Splitting the Reaper in half was something Hiruzen had never even imagined, let alone considered.

But today, he witnessed it with his own eyes.

"What kind of sword is that?"

To cleave the Reaper in two with a single strike, it clearly couldn't be an ordinary weapon.

However, as Ethan sheathed the sword, Hiruzen keenly noticed a tag still attached to the scabbard—the label from a very ordinary sword shop in Konoha.

"Ethan just picked it up on the way here. I was wondering why he suddenly wanted a long sword. I didn't expect it would be for something like this."

Jiraiya understood Hiruzen's feelings well. His worldview had been shattered by Ethan too many times. At this point, no matter how unbelievable Ethan's actions were, he would no longer be surprised.

This also served to further prove that everything Ethan had said about his identity was true.

At the very least, Jiraiya didn't believe an ordinary person could buy a random long sword off the street and cut down the Reaper.

Neither he nor Hiruzen had considered that Ethan didn't take the so-called Reaper seriously at all. In his view, the Reaper was merely a manifestation of a rule, lacking true consciousness and not particularly strong.

For Ethan, cutting this kind of entity was no different from cutting down an ordinary ninja.

So, after completing the task, he didn't feel like he had done anything remarkable and calmly continued with what he was doing.

Minato's soul had already been rescued, and Kushina's soul had also been summoned. The next step was to resurrect them.

In the world of Naruto, reviving the dead isn't particularly difficult. Even without Ethan, there exists a technique like Rinne Rebirth that can achieve this.

The real Madara Uchiha spent years meticulously planning (though ultimately misled by Black Zetsu), entrusted the Rinnegan to Nagato, and had Obito impersonate him to execute their plans. A key part of this was using Rinne Rebirth to bring Madara back to life.

In the original story, after destroying Konoha, Nagato was eventually moved by Naruto's words and used this technique to resurrect all the ninjas who had died in the battle.

This proves that resurrection isn't something entirely out of reach in this world. Ethan didn't even need to use powers beyond the chakra system. Just using the existing energy systems of this world, he could perform the ritual.

Two green plants grew from the ground and gradually formed humanoid shapes. Though only roughly human-shaped, they had no distinct facial features or gender, like two crude dolls.

Ethan placed Minato and Kushina's souls into the two bodies. Their appearances began to change, slowly transforming into the exact likenesses of Minato and Kushina, including their clothing.

This was Ethan reshaping their bodies based on the imprints within their souls. The technique was somewhat similar to Impure World Reincarnation: normally, that technique used a living sacrifice whose body was wrapped in a special ash to create the summoned form.

If it stopped there, even if Minato and Kushina were revived, they would just be souls inhabiting puppets, like Sasori's human puppets, not truly alive.

So Ethan had to continue. He transformed the 'nature' of these dolls into actual human bodies.

Again, he didn't need to use any power beyond chakra. Techniques like Rinne Rebirth and Yin-Yang Release already contained this concept. With Ethan's understanding of energy, he had long mastered it.

Although the process seemed complicated, to Ethan it was simple: summon the Shinigami, cut it in half, casually form two bodies, and bring two people back to life.

Altogether, it didn't take more than a minute. Minato and Kushina stood before them, fully resurrected.

"All done. I'll leave the cleanup to you."

Ethan clapped his hands, ready to leave.

"Wait... you're just leaving?"

"The messy part is your problem now. Whether you want to conceal the Fourth and Kushina or announce it to the world, none of that has anything to do with me, right?"

Tsunade was speechless. This was clearly something Ethan started, yet now they had to deal with the aftermath? Even if the Fourth Hokage's return was a good thing, managing it wouldn't be easy.

"You're a Konoha advisor. You can't just ignore everything, can you?"

"How am I ignoring things? If I hadn't stepped in, would all of you even be standing here now?"

"..."

Tsunade looked around and realized Ethan had a point. Without him, Itachi wouldn't have returned to Konoha, Minato and Kushina wouldn't have been resurrected, and even the Third would have died during the battle with Orochimaru—Hiruzen had been prepared to die with Orochimaru back then.

Hiruzen took a few puffs from his pipe and gave a fair comment.

"Ethan has already contributed more than enough to Konoha. These minor matters shouldn't trouble him anymore."

"See, the old man gets it!"

In the past, Hiruzen wouldn't have thought much of Ethan, but now he knew Ethan's apparent youth was deceiving. If he was right, Ethan was an ancient being far older than himself.

Still, why did being called "old man" feel so insulting? Compared to Ethan, I'm practically a teenager...

In just a few moments, Minato and Kushina had already regained their senses. They were a bit disoriented at first, unsure of the situation. But once they recognized the people around them, Minato was the first to realize he had truly been resurrected.

Kushina also quickly returned to normal. Her first reaction was to raise her fist and punch Ethan, since back in Naruto's mental world, Ethan had shattered her clone.

Fortunately, Minato quickly stopped her and explained the situation. Only then did the fiery-tempered woman "let Ethan off."

Ethan then left, and Sasuke and Sakura left with him. They were just bystanders, not particularly close to Minato, and couldn't participate in the higher-level discussions, so there was no reason to stay.

So, while the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Hokage gathered in a secret meeting, Ethan and the others had already gone home to sleep.

After returning home, Ethan tidied up and then slept until nearly noon the next day.

It wasn't that he had nothing to do and just slept for fun. Besides hiding his identity and recovering from injuries, his biggest goal in coming to this world was to fully integrate the world's laws with his divine body. For over ten years, he had been undergoing this kind of "training" while sleeping.

Recently, he had discovered that this integration had reached a new stage and could no longer be interrupted as easily as before.

In other words, he now truly needed to sleep, and only after a certain amount of time could he exit this training state.

He could forcefully end it early, and it wouldn't cause any harm. It would simply mean that "this session" of training didn't count.

Ethan felt that his recent lack of self-control was likely due to this new phase of integration. He just needed some time to adapt, and he would return to normal soon.

"Yeah, this is all puberty's fault!"

It was definitely not because he had been suppressing himself too long and lost control!

He got up, washed up, and casually ate breakfast while sitting on the veranda, staring blankly at the courtyard.

Before he even finished eating, an Anbu appeared.

"Advisor-sama, the Hokage requests your presence for an important discussion."

"Got it."

Ethan nodded, stuffed the rest of the food into his mouth, then changed into a more presentable outfit and went to see Tsunade.

Unexpectedly, besides Tsunade, there were two people in Anbu uniforms. One was Itachi. The other...

"You've decided to keep him hidden?"

Ethan recognized at a glance that the fully covered person was Minato. Standing beside Itachi in that getup, the two looked like guardian deities.

"Yes. We've all agreed it's better to keep the Fourth hidden for now."

Having such a powerful trump card would be very effective if the Akatsuki ever attacked Konoha.

"But we didn't call you here for that."

"What is it?"

Tsunade tilted her head toward the open window beside her.

"This has to do with him. Go ask him yourself."

Ethan had already noticed Jiraiya hiding outside the window. If it involved Jiraiya...

He immediately guessed what it was.

"Jiraiya wants to investigate the Akatsuki's background?"

Jiraiya leaped in through the window. He originally wanted to go alone, but Tsunade was worried.

From the intel Itachi had brought back, the Akatsuki were clearly dangerous. Minato had also mentioned something else: the Nine-Tails incident that led to his death might be related to the Akatsuki. He sensed that the Flying Raijin mark he left on that masked figure pointed toward Amegakure, the suspected base of the Akatsuki.

(To be continued.)