The Defeat of Uzuki

When was Uzuki discovered?

Perhaps, he had been discovered from the very beginning.

[Ding-dong~]

[New WiFi signal "Uzuki_Yakushi Taro" detected, signal strength: medium. Connect?]

|20:13:45||"Orochimaru... Jiro... that bastard, I'm going to kill him!"|

|20:13:46||"Who is that kid? Sawada Hiroki? Mentioned in the intel... something's not right. What if the rumors are true?"|→|20:13:46||"Who is that kid? Sawada Hiroki? Mentioned in the intel... something's not right. What if the rumors are true?... It can't be true! How could it be! He's Lord Danzo's top sensory ninja!"|

|20:13:57||"Must stay calm, observe the situation first, don't be impulsive..."|→|20:13:57||"Must stay calm, observe the situation first, don't be impulsive... Damn it! Seeing Jiro's state, I can't stay calm at all!"|

[Folder: Assassination and Stealth Techniques]

--[Folder: Combat Ninjutsu]:

[File: Ninjutsu-Shadow Clone Technique.exe]

[File: Basic Taijutsu Insights.dat]

[File: Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere (Second only to Lord Danzo!).exe]

[File: Chakra Scalpel.exe]

[File: Chakra Nature Transformation (Wind) Beginner to Ultimate Master.zip]

[Calculating required time and space...]

[Total 5 files, total size: 83.5MB]

[Copying files from other computer (Uzuki) D Drive (Memory Disk) to my computer (Sawada Hiroki) D Drive (Memory Disk): Ninjutsu_Backup_Uzuki]

|File Name|Size|Estimated Time|

|Ninjutsu-Shadow Clone Technique.exe|8.5MB|Approx. 8 min 30 sec|

|Basic Taijutsu Insights.dat|2.0MB|Approx. 2 min|

|Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere (Second only to Lord Danzo!).exe|9.8MB|Approx. 9 min 45 sec|

|Chakra Scalpel.exe|13.2MB|Approx. 13 min 12 sec|

|Chakra Nature Transformation (Wind) Beginner to Ultimate Master.zip|50.0MB|Approx. 50 min|

|Total|83.5MB|Approx. 1 hour 23 min 27 sec|

From the very beginning, when his unique WiFi name appeared in Hiroki's list of connectable signals, Hiroki had already noticed him.

"Uzuki_Yakushi Taro".

At a glance, it was obvious this wasn't a normal person; other people's WiFi signals were usually named directly, and even Orochimaru's signal didn't have a prefix.

But this guy alone...

Actually included a nickname!?

Doesn't that just beg for a thorough investigation into what thoughts were inside his head?

And it didn't matter if he didn't investigate, but once he did, Hiroki really found something.

--A ninja who had received Danzo's approval to come and see what Orochimaru was doing.

This left Hiroki somewhat puzzled.

Had Orochimaru hidden his information and not reported it to Danzo?

But those were things to think about only after defeating Uzuki.

The current priority was to test the strength of the Shadow Clone.

Countless prompts allowed Hiroki's Shadow Clone to handle Uzuki with ease.

In the end, after deleting all the thought caches in the opponent's head, the Shadow Clone's Vacuum Sphere struck true.

A Root ninja, defeated and crushed just like that.

If Hiroki had wanted to kill him, he could have even pierced directly through the opponent's brain or heart.

As the opponent collapsed, Hiroki slowly exhaled and dispelled the Shadow Clone.

Uzuki was not dead yet; he was struggling to save himself using medical ninjutsu.

Hiroki did not continue to pay him any mind.

He was currently summarizing the gains from this battle.

First, this method of "writing code" into someone else's brain was truly useful.

As long as the opponent didn't take him seriously at the start, or hadn't raised their hostility and defenses to the maximum, he could act like a hacker, making small adjustments in their mental buffer zone to throw them into chaos.

That was only the most cautious way of putting it; in fact, Hiroki had yet to encounter anyone whose mental buffer zone required administrator privileges.

Logically speaking, Hiroki should possess the ability to kill even Orochimaru in one hit—but unfortunately, Hiroki had never managed to connect to Orochimaru's Wi-Fi under normal circumstances.

And this highlighted the limitations.

This method was far too dependent on the opponent's "Wi-Fi" signal. Hiroki could only wait for others to actively perceive him, which was a bit like waiting for a rabbit to hit a tree stump; it wasn't proactive enough. Furthermore, if he ran into someone like Orochimaru who could use that "Wi-Fi" to cast genjutsu back at him, this move would be completely useless.

Secondly, the Shadow Clone jutsu was practically tailor-made for him.

Just now, Hiroki's Shadow Clone had been modifying Uzuki's thoughts, while his main body was downloading files.

The two sides barely interfered with each other, effectively doubling his efficiency.

This feeling... it was like being a one-man studio, complete with several unpaid interns working like pack animals! This was just the initial thrill of using Shadow Clone; Hiroki couldn't even imagine what kind of help it would bring in the future!

It truly lived up to its reputation as the number one bug-tier jutsu in the ninja world!

Finally, there was still Orochimaru.

To this day, Hiroki had no idea what he was thinking, how he had forcibly connected to his Wi-Fi, or how he had sensed Uzuki without any Wi-Fi signal present.

"Clatter."

The sound of a recording pen hitting the floor interrupted Hiroki's train of thought.

He looked up and discovered that the researchers in white coats surrounding him were all frozen as if hit by a binding jutsu, their mouths agape and their eyes staring at him in a daze.

The researcher closest to him, wearing glasses, adjusted his slipping frames, his lips trembling as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he only let out an unintelligible "Uh...".

Another slightly older researcher subconsciously glanced at Uzuki and then at Hiroki, before rubbing his eyes vigorously, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Who is this...?" one researcher asked, looking at Orochimaru in disbelief.

Another researcher muttered, "To know how to use it the very moment he learned it!? And how to release it in combat... this is too terrifying..."

That researcher knew very well that for a jutsu of this level, learning how to release it—let alone mastering it—would take a little genius at least half a year, not just ten or fifteen days!

Yet, Hiroki had spent only a few minutes copying it, learning it, and even figuring out how to use it!

No, that wasn't all!

More importantly—he still remembered the chakra tests Hiroki had undergone previously and the rumors from even earlier!

Hiroki didn't have Lightning Style chakra! How had he released Lightning Style: False Darkness!? It was so incredibly curious that the researchers were practically itching to dissect Hiroki right now to analyze how he had done it.

Their gazes were so intense and burning that Hiroki couldn't help but subconsciously turn his face away, looking toward Orochimaru, who was watching him with a playful expression.

"Teacher Orochimaru," Hiroki asked, "how should we deal with this guy?"

Orochimaru's gaze shifted away from Hiroki and landed on the gasping Uzuki on the ground, a flicker of cold disgust passing through his golden snake-like pupils.

Compared to a valuable target like Hiroki, this Root colleague of his seemed far too uninteresting.

"Don't worry about him for now; I will dispose of him later." Orochimaru glanced at Uzuki, then looked back at Hiroki and suddenly asked a question.

"Hiroki-kun, do you know why the Third Hokage made me the teacher for you and Uzumaki Kushina? Do you know what he wants me to teach you? And, do you want to know who your final companion is?"