Chapter 583: Life-Risking Strike
How powerful is a ninja's life-risking strike?
Judging by common sense, if a ninja discards everything and attacks the enemy with all their might without considering anything else, this kind of attack is naturally very terrifying and obviously much stronger than a "full-power strike" in a normal battle.
However, there will also be differences between different people. For example, Sakura-kun: if she hasn't prepared nuclear material in advance and cannot rub out a nuclear bomb with her bare hands, her life-risking strike would at most be an oversized firework. With her chakra manipulation and understanding of jutsu, every jutsu is almost performed to its limits, so no matter how desperately she fights, there won't be much of a buff.
If it were Might Guy, it's another extreme. If he only opens the Eight Inner Gates up to the Seventh Gate, he would be crushed by Sakura-kun. But if he opens the Eighth Gate of Death, where there is no coming back, he could in turn hang Sakura up and beat her with one hand!
Deidara's self-destruction is closer to Guy's situation; it is also another form of burning one's life and everything else.
Of course, he currently has no life left, but Sasori preserved his body extremely well. Executing the self-destruction right now is not much inferior to the true body personally self-destructing!
Such a move is naturally formidably strong, inspiring awe.
Naruto had fought Deidara before and was bombed into a miserable state by his clay bombs back then, leaving an extremely deep impression.
Deidara's clay bombs had a wide variety of tricks: some relied on quantity to win through carpet bombing; some reigned supreme in quality, breaking through at a single point; some were extremely fast, crashing around haphazardly; some were miniscule in size, making them impossible to guard against... And in Sasori's hands, with his richer combat experience, the various bombs were exquisitely coordinated. Coupled with Sasori's various puppet tools, it was like a tiger growing wings. Even Naruto and Sasuke, whose strength had greatly advanced, were beaten into a miserable state.
However, facing this "C0 - Self-Destruction" before them, all of that amounted to nothing.
Just looking at that chakra momentum that had condensed into substance, and then comparing it to the power of ordinary clay bombs, Naruto knew that the upcoming explosion would absolutely be no small matter!
He unhesitatingly entered the Tailed Beast Mode, frantically drawing the Nine-Tails' chakra to condense the Tailed Beast cloak. While Sasuke hadn't estimated the power of this self-destruction, out of his trust in Naruto, he still pushed his visual prowess to the absolute limit!
"Majestic Attire: Susanoo!"
Since the battle at the Valley of the End, after many years, the power of the Sharingan once again combined with the Nine-Tails!
But this somewhat immature combination was still slightly inferior compared to the "C0 - Self-Destruction".
The Deidara who had already become a human puppet emitted a strong blue chakra light, gradually forming a blinding sphere of light. Then, the sphere of light abruptly contracted for a moment, and then suddenly burst forth with infinite brilliance!
Boom—!!!
The sphere of light expanded rapidly, turning into a giant giant of light, its head touching the dark clouds, its feet stepping on the ocean waves, towering between heaven and earth!
At that instant, heaven and earth seemed to turn completely dark, leaving only the center of the explosion where the dazzling giant of light still stood. All around was dead silent, with only a grand sound wave turning into a thick, translucent ripple, displacing the air as it spread outward.
Sasori hid in the only blind spot of this jutsu—the extreme high altitude directly above. The expression on his face was illuminated unpredictably by the intense light beneath his feet.
"Is this the art you've always been pursuing, Deidara?" he muttered silently.
Sasori, who had always firmly believed his ideology was the correct path, wavered for the first time.
And beneath the giant of light's feet, the massive Majestic Attire Nine-Tails also appeared tiny, the purple demon fox tottering unsteadily amidst the blazing light, heat, and shockwaves.
"Ah!"
Sasuke cried out in pain, black tears of blood bursting from his eyes as he fell to his knees. At the same time, the purple armor pushed to its limits finally couldn't hold on, shattering and disappearing from the Nine-Tails!
"Sasuke!"
Naruto's eyes were nearly splitting with rage. Caring no more for the consequences, he ignored the safety limits that absolutely must not be approached. With red eyes, he forcefully drew out the Nine-Tails' chakra and entered a deeper level of Tailed Beast Mode!
Six tails, seven tails, eight tails—!
Rumble rumble—!
Everything melted into the intense light!
A moment later.
The explosion finally ceased.
On the battlefield, the thick cloud layer was blown open, and golden sunlight spilled onto the magnificent ocean surface.
