"The plan's off! They've found us! Time to attack!"
The instant Hiroki saved that line, his thoughts detonated like lightning in the deepest part of his system.
There was no time left to see if Kushina could follow his train of thought—he just had to stall, to survive for as long as possible.
[Start] → [Settings] → [Power Options]
The familiar interface appeared, but this time his target wasn't [Power Saver Mode].
It was—
○ [High Performance Mode] (Maximize performance; increased energy consumption)
High Performance Mode, activate!
Hiroki screamed from the depths of his soul.
BANG!!!
In an instant, something inside him snapped open.
He could hear the fan roaring, the wind howling—
No, not the wind. His pores! Every pore in his body flared open as a bone-deep chill rushed in—only to be burned away a heartbeat later by the blazing heat of his blood!
His heart thundered, his veins boiled like molten iron, and chakra surged wildly through every pathway in his body, squeezed out of every cell at impossible speed.
His mind went razor-sharp.
This was—
Full power!
Meanwhile, in the real world—
A glint of murder flashed in the eyes of the Cloud Ninja Captain, Samora. He'd already drawn his kunai and now lunged at the "unconscious" Hiroki like a hunting cat.
This damn brat was pulling all this right under my nose!
No matter how well he'd hidden it, Samora had noticed something off.
"Die, kid!" he roared, slashing down hard.
But just as the kunai was about to stab into Hiroki—
The boy's body suddenly sprang up in a movement that completely defied physics!
Chakra flooded through his limbs, shredding the ropes binding him in less than a second.
He had been pretending!
And not just that—he somehow had enough control to snap Kushina's ropes at the same time!
Samora's pupils contracted. His kunai sliced through the air, grazing Hiroki's neck by a hair's breadth and leaving only a red mark from the blade's wind pressure.
He dodged?!
Impossible! He was a Jonin!
Wait—how did he predict my attack pattern?
That stance—!
Cloud Flow Technique!?
When did a Leaf Village kid learn a Kumo taijutsu style?!
But before Samora could even finish that thought, Hiroki's hands were already flashing through hand signs faster than the eye could follow—an intricate sequence only veteran shinobi could perform.
Samora's eyes went wide.
"Oh no!"
No one in the world knew that hand seal better than him.
Lightning Release: Pseudo Darkness!
It couldn't be—how did this kid know a Kumo B-Rank secret technique?!
A mere Academy student—completing that seal sequence in under a second—while dodging an attack?!
Samora's horror froze him. He forgot his footing, forgot everything—until it was too late.
Too close. No time for ninjutsu or substitution.
He'd underestimated a "helpless kid."
And now—
"Lightning Release: Pseudo Darkness!!!"
Samora screamed, throwing himself sideways—
Then—
No earth-shattering explosion. Only a sharp, bone-rattling scream of energy tearing through air.
Three brilliant, solid spears of white lightning erupted from Hiroki's mouth, so blinding they made the entire cave seem to sink into darkness.
They shot forward at supersonic speed—each aimed with deadly precision.
"Pshhhht!"
The first lightning spear pierced straight through Samora's chest, freezing the Jonin's last expression in eternal disbelief.
The second impaled a startled Chunin who'd just risen to his feet.
The third struck the farthest one—Sakuchi—who had been relieving himself outside the camp.
Sakuchi rolled instinctively, barely avoiding a fatal hit, but the bolt ripped through his shoulder, tearing away flesh and numbing half his body instantly.
In a single strike—one Jonin dead, one Chunin dead, one critically injured.
The devastation left Kushina completely speechless, her mouth agape in pure shock.
[Battery level below 20%][Battery level below 10%][Warning: Critical battery! Connect to power or system will shut down.]
Outside, Hiroki's body swayed. His knees buckled. He dropped, panting, vision fading.
But he knew—it wasn't over.
One Cloud Ninja was still alive.
The half-conscious Sakuchi stared at him in terror, crawling desperately toward the cave entrance.
Can't let him escape!
Then—
A flash of gold sliced through the darkness like dawn itself.
A kunai gleamed—one clean slash—and the last Cloud Ninja fell.
Only then did Minato Namikaze, breathing hard, have time to take in the scene.
The corpses, the scorch marks, the three gaping lightning wounds—
His eyes widened.
Sawada-san… did all this?
He'd rushed here after the last message went silent, feeling a sudden eruption of lightning chakra mid-route. He'd assumed it was the enemy's—but this?
This was all from that boy?!
How…?
Before he could ask, Hiroki Sawada saw Minato's silhouette—and exhaled in relief.
Then the world went dark.
[Battery low. Entering sleep mode…]
His body slumped forward.
In the fading darkness, he faintly heard a panicked voice—
"Hiroki!!"
Then everything went black.