Just as Nagato and the others' Magic Lantern Body Technique faded away, Hoshiyomi, Chiyo, and Team Seven entered the cave together.
The cave's interior was not complicated. After running only a short distance, they reached the end of the tunnel, where Deidara and Sasori were standing—and… Gaara lay on the ground, his life or death unknown.
In order to provoke Naruto, Deidara sat brazenly on top of Gaara's body, laughing arrogantly as he looked at the mbers of Team Seven who had burst in.
Due to the butterfly effect, Naruto and Gaara didn't have that specific fight during the Chunin Exams that 'woke up' Gaara. However, despite lacking that experience, Naruto, as the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, could still sense Gaara's pain:
"Hey, Gaara, wake up! Weren't you amazing back during the Chūnin Exams? Hurry up and snap out of it!"
Naruto shouted, hoping his voice could awaken Gaara. At that mont, the Nine-Tails inside him spoke:
"Don't waste your effort, Naruto. That one called Gaara is already finished. There's not even a trace of Shukaku's chakra left in him. As a fellow jinchūriki, you should know what it ans when a tailed beast is forcibly extracted."
The Nine-Tails' voice was unusually heavy, and Naruto could even sense deep sorrow within it.
Although the Nine-Tails didn't get along with the One-Tail, they were still tailed beasts created by the Sage of Six Paths. Seeing the One-Tail torn out so brutally naturally left the Nine-Tails feeling bitter as well.
Hearing this, Naruto's body trembled violently, his fists clenching tightly.
"You two bastards!"
Naruto's furious roar was completely ignored by Deidara and Sasori. The two even began arguing among themselves about their respective views on art, and by the end, the argunt had evolved into who should capture the Nine-Tails next.
Seeing Deidara summon a clay bird, wrap up Gaara's body, and prepare to leave, Naruto was so angry he felt like his lungs were about to explode. Just as he was about to rush forward to stop Deidara, Kakashi suddenly grabbed him.
"Naruto, calm down. Don't fall into their trap."
At that mont, Hoshiyomi revealed a smile and tugged lightly on Kakashi's arm.
"Let Naruto go. Sasuke, you go with him too."
Sasuke looked at Hoshiyomi with so confusion, but didn't ask anything. He simply nodded and followed Naruto as they chased out of the cave together.
Watching Naruto and Sasuke leave, Hoshiyomi glanced at Sasori, who remained behind, then patted Kakashi on the shoulder.
"Leave this side to you. I'm more interested in what's happening over there—I'll go take a look."
With that, he leisurely walked out of the cave, leaving Sakura, Chiyo, and Kakashi staring at each other in bewildernt.
Sakura held it in for a long ti before finally blurting out:
"Kakashi-sensei, why would Lord Hoshiyomi do this? One of them is the explosives guy who took Gaara away, and the other is the puppet master's real body we just fought.
In such a confined environnt, if those two fight together, they'll only get in each other's way.
They're clearly trying to split us up—one person goes outside to use large-scale explosions in open terrain, while the other stays in narrow terrain and uses puppets to trap us with nowhere to escape."
Kakashi looked at Sasori, who still appeared composed, and said sothing that nearly made Sasori lose his cool:
"Don't worry. Might Guy and his team are lying in ambush outside."
Hearing this, the Hiruko puppet controlled by Sasori visibly stiffened. He had been focused on fighting Team Seven earlier and had completely overlooked Team Three. Now that he thought about it, it seed that he and Deidara had trapped themselves instead.
This won't do, Sasori thought. Deidara is too impulsive; he might actually fall into a trap. I need to finish things on my end quickly.
...
anwhile, Deidara, riding atop his clay bird, had just flown out of the cave. He was about to turn back and leave a little "parting gift" for Naruto and Sasuke when several loud shouts suddenly rang out from the distant forest:
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
"Leaf Great Whirlwind!"
"Shadow of the Dancing Leaf!"
"Twin Rising Dragons!"
Deidara was startled when he heard the shouts. He hurriedly turned around, trying to control the clay bird beneath his feet to rise higher and create so distance. Unfortunately, this clay bird wasn't a supersonic helicopter—having just exited the cave, it simply couldn't gain altitude quickly enough, no matter how hard he tried.
With that realization, Deidara clenched his teeth and decisively abandoned the clay bird beneath him. He stomped down hard on it and leapt into the air. At the sa ti, he ford a one-handed seal and shouted sharply.
At his command, the clay bird he had just abandoned imdiately exploded.
The blast directly swallowed Neji's Vacuum Palm and forcibly interrupted Guy's attack.
Fortunately, Tenten and Lee reacted quickly. They noticed Gaara was tied to the clay bird—Tenten used Twin Rising Dragons to sever the bird's tail before the explosion, while Lee hurled bandages to wrap around Gaara, sparing him from being blown to pieces.
Team 3's surprise attack failed. On the other side, Deidara didn't co out unscathed either. Even though he specialized in explosive techniques, he was still flesh and blood. The shockwave from the blast rattled his body, leaving his organs churning painfully.
Still, his reflexes were sharp. At the mont he fell, he quickly molded another clay bird to catch himself, narrowly avoiding either splattering on the ground or being captured by Team 3.
Just as the aftershock below dissipated, Naruto, Sasuke, and Hoshiyomi also erged from the cave.
Deidara looked down at the seven people below him from above, the corner of his mouth twitching as he realized he had been completely outplayed.
But now that the enemy had caught up, he had little choice but to face them head-on.
"I just got ambushed, so I can't quite gauge their true strength. Well then—let's use C1 to test them out."
An optimist by nature, Deidara quickly accepted the fact that he'd been counter-trapped. He adjusted his "combat goggles" and scattered a large swarm of clay spiders from his hands.
C1: Clay Spiders!
Below, Neji and Sasuke's expressions both changed. "Watch out! He's dropped a lot of small objects!"
Sasuke reacted imdiately, using Chidori Senbon. In an instant, countless lightning-forged needles were flung outward, and under the Sharingan's lock-on, they shot accurately toward the clay spiders falling from above.
However, no matter how precise Sasuke's Chidori Senbon was, it was impossible to eliminate all of the clay spiders in one go.
A few still slipped through and fell to the ground.
The mont the clay spiders landed, a loud shout rang out again from above.
At his command, the clay spiders instantly detonated with considerable force, forcing everyone present to dodge in disarray.
After avoiding the explosions, everyone looked up at Deidara's smug, grinning face in the sky, irritation clearly written on their faces.
They absolutely could not let this bastard keep throwing bombs.
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