High in the sky, a clay giant bird circled at low speed.
Below it was Iwagakure, which Naruto and the others had left not long ago.
"What's wrong? Why not go down?"
Sasori, who had crawled back into [Hiruko], glanced at his gloomy companion, his tone half-teasing, half-probing.
"Shut up! Do you think that old man is just for show? If we go down directly like this, we'll definitely be shot down!"
"Tch... I didn't see you this timid in Sunagakure."
"Or is your talk about defeating Onoki just empty words?"
After all, Sasori had lived quite a few more years than Deidara. Although he wasn't usually much of a talker, he could easily provoke his young partner's anger with words.
"Hah! Don't joke around!"
Saying this, Deidara simply controlled the clay bird to fly towards the neighboring mountain peak.
"?"
Under Sasori's puzzled gaze, Deidara still insisted stubbornly, "We need to disguise ourselves and scout the situation first. Otherwise, if we alert that old man prematurely and he hides the Jinchuriki, what then?"
"...I'll let that pass for now."
Sasori was noncommittal.
Having also developed dissent towards Akatsuki, he wasn't that eager to capture the Tailed Beasts at the moment.
Thanks to Deidara's childhood experience living here, they had little trouble disguising themselves as two Iwagakure's Genin and infiltrating the village.
After some investigation, the duo finally learned about the events that had transpired.
"That old man! He actually lost to the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki!? Don't joke around!"
Deidara clenched his fists in disbelief, his eyes wide, gritting his teeth as he muttered.
"Compared to that, I'm more concerned about the Jinchuriki's whereabouts."
They had entered the village as Genin to investigate, so obtaining more confidential information, like Naruto and the others' purpose and movements, was unlikely.
Of course, Naruto's open defeat of Onoki was witnessed by many Ninjas.
Plus, he later swaggeringly escorted the old man back to the village, so not only Ninjas, but even civilians could recount the story.
After saying this, Sasori waited a long time for his partner's response, then turned his head.
He saw Deidara still there, muttering about how it was impossible.
"Since you don't believe it, why not go ask him yourself?"
"What did you say?"
Deidara even thought he had misheard.
"The intelligence we can get with our current identities is limited. You're more familiar here, so you'll be responsible for gathering information from now on. I'll wait for you outside the village."
After saying this, Sasori decisively headed in another direction.
"Hey! You!"
No matter how Deidara reacted, Sasori showed no sign of turning back.
In the end, the rebellious youth could only click his tongue in frustration, his body moving honestly nonetheless.
…
Kurotsuchi felt somewhat restless all day today.
She didn't know why.
Walking out of the Tsuchikage's office, the young girl deftly returned the ointment for back pain to the medical room.
There was no helping it… the old man was getting on in years, and having fought again a couple of days ago, his old back couldn't quite handle it.
"Huh? Akatsuchi!"
Just after leaving the medical room, she saw another Iwagakure's Ninja heading towards the archives.
That person was Onoki's other disciple, Akatsuchi.
Don't underestimate this seemingly honest and steady guy… he was a genuine trusted guard of the Tsuchikage, known as [The Tsuchikage's Shield], and he's far more powerful than Kurotsuchi, who had only just mastered Lava Release.
Hopping over to Akatsuchi like a little deer, Kurotsuchi suddenly wrinkled her nose, but then her expression quickly returned to normal.
"Akatsuchi, how long has it been since you last bathed? You smell-"
As she spoke, the girl even fanned the air with her hand quite seriously.
"Ah... Haha, really? Then I'll go wash tonight."
Akatsuchi, or rather, Deidara disguised as Akatsuchi, based on his memory of the other's mannerisms and habits, put on what he thought was the correct performance.
Hearing this, Kurotsuchi nodded in satisfaction.
Among Onoki's disciples, Kurotsuchi was both his granddaughter and the youngest junior sister, so no one minded if she was a bit willful usually.
Moreover, Akatsuchi himself was the honest type and wouldn't mind her saying these things.
"Speaking of which, Kurotsuchi, were you just in Tsuchikage-sama's room?"
