Art Is an Explosion, the Curtain Falls

At the border of the Land of Rivers, inside an abandoned temple.

Sasuke Uchiha sat cross-legged, the Kusanagi Sword laid across his knees. His scarlet Sharingan slowly turned in the dim light. Three years of training and hatred had honed him into something as cold and sharp as a blade drawn from its sheath.

"Next... I need manpower," he murmured. Orochimaru's files contained three names: Jugo, who could control Natural Energy; Suigetsu of the Hozuki Clan; and Karin, whose sensory abilities were exceptional. He would find them, form a team, then track down Akatsuki, force them to reveal Itachi's whereabouts, and kill him.

Just as he was making his plans, undisguised footsteps sounded outside the temple—not an infiltration, but someone walking straight in.

Sasuke rose in an instant, drawing the Kusanagi Sword as his Sharingan locked onto the entrance.

Three figures stepped through the temple's ruined doorway.

Jugo had short orange hair, a broad build, and a gentle expression tinged with unease.

Suigetsu had spiky white hair, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and a replica Kubikiribōchō slung over his shoulder. His smile was carefree and irreverent.

Karin had long red hair and glasses. The moment she saw him, her eyes lit up and her face flushed bright red.

A trace of surprise flickered through Sasuke's Sharingan. He had been about to seek out these three, yet they had come to him on their own?

"Sasuke Uchiha?" Suigetsu spoke first, sizing him up from head to toe. "Tch, you're more handsome in person than the intel said. Heard you took out Orochimaru? Pretty ruthless."

Jugo gave a slight bow. "I am Jugo. Lord Orochimaru... once gave me a place to stay."

Karin rushed straight up to him, clasping her hands to her chest. "Sasuke! I've finally met you! I'm Karin! Please let me join your team!"

Sasuke's Sharingan swept over the chakra of all three—Jugo's immense Natural Energy, Suigetsu's flowing water-nature chakra, and Karin's warm, life-filled sensory chakra. Their abilities matched the intelligence.

But there was one problem—

"Who sent you?" Sasuke's voice was ice-cold.

The three exchanged glances. Jugo spoke first, his voice mild. "Lord Orochimaru's messenger."

Suigetsu shrugged and grinned. "That's right. That messenger said Orochimaru had arranged it before he died—that we were to come help you when you needed us."

Karin nodded fiercely, her eyes never leaving Sasuke's face. "The messenger said Sasuke was forming a team and needed our abilities! So we came!"

"Orochimaru's messenger?" Sasuke frowned. Orochimaru was dead, killed by Sasuke's own hand. A pre-death arrangement? It was possible; that man truly did enjoy laying plans. But who was the messenger? Kabuto? Unlikely. Kabuto's demeanor did not match the "messenger" the three had described.

"What did the messenger look like? What was his name?" Sasuke pressed.

Jugo shook his head. "He had an utterly ordinary face. He only said he was Lord Orochimaru's messenger and had been ordered to guide us to meet with you."

Suigetsu added, "That guy wasn't weak. He put some kind of minor restriction on me, but the condition was that I come cooperate with you. Besides, I wanted to see how strong the person who killed Orochimaru was, so I came."

Karin clasped her hands before her chest, hearts nearly spilling from her eyes. "The messenger said Sasuke needed sensory and medical support! I'll definitely give Sasuke my full assistance!"

Sasuke's Sharingan moved back and forth over their expressions and chakra fluctuations—there were no signs of lying. Either they truly did not know the messenger's identity, or they had been placed under some sophisticated suggestion or restriction.

But for now, these three were indeed the people he urgently needed. Their arrival saved him the time of searching, and their abilities made a perfect combination: Jugo for frontal assaults, Suigetsu for unpredictable combat and assassination, and Karin for sensing and healing.

"I do need to form a team." Sasuke slowly sheathed his sword. "Our objective is to find Akatsuki and locate Itachi Uchiha. Many people will die on this path, including ourselves. If you want to leave, now is still the time."

Suigetsu grinned, his sharp teeth gleaming. "Death? Sounds pretty exciting. Besides, I'm curious what kind of brother could make you this obsessed."

Jugo nodded. "I need a direction... to control myself. Following you may help me find an answer."

Karin practically jumped into the air. "Wherever Sasuke goes, I'll go! Through life and death!"

Sasuke looked at the three of them, then finally nodded. "Then from today onward, we are comrades. The team's name... will be 'Snake.'"

He paused. "Our first objective is to search for traces of Akatsuki members. Karin, use your sensory ability to conduct a wide-range search. Suigetsu and Jugo, gather information from the underground."

"Yes!" the three answered.

On a cliff five kilometers outside the temple, Neji sat cross-legged beneath the shade of a tree.

His Byakugan pierced through every obstacle, clearly observing everything inside the temple. When he heard the three give the same answer about "Orochimaru's messenger," the corner of his mouth lifted.

"Not a bad response." Neji peeled an orange. "It explains their origins without exposing my Akatsuki identity. Jugo is honest, Suigetsu is sly, and Karin is lovestruck... but they're all quite cooperative."

