Deidara had calculated that Uchiha Sasuke should have nowhere to hide in a minefield full of Landmines like this. If Sasuke tried to dodge, he would step on a Landmine. If he did not dodge, then he would have to forcefully block it like he had just now.
The last time he had forcefully blocked an attack, he had lost one wing. If he did it again, the only result would be losing the other wing too.
And once that happened, Uchiha Sasuke would truly have no path left but death.
Yet no one expected Uchiha Sasuke to leap straight onto the Kusanagi Sword he had just thrown, which had stabbed into the ground, giving himself a foothold right in the middle of the minefield.
With that foothold, Uchiha Sasuke jumped up at once. Chidori Current extended from his hand and directly cut off one of the wings of the Clay Dragon beneath Deidara.
The entire movement was seamless and unbelievably smooth.
"He used the sword he threw earlier to confirm whether there were Landmines, then created a foothold." Deidara clearly realized where the problem had come from. "Using the length of the sword as a foothold, then jumping with one wing. This… this position. So that earlier attack was only meant to force me directly above that blade. That way, the Chakra blade could strike from the shortest distance…"
Only then did Deidara realize that the Giant Shuriken Uchiha Sasuke had thrown, the attack that had flown through the air and been mocked by him as useless, had never been meant to hit him at all. Its true purpose had been to cover Sasuke's tactical movement.
But by then, it was already too late. Uchiha Sasuke, who was in midair, did not give him any time to think. Using Wire Strings, he directly pulled the Giant Shuriken down and stabbed both of Deidara's arms in midair.
This was the true killing move.
And this was something only the Uchiha could do, training throwing techniques with weapons like shuriken and Shuriken to such an extraordinary level. Aside from the Uchiha, no one had such absurd insight and eyesight.
Even the Byakugan, which was often mentioned alongside the Sharingan, was inferior to the Sharingan when it came to this kind of meticulous observational insight.
With Deidara's scream, his Clay Dragon slammed hard into the ground. He could not control the Clay Dragon at all, because both his arms had been stabbed through and he could not move them. Even if he could control it, it would not have mattered, because one of the Clay Dragon's wings had been cut off. It could no longer fly, and even adjusting its posture in the air was difficult.
It could only take the countless Landmines head-on.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Along with that chain of Landmine explosions, Uchiha Sasuke adjusted his body in midair. Only then did countless small snakes split out from his body and coil around the trees in the distant forest, pulling him over directly and allowing him to avoid the most lethal part of the Landmine field.
"Beautiful!"
Hatake Kakashi could not help praising him. Uchiha Sasuke's ability to think on his feet was simply genius. He was not inferior to Uzumaki Naruto at all.
This was what they called battle instinct. In this aspect, he was absolutely a top-class genius.
Only now did Hatake Kakashi finally realize why he had never felt that Uchiha Sasuke's intelligence was average before. His battle IQ was so dazzling that he did not look like an idiot at all.
It could only be said that his face and way of doing things were far too deceptive, directly making people ignore the reality that his intelligence was not actually that high.
And thinking about it now, Uchiha Sasuke really did not seem especially smart in some of his major life choices. For example, in Hatake Kakashi's eyes, betraying Konoha in the future definitely did not count as a smart decision.
Orochimaru's strength was indeed formidable, and he could give Uchiha Sasuke a lot of training, but in terms of power and influence, he was far behind Konoha. Not to mention, if Sasuke wanted revenge in the future, he would need Konoha's full cooperation.
A satisfied smile appeared on Uchiha Itachi's face. The fact that Uchiha Sasuke could come up with such a beautiful tactic at the critical moment, and also possess the ability to carry it out, satisfied him greatly.
Compared with his later battle against Shimura Danzo, Uchiha Sasuke's performance at this moment was what truly satisfied him.
At the very least, he had not seen anything dissatisfying so far.
But clearly, the battle was not over yet. While Tobi was passionately acting like a complete idiot, Deidara rode a Clay Bird out from the smoke. It was just that his condition could not be considered good no matter how anyone looked at it, especially his right hand, which clearly had traces of stitching on part of it.
Everyone remembered. That should have been an injury left from when he went to capture Gaara. Back then, his entire arm had been crippled by Gaara.
Although he had managed to capture Gaara in the end, it could not be called an uninjured victory. It could be said that he had used everything he could possibly use to the absolute limit.
In the end, it had only been a narrow win. If they had been in an open area with no one nearby, Deidara most likely would not have been Gaara's opponent.
"What a pain."
Uchiha Sasuke looked at all of this and spoke.
"Damn brat."
Deidara remembered how he had escaped just now. If he had not endured the intense pain at the critical moment and kicked the shuriken away with his foot, this might really have gone badly. He might even have been blown to death.
