Jiraiya and the already deranged Nagato naturally couldn't continue their conversation peacefully. Their exchange only lasted a few sentences before erupting into a fierce battle.
Ethan kept his promise and didn't interfere, watching the spectacle from the side with his arms crossed. Not far from him, Obito, despite his poor mental state, also didn't leave, forcing himself to remain alert.
"You're not taking this chance to escape?"
"..."
Obito remained silent. He admitted Ethan's strength was terrifying, but he had confidence in his own Mangekyo Sharingan ability. As long as he wasn't foolish enough to engage in genjutsu, Ethan wouldn't be able to harm him.
However, in the next second, Tobi... or rather, Uchiha Obito, heard words that sent a chill down his spine.
"You think you're invincible with a space-time ninjutsu like Kamui? Don't you know I also understand space-time ninjutsu?"
Obito had been trying his best to avoid looking at Ethan. He knew that genjutsu required a medium to activate, the most common being eye contact. Beyond that, sound or gestures could also trigger genjutsu.
To avoid being caught again, he had been consciously avoiding eye contact. But this time, he simply couldn't help himself.
"How did you know my identity?"
"You should know that ninjutsu is powered by chakra."
Obito didn't respond, waiting for Ethan to continue.
"Everyone's chakra is slightly different based on individual circumstances... even if the differences are tiny, there's no such thing as identical chakra."
Obito still didn't speak. He couldn't understand what Ethan was getting at. Had he memorized his chakra signature? But they had never met before.
"As the Uchiha clan's unique kekkei genkai, the Mangekyo Sharingan, the abilities each person awakens are different... you probably haven't noticed, but these unique dōjutsu also emit unique chakra fluctuations."
Now Obito understood. Ethan had recognized Kamui through the same chakra fluctuations that Kakashi's eye emitted, and from that, deduced that he was Obito.
But even so, that deduction shouldn't be absolute, right? How could he be so sure the eye hadn't been passed to someone else?
He would never know that Ethan already knew the truth and had only reverse-engineered a reasonable explanation to deceive him. The real reason was simple—he had watched the anime and read the manga. Obito's identity was no secret to someone who knew the full story.
"Even if you know the Flying Thunder God Technique, you can't deal with my Kamui."
Some of Ethan's abilities had already been documented by Akatsuki. He knew Wood Release and the Flying Thunder God Technique. Although it now appeared Ethan's strength had gone far beyond that, Obito still didn't believe he could threaten him while he was hidden in the Kamui dimension.
"Given your shallow understanding of space-time, it's not surprising you'd say something like that."
Obito felt Ethan was just talking nonsense. He didn't take it to heart and simply stood off to the side, continuing to watch the fierce battle between Jiraiya and Pain.
And Ethan wasn't in the mood to waste words on an enemy either. He only grumbled inwardly: arrogance and self-importance seemed to be a shared trait of the Uchiha clan. No matter how weak they were at the start, or how many times they had been beaten down, once they awakened the Sharingan and mastered some techniques, they immediately became arrogant.
Sasuke was like that. Obito was the same. Even Itachi had this tendency to some extent, though it wasn't as blatant as the other two.
Their conversation ended abruptly, and both of them turned their attention to the battle ahead.
Jiraiya was truly worthy of being one of the Sannin. After activating Sage Mode, he fought evenly with Pain, and despite not fully understanding his abilities, he wasn't at a significant disadvantage.
He constantly gathered intel during the battle, quickly deduced weaknesses, and formed and executed strategies in the shortest possible time.
If it weren't for Pain's endless array of strange abilities, Pain—who had claimed moments ago that he had surpassed humanity and become a god—might already have lost to Jiraiya.
As the battle dragged on, it entered a critical phase. The Six Paths of Pain finally appeared together, and from that point, Jiraiya began to lose ground.
For a ninja, prolonged combat was always disadvantageous. It wasn't just about chakra depletion.
Along with consuming chakra and stamina, the longer a battle continued, the more information was revealed, the fewer trump cards remained, and the harder it became to land effective finishing blows.
