This was the third time everyone had seen Uchiha Kenji appear. Every time he showed up, he brought an overwhelming sense of pressure. The first time, he had cooperated with Sasuke to kill Shimura Danzo.
The second time, he had single-handedly taken down Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato's Kage Guard, directly released the Nine-Tails, and directly caused the deaths of the Fourth Hokage and his wife afterward.
So compared with Deidara, everyone was actually far more wary of this Uchiha Kenji.
"That outfit. You're…"
Uchiha Sasuke spoke expressionlessly.
"You're Sasuke, huh? You really do look like him. Like Itachi."
At that moment, Uchiha Obito stepped forward in the scene and spoke.
The moment he heard that hated name, Uchiha Sasuke's face immediately darkened, frightening Tobi, whom Uchiha Obito was playing, into retreating again and again.
When everyone saw this scene, black lines practically filled their foreheads. This was completely different from the calm, arrogant Uchiha Kenji they knew.
"What is this? Roleplay?"
Hatake Kakashi could not help roasting him.
"But it looks like the two of them don't know each other yet. That means the timeline should be before the battle where Danzo was killed. So are they here to recruit Sasuke?"
However, he immediately realized something was wrong, because Deidara in the sky launched an attack on Uchiha Sasuke right away, directly blasting Uchiha Sasuke away with a Clay Bomb.
But obviously, Uchiha Sasuke at this point was no ordinary opponent either. He directly summoned a giant snake, which coiled around him and protected him.
Of course, the result was that the giant snake was blown straight to pieces.
At that moment, Uchiha Sasuke's handsome face carried a cold edge as he opened his Sharingan.
"We're being watched by a pretty nice pair of eyes, Tobi!" Deidara called out.
But that name threw everyone into confusion again. That name was neither the Uchiha Kenji they knew nor the Uchiha Madara he claimed to be. It was actually Tobi?
"Damn it, who exactly is he?"
Jiraiya spoke in great dissatisfaction.
Even Uchiha Itachi froze for a moment. He had not expected that Uchiha Kenji would rejoin the Akatsuki Organization under the name Tobi.
Clearly, Deidara did not know Tobi's true name.
"That's Obito. Was he still pretending to be that ridiculous Tobi back then?"
Seventh Hokage Naruto spoke.
Seeing him brought back a few feelings of nostalgia.
Although Uchiha Obito had caused the deaths of Naruto's parents, they had reconciled during the Fourth Great Ninja War, so Naruto no longer hated Uchiha Obito now. Besides, in the later stages of the Fourth Great Ninja War, Uchiha Obito had also come to his senses and stood on their side, even fighting to the death in the end.
"Where's Uchiha Itachi? Tell me, and I'll let you live."
Facing two members of the Akatsuki Organization, Uchiha Sasuke showed the fearlessness of a newborn calf that did not know to fear a tiger and directly asked the question.
Yes. He had basically come up just to ask for directions.
But when Deidara heard those words, there was no doubt that they sounded like provocation. Naked provocation.
"Damn it, the Sharingan? This guy really is Itachi's little brother. He was only able to take down Orochimaru thanks to the Uchiha Clan's bloodline. Just another self-important bastard who inherited a good bloodline."
Deidara immediately became half-dead with anger. So what if he had a good Kekkei Genkai? What was so amazing about that?
Hearing those words, Uchiha Sasuke rushed forward. In an instant, he struck, directly cutting Tobi in midair.
"One down. Now I'll ask you, the loudmouth, about Uchiha Itachi."
Uchiha Sasuke looked at Deidara, who had leaped onto a tree trunk, and spoke coldly.
"What are you doing, Tobi? Don't let your guard down just because he's a kid," Deidara said instead of answering, shouting toward Tobi, who had already gotten back up nearby.
"His Body Flicker Technique was just too fast. I couldn't dodge it." Tobi spread his hands, expressing his helplessness.
"This guy…"
Uchiha Sasuke also realized that something was wrong with this Tobi. His attack just now had not managed to wound him.
Although the other party kept saying Sasuke's Body Flicker Technique had been too fast, the other party's Body Flicker Technique was clearly even faster.
The battle was on the verge of erupting. Deidara directly started with Clay Bombs, using C1 in an attempt to blow Uchiha Sasuke to death.
However, his Earth Release ran into Uchiha Sasuke's Lightning Release, which was practically a natural counter sent from heaven.
The two of them only exchanged a brief round of blows, testing each other's attack methods.
Uchiha Sasuke had already seen through Deidara's ability. He used the mouths on both hands to create Clay Bombs.
As for Deidara, he had also realized that Uchiha Sasuke was extremely fast and would not be easy to deal with.
He directly used clay to create two explosive clay figures and sent them charging at Uchiha Sasuke. At first, Uchiha Sasuke thought they were only childish tricks, but he soon realized just how troublesome those things were.
