The fact that Deidara had previously modified his eye to resist genjutsu after losing to Itachi proved he was highly capable of researching ways to overcome his weaknesses.
This was precisely the rare "scientific spirit" Orochimaru and Makoto had praised—the exact quality Sasori sacrificed when he discarded his human emotions.
In the original timeline, Deidara never improved his Explosive Clay because he was still young and had never encountered a proper Lightning Release user capable of giving him the reality check needed to inspire such upgrades.
Deidara specialized in long-range, large-scale carpet bombing.
Even if an ordinary Lightning Release ninja could theoretically defuse his Explosive Clay, they would rarely survive long enough to get close.
And honestly, Deidara had never truly been pushed to the point where he needed to self-destruct against Sasuke in the original story.
By the end of that battle, Sasuke had completely exhausted his chakra and could barely keep his Sharingan active.
Deidara merely worked himself into an insecure frenzy, convinced Sasuke was looking down on his art, and chose to blow himself up out of pure spite.
This version of Deidara, however, received an early warning from Makoto and spent considerable time obsessing over the Lightning Release problem.
He had already experimented with various tactical countermeasures.
One of them was the classic grounding wire.
Unfortunately, that physical method had fatal flaws. First, it drastically reduced his clay's sensitivity and aerial maneuverability.
Second, if the grounding wire was severed, Lightning Release could still instantly disable the bomb.
Now, however, Deidara had developed a flawless new solution!
"What?!"
Kakashi watched in astonishment as the wave of Explosive Clay, completely wreathed in his Purple Electricity, continued crawling toward him and Naruto without slowing down in the slightest.
Kakashi didn't explicitly know that Lightning Release turned Explosive Clay into duds, but he certainly knew the basic elemental chart: lightning countered earth.
Yet Deidara's clay was completely unaffected.
What's going on?
Was Explosive Clay not actually related to Earth Release?
Fortunately, Kakashi was already in Sage Mode and quickly sensed the answer.
Natural energy had been woven directly into Deidara's Explosive Clay.
Invisible tethers of natural energy—functioning identically to Frog Kata—connected each piece of clay to the ground, flawlessly redirecting the high-voltage Purple Electricity straight into the earth.
'So that's how it works. Not a single member of the Akatsuki is simple after all.'
Once Kakashi understood the mechanics, his headache only worsened.
"Hey, Kakashi! Hurry up and grab the guy behind you to use as a meat shield! Why the hell are you protecting him, hm?!"
Deidara had absolutely no intention of stopping his assault.
He was merely offering Kakashi some friendly tactical advice.
After witnessing all of Makoto's bizarre, cutthroat strategies, Deidara's entire way of thinking had shifted drastically.
As the old saying went: keep good company and you improve; hang around Makoto, and your heart turns pitch black!
Deidara genuinely felt that Kakashi was not particularly bright.
The man was using his fragile, flesh-and-blood body to protect a perfect jinchūriki completely wrapped in an invincible Tailed Beast cloak.
Where's the logic in that?
"Kamui!" Kakashi snapped back to attention.
He neither retreated nor followed Deidara's deranged advice to use Naruto as a shield. Instead, his Mangekyō Sharingan spun, and he activated Kamui directly.
He wasn't simply aiming at the Explosive Clay itself.
He wanted to test a theory.
Natural energy was invisible and could not be severed through ordinary physical attacks. Spatial distortion, however, was an entirely different set of physics.
Kamui should be capable of severing the natural energy tethers.
Unfortunately—BOOM!
Kakashi's pupils contracted sharply!
Deidara's Sage Art: Explosive Clay didn't merely use natural energy to ground itself to the earth.
That exact tether was also a dead-man's detonator.
The instant the connection was spatially severed, the clay exploded automatically, perfectly preventing anyone from cutting the link and then disabling the bomb with Lightning Release.
Kakashi was forced to pour a massive amount of chakra and visual power into his Kamui, expanding the spatial distortion wide enough to swallow the explosion itself.
