Under [Low Performance Mode], Hiroki's consciousness seemed to sink into the depths of the sea. Everything in the outside world became sluggish and distant.
The only thing that let him sense time passing was the slowly climbing progress bar. It was the only rope he had dangling over the edge of a cliff. Every pixel it advanced brought him a little closer to the hope of survival.
The fear hadn't disappeared.
The Task Manager could forcibly end the "Panic.exe" process and block the physical reactions—the pounding heart and freezing hands and feet—but it couldn't erase the soul-deep awareness of "death" as the ultimate concept.
It was a cold, rational threat, as constant as the system's underlying code.
Every ten or twenty minutes, the Task Manager showed the process named |Fear.exe| popping up again, hogging huge amounts of CPU and memory.
All Hiroki could do was manually end it each time, preventing the threat from crashing the system. He forced himself to become an emotionless machine, executing the single highest-priority command: survive.
[Ding.]
A pleasant chime rang out. The progress bar for [Rope Escape Technique.dat] finally reached 100%.
[File "Rope Escape Technique.zip" has finished downloading. Extract now?]
"Install!" Hiroki answered without hesitation.
In an instant, a vast and intricate stream of data poured into his consciousness.
It was as if he had lived through the life of someone who had been bound and imprisoned by an expert for decades. Every kind of rope material, every method of tying, and the principles behind every dead knot were taken apart, analyzed, and reconstructed in his mind.
His nervous system began simulating the best angles for his muscles to exert force while bound. His brain could already clearly "see" the weak points in the knots around his body.
It was a strange sensation. His body couldn't move, but his soul had already learned how to get free. He could undo the ropes and escape his restraints at any time.
But not yet, Hiroki told himself. Even if he freed himself now, he still couldn't kill these Cloud Ninjas. He had to wait.
As for how long... he didn't know.
At the very least, he had to wait until he'd copied all three techniques, and either the Anbu or Minato caught up with them.
"Stop!"
The Cloud Ninja captain's voice came through the "external audio" feed into his consciousness, like a death sentence.
"We've reached the border. This is a remote area, the perfect place to deal with him. Sakuchi, do it."
Already!?
Hiroki's brow furrowed at once!
He'd only just secured a "stay of execution," and now they were about to carry it out.
He could "feel" an undisguised killing intent bearing down on him.
What should he do?!
His mind raced.
The cached file about the "captain wanting to hog the credit" had apparently already been cleared. Using it a second time so soon would surely be less effective—and might even arouse suspicion!
He needed to find a new vulnerability, something deeper, more irresistible, rooted in biological instinct!
A bodily instinct...
Wait, I've got it!
Hiroki's consciousness shot into Sakuchi's "system" again, with a clear target: bodily control!
He rapidly browsed the other man's "system folders," skipping everything related to thoughts and memories. At last, he found a core directory locked by the system: |BIOS_Bodily_Senses|.
He plunged inside and found what he wanted in a subfolder named |Bladder_Control|. There were no complicated programs here, just countless temporary cache files recording bodily sensations.
Hiroki's gaze locked onto a file named |Urgent_Urination_Signal.tmp|.
This looked like it would work!
All Hiroki had to do now was copy the signal manually and see if it could get him out of this bind!
His intention became the most precise command. He selected the file and pressed [Ctrl+C]. Then, using all his mental strength, he frantically pressed [Ctrl+V] inside the folder!
In an instant, hundreds of "urgent need to pee" signal caches were forcibly copied and pasted, flooding Sakuchi's sensory processing center like a spam attack. At that moment, his brain received just one message: I'm about to explode!
Sakuchi, who had raised his Kunai and was about to stab down, suddenly stiffened, as if struck by lightning.
A sudden, surging virtual need to pee swept through every one of his nerves. The sensation was so real and intense that he couldn't stop himself from squeezing his legs together. A pained, twisted expression appeared on his face.
"Uh... C-Captain..." Sakuchi's voice trembled. He practically forced the words through clenched teeth. "I... I can't hold it... I have to... take care of it!"
The captain and the other Cloud Ninja, who had been keeping watch, both turned around. Seeing Sakuchi on the verge of wetting himself, they looked at him with contempt. The captain's brow furrowed, a trace of suspicion flashing in his eyes.
"Useless! At a time like this!" he muttered, then impatiently waved a hand. "Go! You've got thirty seconds!"
During those precious few dozen seconds, Sakuchi rushed toward the nearby bushes, rolling and scrambling in his relief. The captain, who had remained on high alert, suddenly changed expression! He instantly looked up toward the direction they'd come from, his eyes sharp as an eagle's.
"Not good! We've got pursuers! They're fast—it's Konoha's Anbu!"
"How did they catch up so quickly?"
"Forget that!" The captain made his decision at once, his voice full of resolve. "There's no time to deal with the kid. Take him with us! Full speed ahead, and get out of the Land of Fire!"
Before he'd even finished speaking, Sakuchi, having just relieved himself, hurried back out. He scooped Hiroki off the ground and slung him over his shoulder again. But the moment he lifted him, the captain spoke up once more. "Wait!"
His sharp gaze fixed on Hiroki, draped over Sakuchi's shoulder.
"Don't you think this is too much of a coincidence?" the captain said coldly. "Outside the village, you suddenly decided this kid was valuable. Now, just as I was about to order his death, you suddenly had to pee so badly you could barely hold it. Sakuchi, one coincidence is luck. Two... is a problem."
Hiroki's vigilance instantly went to its highest level.
His worst fear had come true. This captain was far sharper and more suspicious than he let on!
Hiroki immediately checked his own status.
Good, he was still in Low Performance Mode! Then all he could do was pray he wouldn't be exposed. After all, he had no other way to disguise or conceal himself.
The captain walked up to Hiroki, bringing with him a smell of blood and sweat. He pressed two cold fingers precisely against Hiroki's carotid artery.
Hiroki's body faithfully maintained the slowest heart rate of a deep coma. No normal person's heartbeat could stay so steady when they sensed the threat of death.
The captain felt the faint, steady pulse, his brow furrowing. He still didn't seem convinced. With his free hand, he suddenly pried open Hiroki's eyelid.
The iridescent glow of the setting sun slipped through the mottled shadows of the trees and fell into Hiroki's eye, but his pupil didn't contract at all. It was utterly lifeless, like a glass bead.
Only after a long while did the captain let go.
"Looks like I was overthinking it," he said to himself, though the suspicion hadn't entirely left his voice. "Maybe he really is just an ordinary kid with an absurd amount of luck."
He turned and ordered Sakuchi, who was drenched in a cold sweat, "Whatever the case, full speed ahead!"
The three of them turned into blurs once more and raced toward the border of the Land of Fire without looking back.
Hiroki breathed a sigh of relief.
There was still a chance.
Once the Lightning Style: False Darkness finished copying, once the Anbu or Minato caught up... he just needed to wait for the right moment...
Hiroki thought in silence.
Night fell. Their nonstop, all-out flight had left the three Cloud Ninjas exhausted, and they eventually stopped in an extremely well-hidden cave to take a short rest.
Perhaps because they thought they'd already traveled deep into the Land of Lightning, they let their guard down. To make him easier to watch, Sakuchi tied Hiroki—who had remained unconscious the whole time—to Kushina, back-to-back, then set them beside himself. He even rested one foot on Hiroki.
The coarse rope dug painfully into him, but Hiroki didn't care. Because the moment his arm touched Kushina's back, a brand-new window, glowing with a soft blue light, quietly appeared in the center of his mental desktop.
[Ding.]
[New computer detected: "Uzumaki Kushina." Connect?]
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