Chapter 71

Title: The Gambit

...

BOOM!

The night sky was illuminated with a bright flash so bright that one would think the sun abruptly rose, and after the light, came a dynamic mix od intense rumbling, roaring and sharp blast.

Deidara watched with glee and anticipation. He was gleeful at the beautiful sight the explosion has created and anticipated the potential survival of the Kazekage.

After all, he was the Kazekage and a Jinchuriki at that. There was no way he was going down that easily.

"Thi...this is."

"Kazekage-sama's sand!"

"Wow! To be able to create such a huge hand..."

"Kazekage-sama!"

Numerous exclamations rang out from the sand ninjas on the scene as they saw the gigantic hand protecting the village.

On the hand, a protrusion appeared on the middle finger as Gaara appeared to be unharmed and unhinged by the explosion.

He just stood there with his head raised while spotting his usual stoic look.

"That was... disappointing." Gaara began.

"Huh? What'd'ya say brat!?"

"For a moment there....I actually thought I could feel a little bit of respect for you, after all, you became this strong without a village..." Gaara said as the hand began crumbling and floating into his gourd.

'He's carrying something so heavy with him all this while?' Deidara thought as an amazed light flashed in his eyes. However, he quickly composed himself as a thought popped up in his head.

'That should decrease his mobility by a bit...' he thought before he smirked. "In shooting range...hm...Katsu!"

It was at that moment that Gaara finally sensed the little flying bird Infront of him, but...

"BOOM!

The bird exploded in his face much to the delight of Deidara who found it amusing.

Deidara was strong, no doubt. He knew he was strong, but he also knew that no one with the title of Kage was weak. So despite his peculiar attitude, he never truly underestimated Gaara.

With the gigantic explosion, he aimed to both reduce Gaara's Chakra as well as make him let his guard down with the thought that that was his greatest attack.

Unfortunately for Gaara, Deidara knew he'd survive and made little explosive birds to fly around aimlessly, and to top it off, the dust that was created by the explosion and Gaara's retrieval of his sand was enough camouflage for the birds.

As the sounds and visual effects of the explosion gradually disappeared, a round ball of sand appeared in his sight making Deidara nod in acknowledgement.

"As you'd expect. That specially made sand defence sure is fast...but just as I predicted...Katsu!"

Gaara who was within the sand defence was immediately alerted to the presence of a couple smaller clay insects that immediately exploded.

This was a strategic attack from the inside of the Guard. Initially, while Deidara and Gaara were flying about and attacking eachother, despite Deidara's speed, he was still a little bit slower than Gaara's telepathically controlled sand.

So similar to the original timeline, Deidara's hands were still caught and smashed by his sand.

Unfortunately for him, Deidara's Kekkei Genkai was on his both hands. With one caught, he conveniently ate some of his sands and converted them into explosives.

That was how he was able to create the gigantic panda in the first place, and despite the explosion, he was still able to control some fine grains of sands to form several little explosives.

Watching the gradually crumbling ball of sand, Deidara thought It wise to begin his monologue.

"Heh. A typical Kage. To protect the village with his last bit of strength. It would've been so much easier to just let them all die." Deidara gloated. Despite his reluctance in killing indiscriminately, he still felt it was sad for someone as strong as Gaara to lose due to his action of putting the villagers before himself.

As he spoke to this stage, the ball finished crumbling as Gaara who stood on a sand platform gradually surfaced. He glared coldly at Deidara before glancing down at the village.

Seeing that no harm came to them whatsoever, he let out a sigh of relief and allowed gravity to pull his body down.

As he fell, Deidara, thinking he has won, fly on his bird and made to catch Gaara.

"Not killing you directly was actually harder than I had thought. My job here is done... Mission Com-" He said as Gaara fell directly onto his bird, but before he could finish his words...

"...You took the words exactly from my mouth." A calm but enraged voice sounded behind him as he felt his only remaining hand being held in a tight grip.

"Wha-"

As he watched, the Gaara he had caught immediately cracked and immediately crumbled into sand that also held onto his feet.

Behind him was a half body comprising of on a should and the right side of Gaara's left-upper and lower abdomen.

