Chapter 266: The Death of Deidara
The first thing Deidara saw was his back.
Then, very quickly, as his body and head flipped, a headless corpse came into view.
He saw the fresh blood gushing from the carotid artery of that corpse, and as his body spun, it bloomed into a beautiful and cruel red flower in mid-air.
At this moment, Deidara finally realized that that was his body.
His head was spinning in the air. First, he saw Sasori on the ground. He had gathered his puppets, his eyes looking at him coldly.
"I already warned you, you idiot..." Sasori said coldly. "To die just like that!"
He clearly still had a whole arsenal of ninjutsu and chakra, and many life-saving little tricks, yet he had died just like that! Haruno Sakura's kind of combo was truly beyond imagination and difficult to deal with!
Deidara then saw a thin, silver-white line.
He strained to move his eyeballs, following the thin line upwards, and saw a slender, pale finger pointing straight at him, the thin line connected to its tip.
"I was killed by that silver line, un..." Deidara opened his mouth, wanting to speak, but his throat just made a hissing sound. He couldn't say a word, and his vision was getting darker and darker.
Further up, he saw the girl with the awe-inspiring, ice-like gaze, standing on his bird, a trace of blood flowing from the corner of her mouth.
That pair of sharp eyes, brimming with killing intent, was the last image he saw.
Haruno Sakura looked at Deidara falling from the sky without any pity.
In her chakra perception, a huge chakra source, like a leaking balloon, had deflated in the blink of an eye.
All of his life force had flowed away cleanly along with the wound on his neck, like a bonfire that had its firewood taken away, completely extinguished.
"It seems he's really dead..." Haruno Sakura said faintly.
She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
The Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals Phase Three, combined with the Wind Blade Raging Stream, was a little bit unbeatable. Deidara's response just now had been good enough. The moment Sasori had reminded him, he had used a clay clone to set a trap. An ordinary enemy, in the instant they had hit his clone, would probably have been doomed.
However, he certainly hadn't expected that Haruno Sakura could, in the instant her Body Flicker ended, use such a powerful and swift ninjutsu without any hand seals. The Wind Blade Raging Stream, in the instant he had leaped out of his hiding place, had ended his life.
Giving him no time to react.
The moment he had jumped out, he had been captured by the girl in her Sakura Rush state. In less than a thousandth of a second, the water line had caught up with his body and had cut across his neck.
The last expression on Deidara's face was one of wide-eyed astonishment.
Haruno Sakura's anger, along with the passing of the enemy's life, also quickly subsided.
When this anger, which even her Ice Style could not suppress, had subsided, Sakura finally regained her calm. Only then did she realize what a risky thing she had just done—in a situation where her meridians had already been impacted once, to use the ability of the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals Phase Three again!
This was almost joking with her own future. With the slightest carelessness, her meridians would be damaged... or even seriously injured.
Alright, at that time, she could only pray that the cloning technology would be developed quickly.
What was fortunate was that even under this kind of emotion, she had not been the slightest bit careless when using this technique. On the contrary, she had displayed one hundred and twenty percent of her calm and precision, even more perfect than the previous time.
The only problem was that the giant white bird under her feet, with Deidara's death, had also lost its ability to fly and had turned into clay, and was now crumbling and falling.
And Haruno Sakura, her meridians were hurting even more than before...
"Well, can I recover to the point where I can use a Body Flicker before I hit the ground?" she said to herself with a wry smile. "If I fall to my death, I'll be a laughingstock!"
A quasi-Kage level master who had killed a member of the Akatsuki in two moves, with plenty of chakra left, her will clear, and not bound, had fallen to her death from a high place...
She would have completely shamed all ninja!
Watching as the giant bird's altitude dropped faster and faster, and everything on the ground became bigger and bigger, Haruno Sakura joked to herself in her heart.
She, of course... would not fall to her death.
"Ice Style: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals."
Carefully controlling the chakra to circulate in her body, so as not to cause more meridian shock and damage, Sakura still had that much control.
She landed next to the ice clone. The wound on Naruto, who was lying on the ground, had almost healed. The ice clone's medical ninjutsu was only secondary. The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki's recovery ability was the main factor.
And then Naruto woke up with a "hiss," and stood up, supporting himself with his hand. "Ouch!"
He reached out, wanting to touch the wound on his back. Those bloody wounds, right under Sakura's eyelids, had already recovered to the point of looking as if nothing had happened. What Naruto touched was just a patch of smooth skin.
"Huh? Where's the wound?" He fumbled around, but just couldn't find the wound. He was a little confused.
Seeing Naruto acting so lively, Sakura suddenly felt... as if she had been angry for nothing just now.
"You idiot, stop looking! We're still in a battle!" Haruno Sakura's mouth twitched, and she said helplessly.
Only then did Naruto quiet down and take a guarded posture.
Sakura sighed and looked at Sasori's puppets not far away, which had already shrunk their defensive line.
It seemed he had already lost his will to fight.
He was considering retreating.
Out of the corner of her eye, Haruno Sakura saw the place where Deidara had fallen. A sneaky figure suddenly emerged from the ground and silently took his body away.
She had the mind to shoot a round at that guy, but her badly damaged meridians told Sakura that she had better not shoot even one...
As for letting Naruto deal with him? Better not. This guy hadn't even figured out the situation yet!
And, Sakura still needed Naruto to stay by her side to protect her! Her meridians didn't look like they would heal anytime soon. Now was not the time to be casually using ninjutsu. Fortunately, Sasori had been bluffed by her clean and neat finishing off of that bomb-user. Otherwise, if he had really attacked, Sakura would have really had to fight for her life.
In short, it was better not to casually stir up more trouble.
Haruno Sakura watched indifferently as that strange person submerged into the earth, secretly memorizing everything about him.
On the other hand, Naruto, seeing that the puppets that had been surrounding the two of them were showing signs of retreating, was greatly puzzled. He had been unconscious for a little while and didn't know what had happened during that time.
"Sakura-chan, what's going on? Did we win?" he asked, scratching his head.
"Not yet," Sakura shook her head, and then jutted her chin, pointing in the direction where Deidara's body had fallen. "But that guy who uses bombs has been taken care of by me."
Sakura knew that Sasori was just shrinking his defensive line, weighing the pros and cons. As long as she exposed her weakened nature, Sasori would probably attack immediately!
She had to pretend that nothing was wrong.
Sakura was a little annoyed. And then she suddenly thought, "Where's Uncle Jiraiya?"
"Huh?" Naruto also widened his eyes. "He was right behind me!"
Just as Naruto was suspecting that Jiraiya had been left too far behind by him and couldn't catch up in time...
On the other side of the valley, outside Sakura's perception range.
Jiraiya, who had been closely following Naruto's steps, had suddenly stopped!
He turned around and looked at the empty ground.
His expression was gloomy as he asked coldly, "Orochimaru, what are you doing here?"
Orochimaru's figure then emerged from the earth, with Kabuto's figure following closely behind.
"Jiraiya, why are you still so stupid..." Orochimaru said with a sinister smile, sticking out his long tongue. "How your Konoha people found the Akatsuki, you still don't know?"
"I'm asking you, what is your purpose in coming here, Orochimaru!" Jiraiya said, slowly placing his hands in front of his chest, his voice thick and full of power.
His eyes narrowed dangerously as he looked at Orochimaru.
As if, as long as Orochimaru's answer was not appropriate, he would not hesitate to make a move!
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