Originally, in Akatsuki's expectations, realizing the "plan" was something that would proceed step by step. However, as their actions of collecting the tailed beasts were gradually exposed, they would slowly become an organization that stood against the entire world.
Once things reached that point, they might even face a united extermination campaign from the entire shinobi world, and their situation would become extremely difficult.
But that kind of predicament, even that boldness of "standing against the world," was somewhat fascinating for a "villain." After all, the degree to which they were hated and feared indirectly showed how dangerous the things they were doing were. That, too, was something that could give one a sense of accomplishment.
Yet reality was always full of ironic black humor. Forget standing against the world. Just the person in front of them had already made their entire organization suffer more than enough.
More than enough…
Director, this is not how the script is supposed to be written, right?
"Your name is… Deidara, right? I admire your values, so go ahead and let me see your techniques."
By now, Hagoromo was already an elderly youth, currently sprinting through the latter half of his march toward thirty. Because of that, many things that had not been very clear in his original memories had become even more ambiguous.
However, he still knew that the shinobi in front of him was called Deidara, that he came from Iwagakure, that he was skilled in Earth Release explosion techniques, and that his weakness was Lightning Release.
This was not because Hagoromo had any particularly deep memory of Deidara, but because he had only recently obtained this intelligence…
The intelligence officer, of course, was Uchiha Itachi.
All of this had been told to him by Itachi inside the Tsukuyomi space. Although the information was relatively brief, for Hagoromo, it was already detailed enough.
In many cases, for shinobi, intelligence was life itself. The leaking of one's own intelligence often foretold death. That was why the existence of spies was so terrifying. Sometimes, they could cause losses that were impossible to estimate.
The intelligence Itachi provided was useful even to a shinobi of Hagoromo's level, let alone to others.
The chewing sounds continued. Before long, however, Deidara pulled both hands out of his ninja tool pouches. Then he crossed them diagonally in front of his chest, with the backs of his hands facing his own face, while his clenched palms pointed toward Hagoromo.
"Looking forward to it? Hm. I'll definitely live up to your expectations. But don't be too surprised later."
Surprised? Hagoromo let out a soft scoff. His expression seemed to be saying that even if Deidara suddenly spread his legs in an M-shape on the spot, he still would not be surprised.
Because Hagoromo's tone and demeanor carried an intentional yet casual hint of contempt, the same action produced different effects depending on who did it. Contempt coming from the White Yaksha made Deidara somewhat unable to stay calm.
In truth, this was only a small test of Deidara's personality, but the response he got seemed unexpectedly good. Deidara was not good at hiding his emotions. His personality was somewhat straightforward.
Or perhaps, if one looked at this person's personality in broad strokes, he could be placed in the same category as Naruto?
Hagoromo held his blade in his right hand. While staying alert against Deidara, he also split off some attention to watch the battle between Mirai's trio and Sasori of the Red Sand. Judging by the sounds, both sides were still in the testing stage.
Whether in the past or now, Sasori was a shinobi with extremely formidable strength. However, the angle from which Hagoromo viewed him had already changed.
Mirai's three-person team actually had a certain degree of confidence in dealing with Sasori. In truth, there was one person who was rather suited to fighting puppeteers, and that was Haku.
Haku's Ice Release had certain natural advantages against puppeteers. His offense and defense were integrated, he was skilled at dealing with all kinds of thrown weapons, and at the same time, Ice Release could severely interfere with a puppet's movements… Even Sasori of the Red Sand's puppets probably had not undergone extreme-cold testing or been fitted with any anti-freezing measures, right?
The current rainy weather was also rather unfavorable for Sasori. It prevented his poison gas from being used normally.
With three against one, there did not seem to be much of a problem on Mirai's side. As for Hagoromo's side? There was even less of a problem.
At this moment, Deidara opened both hands toward Hagoromo, revealing a rather strange bodily structure… Each of his palms had a mouth, and each mouth stuck out a long tongue.
Were those tongues pirated from Orochimaru? And this guy actually had more holes on his body than all sorts of ordinary humans.
As his palms opened, dozens of tiny, pale-white centipedes naturally drifted down to the ground under the effect of gravity. Then, in an instant, they enlarged into massive centipedes tens of meters long before burrowing underground.