After his sword cut those clay figures in half, under Deidara's control, they grew back again.
Now the two clay figures from before had suddenly multiplied into many more. Even worse, these clay figures could explode in midair, which made them far harder to deal with than ordinary puppets from the Puppet Technique.
For a time, Uchiha Sasuke could only flee into the forest to dodge, but in just a moment, they had already caught up to him. Immediately afterward, countless clay figures attached themselves to his body.
Boom!
A terrifying explosion came from deep within the forest.
Although everyone knew that the later Uchiha Sasuke was alive and well, and that Tobi would even become Uchiha Sasuke's partner when they joined the Akatsuki Organization together, seeing Uchiha Sasuke suffer such a huge loss right at the start still made their hearts tremble.
"Sure enough, he's nothing special." Deidara had only just finished speaking smugly when he saw a charred log fall from the sky.
"Body Replacement Technique? Sasuke can already use the Body Replacement Technique to this level. He must have received decent training under Orochimaru." Hatake Kakashi understood at a glance. The reason Uchiha Sasuke had been able to avoid that terrifying attack was the Body Replacement Technique.
Because he had clearly not awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan yet, it was even more impossible for him to rely on the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan's Susanoo.
Facing this situation, Deidara directly summoned a Clay Dragon. From the enormous dragon's mouth, countless Clay Bombs were fired.
Any random Clay Bomb could turn into a Clay Dragon. For Uchiha Sasuke, there was no doubt that this was extremely unfavorable, because Deidara had already seen through the maximum range of his Chidori Current. Sasuke had failed to strike him down at the critical moment.
"That's Kakashi's move, right? A shape transformation that can both stretch and be thrown isn't bad at all."
Deidara praised it.
Immediately afterward, he dropped a small Clay Dragon bomb. In order to dodge the Clay Dragon's bomb, Uchiha Sasuke stepped straight into Deidara's trap.
Clearly, those Clay Bombs just now had been made into Landmines, and they directly exploded.
When the smoke and dust scattered, everyone saw that at some unknown point, Uchiha Sasuke had already entered Cursed Seal Level 2. Clearly, the explosion just now had been too horrifying. If it had been an ordinary body, it probably would not have been able to endure at all and would have been blown apart.
He could only instantly enter Cursed Seal Level 2 to withstand it head-on.
After entering Cursed Seal Level 2, his physical qualities had clearly improved by a great deal. Everyone had previously seen Kaguya Kimimaro's Cursed Seal Level 2 form, and looking at it now, the fact that he could withstand Gaara's Sabaku Taiso probably was not only because the Kaguya Clan's Kekkei Genkai was astonishing. The Cursed Seal's enhancement of physical strength was also absurd.
"Homing Missile above and Landmines below?"
Uchiha Sasuke had already realized the key point. As long as he stepped on one, it would explode.
But he could not simply stop running either, because if he did not run, he would be hit by the Homing Missile, especially the extra-large Clay Dragon bomb.
Everyone began thinking about what they would do if they were the ones facing this situation. There was almost no way to avoid it.
If you did not run, you would be blasted by the Homing Missile. If you ran, you would step on a Landmine and explode.
Fighting from the ground against the air was far too passive.
"Being able to fly is way too unfair," Jiraiya could not help saying.
He remembered how Deidara had captured Gaara before. In essence, he had used height against a lower target, and even used Sunagakure as a hostage to force Gaara to take that enormous bomb that absolutely had to be stopped.
Otherwise, with the strength Deidara had displayed, there was no way he could have captured someone inside Sunagakure.
That was why he said flying was too unfair. But battles between ninja were just like this. There was no such thing as fair or unfair.
Still, everyone tacitly recorded all of this information, writing down the key points of the battle, especially the crucial intelligence about Deidara. Many of the abilities and the power of the Clay Bombs he displayed this time had not been shown when he captured Gaara in Sunagakure before.
They were even gathering intelligence on Uchiha Sasuke's Cursed Seal, trying to determine its specific strength.
But very soon, they saw that Uchiha Sasuke, who had used his wings to protect himself, had one entire wing instantly blown apart. Even a body in Cursed Seal Level 2 could not withstand such reckless treatment.
"You can't fly anymore, right? You've only got one wing left. That's what you get for using your wing as a shield," Deidara said smugly. "This should end the fight."
Just as Deidara was about to proudly launch the final blow, he discovered that Uchiha Sasuke had not been doing nothing. At some point, two enormous shuriken had appeared in midair and nearly struck Deidara.
"Hmph. As if that kind of thing could hit me." Deidara sneered, then released the C2 bomb. "You have no foothold. If you enter the Landmine field, you'll definitely be blown to pieces."