Poof~

Jiraiya's large hand suddenly clamped around the wrist of Sawada Hiroki, who was forming Hand Seals.

"Not a bad battle tactic! You almost fooled me! You'll have to work harder!" He grinned, ready to thoroughly subdue the little brat who was putting on an act.

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

On the training ground, everyone saw Jiraiya's body go unnaturally stiff for a fraction of a second after he grabbed Hiroki.

His pupils widened for an instant, and his gaze turned empty and unfocused, as if he were a puppet that had suddenly lost power.

The eerie pause was so brief it was almost impossible to catch. Only the Third, Danzo, Tsunade, and the others in the viewing stands noticed the stiffness that lasted barely an instant!

The next moment, before anyone could react, the stiffened Jiraiya exploded with a "poof" into a thick cloud of white smoke amid the silence, vanishing completely into thin air.

The training ground fell into a deathly silence.

Meanwhile.

On the other side of Konoha, at the steamy women's bathhouse.

The place was veiled in mist, with water trickling softly. Everything seemed peaceful and serene.

Yet above that tranquility, in an inconspicuous corner of the bathhouse's wooden roof, a white-haired man lay prone, wearing an utterly lecherous grin.

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

—Jiraiya!

Jiraiya was holding a pen and a small notebook, peering through a tiny hole he had gouged in the roof himself, completely absorbed in his noble pursuit of "sacrificing himself for art."

Research!

Inspiration!

"Hmm... That curve of her back is so full of allure!"

"...Ohohoho! That angle is the perfect golden ratio..." He watched, drooling as he scribbled furiously, entirely lost in his own world. "Something as trivial as an exam can be handled by a Shadow Clone. Research is more important, after all. Hehehe..."

Suddenly, an indescribable and incomprehensible thought surged along the invisible chakra link between his Shadow Clone and his real body, like a supercharged bolt of lightning crossing space and blasting straight into his brain!

"Hm?"

The thought that had been admiring "art" a moment ago was instantly copied, magnified, and twisted beyond measure!

[Research... research research research research... perfect golden ratio ratio ratio ratio... trivial trivial trivial... hehehehehe...]

A storm of countless chaotic, fragmented, meaningless thoughts flooded every corner of Jiraiya's mind.

His thoughts short-circuited completely, plunging him into a boiling chaos.

Jiraiya's body abruptly stiffened. His eyes rolled back, his mouth fell open involuntarily, and a trickle of drool ran down the corner of his mouth as his grin grew even more lecherous.

He instinctively took a step forward.

What was he going to do again? Right, he was going to research at the women's bathhouse. He was going to see all the beautiful women!

He was going to hehehehe...

Still lying prone, he suddenly wriggled forward, lost his balance, and slid hard into the roof, breaking through the wooden boards!

"Ah—!"

A piercing scream tore through the tranquility of the bathhouse.

Amid countless horrified and astonished stares, Jiraiya dropped through the hole in the roof like a broken kite, headfirst, limbs splayed in a ridiculous pose, and slammed into the center of the women's bath.

"Splash!"

Water flew everywhere.

After a brief silence came a storm of screams loud enough to lift the roof.

"AAAAAAAH!"

"There's, there's a pervert!"

"Grab him!!"

"Beat that shameless white-haired creep to death!"

In an instant, wooden buckets, towels, soap... everything that could be thrown hurtled toward the twitching figure in the middle of the pool, mixed with the female ninja's fury. The entire bathhouse instantly became a chaotic battlefield.

On the training ground, the white smoke from the exploding Shadow Clone slowly dissipated.

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

Everyone was in a state of confusion and shock.

"...Is it over?" a jonin in the stands murmured, breaking the silence.

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

"I think I saw him stiffen for a moment... Did his chakra go haywire?? That can't be right!!"

"What did that kid named Sawada Hiroki do? He didn't form any Hand Seals or show any chakra fluctuations. He was only grabbed for a moment?"

"Could Lord Jiraiya have gone to the women's bathhouse to do research and gotten caught again?"

"That shouldn't be possible. A Shadow Clone usually isn't affected by what happens to the original!"

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

They couldn't understand it. They simply couldn't.

