The Battle Against the Artistic Duo

What, were there more enemies?

Nadeshiko heard a voice from above and turned in surprise, only to see flashes of light appear to her left, right, and behind her.

She'd never encountered Deidara before, so naturally, she didn't know that this light appeared just before his Clay Bombs detonated.

The moment Qiuyang's Sharingan spotted the distinctive white bird in the sky and the white butterflies that had suddenly appeared around Nadeshiko, he recognized that Deidara of the Akatsuki had arrived.

That was why he'd just rushed toward Nadeshiko with a grim expression.

He didn't want this pretty young woman to meet her end at Deidara's hands so easily. It wasn't, as Nadeshiko thought, because he'd gotten angry after hearing her insult his teacher.

Come on, he often cursed out his own unreliable teacher, too. Why would he get angry over something like that?

Qiuyang used the Body Flicker Technique to appear in front of Nadeshiko and was about to grab her hand and use the Flying Thunder God to escape the bombs.

Unexpectedly, several spiders sprang up from the ground and latched onto him, flashing with the same dazzling light.

Damn... The ones around Nadeshiko were decoys. Was I Deidara's real target all along?

This is bad. The bombs are stuck to me. I can't dodge in time.

The three tomoe in Qiuyang's eyes spun furiously, then instantly transformed into the shape of an eight-trigram design...

"Drink..."

Rumble—

A cloud of dust rose from the spot where Qiuyang stood.

Seeing that Qiuyang had fallen for it, Deidara, standing atop the Clay Giant Bird, raised both hands in a triumphant celebration of his artistic victory.

"I thought this Uchiha would be as troublesome as Itachi, hm.

"But he was defeated by my art so easily. That time Itachi beat me with genjutsu won't happen again..."

Deidara was about to keep gloating when several black tomoe suddenly shot out of the dust below. Startled, he hurriedly steered his bird aside, barely avoiding them.

The black tomoe flew past him and exploded in midair with a force that was hardly inferior to his C2 series Clay Bombs.

A direct hit from chakra bullets like those would leave you badly injured, if not crippled.

Deidara broke into a cold sweat, steered the Clay Giant Bird higher, and angrily looked down at the blast site, where the dust had already cleared.

What he saw was something he'd never forget for the rest of his life.

What the hell is that thing?

A gigantic black-and-white skeleton surrounded Qiuyang and Nadeshiko, and had withstood the chain of Clay Bomb explosions just moments earlier.

Deidara immediately guessed that the tomoe that had attacked him must have come from the skeleton as well.

This is getting interesting, hm!!

"Looks like those bombs didn't kill you, hm... How about this one..."

Deidara reached into the clay pouch with his right hand. Five seconds later, he pulled something out, casually tossed it down, and formed Hand Seals.

"Poof!"

A two-meter-tall bird bomb took shape and hurtled toward Qiuyang's Susanoo, striking it head-on once more.

Rumble...

Qiuyang had forced his Susanoo open in the first place, and now it had been hit head-on by another Clay Bomb.

The skeletal Susanoo wobbled wildly, and after holding on for just a few seconds, shattered.

"This won't work. Taking on a flying Kage Level opponent like Deidara is still too much for me."

And after using Susanoo and the Yasakani Magatama, Qiuyang once again felt as if his bones were burning. The pain was unbearable.

Opening Susanoo in this emergency had also drained more than half the chakra in Qiuyang's body.

Qiuyang couldn't worry about whether this might look like he had ulterior motives. Fighting through the pain, he shielded Nadeshiko, who was still dazed.

He rode the shockwave from the explosion and fell toward the forest they'd come from, intending to regroup.

The young woman seemed to sense that something was wrong with the person holding her. For now, she obediently followed his movements without resisting.

But just as they were about to land in the dense forest, Nadeshiko, looking toward the trees, suddenly spotted a terrifying figure hunched over at their landing point.

It was impossible to tell what the person was made of. His face wore a fearsome expression devoid of life, and a gleaming blade-like tail extended from his back.

He looked like... a poisonous scorpion ready to deliver a fatal strike at any moment.

And from his clothes—a black cloak embroidered with red clouds, just like the one worn by the man using Explosion Release in the sky—it was clear the two were working together.

Even Nadeshiko was terrified by the situation. Her voice trembling, she hurriedly warned Qiuyang, who couldn't see what was behind him:

"Uchiha Qiuyang, there's someone else over there!"

"Heh. You noticed too late."

Sasori spoke in a hoarse voice, aiming Hiruko's tail at the pair as they descended.

By the laws of free fall, his blade-like tail would skewer them both.

"Nice work, old man."

Deidara in the sky thought so, too, his eyes fixed on the two figures above.

Looks like the mission the boss gave us—to eliminate the Black Flash of Konoha—is pretty easy after all!!

Unlike Deidara and Sasori, who were certain of victory, Qiuyang was having a miserable time.

Damn, how did a B-Rank Mission leave me in such a hopeless situation again...

If he were alone, he could easily escape with the Flying Thunder God. But Nadeshiko was with him now, and he didn't want to abandon the pretty young woman he'd taken a liking to.

And if he didn't deal with Deidara, who was watching them from the sky, it would be hard to escape his pursuit even with the Flying Thunder God.

Using the corner of his Mangekyo's eye to gauge the distance between himself and Hiruko's puppet tail, Qiuyang drew a kunai and threw it backward at Deidara in the sky—

Sigh, this was his first time using the Flying Thunder God to teleport to a moving mark. He hoped nothing would go wrong.

"You think I can't dodge something like that? Is that supposed to be your final struggle? Hm."

Deidara was just about to steer the Clay Giant Bird out of the kunai's way, but another unexpected turn of events followed.

Qiuyang: Flying Thunder God—

Qiuyang and Nadeshiko, who should have been impaled on Sasori's tail, appeared without warning in front of Deidara. Deidara's eyes met the spinning Mangekyo directly...

Uh, Mangekyo... genjutsu...

Deidara suddenly felt the world turn upside down. His head and limbs seemed disconnected, and he couldn't even control the chakra in his body. Then he fell straight down with the bird.

With the threat of aerial pursuit taken care of, Qiuyang used the Flying Thunder God again for a short-range teleport, taking Nadeshiko to a secluded cave in the mountains.

Without the Flying Thunder God's path being monitored from above, Sasori had no way to track them.

He looked at the blood smeared across his tail and decided to find Deidara first.

"Tch. Did Deidara get caught in the Sharingan's genjutsu again? But with my poison in him, that strange Uchiha won't survive either."