s chakra circulatory system. They have the function of self-imposed biological limiters, preventing a person from catastrophically overexerting themselves.
Ninja, however, are nothing if not cheerily self-destructive. Inevitably, shinobi found the way to forcibly, temporarily “open” these gates. The result is a surge of chakra flow through the body, and an accompanying spike in physical performance.
The downside is that accessing the gates pushes the human body well beyond its tolerance. While being able to access the gates for a brief surge of power does provide a substantial tactical advantage, doing so for even a short time can seriously injure the user.
As mentioned, there are eight gates, but learning how to open each one is an endeavor unto itself; knowing how to open the first and second gates doesn’t mean you understand the third.
Each gate confers its own set of benefits and abilities which you receive and can use while it’s open, described under the individual gate’s effects.
When the gates are opened, you have access to a special, second pool of Action Points, starting at 0 and with a maximum of half your normal AP maximum (in other words, AGI/4).
AP provided by the gates (listed under “AP Gain” in their respective entries) goes into this pool. AP from the gates may only be spent on the following things:
Your regular AP may still be spent normally, as well as on abilities provided by the gates. Once you’re able to access the gates, you gain the following two actions:
(Speed 5 + 3 * X, Stamina 15 + 5 * X)
You open one or more of the eight gates. By default, this opens only a single gate; you may choose to open several at once, for a total of 1 + X gates. Doing this, however, drastically increases the strain put upon your body, and can potentially cause you to wound yourself in the process (see Wounding, below).
(Speed 5 + 5 * X)
You take several moments to calm yourself and stabilize your chakra flow before willing your chakra gates shut. This shuts all open gates, with X being the number currently opened. Unlike opening, closing them is all-or-nothing.
As mentioned above, using the gates is devastating, in no small part because doing so gives the user’s body the ability to physically tear itself apart. When Opening the gates, you can only safely open up a number of gates equal to your current Willpower; anymore and you are going beyond your body’s natural limitations, and you take one Wound automatically for each gate opened (total) in excess of your current Willpower. If you had 2 willpower and opened five gates, for example, you would suffer three wounds for doing so. If you then spent a point of willpower, however, you would not take a wound retroactively.
Additionally, every time you take an action with a Stamina or Chakra cost while using the gates, you have a chance to wound yourself. That chance is: (gate opened) * 2 + base Speed of the action + AP used %
For example, say you had opened the second gate and used a basic unarmed attack (Speed 8), and spent 4 AP to reduce it down to Speed 4. After performing your action you’d roll 1d100, and on a roll of (2 * 2 + 8 + 4) = 16 or lower, you’d immediately suffer a wound.
If you don’t receive a wound, then the percentage chance you just rolled is halved, and added to the chance to be wounded the next time you are required to roll for a chance to wound yourself. In the above, you’d add 8 to the chance to wound yourself, meaning if you did the exact same action again, you would have a (16 + 8) = 24% chance of wounding yourself. If you then did the same action a third time, you would have a (16 + 8 + 12) = 36% chance to wound yourself. Once you are wounded, you remove the additive chance from all prior rolls.
These wounds cannot be prevented or reduced in severity. When you suffer one, roll 1d100 for location:
In the case of Arms and Legs, odds are the right, evens the left, which are tracked separately as locations. The first wound you suffer on a given location in a single week (OOC day) from the gates is a Minor Energy wound. The second is a Major Energy, the third a Severe Blunt, and the fourth a Critical Blunt.
For example, if you wounded yourself using the gates six times, and rolled head three times, left arm once, right arm once, and chest once, you’d have: A minor, major energy head wound and severe blunt head wound, two minor energy arm wounds and a minor energy chest wound for a total of six different wounds. Additionally, any wound-healing abilities (such as some Medical ninjutsu, Henzaki Organ Mobility, or Kaguya Realignment) cannot be used while the gates are still open: you have to close them first.