"I'm afraid leaving you with this hand will prove to be troublesome...do forgive me." Gaara said slowly, but Deidara only felt the chills at that moment. Unfortunately for him, his fate was already sealed as Gaara continued. [Sand Burial]

BANG!

It took a moment for it sink in, but when it finally did, Deidara's mins finally caught up with his body as he roared in pain.

"Arghhh!! You! What have you done! I'll kill you! Arghh!"

He screamed, not because he felt pain, but because he had lost assess to his abilities.

When he initially lost the first one, he wasn't overly affected since he could still form handsigns with only one hand, plus, the otain wasn't a matter of concern. He was a Shinobi, and pain wasn't anything new to him.

Afterall he has lost his now hidden left eye, that was already painful enough, one hand was nothing to him, but his two hands?

Wasn't that just crippling him and his entire career as a Shinobi? How could he continue this way.

Gaara who just recovered his body calmly observed the screaming Deidara.

Despite winning, he didn't feel all that much fulfilled, afterall he had had to rely on Shukaku's power in that last attack.

If not for that, he would've most likely been rendered immobile at best and unconscious if not dead at worst.

At the crucial moment the little clay insects exploded, he knew the sand armour he usually kept around his body wouldn't be able to withstand the shock of the explosion and even if it could, he wasn't fast enough to send more chakra to strengthen it.

It was at that moment that he heard an annoyed snort that was quickly followed by his armour hardening.

It was hardened but not overly.

Which still led to it being destroyed. Thankfully, it had little effects on him, leading him to quickly come up with the plan to fool Deidara which worked splendidly.

Now that he had rendered this one immobile, he could now face the other one who...

"He's left."

"Huh?" Gaara exclaimed in confusion at the sudden reminder.

"His partner. He's left, or rather...I can't sense him anymore. You're on your own now." After saying that, Gaara felt Shukaku's presence disappear while his depleted chakra reserves increased by a half.

"I understand. Thank you partner." Gaara said cooly without any ripples on his face, but internally, he was actually grateful.

Shukaku snorted at this but didn't say anything. 'How could he and this brat be anything alike? Humph, aniki doesn't know what he's saying these days.'

Shukaku thought, not knowing that it was this exact trait that made them both similar.

Despite being thankful or emotional in general, Gaara always masked it with his stoice and unchanging expression, while on Shukaku's part...He was basically a Tsundere.

A massive one at that. One much greater than even the Kyuubi.

And in one body, there were two. How could they ever see eye to eye?

"Seems like your partner has left you." Gaara said to the steaming Deidara.

"Heh. What do you know? There's no way that's possible. Just you wait! This is not the end!" Saying that, Deidara but his lips angrily and cried. [Katsu!]

As soon as he said that, the bird they both stood on immediately exploded. Gaara was quick enough to defend against it with his sand, but that was the action Deidara was seemingly waiting for, and immediately the dust cleared, Deidara was no where to be seen.

Squinting his eyes, he observed the area around him before expanding his senses out. Despite being a weilder of the Magent Release, Gaara was still too young and inexperienced. This led to his inability to use the sand to expand his senses.

However, Shun who was watching was somewhat glad he was able to use an elementalization ability.

That is... basically using his sand ability to influence his body similar to the Sand Sand fruit.

All that was left was being able to make the sands a part of you. With that, Shun was sure his perception would reach a level closer to the First Kazekage.

Unfortunately, time waits for no man and Shun could only hope that he learns while in the heat of battle.

Looking at the young Kazekage chasing after the fleeing Deidara towards the area Sasori was also located, Shun couldn't help but be reminded of the description Kaguya had once given to him when she first got access to this planet's Temporal Domain.

Currently, Sasori was locked in a battle with Kankuro and a few member of the Puppet clan Shun had created and was actually winning.

With Deidara's appearance, Shun really looked forward to how they'd be able to breakthrough Rorân's defences and lay waste to the place.

Plus, Naruto hasn't even left Konoha and neither has Sasuke been sent on any Mission, was there a possibility that...

"Gasp! It can't be... Would I be the one to teleport them there?" Shun wondered as he watched everything happen from his little domain of solitude in the Shadow dimension.