Bang~

Jiraiya's large hand suddenly clamped down on the wrist Sawada Hiroki was using to weave hand signs.

"Not a bad tactic! You almost fooled me there! You still need to work a bit harder, though!" He grinned, preparing to completely subdue the posturing brat.

However, the smile on his face froze the very next second.

On the training grounds, everyone saw that after Jiraiya grabbed Hiroki, his body went unnaturally rigid for a fraction of a second.

His pupils dilated for a moment, and his gaze turned hollow and unfocused, as if he were a puppet that had suddenly lost power.

This eerie pause was so fast it was almost impossible to catch; only the Third Hokage, Danzo, and Tsunade, who were standing in the viewing area, noticed that momentary stiffness!

The next instant, before anyone could react, the rigid Jiraiya vanished into a thick cloud of white smoke with a "poof" amidst the silence, dissipating completely into the air.

The training grounds fell into a deathly silence.

Meanwhile.

On the other side of Konoha, in the steaming women's bathhouse.

The air here was filled with mist and the sound of trickling water, creating a scene of peace and tranquility.

Yet, above this serenity, in an inconspicuous corner of the wooden roof, a man with long white hair lay prone, a lecherous grin plastered across his face.

It was him! The great Pervy Sage, the pervert who roamed between women's bathhouses and the pleasure districts!

--Jiraiya!

At this moment, Jiraiya was holding a pen and a small notebook, peering intently through a small hole he had gouged out of the roof, fully immersed in his great cause of "dedicating himself to art."

Gathering material!

Inspiration!

"Hmm... the curve of that back, it's truly full of tension!"

"...Oh, oh, oh, oh! That angle, it's simply the perfect golden ratio..." As he observed, he drooled while scribbling furiously, completely lost in his own world. "Small matters like the assessment can be handled by a Shadow Clone; gathering material is definitely more important, hehehe..."

Suddenly, an indescribable, incomprehensible thought surged along the invisible chakra connection between the Shadow Clone and his true body, like high-voltage electricity crossing space, slamming violently into his brain!

"Hmm?"

The thought he had been admiring "art" with a second ago was instantly replicated, amplified, and twisted!

[Gathering material... gathering material, gathering material, gathering material... perfect golden ratio, ratio, ratio, ratio... small matter, small matter, small matter... hehehehehehehe...]

Countless chaotic, fragmented, and meaningless shards of thought filled every corner of Jiraiya's brain like an information storm.

His mind short-circuited at that moment, plunging into a boiling chaos.

Jiraiya's body stiffened violently, his eyes rolled back, his mouth hung open unconsciously, and a trail of drool leaked from the corner of his lips as his grin became increasingly lewd.

Subconsciously, he took a step forward.

What was he doing again? Right, he was going to the women's bathhouse to gather material, to look at the beautiful women!

He was going to hehehehehe...

Just like that, his prone body suddenly shimmied forward, lost its balance, slipped, and crashed through the wooden roof planks!

"Ah--!"

A shrill scream pierced the tranquility of the bathhouse.

Under countless terrified and stunned gazes, Jiraiya's body fell like a kite with a broken string, plummeting from the hole in the roof in a comical, head-first, limbs-flailing posture, slamming heavily into the center of the women's pool.

"Splash--!"

Water sprayed everywhere.

After a brief, dead silence, a storm of screaming erupted that was enough to blow the roof off.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!"

"There, there's a pervert!"

"Catch him!!"

"Beat this shameless white-haired freak to death!"

In an instant, washbasins, towels, soap... everything that could be thrown was hurled at the twitching figure in the center of the pool, fueled by the female ninjas' rage. The entire women's bathhouse instantly turned into a chaotic battlefield.

On the training grounds, the white smoke from the Shadow Clone's explosion was slowly dissipating.

In the center of the field, only Sawada Hiroki, Namikaze Minato, and Uzumaki Kushina remained standing quietly.

Everyone was in a state of bewilderment and stagnation.

"...Is it over?" a Jonin watching from the sidelines muttered to himself, breaking the silence.

"What happened? Was that Lord Jiraiya's clone!? Where is he himself!?"

"I thought I saw him stiffen for a moment... did his chakra become disordered?? That's impossible!!"

"What exactly did that kid Sawada Hiroki do? No hand seals, no chakra fluctuations, he just touched him for a second, right?"

"Could it be that Lord Jiraiya went to the women's bathhouse to gather material and got caught again!?"

"That shouldn't be it; a Shadow Clone generally isn't affected by the original body!"

Doubt, confusion, bewilderment, and a sense of absurdity spread through the spectator stands like a virus.

