Sasori asked very directly.
If it were anyone else, that would be one thing, but his own grandmother, helping the murderer who killed her son and daughter-in-law, now to deal with her grandson…
Is that reasonable?
Grandma Chiyo pulled out ten kunai from her sleeve, controlled by chakra threads, floating in midair. She let out a soft sigh and said, "Life itself is absurd. Leave, Sasori, this is not a place a child should come."
"Heh..."
Sasori opened his mouth, or rather, this puppet called Hiruko opened its mouth, and countless needles shot out from within. At the same time, the flat, narrow tail suddenly stretched out, stabbing straight toward Kakashi.
"In your eyes, am I still a child like this?"
"No matter what you become, in my eyes, you will always be a child."
As Grandma Chiyo spoke, dodging the needles, the kunai in her hands shot out, counterattacking Sasori from all directions.
In the original work, Grandma Chiyo was teamed up with Sakura to fight Sasori in a prolonged struggle.
But unlike the original, first of all, the opponent came for Gaara. Right now, Gaara wasn't yet Kazekage. Even Rasa had taken the initiative to hand him over to Ryosuke, placing him in Kirigakure for protection.
In other words, since they had already sided with Ryosuke, whether Shukaku existed or not, whether Gaara lived or died, from Grandma Chiyo's perspective, actually wasn't that important anymore.
At this moment, her willingness to stand in front of Sasori was purely considering that if Ryosuke's ally died here, as someone from Sunagakure, both emotionally and rationally, she had to lend a hand. Otherwise, once Ryosuke had free hands…
Who knew if he would make things hard for Sunagakure.
Old people, always think about such things.
So yes, Grandma Chiyo did block Sasori. But how much effort she was really putting in… that was hard to say.
If pressed, she could always fall back on "old age and weak body."
Secondly, standing next to her was Kakashi, the son of her enemy. Chiyo would never protect Kakashi the way she protected Sakura in the original. If he really died here, then it was simply because his skill wasn't enough.
Grandma Chiyo was only half-hearted, and although Sasori spoke disrespectfully to her, he also wouldn't use a killing blow.
So the key to this battle lay with Kakashi.
On the surface, Sasori looked like a cold-faced youth. But facing the son of the one who killed his father and mother, how could his heart not stir with waves?
For a while, all his killing moves poured straight toward Kakashi.
———
On one side, Grandma Chiyo was half-hearted.
On the other, Hiruko was clashing with Rasa and Kohaku, with Gaara tightly protected behind Rasa.
Seeing Rasa act like a mother hen shielding her chick, Hiruko shook his head inside.
Even if Rasa let go, even if Gaara was washed clean and thrown in front of him, he wouldn't touch a single hair of this kid.
If Gaara got caught or died, the mission would be over, who would still help him deal with Ryosuke?
Hiruko had no interest in any so-called tailed-beast weapon plan, or in the world or peace. The only thing he cared about was Ryosuke's body.
With the technique of Onmyōton, Ghost Bud Luo in his hands, as long as he could launch "fusion" against Ryosuke, he would absolutely stand at the top of the world.
But although he coveted, after carefully understanding Ryosuke's battle record, he realized,
He couldn't win.
He absolutely couldn't win.
If he could, Hiruko would have attacked already. Why bother joining Akatsuki?
He saw clearly, between Ryosuke and Akatsuki, sooner or later there would be a deadly clash. At that time, Hiruko could fish in troubled waters. When Ryosuke was at his weakest, he would seize Ryosuke's body in one go, achieving his immortal form.
So, he too was slacking.
If Hiruko went all out, leaving other means aside, just with his mastery of "Dark Release," most ninjutsu would be completely ineffective against him.
Facing the combined assault of Rasa and Kohaku, Hiruko only used half of his strength. The other half he saved for emergencies.
If Ryosuke lost, he'd be the first to rush up and grab the body.
If Obito lost, Hiruko would turn around and run, without even half a second's hesitation.
As for what would happen to Obito and Sasori, his two teammates?
"Isn't that what teammates are for, to block bullets?"
———
The key to the situation lay in the core battlefield.
From the start till now, barely one or two minutes had passed. Centered around Ryosuke and Obito, vast stretches of desert had turned into crystal-clear glass.
From afar, it looked like a long, continuous range of crystal mountains. At noon, sunlight poured down, scattering dazzling and brilliant light.
Obito stared coldly at Ryosuke, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile.
The Akatsuki members sent for this attack were Obito, Hiruko, Sasori, and Deidara. Obito replaced Pain as the leader.
And the countermeasure he had vowed to Pain with his chest-thumping guarantee sounded laughably simple, have Deidara prepare a massive amount of clay bombs, enough to destroy an entire nation.
Then Obito stored Deidara along with these bombs in his Kamui space.
Deidara laid out the bombs in Kamui space.
All that was left was to wait for Ryosuke to fight him.
Obito's Kamui phasing, once activated, lasted five minutes. Every time an attack struck him, that part of his body would be transferred into Kamui space.
At that moment of transfer, that body part would stick to Deidara's clay bombs.
Normally, while "phased," he couldn't absorb things into Kamui space or actively take things out. That was a flaw in the ability.
But this "actively take" was ambiguous.
Active doesn't work… what about passive?
In the original, at the end of the Fourth War, Naruto threw Kakashi onto Obito's face while he was absorbing with Kamui, pulling Kakashi into Kamui space.
