Tsunade did not activate her Strength of a Hundred Seal and then use Creation Rebirth to charge forward and go all out because Jiraiya stopped her.

If she had activated the Strength of a Hundred Seal, it would have gone beyond the scope of a "sparring match." This one-on-one fight wasn’t a life-or-death battle. Rather than Tsunade suspecting Ethan wanted to test her strength, it was more about her wanting to see how much combat power Ethan’s Wood Release truly possessed.

The facts proved that Ethan did indeed possess the strength to force back Orochimaru, and although his Wood Release had many differences from the First Hokage’s Wood Release, it was undeniably Wood Release.

Confirming these things was already sufficient!

More importantly, Tsunade had already used Creation Rebirth once in her recent battle with Orochimaru. This jutsu placed a heavy burden on Tsunade herself—although she was virtually immortal while using it, using it shortened her lifespan. Frequent use would only lead to her dying sooner.

Jiraiya did not want Tsunade to shorten her lifespan because of a sparring match, so he stepped in and stopped the fight.

The cherry blossoms that had gathered together slowly scattered, then lightly drifted down to the ground. As Ethan stopped his jutsu, these cherry blossoms also slowly disappeared.

Just like Jiraiya, Sasuke and Naruto in the distance were also watching these cherry blossoms. The fighting style Ethan used just now was very familiar to them; it was the style of an enemy they had recently fought.

"The way Ethan used the petals... is a bit like Gaara..."

"Yes!"

Sasuke clenched his fist. He recalled the feeling of powerlessness he experienced when facing Gaara. No matter how hard he tried at the time, he couldn’t defeat that terrifying guy.

Yet Ethan was able to use a jutsu very similar to Gaara’s. Did this mean Ethan’s strength was at least comparable to Gaara’s?

Considering that Ethan had forced back Orochimaru, fought against Uchiha Itachi without suffering a disadvantage, and just now fought the other Sannin, Tsunade, who was about to become Hokage, to a standstill right before his eyes.

"So... his true strength is this formidable?"

He suddenly felt that not choosing Orochimaru but instead choosing to let Ethan help him improve his strength was a very correct decision.

The sparring match ended just like that. Although a certain person was very dissatisfied with this, she also remembered that her Strength of a Hundred Seal had only been used once recently, and a considerable amount of stored chakra had been consumed. If she were to use Creation Rebirth again, she would likely deplete the reserves she had accumulated over many years.

"Damn it, I couldn’t even force this kid to go all out!"

This was what annoyed Tsunade the most. Just like the Third Hokage, it gave her a sense of frustration that she was getting old and had been completely surpassed by the new generation.

Fortunately, Tsunade quickly cleared her head. Her purpose for coming here was not to determine a winner or loser with Ethan.

"In any case, you can resume normal activities now."

With Tsunade’s visit, Ethan no longer had to pretend to be injured and could freely go out and undertake missions.

"Looks like my vacation is over."

"That’s right. There are still many things to do. You are now one of the core combat forces of the Hidden Leaf Village. How can you be lazy here?"

"When did I become a core combat force of the Hidden Leaf?"

He hadn’t graduated from the Ninja Academy long ago, had he? Even becoming a Chunin, he had just finished the promotion procedures, and it hadn’t even been officially announced outside. People like Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto didn’t know he had been promoted to Chunin.

"Forcing back Orochimaru, Uchiha Itachi, and even fighting me to a standstill... How many ninja in the entire Hidden Leaf do you think can do that?"

Tsunade just said it casually as an example, but she didn’t expect Ethan in front of her to actually start counting on his fingers seriously.

"Lord Third Hokage, you and Jiraiya, who are both Sannin, Guy-sensei, who burns with youthful passion, and Kakashi, who can get motivated and go all out..."

Also, Danzo should be able to do it. After all, it’s just forcing them back. He has enough messy trump cards. Killing or defeating those two would be difficult, but simply forcing the opponent to retreat should be achievable.

Tsunade didn’t expect Ethan to actually name a few people. The old man Third Hokage, herself, and Jiraiya beside her weren’t surprising, but as for Kakashi and Guy... she only had a rough understanding of their strength. Were they really that strong?

At this moment, probably no one except Ethan knew how terrifying the combat power those two guys were hiding was.

If it’s just forcing back Orochimaru and Uchiha Itachi, Guy, who has mastered a powerful technique like the Eight Gates, can definitely do it, and he might not even need to open the Eight Gates.

As for Kakashi, achieving this would require a prerequisite: realizing he has the Mangekyo Sharingan and being able to use Kamui in battle.

Apart from these two, although there are many other Jonin in the Hidden Leaf, their strength is clearly a tier lower.

But even so, the strength of the Hidden Leaf’s Jonin is not bad, and with the advantage in numbers, even Orochimaru and Uchiha Itachi would find them troublesome.