Next, it was time to give them clues. But this time, he needed to be subtler.

Through the restriction he had left inside Karin, Neji transmitted four pieces of information—not specific coordinates, but four directions:

"Fifteen kilometers northeast, there is a powerful chakra signature. It is the most suspicious."

"Thirty-two kilometers southeast, there is an abnormal concentration of energy."

"Forty kilometers northwest, large-scale Water Release chakra energy has appeared."

"Twenty-four kilometers southwest, faint but mysterious energy is lingering."

Four directions, four possibilities. And Neji knew that Deidara's true location was to the northeast. But he wanted Sasuke to "choose" that route himself.

Inside the temple, Karin's body suddenly trembled.

"Sasuke!" she cried excitedly. "I sensed abnormalities in four directions! Northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest all have suspicious chakra signatures, but the northeast one is the strongest. It's full of... violence and artistic feeling?"

Sasuke Uchiha's Sharingan slowly turned in the dim light. Jugo, Suigetsu, and Karin stood before him, having just completed their rendezvous.

"I need to confirm your strength and ability to carry out orders." Sasuke's voice was as cold as a blade. "We now have four suspicious directions: northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest. Each of you will choose one to investigate. I'll take the remaining one."

Suigetsu raised a brow. "Splitting up? Things are getting exciting the moment we form a team?"

Jugo nodded. "Understood."

Karin clenched her fists. "Sasuke, let me go with you! I can sense danger..."

"No need." Sasuke cut her off. "Separating will be more efficient. Karin, you take the southwest. Suigetsu, the southeast. Jugo, the northwest. I'll take the northeast. If you find anything unusual, do not act on your own. Return here immediately to regroup."

The three looked at one another, then answered in unison, "Yes!"

Karin gave Sasuke one lingering look, but still turned and ran southwest. Suigetsu whistled, carrying his replica Kubikiribōchō as he headed southeast. Jugo silently walked northwest.

Sasuke watched the three disappear in their respective directions. His Sharingan fixed on the final route—northeast.

He had not told them that he chose that direction because of Karin's earlier description: "The chakra signature in the northeast is the strongest, full of violence and artistic feeling." That description likely belonged to an Akatsuki member.

"Itachi... I'm one step closer to you." Sasuke murmured, his figure turning into a black streak as he shot northeast.

At the same time, fifteen kilometers to the northeast, in a rocky region.**

Deidara had just finished an "artistic performance" and was admiring the smoke and dust from the distant explosion. Suddenly, he sensed a rapidly approaching chakra—cold, sharp, carrying a type of ocular power he detested.

"Sharingan?" Deidara narrowed his eyes and leaped onto a clay giant bird, taking to the air.

In the distance, a black-haired youth clad in black was racing toward him. His scarlet Sharingan was especially striking beneath the sunlight.

"Uchiha... Sasuke!" Deidara recognized him. "Coming right to me? Interesting!"

At the edge of the rocky region, within an inconspicuous crack in the rocks.

Neji lay quietly concealed. At that moment, he was watching the coming duel through the narrow fissure.

"Four people, four directions... Sasuke really did choose the northeast." Neji muttered, pulling out a handful of sunflower seeds. "Then it's time for a classic reenactment."

Sasuke stopped a hundred meters away from Deidara, his Sharingan locking onto the enemy in the sky.

"An Akatsuki member." Sasuke spoke coldly. "Where is Itachi Uchiha?"

Deidara burst out laughing. "Looking for your brother? Hahaha! Sorry, but I'm not interested in Itachi's whereabouts, hmm! But since you've delivered yourself to me—"

His smile vanished. "This is the perfect chance to see which is stronger: the Sharingan, or my art!"

The battle began.

Deidara attacked first. "C1: Clay Spiders!" Countless tiny spiders rained down.

Sasuke used the Body Flicker Technique to evade, his Sharingan precisely seeing through every spider's trajectory. He did not use any ninjutsu, relying solely on taijutsu to avoid every attack.

"C2: Giant Dragon!" The clay dragon dove down, spewing a rain of clay bombs.

Sasuke formed hand seals. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" The fireball intercepted some of the bombs, while he flickered through the bombardment, emerging completely unscathed.

Deidara frowned. "The Sharingan's dynamic vision... just as troublesome as expected!"

"Lightning Release: Chidori Sharp Spear!" Lightning extended from Sasuke's right hand, forming a long spear that stabbed directly toward the dragon.

Deidara controlled the dragon to evade, but the lightning grazed one of its wings. "Tch!"

The battle rapidly escalated. Deidara continuously hurled all kinds of clay bombs: splitting birds, burrowing centipedes, tracking flying fish... But Sasuke's Sharingan always saw through them, allowing him to dodge with minimal movement and occasionally counterattack with Lightning Release.

"Why can't I hit you?!" Deidara grew increasingly irritated.

Sasuke calmly analyzed, "Your explosions need contact to trigger. As long as I don't let you get close, your art is meaningless."

