The massive clay bird soared through the air. From its back, Deidara looked down at his quarry darting through the forest below and shoved both hands into the pouches at his waist.
Smack, smack.
Clay entered his palms, his mouths working with meticulous—yet obscene—precision. What he spat out, however, wasn't pure white. It was a swarm of clay spiders, their surfaces glinting with a dull, grayish sheen.
"Art is about evolution, Uchiha Sasuke!" Deidara yelled, his voice full of manic glee. "And thanks to you, my explosive art… has no more weaknesses!"
Swish!
He flung his arms wide. A cloud of gray spiders rained down.
Sasuke glanced back.
"Still too close to the fishing village. Can't use the big guns yet. First, turn those bombs into duds."
His white cloak swirled around his arm as he flicked it.
Chidori Senbon!
Whooshwhooshwhoosh—!
A dense volley of crackling lightning needles shot skyward.
Clangclangclang—!
The sharp, metallic impacts came as the spiders closed in.
"They didn't pierce through…?"
Sasuke's eyes widened. A fraction of a second later, his hands flew through the signs for a Shadow Clone. Smoke erupted, and the clone that leaped from it snatched a spider out of the air mid-stride, Sharingan analyzing it in an instant.
"This is—"
Deidara smirked, two fingers raised. "Detonate…!"
BOOOOOOM—!
The clone vanished in a fireball of dust and clay. The information, however, flowed back.
Sasuke kept running, his gaze turning grim. "I see. A layer of hardened 'ceramic' coating the explosive surface. It insulates against Lightning Release, overcoming the clay's weakness…"
He plucked a sharp ceramic shard—embedded in his white cloak by the blast—and examined it.
"…and the ceramic shatters upon detonation, creating a wide-area fragmentation attack. At its core, it's the same principle as Itachi's 'Blazing Crows' or my 'Takemikazuchi.'"
He crushed the shard in his palm.
"So… getting beaten twice by me made you grow a little after all, Deidara."
Deidara's heart had nearly stopped during that exchange.
He realized his Lightning Release suddenly didn't work, and his first move was to use a shadow clone to gather intel? What the hell!? Shouldn't his first reaction be shock, panic, some ugly, scrambling dodge like a normal person?!
But watching Sasuke plunge deeper into the woods, Deidara's confidence returned.
The minefield I prepared is right ahead. I didn't come to kill you unprepared, not after you humiliated me twice! Get ready to be blown to atoms!
Swish!
Sasuke's sprinting form came to an abrupt halt.
Deidara's eye twitched. He stopped… right at the edge of the minefield!
Sasuke turned slowly, his crimson gaze locking onto the sky. "Deidara. You're even more naive than I thought. The Sharingan distinguishes chakra by color. Your little landmines are completely transparent to these eyes."
"Damn those fucking eyes!" Deidara snarled, veins bulging on his temple. "How long will you keep looking down on my art!?"
Sasuke's Mangekyō lifted slightly. He murmured, too low for anyone else to hear, "…And here, at least, no innocents will get caught in the crossfire."
Deidara's focus sharpened to a razor's edge. So he's decided to fight! Will it be the arrows from that Susanoo? Or the extending arms? I have countermeasures for both!
His countermeasure was simple: he urged his bird higher, climbing to a safer altitude. His free hand dove back into his clay pouch, fingers already kneading his next creation.
Fwoom!
White cursed wings burst from Sasuke's back. Chidori's lightning sheathed his right hand. He kicked off the ground, wings beating hard as he shot into the sky like a thunderbolt!
"He grew wings!? Planning to stab me with that Lightning Release!?" Deidara's lips curled into a wild grin. "Perfect…!"
In a reckless move, Deidara abandoned his bird, leaping into open air. As he fell, he formed a one-handed seal.
Crack! A layer of ceramic armor spread over the white bird, and it dove like a hawk, straight for the ascending Sasuke.
Simultaneously, Deidara finished his work. "C2… Dragon!" He bit his thumb and slammed his hands together. The clay mass in his palm ballooned, morphing and growing. The colossal C2 Dragon formed beneath him, catching his fall seamlessly. He was airborne again.
The ceramic-coated bird was almost on him. Sasuke's eyes tracked it, calculations flying.
The ceramic can stop Chidori Senbon, but a direct Chidori thrust would pierce it. The problem is he can detonate it early. Even if I dodge the blast, I can't avoid all the ceramic shrapnel. In that case…
Chidori Eisō!
