Although Gaara had caught Deidara, he did not let his guard down at all. This opponent was clearly no pushover.
"Art is an explosion!"
With a deafening blast, a hole was blown straight through Gaara's sand prison.
Deidara shot out through the opening.
But the giant bird beneath his feet was gone. Apparently, he had detonated it to create that opening.
Gaara was ruthless and a man of few words. He certainly would not stand by and let his opponent escape.
The sand prison broke apart, turning into enormous hands that filled the sky and reached for Deidara.
Deidara immediately molded another clay owl to catch him and carry him away at speed.
But a stream of yellow sand soon caught up.
"So fast!"
Deidara frowned at the sand racing up behind him.
"What's going on? Why is there such a huge difference?"
While he was still puzzling over it, a stream of sand caught his left hand.
"What?!"
The sand seized Deidara's hand and climbed his arm, instantly covering his entire left arm.
Deidara immediately realized he was in serious trouble. He released a clay centipede from his right hand, wrapping it around the sand.
"Crackle!"
The clay centipede unleashed a series of powerful explosions, but the sand binding him did not budge.
"This is bad!"
By now, Deidara understood what was happening.
This guy could control two kinds of sand. One was ordinary sand, with unimpressive speed and defensive strength.
The other was both fast and incredibly tough.
Looking up, he saw that a chunk was missing from the nearby sand sphere, revealing Gaara standing inside.
"Sand Binding..."
"Aah!"
Just as Gaara was about to crush Deidara's arm, a scream rang out below.
"Temari?!"
Gaara looked down, and his composure immediately shattered.
A large number of Akatsuki members