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Chapter 5: Six Hundred Billion Tags, Alex Appears
1,240 Words
Uchiha Obito stood on the water, still intangible.
Losing another testicle reminded him of the agony of being crushed by the giant rock all those years ago.
His right side... he had spent so many years carefully nurturing it, finally restoring its... former function.
And now...
Gone. Again. Even if he used White Zetsu to patch it, it would take years of cultivation to make it... viable... again.
At this moment, Obito's hatred for Konan far surpassed his anger at Nagato.
He wanted to kill her. Right now.
Unfortunately, he couldn't move. He couldn't deactivate his intangibility.
Obito suppressed his pain and hatred. He looked down. "These little tricks... won't change your fate!"
His body was sparsely covered with nearly a hundred explosive tags.
They were already lit.
If he deactivated his intangibility now, he would be seriously injured.
These were the tags Alex had stuck to him during the previous attack, right when Obito was phasing.
This was to temporarily restrain Obito, giving Konan the chance to use her ultimate trump card.
"Just ten seconds... Ten, nine, eight..."
Obito silently counted down. As soon as the explosions finished, he would deactivate, and he would kill Konan.
And he would make her death extremely painful. He would make her feel the pain of his... loss.
But Konan clearly wasn't going to give him time to wait.
The instant the tags were lit, she sensed them. They were her tags, after all.
She didn't understand why her paper jutsu had attacked on its own.
She didn't understand how these tags got on him, or how they were lit.
Everything was strange.
But this was a golden, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Konan had no time to think.
While Obito was pinned in place, she would take his life!
Konan decisively spread her arms, her chakra draining rapidly.
Her Akatsuki robe whipped violently in the wind.
She stared coldly at Obito and roared:
"Paper Person of God Jutsu. Release!"
"Here it comes! The famous scene is finally here!" Alex was incredibly excited.
Even if this move still couldn't kill Obito, this kind of massive, unparalleled explosion was a once-in-a-century sight.
"What are you doing!?" Obito sensed Konan was activating an unbelievable jutsu.
A deep unease filled his heart.
But with his full-body intangibility active, he couldn't move.
He could only watch, helplessly, as she activated her jutsu.
RUMBLE! The earth, and the sea, shook!
A massive tremor came from beneath his feet.
The entire ocean churned with monstrous waves.
The flat surface of the sea seemed to split open, as if cleaved by a giant blade, right under Obito's feet.
The rift stretched on, farther than the eye could see.
The sea was split in two.
Obito could do nothing. His body fell into the wide chasm, plummeting into the abyss.
"This is...?!" Obito's eyes widened, his eyeball trembling frantically. "They're all... explosive tags!!"
The sides of the chasm were not water. They were endless, layered stacks of explosive tags.
They poured down with the seawater, cascading into the depths.
The abyss instantly became an ocean of explosive tags.
Obito's figure was quickly buried by the countless tags, disappearing from sight.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The next second, six hundred billion explosive tags detonated simultaneously. The sound was deafening, a continuous, heaven-shaking roar.
The light of the explosion shot into the stratosphere, instantly punching a hole through the thick storm clouds, forming an unbelievably massive mushroom cloud.
The terrifying shockwave, like a Category 18 hurricane, sent colossal waves radiating outward.
Countless tons of seawater vaporized, forming a thick, white fog that covered the entire ocean.
The power of six hundred billion explosive tags detonating at once was... divine.
It was a natural disaster.
"Cough... cough, cough..."
Far from the blast center, Konan knelt on the sea's surface.
Her body rose and fell with the waves.
The fog and smoke made it hard to breathe, and she coughed repeatedly.
Konan's face was pale. She was exhausted, her chakra almost completely gone.
But if it killed Obito, it was all worth it.
"Madara. You are the greatest darkness in the ninja world. May you be buried in this inferno."
Six hundred billion explosive tags, prepared especially for him. It had to be enough to kill him.
There was no way he could survive.
"The battle's over. Time for my entrance."
Alex didn't hesitate. He flew directly out from Konan's chest, hovering in front of her.
He had waited for this brief moment of safety.
Only now was there time and quiet to communicate with Konan.
At first, Konan was confused. Why was a piece of paper flying out of her chest?
She hadn't controlled it.
But the next second, words appeared on the paper floating in front of her.
[I am Konan. By the time you read this, you are about to die!]
The blood-red, ominous words were shocking.
Alex couldn't speak yet. He could only use written language. He needed a strong opening line to get her attention.
Konan stared at Alex, stunned.
Is this still my paper jutsu? Why did it suddenly move on its own? And why did it write on itself?
And what does it mean, I'm about to die? Could it be...
Konan took a deep breath, shifting into a defensive stance. She didn't move rashly. She carefully studied the "white paper" with words on it.
The good thing about the ninja world was that it was full of bizarre jutsu and creations.
Ninjas were extremely adaptable.
Although Konan was shocked and confused, she wasn't entirely unable to accept Alex's appearance.
She crouched slightly, a white paper kunai in her right hand.
It was the last weapon she could create with her remaining chakra.
After a moment, Konan determined the paper wasn't an immediate threat. She suddenly stood and thrust the kunai forward.
The sharp tip pressed against the paper's surface, but she didn't stab it.
She needed to know what that sentence meant.
"Who are you?! What do you mean by that?!" Konan demanded, her voice icy.
As expected, maximum vigilance.
Alex wasn't surprised by her reaction. He had already prepared his origin story.
[I am you. I was born from your paper jutsu.] The bloody words faded, replaced by black text.
"Impossible!" As expected, Konan didn't believe him.
"Every single sheet of paper in my jutsu is made and controlled by me. It's impossible for one to gain consciousness."
She believed this "white paper" was definitely its own sentient being.
Alex wasn't discouraged. Konan's reaction was still within his expectations.
[I am indeed born of your paper. I am a contingency left by Nagato using the Rinnegan. I was set to awaken if you ever faced a life-threatening crisis.]
He spun a plausible lie. To lower Konan's guard, he had to blame everything on Nagato and the Rinnegan.
"Nagato... the Rinnegan..." Konan murmured, her expression unchanging.
But the tip of her kunai instinctively pulled back a centimeter, no longer touching the "white paper."
[You know how incredible the Rinnegan is.] Seeing her waver, Alex pressed on.
[When I awoke, I understood everything. Nagato used his power to create me within your paper jutsu, specifically to protect you from harm.]
Thinking of those eyes, the "Eyes of God," Konan found the "white paper's" explanation... plausible.
The wariness in her eyes faded slightly. "If you were created by Nagato's Rinnegan, why didn't he tell me?"