Rasa: "Akatsuki, you dare lay a hand on the Jinchuriki of the Hidden Sand Village. Do you intend to trigger a war?"
Uzumaki Nagato: "War? No, this is for peace!"
["Truly a convenient Jinchuriki."
Looking at the flying Gaara, Deidara thought to himself.
However, there was one thing he didn't understand.
"How did you discover me?" Deidara asked.
"In this desert, there are no birds this white," Gaara said indifferently.
"I see."
In a place Gaara couldn't see, the mouth in Deidara's palm was still chewing.
"So the secret infiltration failed? But that's fine too; it saves me the trouble of looking for you."
Deidara pressed twice on a device resembling a camera over his eye, and the sound of a shutter clicking rang out.
Gaara didn't know the opponent's background, but if they remained at this stalemate, he felt something bad would happen, so he decided to settle this quickly!
In an instant, the sand from several blocks beneath their feet flew into the sky under Gaara's control.
The sand, like a tsunami, formed a massive claw in the air.
That was exactly the Claw of Shukaku!
Gaara controlled the Claw of Shukaku to grab at Deidara.
Deidara continuously dodged the Claw of Shukaku in the air.
On the back of the flying bird, Deidara watched as a piece of white Clay was spat out from the chewing mouths of his hands, a smile appearing on his face.
"Now the real battle begins!"
He clenched his palms and opened them again; the Clay in his palms had turned into several tiny birds.
Deidara flung the Clay birds downward.
After leaving Deidara's palms, these birds seemed to come to life and began flying through the air.
Then, Gaara saw these Clay birds explode on various parts of the sand he was controlling.
The explosive power of these Clay birds was not great and did not damage the Claw of Shukaku; even though some small streams of sand were severed, they immediately recovered.
"A fellow who controls strange explosives, or are these all decoys?"
The power of these explosives was too small, making it hard for him not to be suspicious.
"I've basically grasped the situation."
Seeing the feedback from the explosion of his Clay birds, Deidara reached into his waist pouch.
After a short while, two more Clay birds were molded.
Only this time, the Clay birds were larger.
And after being released, they transformed from one pair of wings to two pairs of wings!
Their flight speed became much faster.
Fast enough to approach Gaara through the gaps in the sand.
"Hmph."
Deidara snorted coldly and formed hand seals to detonate these two Clay birds.
The fire from the explosion instantly enveloped Gaara; the range and power of the explosion were far beyond what the previous Clay birds could match!
"Gaara!"
Seeing this, the people below couldn't help but cry out in alarm.
However, when the fire dissipated, a perfectly round sphere made of sand was revealed. Above this sphere, an eye flew there, staring at Deidara.
It was the Shield of Sand and the Third Eye!]
Deidara: "Just like an eggshell protecting an egg from external damage. The defense is quite decent."
Gaara: "Shut up. To dare attack me—you bastard, I will definitely kill you!"
[While Deidara was observing this "eggshell," he suddenly felt himself covered by a shadow, as if some gargantuan object had arrived above his head.
"Sand Binding Prison!"
While Deidara wasn't paying attention, an unknown amount of sand had already moved behind him, forming a massive wave that was wrapping toward him and was about to close!
"Not good!"
Deidara controlled the flying bird to fly at maximum speed, wanting to fly out of this cage before the sand closed.
At this moment, sweat broke out on his face from the urgency.
Just as he was about to fly out of the cage, sand blocked his path ahead; the bird slammed into it, and the following sand swarmed up, tightly wrapping around his body!
Thus, one large and one small sphere made of sand flew over the Hidden Sand Village.
It seemed the victory was decided.
Boom!
Right then, a violent explosion appeared on the surface of the large sand sphere.
A hole was blasted through the surface of the sand sphere, and Deidara flew directly out of the gap.
In mid-air, before Deidara could start feeling smug, a stream of sand appeared from the smaller sand sphere, coiled around his leg, and flung him toward the larger sand sphere.]
Deidara: "What a convenient ability, to actually be able to do this much. I've changed my opinion of you, Jinchuriki!"
Gaara: "Shut up!"
A: "I have to say, the Jinchuriki of Shukaku truly holds a massive advantage in the desert."
Kurama: "But it only has one tail."
Shukaku: "You annoying, stupid fox, you really deserve to die!"
Shukaku was so angry it started screaming.
[Seeing that he was about to be thrown back into the cage, at the critical moment, Deidara flung out a white bird. Its size rapidly expanded, carrying Deidara as it flew further away.
Seeing that Deidara was trying to escape, the cage made of sand directly disintegrated, turning into giant claws that reached for Deidara.
Facing the overwhelming sand, an ordinary person would have been caught long ago.
But by relying on his agility, Deidara managed to evade the pursuit of the sand.
However, he couldn't dodge the sand every time.
In a moment of carelessness, sand climbed onto Deidara's left arm.
Seeing this, Deidara immediately threw out a Clay Bomb.
Instantly, this Clay Bomb turned into the shape of a centipede, coiling around the sand wrapped around his left arm.
"Explode!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The explosive centipede detonated section by section, but after the fire cleared, the sand remained unharmed.
"Sand Binding Coffin!"
Crack~
Under Deidara's incredulous gaze, his arm wrapped in sand made an unbearable sound, and blood splattered out from the sand.
Seeing this, cold sweat immediately poured down Deidara's face.
The pain was secondary; the key was that if he continued to let this sand climb, what he would lose wouldn't just be an arm, but his life.
At this moment, thanks to the fact that the flying bird beneath his feet was not slow, the sand was unable to continue climbing for a while.
But as long as his speed slowed even slightly, the sand would immediately take the opportunity to climb up!
"In that case!"
Deidara twisted his left shoulder with force and then physically tore off his left arm, which already had shattered muscles and bones!
Without the arm connecting them, the remaining sand could no longer attach to Deidara's body and could only fall powerlessly to the ground.]