Chase and Escape
"Scorpion, you look so disheveled, big brother."
Deidara landed with a face full of enjoyment, looking at Scorpion, who had been forced out of Hiruko, and said with a smile.
"I encountered Konoha's Lin Ke."
The porcelain doll-like red-haired teenager began to put away his collection into scrolls, glanced at the giggling kid, and said, "You don't have much Chakra left, do you?"
"Barely enough, hmm..." Deidara replied nonchalantly, "Scorpion, big brother, you've taken a fancy to that kid, haven't you?"
"But his abilities are a bit troublesome to capture, even that guy..."
He recalled the unpleasant Uchiha Itachi, and his face turned grim. Although he didn't think he would lose if they fought again, he had to admit that the guy was definitely a powerful figure.
The fact that Kisame Hoshigaki hadn't been able to successfully capture Lin Ke already spoke volumes.
Just from the techniques shared by the organization that Lin Ke had mastered, there were shadow control, summoning the dead, rejuvenation, hair control, flying Summoned Beasts, sealing and hand seal abilities, separating the body...
The key was that in every battle, this kid could pull out new, strange, and powerful abilities.
"It's troublesome." Deidara's face was full of refusal. After causing such a ruckus and enjoying himself, his Chakra wasn't that abundant, and he was facing an enemy who was practically an intelligence black hole.
Whether he could do it was one thing, but it was just really boring.
He might fall into a bitter fight, or carelessly suffer a big loss like Orochimaru.
"Stop talking nonsense." Scorpion put away the remains of Hiruko and said in a stiff tone, "I'll handle it myself."
The Uchiha's Sharingan was too much of a cheat. Even he felt it was troublesome. The Sharingan could see the characteristics of Chakra, which was very unfriendly to puppeteers. What's more, there was a Sand Ninja Village Jonin helping, who wasn't weak either. The two of them really gave him a lot of trouble.
Fortunately, the Third Kazekage's puppet was as useful as ever.
However, the feeling of Hiruko being smashed still made him feel a little unhappy.
He, who had almost abandoned his humanity on a daily basis, only had some emotional fluctuations when facing superior materials and his own collections.
"Got it, got it." Although Deidara was unwilling, he still created a large bird to carry the two of them into the high sky. He could still understand the other's pursuit of art.
"Scorpion, big brother, if you catch him, we'll go back and tell the leader, hmm..."—[The Rashomon has closed. It seems Fugaku and Maki together couldn't last twenty minutes...]
Lin Ke sped along, forming hand seals and using the Summoning Jutsu to communicate with Uchiha Fugaku, asking about the battle situation.
In fact, these two had briefly gained the upper hand when facing Sasori of the Red Sand. After the Sharingan observed that Hiruko was a puppet, they cooperated and directly used Ninjutsu to blast Hiruko to pieces.
The ordinary puppets released by the opponent were also unable to escape under the Sharingan. Just as they were gaining the upper hand, the enemy summoned a puppet that used Magnet Release, which instantly reversed the battle.
There was no way around it, both of them lacked a decisive means.
They were both relatively traditional, first probing, then throwing ninja tools, and then using conventional Ninjutsu or conventional ninja tools to try to destroy the opponent.
Facing the overwhelming iron sand, they were really a bit too powerless. If they were not careful and the iron sand invaded their bodies, the battle would be almost over. They simply couldn't win.
[You have to be careful, Lin Ke...] Uchiha Fugaku instructed with concern.
Having just returned to the real world once, he couldn't climb out of the Rashomon again. They had tested it before, and it would take at least three hours before the hand near the Rashomon would allow him to pass through again.
Simply using the Summoning Jutsu to pull the phantom of the soul back to the real world was meaningless.
After Lin Ke hung up the phone with Uchiha Fugaku, he called Maki again.
[That guy is Sasori of the Red Sand!]
Maki's tone was filled with some hatred, [That traitor actually murdered the Third Kazekage!]
Several vulgar idioms from the Land of Wind are omitted here.
[Tell me what exactly happened] Lin Ke had to interrupt Maki, who was still venting his anger.
Ever since this guy became a dead person and was used as a cash cow, his originally dull personality had suddenly been unleashed, and he talked even more than before.
Maki roughly described the battle process, which was similar to what Uchiha Fugaku said. Before hanging up, he hoped that he could return to the real world once after escaping, to go to Sand Ninja Village, this time in exchange for Ninjutsu.
A lot of Ninjutsu.
Lin Ke didn't directly agree, only saying he would consider it. He would have to go back and discuss this kind of thing with the Third Hokage.
"They're catching up." Gaara suddenly spoke. His Chakra was the most abundant, and he had always been paying attention to the situation in the sky. After discovering the large bird chasing after them from afar, he immediately reminded his teammates and superiors.
"Prepare for battle." Lin Ke abandoned the illusion of avoiding the fight, stopped, and said, "I just spoke with Maki. Our opponent is Sasori of the Red Sand, a rogue ninja from the Sand Ninja Village..."
"What?!" Kankuro blurted out.
Lin Ke didn't explain much, simply revealing all of Sasori's information, using the excuse that he learned it after someone's death.
The Third Kazekage puppet, Puppet Performance of a Hundred Mechanisms, even his own body modified into a puppet...
The more Kankuro heard, the less confident he became. As a fellow puppeteer, he knew how terrifying it was to control hundreds of puppets simultaneously. The pinnacle for a normal puppeteer was controlling one puppet with one finger; for precision, controlling one puppet with both hands was best.
Controlling a hundred puppets or something was just too absurd.
But he didn't think his instructor would lie to him in such a life-or-death situation.
"Then, I'll attack first." Temari opened her Three-Tomoe Fan and used the Summoning Jutsu to summon a one-eyed weasel. She watched as it approached, reducing its altitude when it was about several hundred meters away, and took a deep breath.
"Kamatari!"
The one-eyed weasel held up its huge scythe, revealing an excited expression.
"Whoosh!"
Temari swung her fan violently, and the Three-Tomoe Fan blew out a whistling gale. Kamatari rode the gale and disappeared from the spot, and countless scythe phantoms appeared in the air.
*[Summoning Technique: Severing Whirlwind Dance!]*
"Boom!"
The giant bird in the sky was directly swept by the scythe shadows and gale, instantly chopped into countless pieces, turning into a cluster of fireworks.
At the same time, the forest on the ground was only grazed by this technique, but a large chunk of it disappeared, directly turning the area in front into a huge open space. The edge of the Severing Whirlwind Dance even shaved off a small hill in the distance.
"Huff... huff..."
Temari gasped for breath. Using so much Chakra for a single attack was a considerable drain on her.
"The enemy is still alive..." she reported, based on the information Kamatari provided.
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