The Uchiha clan's Sharingan was known as the "eye that reflects the heart," but among its many unique variations, Shisui's stood alone.
His Mangekyo's ability, Kotoamatsukami, could alter a person's will without them ever realizing they had been manipulated. Uchiha Nagi had once suspected that Itachi himself might have been brainwashed by Shisui with Kotoamatsukami, which would explain his unwavering devotion to the Will of Fire.
Most terrifyingly, Kotoamatsukami could bypass the powerful mental fortitude of another Mangekyo user and directly rewrite their thoughts. Before his death, Itachi had set a trap for his beloved little brother, Sasuke. He had sealed the Kotoamatsukami into a crow using a Transcription Seal and hidden it within Naruto.
The trigger condition was Sasuke himself. Itachi feared that Sasuke, upon learning the truth, would try to destroy Konoha, so he planned to use Kotoamatsukami on him. There was another trigger condition: Itachi himself.
In other words, Itachi had prepared for two scenarios. One was to change Sasuke's will. The other was for a situation where he himself was reanimated. If Sasuke still intended to destroy Konoha, Itachi would likely take action against him personally, most probably by killing him.
Of course, this was just Nagi's speculation. But one thing was certain: Itachi had played Sasuke like a fiddle until the very end. When Itachi released the Edo Tensei, he told Sasuke that if he could do it all over again, he would have consulted with him. He said that whatever Sasuke chose to do to Konoha after he was gone, he would support him.
Bullshit.
If he truly supported him, he wouldn't have planted a Kotoamatsukami trap in Naruto to screw him over. Those words were nothing but a desperate, last-minute talk-no-jutsu after he'd lost his ultimate trump card. And the kind-hearted fool, Sasuke, had actually believed him.
But it all served to prove just how special Kotoamatsukami was.
Even an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan couldn't resist it. It was terrifyingly powerful.
Nagi had no idea if the Rinnegan could withstand Kotoamatsukami's power. What if the reanimated Shisui went mad, broke free of his control with Kotoamatsukami, and started brainwashing everyone in the shinobi world?
One of Kotoamatsukami's eyes performed a one-time, permanent rewrite of a person's will, like the one Itachi had. The other, which Danzo had used on Mifune, was a slow, subtle brainwashing, like water dripping on a stone.
But the reanimated body would accelerate the recovery time. Who knew how long it would take for Shisui's eye to recover after using Kotoamatsukami?
"Better to keep him sealed for now. Who knows if Uchiha Shisui will go crazy..." Nagi shook his head. His own eyes were still just ordinary Mangekyo Sharingan; he had no confidence he could resist Kotoamatsukami.
The eye he'd taken from Danzo could only be used once.
"Otsutsuki Urashiki... why hasn't he shown up yet?" Nagi frowned, stepping out of his office and looking up at the sky.
He had been waiting for Urashiki for days. He had even prepared a grand welcome gift.
In every corner of the Swordsmith Village, he had hidden small kunai made with Magnet Style, each one inscribed with a Flying Thunder God formula. The network of markers extended far beyond the village.
It covered the entire Land of Iron, though the coordinates outside the village were less dense.
The moment Urashiki dared to show his face, Nagi would unleash [Magnet Style: Myriad Blade Convergence], and a dense forest of space-time coordinates would rise from the earth.
He would ensure that Urashiki would come but never leave. Besides, Kimimaro's adjustment period was almost over. Once it was, he would equip him with a personal flight device from the Sky Ninja Village. A Kimimaro who could fly would be a powerful asset.
Once he had gouged out Urashiki's Rinnegan, he could consider waking Shisui.
So, where was Otsutsuki Urashiki at this moment?
Thanks to the One-Tails, Two-Tails, and Seven-Tails that he had captured, Urashiki's power had risen to a new level. The defeat in the Cloud Village had been a major setback, but he hadn't been seriously injured.
Clearly, in the alternate future he came from, he had never encountered the Kohaku no Johei. He had been completely unaware of the power of the Sage of Six Paths' treasured tools, which was why Darui had been able to trick him.
"Damn you, Cloud Village! Just you wait! Once I've collected all the Tailed Beasts, I'll settle the score!" Urashiki gritted his teeth.
He, a celestial being, had nearly been tricked and sealed in that giant pot. He wasn't sure if his Yomotsu Hirasaka could have even gotten him out.
"After a few days of rest, my chakra has fully recovered. With three Tailed Beasts, I'm even stronger than before," Urashiki muttered to himself.
