"Plan scrapped! They've discovered us! Attack now, immediately!"
The instant Hiroki saved those words, his mental command shot like lightning toward the deepest core of his system.
He had no time to see if Kushina could follow his logic! He could only fight for every second, do everything possible to stay alive!
Start Menu → Settings → Power Options.
The familiar window popped up, but this time his target wasn't Low Performance Mode.
Instead—
○ High Performance Mode (Prioritizes performance but consumes more power)
High Performance Mode, activate!
Hiroki screamed with his very soul.
BOOM—!!
In an instant, Hiroki felt something burst open!
Faintly he seemed to hear fans roaring! A gale raging!
No, not an illusion—his pores! Every pore in his body seemed to open wide in that moment. Hiroki could even feel bone-chilling cold invading his body!
But simultaneously, his overheating body instantly dispelled that chill!
His heartbeat was forcibly accelerated by a compulsory command, blood surging through his veins like boiling magma!
The chakra within was being frantically squeezed from every cell by an invisible force, gathering along his meridians at unprecedented speed!
His brain was unnaturally clear and sharp!
This was...
Full power!
...
Simultaneously, in the real world, killing intent exploded in Cloud ninja captain Samora's eyes. He'd already drawn his kunai, his figure blurring as he pounced like a hunting leopard toward the "unconscious" Hiroki!
This damned brat had done so much right under his nose!
But no matter how well hidden, he'd finally noticed something wrong!
So whether his judgment was right or wrong, die!
"Die, brat!"
He grinned viciously, bringing his kunai down with full force!
But just as the kunai was about to pierce Hiroki's body, everything changed!
The boy who should have been limp on the ground suddenly sprang up in a movement that defied physics!
Chakra flowed rapidly, shattering the ropes almost instantly!
So he was faking after all!
And he even had the energy to break the red-haired girl's ropes simultaneously?!
Samora's pupils contracted sharply as he watched his descending kunai miss the other's neck by a hair! The wind blade from the kunai even left a red mark on the boy's throat!
But... he missed?!
How was that possible—he was a jonin!
No, wait, the kid seemed to have predicted his attack patterns? How?
Hold on, that movement was—
Cloud-Style Taijutsu!?
When did Cloud ninja secret taijutsu spread to Konoha?!
But before Samora could finish being shocked—
That nine-year-old boy, Sawada Hiroki, in the same instant he broke free, had already formed a dizzying series of complex hand seals with movements too fast for the eye to follow!
Those movements looked like someone who'd practiced ninjutsu for over a decade, not a ninja academy kid!
Tiger-Horse-Monkey-Rat-Hare-Dog...!
Wait! Those seals!
"Not good!" Samora let out a horrified shriek, frantically trying to retreat!
No one knew these seals better than him!
Lightning Release: False Darkness!
This was Lightning Release: False Darkness!!!
How did he know this jutsu?!
This was Cloud ninja secret Lightning Release! A B-rank jutsu! He was just a ninja academy kid!
And those were the hand seals for the B-rank Lightning Release jutsu False Darkness!
He'd completed the seals in less than a second while simultaneously dodging the attack?!
Shock made Samora unconsciously forget his position. By the time he realized, it was too late! He had no time to use any jutsu—not even Substitution—to dodge!
This distance—he'd been too careless! Facing a bound academy brat, he hadn't had even a shred of caution!
"Not good!" Samora screamed in horror, desperately trying to retreat.
"Lightning Release: False Darkness!"
"DODGE!!!!!" Samora roared with everything he had, trying to sidestep.
But the next moment—
No earth-shattering explosion, just a piercing shriek like tearing air!
Three blindingly brilliant white lightning spears, condensed like solid matter, shot from Sawada Hiroki's mouth! Their dazzling light created the illusion that heaven and earth had darkened! The terrifying lightning spears shot toward three targets at supersonic speed!
Thunk!
The first spear pierced straight through Cloud ninja captain Samora's savage face as he desperately tried to dodge.
The second spear precisely struck another Cloud ninja who'd been rising in surprise to see what happened to his boss.
The third spear shot toward Sakutchi, who was furthest away, relieving himself outside camp!
Sakutchi was a chunin after all—the instant the captain gave warning, he rolled and barely avoided vital areas. But the lightning spear still grazed his shoulder, taking a chunk of flesh and leaving half his body instantly numb and senseless.
One strike—one jonin and one chunin dead on the spot! Another chunin critically wounded!
This apocalyptic scene left Kushina beside them completely stunned, mouth hanging open, even forgetting to scream!
Battery level below 20%
Battery level below 10%
WARNING: Battery level below 5%. Please connect to power source or system will automatically shut down.
Outside, Sawada Hiroki's body swayed, legs going weak as he dropped to one knee, gasping heavily. His vision was already blurring, but he knew the battle wasn't over!
One Cloud ninja was still alive!
That critically wounded Sakutchi was looking at him like he was a monster, eyes full of fear, struggling to retreat toward the cave entrance.
Can't let him escape!
Just then, a golden flash, like dawn tearing through night, suddenly appeared at the cave entrance!
Those young hands gripping a kunai moved up and down, instantly killing the still-paralyzed Cloud ninja.
Only then did the panting Namikaze Minato have time to survey the battlefield.
Three massive penetrating wounds—two Cloud ninja killed instantly, their savage death expressions still frozen on their faces!
Minato looked at the other two Cloud ninja in shock!
What had he witnessed?
This was... Sawada-san did this alone?!
Originally, after receiving the image, Minato had continued asking about enemy intel but received no reply. He'd immediately realized something went wrong!
He'd rushed over at top speed, sensing the explosive Lightning Release chakra burst halfway there!
This confirmed his judgment, but he'd assumed it was the Cloud ninja releasing it. Yet now it turned out Sawada-san had done this?!
How did he manage it?!
But Sawada Hiroki, having accomplished all this, saw Minato appear and had just relaxed when his screen went black.
Battery insufficient, entering sleep mode...
The next moment, Hiroki felt his vision go dark, his body suddenly becoming incredibly heavy, then unconsciously tilting forward.
Dimly, he seemed to hear... an anxious female voice shouting "Hiroki!!"
But before he could respond, Sawada Hiroki completely lost consciousness.