"Since you say you're a sage, what especially impressive abilities do you have?" Obito sized Jiraiya up a few times before asking.
In Obito's mind, only especially powerful people could be called sages, like the Sage of Six Paths, the creator god recorded in textbooks, or Immortal Mu Yue, who always helped him.
If the Shadow Clone Technique could be used to do homework without the memories flowing back, Obito would have been willing to call Senju Tobirama the Clone Sage. But after discovering the enormous drawback of shadow clones, he decided Senju Tobirama didn't qualify.
"I can enter Sage Mode and use immensely powerful senjutsu!" Jiraiya said proudly.
When he had been young, he had been utterly ordinary. His teammates had been Tsunade and Orochimaru. Tsunade was the granddaughter of Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi; she possessed Senju blood and had naturally powerful Chakra. Though Orochimaru had been a commoner like him, he had exceptional talent and learned everything quickly. Compared to them, Jiraiya had been as lousy as a dead last.
But things were different now. All three of them had signed summoning contracts with the three great sacred lands due to their respective opportunities, but Jiraiya was the only one who could use Sage Mode.
Though he needed the assistance of Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima to use it, being able to use it and being unable to use it were fundamentally different.
He had once trained alone, suffering as he was tied to a post. Now he had learned Sage Mode and a great deal of senjutsu. He was confident he could defeat any Konoha ninja other than Hiruzen Sarutobi, including Tsunade and Orochimaru.
"What is that? It just sounds like you've mastered a really strong Ninjutsu." Obito felt that alone wasn't enough to earn