Transformation

"Hiroki, Hiroki! I know how I can get stronger! I'm going to become the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki!!!"

Uzumaki Kushina's voice came from the doorway, loud and excited, instantly shattering the strange, eerie atmosphere in the room.

Hiroki was facing Orochimaru, and upon hearing this, his heart skipped a beat. He looked at Orochimaru, wanting to see what kind of expression or reaction he would have.

That child, Kushina... she was even less cautious than he was.

Hiroki's first reaction was to turn around and tell her to stop shouting, as there was someone else in the room after all.

But Kushina had already run inside, her face full of excitement, completely failing to notice the person standing in the corner of the room.

Orochimaru slowly turned his head to look at Kushina. His expression remained unchanged; he was neither curious nor surprised, just watching her with calm indifference.

To the upper echelons of Konoha, it was no secret that Kushina was a candidate for the next Jinchuriki, especially for someone like him, the second-in-command of Konoha's Root.

Perhaps only someone like Jiraiya, who was carefree and disliked dealing with the messy affairs of the village, would be unaware of such things.

He was more interested in Hiroki's reaction.

He saw the expression on Hiroki's face shift from shock to tension, clearly wanting to protect the red-haired girl.

This was good news for Konoha; as long as there were people Hiroki cared about in the village, he would remain attached to Konoha.

This was an invisible shackle, the so-called bonds that kept people tied to one place.

"I won't interrupt your conversation any further," Orochimaru said suddenly, devoid of emotion. "Making more friends is a good thing in Konoha."

He offered only a slight reminder before saying nothing more, then cast a glance at Hiroki.

Hiroki didn't understand what Orochimaru was trying to convey at all, only to see him vanish from where he stood, seemingly having used a Body Flicker technique, followed by his voice echoing from outside.

"Don't be late tomorrow."

The room fell quiet, and only then did Kushina feel that the atmosphere was a bit off.

"Hiroki? Was that Master Orochimaru just now? Why was he at your house?"

Hiroki didn't answer.

Hiroki simply walked over to close the door properly, then turned to look at Kushina and asked very seriously, "Kushina, what were you saying just now? Who told you about the Jinchuriki?"

Jinchuriki—this was the pleasant term used in manga translations; the unpleasant term was the living sacrifice for the Nine-Tails Demon Fox.

Living sacrifice—the term sounded sinister and terrifying enough.

Although in the original story, Uzumaki Kushina became the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Hiroki still didn't want a child to become one so early.

At least, not until she was older!

He couldn't have transmigrated, graduated early, and even attracted the attention and cooperation of Orochimaru, only to be unable to change even this one thing, could he?

"It was Grandma Mito," Kushina said, looking a bit bewildered by his demeanor, but she answered truthfully. "I went to find her and asked how I could get stronger, and she told me."

Uzumaki Mito? Hiroki was slightly surprised; in his memory, that old lady seemed like a kind woman.

"What else did she tell you?" Hiroki pressed.

The excitement on Kushina's face faded. She recalled her conversation with Mito, and her expression became more serious.

"I went to find Grandma Mito and asked her how to get stronger, and she told me not to be in a hurry... but ever since you awakened your Kekkei Genkai, Hiroki, you've been getting stronger so fast... so I thought... I wanted to get stronger just like you..."

"Then, I asked Grandma Mito if there was a faster way. She sighed at the time and said yes. Then she told me about the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki."

"But Grandma Mito advised me against it and told me to study Fuinjutsu first. She also told me to think it over and not to rush into a decision," Kushina whispered. She lowered her head, secretly peeking at Hiroki's eyes, and asked in a low, slightly guilty voice, "Um, did I do something wrong?"

Hiroki fell silent after listening.

The whole process... seemed normal, didn't it?

A child longing for power, an elder unable to resist a child's plea, and so she told her the way to become stronger.

But... the only problem was, could Uzumaki Kushina truly understand what being a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki meant?

Hiroki was just about to open his mouth to ask Kushina, but after thinking about how flustered he had been when Orochimaru suddenly appeared, he closed his mouth again.

Asking questions out loud was a difficult way to protect a secret.

He now had a safer way to communicate, and since he was already a ninja and no longer a programmer, he should use a safer method to communicate.

Thinking this, Hiroki took hold of Uzumaki Kushina's small hand.

It was cold, soft, and felt a bit like a rice cake?

Little Kushina saw Hiroki's action, and her face turned red instinctively. Then, as if thinking of something, she quickly shook her head, casting the strange thoughts out of her mind so Hiroki wouldn't notice.

The next moment, a message from Hiroki arrived.

|Hiroki.log|: "Do you know what being a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki means? Do you know the implications of being a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki? Do you know what the price of becoming a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is?"

Hiroki stared intently at Kushina.

She was different from him. He wanted to get stronger because he clearly knew that the ninja world was unsafe, and he had just personally experienced the feeling of being threatened by Orochimaru and forced to work with him because he lacked power.

And Kushina... she was still just a child. She might not have even considered what she would encounter, what kind of dilemmas she would face, what kind of suffering she would endure, or what experiences she would have after becoming the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

She might just want to get stronger out of envy, jealousy, or a child's competitive spirit and unwillingness to fall behind.

Just as Mito had said, she should wait a little longer.

|Kushina_Excited_Adoring_Trusting_Calm.log| "I know, I know! Grandma Mito already told me! She told me that becoming the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki might make people fear me, and I might not be able to leave a certain area!"

|Kushina_Trusting_Calm_Unreconciled.log| "But, but... if I don't become the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, with my talent, I'm afraid I'll never be able to catch up to Hiroki-kun in my whole life! I still want to become the first Hokage of Konoha!"