When Obito phased, Kakashi's punches landed on his body inside Kamui space. If he bled, it bled there; if his clothes tore, they tore there too.
Didn't this count as putting things into Kamui space during phasing?
If Kakashi's punch had blood on it and smeared Obito's clothes, when that part of his body came back, surely his clothes wouldn't magically get washed clean, right?
Between working and not working lay a very gray area.
Once Obito thought of this, he started trying, and the results matched his idea.
As long as someone helped from inside Kamui space, he could "passively take" small, light, close-fitting items.
The most suitable, Deidara's clay bombs.
When Platinum Star retracted its fist, the body part returning from Kamui space came back to reality with clay stuck on its clothes.
Obito only needed to shake slightly, and the clay would fall off.
His phasing only affected what was on his body or in his hands. As soon as the clay detached, the next second it would...
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions roared non-stop. Obito used this method to seal off Ryosuke's close-combat abilities.
The faster Platinum Star's punches, the bigger the chain explosions.
"Your body's recovery ability is indeed strong. But I don't believe your recovery has no limit!" Obito said darkly.
"And your limit?"
Ryosuke triggered time-stop again, pulling distance. When it ended, he was two hundred meters away. Platinum Star vanished, replaced by Aerosmith and Killer Queen.
Killer Queen slipped into Ryosuke's body. Ryosuke placed a hand on Aerosmith's bomb bay, unleashing a barrage of bullets.
Since the opponent had activated "thorns armor," preventing close combat, Ryosuke naturally had other means.
But facing the storm of bullets, Obito not only didn't close in again, instead, his body slowly sank into the ground.
Ryosuke pressed one hand to the earth, sensing Obito's position through earth stand power.
One hundred meters… two hundred meters… three hundred meters…
Still sinking.
Only at six hundred meters deep did Obito stop.
From the earth's feedback, Ryosuke realized, Obito had first blasted open space with explosions, then canceled phasing to restore his body.
'He's… refreshing his ability's cooldown.'
As soon as phasing neared its limit, he dove underground, waiting until it reset before climbing back up.
He even hid six hundred meters underground to avoid Ryosuke's time-stop. At 9.9 seconds, even if Platinum Star and Ryosuke rained continuous punches and slashes, they couldn't reach that deep.
In the past, Obito couldn't hide so deep. Once he canceled phasing, earth's pressure would crush him to death.
But with Deidara, it was different.
Two abilities combined, specifically designed against Ryosuke, produced excellent results.
Ryosuke pondered briefly, turning his gaze to the other battlefields.
Since Obito played this disgusting tactic, why not ignore him and kill Sasori and Hiruko instead?
He quickly abandoned the thought.
'No.'
Obito's explosions were indiscriminate. Dragging teammates in would be even more dangerous.
Ryosuke could repair his body, but Kakashi and Rasa couldn't.
What about putting everyone in the Ghost Room and escaping with time-stop?
'No, that won't work either.'
'The masked man has a similar space-jumping method. He may not be slower than my flight. And if I leave now, next time they'll just appear in Kirigakure, in the research institute, what then?'
'Most importantly...'
Ryosuke brushed aside glass shards on the ground, picked up a jet-black hairpin, and tucked it into his chest.
'I don't want to leave.'
He looked down at the ground, a crazy idea slowly forming in his heart.
Obito rose back up.
"Helpless? Resentful? Heh, this is the price of standing at the top."
"Since you stand high, stand in the open, all your abilities will be gradually revealed."
"Your battle footage will be studied second by second. Countless people will throw their lives at you, just to expose more of your power."
"You will die, your companions will die. Today, none of you will leave this desert alive, just like those already blasted to death."
"This is fate, Ryosuke."
"A man's fate is written the moment he is born. Everything after is just like a DVD with the play button pressed, playing frame by frame."
The Mangekyō Sharingan beneath the mask slowly rotated as Obito said in a deep voice, "Only in illusion does absolute beauty exist. Do you understand?"
"Understand your ***!"
The endless storm of bullets roared again. Obito shook his head, he hadn't expected Ryosuke, usually so skilled, to become this crude.
He sank underground again, releasing Deidara's massive "artwork."
A pale white giant dragon bit through soil, constantly pushing upward, ready to burst forth.
But then, hidden beneath the ground, Obito heard a soul-shaking explosion above. When the soil overhead vanished, he saw, a pink humanoid cat, constantly pulling its fingers. Each time, the earth above shattered and disappeared in large chunks.
"What are you doing?"
Obito couldn't understand.
Could Ryosuke be trying to dig down this way to find him, preventing him from burrowing underground to refresh his phasing time?
But what use was that?
At worst, Obito could just move elsewhere. Could Ryosuke really lower the desert's elevation by five or six hundred meters in one go?
If he had that ability, they might as well call him Sage Ryosuke.
'Or is it…'
Obito stared at him. "Under the pressure of despair, have you already gone mad?"
Ryosuke heard his words, his cold gaze sweeping over, "Despair?"
"I'd like to despair too, but unfortunately, all I have right now is anger. And also..."
Killer Queen kept detonating, and Ryosuke sank down another three hundred meters. Finally, a thousand meters below ground, he saw it, a broken, shattered, formless, invisible, intangible…
Dragon Vein.
Ryosuke lifted his head, glancing once at Obito.
"You're not the only one who can explode."
Killer Queen touched the Dragon Vein stand.
The first bomb, set.
Click!
The Dragon Vein exploded.
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