Once you receive a Critical Wound to a certain location, you ignore that location when you roll for future Gates Wound locations, and use the location below it. If you ever receive a Critical Wound to every single body location (Head, Torso, Abdomen, both arms and both legs), all opened gates automatically close.
Each gate contains a brief description of what it does, an “AP Gain” number, and an ability. Every time the IC reaches a multiple of 10, you gain the action points listed under AP Gain, added to your gates specific pool of AP. If that pool is full, any excess AP are simply lost. You only receive the AP Gain of the highest gate you have open. Each gate also has a listed ability, such as the first gate’s Enhanced Strength and the second gate’s Rejuvenation. You have access to the abilities of all opened gates. For example, with the third gate open you would be able to use Enhanced Strength (first), Rejuvenation (second), and Enhanced Power (third).
The eight gates work poorly with weapons, much to the woe of many shinobi. This has a great deal to do with their nature: while they grant overwhelming power, the user’s technique tends to suffer as a result. Weapons simply aren’t meant to be used by a body tearing itself apart, or swung with that sort of speed and force. Accordingly, some of the abilities granted by the gates do not work with weapons as well as they do with unarmed attacks. Specifically…
Additionally, members of the Hozuki clan cannot open the gates when using their Hydration Technique–their body has no bones, muscles, or circulatory system to enhance. Activating the technique will not close any open gates, but will suspend all their effects (including AP generation, ability to spend Gates AP, and the chance to wound oneself when acting) until the Hydration Technique is ended.
Kaimon - Gate of Opening
Located in the brain, opening this gate removes the body’s ability to limit the output of its muscles.
Kyuumon - Gate of Healing
Also located in the brain, the second regulates the body’s breakdown of stored energy. By opening it, the body gains the ability to access its energy reserves faster than would normally be physically possible.
Seimon - Gate of Life
Located on the spinal cord between the shoulders, opening the third gate results in one’s blood vessels dilating, causing increased blood flow throughout the body. Opening this gate also has the effect of turning the user’s skin a very marked reddish color.
Shoumon - Gate of Pain
Located below the Gate of Life, the fourth gate got its name for a very simple reason: beyond what’s normal even for the other gates, opening causes severe pain across the entire body as the overwhelming flow of chakra begins physically tearing the user’s muscle fibers.
Tomon - Gate of Limit
Located in the middle of the torso, the fifth gate is below the fourth on the spinal column (which also serves as the body’s primary chakra meridian). Opening results in a marked increase in speed and power for the shinobi who does so, but begins tearing tendons away from the bones they’re anchored to.
Keimon - Gate of View
Placed in the lower abdomen, the gate of view is responsible for, relative to the previous five, gross regulation of chakra, with the first five gates fine-tuning its distribution to one extent or another. Simply opening the sixth gate results in the body blasting chakra out from every one of its tenketsu. While it’s open the user will radiate a strong artificial ‘wind’; trees will bend away, and water will rise form vortexes around them.
Note: The last two gates can only be obtained by GM approval.
Kyoumon - Gate of Wonder
Located near the base of the spine, at hip level, the seventh gate results in the most marked physical changes since the third. The user begins using glowing green sweat from their pores; the amounts of chakra rushing through the user’s chakra circulatory system are becoming genuinely destructive to the body, and so it tries to vent it out the only way it can… resulting in glowing green, chakra-infused sweat. Additionally, merely having this gate open results in shredding one’s muscle fibers. While chakra can make up for lost functionality, even a light touch causes severe pain to someone who’s opened the seventh gate recently.
Shimon - Gate of Death
Located near the heart, this is the final option for any user of the gates, when accomplishing their goal is more important than their life. With all eight gates opened, there’s nothing to regulate the body’s chakra flow, and since it’s inherently tied to every major organ in the body, there’s very little to regulate organ function either. Opening the eighth gate will cause the user’s death, without exception. However, for those few minutes before their heart literally pumps itself to death, before their raging chakra system finishes tearing their organs into pulp, and before they convert vital portions of their body into energy, a user of the eighth gate has unrivaled power.