"Ahahaha! Feel my art now! The ultimate explosion art!"
Deidara sat atop a colossal Explosive Clay dragon, continuously hurling more of his Explosive Clay.
As Deidara was wreaking havoc, a large airborne creature suddenly appeared within his vision.
"Huh?"
Deidara sensed something was wrong. Because of the chaos in Konoha Village, all birds and beasts had already fled. Why would there still be a bird flying overhead?
Deidara placed his hand into his ninja gear pouch filled with Explosive Clay. The mouth on his palm sculpted some of the clay into a small flying bird.
The small bird darted swiftly toward the mysterious airborne creature.
Just as Deidara was about to shout out...
The strange bird suddenly released an electric current, directly striking Deidara's small bird.
Deidara stared in shock at this bird.
A bird that shoots lightning? What kind is this?
Since Explosive Clay's chakra nature is Earth Release, if infused with Lightning Release chakra—which counters Earth Release—it would render the Explosive Clay unable to detonate. That was indeed the most critical flaw of Explosive Clay.
Deidara's expression turned serious. "A summoned beast?"
This bird was actually a puppet specifically designed by Shindai to counter Deidara. With high mobility and electric attacks, it effectively neutralized Deidara's Explosive Clay.
[Explosive Clay: Twin-Winged Bird!]
Deidara deployed another Explosive Clay shaped like a twin-winged bird. It flew much faster than the small one, but suddenly, the bird puppet released a wide-range electric attack—not only disabling the Twin-Winged Bird's explosion but also causing the dragon he rode to lose control and plummet straight down.
After landing, Deidara was relentlessly pursued by the bird puppet, continuously bombarded with electric attacks keeping him suppressed.
Elsewhere, Kakuzu also encountered an oddly shaped puppet.
The puppet was cylindrical with treads for movement, and five circular openings across its surface.
This puppet functioned purely as a mobile ninjutsu turret.
Kakuzu could release all five elemental natures through masks on his body. Meanwhile, the cylinder stored numerous Ninjutsu cards, each of the five openings capable of launching corresponding elemental attacks.
As soon as Kakuzu unleashed a specific element, the puppet countered with a suppressing ninjutsu of the opposing nature. Moreover, it could combine multiple Ninjutsu cards to amplify attack power.
Whenever Kakuzu attempted close combat, the cylindrical puppet emitted laser beams, preventing him from approaching and effectively holding him at bay.
Meanwhile, Deva Path stood before a humanoid puppet.
Deva Path paid no mind to this humanoid puppet. He raised his hand and activated a Shinra Tensei, aiming to destroy both the surrounding buildings and the puppet in one move.
However, a similar repelling force was released from the humanoid puppet, colliding with the repulsion emitted by [Shinra Tensei].
Both Deva Path and the humanoid puppet took several steps back.
Deva Path turned his gaze toward the humanoid puppet. Despite his usual blank expression, a flicker of confusion appeared in his eyes.
The repelling force released by the humanoid puppet wasn't a Dojutsu like Deva Path's, but was instead generated using two completely opposing magnetic fields.
Suddenly, the lower half of the humanoid puppet transformed, forming eight claw-like appendages that pierced deep into the ground for stability.
Aiming its two hands at Deva Path, the puppet once again harnessed the magnetic field to release an even stronger repulsive force than before.
Deva Path targeted the humanoid puppet and countered this repulsion using [Universal Pull].
After neutralizing the force, Deva Path immediately unleashed an even more powerful [Shinra Tensei].
But the eight claws of the humanoid puppet held firmly in place, resulting in Deva Path himself being launched backward by the rebounding force.
[Shinra Tensei] wasn't unstoppable—if it encountered something immovable, the backlash force would end up repelling the user themselves.
After getting flung away, Deva Path crashed directly into a building.
Nagato, who controlled Deva Path from behind the scenes, was puzzled—what the hell was this thing? How could it be so goddamn strange?
Due to the obstruction by Shindai's three puppets and support from other ninja, the progress of Deva Path, Kakuzu, and Deidara in destroying Konoha was brought to a halt.
...
On the rooftop arena.
Two additional humanoid puppets created by Shindai also appeared there—both were mechanized constructs.
A specialized puppet built to counter Setsuna Uchiha immediately activated an electromagnetic field.
Just like the previous encounter against Obito, everyone possesses their own bioelectric currents, so as soon as Setsuna Uchiha appeared within this magnetic field, he'd be instantly locked on and immediately subjected to electric attacks.
At the same time, this initial puppet also released chaotic magnetic waves.
The area on the rooftop became filled with wildly disordered magnetic fields.
By applying these disrupted magnetic fields onto Setsuna Uchiha, Hidan, Rasa, and Baki, their nervous systems experienced temporary disorder.
Although not severe enough to completely disable them from combat, their movements had indeed become significantly slower.
Meanwhile, another puppet specifically designed to target Hidan charged straight toward him.
Hidan, that reckless brute, didn't even raise his guard—he swung his Blood Scythe and charged straight at the puppet.
With a metallic clang, the Blood Scythe was blocked by the puppet's hardened shell.
"Huh? Some kind of hardening technique like Kakuzu's? No way! This thing's just a puppet?!"
Shindai's puppets were too lifelike—Hidan didn't realize at first glance that it was just a puppet.
The Puppet immediately moved behind Hidan in a rather eerie manner, then its body opened up and trapped Hidan inside.
"Target secured. Beginning piercing protocol."
Numerous spikes suddenly shot out from within the Puppet that held Hidan, piercing straight through his entire body. Blood poured out from the gaps.
Shindai saw what was happening on the rooftop and instinctively swelled his chest with pride.
The Puppet had been specifically designed based on Shindai's knowledge of the Akatsuki's abilities. If they were unguarded, the chances of them falling prey were extremely high.
At this moment, Kakashi arrived at the battlefield and found Shindai.
"Shindai, here's your Scroll. And this other Scroll was given to me by Kabuto—it's a device capable of suppressing Naruto if he loses control of the Nine-Tails."
Shindai took the Scrolls and exhaled in relief. "You finally showed up! I thought I'd die waiting. If you'd come any later, Naruto would've completely lost control."
Naruto, who already had three tails formed around him, was now advancing toward a fourth tail. If this continued, everything would spiral out of control.
Shindai glanced toward Danzo's side, where Danzo was locked in battle against four Paths. If he released the Scroll crafted specifically to neutralize those four Paths right now, it would essentially be aiding Danzo.
Helping Danzo was as repulsive to Shindai as swallowing a fly.
Absolutely not! No way in hell! Better yet, let Danzo die at their hands!
Shindai pulled out the Scroll given by Kabuto instead. Priorities first—he needed to deal with Naruto.
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