Mu made the first move.
His body abruptly halted in midair. He brought his palms together, and the milky-white glow of Dust Release blazed more fiercely than ever as he aimed it at Deidara in the sky.
Deidara's pupils constricted as he reacted almost instantly.
Without hesitation, he detonated the nano bombs inside Mu.
"Crack—!"
Just as Dust Release was about to take shape, Mu's body exploded from within. His entire Impure World Reincarnation Body shattered into countless plumes of gray-white dust that scattered in every direction.
Yet, one second before that body completely collapsed, Mu's lips moved slightly.
Split.
His body had already completed the split at the instant of the explosion.
One of the split bodies shot swiftly to the left, carrying the other half of the fragments clasped against his chest.
Seeing this from the air, Deidara's pupils narrowed. He thought Mu was re-forming himself in such a short time.
But he reacted quickly as well. He immediately locked onto the body he believed to be Mu's newly reassembled main body and detonated the bombs inside it once more.
"Crack—!"
After the sound rang out, the figure below showed no reaction whatsoever.
Deidara's expression froze.
The nano bombs that should have remained inside Mu's body now seemed to have lost contact.
No matter how he urged his chakra, those bombs did not move in the slightest.
His gaze followed the retreating figure as he watched the fragments Mu held re-form his body several hundred meters away, merging back into one in the distance.
Mu raised his head again and looked at Deidara in the sky from hundreds of meters away.
No expression could be seen on that bandage-wrapped face, but there seemed to be approval in those hollow eyes.
"Splitting... I see."
Deidara muttered under his breath,