What the heck had that kid named Sawada Hiroki done!?

Why had Jiraiya's clone suddenly vanished?

The examination, which had started with a bang and ended abruptly, was like a silent play they couldn't make sense of.

Kushina's mouth hung open. She looked at the dissipating cloud of smoke, then at Hiroki's calm expression, her eyes shining with a mixture of shock and admiration. "Hiroki! You're amazing! Was that the jutsu you used the other day?!"

She glanced around, then quietly edged two steps closer, pressing up beside Hiroki as she whispered, "This jutsu is a secret only we know about, right?"

Hiroki glanced at Kushina and nodded helplessly.

Namikaze Minato's brow furrowed tightly. He had seen more clearly than the others. He had keenly noticed the Shadow Clone's stiffness for that fraction of a second. That had definitely not been normal.

What was going on?

Minato thought back to what Hiroki had said at the beginning: all he had to do was make contact with his opponent.

—Maybe he really did have some secret technique.

The atmosphere in the highest viewing stand was even stranger.

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

She had first been taken aback. Then she heard that familiar "poof," and recalling Jiraiya's usual antics, a suspicion immediately seized her mind—

That Jiraiya! He'd gone to the women's bathhouse again today!

The only reason that guy would use a Shadow Clone to fool everyone during an examination the teacher took so seriously was something as low and despicable as that!

A vein popped out at her temple.

Tsunade clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Her face was flushed with both embarrassment and fury, and she practically ground out the words through her teeth:

"That... idiot... moron... He's at it again!!"

The Third, Sarutobi Hiruzen, still had his pipe clenched in his mouth. He was also baffled by what Hiroki had done, and hearing Tsunade's complaint, he instinctively thought of Jiraiya's usual behavior. His pipe nearly fell to the ground.

That Jiraiya...

Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head, somewhat awkwardly and helplessly. He didn't dare look at the expression on his old friend Danzo's face. He did his best to maintain the Hokage's dignity, keeping his face stern, but the twitching corner of his eye had already given away what he was thinking.

This was completely ridiculous!

At a time like this...

In the shadows on the other side, Shimura Danzo reacted very differently.

There was no surprise or embarrassment on his face. His one eye gleamed with unprecedented gravity and sharpness.

What was Jiraiya's real body doing?

Had Jiraiya sent a Shadow Clone to fight?

Had something Jiraiya's real body did affected the clone?

None of that mattered. Danzo watched the scene below, far more perceptive than his old friend.

—That was Hiroki's doing. It couldn't have been a coincidence.

Danzo made his assessment coldly.

Hiroki had said at the very beginning that all he needed was to touch his opponent.

The others might not have heard clearly, but as a Wind Release master and Konoha's top intelligence shinobi, he couldn't possibly have missed Hiroki's opening declaration.

Only someone absolutely certain he could exert an influence the moment he made contact would say something like that.

So...

Jiraiya's clone hadn't vanished because it had run out of chakra, and it was even less likely that Jiraiya's real body had caused it. Before vanishing, the clone's body had clearly gone rigid. That was the reaction of someone whose consciousness had been interrupted and whose body had lost control.

That was Hiroki's doing!

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

If it was Genjutsu, then it must have been transmitted through touch—he had attacked Jiraiya in an instant by making contact.

No, it wasn't just Genjutsu.

Danzo suddenly thought of a new possibility and quickly rejected his previous conclusion.

Hiroki's Kekkei Genkai could communicate over a distance and copy ninjutsu. There was no reason it couldn't directly attack the mind, like the Yamanaka Clan's Kekkei Genkai. It might even be able to attack the soul directly, like the Kato Clan's Spirit Transformation Technique.

In other words, after awakening his Kekkei Genkai during the Cloud Ninja invasion, he had quickly developed a new way to use it?

What a terrifying talent.

If used for assassination, all he'd need was a Transformation Technique and a light touch, and his target might already be dead! An ability with no warning and no way to predict it was perfect for his Root.

A firm thought took shape in Danzo's mind.

This child had to be brought into Root immediately, at any cost! This power absolutely couldn't be allowed to remain outside their control! It had to become the sharpest hidden weapon, one that served only Konoha—and was controlled only by him!