new clue to the workings of obito's "transparency" technique

[Sentinel]

this is just an observation with a slight derivation of possible answers I wish to share with you, I'm not sure if this has been posted before but as far as I can see it's not.

obviously in chapter 605 obito displayed his first use of "transparency" tech. it's the one where he uses the space time technique kamui from his MS to send bodyparts that overlap with the enemy or their attacks to the alternate dimension.

now I think in the recent chapter 606 a major clue of how it works has been revealed to us.
on page 2 of this chapter we clearly see him in tears stepping through kakashi, but he doesn't really have eye for kakashi since he is focused on Rin.
on the next page obito reaches out to Rin to try to grab her but again he passes through her on his first try. notice that all this time obito's MS is showing. and also obito is startled and surprised of passing through Rin.
later on he tries again to touch her and he really focuses on this and this time he does manage to grab her and pick her up.

this little sequence of actions and reactions makes me believe that his "transparency" tech is on as soon as he activates his MS, it happens without him having to make a decision about it or without it costing him a noticable amount of chakra. but he is capable of making the choice to keep his body parts in this dimension and be able to touch something.
from previous chapters in the fight with naruto and his fight with minato I guess we can also claim that as soon as a little part of his body is in the other dimension he can not chose to become all solid (the time he tried to grab naruto but guy stuck his foot trough obito gave me that thought, he was unable to touch naruto because a part of his body was in the other dimension chapter 566 pages 12 and 13)
the time limit that konan mentioned will also be true, I guess that is a limitation of the tech itself, a weakness sort of speak.

and it also makes for a big difference between kakashi's kamui and obito's kamui, kakashi has to chose when to activate it, obito has to chose when to deactivate it.


your thoughts are welcome

[narutonish]

Hmm interesting take, but honestly I dont think thats even feasible, imagine the chakra usage if he keeps remaining in the other dimension. I think the time limit for him being in the other dimension is proof enough that "obito has to chose when to deactivate it" is wrong

Obito is able to remain intangible i.e remain in other dimension frequently for so long is just due to the convenient abuse of hashirama dna. Otherwise he has to use jutsu to battle an opponent. Currently he just uses that intangibility shit and taijutsu because his opponent gets confused as to why he cant hit him.

[maddog38]

It makes sense, man. You mean that his transparency is permanently activated as far as his ms is on and he has to make a conscious effort to deactivate it while having his ms on. Well, a reasonable supposition. *****

[Akx19]

I'm fond of the idea. But if its active all the time wouldn't he just fall into the ground? And during the fight with Konan there was a "time limit" of 5 minutes on the ability. I think during this attack, he gained the ability and didn't know how to control it. That combined with Senju DNA I'm sure he had to really concentrate to keep everything from overreacting.

[Akx19]

I was watching the Konoha attack earlier today and I was reminded of your idea again. This time I'm pretty positive I know how it works. It works like a light switch. He intentionally turns it on, it stays on permanently until turned off. During that time ALL objects pass through him and he does not have to put in any effort to keep it enabled. Though the maximum duration is five minutes, he cannot turn it off while something is passing through. He must wait until after the object has fully passed to disable it. For example he cannot grab someone while his leg is passimg through something. This would explain why the was forced to use izanagi with Konan, why he slipped through Gai and narutos attack even when he was trying to grab, and why he was unable to avoid narutos erasengan in the other dimension.

[Sentinel]

I was watching the Konoha attack earlier today and I was reminded of your idea again. This time I'm pretty positive I know how it works. It works like a light switch. He intentionally turns it on, it stays on permanently until turned off. During that time ALL objects pass through him and he does not have to put in any effort to keep it enabled. Though the maximum duration is five minutes, he cannot turn it off while something is passing through. He must wait until after the object has fully passed to disable it. For example he cannot grab someone while his leg is passimg through something. This would explain why the was forced to use izanagi with Konan, why he slipped through Gai and narutos attack even when he was trying to grab, and why he was unable to avoid narutos erasengan in the other dimension.

this could work, I guess that upon activation of the MS it also automatically is on, and he has to turn it of but can keep the MS active at that time
thanks for your insight

[6PathsofKami]

I said the exact same thing on threads few weeks ago that the ability is defo automatic so he doesnt have to manually move his body parts.

[Nigete]

Good catch, and it makes sense.

[Sentinel]

something strange has happend to the manga on this site, the page where obito got starteld by his hand moving through Rin is gone ...

edit: just checked, the page is still up on mangareader and naruto.anifreak, so what happend to the base??

[Draxus]

I think what you saying was only tree for when he first unlocked it. The ability was working purely instinctively, however now he has full control when to turn it on or off.

[Codex]

Yeah, I agree. I'll quote myself from a few months because it's both relevant and seems to agree with your observations:
link

Here's my take on it (could be wrong):
Tobi's tech has two modes of operation. The first is his S/T migration mode where he consciously warps himself/others to the other dimension through his eye. The second "transparent" mode seems to be more automatic, in that the parts of his body that would contact other objects are automatically transferred to the other dimension. This is why he can dodge attacks that he can't necessarily see (e.g., from behind). Tobi can activate or deactivate this mode at will, but once activated, he cannot control which parts of his body remain tangible. Consequently, when this mode is active, he can't grab Naruto because his hand will be transferred to the other dimension.

The best analogy I can come up with is that Tobi's body is like a fluid. When you stick your hand in a fluid, the fluid moves out of the way (it yields). Tobi's body becomes fluid-like, except it yields (moves out of the way) into a different dimension, so it doesn't really look the same as fluid motion (no dimensional jumps). Make sense?