"Shut up!" Deidara roared. "C4: Garuda!"

He threw out a clay doll, which shattered in midair into nanoscale clay spiders that spread through the air.

"A rain of death too small for the naked eye! It enters through your breathing, then detonates from within! Even the Sharingan can't see it, hmm!"

But Sasuke's Sharingan—its three tomoe spinning rapidly—saw them. Under its extraordinary resolution, the nano clay had nowhere to hide.

"I can see them." Lightning Release burst from Sasuke's entire body. "Lightning Release: Chidori Stream!" Lightning covered him, detonating the nano clay the instant it made contact. Tiny sparks flickered across his skin.

"What?! You can even see through C4?!" Deidara was stunned.

"Your art has already been seen through." Sasuke's voice was cold. "I'll ask one last time: where is Itachi?"

Deidara's expression twisted from shock into rage.

"Seen through? You said you saw through it?!" His voice trembled. "Then let me show you... true ultimate art! Forbidden Technique: C0: Self-Destruct!"

He bit his thumb and pressed both hands to his chest! Terrifying chakra erupted as his body began to glow and swell!

"I'll use myself as the sacrifice and annihilate everything around me! The range is ten kilometers! You can't escape, hmm!" Deidara laughed maniacally. "So what if the Sharingan can see through it? Can it stop this?!"

Sasuke looked up at Deidara, who was expanding in the sky like a small sun. His Sharingan spun furiously.

Run? The range was too vast. Block it? Impossible.

There was only one way.

He bit his thumb and formed hand seals. "Summoning Technique!"

Bang! White smoke erupted as the giant purple snake Manda was forcibly summoned!

"Brat! How dare you—" Manda roared, but the Sharingan's genjutsu instantly controlled him. "Block that self-destruction!"

Manda was forced to turn around, using his enormous body to shield Sasuke from Deidara.

At that moment, Deidara's self-destruction reached its critical point.

"Art... is an explosion! Drink—!!!"

Blinding white light devoured heaven and earth. A thunderous boom shattered the clouds, and a mushroom cloud rose into the sky.

The shockwave swept across the land, turning the rocky region into a massive crater.

Inside the rock fissure, Neji spat out a sunflower seed shell.

"A perfect recreation." He watched the battlefield through his lenses. "Every movement, every line, even the details of the chakra flow—exactly the same as in the anime. And next..."

He noticed that before the explosive aftershock had faded, three figures were racing in from three different directions—Jugo, Suigetsu, and Karin, returning from their reconnaissance.

The three arrived at the crater's edge almost simultaneously and saw the scene at its bottom:

Manda's charred remains. Sasuke knelt on one knee, supporting himself with the Kusanagi Sword, his body covered in burns.

"Sasuke!" Karin was the first to rush down. Ignoring the heat, she let Sasuke bite her arm.

Sasuke frowned, but did not refuse. He could feel Karin's chakra flowing into him, repairing his burns.

Suigetsu jumped down and clicked his tongue at Manda's remains. "Using Manda as a shield... that lunatic really blew himself up?"

Jugo crouched to inspect the ground. "The Natural Energy completely went berserk... He transformed everything he had into an explosion."

A moment later, Sasuke released her arm and wiped away the blood at the corner of his mouth—it had seeped from Karin's arm. Her face was slightly red. "Sasuke, it's done..."

Sasuke stood and moved his arms. Most of his injuries had recovered. He looked at Karin. "Your ability is useful."

Karin's face reddened further. "I'm just glad I can help Sasuke!"

Suigetsu looked around. "So that lunatic is dead. Did he say where your brother was before he died?"

Sasuke fell silent. Deidara had not revealed Itachi's whereabouts even at the moment of death.

"That was a wasted fight." Suigetsu was somewhat speechless.

But at that moment, Karin's body trembled—she sensed something. Not through the restriction, but through her own ability.

"Sasuke..." she hesitated, "When I investigated the southwest, I saw some Uchiha patterns in some ruins... I sensed very ancient residual chakra there, like... the aura of a shrine."

Sasuke abruptly turned toward her. "Where exactly?"

Karin closed her eyes and recalled it. "At the border of the Land of Fire, near the direction of the former Uchiha Clan compound. Those ruins... seemed to be called Naka Shrine?"

"Naka Shrine... the Uchiha shrine..." Sasuke murmured. When he was young, Father had once taken him and Itachi there.

Suigetsu raised a brow. "A shrine? Sounds like the kind of place that hides secrets. Shall we take a look?"

Jugo nodded.

Sasuke pondered for a moment. Of the four directions, he had chosen the northeast and encountered Deidara. Karin had taken the southwest and discovered the Uchiha shrine. Perhaps this was fate's arrangement.

"To Naka Shrine."

After a brief rest, the four left this scorched land.

From within the rock fissure, Neji watched them depart and rose to his feet.

Sasuke had still embarked on the path toward his battle of vengeance against Itachi.

He looked toward Amegakure.

"I need to learn the Flying Thunder God Technique as soon as possible."

Neji's figure melted into the rock wall and vanished.