"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Wave!"
The Man in Black's low voice came from behind his face covering.
A wave of golden sand rose from the ground, nearly twenty feet high. With a dull rumble, it surged toward the group.
Fine golden grains churned along its leading edge. The afternoon sun caught them, making everyone's eyes sting.
Fūma Kojirō sprang backward in the same instant, his soles gouging a short, deep furrow in the ground. He turned partway in midair and landed on a jutting Rock beside the road, barely clearing the wave's edge.
The other three Guardian Ninja reacted quickly, scattering in different directions.
Two landed on the branches of dead trees beside the road. The third rolled close to the ground and came to rest behind a clump of dry brush farther away.
The Chunin at the front of the escort were not so lucky.
They reacted a beat slower than the Guardian Ninja. The sand caught two of them by the ankles and dragged them down as if by an invisible hand. Grains swiftly closed around them, packing tight until their struggles were sealed inside hard golden shells.
Kakuzu gave a rueful smile and stood still.
Golden Sand wrapped around his calves, waist, and chest, then closed over his head.
In the final instant before they swallowed him, he sensed how the grains moved—not piling up at random, not burying him haphazardly, but guided by Chakra so precisely that every grain had its place. They enclosed him and Sasori in the same golden cocoon.
Mizuno Ichiro let out a short cry from the back of his small horse.
The wave caught his horse's hooves, pitching it forward and throwing him straight into the golden sand. He sank out of sight before he could even struggle.
Fūma Kojirō stood