Gaara was already beside himself with rage. Akatsuki's actions had thoroughly enraged him.
Gaara stared fixedly at Deidara, controlling the sand as it relentlessly pursued him.
Meanwhile, Deidara sat calmly atop a massive clay owl, dodging the sand's attacks in every direction.
Suddenly, a succession of booming rumbles came from the ground.
Gaara looked down and was instantly so furious that it felt as though several years had been shaved off his life.
Sasori was controlling over a hundred puppets, launching attacks against Naruto, Itachi, and Yamato.
Yet Naruto, Itachi, and Yamato had not mounted any decent counterattack. Instead, they only provoked Sasori into attacking even more fiercely.
Yamato demanded angrily, "Naruto, why aren't we fighting back?"
"Fight back my ass." Naruto kept retreating. "Can't you see it? They have a hundred puppets."
"They outnumber us, and we're outnumbered. Of course we should fall back."
After saying that, Naruto glanced toward the sky and thought, Gaara, does it hurt? Your village is being attacked by two monster-level powerhouses. Let's see whether you're willing to hand over Shukaku.
This was Naruto's true objective. Deidara, Sasori—Naruto did not take any of them seriously at all.
What Naruto wanted was for Akatsuki to destroy Sunagakure and inflict as much damage upon it as possible.
The more damage Sunagakure suffered, the more people died, the more Gaara would hurt.
And the more Gaara suffered, the more likely he would be to hand over Shukaku.
To subdue Shukaku, the jinchuriki had to willingly relinquish the tailed beast.
Gaara no longer had time to deal with Deidara. He controlled the sand beneath his feet and shot straight toward the ground. "Naruto, what are you doing?"
"The enemy is too strong. He has too many puppets. We can only retreat for now."
Gaara noticed that Sasori's hundred