On another side.
Four people wearing black cloaks with red clouds watched Hiromi and Baki's team below in the distance.
"People from Konoha and Sunagakure actually dare to enter the Land of Earth. They've got quite the nerve. It seems the old man's influence has waned, hmm." A blonde youth with his left eye covered by his hair muttered to himself with a smile.
"Shut up." A fierce voice rang out, devoid of any emotion.
Jūzō glanced at the hunched middle-aged man who looked like he was crawling on the ground and grinned, revealing shark-like teeth. "Sasori, be gentler. He's going to be our partner from now on."
"Maybe he'll be dead by next time." Sasori seemed to be hinting at something.
"The day I die will be the day art is born." At this, the blonde youth looked excited, his eyes shining with adoration. "Art is an explosion, hmm."
"Eternal beauty is art." Sasori countered with firm conviction.
"Art is an explosion, hmm." The blonde youth insisted.
Sasori didn't want to talk to him anymore, simply saying, "Brats are so annoying," ending the conversation with the blonde youth.
He stared at Hiromi, who was the size of an ant in the distance, and muttered to himself, "Speaking of which, I don't have a puppet from the Uchiha clan yet."
Hearing this, Jūzō, who loved to watch the world burn, chuckled darkly. "Orochimaru, you've got another rival."
Orochimaru laughed, saying nothing.
Suddenly, they saw another person wearing the same black trench coat with red clouds walking over from the other side. From the direction, they were slowly approaching Hiromi and Baki's team.
Seeing this, Orochimaru's eyes narrowed slightly. He seemed to be smiling, but it gave off a very dangerous feeling.
The atmosphere around Sasori also changed, becoming somewhat oppressive.
The blonde youth chirped, "Is that person in the same uniform as us also a partner? Are they here to welcome me? You guys... our Akatsuki Organization is really hospitable, hmm."
No one paid him any attention.
But Jūzō next to him laughed particularly brightly. "Another one? Is today the Akatsuki Organization's internal strife convention? Hahahaha!"
...
In the field.
The sand spikes floating in the air suddenly erupted.
Hiromi was like a monarch controlling fire. Orange flames condensed into small orbs in his hands, swiftly striking the sand spikes with great ease.
Fire and sand splashed everywhere, brilliant and beautiful.
Hiromi walked toward Gaara with a calm expression. The sand spreading beneath his feet tried to bind him. Gaara clenched his right hand and stared at Hiromi, preparing to use his favorite technique—Sand Binding Coffin.
Gaara revealed a cruel smile. He loved watching others bleed most of all.
However, the moment the sand wrapped around Hiromi's feet, the Chakra controlling the sand was incinerated by the high temperature of the orange flames.
"I need more concentrated Chakra!"
Gaara's battle instinct made him immediately abandon the large amount of sand obtained from assimilating the ground, controlling only a portion as it surged toward Hiromi once more. This time, he succeeded.
Hiromi was quickly covered, turning into a sand man.
Gaara showed a cruel smile, slightly tightening his clenched fist.
"Sand Binding..."
His expression changed slightly, he couldn't bring himself to say the word "Coffin."
So hard!
It felt like he was squeezing steel. That layer of orange flames seemed to be an impregnable wall of Chakra, he would need Chakra of the same quality to even have a chance of breaking through. Currently, it was completely impossible for him to cause even the slightest harm to Hiromi.
He could only watch helplessly as Hiromi approached, casually shaking off the sand wrapped around his body. This made his expression turn somewhat grim.
But he still had one more method.
Gaara felt a bit excited as he pressed both hands onto the ground, endlessly assimilating the earth into sand.
"Since I can't break your defense, I'll wear you down!"
He was going to bury Hiromi alive!
Seeing this, Hiromi smiled. This kid's brain is actually quite sharp. However, he had played enough. While it was interesting to watch others struggle against his power, he felt it would be even more fun to play with Orochimaru.
Thus, the orange flames on his body suddenly flared up, filled with a violent aura.
The rocky ground beneath his feet turned as soft as a lake of sand, swallowing his feet as if it were a silent, man-eating swamp. Even as the orange flames scorched them black, the sand did not give up on its attempt to devour Hiromi.
Hiromi narrowed his eyes, lifted his left foot, and as the orange flames condensed into a ferocious form, he stomped down.
Boom!
The ground shook.
The sand seemed to be blown apart by a bomb, turning into scorching sparks that splattered everywhere, landing on dry leaves and causing them to slowly emit smoke.
In an instant, Hiromi appeared right in front of Gaara. The unique sand from Gaara's gourd hadn't managed to stop him in time. The sand shifted to wrap around Hiromi's waist from behind, seemingly trying to pull him away from Gaara. But Hiromi remained unmoved, the scorching high temperature left charred marks on the sand on Gaara's face.
The sand on Gaara's body could not insulate him from the high temperature of Hiromi.
Especially as time passed, the sand grew hotter and hotter. Gaara's eyes became bloodshot from the pain, filled with a madness that seemed to hate the entire world.
Just as he opened his mouth to let out a roar, Hiromi struck down with a hand-blade.
Temari's eyes widened.
"No!!!" Temari's voice was filled with panic and fear.
But Hiromi showed no mercy. With a muffled thud, Gaara's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed forward weakly.
Baki's expression instantly became extremely ugly.
While Kankuro only felt terror.
Because they knew—the monster was coming out.