"What is that?!"
The Suna ninja looked on, their mouths agape. If the painful sting of yellow sand striking their faces didn't clearly tell them this was reality, they would have surely suspected they were dreaming.
In the distance, a warship, so massive it could rival a mountain peak, was traversing the yellow sand in some unknown manner. At this moment, the endless yellow sand seemed to have transformed into a vast, azure ocean.
"Feels like a movie scene, un," Deidara nodded slightly, offering his own response to this sci-fi spectacle.
"An organization with this kind of power… Zetsu, don't tell me you have no intelligence on them," Sasori questioned.
"Truly, I don't." White Zetsu spread his hands. "My focus is on Jinchuriki and the Five Great Ninja Villages."
"I don't even pay attention to the outer perimeter, let alone this organization."
"Besides, Sasori, your own intelligence network doesn't have this organization either, and you're questioning me."
"My intelligence network is different from yours." After Sasori finished explaining, he didn't ask any further.
They both played the intelligence game; they naturally understood each other's difficulties.
Deidara looked left at White Zetsu, then right at Sasori. For a moment, he felt like a complete outsider compared to these two.
"The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is inside that warship," White Zetsu said, pointing to the approaching warship in the distance.
"What about the Two-Tails Jinchuriki?" Deidara asked. Didn't the last meeting say the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and the Two-Tails Jinchuriki were together?
"She went to find the Three-Tails."
"The movement between Jinchuriki is really frequent…" Deidara was speechless.
The Three-Tails was precisely his responsibility.
"So, your people went head-to-head with Sunagakure?" Naruto stood behind the floor-to-ceiling window of the command room, gazing at the distant battlefield, his face filled with astonishment and admiration.
Not bad, quite brave, choosing one of the Five Great Ninja Villages for their first battle.
Although Sunagakure was the weakest of the Five Great Hidden Villages, it was still one of the Five Great.
Compared to the ninja villages of those smaller countries, they were on completely different scales.
Even he didn't have the confidence to directly confront a major hidden village. Haido had done what he dared not do; what a ruthless character.
"Lord Haido!"
Ranke, through the glass window, looked at the man seated on the 'throne,' a hint of joy appearing in her crimson eyes.
The speed of her wingbeats suddenly increased; she couldn't wait to return to Lord Haido's side.
To witness with her own eyes how that red-haired ninja would die miserably at Lord Haido's hands.
Spurt!
A splash of blood flew out.
Ranke looked at her own chest in disbelief. A spear resembling a beast's claw had completely pierced through her.
Why…
Losing consciousness, Ranke fell heavily to the ground. Until her death, she couldn't understand how, from that height, the ninja had managed to attack her.
Rustle, rustle, rustle…
Gaara's partially transformed Tailed Beast body dissolved into fine yellow sand, slowly drifting down.
The Spear of Shukaku was the strongest single-target offensive ninjutsu he had mastered. From the current situation, its combat effectiveness seemed quite good.
"Without the seal's restriction, Gaara and Shukaku's chakra fusion is much smoother."
Watching this scene, Naruto thought to himself.
Not long ago, when his right shoulder injury had mostly healed, Naruto had dispatched a shadow clone to Sunagakure to assist Shukaku in undoing Gaara's Jinchuriki seal.
"However, aren't there a few too many powerful individuals here?"
Sorting through the information fed back by his Mind's Eye of Kagura, Naruto turned his head to look towards two particular chakra sources.
He had already sensed no fewer than five Kage-level chakra sources, one of which felt no weaker than Gaara's.
This was terrifying.
One had to know that the reason Gaara possessed such a massive amount of chakra was entirely because he was Shukaku's Jinchuriki.
And in this vicinity, apart from himself and Gaara, there were no other Jinchuriki; he was certain of this.
Which meant, a true humanoid monster had appeared on this battlefield.
Thinking of this, Naruto's face immediately lit up with joy.
Dull, arduous training couldn't compare to the rapid improvement gained from battling strong opponents.
The last battle with the Raikage brothers, although the price paid was not small, compared to the gain of touching the threshold of Yang Release, the injury to his right shoulder was nothing.
"Ranke!" Temujin cried out, looking at his fallen comrade, a flicker of pain on his face.
Haido, seeing this, also looked grim. However, compared to Temujin, he felt more annoyance—annoyance that his subordinate had been killed right in front of him.
Even when beating a dog, one should consider its master!
These bastard ninja actually didn't understand this principle.
"Fire the missiles! I want these bastard ninja to understand just whose people they've killed!" Haido roared.
"Yes! Lord Haido!"
Hearing the voice coming from the broadcast, Naruto sighed faintly. Such a fine warship.
What a pity…
Casually tossing out a Flying Thunder God kunai, Naruto's figure vanished from the spot. He didn't believe that Haido and his men, merely by relying on this single warship, possessed the qualifications to speak to Gaara as equals.
The warship's lowest-level storage room.
Naruto Clone One, having received the transmission from his original body, no longer hid his form and walked out openly from the shadows.
"Who are you?!"
The guards at the storage room door shouted, questioning him upon seeing him.
Naruto Clone One didn't answer. With a slight sway of his body, he instantly appeared before the two guards, his hands lashing out.
Pluck!
The Stones of Gelel, which the two had yet to activate, were forcibly extracted by him.
Having lost the power of the Stone of Gelel, their bodies became even weaker than those of ordinary people—a side effect of prolonged use of the Stone of Gelel.
Tossing the two aside, Naruto Clone One looked at the iron door before him, gathered a large amount of chakra in his foot, and kicked out forcefully.
Boom!
The thick iron door abruptly caved inward, forming a large dent.
"Huh? This thick?" Naruto Clone One was taken aback. He had just been worried if the force would be too great and cause the place to collapse…
Another kick.
Bang!
The iron door flew off its hinges.
Walking to the deepest part and sensing the life energy fluctuations close at hand, Naruto Clone One opened a storage box. Looking at the box filled to the brim with Stones of Gelel, he nodded in satisfaction.
Having tagged along with Haido and listened to so much of his nonsense, he had to collect some form of payment.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!
Several missiles had just flown into mid-air when they were completely blocked by a suddenly erected sand wall, exploding into dazzling fireworks.
"Nice art," Deidara couldn't help but nod, watching this scene.
"But it's still a bit lacking compared to mine, un."
"Deidara-nīsan is as shameless as ever." A female voice reached his ears.
Hearing this familiar voice, Deidara's face darkened. How did this crazy girl get here too?
"…You deal with it yourself." Sasori said slowly after exchanging a look with the newcomer.
With that, he and White Zetsu departed.
"Kurotsuchi, what are you doing here?" Deidara asked, annoyed.
"You have the nerve to ask me?" Kurotsuchi's expression hardened. She rushed before him and grabbed him by the collar.
Deidara couldn't help but glance back at the departing Sasori and White Zetsu. Seeing they hadn't noticed, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
When you're out in the world, face is the most important thing.
"Give it up, I'm not going back." As he spoke, he tried to break free from Kurotsuchi's grip.
But a strange thing happened. No matter how hard he struggled, his body wouldn't obey his commands.
"This time, it's not up to you, Deidara-nīsan…" Kurotsuchi said with a sly smile, seeing his predicament.
"Well done, Kurotsuchi." Kitsuchi, seeing the situation, stepped forward and hoisted the immobilized Deidara onto his shoulder.