Despite the blinding speed of the blue light streaking toward him, Deidara didn't flinch.
He had heard the stories—tales of Inoiki's psychic blades, of his ruthless efficiency during the Konoha Crush, of the nickname whispered through the shinobi world: The Silent Reaper of Konoha. But Deidara had never seen it firsthand.
And frankly, he didn't believe the hype.
"He's just another brat with a flashy entrance," Deidara muttered under his breath, smirking as he molded another handful of clay.
The two closed in on each other, their speeds unrelenting, slicing through the air like twin meteors set on a collision course. The wind screamed around them, tension mounting with every heartbeat.
Just as they were mere meters apart, Deidara leapt from his clay bird in a graceful arc, flipping through the air before landing nimbly on the edge of a steep gorge.
As he descended, he shouted,
"Art is an explosion!"
Behind him, the clay bird detonated with a thunderous blast, the sky tearing open in a fireball of smoke. The shockwave ripped through the trees, sending ripples across the river below and casting a momentary eclipse over the forest.
Deidara grinned, golden hair fluttering in the aftershock.
"That should've at least blown him to pieces… or taken an arm off."
But even as the smoke billowed and embers drifted through the air like dying fireflies, a sliver of doubt crept into Deidara's mind.
Was that really enough to stop him?
As soon as Deidara landed on the rocky ledge of the gorge, he turned, eyes locked on the billowing smoke cloud where his explosive bird had detonated. The force of the blast had scorched the air, painting the sky in hues of orange and ash.
But then—
A figure emerged.
Calm. Unshaken.
Riding atop the massive, floating blade as though he hadn't just flown through a fiery inferno, Inoiki glided forward from the smoke like a phantom.
His body was wrapped in a faintly glowing, sky-blue barrier—translucent, but unmistakably present. The barrier shimmered like glass under sunlight, fractured with spiderweb cracks from the impact of the explosion.
Deidara's confident grin faltered for a moment.
If the glow hadn't betrayed its presence, one might have thought Inoiki had walked through the blast untouched. And in a way, he had.
The barrier around him flickered once—then dissolved into the air like mist. He had no more use for it. After all, Inoiki could create that barrier again at a moment's notice.
He stared at Deidara, completely composed, eyes sharp and unreadable.
The message was clear:
You'll have to do better than that.
From the colossal sword beneath Inoiki's feet, ten blades detached like pieces of a massive puzzle, breaking apart with smooth precision. Without hesitation, they shot forward—streaks of polished steel moving at blinding speed, all honed in on one target: Deidara.
This time, Deidara didn't scoff or smirk.
He had seen what Inoiki was capable of now. That barrier—cracked but unbroken—had proven that this wasn't some second-rate shinobi. If he let his guard down again, he wouldn't live to regret it.
With practiced speed, Deidara formed a new handful of clay birds, each one flapping toward the incoming blades. His intent was clear—intercept and detonate.
But the moment the birds approached, the blades suddenly surged—crackling with blue lightning, arcs of raw energy dancing along their metal edges.
"Tch—What the—?!" Deidara's eyes widened as the first bird was ripped to shreds before it could even detonate. The lightning-coated blades sliced through the explosive clay like it was paper meeting a razor's edge.
"WHAT!?" he shouted in disbelief, immediately leaping aside to dodge the deadly barrage.
From above, Inoiki's calm voice cut through the chaos like a cold wind.
"Why are you so surprised?"
"Your birds—aren't they made from Earth Release? So naturally… they're weak to lightning."
Deidara gritted his teeth, blood rushing through his ears.
He hadn't known Inoiki could use Lightning Release, let alone without any visible hand seals. The boy hadn't so much as twitched his fingers, yet those blades had surged with elemental power as if summoned by thought alone.
"Is this part of his Kekkei Genkai?"
"Or... something else entirely?"
Whatever it was, Deidara had no time to ponder it.
Inoiki gave him no breathing room. The moment his last wave of blades was dodged, they turned mid-air, redirecting themselves back toward Deidara like hunting hounds. The crackling lightning had vanished for now—but the pressure was relentless.
Deidara drew a pair of kunai, deflecting what he could, ducking and weaving between the barrage. Each blade moved with deadly grace, each arc a whisper of death. He was fast—but not Obito fast. And even with his agility, he was beginning to struggle.
Just as he started adapting to their rhythm, bam—the tempo changed.
In a flash, the blades lit up again, this time roaring back to life with blazing blue lightning. Their speed spiked, cutting through the air like lightning bolts themselves.
"Tch—damn it!" Deidara hissed.
The sudden change caught him mid-dodge—one blade grazed his leg, another sliced across his right shoulder, tearing through his cloak and leaving a searing burn in its wake.
He stumbled back eyes locked on Inoiki hovering above—calm, composed, unreadable.
This wasn't just an enemy with power. This was someone with absolute control over the battlefield.
And Deidara was starting to realize...
He might be outmatched.
----
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