"Next, to the Land of Water to capture the Three-Tails..."
He had suffered a loss in Konoha and another in the Land of Lightning. For now, he would avoid those two villages and collect the Tailed Beasts from other regions first.
If he left the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails for later, that left the Three-Tails in the Land of Water, the Four- and Five-Tails in the Land of Earth, and the Six-Tails...
"Hahaha! An explosion is art!" Deidara cackled, riding his clay bird and bombing the Four-Tails, Roshi, on the ground below.
But things were different now. Deidara had combined his art with modern artillery, creating a new style all his own.
The key to industrial-era cannons, aside from the physics and metallurgy, was the gunpowder packed into the shells.
From black powder to cordite, and then to the even more powerful TNT, Deidara had analyzed it all and made his own improvements.
Gunpowder, when ignited, used the energy released in a confined space to propel a projectile at high speed. Deidara, in a stroke of genius, had replaced the gunpowder propellant with his own explosive clay.
Thus, the clay-and-metal cannon was born. The giant bird he flew on had its mouth wide open, and from it protruded the black, metallic barrel of a cannon. It continuously spat out shells, bombarding Roshi on the ground.
Before, he had to mold the clay with his hands, then have it fly towards the enemy as an animal before detonating. It was painfully slow. Now, propelled directly from a cannon barrel, the speed had increased exponentially.
And the metal warheads were packed with his clay bombs, their explosive power no less than that of modern yellow powder.
In other words, with his genius intellect, Deidara had analyzed modern artillery and replaced both the propellant and the explosive payload of the shells with his clay, using precise calculations.
He had even integrated it into his giant bird. If Roshi's Tailed Beast Cloak wasn't so durable, Deidara might have even played around with his own version of a Gatling gun's metal storm.
Firearms had given Deidara a lot of inspiration. If a tiny metal bullet could generate such immense kinetic energy from a bit of gunpowder, couldn't his clay, used as a propellant, do the same for a handgun?
However, it was Sasori who had perfected that concept first. He had added firearms units to his puppet army. Later, finding it too troublesome to reload after every few shots, he created something akin to a Gatling gun to unleash a true metal storm.
But alas, Sasori couldn't produce his own gunpowder. So, when the shameless Deidara wheedled the Gatling gun's design out of him, it became his exclusive weapon.
Deidara didn't need gunpowder. His clay could replace it. That made him far better suited to wield modern weaponry than Sasori.
[Roshi, we can't keep running like this! He's flying in the sky, we can't hit him! Transform! We need the Tailed Beast's massive body to jump up and have a chance of hitting him, or we can use a Tailed Beast Bomb!]
"Alright," Roshi agreed after a moment's thought. This was the tragedy of being unable to fly.
Ever since he had encountered Deidara, he had been strafed by the Gatling gun from the flying bird. After forming a Tailed Beast Cloak, he was no longer in danger, but then his opponent had switched to the more powerful cannons. A single hit from one of those things hurt like hell.
And he couldn't fly. All he could do was take a beating on the ground in frustration.
Poof!
After a cloud of smoke, the fully transformed Four-Tails, Son Goku, appeared. The four-tailed monkey spat a series of massive fireballs at the sky. A Tailed Beast Bomb was powerful, but it required time to charge.
The Four-Tails' natural talent was Lava Style, which allowed him to spit fireballs without hand seals, just like Shukaku.
Seeing this, Deidara grew even more excited. "Haha, you transformed! You finally transformed! Now, experience my [Clay Art: Cannon—Performance of a Hundred Machines]!"
In the distance, Sasori shot a resentful glare at Deidara in the sky...
Deidara threw a scroll, and after a puff of smoke, hundreds of giant birds filled the sky.
"Face the judgment of my new art, Four-Tails!"
Deidara formed a seal with his index and middle fingers. The giant birds that blanketed the sky all opened their mouths, and metallic cannon barrels extended from within.
"Artillery is art! Katsu!"
BOOM!
The Four-Tails managed to shoot down dozens of Deidara's birds with a volley of fireballs, but the flying targets were too agile. It was like trying to shoot mosquitoes with a cannon; he could barely hit any.
Under Deidara's control, the clay birds in the sky began their bombing run.
Hundreds of heavy artillery shells, propelled by explosive clay, were ignited and sent hurtling towards the Four-Tails.
And with Deidara at the helm, the clay birds' accuracy and loading speed were far superior to any human crew.