They couldn't understand it; they couldn't understand it at all.

What on earth did that kid named Sawada Hiroki do!?

Why did Jiraiya's clone suddenly dispel?

This anticlimactic assessment felt like a pantomime they couldn't comprehend.

Kushina's mouth hung open as she looked from the dissipating smoke to the calm-faced Hiroki, her eyes sparkling with a mix of shock and admiration: "Hiroki! You're so amazing! Was that the ninjutsu from the other day!?!"

She glanced left and right, then leaned in closer to Sawada Hiroki, whispering, "This ninjutsu is a secret that only we know about, right!"

Hiroki glanced at Kushina and gave a helpless nod.

Namikaze Minato, however, furrowed his brows tightly; he had seen more clearly than the others. He had keenly captured that split-second of rigidity in the Shadow Clone—it was definitely not a normal state.

What was going on?

Minato recalled what Hiroki had said at the beginning, about how he only needed to make contact with his opponent.

--Perhaps he really did have some secret technique.

In the highest spectator stand, the atmosphere was even more bizarre.

Tsunade's expression changed the moment the Shadow Clone burst.

She was stunned for a moment, then saw that familiar "poof," and combined with Jiraiya's unreliable personality, a conjecture instantly occupied her mind—

That guy Jiraiya! He went to the women's bathhouse again today!

It could only be for such a sleazy reason that he would use a Shadow Clone to slack off during an assessment that the teachers took so seriously!

A vein popped on her forehead with a "snap."

Tsunade clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles turned white, a look of both shame and extreme rage appearing on her face. She squeezed a sentence out through her teeth:

"That... idiot... moron... he's really doing that kind of thing again!!"

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had a pipe in his mouth, was also somewhat bewildered by what Hiroki had done. Hearing Tsunade's complaint, he subconsciously thought of Jiraiya's usual behavior, and the pipe nearly fell from his mouth.

That guy Jiraiya...

Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head with a mix of embarrassment and helplessness; he didn't dare look at the expression of his old friend Danzō beside him. He tried his best to maintain the dignity of the Hokage, keeping a straight face, but the slight twitching at the corner of his eye completely betrayed his inner thoughts.

This was simply ridiculous!

In an occasion like this...

Meanwhile, in the shadows on the other side, Shimura Danzō's reaction was completely different.

There was no surprise or embarrassment on his face; in that single eye, a solemnity and sharpness flickered like never before.

What was Jiraiya's original body doing?

Was Jiraiya fighting with a Shadow Clone?

Was Jiraiya's original body affecting the Shadow Clone?

Those things were irrelevant. Danzō watched the scene below; he was far more perceptive than his old friend.

--That was Hiroki's doing; it was absolutely not a coincidence.

Danzō judged coldly in his heart.

Hiroki had made a statement at the very beginning: he only needed to touch the opponent.

Others might not have heard it clearly, but as a master of Wind Release and the head of Konoha's intelligence, he naturally couldn't have missed Hiroki's initial declaration.

Only someone with absolute certainty that they could exert influence the moment they made contact would say such a thing.

Therefore...

The disappearance of Jiraiya's clone was not because the Shadow Clone's chakra was exhausted, and it was even less likely to be caused by Jiraiya's original body! Before the clone vanished, there was a clear moment of physical rigidity—that was a reaction to a consciousness interruption and loss of bodily control.

That was Hiroki's doing!

The method of attack was somewhat similar to a genjutsu, but Jiraiya hadn't looked into Hiroki's eyes, and Hiroki hadn't made a sound.

If it were a genjutsu, then the method of transmission must have been tactile—because of the contact, he had attacked Jiraiya in an instant.

No, it wasn't just a genjutsu.

Danzō suddenly thought of a new point, quickly negating his previous judgment.

If his Kekkei Genkai could achieve long-distance communication and replicate ninjutsu, then there was no reason it couldn't attack the spirit directly, like the Kekkei Genkai of the Yamanaka Clan. It was even possible that it could attack the soul directly, like the Spirit Transformation Technique of the Kato Clan.

In other words, had he quickly developed new uses for his Kekkei Genkai shortly after awakening it during the Cloud Ninja invasion?

What a terrifying talent.

If used for assassination, he would only need a Transformation Technique, then a light touch, and the target might already be dead! This kind of ability, which came without warning and could not be predicted, was perfectly suited for his Root.

A firm, unwavering thought took complete shape in Danzō's mind.

This child must be brought into the Root system immediately, at any cost! This power must never fall into the hands of others! It must become the sharpest hidden weapon, controlled solely for Konoha, and solely for him!