He quickly vacuumed all the remaining Explosive Clay into the Kamui dimension as well.
Transporting the clay severed its connection just the same, causing it to detonate instantly inside the void.
But that was no longer Kakashi's problem. Obito's chakra was currently locked down by a sealing jutsu, so he could neither enter nor leave the Kamui dimension.
There was absolutely no need to worry about the rogue Uchiha getting caught in the crossfire.
Besides, if Obito really did get blown up, he completely deserved it.
His presence inside the Kamui dimension would mean he had somehow found a way to escape from maximum security anyway.
"..."
Deidara watched Kakashi drop to one knee, panting heavily after consuming an enormous amount of chakra, and immediately grew irritated.
He could brilliantly engineer ways to counter Lightning Release.
But space-time ninjutsu was just blatantly unfair.
He would need to find a new solution.
Just as Konan had used an ocean of explosive tags to counter the masked man's intangibility, Deidara needed to develop a specific brand of Explosive Clay to counter space-time techniques that could casually teleport his art away.
...
Meanwhile...
Inside a heavily reinforced, signal-blocking cave prison near Amegakure, Obito lay motionless on the cold stone floor, his life having lost all meaning and direction.
He had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do anymore.
All he could do was leave his miserable fate to the gods. Obito didn't even know which god he was supposed to pray to!
Then, without warning, he sensed something miraculous.
"This is..."
Obito's eyes snapped open, and he immediately sat bolt upright.
A mysterious, potent trickle of senjutsu chakra had suddenly appeared inside his body.
Its origin was... His eye?
Yes.
The eye connecting him to the Kamui dimension!
After entering Sage Mode, Kakashi had aggressively used Kamui over a wide area.
A tiny portion of the senjutsu chakra Kakashi gathered inevitably bled through the spatial link of their connected eyes and entered the Kamui dimension.
That ambient chakra was now washing over Obito.
Obito was overjoyed. "Kakashi... Kakashi, I really have to thank you this time!"
More and more senjutsu chakra continued pouring in.
It was rapidly approaching the minimum threshold Obito needed to temporarily bypass his seal and activate Kamui just once.
Pure joy and unadulterated excitement overwhelmed him.
Because of his shared eye with Kakashi, he had repeatedly suffered whenever random, dangerous shit was teleported through Kamui directly onto his head.
At long last, what came through the portal wasn't literal shit or flaming debris!
It was salvation!
Obito nearly wept tears of joy.
Misfortune truly contained the seeds of fortune, just as fortune concealed disaster.
He finally had his chance!
"Madara, enjoy rotting in here by yourself! I'll be leaving first!"
The dark clouds had parted, and warm sunlight had finally returned to Obito's life.
Even as he eagerly prepared to escape, he couldn't resist loudly mocking Madara in the cell next door.
"?"
Madara had been sitting on his cot with his chin propped on one hand, bored out of his mind.
Hearing Obito's manic shouting, he became thoroughly confused.
'Has all this sensory deprivation finally driven the brat insane?'
Madara stood up and walked toward the iron bars to peer into Obito's cell.
However, before he could even reach the bars, a miserable, bloodcurdling scream erupted from the other side.
"AAAAAH!"
The exact moment Obito activated his Kamui to escape into his dimension, every single piece of live Explosive Clay that Kakashi had just teleported away materialized and dropped directly onto his head!
Obito had been filled with absolute joy, certain he was finally about to taste freedom.
Instead, a massive chain of point-blank explosions blasted him face-first into the unforgiving stone floor.
"...He really has gone insane."
Hearing the muffled screaming and the sudden series of violent thuds, Madara's mouth twitched, and he slowly backed away from the bars.
Inside his cell, Obito lay miserably facedown in a smoking crater.
Technically speaking, he still had a chance to escape.
All he needed to do was withstand the barrage of Explosive Clay long enough to leave the prison in the form of a charred corpse.
Then, the next time Kakashi used Kamui, he might conveniently discover Obito's remains!
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