Everyone had grown accustomed to Makoto's intense declarations and behavior.
Hashirama was jealous.
He had once wanted to teach Makoto how to pursue an Uchiha, but got mocked for it.
Looking back now? That mockery wasn't unjustified.
This dude was the real..... Uchiha Whisperer.
...
Meanwhile, on the battlefield.
Urashiki had already found Naruto's group.
Facing Urashiki's standard villainous smirk, Boruto immediately became enraged!
He thought of his mentor Sasuke, whose fate remained unknown after falling off the cliff.
As everyone knows in anime, "fate unknown" essentially means 'dead until plot says otherwise'.
"You bastard!"
Boruto furiously launched an attack against Urashiki.
He sprinted and circled around from behind Urashiki, ran a full loop to face him directly... and then charged forward in a straight line!
This confusing human behavior of "flanking the enemy just to attack from the front" baffled even the dumbass Urashiki, who let out a puzzled "Huh?" sound.
Then, with a kick, he sent Boruto flying like a ragdoll.
"Dammit, ordinary attacks are completely useless against him." Boruto climbed up from the ground, wiping non-existent blood from the corner of his mouth.
Naruto took the opportunity to throw several kunai with Exploding Tags attached.
Urashiki flashed and disappeared from his position, reappearing nearby instantly.
Jiraiya pursued, unleashing Fire Dragon Flame Bullet.
But this Fire Release wasn't aimed at Urashiki—it deliberately avoided him, instead creating a circle of flames around Urashiki.
...
Smack.
Inside the monitoring cabin, Tobirama angrily slammed his fist on the table.
"I've finally figured out Urashiki's true ability!"
"I know it too. This is Space-Time Ninjutsu. Urashiki should be able to..." Nagato nodded slightly.
Since Makoto had previously demonstrated time-related abilities in front of him, he had some understanding in this area—at least more than the others present.
"No."
Tobirama shook his head. "I'm not referring to that, but another, more terrifying ability."
"What ability?"
Everyone turned to look at Tobirama, sensing the gravity in his voice.
"The aura of dumbass!" Tobirama declared solemnly.
"And this ability appears to be a passive, aura-like effect that continuously works. Anyone within Urashiki's vicinity has their intelligence reduced to his level."
"Otherwise, there's no explanation for why Jiraiya would use the Flame Bullet Technique like that. Was he trying to trap Urashiki?"
Tobirama pointed at the screen furiously.
"Obviously not! The fact that Urashiki could fly was absolutely first-hand intelligence revealed at first sight. Urashiki maintained a floating posture at all times, reminding everyone of his ability to fly—something Jiraiya couldn't possibly overlook!"
"Moreover, even if Urashiki couldn't fly, any other ninja would have easily leaped out from that height of flames. It couldn't possibly be that Jiraiya was worried Urashiki might catch a cold after emerging from the river and kindly decided to warm him up with a campfire, right?"
"..."
When Tobirama first spoke, Nagato initially thought this Second Hokage was a jokester like the First, just kidding around.
But the more he spoke, the more sense it made.
Who was Jiraiya? He was Nagato's teacher, one of the legendary Sannin.
His combat experience was second only to ninjas from the Warring States Period.
He might even be more experienced than most ninjas from that era!
After all, the Warring States Period involved conflicts between clans—glorified village brawls.
After the establishment of hidden villages, it was all about the Ninja World Wars—conflicts between nations.
For someone as battle-hardened as Jiraiya to make such a bewildering move was truly perplexing.
If it were about testing Urashiki's abilities, Nagato had already deduced that Urashiki's powers were time-related.
He could definitively say that Jiraiya's attack had nothing to do with probing.
If testing were the goal, the attack would have needed to hit Urashiki, not circle around him to provide warmth.
...
And indeed, that's how it played out.
After Urashiki casually flew out of the ring of fire, Jiraiya stopped his jutsu output, leaped high into the air, and used Toad Oil Bullet.
Countless yellow substances spewed from Jiraiya's mouth.
Luckily, the Masked Man wasn't here, or he'd surely recall some unpleasant memories involving yellow liquid in the Kamui dimension!
Facing Jiraiya's Toad Oil Bullet, Urashiki confidently and calmly began "blinking" repeatedly among the trees.
He moved just like a glitchy Enderman.
At the same time, the bloodstains on Urashiki's clothes were rapidly fading and drying.
Watching this, Jiraiya seemed lost in thought.
Yes.
This was the real ability test.
So, was that earlier Fire Dragon Flame Bullet genuinely meant to warm Urashiki up?
"I get it now! Damn Otsutsuki Urashiki, how despicable!"
Hashirama suddenly stomped his foot in anger.
"?" The others looked at Hashirama in confusion.
"Brother, what do you understand?" Tobirama was puzzled.
"Tobirama, you've always said I'm dumb, right? It's not my fault! It's all because of this... this inherently evil Otsutsuki Urashiki affecting me across time and space! We must eradicate the evil Otsutsuki at any cost!"
Hashirama wore an expression of righteous indignation, clenching his fists and even stealing his brother Tobirama's trademark "inherently evil" line.
"Uh..."
Tobirama really wanted to tell Hashirama, 'Brother, your stupidity is innate, you can't blame Urashiki for that. You were acting foolish long before Urashiki was even born.'
But that felt too harsh.
Better to let him have his delusion.. for now.
When Hashirama realizes his intelligence doesn't change after defeating Urashiki, he'll understand on his own.
Subsequently, everyone set aside this topic and began discussing the time-based abilities of Urashiki that Nagato had mentioned earlier.
Nagato was the first to notice, and after his reminder and Jiraiya's subsequent genuine Toad Oil Bullet test, the others started to see it too.
Similarly, Jiraiya on his end had also figured it out.
Urashiki's Rinnegan ability allowed him to briefly rewind time by a few seconds, effectively granting him foresight of the future and enabling him to evade attacks perfectly.
The only issue was that Urashiki's time rewind couldn't apply to himself, so he experienced more elapsed time than others, which explained why the bloodstains on his clothes dried faster.
With the mechanic exposed, the "Aura of dumbass" seemed to fade temporarily.
Jiraiya bit his finger and summoned a new battlefield.
Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind!
The surroundings instantly plunged into darkness.
"Where is this?"
"Where is this?" Urashiki looked around, realizing he was inside something soft and squishy.
—This was the stomach of a giant toad from Mount Myoboku!
Honestly, the toads were truly unfortunate.
Sometimes their stomachs were summoned just to be burned by Amaterasu and other times used as a feast for the God Tree to devour Otsutsuki members.
Fortunately, although Urashiki could leave at any time via teleportation, he chose not to.
Urashiki and Naruto, who had activated Multiple Shadow Clones, began exchanging blows inside the stomach.
Throughout the fight, Urashiki repeatedly used his time rewind.
It was comparable to Danzo using Izanagi as a substitution technique like spamming a cheat code.
As they dragged out the battle, just when Naruto was defeated, Urashiki suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Cough!
The toad stomach contained highly acidic poison in the air.
Because Urashiki had experienced more time than Jiraiya and the others due to his constant rewinding, he was poisoned more quickly.
So what was this?
Was this "Fugo's Purple Haze Virus"? Was this "Pucci Inhaling Pure Oxygen"? (Jojo reference)
So the bodies of the Otsutsuki Clan were this fragile and could even be poisoned?
The last time effective poisoning was seen was during Sakura and Sasori's battle, where Sakura even managed to counter Sasori's toxins.
This time, the "God" was defeated by... stomach gas.
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