Chapter 339: Artist
The giant bird, having lost its head, spun as it plummeted.
At this moment, we can give it a slow-motion close-up:
'The blond-haired boy on the giant bird looked around, cursing loudly, while his heart raised its vigilance. Pressing his hands down, the two mouths hidden in his palms took a fierce bite out of the white giant bird's rear and began chewing.
A moment before the giant bird crashed into the ground, the boy tumbled and landed awkwardly, avoiding the fate of being smashed into a meat patty. At the same time, the two mouths in his hands spat out over a dozen small white spiders, which crawled rapidly towards Masahiko's direction.'
This series of actions was completed by the boy in less than two seconds. Watching this, Masahiko nodded slightly. With this kind of combat talent, he truly deserved to be the youngest member of the Akatsuki organization in the original story—Deidara. (Not counting Sasuke).
"Are these... spiders?" Karin looked disgusted and took a few steps back.
"God?" Kimimaro turned his head to ask.
Masahiko weighed the slingshot in his hand. "My aim is still pretty good. No wonder the windows at home broke so many times... Haku, deal with the spiders."
Haku nodded and took two steps forward. A dense barrage of 'Ice Soul Silver Needles' fired from his hands, pinning all the white spiders to the ground.
"Ice needles?" Deidara frowned slightly and formed the Hare seal with his right hand. "Art is an explosion! Katsu!"
The spiders pinned by the ice needles exploded not far in front of Masahiko and the others. Haku formed hand seals with a slight panic, and an ice mirror appeared in front of them, blocking the aftermath of the explosion.
Masahiko smiled. "Haku, don't be careless. There are plenty of bizarre ninjutsu out there."
"I'm sorry, Great Elder."
Meanwhile, several small, pure white birds darted out from the smoke and dust of the explosion. Haku raised his hand again and threw out an even greater number of ice needles. Upon piercing the small birds, they quickly froze the birds' bodies into ice, which then crashed to the ground and shattered into a floor of ice shards.
The simple probing was over. Deidara stopped his attacks, hesitation rising in his heart.
The people in front of him didn't look easy to deal with. Moreover, he had secretly sneaked out of the Hidden Stone Village, and the people chasing him would arrive soon. Retreating right now was the correct choice. But thinking about the bird head that was just shot to pieces, he found it a bit hard to swallow his anger.
Masahiko saw through this. With a smile on his face, he spoke to the three children in front of him, "When the enemy opposite us is hesitating, that's when we should make the decision for them. Have you learned the divine skills I taught you earlier?"
"Divine skills?"
"One Yang Finger, Lion's Roar," Masahiko reminded them casually.
Karin's face darkened, and she took another two steps back. "We're not learning those kinds of divine skills."
Haku also looked resistant. Kimimaro, on the other hand, was eager to try, causing Masahiko to sigh. It seemed he still had to handle it personally. When it came to infuriating others, he was the best at it...
Masahiko took a few steps forward, weighed the slingshot in his hand, and smiled. "Young man, meeting each other is destiny. Let's have lunch together. That bird of yours can't die in vain; how about we roast it and eat it?"
As soon as his voice fell, a flock of cute, explosive little animals appeared in front of Masahiko.
Little spiders, little flying birds, little grasshoppers, little centipedes... and so on.
Taking a few steps back, Masahiko signaled Haku to step forward and 'stall', while he quietly watched the battle. A moment later, he murmured softly, "Deidara is still too young right now. It seems he can't create high-power explosives yet."
"Katsu! Katsu! Katsu!" Deidara shouted continuously. To prevent Haku from freezing all his explosives, he chose to detonate the small animals from a further distance, which also gradually caused Haku to become flustered.
"God?" Kimimaro spoke eagerly from the side. Having inherited the Kaguya clan's bellicose nature, he saw that Deidara was a suitable opponent.
Masahiko nodded. "Haku, come back! Switch with Kimimaro!"
Haku retreated in a slightly awkward state, while Kimimaro charged straight ahead.
Deidara, however, hesitated for a moment. He clicked his tongue with a "Tch!", turned his head, and ran.
Kimimaro frowned, extended his right hand, slightly hooked his index finger, and shouted loudly: "Come over here!"
Deidara's figure stumbled slightly. "Bastards! Don't let me see you again! Un!"
"Pfft..." Masahiko burst out laughing. Beside him, Karin helplessly supported her forehead; her male god Kimimaro had been corrupted by the hateful Great Elder.
Kimimaro turned back with a slightly distressed look. "God, it doesn't work well."
Masahiko held back his laughter. "It's fine, didn't he almost trip just now? You just lack a bit of mastery. Let's chase him."
The three children were just about to set off when Masahiko signaled them to stop again. Under the trio's bewildered gazes, Masahiko turned around and pointed at the forest behind them.
A moment later, an eight or nine-year-old girl with short black hair and grayish-black pupils popped out from the forest. Realizing she was being stared at by several people, her expression tightened slightly. "Have you seen Big Brother Deidara? Oh, he was riding a giant white bird and flew this way."
Masahiko revealed a smile. "I saw him, he went that way." The direction his finger pointed was exactly the direction the girl had come from.
"Damn it, did he run in a circle? Thank you! Red-haired uncle!" The girl turned around and ran.
The three children behind Masahiko looked at each other in dismay. Karin spoke up hesitantly, "Didn't she... hear the explosions just now? Can't she see these battle traces? There's even half a bird right there!"
Masahiko smiled and turned his head. "When it's time to play dumb, you have to play dumb. You guys should learn from this. Let's go, if we don't chase him now, we won't catch up!"
The three children quickly followed, and only then did Karin realize it. "Damn it, she acted so convincingly!"
"On this journey, everyone you've fought has been an adult ninja, and most of them were just wandering ninjas from small villages. This time, you've finally seen the true foundation belonging to a great ninja village, right? Your strength is only considered pretty good among your peers, but you're not invincible yet. You need to train even harder!"
Since they didn't get to eat the roasted giant bird, Masahiko fed the three children a mouthful of 'chicken soup for the soul'... and the three children expressed that they gulped it all down.
Talking and laughing, the group chased all the way. While passing by an area of giant trees, Masahiko hid a smile in his eyes and signaled Karin not to expose it for the time being.
Behind a certain giant tree, Deidara breathed a slight sigh of relief seeing that the group hadn't discovered him. "Where did these bastards come from! Un!"
He was hiding here because he wanted to retrieve that half of the giant bird. Without enough clay to make a flying bird for transport, he simply couldn't run far.
However, right at that moment, a familiar shout rang in Deidara's ear: "Art is an explosion! Katsu!"
Several small fireballs exploded around him, sending Deidara tumbling and flying out.
"You're getting addicted to calling me a bastard, huh? Great Ancestor tore up his little grudge notebook long ago; now, I get my revenge on the same day! Un!"
"You actually dare to copy me! Un!" Deidara steadied his stance.
Masahiko looked at his soot-blackened, smoke-scorched little face and spoke with a smile, "Although our views on art differ, I can indeed be considered an artist."
"Tch! Only momentary explosions are art! What do you know about art?"
Masahiko smiled. "Art, huh... I suppose I am a... performance artist."
☆☆☆
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