The instant his voice fell, the waves of sand closed in.
Deidara and Sasori were swallowed by the sandstorm at the same time.
Countless grains of sand squeezed inward with terrifying pressure, forcing out the air, blocking their vision, and even cutting off chakra fluctuations beneath the thick layers of sand.
Once this sand took shape, it could seal both of them at any moment.
"We're trapped!"
Deidara gritted his teeth and plunged both hands into his ninja tool pouch, kneading large amounts of clay into shape in his palms.
Sasori's voice came from within Hiruko, calm but urgent.
"Detonate together. Tear an opening from the inside."
Deidara grinned.
"Just what I had in mind, hmm!"
He formed hand seals, channeling explosive chakra into the clay he had planted beforehand. At the same time, Sasori controlled several puppets to unleash their explosive mechanisms together.
Boom!
The explosion erupted inside the sandstorm.
Shock waves tore through layer after layer of the thick sand walls. Flames burst through the sand, blasting a massive opening in the enclosed storm.
Shattered grains of sand were hurled away by the blast, raining down in every direction like an inverted sand shower.
Deidara did not waste that instant.
As the shock wave swept up countless grains of sand, he seized the momentum and steered his Clay Bird through the opening. At the same time, he swung both hands-sending a mass of clay fragments into the lingering blast, shooting toward Gaara's true body along with the waves of sand.
"Try this!"
The clay fragments trailed chakra flames, mingling with the remnants of the sandstorm until they were almost impossible to distinguish.
Yet Gaara's gaze had never changed.
He did not even look back.
The Jinchūriki's all-encompassing perception had already locked onto the trajectory of every clay fragment