The Hidden Leaf is truly full of talented individuals... This is good news for Tsunade, who is about to become Hokage.

But Tsunade pondered Ethan’s hidden meaning from another angle: "Are you saying that only these few people in the Hidden Leaf are stronger than you? Kid, aren’t you being a little too arrogant?"

"No, no, no!"

Ethan immediately waved his hand, with an expression that screamed ’I didn’t, I’m not, don’t talk nonsense!’, which slightly eased Jiraiya’s strange expression: It seemed Tsunade was overthinking it, Ethan wasn’t such an arrogant brat.

However, the next sentence made Jiraiya spit out the sake he had just drunk (they were sitting and eating in the Uchiha house’s dining room).

"I just said they could also do those things, but I didn’t say they were stronger than me."

"..."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes. Those who knew her well knew she was currently seething with anger. The outward calm was merely a facade that would break at the slightest poke. If someone were to provoke her again at this moment, oblivious to the danger, she would definitely explode.

Fortunately, Jiraiya interjected at the right time, wanting to ease the tense atmosphere. Besides, he was also very curious why Ethan, who had always been low-key, suddenly made such arrogant remarks.

"Because no outsiders can hear..."

"?"

"!?"

Naruto and Sasuke were completely bewildered, while Jiraiya and Tsunade were first startled, then shocked. Both of them performed the same action almost simultaneously.

Genjutsu: Release!

Following their actions, the surrounding scenery suddenly underwent a strange change. Everything around them twisted, then abruptly shattered.

It’s dispelled?

Neither Tsunade nor Jiraiya’s expressions improved because they found that the surrounding scenery had changed into an endless plain. Around them, eight trees were distributed in pairs in the four directions: front, back, left, and right.

Sasuke and Naruto found that the rice bowls in their hands had disappeared, and they were suddenly in a completely strange place, looking at the grassland swaying in the gentle breeze, the occasional petals blown from the trees, as well as the deep blue night sky filled with stars...

What was magical was that despite it clearly being a nighttime scene, there was light from an unknown source that allowed them to see everything around them clearly.

"A genjutsu... when..."

"From the very beginning."

Ethan’s voice was ethereal, seemingly drifting from all directions, making it almost impossible to determine his exact location. It wasn’t until this moment that they realized Ethan had disappeared at some point without them noticing, as if he had never been there at all.

"What a terrifying genjutsu."

Everything seemed very natural, as if this was how it was meant to be.

What surprised Tsunade the most was that, as a medical ninja, she was immune to most genjutsu. However, not only had she fallen under this genjutsu, but she couldn’t even break it.

Genjutsu fundamentally works by using chakra to interfere with the target’s chakra, thereby affecting the target’s own senses to achieve the genjutsu’s effect.

As a top-tier medical ninja, Tsunade had incredibly strong chakra control over herself. This meant it was very difficult for outsiders to interfere with her chakra, so ordinary genjutsu had almost no effect on her. Even if they had a slight effect, she could quickly dispel the genjutsu.

But this time, no matter how she tried, she couldn’t break Ethan’s genjutsu. It was as if she hadn’t even been caught in a genjutsu at all.

Yet everything before her eyes clearly told her that she was in a miraculous genjutsu space.

"You said from the beginning... do you mean from when we first met?"

"Yes."

Tsunade bit her lip. She had fallen under the opponent’s technique the moment they met?

But why did Ethan use genjutsu as soon as they met?

"Why did you do this?"

It wasn’t just Tsunade who wanted to know this; Jiraiya also wanted to know: Could Ethan really be a spy sent to the Hidden Leaf by an enemy?

"To avoid trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"If I fought you without holding back, even if I only used a portion of my strength, it would attract the attention of a certain guy... No, I should say I’m already under that old guy’s attention. After all, there are several more spies in the Uchiha compound now than when I first arrived."

"..."

Tsunade and Jiraiya suddenly fell silent. They instantly understood what Ethan was talking about, while Sasuke, who was beside them, was stunned for a moment. There was a lot of information in Ethan’s sentence, and he couldn’t quite process it right away.

Naruto was even more confused. He wasn’t the type to ponder things silently; when he didn’t understand, he would ask straightforwardly: "What do you mean?"

"Simply put, a certain immortal old man has set his eyes on me, and I don’t really want to deal with that guy."

Ethan’s voice still came from all directions. The feeling of talking to someone they couldn’t see made everyone present very uncomfortable.

"Of course, if the new Hokage-sama also finds that old geezer annoying and wants to get rid of him... I’d be quite happy to lend a hand." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

(To be continued.)

◇◇◇

◇ One bonus Chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.

◇ You can read the ahead Chapter on Pat if you’re interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)