The Sky Screen's scene suddenly shifted to the edge of a dense forest.
Two large white clay birds dove down from high altitude, heading straight for a boy in gray clothes on the ground. The boy kept his head lowered, most of his face hidden, his expression unreadable. Standing in the shadow of the two giant birds, he looked especially small.
BOOM! BOOM!
Red flames burst forth instantly. The violent explosions were deafening, and the shockwaves sent surrounding leaves rustling violently.
Smoke billowed, debris flew, and a deep crater was blasted into the ground.
After a moment, the white smoke gradually dissipated.
And a massive white serpent lay in the crater, smoke rising from its scorched body, covered in blackened marks.
With a muffled poof, the giant snake then vanished into smoke—the summoning Jutsu dispelled.
And the boy in the gray hooded coat stood completely unharmed in the middle of the crater.
When the people of the Shinobi World got a clear look at the boy's face, they instantly recognized him as Sasuke—whom they had seen many times now.
He made no move, but his pair of three-tomoe Sharingan were fixed directly on Deidara and Tobi, who had jumped off the giant bird ahead of time, radiating a pressure that sent chills down the spine.
---
[Konoha, Year 60. Land of Waves, Tazuna's House]
Kakashi felt somewhat speechless.
At this point, Sasuke still only had a three-tomoe Sharingan—his strength hadn't even reached Kage-level yet, right? According to earlier information, it was the Mangekyō Sharingan that truly matched Kage-level power.
The Sky Screen had previously said that Sasuke only awakened his Mangekyō after fighting Itachi. So at this time, he only had three tomoe—and yet he could still defeat a Kage-level fighter like Deidara?
On the other hand, the version of himself on the screen before had Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan, yet he still let Deidara escape.
Meanwhile, on the screen.
"Tobi, look how he's glaring at us," Deidara said, casually joking with Tobi after seeing Sasuke completely unharmed.
"Where's Uchiha Itachi?" Sasuke asked expressionlessly.
"Tell me, and I'll let you both live."
Sasuke's arrogant attitude, combined with those Sharingan eyes, instantly brought back unpleasant memories for Deidara.
He narrowed his eyes. "Sharingan, huh? This guy really is Itachi's little brother. You were only able to kill Orochimaru thanks to your Uchiha blood. You are nothing but a fool blessed with good genes!"
---
[Akatsuki Hideout]
Deidara looked at Sasuke's expressionless face on the screen, his mouth twitching.
This little brat was just as annoying as his brother. He wanted information, yet his attitude was this arrogant? He really deserved a beating.
On the screen, Sasuke clearly had no patience for further nonsense.
The moment Deidara finished speaking, his right hand had already moved to the sword at his waist—the Kusanagi blade.
A flash of cold light arced through the air as the blade left its sheath, and his figure vanished from where he stood.
"So fast!" Exclamations of surprise rang out across the Shinobi World.
Sasuke appeared like a ghost before Deidara and Tobi, his Kusanagi blade sweeping horizontally. Deidara's reflexes were also razor-sharp—he leaned back, kicked off the ground, and launched himself onto a tree branch behind him. Tobi, however, stood rooted to the spot, motionless, as if frozen in shock.
The blade flashed, and Tobi's body was cut cleanly in half at the waist, but no blood splattered.
"One down," Sasuke said calmly. "So I'll now ask you, the one with a big mouth, about Itachi..."
Deidara couldn't be bothered to talk more with Sasuke. Seeing Tobi get back up, he warned: "Tobi! Stay back."
He then casually tossed out a handful of C1 bombs.
But Sasuke simply waved his hand, sending out a volley of lightning that pinned the C1 bombs effortlessly to the trees.
The electric current enveloped the bombs, and before the clay explosives could detonate, the lightning-natured chakra had already disrupted their internal structure.
At the same time, Tobi's exaggerated antics and dialogue were giving Deidara a headache.
"S-senpai, senpai—time out! Don't do it!"
[As the saying goes: "When Tobi speaks, Deidara explodes."]
[Uchiha Obito, disguised as Tobi and hanging around with Deidara, actually resembled that hot-blooded, foolish kid he used to be before everything fell apart. In other words, this was the only time he didn't have to force himself to play the role of Uchiha Madara, nor did he have to keep up that grim, imposing facade. Pretending to be all brooding and mysterious is exhausting—so acting like an idiot once in a while was probably his way of taking a break.]
[And in fact, Deidara was ten years younger than Obito. But Obito still acted like a greenhorn every day, calling him "senpai" with all the affection in the world—yet the moment anything happened, he'd stab a knife right into the situation.]
[For example, before they captured the Three-Tails, Obito loved to tease Deidara, even dropping the famous line: "I'm a high school girl with a crush on you, senpai."]
[Another example: during Akatsuki meetings, the two would constantly bicker back and forth. First, Obito would expose Deidara's embarrassing failures—how he got utterly wrecked by Kakashi and Naruto—and then Deidara would tell Tobi to shut up or his "patience bag" was about to explode. Tobi would then retort that Deidara got angry so easily that he should just change his name to "Explosion Bag." Nagato would eventually have to step in and silence them both.]
[So looking at it this way, Nagato really had it tough—after all, he thought Tobi was "Uchiha Madara," but never expected Madara to be this unreliable and actually enjoy playing the fool.]
---
[Konoha, Year 60. Tazuna's House]
Kakashi smiled beneath his mask.
Indeed, the Tobi described by the screen was much more like the Obito of the past.
---
[Akatsuki Hideout]
Deidara watched Tobi's obnoxious, smug demeanor on the screen, his lips twitching violently. He turned to look at Obito, who was sitting in the corner, his voice seething with anger.
Deidara: "Tobi, you guy… you're really disgusting, you know that?"
Obito's face beneath the mask remained expressionless, but his tone was as exaggerated as ever: "Deidara-senpai, what are you talking about? I'm your most devoted junior!"
"Shut up!"
Hidan: "Tobi, you're pretty lively up there on the screen."
Kakuzu: "Playing the fool so well. Tsk, what a waste of good acting talent."
Hearing that, Obito's lips twitched beneath the mask, but he said nothing.
Meanwhile, on the screen.
"Senpai! Behind you, behind you!" Seeing Deidara's attention drawn by himself, Tobi couldn't help but remind him.
Deidara didn't need to turn around—he already knew Sasuke was closing in from behind.
He immediately tossed a C1 bomb over his shoulder.
BOOM!
A violent explosion erupted from the branch where Deidara and Sasuke stood.
"Senpai!!" Obito fell to his knees, pretending to wipe away tears as he launched into his performance.
"Even though he was a strict senpai, he was also a great one… I will never—never—forget you, Deidara-senpai!"
Just then, Deidara slid out of the smoke and stepped back in front of Tobi.
"Will you shut up already?!"
"Ah… still alive, huh."
Sasuke also landed lightly on the ground, and the two now stood facing each other.
Deidara thought to himself: 'Good thing the chakra I put into that was only C1…'
Meanwhile, Sasuke had already deduced that Deidara's main ability revolved around clay explosives.
"I'll play with you a little longer." Deidara spat out a large amount of clay from his hand, shaping it into two puppets, which he manipulated to charge at Sasuke.
"Children's toys? How boring." Sasuke slashed horizontally at one puppet's waist, and the battle against the clay puppets began.
---
[Different Timeline. Land of Wind, Sunagakure]
Young Gaara had a ferocious expression.
This Deidara—the Jutsus he'd used against him in the future, and the way he was fighting Sasuke now—it was like he was just playing around.
*****
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