"Agree? Disagree? What's the difference!"
"My explosion will finish him in a second!"
Watching his "eternal art" get crushed, Deidara was ready to unleash his own instant masterpiece. He lived for this rush anyway, never stopping until he won.
"Lord Sasori, just wait! I'll kill this guy and save you, hmm!"
Deidara controlled his clay spider and bird, darting past Sasori's exposed core. They zeroed in on Menma, climbing onto his golden-red chakra cloak.
"That blast is way too close! My core can't take it!"
Sasori, dropped by Menma and hitting the ground, saw the bombs coming. He yanked his core into a nearby broken body and bolted from ground zero.
"That bastard! I thought he was saving me, but he just wanted to show off. That crap isn't art!"
Sasori read Deidara perfectly. Both were artists, arrogant and obsessed with their own work. The only way to handle guys like this was to beat them into the ground.
"Hah!"
Deidara shouted as his clay spiders and birds swallowed Menma whole. Instantly, they detonated.
BOOM!!!
The earth shattered, carving out a massive crater. Rubble and dust blasted skyward, choking the air.
"Hmph. He didn't even dodge. He's probably confetti by now, hmm?"
Deidara landed on a nearby tree, grinning at the destruction. He figured Sasori, with only his core left, was history.
"Too bad. Lord Sasori got to see that fleeting beauty before he died. A true artist's end..."
But before Deidara could finish his smug thought, Sasori's furious voice cut through the smoke behind him.
"Deidara! That pathetic explosion of yours can't kill me!"
"Lord Sasori?!" Deidara's eyes widened. He instantly backpedaled, hands diving into his clay satchel.
Only the core survived the blast... That means Menma must have shielded him.
So he dodged the explosion and flanked me.
Deidara barely finished the thought when Menma's icy voice and the sound of a fist slicing through the air reached him.
"Too late to run."
Before the words fully registered, Deidara's peripheral vision caught a flash of green, gold, and red.
A fist smashed into his side.
BOOM!
The force was crushing. Deidara's head was punched clean through, his body instantly turning into a white clay figure: an Explosive Clay Clone.
"You fell for it!" Deidara, now safely below, grinned and threw up a hand sign. "Hah—"
Halfway through the shout, the Menma in the air twisted and vanished.
Everything went black.
Then, a sensation like a boot sole slammed into his tilted cheek.
"Guh?!"
The impact threw him backward. His nose and cheekbones screamed in agony. Menma, all four gates open and radiating tri-colored chakra, had stomped Deidara's face deep into the mud, crushing the clay clone before it could detonate. The bomber's body twitched, legs kicking at the sky.
Sasori watched from a distance, his expression grim. "That taijutsu... combined with that Tailed Beast chakra... We're completely outclassed."
Sasori was sure now. Menma was Kage-level, at least on par with Konan. He hadn't joined them after a loss—he must have beaten Konan, or maybe even Pain himself, and forced his way in. That was the only way he could ignore Pain's authority and recruit them directly.
Feeling he'd figured it out, Sasori used his mangled limbs to unseal a scroll, summoning a fresh puppet body. His core darted inside, and the puppet's appearance shifted into his younger, handsome self.
As Sasori reformed, Menma arrived, hauling Deidara by the collar. The bomber's face was swollen, twisted, and bleeding.
"This art... this power... this beauty..."
Deidara stared blankly at his own crushed masterpiece.
Sasori ignored Deidara's trembling. He stared at the chakra tail behind Menma, more intently than he looked at any puppet he'd ever built.
"You said you'd give me Tailed Beast chakra in exchange for servitude. Is that the golden-red power you're using?"
"Exactly." Menma dropped Deidara and shut the Fourth Gate: Gate of Pain. His shadow clone could only handle that gate for about a minute before collapsing.
"The chakra I give you will be the same quality. Just less of it."
"Give it to me!" Deidara, who had been dazed on the ground, suddenly sprang up. "You're giving me your art?!"
He froze mid-shout, a conflicted look on his face.
"No... I can't love someone else's art! I can't betray my masterpiece!"
Deidara had been obsessed with Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan before. Now he was drawn to Menma's Nine-Tails chakra, but he quickly shook it off, solidifying his resolve.
"This isn't art! I don't need it! True art is fleeting brilliance!"
Sasori scoffed, utterly disdainful. "Replacing your own art with Tailed Beast chakra? What an idiot."
Once you have this power, you can coat your puppet body in it like Menma does. A perfect defense. Why's he stuck on this nonsense?
Menma looked at Deidara like he was brain damaged.
"The Tailed Beast chakra I'm offering boosts your physical stats, regeneration, and ninjutsu power. Why would that betray your own techniques?"
He narrowed his eyes.
"Are you some kind of pure-love ninjutsu warrior or something?"
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