Iwagakure's Heir

Iwagakure.

Tsuchikage's Office.

As the long-serving Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki was already seventy-nine years old.

In the Shinobi World, where the average age of death did not exceed forty, that was considered a rare longevity.

More importantly, the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, was still in good spirits. Aside from his bad back, he remained Iwagakure's strongest combatant.

However, that strongest combatant was about to become one of them.

Before a massive cliff face, a blond young man was practicing ninjutsu.

"Dust Release, Explosion Release!" Deidara waved both hands, throwing out large numbers of glittering spheres of light.

The nature of those light spheres was extremely unstable, their forms faintly twisting in midair.

But the moment they touched the cliff ahead—

Bzzzz...

A flash of white light burst forth.

The light spheres immediately expanded into star-shaped forms.

Large numbers of star-shaped pits were gouged into the hard stone wall.

"Crash, crash, crash..."

Masses of shattered rock collapsed, kicking up dust across the ground.

"It still isn't stable or concealed enough. Hmm."

Deidara was already nineteen. Over the past few years, he had entered a period of rapid growth in strength.

Rather than running around causing trouble as part of the Akatsuki Organization, he had been carefully taught by Ōnoki the entire time.

Whether in ninjutsu or maturity, he was far more developed than the Deidara of the original timeline.

And as a genius, he had successfully modified Dust Release in just a few short years.

Although his current Explosion Release was still far from stable, the light spheres he threw not only consumed less chakra than Dust Release, but were also more flexible than ordinary Dust Release.

For an artist, however, nothing was more gratifying than seeing a new form of art gradually take shape.

Deidara was exceptionally serious whenever he contemplated art.