After taking out the sentries, Deidara leaped straight off the giant bird.
"Hey, hey! Is that all? Sunagakure's nothing special."
Deidara sneered at Sunagakure. He was starting to wonder what qualified it to stand alongside the other villages as one of the Five Great Hidden Villages.
Its defenses were far too flimsy. He had broken through them so easily.
"You underestimate Sunagakure. Whatever your objective is, this is as far as you go."
"Huh?"
Deidara looked up and saw a rather arrogant-looking fellow.
He had red hair, a huge gourd strapped to his back, and a large character meaning "love" on his forehead.
According to their intelligence, this was their target: Gaara, Sunagakure's jinchūriki.
Deidara said nothing more and simply reached toward his ninja tool pouch.
Such an obvious move hardly escaped Gaara's notice. With a wave of his hand, yellow sand formed a giant hand and reached straight for Deidara.
But Deidara's reflexes were sharp, too. He leaped high into the air, and a white clay bird swooped in to catch him.
"Hmph!"
Gaara waved his hand, sending the giant sand hand soaring into the air after Deidara.
As the giant sand hand continued flying toward him, Deidara quickly climbed higher, but Gaara refused to give up so easily.
An idea struck Deidara. He swiftly dove toward Sunagakure below, plunging straight into the cluster of buildings.
He intended to use Sunagakure's complicated layout to shake off Gaara's giant sand hand.
Sure enough, once he entered the village, the sand hand Gaara controlled slowed down. Gaara was worried about the buildings.
He feared that one careless move would destroy the houses without catching his opponent.
But Gaara had a countermeasure. He began controlling the sand with both hands, immediately improving its maneuverability and speeding it up again.
Seeing his strategy