[Speaking of Deidara's second battle after his debut—it was against Kakashi and the others.]
[To be honest, there's not much to say about that fight. It was a numbers game—more people on one side. Deidara knew he couldn't win, but he stayed calm, analyzed the situation, first ate some clay, then detonated himself, immediately used a clay clone, and escaped safely.]
[The only highlight might be that Kakashi finally used Kamui, twisting off one of Deidara's arms.]
---
[Konoha, Year 60. Tazuna's House]
Kakashi gazed at the screen with great anticipation, his eyes fixed unblinkingly, hoping to find clues on how to use Kamui. His left hand unconsciously touched the eye hidden beneath his forehead protector.
But the screen only showed a brief flash of his left Sharingan transforming into the shape of a sickle-shaped Mangekyō. And as his pupil constricted, Deidara—riding his giant white clay bird in the sky—had his arm instantly twisted off.
---
At the Akatsuki hideout, Obito seeing this frowned internally.
Did this mean that, at the very latest by that point in time, Kakashi would be able to use Kamui?
The Kamui dimension was his greatest reliance. If Kakashi could also freely enter and exit it, then he would lose his only absolute safe zone—and that would be a serious problem.
The current him was nothing like the later version shown in those previous scenes, who had the Rinnegan and could confidently use Kakashi to remove the heart curse seal.
The Eye of the Moon Plan was still a long way off, after all.
Obito rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
Meanwhile, Deidara sat in his chair, watching the scene of his arm being severed on the screen, but didn't seem too bothered by it.
He looked down at his intact arm and muttered: "Tch, isn't it just a broken arm? As long as I'm not dead, it's fine."
Hidan clicked his tongue twice. "Deidara, your arm got twisted off? That guy Kakashi is pretty impressive, huh."
Deidara curled his lip. "Impressive, my ass. It was a numbers game—more of them against one of me. If it were you, you'd have run too."
[Sharingan + Lightning Release + long-range spatial ability via Mangekyō—Kakashi was practically the perfect counter to a highly mobile explosive user like Deidara.]
[And as Kakashi's prized student, Sasuke—though lacking Kamui—still counters Deidara too.]
[So naturally, Deidara's final battle was his famous showdown with Sasuke.]
[To be honest, one has to mention how speechless Sasuke was during this battle. After encountering Deidara and Obito, who was disguised as Tobi, he didn't even want to fight them at all; he just wanted to ask where Itachi was.]
[But Deidara, still bitter about his earlier loss to Itachi, and annoyed that Sasuke had "killed" Orochimaru before he could, decided to start a fight all on his own out of sheer ego.]
[Sasuke, however, had zero interest in Deidara's art or provocations. He barely said three words without asking where Itachi was.]
[If you say Deidara died unfairly—well, blowing himself up in the end was certainly a miserable way to go. Any normal person would have prioritized escaping, caring little about "art."]
[But if you say he lost unfairly, that's just laughable. Sasuke had been analyzing Deidara from the very start, while Deidara completely failed to keep up with Sasuke's thinking or understand the purpose behind his moves. Even if he hadn't self-destructed, he still wouldn't have won.]
[This fight mainly highlighted Sasuke's powerful combat analysis skills during his Team Hebi-era—when he was still, relatively speaking, a sane person.]
[If Lightning Release truly countered Earth Release in such a brainless, automatic way, wouldn't Deidara have to take a detour whenever he saw a Lightning Release user? Do you really think Deidara was that stupid—that he'd never encountered a Lightning Release user before?]
[And during the battle, Sasuke didn't even have the intent to kill at the beginning. When he threw those two shuriken, if he had aimed for vital spots, Deidara would have been dead right then.]
[And Obito was also tilting the scales in Deidara's favor. For example, when Sasuke first circled behind Deidara, without Obito's warning, who knows whether Deidara would have been captured by Sasuke right then.]
[Also, without Obito helping to plant landmines and cut off Sasuke's escape routes, Deidara might not have been able to blow off Sasuke's wings.]
[Another key point is that Obito never intended to rescue Sasuke—because he judged that Deidara wasn't strong enough to put Sasuke in a life-or-death crisis in the first place. As a counterexample: during the Five Kage Summit, when Sasuke faced Ōnoki's Dust Release—a genuine life-or-death crisis—Obito appeared instantly to save him.]
[At that point in time, Sasuke was already capable of killing Orochimaru one-on-one. And with his swordsmanship and the trump card of Kirin, combined with the elemental advantage against Deidara, defeating him was well within his capabilities.]
---
[Akatsuki Hideout]
Deidara's smile immediately vanished.
He had actually been defeated by that brat Uchiha Sasuke?
Damn it!
His real rival was supposed to be Itachi! He had joined the Akatsuki specifically to find a chance to defeat Itachi and prove that his art was superior to Genjutsu.
It couldn't be that Sasuke was already capable of killing Itachi at that time—which was why he was asking about Itachi's whereabouts.
No, absolutely impossible. He knew exactly how strong Itachi was. An ordinary Kage-level fighter was no match for him.
But then what did that make him?
Was he even inferior to Itachi's little brother? Thinking about it, Deidara's expression darkened with uncertainty.
What the screen said was true—leaving aside the Lightning-counter-Earth disadvantage, it wasn't like he'd never killed Lightning Release users before. But that Sharingan nonsense—that was the real problem!
That Sasuke was just as insufferable as his brother. He couldn't believe that even with Tobi tipping the scales in his favor, he still couldn't beat Sasuke.
"Tch." Deidara kneaded the clay in his hands into a ball, then let it go, squeezed it again, repeating the motion endlessly.
Hidan, enjoying the schadenfreude, laughed: "Deidara, you lost to Itachi's little brother?"
"I suggest you take detours whenever you see a Lightning Release user from now on."
Deidara shot him a glare: "Shut up!"
On the other hand, a flash of relief flashed through Itachi's eyes.
Sasuke had been only fifteen then, and he'd already been able to defeat Deidara.
He knew Deidara's strength well.
Kage-level. Explosion art. Clay clones. C4 Karura. Against an ordinary Kage-level opponent—like the future Kazekage Gaara, for instance—even with prior knowledge, these things would be extremely difficult to deal with.
So the fact that Sasuke could defeat him meant that Sasuke's growth rate was even faster than he had anticipated.
---
[Land of Waves, Tazuna's House]
Naruto scratched his head, somewhat incredulous.
The same guy who had just stormed into Sunagakure alone and defeated the future Kazekage—had been beaten by Sasuke?
"How did you beat him? The screen said you have strong combat analysis skills… You really have that kind of talent?" Naruto turned to look at Sasuke, curiosity in his eyes.
Sasuke glanced at him. "You think I'm like you? Idiot Naruto."
Naruto immediately flared up, leaping to his feet and pointing at Sasuke: "Who are you calling an idiot?! You're the idiot!"
"Be quiet, you're so noisy." Sasuke turned his head away, no longer looking at him, but the slight smile at the corner of his mouth betrayed his true feelings.
Sakura clapped her hands beside them, her face full of admiration: "As expected of Sasuke-kun! That's amazing!"
Kakashi looked at Sasuke thoughtfully.
So Sasuke's combat analysis ability was indeed very strong. But here, he couldn't provide Sasuke with nearly as much combat experience as Orochimaru could… So how could he help Sasuke improve in that area?
---
[Different Timeline, Sunagakure. Somewhere in a Corner]
Young Gaara listened to the screen's commentary about Deidara and Sasuke's battle, and his heart stirred slightly.
Uchiha Sasuke—the one who would defeat Deidara, the man who killed him?
Was Lightning Release + Sharingan really that effective?
*****
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