Gaara calmly faced Deidara. After their brief exchange, he had already grasped the enemy's general capabilities.
Deidara's explosive power was terrifying. With hundreds of clay bombs and overwhelming firepower, he could easily raze a small country. His attacks were fast, wide-ranging, and perfectly suited for aerial combat—something even a jōnin would struggle to counter.
But if that was the full extent of Deidara's strength…
Then Gaara was certain he would not lose.
In a short span of time, Gaara completed his assessment.
"Desert Funeral!"
Forming a one-handed seal, Gaara thrust his palm forward. The sand surged as though alive, instantly engulfing every clay bomb Deidara had scattered.
Bang! Bang! Bang!!!
Several muffled explosions rang out, blasting away portions of sand—but the damage was negligible.
The sand continued forward like a tidal wave.
Seeing this, Deidara immediately urged his clay dragon backward, retreating at high speed. As he did, he scattered spider-shaped C1 explosives, forming hand seals in rapid succession.
Boom!
A flash of fire erupted as the bombs detonated, barely slowing the incoming sand.
After narrowly evading Gaara's counterattack, Deidara resumed his assault with C2 explosives, clearly intending to grind down Gaara's chakra through sheer attrition.
Gaara let out a cold snort. His hands flashed through seals, and the sand abruptly changed form.
A gigantic hand—dozens of meters wide—rose from the desert and reached toward Deidara. It blotted out the sunlight above him, casting an overwhelming shadow.
The bombs Deidara hurled detonated uselessly against the colossal construct.
Forced onto the defensive, Deidara detonated a large quantity of clay at once, barely dispersing the attack.
"Damn it… let's see how you block this!!"
Clenching his teeth, Deidara shot higher into the sky. His mouth opened unnaturally wide, expelling vast amounts of white, viscous clay.
"C3: No. 18!!"
A massive clay construct—round and bloated, over a hundred meters in size—plummeted from the heavens.
Gaara's expression finally changed.
This was Deidara's most destructive technique. A single detonation could erase an entire town, with a blast radius spanning more than a mile.
Gaara reacted instantly.
An ocean of sand surged upward, spreading in all directions and forming a colossal canopy over the land. The sheer volume extended more than a mile in every direction, completely enveloping the battlefield.
"Art is an explosion!!" Deidara shouted ecstatically.
A blinding flash lit the sky.
The earth shook violently as the explosion erupted. Gaara poured massive amounts of chakra into the sand, reinforcing it layer by layer to shield the shinobi and civilians beneath.
The strain was immense.
Below, the Sunagakure ninja clenched their fists.
"That bastard—let me help Lord Gaara!"
"Why are we just standing here?!"
Before anyone could act, Gaara's calm voice echoed across the battlefield.
"Everyone, remain calm. This enemy poses no threat to you. Evacuate the civilians immediately—leave him to me."
The words struck the shinobi like a blade.
An enemy had appeared… yet they were powerless to assist even a little.
The shame burned deeply.
From the sky, Deidara laughed wildly.
"Hahaha! With sand spread over such a massive area, how much chakra do you have left?!"
Gaara lowered his head slightly.
"Chakra…?" he murmured.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"I'm not lacking it right now."
His chakra surged—and within it, a foreign yet familiar presence stirred.
The unique chakra of the One-Tail, Shukaku, flowed through Gaara's body.
With Shukaku's support, Gaara's chakra reserves had reached the very summit of the ninja world.
In the original timeline, Shukaku would never have willingly aided him.
But now, things were different.
Naruto had promised Shukaku his freedom in the future.
And Shukaku had no intention of watching Gaara fall here.
Gaara slowly raised his head, a mocking smile forming.
"If that's all you've got… then stay right there."
A strange pressure emanated from his body. The surrounding sand trembled as particles rich in iron rose to the surface, clinging to Gaara's form.
This was Iron Sand—dense, heavy, and deadly.
"Magnet Release: Railgun."
Tiny arcs of lightning crackled across Gaara's body as a terrifying destructive aura burst forth.
The pressure alone made hearts seize.
From a distance, Tobi—no, Obito—watched in silence. His eyes narrowed.
This scene…
It felt eerily familiar.
Before Gaara, the Iron Sand gathered, every grain coated in a silvery-white sheen—poised to unleash devastation.
In the next instant, Gaara unleashed all the Iron Sand gathered before him.
Brilliant arcs of electricity flared to life, spiraling and twisting as the attack shot forward. In the blink of an eye, the blazing streaks closed in on Deidara.
"What the hell kind of ninjutsu is this?!" Deidara cried out in shock.
He abandoned his clay dragon without hesitation, leaping away at the last possible moment. The next second, the dragon was erased in a flash—reduced to dust without even leaving debris behind.
The sheer destructive power was terrifying.
"It's not over yet," Gaara said softly.
The silvery-white light abruptly reversed direction, splitting into five smaller beams that curved through the air like living things.
Deidara's scalp went numb.
He forced his body forward at full speed as the beams detonated around him. A thunderous blast tore open the ground, leaving behind a scorched crater.
The shockwave hurled Deidara away. When he finally stabilized himself, half of his sleeve had been blown clean off.
Cold sweat trickled down his back as he stared at Gaara.
If I hadn't used the Substitution Technique just now…
It wouldn't have been a sleeve.
It would have been his arm.
Not far away, Tobi's playful, clownish demeanor had completely vanished. His posture stiffened, and his expression turned grim.
That attack…
It was eerily similar to the techniques used by that Uchiha brat—Sasuke.
The difference was that Sasuke's attack followed a straight trajectory, while Gaara's Iron Sand could change direction mid-flight, split apart, and strike from multiple angles.
That made it far more troublesome.
In truth, Gaara could manipulate the Railgun technique so freely thanks to Magnet Release, which granted him precise control over the Iron Sand's movement.
Of course, altering the trajectory consumed additional power, reducing the raw destructive force—but even then, the threat remained overwhelming.
Deidara's face darkened.
He, Deidara—the artist of explosions—had nearly been injured by a brat like Gaara.
Unacceptable.
"C4: Garuda!!"
With a twisted grin, Deidara opened his mouth and expelled a massive quantity of white, liquid-like clay. Before Gaara's eyes, it rapidly expanded, taking on a humanoid form.
The figure was identical to Deidara himself—only larger and bulkier.
Gaara showed no fear.
With a gesture, the sand surged and formed an equally massive giant, towering across from the clay construct.
In the past, Gaara would never have used such extravagant techniques. But now, with Shukaku's chakra supporting him, the cost no longer mattered.
He could afford it.
The two giants collided.
Their fists met again and again, each impact producing a deafening boom that echoed across the battlefield. The sheer force of their clash left ordinary shinobi staring in disbelief.
Then—
Deidara smiled.
The clay giant disintegrated, scattering into dust as though it had never existed.
He sneered.
This was the true terror of C4: Garuda.
In the original course of history, this technique had been used against Uchiha Sasuke. The clay did not explode immediately—instead, it dispersed into microscopic particles, invisible to the naked eye.
Once inhaled, the bombs detonated inside the body.
No matter how strong a ninja was, their internal organs were fragile. An internal explosion meant instant, catastrophic damage.
Back then, Sasuke had survived only because of his Sharingan's dynamic vision and his mastery of Lightning Release, allowing him to neutralize the technique at the last moment.
And now—
Gaara stood in the path of that same deadly art.
...
TN:
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