Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-36528625-20180810001142/@comment-34194151-20180826013901

@FlatZone

Ok, so Kabuto couldn't mentally react to blade then. But you would have to assume that Nagato's own reactions are significantly better than oro's or kabuto's. Orochimaru also didn't mentally react to the blade until it pierced him. Also, nagato was standing a fair distance away from the smoke, we have seen him reacting to rasenshurikens coming out of smoke screens, and in this case the smoke already was clearing when itachi launched the blade. That should have been plenty of time to react. I don't think it was that nagato was standing looking dumb, it's standard to wait for smoke screens to clear before reengaging. Jiraiya also stood there while the smokescreen from his goemon was clearing. so kabuto/nagato couldn't react to the blade. We have seen Pain himself walking through smokescreens without using shinra tensei, so that wasn't OOC. I think it's safe to say that people hyped for their reflexes (Ay, minato, sage users, and above) would be able to dodge the blade if they see it coming head -on without a diversion, but I doubt Nagato fits that category.