"Arrrgh..." Blood sprayed from the Four-Tails, arcing into the sky.
The Tailed Beast roared in pain and leaped high into the air. Its four tails swept away dozens of Deidara's birds before gravity took hold, and it fell helplessly back to the ground.
[Roshi, his firepower is too intense! We have to fight on the run!]
"Right!" Roshi looked up at Deidara with hatred. That kid just stayed up there, flying around, refusing to come down. If he had the guts to come down and fight with his fists, Roshi would gladly accept defeat, even if he lost.
BOOM! BOOM!
A second wave of heavy artillery bombardment rained down. The Four-Tails was once again covered in wounds. It was helpless. Its body was too big, but if it didn't transform, it had no way to fight the clay birds in the sky.
Without transforming, it couldn't use its massive, no-seal fireballs, nor could it jump hundreds of meters into the air.
Deidara was ecstatic. He could have used his massive C4 to kill the Four-Tails, but he was completely captivated by the metallic art of the cannons. The feeling of flying through the sky, controlling an artillery barrage on the ground...
It was so damn satisfying!
"Haha, an explosion is art!"
The scene was a reenactment of a World War II bombing run. Deidara, a one-man army, had the perfect jinchuriki, the Four-Tails, on the run. What pained Roshi the most wasn't the explosive shells, but the ones designed for pure kinetic impact.
The explosive shells detonated on the surface of the Tailed Beast's body, causing at most superficial wounds. But the solid metal slugs were agonizing, burrowing deep into the Four-Tails' body like bullets.
And occasionally, mixed in with the kinetic-impact shells, Deidara would add a few fragmentation rounds...
"Katsu!" Deidara made a seal with two fingers. A series of explosions erupted across the Four-Tails' body. The fragmentation shells that had embedded themselves in its flesh detonated, turning it into a sieve.
Poof!
After a cloud of smoke, the Four-Tails dispelled its full transformation and reverted to a smaller form. But Roshi had lost all hope. There was no sea here, just a vast, open plain. No matter where he ran, he couldn't escape the pursuit from the sky.
Roshi leaped into a river. Deidara unleashed a cannon barrage, and the river was blasted flat.
Roshi fled into a forest. Deidara blasted the forest flat. He was simply bullying him for his inability to fly.
Finally, after spitting out one last, small Tailed Beast Bomb, Roshi had no more energy to run. He collapsed on the ground.
"Huh? Did I blow him up?" Deidara wondered. "Hey, hey, stop playing dead..."
But as a ninja, he was still cautious. He sent down a clay clone to check on Roshi's injuries. If he dared to try anything funny, the clay clone would give him another dose of art...
"Looks like he's really not moving! Haha! My man Sasori, come on down! I've defeated the Four-Tails!"
Only then did Sasori approach, a sullen look on his face. It wasn't just because Deidara had made him wait, but also because his use of the phrase "Performance of a Hundred Machines" had struck a nerve.
Unfortunately, against a creature like a Tailed Beast, Sasori's abilities were truly useless. His strongest puppet, the Third Kazekage, had been destroyed...
And although the genius puppet master Sasori had reverse-engineered Uchiha Nagi's cannons and gunpowder, he was limited by industrial scale and technology. He couldn't mass-produce them.
Even if he handcrafted a few hundred cannons, he wouldn't have enough gunpowder. The gunpowder was the real headache. Unlike Deidara, he couldn't just create clay to replace it.
"Mission accomplished, hehe..." Deidara chuckled. The practical application of his new art was a resounding success.
"Black Zetsu, are you sure you don't know who that mysterious Rinnegan user is?"
"Obito, I've told you before. There was only one pair of Rinnegan in the shinobi world. For a second pair to suddenly appear... it's truly unbelievable."
In a cave, Obito was questioning Black Zetsu. Before his death, Madara had told him that Black Zetsu was the manifestation of his will—in other words, a being that possessed a part of Madara's chakra and memories.
That was why Obito was questioning him. He didn't like unforeseen variables.
"What kind of abilities his Rinnegan has, we have no idea. But we can be certain he possesses a space-time ninjutsu..." Obito had a massive headache. A space-time user, like himself, was always a troublesome opponent.
"Do you think... he's also collecting the Tailed Beasts for the Eye of the Moon Plan?" Obito asked.
"I'm not sure. But whatever his plan is, we must first work with Nagato to capture a few Tailed Beasts. We can't let him collect them all first," Black Zetsu replied in his raspy voice.
"I don't know if Nagato can win against him..."