An artist being killed by his own explosive art would probably be the biggest joke under heaven.
"Those eyes!"
Deidara remembered the terrifying pressure those eyes had brought him. Their owner was undoubtedly Uchiha Itachi.
He remembered. He remembered it all. Back then, after becoming a Missing-nin, he had been living freely outside, but who would have thought he would be targeted by the Akatsuki Organization just like that?
A total of three Akatsuki Organization members had been sent, including Uchiha Itachi, Sasori, and Hoshigaki Kisame.
Facing such a brat, Sasori was clearly extremely displeased.
"You're telling me I have to let a brat like this become my partner? His presence isn't bad, but just looking at him, he's obviously the type to die young."
When everyone saw the contents of the memory, they hurriedly recorded it. Other than Uchiha Itachi, no one knew exactly how the Akatsuki Organization recruited powerful individuals from all sides. That area had always been blank, and now they finally knew. So it turned out they simply came to the door and invited them.
"It's the leader's order. His ability will be useful," Uchiha Itachi said.
Clearly, Deidara was not someone who would obediently listen. He was completely unmoved by the Akatsuki Organization's invitation. The only thing in his mind was his explosive art.
Art is an explosion!
Then he ran into Uchiha Itachi and was taught a lesson. The explosive art he believed in could do nothing to Uchiha Itachi.
It directly made him fall into a Genjutsu, even making him fight a battle against Itachi that did not exist.
Just that one move made Deidara realize the gap in strength between them. In particular, those Sharingan left an extremely deep impression on him, even nearly shaking the very foundation of what he believed art to be.
"So that was what happened back then?"
Uchiha Itachi looked at himself in Deidara's memory. There was even a faint divinity to him. At the time, Itachi had only treated it as an ordinary mission. As for controlling Deidara, that had merely been a casual Genjutsu suggestion.
Back then, Deidara's experience had been very shallow. He had actually seen the Sharingan and made no preparations against it at all. Clearly, he had never dealt with the Sharingan in his life.
That was how battles between ninja worked. Much of the time, they were battles of intelligence. Even if your strength was inferior, as long as you had more information than the other side, you still had a chance to kill them.
Not to mention a situation like Uchiha Itachi's, where his strength was already above Deidara's.
It was just that Uchiha Itachi also seemed to understand why Deidara reacted so strongly to the Sharingan. When they recruited him back then, it had probably left Deidara with a tremendous psychological shadow.
"His Genjutsu can already reach that level?"
Jiraiya rubbed his chin. When he thought about how he might have to fight Uchiha Itachi in the future, his heart felt a little chilled.
Although according to his own speculation, Uchiha Itachi was very likely an undercover agent Konoha had sent into the Akatsuki Organization, that was only his guess. And judging by Uchiha Itachi's personality, even if he really was an undercover agent sent by Konoha, his mission priority should be staying inside the Akatsuki Organization and gathering intelligence.
If someone from Konoha attacked him, he would probably kill them without mercy. If he did not act convincingly enough, who would believe him?
But he suddenly remembered something Kaede Kitahara had written in his diary before. Back then, he had only thought it was a joke, but now, he felt it might actually be somewhat believable.
One day in the future, Hoshigaki Kisame suddenly realized he was under a Genjutsu, so he asked carefully, "Itachi-san, don't tell me you've been making me do all the previous missions alone. Be honest with me. Were you absent from every mission?"
Itachi: "No. I was there the time I beat up my little brother."
Kisame: "That one wasn't a mission!"
The battle of Return of the Morning Mist.
Itachi: "We need to leave. The opponent is Jiraiya, one of the Sannin. We are absolutely no match for him."
Kisame: "Itachi-san, even if we work together, we can't beat Jiraiya? Is Jiraiya really that ridiculous?"
Itachi: "Obviously, you idiot. I didn't say the two of us couldn't beat him. I said you couldn't beat him. My real body isn't even here!"
Inside the Akatsuki Organization's base.
Sasori: "What is Kisame muttering to empty air about every day?"
Deidara: "No idea. I just see him shouting things like Itachi-san at the air."
One time, Kisame said, "Itachi-san, tell me the truth. Does the Akatsuki Organization actually exist? Has there never been an organization from the beginning? Is it just an excuse you made up to trick me into doing missions?"
Itachi: "Since you've already seen through me, I won't hide it anymore. There has never been a Shinobi World continent. This is the Great Age of Pirates, and I'm the man who will become the Pirate King!"
Now that Jiraiya thought about it, could that passage actually be true? With Uchiha Itachi's Genjutsu ability, it was not impossible.
He no longer dared treat Kaede Kitahara's jokes as simple jokes.