The brilliance of the explosion lasted for several dozen seconds before it finally ended.
Kakashi knelt on one knee, gasping heavily, his body covered in wounds large and small.
Some were made by the Iron Sand Barrier, others came from the explosion just now.
His head was buzzing, his consciousness blurred, and he could faint at any moment.
Plop!
Kakashi heard a sound. Looking down, he saw a bead of crimson blood fall to the ground, bursting into a small splash of blood.
He wiped his face, only to realize his palm was full of blood.
At the same time, a sharp pain suddenly appeared.
Kakashi covered his left eye, clenching it shut. The pain in his eye was simply like someone had taken a magnifying glass, focused sunlight, and was burning his pupil.
He had just awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, and to use it on such a massive, unrestricted scale, without going blind or dying on the spot, it could only be said Kakashi's luck was immense.
"What exactly happened? What was that explosion just now?" Kakashi asked.
"A true artist died." Sasori said softly.
Sasori had undone the defensive web of hundreds of puppets, sitting unharmed on a rock, coldly staring at the core area of the explosion.
Kakashi once again pulled a kunai from his waist. He wanted to take a fighting stance, but he couldn't lift his hand at all, as if this little kunai weighed a thousand pounds.
"Don't push yourself, mediocrity."
Sasori's cold voice came, "Mangekyō Sharingan… indeed a very interesting ability. Pity it doesn't belong to you. You're still just using someone else's work."
"Cut the crap."
Kakashi slowly stood up, staring fixedly at Sasori.
"If you want to fight, then fight."
"Not today. I've lost interest."
Sasori was still watching the core battlefield, his expression colder than ever.
His and Deidara's concepts of art were completely opposite. Sasori pursued eternal beauty, so he created different puppets, fixing many powerful enemies at the peak of their strength.
Deidara pursued the instant of detonation, where all his accumulation, restraint, and desire were sublimated in an explosion.
Like a movie reaching the climactic final quarter.
His explosion was the highest peak of that climax.
Though Sasori and Deidara's ideals were opposed, they respected each other's pursuit of art, and believed that art was only interesting when it blossomed in countless forms.
From the beginning of the battle, Sasori had dozens of small scouting puppets circling above the three battlefields.
He had seen Deidara at the end, thrown out by Obito, eyes blank, expression abnormal, clearly showing signs of being under genjutsu.
This was disrespect toward an artist.
Sasori didn't like Akatsuki anymore.
A group of madmen, each with their own obsessions, gathered together to do one interesting thing, though, truthfully, Pain's Tailed Beast Weapon plan aligned more with Deidara's style of art.
"But ever since that guy called Tobi appeared, there have been too many unwanted noises."
Sasori turned back and glanced at Kakashi, who was struggling to stand.
"When you finally have a work of your own, I'll come kill you. Before that… I have another person I must kill."
Kakashi heard a sharp sound from afar, knowing Ryosuke was coming, and grinned, "Running away is running away, and you still say you 'lost interest.'"
"You're no different from a middle schooler in a brawl, realizing the other side has too many people, yet stubbornly trying to save face."
"Besides, at this distance, do you really think you can escape?"
"Of course. I'll be leaving in different directions."
"Hm?"
Before Kakashi understood what he meant, he saw Deidara's head fly off, followed by arms, thighs, abdomen… more than a dozen body parts, each with its own propulsion device, scattering in every direction.
No one knew which part contained the core marked with "Sasori."
"Old hag, don't die." Sasori's voice came from the sky.
Granny Chiyo glanced at Ryosuke, who had just arrived nearby. Her face was stern, she didn't answer, only stretched out a hand and made an "OK" gesture toward Sasori in the sky.
Ryosuke looked at Sasori, splitting apart and escaping in different directions, then looked at Kakashi, wounded nearly to unconsciousness. After half a second of hesitation, he gave up the idea of chasing.
Killing could be done any time. But saving a life, if the moment passed, there would be no chance.
He landed on the ground, tossed the unconscious Hiruko off his shoulder, and began checking Kakashi's injuries.
Piercing wounds, burns, blunt trauma… those weren't much. The more serious issue was chakra depletion.
Kakashi's state was like a chronically frail person being forced at gunpoint to run a marathon.
Worse, even now, when Kakashi was doing nothing, his chakra continued to be drained.
Because his chakra was already exhausted, what was being consumed now was his life force.
Granny Chiyo came over to explain, "He awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, and suddenly used too much of the Sharingan's power at once. That caused backlash."
"Then what should we do?"
Granny Chiyo was stunned, "You're a Uchiha, and you're asking me about the Sharingan's condition?"
Ryosuke fell silent.
He had seen Itachi's Amaterasu and Susanoo, and Obito's intangibility. Of course he envied them, no one ever disliked having more abilities.
But Ryosuke's chakra was scarce to the point of almost nonexistent. Plus, he considered himself fairly stable in temperament. Having lived in this world for years, he hadn't even awakened a single tomoe.
After thinking a bit, Ryosuke decided to use the method he was best at.
Ripple energy flowed into Kakashi's body, stimulating his life force. At the same time, he summoned earthfire, converting it into pure chakra to replenish Kakashi's exhaustion.
After nearly twenty minutes of treatment, Kakashi suddenly opened his eyes wide, gasping. His iron-blue face gradually regained some color.
"He's alive! He's alive!"
Granny Chiyo gave Ryosuke a thumbs-up, "See? I told you. For Sharingan problems, you've got to go to an Uchiha."
Ryosuke supported Kakashi, then released Rasa, Takeshi, and Gaara from the ghost room.
Everyone exchanged looks, gazing at the ruined battlefield, but for a while, no one spoke.
On paper, the results were, Deidara dead, Obito seriously injured and fleeing, Hiruko captured alive, and only Sasori left in a "decent" retreat.
On Ryosuke's side, only one casualty, the old blind man, whose strength was the weakest and had no tactical importance.
By comparison, this battle was a huge victory.
But no one felt happy.
Ryosuke remembered how, all along, the old blind man always wore a smile. He was genuinely happy from the heart.
Every day, he was the first to wake, always busy helping. Every time Ryosuke told him to rest, the old blind man would scratch his head and say, "Too old, can't sleep."
But he wasn't sleepless. He was just so excited about personally experiencing this "grand event" that his spirit overflowed, brimming with energy.
Ryosuke cut off the memory, surveying the surroundings.
The Dragon Vein's detonation, the massive earthquake, and finally Deidara's C0 self-destruction…
Within dozens of kilometers, all sand and stone had been melted, crystallized, and shattered repeatedly by extreme heat. As a result, there was no yellow sand on the surface at all.
Everywhere he looked, the ground sparkled with rainbow-hued crystalline sand, while purple earthfire spread upward from the abyss, dazzling and breathtaking.
Ryosuke held the broken hairpin he had picked up earlier, not knowing how he could face the old blind man's wife.
"Let's go. Head to the capital first, then…"
He looked at Hiruko, carried on Takeshi's shoulder.
"Heh..."
He gave a faint laugh.
But in that laugh was a determination filled with anger.
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/XenosX
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