On the screen, the scene rewound.
The Shinobi World now saw the details they had missed earlier—in the critical moment when the C2 Dragon was cut down and its body was falling toward the minefield, Deidara's survival instincts kicked in. He kicked off the two kunai embedded in his hands and used the force of his clay bird to escape.
Deidara hovered in mid-air on his giant white bird, looking down at Sasuke on the ground. Gone was his earlier composure—his gaze now dark and vicious, his expression growing increasingly ferocious.
He was going to kill this brat. No—he would erase this brat and his Sharingan from this world in the most thorough way possible.
He pulled a large lump of clay from his pouch, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed vigorously. The clay mixed with chakra in his mouth, and as he spat it out, he signaled for Tobi to back off.
Recognizing the Jutsu, Tobi turned and ran without hesitation.
The explosive clay spat from Deidara's mouth gradually coalesced, eventually forming a massive figure identical to himself.
[C4 Karura is a specialized assassination Jutsu Deidara developed specifically for Itachi. After the clone detonates, it releases ultra-microscopic clay bombs invisible to the naked eye. Once inhaled by the enemy, these bombs multiply at the cellular level within their body, triggering countless micro-explosions that completely destroy the organism from the inside out.]
[Compared to C1 and C2, C4 Karura is almost impossible to counter. Even compared to C3, this hard-to-evade explosive Jutsu is far more troublesome. After all, C3 is an area-of-effect attack, while C4 detonates directly inside the body. Just considering C4 Karura alone—even within the Akatsuki, only Nagato's Shinra Tensei and Obito's Kamui phasing could withstand or evade it. Anyone else would be in extreme danger.]
[He could even go to Konoha with this move, and the damage caused would definitely be greater than Nagato's.]
---
[Konoha, Year 60. Hokage Office]
Hearing this, Tsunade was instantly furious.
She slammed the desk hard enough to crack its surface, spilling tea across the paperwork. "No, why use Konoha as an example?! One Nagato wasn't enough—now this Deidara has to get involved too?"
Hiruzen frowned deeply, the smoke from his pipe curling upward.
"That is indeed a serious concern. If merely breathing is enough to be affected by this Jutsu, very few could withstand it. Even if some shinobis might survive, ordinary civilians would be in grave danger."
Tsunade's brow also furrowed.
That was true—could Konoha's barrier even block this kind of nano-scale bomb? Barrier techniques were effective against large-scale Jutsu, but against something invisible to the naked eye, their effectiveness would be limited. If they couldn't stop it, what would happen to Konoha's civilians?
Deidara's overall power might not be that impressive, but this kind of wide-area attack posed an enormous threat to every major village.
She took a deep breath, picked up a pen, and scribbled rapidly on a document: Reinforce barriers. Develop defensive techniques against nano-scale attacks. Gather all available intelligence on Deidara.
After finishing, she tossed the pen aside, leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes.
"Old man… do you think this Deidara might actually come to Konoha?"
Hiruzen was silent for a moment. "The screen speaks of possibilities. What we need to do is reduce those possibilities to the absolute minimum."
Tsunade nodded and said nothing.
---
[Akatsuki Hideout]
Deidara watched the scene of himself chewing clay on the screen, his face turning livid.
C4 Karura—the Jutsu he had specially developed for Itachi—had been rendered completely ineffective by that Sharingan-wielding brat?
Hidan remarked, "Deidara, your C4 Karura is pretty brutal." Even his own immortal body would probably be blown to pieces by that, he felt.
He probably wouldn't die in the end—but Kakuzu would definitely have a lot of work stitching him back together.
[Once this Jutsu is used, even Itachi would most likely be done for. Although Susano'o can block frontal attacks, this thing enters the body through the air, and Itachi isn't particularly skilled in Lightning Release. Of course, if he was really facing Itachi, Deidara probably wouldn't even get the chance to use this Jutsu in the first place.]
[But as luck would have it, Deidara ran into Sasuke—an "Evil Uchiha brat" who was born to counter him in almost every way.]
---
[Konoha, Year One. Outside the Village on the Cliffside]
Madara's face instantly darkened.
What the hell did this "Evil Uchiha brat" even mean?
That phrasing… sounded like something a certain someone would say. He shot a sideways glance at Tobirama.
Tobirama kept his eyes straight ahead, his expression composed, but inwardly he was thoroughly enjoying himself.
This screen… spoke right to his heart.
---
[Konoha, Year 52. Uchiha Clan Grounds]
The Uchiha present were immediately enraged. One after another, they pointed at the screen and cursed indignantly.
"Born evil Uchiha? Who is the screen talking about?! Who's born evil?!"
"Exactly! What's so evil about us Uchiha?!"
"That Deidara guy is the one going around blowing up villages with his 'explosion art'—that's what's evil!"
"Right, right! We Uchiha have bled for Konoha, we've given our all—why should we be talked about like this?!"
Fugaku sat in the main seat, his expression calm, but those words reminded him of someone from the past.
---
[Konoha, Year 60. Tazuna's House]
Hearing the screen teasing him, Sasuke rolled his eyes.
Naruto, ever the defender, spoke up: "What's this 'evil' nonsense? Sasuke's not evil at all! At worst, he's a little cocky, a little self-absorbed, a little narcissistic, a little…"
Sasuke shot him a glance. "Keep going."
Naruto immediately shut his mouth and gave an awkward laugh.
[The C4 Karura's first unbeatable aspect is its nano-scale invisibility. But Sasuke's Sharingan can precisely see the flow and form of Chakra. To his eyes, the densely packed nano-scale chakra bombs were clearly visible.]
[The second counter is Lightning Release's elemental advantage. Deidara's explosive clay is essentially a transformation of Earth Release chakra. Following the principle that Lightning counters Earth, Sasuke only needed to cover his entire body with Chidori Current and use high-intensity Lightning Release chakra to neutralize the nano-clay bombs that had entered his body.]
[He even had time to trap Deidara in a Genjutsu, making him believe that C4 Karura had succeeded.]
---
[Akatsuki Hideout]
Deidara's expression grew even uglier.
No kidding—that future Sasuke really did hard-counter him. C4 Karura was his ultimate trump card, aside from the C0 self-destruct.
And it was completely ineffective?
His chest tightened, as if he'd been punched.
Deidara took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
Still… the fact that it could possibly counter Itachi was a pleasant surprise. At least he hadn't developed it for nothing—it was useful against Itachi; he just never got the chance to use it.
But against that Uchiha brat… what kind of Jutsu should he develop?
Deidara's mind started spinning at full speed. Lightning counters Earth—that was a natural law, impossible to change. But he could improve the clay's composition to make it less vulnerable to Lightning Release. Or, he could research a new type of explosion that Lightning Release couldn't neutralize.
His fingers tapped lightly on his clay pouch as several ideas began to form in his head. Also—these brothers really were cut from the same cloth.
That brat was just as insufferable as Uchiha Itachi.
---
[Land of Lightning, Kumogakure]
A scoffed in disdain. That disciple of Ōnoki's only had a handful of Jutsus, all of which were naturally countered by them.
Earth Release? Kumogakure had plenty of Lightning Release users.
'Hard-countered by Uchiha Sasuke'? Not really—he was the one who truly countered Deidara.
With Lightning Release Chakra Mode activated, that stuff wouldn't even get close to touching him.
*****
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