Explosive Clay vs Sand

Gaara didn't change his expression. He watched as a few little clay birds rushed past his giant sand hand and flew toward him. He immediately controlled the sand around him to intercept all of them.

Unfortunately, at this time, Deidara actually formed a seal. The already fast small birds were now even faster. Its speed instantly increased, and it suddenly dodged Gaara's sand and arrived next to him. With a rumble, a mixture of smoke, dust, and fire exploded in the air under the moonlight.

"Gaara!" Kankuro cried out in worry. Unfortunately, he was not good at aerial combat. The three puppets he had were left behind by Sasori, and their power in the air was greatly reduced.

Moreover, at this moment, he was not strong enough. His Puppet Technique could only be considered pretty good. Facing Chiyo and Sasori, who were Puppet Masters, it was simply unworthy.

Only after being defeated by Sasori, he realized that his Puppet Technique was too weak. He finally opened his mind.

After witnessing the real Puppet Technique, when returned to the village, he had gone through the guidance of Ebizou, as well as his own talent. In addition, he had continuously learned the skills and knowledge of the Puppet Technique from the human puppets that Sasori had left, allowing him to completely master the Puppet Technique in the Fourth War.

Because he had continuously observed and learned from the puppets and human puppets that Sasori had left behind after his death, he had a hidden momentum that surpassed Sasori in terms of puppet mastery.

Of course, this only referred to the technique of controlling puppets. In terms of invention, he was indeed inferior to Sasori. After all, Sasori was able to create a human puppet out of his victim's body, and he was even able to retain the ability of that person when they were alive. This was the most terrifying aspect of Sasori, and it was also the aspect that caused all puppet masters to feel ashamed of their inferiority.

Even in the future, Kankuro would only think that his technique of controlling puppets was superior to Sasori's, as he realized that his accomplishments as a puppet inventor were far inferior to Sasori.

After the smoke dispersed, what was revealed was not Gaara's injured body. Instead, it was a huge circular ball of sand. It was obvious that in the nick of time, Gaara used his sand to create a sand ball that was similar to the time when Shukaku was in its half-awakened state to surround himself. It was practically an absolute defense.

"Prison Sand Burial!" Taking advantage of the explosion just now, Gaara created an eye in the air to see Deidara's position clearly. At the same time, he secretly used a variant of his Sand Burial. A large area of sand surged forward like a giant hand, instantly surrounding Deidara from top to bottom.

"Great, as expected of the Lord Kazekage."

"Yeah! Kazekage-sama, our village will definitely be fine!" The few ninjas left behind by Kankuro cheered excitedly, as if they were the ones fighting.

"Sorry for the trouble, I have to change my mount." Deidara, who was in the sand, immediately detonated the giant bird before the sand entangled him. At the same time, he jumped to the other side of the sand and used the sand as a shield to protect himself from the impact of the explosion.

"Rumble!"

The Ninja below cheered the explosion. After the sand exploded, it calmed down. Deidara rushed out from the inside and put his right hand down. With a pop, an owl appeared and carried him in place of the giant bird from before.

"What a great ninja. I've already used up most of my clay. I really didn't expect it to be like this. Logically speaking, his individual strength should be the weakest among all the Jinchuurikis. However, his individual strength is actually so powerful. It really is troublesome and strange."

Deidara rose into the air. Unfortunately, his expression quickly changed greatly because he discovered that a group of extremely fast sand had suddenly wrapped around his left hand. In an instant, it reached his arm and even extended towards his shoulder.

"Why is his sand's speed so much faster? It makes it hard for me to dodge." Deidara's right hand immediately shot out a centipede-shaped clay bomb at the sand on his arm. After instantly detonating it, it did not explode like before. Instead, it was useless against the sand wrapped around his hand.

"Sand Coffin!" This was the sand that Gaara had on his back, but it was mixed with a large amount of his chakra. Its power and speed were astonishing. It was only used when using absolute defense. The sand that he had been using just now was just some ordinary sand mixed with not much chakra.

Deidara, whose arm had been smashed, only took a light breath. He did not make any painful cries at all. What a tough man.

To be honest, he was a very good person. You might not appreciate his art, but as long as you did not despise his art, then Deidara wouldn't harm you.

It could be said that compared to other people in Akatsuki, he was a good person. He was not angry that Itachi had defeated him. He had also been defeated by Pain in the past, but why did he not hate Pain? Because, unlike Itachi, he did not despise his art.

"That's strange. If his sand is so fast and powerful, why didn't he use it earlier? Eh? Why is the sand surrounding him missing a little? Deidara suddenly found that the sand ball on Gaara's body was getting thinner. Looking at the floating sand in the air, it was obvious that it was split from there.

"So that's how it is. This is the sand used for absolute defense. The reason why the sand was so fast just now was that it was mixed with a large amount of chakra. In other words, his absolute defense was made from the sand from his gourd, mixed with a large amount of chakra. I don't have much clay left. It seems that this is the only way."

To be honest, Deidara still wanted to defeat Gaara, but their fight this time was not a private battle. It was an important task from the Akatsuki. It was a mission that had to be completed. As long as he could complete the mission, he could do anything. He, Deidara, did not want to become the laughing stock of the organization.

If he still failed to capture the weakest Tailed Beast, he would lose his face. Of course, Shukaku was not that weak. The Akatsuki only classified him as the weakest because he only had one tail.

"I'm really sorry. Looks like I have no choice but to do this." Deidara felt a little disappointed, but the battle had to continue. "I don't want to see your expressionless face. Take a look at this!"