432. This is True Art

"Are you planning to keep hiding, Uchiha Itachi?"

"If you keep delaying, your teammates might soon be eliminated, you know."

Deidara stood on the back of his flying bird, watching the smoke and flames rising from the other side of the battlefield, a sinister grin spreading across his face.

It seemed he was trying to persuade Itachi to face him head-on, rather than scurrying around like a rat in the forest.

Hearing this, Uchiha Itachi finally stopped.

Faced with Deidara's verbal provocation, he simply smiled.

None of the recent announcements had mentioned Konoha.

He raised his head, his crimson eyes filled with calm.

"I trust my teammates. Instead of worrying about them, you should worry more about your own squad from Iwagakure."

As he spoke, Itachi suddenly rubbed his wrist.

"By the way, it seems like you don't have much attachment to Iwagakure either. Those people probably don't matter much to you."

"But it doesn't matter. Either way, I'll take care of you next." Itachi's tone was extremely calm, as if he were softly stating a fact that had already happened.

It could also be seen as a form of...

contempt and disregard for Deidara.

This composed tone, this dismissive arrogance, all of it intensely irritated Deidara.

His face flushed red, and even the mouths on his palms clenched their teeth.

"Damn Uchiha! You're just relying on your fancy bloodline, yet you dare look down on me like this!"

"Next, I'll show you what true art is, you bastard!"

With that, he suddenly spread his arms, scattering a dense swarm of clay bombs that resembled insects.

However, to everyone's surprise, Deidara didn't choose to attack Itachi directly this time. Instead, he scattered the bomb insects around Itachi.

The moment these insects landed, they wriggled their bodies and quickly burrowed into the soil.

Seeing this, Deidara grinned.

"Stupid Uchiha, did you really think I was just running around in circles earlier?"

"The ground around here has already been secretly filled with bombs by me."

"With these bomb clay insects filling in the gaps, you have nowhere to escape."

Deidara arrogantly revealed his setup, aiming to boast about how magnificent his art was.

Seeing that Itachi remained unmoved, his expression grew darker.

"You won't admit defeat until you're cornered. Let's see how you dodge this!"

Deidara controlled the giant dragon beneath his feet. As it opened its mouth, a small flying dragon shot out, flapping its wings at an incredible speed as it charged toward Itachi.

With the ground and trees around him already rigged with bombs, Itachi had no way to avoid this attack.

No matter where he fled, it would inevitably trigger a series of explosions.

Therefore, Itachi had no choice but to strike first.

His hands quickly formed seals, and before the attack could reach him, he spat out a fireball from his mouth, accurately hitting the incoming bomb with precise trajectory and angle.

"Boom!!"

The collision between the fireball and the clay bomb erupted into a thick cloud of smoke, successfully obscuring Deidara's vision.

"Hmph, trying to block my vision with such a cheap trick? Ridiculous!" he roared. The giant dragon beneath his feet shot out several small flying dragons, once again bombarding the battlefield.

But who was Itachi? He wouldn't just stand there and wait to be hit.

As Deidara launched his second attack, two giant Demon Wind Shuriken sliced through the smoke from different angles, whistling through the air as they flew toward the sky.

Seeing these two shuriken heading straight for him, Deidara quickly maneuvered his bird to dodge.

Then, he launched another round of bombing on the battlefield.

In his mind, as long as he could exhaust the enemy's last bit of "foothold," victory would undoubtedly be his!

What Deidara didn't expect was that the sound of the two Demon Wind Shuriken that had just brushed past him didn't fade away.

Instead, it grew louder and clearer, and it sounded like it was getting closer!

Not only that, but he also noticed two wires reflecting sharp glints of sunlight to his left and right.

"Oh no!"

He quickly looked behind him.

Sure enough, controlled by the two wires, the two Demon Wind Shuriken had turned back and were now closing in on him with terrifying speed.

At such close range, Deidara had no choice but to pull out kunai from his pocket to block.

Fortunately, his taijutsu was decent. After two clashing sounds accompanied by sparks, Deidara managed to block the attack, albeit narrowly.

Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, one of the deflected shuriken suddenly exploded.

Amid the spreading white smoke, a face that Deidara had dreamed of tearing apart appeared—

Uchiha Itachi!

He burst out of the smoke, his eyes glowing with a crimson light that pierced through the enemy.

"Oh no!!"

The moment he saw those eyes, Deidara knew he was in trouble. Never look into the eyes of an Uchiha—that was a consensus among all ninja.

In the next second, countless crimson lights burst from Itachi's body.

By the time Deidara regained his senses, he found himself tied to a cross.

Crows descended from the sky, landing on him and mercilessly pecking at his flesh.

In the real world.

Itachi let out a sigh of relief.

The reason he had been dragging out the fight with Deidara was to wear down his patience.

Then, by provoking him with words, he caused Deidara to lose his accurate judgment of the situation. As it turned out, this tactic worked.

If Deidara hadn't been so eager to finish the fight quickly and lowered his altitude, Itachi wouldn't have been able to reach him.

"Anyway, I've won."

Itachi calmly sent a kunai flying, ready to end Deidara once and for all.

At that moment, an arm reached out from the back of the bird, tightly gripping his ankle.

Simultaneously, the Deidara in front of Itachi quickly lost color, turning into white clay that began to expand.

"Hahaha, damn Uchiha brat, did you really think I'd fall for the same trick twice?"

"No way! Die!!" Deidara's real body detached from the bird, and with a clap of his hands, he prepared to blow up Itachi, who now had nowhere to escape!

But in the next second, a calm voice rang out.

"Before you set off the explosion, you might want to take a look at yourself."

These words seemed to act like a switch. The scene before Deidara's eyes rapidly changed.

When he looked down again, he found that the one whose ankle was grabbed and trapped on the bird was... himself!

This realization instantly sent a cold sweat down his back.

If he had really set off the explosion just now, he would have blown himself to pieces.

But he quickly shook his head in disbelief, saying:

"No way, I was careful to guard against your Sharingan."

To this, Itachi, standing on the bird's head with his hands in his pockets, calmly replied:

"Genjutsu doesn't always require the Sharingan. While the Sharingan makes it easier, other mediums like taste, smell, or even sound can be used to cast genjutsu."

Hearing this, Deidara suddenly understood.

"It was the Demon Wind Shuriken earlier! You cast a genjutsu on them, and the sound of the collision trapped me in the illusion!"

Realizing this, Deidara slumped to the ground. When he looked up at Itachi again, he saw that the Uchiha was now surrounded by a sacred, inviolable halo of light.

This...

is true art!