As if making conversation, Deidara somewhat stiffly changed the subject.
Fortunately, judging by Kurotsuchi's expression, she didn't seem to have noticed any flaws.
"Ah... It's Grandpa. His back injury is acting up again. It's all that Uzumaki Naruto's fault from the other day."
In private, Kurotsuchi referred to Onoki as 'Grandpa' more often.
Hearing this, Deidara subconsciously gritted his teeth, wanting to ask for details.
Thankfully, having spent those years in Akatsuki, he had developed some of the traits of a 'criminal'. At least he knew he was currently infiltrating and gathering information.
Walking side-by-side with Kurotsuchi along the familiar corridor of the Tsuchikage Building, Deidara continued to probe about the events of that day.
Compared to the whereabouts of the village's two Jinchuriki, he was more concerned about how Onoki had lost.
"Speaking of which, that guy is really powerful. Even Tsuchikage-sama's Dust Release couldn't do anything to him."
This statement followed the information he'd heard from other Ninjas outside. The spectacle of Onoki using Dust Release that day simply couldn't be hidden.
Coupled with Naruto's completely unharmed appearance in the end, even those who hadn't watched the entire fight could guess eighty to ninety percent of what happened.
"Yeah..."
"Speaking of which, why did that guy attack us? And since he defeated Tsuchikage-sama, why did he leave without doing anything?"
When he uttered this long sentence, Deidara felt somewhat unsure.
Because according to Akatsuchi's habits, he rarely pressed for details like this.
But compared to slowly searching through the archives for possible intelligence, getting information directly from someone involved was more efficient.
Deidara didn't have the patience to find the answers himself.
Fortunately, Kurotsuchi didn't seem to notice this slight anomaly and answered naturally.
"You still don't know?... Well, only Dad and Grandpa heard it at the time."
"Didn't Konoha send us an alert earlier, saying someone was targeting the village's Tailed Beasts..."
"That's why he came here."
"That guy actually had the nerve to say our Iwagakure wasn't capable of protecting the Jinchuriki and wanted to take custody of them for a while. He's probably already gone to find Roshi by now."
Hearing this, Deidara's heart jumped.
'Sure enough, the other side wasn't just sitting idle.'
'While that self-proclaimed Uchiha Madara was collecting Tailed Beasts, the other side had already started gathering them first.'
'Those were Tailed Beast's Jinchuriki, each village's secret weapon! And he just openly demanded them like that?'
"Then… what about Han? He wasn't taken by that Uzumaki Naruto, was he?"
As soon as he said this, Deidara felt it was wrong.
Because according to Akatsuchi's 'persona', he shouldn't be asking such a question.
"Sigh-"
Kurotsuchi let out a light sigh.
"Deidara-nii, you're too impatient."
The young girl turned around, showing no intention to fight, but simply stared straight into Deidara's eyes.
Seeing that he was exposed, Deidara subconsciously wanted to use his Explosive Clay, but when he saw his junior sister's eyes, he didn't act immediately.
"When did you find out?"
"Deidara-nii, you're so careless. When disguising yourself, you didn't even cover the smell of your Explosive Clay."
Of course. Kurotsuchi, who grew up with him, couldn't be unfamiliar with that smell.
"Heh-"
The smoke dissipated, and Deidara returned to his original appearance.
Then, with a wave of his left hand, countless tiny clay spiders flew towards the corridor walls.
Boom!
The corridor was blown open with a large hole.
"Tell the old man I'll deal with that Uzumaki Naruto or whatever his name is first, then come back to defeat him."
"I won't accept him being defeated by someone else before me."
After saying this, as if knowing the other wouldn't actively pursue him, Deidara leisurely released his clay giant bird and flew out of the building.
"Cough, cough..."
Only after Deidara's figure was no longer visible did Onoki's form slowly emerge from around the corner.
"Ah, Grandpa, you're here!"
Kurotsuchi put on an exaggerated act of surprise, though she had actually noticed long ago.
"That damn brat..."
Onoki curled his lip, but ultimately allowed his granddaughter to support him back.