Iwagakure, Training Ground.
Deidara separated his hands slowly, and as he did, a white glow appeared in between his palms, looking at the glow, Deidara was stunned and exclaimed, "Old man… old man… look... take a look!"
Sandaime Tsuchikage Ōnoki who was dozing on the rock not far away was disturbed by Deidara's exclaim, annoyed, he scolded Deidara, "Stop yelling… and continue the training."
Deidara didn't care about Ōnoki's scolding, and shouted more excitedly, "Take a look old man, I… I finally learned it… I really learned Dust Release!"
Deidara's words further irritated Ōnoki, he opened his eyes to scold Deidara, "Stop playing around Deidara, continue your training… Dust Release is not ordinary Jutsu, if you make even a small mistake you will be seriously injured… back when I was your age and training Dust Release, I barely surviv-!" Halfway he stopped and looked at Deidara with a stunned expression. Ōnoki was really shocked to see a white glow in the center of Deidara's palms.
"This can't be… Deidara, you actually…" Ōnoki had no words to speak, when he saw the bright white light shine in between Deidara's palm, only one thought was circulating in his mind, 'Perhaps, the position of Yondaime Tsuchikage should be handed over to Deidara.'
No one knows the difficulty of training and mastering Dust Release better than Ōnoki.
Fusing three different chakra natures is much more difficult than one may imagine, and the fact of the matter is that ninety-nine percent of the shinobi don't even fulfill the requirement of having Fire, Air, and Earth Chakra Natures.
And the remaining one percent of shinobis who do meet the basic requirements of mastering Dust Release by having Fire, Air, and Earth Chakra natures, either don't have enough talent, lack in terms of Chakra reserves, or simply don't have enough theoretical understanding of concepts, and are unable to fuse Fire, Earth, and Wind chakra natures. Heck, even his son and granddaughter are unqualified to master Dust Release.
This is why Ōnoki has been pessimistic for years now. He worried that Dust Release would disappear just like Konoha's Wood Release, and thought he might be the last user. However, all these thoughts changed the moment he saw the white light in between Deidara's palms.
True, Deidara is flawed, frivolous, impulsive, immature, unreliable, and has some bizarre tendency to unnecessarily pursue 'art,' and there is no doubt that he lacks the temperament of a Kage, however, the fact that he seems to have learned Dust Release makes up for all these flaws. Because in this cruel Shinobi World, what really matters is the strength of a Shinobi. What's the use of a Kage who only has the temperament but lacks the strength to protect the village from the enemies?
No doubt, a Kage must have the ability to govern the village, however, if the Kage doesn't have the strength to protect the village, no matter how good his ability is to govern the village, it's of no use. In the final analysis, strength is everything!
Deidara didn't know what was going on in Ōnoki's mind, he was just excited at his success, "Do you see it, old man? I told you I will learn Dust Release, and now I have mastered it!"
Although Ōnoki was very happy and proud of Deidara's success, to make sure that he didn't get complacent, Ōnoki still spoke in his naturally stern expression, "Humph, stop getting overconfident… you have barely even touched the threshold, you are still far from actually mastering Dust Release!"
Ōnoki's words deflated Deidara, he pouted, and said, "Don't underestimate me old man… just you wait and see, within a month, I will perfectly master Dust Release!"
Just as Ōnoki was about to reply to Deidara, suddenly from the corner of his eyes, he spotted an orange cat in the distance, it seemed to be trying to sneak inside.
"A Ninja cat?!" From a single glance, Ōnoki was able to determine that it wasn't any ordinary cat, but rather a Ninja cat!
As Ōnoki noticed the Orange cat, the Orange cat also spotted Ōnoki and Deidara and came towards them.
Arriving in front of the two, the Orange cat observed Deidara for a while, then muttered, "Meow, he really looks stupid, no wonder his identity was exposed the first time he acted."
The orange cat is none other than Kasai, Uchiha Shinichi's Summon. Uchiha Shinichi was unable to inform Kuroto of Akatsuki's action in Iwagakure, but he didn't want the secrets of Amatsukami to be exposed, so he took the risk of summoning Kasai and warning Deidara with her help.
"You damn cat… what nonsense are talking about?!" Deidara shouted in annoyance.
This was the first time in his life when Deidara was embarrassed so badly, now can even a ninja cat come and make fun of him?
