"You've already lost."
Uchiha Itachi's calm words irritated Deidara. He shouted, "What nonsense are you talking about? You're clearly bound by my ninjutsu right now. I'll show you just how powerful my art is!"
As he spoke, he raised one hand, about to detonate his clay bomb.
Uchiha Itachi's expression remained unchanged; even his gaze did not flicker. "I advise you to take a good look at yourself first. If you really detonate it, you won't even have a chance to regret it."
"Huh?" Deidara uttered in confusion, his gaze drawn to the Three Tomoe in Itachi's eyes. In an instant, as though a dream had shattered, everything returned to reality. A powerful sensation of restraint came over him, and the white clay centipede was actually wrapped around his own body.
"What?" Deidara cried out in shock, a cold sweat breaking out on him. If he had detonated his ninjutsu just now, then the consequences...
"That was close. He nearly blew himself up," Kisame remarked, though his tone carried an unmistakable hint of schadenfreude.
"So this is the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan. It really is as powerful as I imagined."
"This guy really looks like he'll die young. We should probably start looking for his replacement now, so we don't have to make another trip after he suddenly drops dead."
The two of them treated Deidara as if he were air, with no regard whatsoever for his feelings.
Yet Deidara had no intention of arguing with them. Instead, he asked darkly, "Genjutsu? But when did I fall under it?"
"Right at the beginning. The moment you saw those Sharingan, you had already been caught in the genjutsu. Although today was also my first time meeting Itachi-san, I know a little about the Sharingan."
Kisame answered for him, a faint smile at