The lightning in Sasuke's right palm lengthened, stretching over ten meters into a brilliant, crackling spear. It stabbed into the bird's ceramic-plated belly—CRACK—and sliced clean through it.
Deidara's grin widened.
From the bisected bird's hollow interior… a doll-shaped ceramic bomb tumbled out.
Sasuke's pupils constricted. There was another bomb hidden inside the bird!
"Your Sharingan can see through loose earth," Deidara crowed, "but not through sealed ceramic, can it!?"
"The shape of that doll…" Sasuke's mind raced. It can't be—!
"It's the new C3… Number 18!" Deidara screamed, triumph in his voice. "At this range, it'll vaporize you!"
Detonate!!!
C3. The technique designed for 'stronghold destruction.' The blast so terrifying Gaara had once been forced to block it with his ultimate defense.
KABOOOOOOOOOM—!!!
A sun bloomed in the night sky. The shockwave that followed flattened the treetops directly below, snapping trunks like twigs.
As the fireball dissipated and the forest still shuddered, Sasuke stood unharmed within the skeletal ribs of his Susanoo: the Crow-Tengu.
Deidara's face contorted in rage. "That Susanoo… it withstood a direct hit from C3!?"
Sasuke's voice was ice. "Deidara. Every trick you have is useless before these eyes."
Perched on the back of his C2 Dragon, Deidara clenched his fists until they shook.
Why… why did I endure that humiliation? Why did I force myself to improve my art!?
Crunch.
He grabbed a fistful of clay from his pouch and shoved it into his mouth, chewing violently.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Eating the clay directly. That move is coming…
The skeletal Susanoo nocked a black chakra arrow and let it fly.
Fwoosh—!
Deidara had been waiting for this. The instant the arrow was loosed, he wrenched his dragon into a violent barrel roll.
CRUNCH!
The massive arrow slammed into the ceramic armor plating the dragon's belly. It pierced the armor but didn't shatter through.
"This dragon's ceramic is specially reinforced—it's my main ride, after all. Impressive that your arrow even got through. But it doesn't matter. It's all over now!"
Deidara threw his head back and vomited a torrent of clay. From beneath the C2 Dragon, a gigantic humanoid figure erupted, standing tall upon the earth.
"C4 Karura," Sasuke identified coldly. "Releases nanoscopic bombs into the air. They enter the body with each breath and detonate at the cellular level. Last time, I neutralized it by channeling lightning through my own body. But if those nanobombs are also ceramic-coated…"
Deidara wiped sticky drool from his chin, a smile of absolute victory on his face. "Uchiha Sasuke. This is the technique I perfected just to kill you. Hiding inside that boring, unartistic Kara won't save you!"
New C4… KARURA!
BOOM—!!!
The giant exploded. Not into fire, but into a fine, all-encompassing dust—a cloud of countless microscopic ceramic bombs.
"Now… DETONATE!"
Psst…
Within the Susanoo, Sasuke's body… disintegrated into gray ash. The Susanoo flickered and vanished.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…! VICTORY FOR MY ART!!!" Deidara screamed at the sky, tears of hysterical joy in his eyes. "Old Man Sasori! Can you see it from the pure land!? I WON! I defeated Uchiha Sasuke, the one even you couldn't beat!!"
"Deidara."
The voice was calm, cold, and came from directly behind him.
"Do you really think… you've won?"
SHLINK!
A blade of black chakra—the sword of the Susanoo—punched through the ceramic plating on the dragon's back. It impaled Deidara through the abdomen and lifted him, skewered, into the air.
"GHAaaaaa—!!" Blood gushed from Deidara's mouth. His eyes, wide with pure terror, stared at the figure now rising through the hole in his dragon: Sasuke Uchiha, clad in the skeletal form of his Susanoo.
H-how…? When did he get inside my dragon!? That's impossible!
A chilling possibility dawned on him, freezing his spine.
"N-no way… That arrow Susanoo shot earlier… it wasn't an arrow. It was… him? Using a Transformation Jutsu!? The one C4 killed… was a clone!?"
Sasuke's gaze was pitiless. "I told you. All your methods are useless before my eyes."
"Kuh… kuhaha… hahahahaha! Is that so?" Deidara laughed through the blood filling his mouth. A desperate, final madness lit his eyes. "Then let me show you… my ULTIMATE ART!!!"
With a final, wrenching motion, the bleeding Deidara tore his cloak open, revealing the grotesque, gaping mouth etched across his chest.
C0… SELF-DESTRUCT!!
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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