Pain, relying on a range of strange and unknown abilities, wore Jiraiya down little by little. When all Six Paths of Pain fought as one, it turned into a six-man team with perfect synergy ganging up on one man.
If not for Jiraiya's vast combat experience and the boost from Sage Mode, he might already be lying on the ground by now.
"Hey, that guy watching from the side... he must be your comrade, right?"
Fukasaku had long noticed the other two standing by. The masked one was clearly with the enemy. The other, that young man, should be on their side, right? After all, the enemy wore matching cloaks, and judging by their positions and reactions, the masked one was clearly on guard against the younger man.
"I wanted to handle this alone."
Shima, standing nearby, immediately smacked him with a paw.
"The problem is, you can't handle it alone anymore."
"..."
Jiraiya knew this well. Nagato was far more troublesome than he'd expected. What troubled him most was that none of these six figures looked like Nagato, yet all had the Rinnegan...
He had a suspicion in his heart and just wanted to gather more information.
Just then, perhaps thinking Jiraiya was doomed and had no chance of escaping, two of the Six Paths suddenly turned and charged at Ethan, who was still watching from the sidelines.
"Oh boy! Now we're really screwed!"
Seeing this, Jiraiya had no intention of rushing over to help. He only felt that his plan might be about to fall apart.
Watching the two figures rush toward him, Ethan only shrugged at Jiraiya from a distance, as if to say, "I didn't start this."
He reached for the sword at his waist with one hand and slowly drew it.
At that moment, the Preta Path and Human Path had already closed in. The Human Path even reached out, ready to grab Ethan.
But the next second, as if space itself had frozen, three flashes of sword light appeared, forming a triangular formation around the Human Path, sealing off every route of escape.
If that was all, it wouldn't be enough to destroy the Human Path, which was, after all, just a puppet. Knowing the truth behind these bodies, how could Ethan rely on ordinary slashes?
"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki."
The plain sword in his hand transformed instantly into a beautiful, pure-white blade, radiating intense cold. The Human Path, struck by this pristine blade, was instantly frozen into a statue of ice.
When dealing with puppets or constructs like these, the key was to either incinerate them or freeze them until their structure shattered. As long as the body was physically destroyed, they couldn't function anymore.
As for the Preta Path that followed? It was dealt with the same way.
Though it could absorb chakra, it had not trained in the Northern Darkness Divine Skill and couldn't neutralize the absorbed energy. It absorbed the deadly cold chakra into itself eagerly, essentially committing suicide.
Thus, the Preta Path died even more cleanly than the Human Path, immediately reduced to shimmering shards of ice scattered by the wind.
"Ice Release?"
The intel on Ethan stated he possessed a form of Wood Release that was very different from Hashirama's, and also that he had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique. But there was no mention of Ice Release.
Pain hadn't expected Ethan's Ice Release to be so powerful. In just an instant, two of the Six Paths had been completely destroyed.
While he could remake the bodies at any time, the strength Ethan displayed still left him deeply unsettled. Originally, he had planned to eliminate both Jiraiya and Ethan quickly, but now that plan seemed almost impossible.
"Things aren't going as smoothly as expected..."
In this area, only Jiraiya was unfazed by Ethan's performance. Even the two elder toads on his shoulders, Fukasaku and Shima, were wide-eyed at the sheer power Ethan displayed.
"Jiraiya... with such a powerful comrade, why are you fighting alone?"
"Could it be your brain got damaged recently, and you're not thinking straight?"
"..."
Jiraiya didn't know how to explain it, so he chose to say nothing. As for the battle? Now that Ethan had acted, it seemed this fight might wrap up ahead of schedule.
"Is it snowing?"
The light drizzle that had been falling turned into flakes of snow. It was the result of the intense cold Ethan had unleashed, changing the surrounding environment. A power like this, able to alter the weather with just a flick of the hand... wasn't that the power of a god?
Just as Jiraiya was wondering what kind of move Ethan would make next, he saw Ethan plunge his sword into the ground, rest his hands on the pommel, and gesture for him to continue the show.
Fukasaku and Shima also saw Ethan's gesture. They turned to stare at Jiraiya in unison.
"Do you have a grudge against that guy or something?"
"..."
(To be continued.)