On the screen, Sasuke's Kusanagi blade slashed continuously, the gleam of his strikes flashing through the air—yet he couldn't seem to inflict any damage on the clay puppets.
Sasuke's brow furrowed. But his reactions were lightning-fast—his right hand crackled with lightning chakra as he slammed his palm onto a clay puppet's body.
The electric current instantly pierced through the puppet's form, destroying its internal clay structure, and the puppet split cleanly in half.
Seeing this, Deidara remained unfazed. His hands moved rapidly, manipulating chakra threads, and the shattered puppet pieces reassembled themselves, charging at Sasuke from all directions and surrounding him completely.
Sasuke swung left and right, but the puppets only multiplied the more he cut them down, gradually closing in on him from every side.
Then, a cold smirk curled at the corner of Deidara's mouth as he raised a single hand in a seal.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A series of explosions echoed around Sasuke. Flames shot skyward, and the shockwaves sent surrounding leaves scattering in all directions.
At the moment of the explosion, Sasuke leaped high into the air, narrowly avoiding the blast wave.
As he landed, Sasuke turned and dashed deep into the forest. Deidara's clay puppets gave chase without pause, leaping between branches at a speed no slower than his own.
Sasuke weaved through the treetops, his gaze scanning the surroundings rapidly, searching for terrain he could use to his advantage. The branches beneath his feet grew denser—and the puppets behind him, more numerous.
Suddenly, Sasuke's foot slipped, and the clay puppets behind him instantly pounced, one after another latching onto his legs, arms, and torso, wrapping him entirely in a white cocoon.
BOOM!!!
A massive explosion sent birds scattering from the forest. And a charred, burnt log flew out from the thick smoke, tumbling through the air before landing on the ground.
Immediately afterward, Sasuke's figure quietly touched down—unscathed, without a single scratch on him.
---
[Konoha, Year 60. Land of Waves, Tazuna's House]
Sakura clapped her hands: "Sasuke-kun you're amazing! To pull off a Substitution Jutsu so quickly in that kind of situation!"
Kakashi also nodded in agreement.
Though Substitution Jutsu was a basic technique, timing was everything—it required forming the seal and transferring the user's body at the exact moment of an enemy's attack.
The fact that Sasuke had managed it in such an urgent situation proved that his reaction speed and combat experience were already quite impressive.
Meanwhile, on the screen.
"I knew it!" Tobi crossed his arms, affirming his own judgment.
Deidara gritted his teeth, his expression twisting in frustration. "Hey, Tobi! Whose side are you even on?!"
Then he faced Sasuke once more.
"Substitution Jutsu, huh? Well, he's definitely quite skilled..." He then pulled clay from the two pouches at his waist and starred kneading them together.
"At this point, C2 should be the most appropriate choice."
With a puff of smoke, the massive C2 Dragon clay bomb appeared at the edge of the forest.
"Let's show him... Senpai's power of pop art!" Tobi chimed in from the sidelines, delivering full emotional support while also helping Deidara bury the landmines spat out by the C2 Dragon underground.
As the C2 Dragon spread its wings and soared into the sky, Sasuke's situation suddenly became far more complicated.
He dodged bomb after bomb raining down from above, but a single misstep sent his foot straight into a landmine pit!
"Got him!" Deidara exclaimed in excitement.
BOOM!!
The explosion detonated beneath Sasuke's feet, swallowing him whole in fire and shockwave.
"Did it work?"
As the smoke cleared, Sasuke's figure emerged from the flames.
His body had undergone a dramatic transformation—a pair of white, fleshy wings sprouted from his back, his fingers had become sharp like claws, his hair had shifted from black to a grayish-blue, and his skin was covered in black curse-mark patterns.
[Although the Cursed Seal is an inferior version of Sage Mode, it greatly enhances Sasuke's physical body. With the boost from the Cursed Seal, he was able to withstand the residual force of the explosion here. Later, after Sasuke had the Cursed Seal removed and gained the Mangekyō, although his overall strength increased, his physical durability actually dropped somewhat.]
[In addition, the Cursed Seal state significantly increases Sasuke's Chakra reserves, as well as the power and effectiveness of his Ninjutsu. That's why, in his Cursed Seal state, Sasuke's Chidori appears black—its power greatly amplified.]
[Beyond that, the Cursed Seal also provides a crucial speed advantage. Especially for Sasuke, whose Taijutsu hadn't yet reached its peak, this ability helps compensate for his shortcomings in close combat.]
[And most importantly, Cursed Seal Level 2 grants flight capability. Having anti-air capability is itself a major advantage among shinobis, since there are relatively few who can fly—particularly in Sasuke's case, when he happens to be fighting Deidara.]
[So, the Cursed Seal's greatest function is as a buff—upgrading a Shinobi's abilities across the board.]
---
[Akatsuki Hideout]
Hidan watched the Cursed Seal-transformed Sasuke on the screen and clicked his tongue twice. "That guy has practically turned into a monster."
Kakuzu remained expressionless. "Cursed Seal… Orochimaru's work, huh."
Deidara also stared at the screen, his brow furrowed slightly.
Cursed Seal form? That little brat had a trump card like that?
However, Sasuke on the screen didn't turn the tide just because of the Cursed Seal.
The C2 Dragon kept dropping bombs from above, and the landmines were still scattered across the ground. Deidara's attack density was simply too high—Sasuke simply couldn't find an opening to counterattack.
At one point, he even had to tank a bomb with his body, and one of his wings was blown clean off!
And just as Deidara thought victory was in sight, Sasuke drove his Kusanagi blade into the ground, using the hilt as a support to launch himself high into the air. The Chidori in his hand extended into a long blue blade of light, stretching several meters from his palm.
Sasuke swung his arm in a wide arc, and the blue blade traced a curve through the air and precisely severed the C2 Dragon cleanly in half.
The C2 Dragon's body lost balance in midair and began to fall. It still had unused bombs in its mouth, and as it plummeted, those bombs collided with each other, triggering a chain explosion.
Flames burst across the sky, and heat waves swept in all directions.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The wreckage of the C2 Dragon crashed to the ground, setting off the landmines Tobi had buried.
Explosions rang out one after another, leaving craters scattered across the ground. Debris flew, and thick smoke billowed everywhere.
The result was a comedic scene of the enemy blowing themselves up.
"Senpai!!" Tobi's voice rang out.
"In the end, you still got blown up! Deidara-senpai, you big idiot!"
"I told you to stop yapping, Tobi." Deidara's Akatsuki cloak had been blown off, leaving him in just his inner clothes as he flew out of the smoke on his clay bird.
And that was it.
The Shinobi World watching the screen also caught on.
Once the clothes come off, you're as good as dead.
---
[Akatsuki Hideout]
Hidan pointed at the screen and laughed: "Deidara, you lost your clothes. Stripping equals death—you're done for too!"
Deidara looked down at his intact Akatsuki cloak, then back at the tattered version of himself on the screen, his lips twitching.
No—that future on the screen wasn't his future.
He wouldn't take off his clothes. Absolutely not.
Deidara gritted his teeth and resolved to prepare several spare sets of the Akatsuki uniform, just in case.
*****
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