"Heheheh—HAHAHAHA!"
"Boom boom boom! Self-destruct clone! Let Konoha witness the shock of art!"
Amid his wild shouting, Deidara's real body quietly hid to the side.
The explosive power of the clone was no joke either.
If it wasn't stopped, forget anything else—just the newly built foundation in this part of the Forest of Death would likely be blown into a pile of rubble.
Whoosh!
Very quickly, the clone suddenly expanded.
Its body grew over ten meters tall!
"Damn it! That's Deidara's exploding clone!"
Kitsuchi and the others reacted first.
"Everyone! Form seals with me!"
Earth Release: Multiple Earth-Style Walls!
Rumble—!
A thicker and wider earth wall rose from the ground.
As Deidara's fellow village shinobi, Kitsuchi naturally knew how terrifying the clone's self-destruction could be.
"Watch out, B! That explosion is extremely powerful!"
At the same moment, Killer B—who had been getting beaten by his brother—heard Gyūki's warning again.
Even from a distance, he could sense the terrifying energy gathering inside the swelling clone.
His eyes sharpened.
He immediately stopped holding back.
With one swing of his tail, he knocked the Fourth Raikage flying away.
Then he transformed into his Eight-Tails form and positioned himself in front of the Kumogakure shinobi.
"This is bad… if that thing explodes, it'll definitely damage the foundation here…"
Ahead of them, the Fourth Raikage A also stopped pursuing.
He carefully sensed the energy building inside Deidara's clone.
The moment he realized its power, he cursed under his breath.
Then he turned and shouted toward the three thousand Kumogakure shinobi behind him.
"All Kumogakure shinobi! Activate Lightning Armor together!"
Even just the shockwave from such an explosion could reduce them to ashes.
Of course—
Among everyone present, one person remained calm.
Ōnoki.
After sensing the terrifying power, the Tsuchikage was stunned for a moment.
Then he merely frowned.
His gaze shifted toward Kai.
"If that explosion isn't stopped… the entire newly built foundation will be destroyed."
"Would you really allow all of this to be ruined?"
He simply didn't believe Uchiha Kai would allow that.
As for Deidara…
As his teacher, Ōnoki had always felt a deep sense of guilt.
When he was young, the boy had been treated as strange and pushed out of the village, growing up isolated and alone.
And now—
He had even joined the allied army just to rescue him.
Thinking about this, Ōnoki sighed softly.
But just as he was about to turn away, he suddenly paused.
"…Strange. Why is Deidara's clone explosion getting weaker?"
In a corner nearby—
Just as Deidara prepared to admire the beauty of the explosion, he suddenly felt his body tremble.
Then a sudden wave of weakness surged through him.
Not physical weakness.
Chakra.
The chakra he had infused into the clay clone for the explosion was being drained by something.
And the speed was ridiculous.
"What's going on…?"
His expression changed slightly.
Instinctively he poured more chakra into the clone.
But—
No matter how much he injected…
No matter how hard he tried…
The chakra sustaining the clay clone—and the clay bird itself—was being drained at an absurd rate.
It felt like pouring water into a bottomless hole.
No matter how much he poured in—
It disappeared instantly.
And that was only the beginning.
The situation grew even more terrifying.
The massive self-destruct clone suddenly began sprouting pale, mushroom-like growths across its body.
The moment they appeared, they began devouring the explosive chakra inside the clone.
Then—
Puff… puff…
The ten-meter-tall explosive clone…
The clone that was supposed to unleash a devastating explosion…
Deflated like a punctured balloon.
Its body rapidly shrank.
Finally—
Plop.
It collapsed onto the ground like a lump of wet clay at Kai's feet, raising only a small cloud of dust.
Explosion?
Forget an explosion.
It didn't even make a decent popping sound.
The scene instantly left the five thousand-strong allied shinobi army frozen in shock.
Kitsuchi and the two thousand Iwagakure shinobi: …
Wasn't art supposed to be explosion?
That dud…
Was way too artistic.
Killer B, who had transformed and prepared to block the blast, completely forgot his rap.
"Idiot fool! I was ready to go all out!"
From a distance the situation looked incredibly strange.
Three thousand Kumogakure shinobi.
Two thousand Iwagakure shinobi.
Five thousand people standing there like complete idiots—
Preparing with full seriousness to block what turned out to be a balloon.
Especially the massive earth wall the Iwagakure shinobi had raised.
Now it looked like nothing more than a joke standing there.
Hashirama Senju tore off a piece of peeling skin from his Edo body and poked the lump of clay on the ground.
"It seems… after all these years, people in the ninja world still love firing dud shots."
He murmured softly, the smile in his eyes deepening.
Others might not have noticed.
But he had seen clearly.
Just moments ago, Kai had planted something like a strange "seed" inside Deidara.
Part of it had flowed into the explosive clone.
So when the clone attempted to explode, the seeds began absorbing its power.
As one side grew stronger and the other weaker—
Forget exploding.
Maintaining a human shape became impossible.
"N-No! How could this happen?!"
"My explosion… my art!!"
After staring blankly for a while, Deidara finally snapped out of it.
He watched as the explosive clay clone he had painstakingly crafted—filled with the soul of art—
Turned into a lump of mud.
This was desecration.
A complete insult to his art.
This was even worse than killing him.
"WHO?! Who dared to defile my art?!"
He spun around and rushed out from his hiding place, his blue eyes locking onto Kai.
"You! What did you do just now?!"
"You dare turn my art into mud?! Unforgivable! Absolutely unforgivable!"
His hair stood on end in fury.
Although he suspected Kai was responsible, he didn't know how.
So after shouting his accusations, he didn't wait for an answer.
He immediately gathered large amounts of clay in his hands, rapidly shaping terrifying white explosive creations.
Rustle—rustle—
Huge centipede-like clay bombs were thrown out.
He had completely lost control.
Rescuing the Tsuchikage?
Interrogating Kai about his technique?
All of that had been thrown out of his mind.
Right now he had only one thought—
Blow this brat who had desecrated art—and everything around him—into nothingness.
"Clay Centipede! C4 — Garuda! Crush him! EXPLODE!!!"
His hands moved frantically, stuffing clay into his mouths and chewing rapidly.
Soon a massive, grotesque white clay Garuda formed before him.
Inside the beast's mouth—
A terrifying mass of condensed chakra gathered.
A technique powerful enough to erase an entire small village.
However—
Just as the Garuda was about to fully form, Deidara suddenly realized something was wrong again.
His body…
Was slowing down.
His vision turned red.
"What is this…?"
He paused.
But what he didn't know was—
Outside, the five thousand allied shinobi hadn't moved at all.
They simply watched him silently.
From their perspective, Deidara was standing alone in the clearing before the Forest of Death—
Shouting wildly.
And now…
He had wrapped himself tightly with his own clay centipedes.
Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> [email protected]/SorenSwiftTL (replace @ with a)