This was… paper clay? It could even form such vivid shapes, almost like truly living arthropods.
Little Deidara's moves really were quite interesting. This person also had a lot of potential. In particular, the flexibility of the tongues in his two hands was simply universe-class. He could actually lick out a complex shape like a centipede. He would definitely become popular across half the sky… provided he stopped being a shinobi and threw himself into some slightly more entertainment-oriented industry instead.
The technique Deidara used was called Explosive Clay: Centipede. It was only meant as a probing attack, but unexpectedly, because of its shape, Hagoromo ended up having indescribable imaginings about him.
At this moment, Deidara's feet were still planted on an Explosive Clay: Giant Bird. After releasing the centipedes, he began slowly raising his flight altitude, trying to use this probing attack to slightly obstruct Hagoromo and open up the combat distance between them… After all, he was not very good at close-range attacks.
Over a dozen giant white centipedes rose and sank through the mud, then converged toward Hagoromo.
In midair, Deidara raised two fingers pressed together, ready to shout that most familiar "Katsu!" at any moment.
"Earth Release, huh? Even Earth Release that can explode is still Earth Release," Hagoromo murmured softly.
So Lightning Release countered Earth Release. Nothing wrong with that.
Hagoromo gripped the hilt of his blade with his right hand, and then a Chidori Blade lit up along the chakra blade. Next, the blade spun once in his hand before Hagoromo reversed his grip and thrust it straight down, stabbing it vertically into the ground.
The centipede that had just been about to burst out of the earth was struck right in the head by the lightning blade.
At the same time, Deidara in midair shouted, "Katsu!"
Immediately afterward, Lightning Release spread outward in a ring with the chakra blade as the center. This could barely be counted as Lightning Release: Earth Flow.
However, the name of Hagoromo's technique was not important. What was important was that all the centipedes misfired…
And so Deidara in midair became awkward. When Hagoromo below raised his head and looked over, Deidara did not even know what expression he should make.
If you shout and it doesn't explode, wouldn't it be better not to shout at all?
Hagoromo hooked the chakra blade up with one foot, lifting it back out of the ground, then gripped it in his hand once more. Immediately after that, he pointed the tip of the blade toward Deidara and lightly tapped it twice.
Just as Deidara thought the White Yaksha was about to launch some long-range attack, he suddenly sensed that something was wrong.
The attack was not coming from in front of him, but from behind.
While Deidara had been training his tongues, Hagoromo had not been idle either.
A hoarse, high-pitched bird cry rang out from behind him. Deidara almost instinctively controlled the giant bird beneath his feet to twist sideways. Even so, two thick, enormous claws still passed through his field of vision, brushing close to his body.
A clay creation was ultimately not as agile as Yatagarasu. In an instant, it was torn apart, and then Deidara felt weightlessness beneath his feet.
Mechanical types counter biological types. Special ability types counter mechanical types. Biological types counter special ability types. Still nothing wrong with that.
Deidara fell from midair…
Flying too high did not seem all that good.
No, flying high was still quite good. The long fall at least bought Deidara a little time. Then, putting his tongue skills fully to use, another bird was formed and placed beneath his feet just before he hit the ground.
Explosive Clay: Owl kept Deidara under control at low altitude.
However, in a daze, Deidara seemed to see Hagoromo pointing and gesturing at him again…
Unfortunately, he could only see Hagoromo. He could not see what was happening below the owl. Immediately afterward, he felt as though his chest had been struck by a moving train… assuming he knew what a train was.
Deidara stopped falling and was sent flying back up into the sky.
One second earlier, an enormous rhinoceros had leapt into the air at a steep angle. The tremendous power bursting from its four limbs had even caused the ground to collapse. Amid the chunks of wet, heavy mud flung up into the air, its two sturdy rhino horns directly pierced through the pitiful owl.
Something kneaded from clay shattered as though it were made of paper.
Yatagarasu and the double-horned rhinoceros, one descending and one rising, charged straight at Deidara along an X-shaped path twice in a row…
Air superiority was not absolute. Deidara had already been beaten down once by Sunagakure before, so logically speaking, he should have absorbed some lessons from that experience, right? Why did he still have to encounter this kind of fate?
Hagoromo expressed that he knew how to summon creatures, and aerial combat was something he had already played with long ago.
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