Naruto, standing below, was completely dumbfounded.
No wonder during these past three years of training trips, he always caught Shinju staying up late, scribbling and tinkering with stuff in the middle of the night. Turns out, he was working on insanely high-tech weapons like this!
"Hey, couldn't he have just made this thing out of steel instead?"
Naruto asked curiously, glancing at Sai beside him.
Sai shook his head.
"Shinju said that's not possible for now. There are still a lot of intricate details that haven't been perfected yet."
"And by summoning it as a pseudo-painting, most of the flaws can be compensated for by the user's own chakra…"
Naruto listened, but his brain went blank halfway through.
He didn't really understand any of it… but if it was something Shinju made, it had to be amazing!
Naruto muttered under his breath,
"Seriously though… just how many things has Shinju done that I still don't know about?"
...
Suddenly, flames burst in the sky.
The next moment, an earth-shaking explosion roared across the battlefield!
Shinju's tracking missile finally struck Deidara dead-on!
In reality, the missile's mechanics were fairly simple — Shinju had just stuffed a few explosive tags inside and infused them with chakra…
As for the tracking? That came from Shinju using thin chakra threads to guide it — similar to how puppet masters controlled their puppets!
Doesn't matter how it works behind the scenes.
It just looks awesome, and that's all that matters!
When the explosion smoke cleared, Deidara emerged covered in dust, looking utterly miserable.
"Hah… kid, you've definitely got the makings of an artist," Deidara sneered, "but the power's still a little lacking."
Then, out of nowhere, he pulled out a tiny clay figurine.
"Next… I'll show you what real art looks like!"
With that, Deidara tossed the clay doll toward Shinju.
C3!
Number Eighteen!
This was the same bomb Deidara had once used to blow up Sunagakure!
It was also this very attack that had forced Gaara to injure himself protecting the village!
Shinju narrowed his eyes at the seemingly harmless little clay figure.
He raised his hand.
"Whoosh—"
A smooth ice shield instantly formed!
But this time, the ice shield wasn't meant to protect Shinju — instead, it split into six panels and completely encased the clay figurine inside.
Ice Prison!
Deidara: ( ´▽` )
"Naive! Far too naive!" he laughed wildly. "You really think you can suppress Number Eighteen's explosion just by locking it in ice?! ツ"
Deidara's gaze turned manic.
"Art… is an explosion!"
BOOOOM—!!
The cube formed by the ice shields trembled violently!
And then… nothing happened.
Number Eighteen didn't detonate as Deidara had expected.
Deidara's pupils shrank.
"How… how the hell… did it get completely contained?! (´°Δ°`)"
Number Eighteen's power was enough to destroy an entire village!
And yet, it was stopped cold by a few blocks of ice?
That shouldn't even be possible!
Inside the cockpit, Shinju's expression remained calm, as though he had expected this outcome all along.
After neutralizing the C3 bomb, he immediately piloted his fighter jet straight toward Deidara!
The engine roared like thunder: "Vrooooom—"
Still unwilling to admit defeat, Deidara pulled out another handful of explosive clay and shoved it into his mouth.
After chewing a few times, he spat it out — and this time, the clay rapidly shaped itself into a full-sized human figure, identical to his own height and build!
"This one was prepared especially for Uchiha Itachi," Deidara sneered. "But I guess you get to test it out first!"
With that, he hurled the clay figure downward and quickly flew off to a safe distance.
This was his ultimate technique — C4 Karura.
Its explosion radius was massive — so massive, in fact, that even Deidara himself risked getting caught in it if he stayed too close.
But Shinju, charging straight at him, showed no signs of slowing down.
He clenched his palm, summoning another ice shield.
Deidara's expression twitched in disbelief.
"H-Hey, you can't just use the same trick twice! (｀･∧･´)"
If this brat blocked even his C4 explosion with ice release…
Then where would that leave his art?!
Gritting his teeth, Deidara formed seals rapidly.
Just as Shinju's ice shield was about to completely encase the clay figure—
BOOOOM——!!!!!!
A scorching wave of heat blasted outward, hurling Deidara's body through the air!
But even as he tumbled, Deidara grinned in satisfaction.
"Now… now you'll witness the true power of my art!"
C4 Karura had been developed specifically to defeat Itachi.
Inside the life-sized clay figure were countless microscopic clay spiders — invisible to the naked eye.
Once the doll exploded, these tiny spiders dispersed into the air!
Any living creature within range that inhaled these microscopic bombs… essentially swallowed an explosion.
Finally, Deidara would detonate the clay spiders inside their bodies, causing destruction from the inside out — erasing them completely!
...
Meanwhile, Shinju hadn't expected Deidara to go this far.
This guy was insane! Hurting the enemy by eight hundred, but damaging himself by a thousand — and he still went for it!
Thankfully, Shinju had ejected from the fighter jet the moment the explosion triggered and activated his Susanoo mid-air.
To put it bluntly, Susanoo could block nearly any physical attack.
Stopping a slightly larger firecracker like this? Easy.
But almost immediately, Shinju noticed something off.
The air after the explosion… stung his lungs.
Focusing, he realized that the air was filled with countless tiny chakra-infused particles!
These faint traces of chakra clung to microscopic fragments of explosive clay, making them dangerously easy to inhale…
Clever little bastard. That's actually pretty nasty.
Without hesitation, Shinju encased himself completely in ice release, sealing out all air.
Then, to prevent Naruto and the others from breathing in these particles, he formed hand seals and unleashed a massive water technique.
"Water Release!"
"Rainfall!"
"Whoooosh—!"
Dark clouds gathered instantly, and fat raindrops began to fall from the empty sky.
Then—
"WHOOOOSH——!!"
"WHOOOOSH————!!"
The downpour was so intense that Naruto and the others thought a gigantic waterfall had opened up above their heads!
Within seconds, the unbelievable rainfall caused nearby rivers to overflow, flooding straight into the cave where Kakashi's group had taken shelter!
Kakashi: "What the—glug glug—who the hell is using Water Release at a time like this—glug glug glug~"
Though it accidentally affected his own allies, Shinju's strategy worked brilliantly.
The massive rain washed all the floating microscopic bombs down to the ground, neutralizing their explosive potential almost entirely.
Soon, Kakashi and the others scrambled up to higher ground, glaring at Shinju from afar.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
Scratching his head awkwardly, Shinju muttered,
"Just… uh… making the air a little fresher. Ծ ̮ Ծ"
But the moment he said that, he froze.
--003d͟͟͞͞(꒪ᗜ꒪ ‧̣̥̇)
Shit!!
Gaara was still in Deidara's clay bird's mouth!!
Don't tell me… he actually got blown to bits?!
Panic surged as Shinju quickly scanned the battlefield, frantically searching for Gaara's body.
"At the very least… give me a chunk of meat to work with!"
Fortunately, after some desperate searching, Shinju finally found Gaara floating in the water.
Thankfully, Gaara was still alive… but his clothes were nearly shredded to rags, exposing burned patches everywhere.
His injuries were severe — deep burns covered most of his body, his hair was scorched off, and his face was nearly unrecognizable.
Shinju and Gaara barely even knew each other — in fact, their relationship was practically negative at this point.
So seeing Gaara in this state… he felt nothing.
What he did feel, however, was dread about explaining this later.
Bringing Gaara back like this… it'd be hard to give a proper report.
If word got out, people would definitely say Konoha's shinobi were incompetent.
"Tch…"
Shinju frowned.
"This won't do!"
"I have to find a way to fix you up! Otherwise… the mission's reward is going to drop a lot!"
----------------
Pls Drop some Power Stones
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