The giant of light connecting heaven and earth, the massive purple demon fox, all disappeared completely.
The sea was completely empty.
Only two battered young men lying on the sea remained, along with a puppet master flying high above who had almost exhausted all his trump cards.
"To think they could actually withstand this level of attack..."
Sasori's hands were trembling slightly; that was the aftereffect of excessive chakra consumption.
But what trembled even more was his heart!
The combat power of a puppet master is mostly reflected in their puppets. The same was true for Sasori.
Hundreds of ordinary standard puppets, a human puppet made from the corpse of a "Kage" level expert, and a few large ninjutsu mechanisms constituted Sasori's main combat power.
And most of these had already been consumed in this battle!
After all, his opponents were an Uchiha who had awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, and a Jinchuriki who could partially use the Nine-Tails' chakra. Even if they still lacked combat experience, they were solidly starting at quasi-Kage level combat power. In terms of destructive power alone, they were even stronger than many long-famous veterans of the ninja world!
To rank among the top-tier "Kage" level at the age of fifteen or sixteen, such talent and aptitude were simply unprecedented in all of history (please ignore the anomaly that is Sakura-kun). It's no wonder Sasori made an error in judgment.
Having fought to the point of injuring his core and exhausting all his capital, yet still failing to take down these two, Sasori's expression was extremely ugly.
"Damn it!" he angrily rebuked. He had the heart to fight to the bitter end, but reason told him he must retreat first; he couldn't afford to heartache over those sunk costs anymore!
"Having dragged on here for so long, Kakuzu should have captured the Three-Tails by now!" Sasori gritted his teeth, secretly thinking to himself, "I'll regroup with him first, and then bring him to finish off these two brats!"
While scheming, he turned his head to observe the celestial phenomena in the direction of Kakuzu.
Is the battle over there finished?
It was exactly at this moment, in a split second, that a streak of golden light tore across the sky, piercing right through Sasori's chest! [Chapter 566]
Whoosh—!
The mournful whistling sound didn't reach Sasori's ears until after that perfectly straight golden light had killed him, arriving belatedly.
"Lightning Release: Super Railgun!"
Sasori's final expression froze on his face.
Even up until the moment of his death, he didn't have time to react. The expression on his face wasn't ferocious; his eyes were just slightly widened, and his mouth was blankly open.
He seemed to still be surprised—
What... is happening to me?
Then that golden light unreasonably opened a large hole in his chest, completely crushing his core heart, and finally disappeared far away into the horizon.
The last image he saw was Sasuke covering his eye, black blood flowing unstoppably from his eye socket, while his other hand was still raised high in the air, pointing in his direction.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"I was careless." He thought that after losing Susanoo, Sasuke would no longer be able to harm him. He thought he was already in an absolutely safe position.
However, he was wrong.
Sasuke's jutsu didn't give him any room to react or defend!
Sasori's consciousness rapidly faded.
"But... how could there be such a fast jutsu in this world?!"
This was Sasori's final thought.
He plummeted from high in the sky, his chakra reaction vanishing like a falling off a cliff. [Chapter 566]
Splash!
Sasori sank into the sea, completely dead.
"Finished him off..." Naruto strenuously propped himself up, smiling weakly. "Beautiful!"
The corners of Sasuke's mouth twitched, and he forced a smile.
"Hehe—hiss!" This smile tugged at his wounds again, and he couldn't help but cry out in pain. "He was careless... Moreover, paying such a heavy price just to eliminate one enemy is nothing to be praised for... Actually, we also made many mistakes. We should have defeated him earlier!"
Naruto shook his head and stood up, leaning on his knees. "Sakura-kun said we just lack a little experience... Next time, I won't make these mistakes again!"
"Next time?" Sasuke stood up with Naruto's support and smiled bitterly, "Next time we might have to face Kakuzu. I really—"
He suddenly stopped.
Both boys widened their eyes simultaneously, gazing at the distant horizon.
A black dot slowly approached from the extreme distance, slowly expanding into a burly figure.
"I can't sense Sasori's chakra reaction... is he dead?" The man said coldly, "How embarrassing, to actually be defeated by two rookies!"
He dragged a massive dark shadow behind him, which was exactly the Three-Tails Isobu, captured again after its resurrection.
"...Kakuzu?" Sasuke took a deep breath.
"Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, hello." Kakuzu split his mouth into a sinister smile. "Could I please ask you to—"
"Offer up your hearts?"