"Are you looking down on me, Tobi?"
After hearing Tobi say that he wanted to make all of them disappear, Deidara immediately shouted angrily.
"What arrogant words."
Rasa crossed his arms and did not take Tobi's words particularly seriously.
"What ability do you possess that gives you the nerve to look down on everyone here?"
Sasori also spoke coldly.
The influence of Tenseigan Chakra on his thoughts had merely made him increasingly willing to obey Hyuga Chiba's orders, while gradually establishing a mental link between the two that allowed them to communicate telepathically.
Aside from that, he still retained his original thoughts.
Naturally, Sasori was furious at Tobi's seemingly effortless claim that he could deal with him.
"Heh, don't make me laugh."
After hearing Tobi's words, Chiba also laughed without the slightest courtesy. "With that Mangekyo eye technique of yours that can only maintain Intangibility for five minutes and becomes ineffective when you attack, and your Three-Tomoe Sharingan that can sustain Izanagi for five minutes, you think you can take my Tenseigan?"
"Looks like you Uchiha are all equally arrogant and conceited."
"Isn't that right, Uchiha... Obito?"
"You?" At those words, Tobi's expression beneath his mask changed instantly.
If Hyuga Chiba had merely discovered his Mangekyō Sharingan and Three-Tomoe Sharingan, he would not have been particularly surprised.
After all, his mask was useless before Hyuga Chiba's Tenseigan, which had evolved from the Byakugan.
But Hyuga Chiba had actually revealed even the duration of his Intangibility and Izanagi, and had even spoken his real name?
"My, my, this Tenseigan brat seems to know quite a few secrets."
In a certain corner, the white half of Zetsu, who had poked his head out of the ground to observe the situation, was also astonished.
"Why would he know all that?" Black Zetsu was equally shocked and baffled. "Could this really be one of the abilities the Tenseigan granted him?"
Throughout the history of the Ninja World, aside from Hyuga Chiba, the person most likely to awaken the Tenseigan should have been Black Zetsu's second brother—the second son of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, Otsutsuki Hamura.
But after Hamura sealed Ōtsutsuki Kaguya together with Otsutsuki Hagoromo, he took some of his descendants to the moon.
Black Zetsu had no way to monitor the moon. Moreover, as the descendants Hamura had left behind on Earth, the Hyuga Clan possessed very few records concerning the Tenseigan.
Thus, he could not determine what abilities the Tenseigan actually possessed, nor could he confirm whether Hyuga Chiba's information truly came from the Tenseigan.
Aside from that explanation, he could think of no other possibility.
"For now, setting aside how Hyuga Chiba obtained his information, he knows Tobi's identity and abilities perfectly. Could it be that he also knows about Mother?"
At that moment, Black Zetsu began to panic, and an intense killing intent toward Hyuga Chiba rose within him.
The plan to rescue Mother could not tolerate an unexpected variable like Hyuga Chiba, who possessed such formidable strength.
"They're fighting."
At that moment, White Zetsu's voice rang out, drawing Black Zetsu's attention back.
Black Zetsu then saw that Tobi, whose identity had been exposed, had already launched his attack.
He charged first toward the nearest person—Sasori, whose body was still under Hyuga Chiba's control.
At the same time, however, Sasori felt his body return to his control.
In an instant, two rapidly spinning Spiral Slashes extended from his back and sliced toward Tobi.
But Tobi, possessing Intangibility, passed straight through the Spiral Slashes and even through Sasori's body. The instant he emerged from Sasori's body, he spun around and reached out to grab him. "As long as this hand of mine touches you, you'll no longer be a threat."
After all, that would allow him to send Sasori into his Kamui Dimension.
Afterward, he would have plenty of ways to deal with Sasori, who could not leave the Kamui Dimension on his own.
"Magnet Release: Gold Sand!"
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand!"
At that moment, a great quantity of Gold Sand and Iron Sand rose from beneath the feet of Sasori and Tobi.
Clearly, Rasa and the Third Kazekage Puppet intended to take advantage of Tobi's attack on Sasori, when he could not use Intangibility, and launch a sneak attack.
"Useless."
After his battle with Namikaze Minato, Tobi had long since prepared for situations like this.
Instead of using his extended hand to touch Sasori as he had claimed, he passed through Sasori's body once again.
Rasa and the Third Kazekage Puppet's attacks consequently landed on Sasori.
Fortunately, Sasori was a Human Puppet. As long as the "Core" in his upper left chest was not destroyed, he would not truly die.
At that moment, Sasori's body, having been struck by the attacks, gradually turned into a pile of yellow sand and scattered.
"A Sand Clone?"
Tobi's expression shifted, and he instantly understood what had happened.
Clearly, even if he had successfully touched Sasori just now, it would have been useless.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone!"
At that moment, Chiba, who had remained suspended in the air, threw out a pile of shuriken.
The shuriken split into two in midair, then four, and so on, attacking Tobi in a dense swarm.
"I told you, it's useless."
Tobi ignored the shuriken's assault as his body gradually sank into the ground.
That way, as long as no one could continue attacking him underground, he could emerge from another safe location, end his Intangibility, and thereby "reset" the cooldown that restricted him to maintaining it for only five minutes at a time.
In the original story, the reason Tobi had been forced by Konan to use Izanagi was that the "sea" around him had been filled entirely with Explosive Tags, leaving him no chance to stop using Intangibility.
The Tobi of this moment naturally had nothing to worry about.
"Attack underground!"
Seeing this, Rasa's expression changed, and he immediately controlled the Gold Sand to stab repeatedly through the earth.
Through the Tenseigan's ability to see through things, Chiba could directly lock onto Tobi's exact position underground.
Under his will, the Third Kazekage Puppet also controlled the Iron Sand underground, pursuing Tobi with pinpoint accuracy.
For some reason, however, although the Iron Sand kept chasing Tobi, it was always just a fraction slower than him.
"Next, it's my turn."
Not long afterward, Tobi successfully drilled out of the ground at a certain location and brought his hands together.
"Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees!"
In the next moment, countless trees rose from the ground, launching indiscriminate attacks at Rasa, Sasori, and the airborne Deidara and Chiba.
"Fire... Wait, something's wrong."
Just as Tobi was about to follow up with Fire Release to strengthen the Wood Release assault, his brows furrowed beneath his mask.
He suddenly discovered that among the sand and soil stirred up as the surrounding trees emerged from the ground, there were quite a few of the Shuriken Shadow Clones Chiba had thrown earlier that had yet to dissipate.
What sent a chill down Tobi's spine was that he finally noticed that every one of those shuriken bore some kind of black pattern shaped like an eye.
Before you continue