"He can use the Water Clone Jutsu through the Water Release you cast!" Homura Mitokado shouted in alarm.
But Utatane Koharu's eyes had already gone vacant. Her body swayed, balance lost, and she pitched forward.
In that instant, Homura Mitokado's heart clenched violently.
He immediately understood what had happened.
His companion had still let her guard down. Even a single moment of carelessness was enough for her mental defenses to be breached.
This man was nothing like the ninja of the Yamanaka Clan.
Yamanaka techniques required hand seals to initiate a mental invasion. Hiroki, however, needed none at all. Worse still, his technique was not instantaneous—it was continuous.
On a battlefield, even the smallest opening could lead to immediate defeat.
Tonight, Utatane Koharu had exposed that opening.
"Koharu!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Homura Mitokado flickered to her side and caught her collapsing body mid-fall.
His movements were swift yet composed. As he supported her weight, his fingers were already checking her pulse and chakra flow at her wrist and neck.
Her vital signs were stable. Her chakra was undisturbed.
Yet her consciousness was completely gone—shut down as if a switch had been flipped.
Homura recognized the state immediately.
This was the "Brain Overload" described in the intelligence reports.
Though this was the first recorded case in Konoha, similar situations had been documented during the conflict with Hanzō, including reports supplied to Root by Orochimaru himself.
Homura Mitokado was not surprised.
But his expression darkened to its limit.
He did not shout. He did not question. Supporting Utatane Koharu, he slowly straightened his back and lifted his head.
"—Release the technique on her!"
"You dare defy a decision made by Konoha's Council of Advisors?" Homura's voice thundered with authority. "If you persist, you won't be facing just the two of us. We represent the will of Konoha's highest echelon!"
"Sawada Hiroki, you've crossed the line. No clan in Konoha wants you to repeat what you did to the Hyūga Clan upon them."
Faced with Homura Mitokado's political accusation, heavy with threats and status, Hiroki's expression did not change in the slightest.
He had expected this.
When strength failed to secure dominance, those in power inevitably turned to authority, tradition, and the illusion of collective will.
"Generally speaking," Hiroki said calmly, "advisors at your level don't have the authority to punish me."
He paused briefly, almost biting his tongue, then snorted coldly and continued in a tone laced with mockery.
"But I'm in a good mood today, so I'll give you a chance. Tell me—if I surrender to you, what punishment would I actually face?"
The question instantly jammed every prepared accusation in Homura Mitokado's throat.
He froze.
Because the question was too direct. Too real.
It bypassed all lofty rhetoric and struck straight at the final outcome.
Punishment?
Only then did Homura realize something horrifying.
When he and Utatane Koharu had set out tonight, they had never truly considered that question.
What punishment had they even planned?
Their original intent had been simple: interrogate Hiroki, bring him back under control, and then let someone else decide what to do with him.
They had treated him as meat on a chopping block, never imagining he would resist—let alone strike first.
After all, no matter how powerful, he was still just a ten-year-old child.
What ten-year-old dared defy authority? What ten-year-old wouldn't fear people like them?
Yet now, with the confrontation at a deadlock and Hiroki firmly in control, Homura was forced to confront reality.
Strip him of his ninjutsu? Impossible. No one could do that except Hiroki himself.
Imprison him?
Given the abilities he had displayed, Konoha's prison would be no different from paper walls.
Place a cursed seal on him?
If he could remove the Hyūga Clan's Bird in a Cage, then Danzō's Tongue Sealing Technique stood even less of a chance. Moreover, Hiroki was already the tacit frontrunner for Hokage. Once he matured—or demonstrated clear political acumen—his succession would be all but inevitable.
Any excessively harsh punishment simply could not be enforced.
Because once he took office, would he not settle accounts with those who had suppressed him?
At that realization, Homura Mitokado felt true horror.
Facing this boy, the so-called "higher-ups of Konoha" possessed no effective means of punishment at all.
Reading his silence perfectly, Hiroki continued in the same calm tone, answering the question himself.
"First, my actions against the Hyūga Clan had the Third Hokage's tacit approval. Since he hasn't come to confront me personally, that alone proves he does not oppose the outcome."
Without the slightest shame, Hiroki treated Shinshichi's notice as a conclusion he had deduced on his own and pressed forward.
"Second, with my abilities, there is no place in Konoha that can truly detain me."
"As for stripping my ninjutsu or controlling me with a cursed seal—Advisor Mitokado, do you honestly believe that's realistic?"
Each question fell like a heavy hammer, smashing directly into Homura's heart.
Hiroki lifted his gaze and delivered the final verdict with chilling clarity.
"So you see, the so-called punishment does not exist. You ask me to surrender, yet you cannot tell me what happens afterward. You wave the banner of Konoha's higher will, but you lack the means to enforce it."
"Advisor Mitokado, everything you've said is nothing more than an attempt to make me bind myself with fear of an empty title."
"Forgive my bluntness," he concluded. "Such hollow threats are meaningless to me."
Homura Mitokado's face drained of all color.
Not because of the insult—but because he had realized something far more terrifying.
Konoha ruled its ninja only because it possessed the power to punish disobedience, to hunt missing-nin, and to erase rebellion.
Yet against Hiroki, almost none of those methods applied.
Unless Shimura Danzō—
No. Even he likely could not manage it.
Only the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi—a true Kage-level powerhouse—could keep this boy in check.
Which meant that from this moment on, whatever Hiroki wished to do in Konoha required only the Third Hokage's approval.
Was that not, in effect, replacing Danzō's role entirely?
If Hiroki chose next to purge elements of other clans in the name of Konoha's interests, and the Third Hokage agreed, there would be no resistance at all.
And this child—
He was only ten years old.
Homura screamed in despair within his own mind. Granting such authority to a ten-year-old—who could possibly predict what he might do?
His actions against the Hyūga had already proven that he held no respect for Konoha's established political order. He would overturn the entire system without hesitation.
Hiroki's words, sharp as a surgeon's blade, had cleanly stripped away every layer of their authority, exposing the fragile truth beneath.
They could do nothing.
Before absolute, uncontrollable power, rules and titles were no stronger than paper.
In the ninja world, might was justice.
If one lacked the strength to punish another, then that person naturally gained freedom.
A deep chill spread from Homura's heart to every limb.
He had lost completely.
From the moment Utatane Koharu collapsed, victory had already slipped from his grasp. Now, with the revelation that punishment itself was impossible, there was no reason left to fight.
Homura fell silent.
He looked at Hiroki, opened his mouth, and instinctively tried to speak.
No words came.
Every threat, every accusation, sounded hollow and absurd before Hiroki's ruthless dissection of reality.
After a long moment, Homura gave him a deep, complex look—anger, reluctance, but above all, fear of this newly born force.
He said nothing more. Instead, he adjusted his stance and secured the unconscious Utatane Koharu on his back.
He understood clearly.
Konoha's political structure was about to change completely.
And Konoha would not be the only one.
The entire ninja world would follow.