In the blink of an eye, Kisame Hoshigaki had been turned into a figure drenched in blood.
If an ordinary person had faced such invisible, imperceptible attacks, they would have completely collapsed by now!
But Kisame Hoshigaki still endured the searing pain coursing through his body, his eyes gleaming with cold composure.
Time was far too short to analyze the principles behind Deidara's jutsu. But Kisame understood one thing clearly — every jutsu was sustained by chakra!
And his Samehada Fusion Mode possessed the very ability to devour chakra and sense chakra.
Thinking of that!
Kisame continued to move his body rapidly while sensing the chakra signatures around him, simultaneously mobilizing every ounce of chakra he could muster, attempting to devour the mysterious jutsu that was attacking his body from all sides.
Deidara, standing atop his white bird once more, looked down at Kisame — still retreating, but now completely dyed red as a blood-soaked figure — and let out a triumphant laugh.
"This jutsu was something I specifically created to kill Uchiha Itachi. What a pity — that guy was already dead by someone else's hand before I could use it on him."
"But using it to kill you instead isn't bad either!"
A hint of reluctance lingered in Deidara's tone, followed by a helpless shrug.
Perhaps in Deidara's eyes, Kisame Hoshigaki was already as good as dead.
But at that moment, Kisame, who had been moving rapidly, suddenly stopped. His entire body stood frozen in place, utterly motionless.
Deidara gazed down at Kisame below, a trace of surprise crossing his face.
"Is he dead?"
"But then again, with Garuda's power, Kisame's body should have been blown to ash."
Deidara frowned slightly, his voice tinged with doubt and confusion.
Watching Kisame stand rigidly in place without so much as a twitch, Deidara hesitated briefly before quickly molding a clay bomb and hurling it toward Kisame below.
Deidara was extremely cautious — until he was certain Kisame was truly dead, he absolutely would not set foot on the ground.
Just as the clay bomb Deidara threw was about to land on Kisame's head, Kisame — who had been standing motionless — suddenly shifted his feet and darted sideways.
"That was close — I almost died there, Deidara!"
Although Kisame's entire body was stained red with blood, both his internal and external wounds had already fully healed thanks to the Giant Sword — Samehada's chakra.
"So he really didn't die!"
"But how is that possible? He was completely within Garuda's blast radius — he definitely took that hit head-on!"
Deidara's pupils contracted sharply as he let out a cry of disbelief.
"I owe it to Samehada's ability to absorb chakra. Otherwise, I really might have died today."
Kisame bared his sharp, pointed teeth, glaring ferociously up at Deidara.
Absorbing chakra?
So that's how it is — he rendered the microscopic spider bombs completely inert. But for Kisame to perform such fine, precise chakra absorption was genuinely beyond Deidara's expectations.
"Water Style — Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
Kisame let out a furious roar, spewing a massive torrent of water from his mouth like a crashing ocean wave, surge after surge rolling skyward.
Deidara immediately commanded his white bird to climb higher, effortlessly dodging the rising waves.
But Kisame Hoshigaki's jutsu was far from over.
Thousand Feeding Sharks!!
Kisame stood effortlessly atop the water flow, channeling chakra through his feet. After completing a rapid series of hand seals, he slammed his palms onto the water's surface.
Accompanied by a series of continuous splashing sounds!
In the blink of an eye, Kisame summoned a thousand sharks into the surging waves. The moment they appeared, they rode the momentum of the waves, leaping out of the water one after another and rocketing toward Deidara in the sky.
Deidara snorted coldly. Clay poured continuously from his hands, shaped into small birds and other tiny creatures, scattering down rapidly from atop his great bird!
The clay bombs collided with the sharks in midair, producing a ceaseless barrage of deafening explosions!
As the battle between Kisame Hoshigaki and Deidara grew ever more intense —
The battlefield between the Hidden Mist and Hidden Stone forces was growing equally fierce.
The quality of Iwagakure's ninja might not have matched Konohagakure, or even Kumogakure, but in terms of sheer numbers, no single great village could match the sheer quantity of Iwagakure's forces.
Under such circumstances, what unfolded between the two sides was a completely strategy-free slaughter!
The fighting escalated continuously, nearly everyone drawn into the fray, all manner of dazzling jutsu erupting and exploding across the battlefield.
Terumi Mei stood at the very center of the battlefield, single-handedly holding her own against both Kitsuchi and Akatsuchi!
The momentum of battle hadn't reached a stalemate, but every step the Hidden Mist forces advanced forward cost them enormous time and effort!
Boom!!
Boom!!
Amid this steady advance, a series of massive booming explosions first rang out from the outskirts of the battlefield.
But as time passed, those tremendous blasts and rumbling detonations drew ever closer to the center of the battlefield, upsetting the temporarily stable situation and throwing it into imbalance.
And the one responsible for the relentless chain of explosions was none other than Deidara!
Deidara had originally been fighting Kisame Hoshigaki, but since neither could gain the upper hand for the moment, Deidara changed direction and headed straight for the heart of the battlefield.
Kisame Hoshigaki followed closely behind Deidara with a dark expression, periodically launching jutsu into the sky in hopes of blasting Deidara down from the air.
Boom!!
Another massive explosion rang out. Some Mist ninja, caught off guard, were struck by clay bombs dropped from the sky and swept into the blast radius.
With Deidara's unique bloodline limit, he could be said to be most devastating on a large-scale battlefield!
"Earth Style — Earth Boulder!"
Kitsuchi let out a fierce shout, reinforcing his body with Earth Release chakra. He ripped a massive boulder some five or six meters across straight from the ground and hurled it violently toward Terumi Mei.
With a cold, stunning expression, Terumi Mei formed a hand seal at her chest and fired a thin, precise stream of water from her mouth, slicing the incoming boulder cleanly in half.
No sooner had she dealt with that boulder than, before Terumi Mei could catch her breath, Akatsuchi was already piloting his rock giant, charging straight at her!
Terumi Mei crouched low, then sprang swiftly from the ground, raising her long leg to kick at Akatsuchi, who sat astride the rock giant.
"Get down here!"
Akatsuchi said coldly, blocking Terumi Mei's kick while simultaneously commanding the rock giant to raise its thick arms and slam them down toward her in unison.
Hearing the heavy rush of wind beside her ear, Terumi Mei's expression remained composed. Using the rebound force from her kick against Akatsuchi, she twisted swiftly through the air, her body nimbly evading the rock giant's attack.
Seeing Terumi Mei dodge their combined assault yet again, neither Kitsuchi nor Akatsuchi showed the slightest sign of discouragement.
The two let out a simultaneous roar and charged at Terumi Mei once more. After all, their opponent was the Mizukage — naturally no easy foe.
Just then!
The sound of flapping wings came from above. A small bird crafted from explosive clay dove toward the ground, one after another streaming relentlessly toward Terumi Mei's position!
Boom boom boom!
A dense chain of explosions erupted, forcing Kitsuchi and Akatsuchi, who had been about to give chase, to halt simultaneously!
[
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