Ambition Emerges

Gradually, Hozuki Mitsuki felt his consciousness blurring. He wanted to weave the hand signs for the "Reverse Summoning Technique" to escape, but he could no longer even sense where his own hands were.

This was primarily because Touma, in order to better restrict his "Hydrification Technique," had subconsciously driven a significant amount of electrical arcs from his "Thunder Motion Fist" into his body.

Once these uncontrolled arcs entered his system, they rampaged through his meridians and acupoints, simultaneously scrambling his nervous system; he could feel that his arms were effectively ruined.

Touma seized the opportunity to disarm him of the "Twin Blades: Hiramekarei" and quickly placed a "Contract Sealing" on them.

Because he had read the original work, he knew that the Hozuki Clan possessed a summoning scroll capable of summoning all seven of the Mist Village's ninja swords.

Touma did not want to give up such excellent research material. After all, in the original story, the Sixth Mizukage, Chojuro, used "Hiramekarei" to perform techniques that materialized chakra.

This was a technique known as "Blood Mist Sword Style: Bone Extraction," which could fire a massive number of materialized bone needles through "Hiramekarei" to pin an opponent in place.

Touma was certain that the ability to achieve such chakra materialization was definitely due to some special material used in "Hiramekarei," or perhaps some unique internal structure.

In fact, Touma's own black rod possessed similar capabilities; the "Magaku Style," "Arahabaki Form," and "Tsumugari Form" were all ultimately achieved by leveraging parts of the black rod's inherent power.

However, this black rod was not only his current weapon but also an heirloom from his late father, so he dared not dismantle it for study. Furthermore, there wasn't even a single scratch on the rod's surface; Touma did not believe it could be disassembled by conventional means.

Upon obtaining the "Twin Blades: Hiramekarei," Touma discovered that the control hub for the "Reversal Barrier" hovering above his head was actually located within this blade.

According to Touma's deduction, Hozuki Mitsuki must have utilized "Hiramekarei's" ability to absorb and store chakra. Otherwise, relying solely on the chakra reserves of an adult Jonin, it would have been impossible to completely reverse the barrier above the dueling arena.

To end the "Barrier Reversal," one only needed to exhaust the chakra stored within "Hiramekarei."

Touma gripped both handles of "Hiramekarei" with his hands, his chakra surging instantly, and with a sudden burst of strength, he pried the two blades apart, which had been tightly stuck together.

Recalling how Hozuki Mitsuki had just used "Hiramekarei," he compressed the chakra in his hands, crossed the blades, and slashed toward the dome of the dueling arena.

Under the amplification of "Hiramekarei," Touma's chakra caused the two slashes to instantly expand to a length of several dozen meters, looking as if they intended to slice the sky itself.

Of course, the sky was not sliced open, but "Hiramekarei," having instantly exhausted its stored chakra, did indeed cut through the dome barrier.

The internal slashes, combined with the atmospheric pressure controlled by Sarutobi Hiruzen outside, created a terrifying explosion in the sky above the arena.

Fortunately, the barrier reversed back to its original state, protecting the spectators outside from the impact of the explosion; otherwise, the exams would likely have ended right there.

The audience fell into a terrified silence due to the violent explosion, but then they noticed Touma standing in the center of the arena holding the "Twin Blades: Hiramekarei." Realizing that a victor had been decided, they began to cheer loudly.

Once the barrier was restored, a large number of medical ninja and Anbu ninja began to rush in through the rear entrance to check on Touma's injuries.

Fortunately, before Hozuki Mitsuki revealed his true identity, he had mostly used small-scale Water Release ninjutsu, which hadn't left any lasting damage on Touma.

Conversely, after he revealed his true appearance and summoned the "Twin Blades: Hiramekarei," Touma had been unable to accurately predict the trajectory of the blades, resulting in several significant cuts.

Fortunately, before entering the arena, Touma had prepared the "Yin Healing Wound Destruction" medical ninjutsu beneath his skin; after this short while, only faint white marks remained on his skin.

Seeing that Touma was unharmed, Sarutobi Hiruzen finally set his mind at ease.

His high regard for Touma was not only because of Touma's father but also because he had recently learned that Orochimaru had privately acknowledged this boy as his younger brother.

Moreover, judging by the frequent use of a one-way intelligence channel by Orochimaru to pass messages recently, he valued this younger brother far more than he valued himself, his teacher and the Hokage!

What was worse was that a piece of encrypted intelligence just delivered by a ninja hawk was Orochimaru inquiring about the identity of Kamikawa Ryuhei.

Upon learning that his younger brother had been randomly matched against this Chunin, Orochimaru had used his authority as the acting commander of the Kikyo City frontline to investigate Kamikawa Ryuhei's background and movements.

There were no issues with the background information; he was considered a loyal Konoha ninja, and his father had undergone multiple identity verifications when Konoha was founded.

Not to mention, their Kamikawa clan had been a subordinate ninja clan to the Senju clan during the Warring States period, and Kamikawa Ryuhei's grandfather had even served under Senju Butsuma!

However, his movements were not as clear.

By cross-referencing the movements of his teammates, Orochimaru discovered that Kamikawa Ryuhei had disappeared near the Land of Hot Water multiple times over the past half-month, and the duration of each disappearance was remarkably similar—about 30 minutes.

The reported reason was to purchase local specialties from the Land of Hot Water, but according to Orochimaru's investigation, no one at the local commercial street's specialty shops had witnessed Kamikawa Ryuhei's visit.

And half a month ago was exactly when the Cloud Village publicly demanded war compensation from Konoha, and also when Touma, Minato, and Kushina were publicly exposed by the Cloud Village!

Seeing this detailed investigation report from Orochimaru, Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't know how to respond.

If he told Orochimaru that his own intelligence department and Anbu had failed to detect a Jonin from the Mist Village's Hozuki Clan infiltrating the village, he would certainly be questioned by this brilliant student regarding his own competence—that was definitely out of the question.

And if he were to simply say that Touma was fine and had taken down a Hozuki Clan Jonin one-on-one while the barrier was reversed, his already fragile relationship with his student would become even more distant, and the possibility of having his student succeed him as Hokage would likely vanish entirely!

Yes, Sarutobi Hiruzen had been grooming Orochimaru for the position of Hokage all along. Letting him stay in Kikyo City for five years, rising from a frontline logistics officer to the current acting commander, was all part of cultivating his leadership and management skills.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was no fool; he had long anticipated the arrival of the Second Shinobi World War, so he had early on ensured Orochimaru sat firmly in the position of acting commander of Kikyo City, allowing him to install his own confidants so he could completely control the garrison troops before the war.

When the time came, as long as Konoha emerged victorious in the war, the greatest military merit would undoubtedly belong to Orochimaru, the commander. Sarutobi Hiruzen would then logically push him into the position of Hokage's assistant, and after reaching the appropriate age, his succession to the Hokage position would be a matter of course!

However, in the original story, a series of coincidences occurred: first, the student's friends died before his eyes, then a teammate contracted "hemophobia," later another teammate gave up on life, and the teacher supported a puppet for the sake of power.

It was foreseeable that Orochimaru's worldview could not remain normal, jumping from one extreme to another.

But now that Touma had arrived, he did not want the timeline to continue like that. There was still plenty of time before Sarutobi Hiruzen grew truly old—enough for him to scheme on behalf of his sister, Orochihime!