The sun shone brightly over the playground of the Konoha Ninja Academy.
Unlike the eerie, oppressive atmosphere of Training Ground No. 44, this place was alive with noise—shouts, laughter, and the sharp clack of wooden kunai colliding.
Under the watchful eye of their instructor, young students practiced the basics of taijutsu sparring.
Then, a pale, slender figure approached the edge of the field, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
"L-Lord Orochimaru!"
The instructor froze mid-step. His expression shifted to a mix of awe and nervousness. He hurried over, bowing deeply.
"No need for such formality," Orochimaru said softly, his voice low and hoarse. He gave a slight nod, his tone almost kind. "I simply came to observe. After all, these children are the future of our village."
His posture was graceful, his golden, slit-pupiled eyes almost gentle—as though he were a kindly elder watching over his juniors. The instructor, flattered and uneasy, quickly straightened up.
Orochimaru's gaze drifted across the field until it settled on a black-haired boy sitting off to the side, resting after exhaustion.
He approached quietly, crouched beside the boy, and asked in a calm voice, "You're in the same class as Hiroki Sawada, aren't you?"
The boy blinked, startled that a legendary shinobi—one even his teacher revered—was speaking to him. "Y-yes, sir!"
"Tell me," Orochimaru continued with a faint, almost comforting smile, "what kind of child is he?"
The boy hesitated, thinking hard.But strangely, every time he tried to recall Hiroki, his thoughts blurred.
He knew the name. He knew Hiroki was his classmate. Yet, whenever he tried to remember what kind of person he was—how he acted, what he said—it slipped away like smoke.
"Well… he's quiet," the boy finally said. "Doesn't really play with the others or talk much. But it's not like he's shy or anything… more like he's just not interested."
That was the best he could describe him.
"Oh?" Orochimaru's golden eyes narrowed slightly. "So he never causes trouble. Never draws attention."
"Exactly!" the boy said, relieved that someone understood. "It's like… he's a shadow in the classroom. You know he's there, but you never really notice him doing anything."
Like an adult spy poorly pretending to be a child.
Orochimaru's thoughts sharpened.That level of restraint wasn't normal for a kid.It reminded him of someone else—a man named Danzo Shimura.
Meanwhile, inside the training ground, Hiroki's mind was running at incredible speed.
A sudden spike in memory and CPU usage ruled out any physical interference.
Illusion.That was the only explanation.
Besides his own emotional subsystems, only genjutsu could tamper with his memory and processing capacity!
There was no time to waste. Acting instinctively, Hiroki issued the most critical command in his consciousness:
Ctrl + Alt + Delete!
A dark blue screen flashed across his mental landscape.
[Hiroki Sawada — Task Manager]
Under the Processes tab, rows of data flickered wildly. One entry at the top glowed red, devouring nearly all system resources.
NarakuDream.exe 93% CPU 3912 MB Running
VisualProcessing.exe 2% CPU 128 MB Running
SurvivalInstinct.sys 1% CPU 64 MB Running
conscious.bat 1% CPU 32 MB Running
...
Naraku Dream Technique?!The illusion that traps people in blissful dreams!
So it was Orochimaru's doing.And if he was caught in it… then Kushina might be trapped too!
Without hesitation, Hiroki's mental "cursor" darted to the hostile process.
"End Process!"
[Are you sure you want to end this process?]Yes!
The moment he clicked OK, the heavy fog in his mind lifted. Clarity flooded back, thoughts snapping into perfect focus.
But it lasted less than a second.
Almost instantly, a new process appeared—its name disturbingly familiar—and again, it hijacked nearly all CPU and memory resources.
HellVision.exe 94% CPU 3967 MB Running
VisualProcessing.exe 2% CPU 128 MB Running
SurvivalInstinct.sys 1% CPU 64 MB Running
conscious.bat 1% CPU 32 MB Running
...
Hell Vision…?The illusion that forces victims to relive their greatest fears!
First Naraku, now this? What's next—Heaven.exe?
Then it hit him.
This wasn't a single virus.It was a persistent injection attack.
Orochimaru wasn't casting one illusion—he was injecting them in real time, adapting to Hiroki's countermeasures!
So that was his "test."
Orochimaru had somehow established a high-privilege data link with Hiroki's system.As long as that connection stayed open, even if Hiroki terminated a hundred illusions per second, Orochimaru could inject a hundred more.
The Task Manager alone wouldn't save him.He needed a firewall—something to cut off the connection completely.
But how had Orochimaru even connected to him in the first place?
Then Hiroki saw it—his internal network status flashing in the corner.
Wi-Fi Connected: Orochimaru_Open_Signal_Strong