Hiroki fell silent.

He didn't know what to say for a moment, because Kushina's log actually contained the "Calm" tag?

So, had she really thought about it calmly, or was it just a pretense?

Hiroki thought for a moment and continued to press.

|Hiroki.log| "Then do you know what it feels like to lose your freedom? To only be able to stay in a cramped room every day to study, and then be fiercely looked down upon and discriminated against by everyone!"

|Kushina_Trusting_Calm_Unreconciled.log| "But I don't have many places to go right now anyway, and everyone already looks down on me because of my red hair and my accent!!"

|Kushina_Trusting_Calm_Unreconciled.log| "I don't want to gain power to bully them; I just want to prove them wrong and tell them I'm not some outsider! I want to become the first female Hokage of Konoha! I want to stand side-by-side with Hiroki!"

|Kushina_Trusting_Anticipating_Unreconciled.log| "Hey, hey, hey~ Hiroki-kun~ You'll definitely support me, right..."

Hiroki fell into silence once again.

What else could he say to this? Hiroki suddenly remembered that in the original story, Kushina decided to become a Jinchuriki largely because of Minato. But now, Minato and Kushina weren't even close; instead, he had become the target Kushina wanted to chase.

She wanted to become stronger because of him.

But was he... really worthy of being the object of her pursuit?

As soon as this thought emerged, an indescribable sense of responsibility weighed down on Hiroki's heart.

It seemed he could no longer continue being an ordinary programmer, living a stable and quiet life like a plant—that ideal life of basking in the sun, zoning out, not participating, not taking initiative, not being responsible, and quietly completing photosynthesis until his life cycle ended—seemed to be drifting further and further away from him.

Why...?

Because this damn ninja world was rotten to the core, forcing teenagers to go to the battlefield.

This damn ninja world allowed some damn lunatic to start a ninja war all by himself.

Without strength, just because he showed a tiny bit of his cheat ability, just because he revealed a tiny bit of knowledge that didn't belong to this era, he had to worry about Orochimaru, worry about Danzo, and be threatened by Orochimaru.

This damn ninja world was rotten to the core.

Hiroki immediately answered his own question and suddenly felt his thoughts clear up.

Since he had already come to this damn ninja world and couldn't go back, and he possessed a cheat in the form of the Windows-like system he was most familiar with, he might as well try to become stronger—strong enough that no one could stop him—and then go on to change this damn era.

Change this damn ninja world.

Hiroki took a breath and reached out to ruffle Kushina's hair.

|Hiroki.log| "Yeah, I'll support you, but not right now. For now, you need to learn Fuinjutsu just as Ms. Mito said. And then... I will find ways to become stronger, ways to make others acknowledge you, and ways to avoid being bound within a barrier."

|Hiroki.log| "Let's get stronger together... and then..." And then change this damn era.

Hiroki thought about it and decided not to send the last few words; after all, they contained profanity, which was a bad influence on a child.

He changed his phrasing.

|Hiroki.log| "And then, go become the Hokage! Change Konoha!"

|Kushina_Adoring_Trusting_Surprised.log| "Yeah!!!!!!"

"So, have you decided?" Orochimaru watched Sawada Hiroki before him with a smile.

Behind him was a row of criminals wearing hoods and marked with Fuinjutsu seals. They had instruments inserted into their bodies to measure various physiological values, and several researchers were standing nearby.

"Yes, let's begin. Let's start with the experiment for the Muscle Automation Growth Technique. I can't wait to become stronger," Hiroki replied in a low voice.

"Muscle experiments, ninjutsu replication, genjutsu resistance, and the dismantling work for Lightning Style: False Darkness—you really have packed your schedule full... Even I, a Jonin, couldn't manage to be as diligent as you," Orochimaru remarked in a low, reflective tone.

"Not at all, this is just the only thing someone as mediocre as me can do," Hiroki replied in a low voice, his eyes looking coldly at the criminals.

In his past life, as a corporate slave programmer, working overtime and being exploited was the norm.

In this life, to become stronger, exploiting himself was nothing to complain about.

"By the way, they are all people who deserve to die, right!?" Hiroki reached out his hand and asked one last cold question.

"Of course. In the Hidden Leaf Village, every year, countless people spend money to find ninjas or ronin to learn chakra and ninjutsu. And then, who knows how many of them start doing dirty deeds once they've learned those techniques," Orochimaru scanned the criminals with a cold sneer.

Throughout the Land of Fire, countless incidents and missions appeared on street corners because of this.

It had to be said that if it weren't for them, the number of missions in Konoha might be cut in half.

"That's good."

His young, fair hand pressed against the first criminal.

Immediately after, a wail rang out. The guy's body began to tremble uncontrollably, then curled up, and soon convulsed into the shape of a shrimp.

Then, after a few more moments, he stopped breathing.

No one gave an order, but the next moment, a researcher watching the indicators spoke in a low voice, analyzing: "Calcium ion levels are too low; it's likely acute catastrophic hypocalcemia."

"There's also ventricular fibrillation! The imbalance of calcium ions caused the target's heart to be unable to maintain a normal electrical rhythm!!" another researcher provided an analysis as well.

"The lactic acid levels are also off the charts! The blood is in a state of acidosis! The kidneys are completely unable to process it!"

"Blood circulation stopped or became abnormal at around the 37th second! The subject died due to cerebral hypoxia. At this point, almost no part of the entire process can be reversed by medical ninjutsu." The last researcher provided the final assessment.

"Continue?" Orochimaru raised an eyebrow, looking toward Hiroki.

Hiroki took a deep breath, not looking at the corpse lying on the ground, and walked straight toward the second one.

"Continue," he said.