"Chief demolition expert?"
Kurotsuchi was momentarily stunned by Yoru's abrupt remark.
Following Yoru's gaze, she looked toward the contestants' stands.
There, Deidara, the blond kid who had always acted so carefree, had somehow risen to his feet.
His soot-blackened face was filled with the fury of someone who had been provoked and an artist's fanaticism.
"Playing with explosions in front of me? These Leaf Village bumpkins are insulting art! Yeah!"
Deidara let out an excited shriek and rapidly formed hand seals before his chest!
His hands moved so fast that only a string of blurred afterimages could be seen!
"Explosion Release: Landmine Fist!"
Deidara roared and slammed his right hand downward!
"Art is—BOOM!"
"Buzzz—"
An invisible yet overwhelmingly domineering wave of Explosion Release chakra instantly crossed several hundred meters.
Like invisible radio waves, it precisely blanketed the ground beneath the entire arena!
Deep underground.
The millions of Mutual Multiplication Explosive Tags, about to detonate in a chain reaction, had their runes glowing at their brightest.
Yet at the very instant before the explosion.
Deidara's chakra arrived.
"Crack!"
A faint snap, like a fuse burning through, sounded deep underground.
The frenzied Explosive Tags were like lightbulbs that had suddenly been unplugged.
The red glow on their runes flickered sharply, then went out all at once.
"Mis... misfired?"
In the underground chamber, Shimura Danzō stared at the runes on the monitor screen as they suddenly dimmed, his eyes practically popping out of their sockets.
The hand pressing the detonation button trembled slightly from the force he was exerting.
How was that possible?!
His ultimate trump card, buried for over a decade, had actually... been forcibly cut off just like that?!
Inside the arena.
The violent trembling of the ground came to an abrupt halt.
The scorching waves of air erupting from the