Unperturbed by Deidara's shout, Kasai yawned lazily, then he squatted on the ground and stretched out his paw towards Deidara, "Meow, ten thousand Ryō!"
Deidara's eyes twitched at the shamelessness of the Kasai, "First you make fun of me, and now you are asking me for money, do you think I am an idiot?"
Facing Deidara's anger, Kasai wasn't afraid. Even if his head was cut off, even if all the blood in his body was drained, he wouldn't give any information unless his fees had been paid, "Meow, if you want the information, then pay me… until then, I am not telling you anything!"
Hearing the word information, Ōnoki narrowed his eyes. He stopped Deidara from doing anything foolish and questioned the cat, "What information are you talking about? And who sent you here?"
Kasai yawned with a stretched-out paw. His meaning was extremely clear, if you don't pay me ten thousand Ryō, don't expect any answer from me.
Normally, Ōnoki wouldn't entertain such an attitude, especially not from a Ninja cat that appeared out of nowhere, however, the times are tough now, and for some unknown reason, Ōnoki felt a little uneasy, it was as if he didn't take the information that the cat has brought with her, something bad might happen. So, he reached out into his pocket, and took out a few notes, after counting them, he passed ten notes to the cat while saying, "Now tell me, but know that if it is not something important, then I'll make you understand what is the result of trying to swindle the Tsuchikage is!"
Kasai happily snatched the ten notes from Ōnoki's hand and put them in the small bad hanging on his body, of course, Ōnoki's warning was completely ignored by him. After doing that, he looked at Deidara in contempt and said, "Meow, Deidara, you are such a fool, on your first operation your identity was exposed. The Akatsuki Organization has now infiltrated Iwagakure, you should run quickly, lest you will be caught and the secrets of the Amatsukami Organization will be revealed. Make sure that you don't bring trouble to the boss and the others in any way because of your foolishness and incompetence." Then without waiting for Deidara or Ōnoki's response, in their confused eyes, he disappeared from the training ground leaving behind white smoke.
Stunned because of the cat's words, Deidara looked at Ōnoki and said, "Old man, were we cheated by the cat? It ran away with ten thousand Ryō and only told some bizarre things."
Ōnoki had a thoughtful expression on his face as he deeply stared at Deidara and questioned, "Deidara, tell me the truth, by chance, did you join the Amatsukami Organization?!"
ROAR!
BOOM!
Deidara had no chance to answer Ōnoki's question as suddenly a loud roar sounded followed by an explosion.
Deidara was taken aback, "Don't tell me this is what the cat was talking about?"
Ōnoki looked in the direction from where the sound came from and his expression became solemn, 'That's where I sealed Han, has Akatsuki Organization really infiltrated the village?!'
…
Looking at the large man wearing steam armor, Shinichi sighed, 'It seems my luck isn't good today.'
Originally he just wanted to roam around casually and wait for Kasai to deliver the message to Deidara. Although the message has been delivered as he knows that Kasai has completed the mission he gave her, however, he also accidentally encountered someone whose whereabouts who wasn't even supposed to be present in Iwagakure based on White Zetsu's information.
Kahyō who was standing next to Shinichi looked at the Jinchuriki of Five Tails and muttered, "Well well… who would have thought that the location where Tsuchikage hid the Jinchuriki of Five Tails is Iwagakure itself? Did he think that the village is the safest place, and we would never be able to find you here?"
Han–the Jinchuriki of five tails–looked at the two members of the Akatsuki Organization and said viciously, "The two of you are really arrogant, you dare to sneak in Iwagakure alone… did the two of you think that both you will be able to survive?" As Han said these words, immediately Iwagakure shinobi started to appear here, in less than a minute, over a hundred Iwagakure shinobi had surrounded them.
Kahyō shrugged, "What makes you think that we are the only ones who came here?"
Hearing Kahyō's words, Han's expression changed, and the very next moment a loud explosion resounded from another part of the village.
BOOM!
Hearing the sound of an explosion, the Iwagakure shinobi was taken aback and looked at Shinichi and Kayo in anger, "Damn you Akatsuki!"
Seeing that Iwagakure was burning in anger, Shinichi knew that the situation had already gotten out of hand, and couldn't help but sigh, "Sigh… don't blame me… it's not my fault that the situation becomes like this."
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