"I'd heard that the Kazekage is young but he is still a kid...haha. All 4 of us being here is overkill" Kakuzu said
"Since it has got to this I think it's best if we start the attack." Sasori said as he was getting ready to fight Gaara now but Deidara stopped him and said "The Kazekage is my prey. As we decided, I will fight with the Kazekage."
Deidara then put his hand in his Akatsuki coat and pulled out some balls of white clay. Gaara saw all this but he didn't understand what Deidara was planning to do. The mouths on Deidara's hands then swallowed the balls of clay and started chewing them.
"Are you saying that after walking this far, I don't get to have any fun?" Hidan asked disappointedly.
Kakuzu looked at the shinobis coming outside the village who were led by Kankuro and Baki. The elders were also with the group of shinobis.
"I don't care if you guys fight or not. I just want it to be finished before dawn so that we can start the extraction process." Sasori said.
By this time, the mouths on Deidara's palms started spewing out the chewed-up clay. They were doing it so fast that very quickly a lot of clay started forming under Deidara's feet.
"What is this jutsu?" Gaara muttered as he had never seen someone do it. Tsunade hadn't shared the information of the individual strengths and jutsus information with Gaara. Although Itachi had given her information about most of them, she couldn't trust others with it. She didn't know what all spies are in her and the hidden sand and if this information could reach the ears of the Akatsuki.
The clay that was under Deidara's feet now started to take shape and within seconds, it formed into a complete white OWL. The owl was big enough for a single person to stand on it and it made no sound.
"This is the first time I am seeing this blondie fight." Hidan said as he looked at the Owl.
The Owl then flapped his wings and Deidara jumped on his back. The Owl suddenly started flying and flew high enough to meet the same altitude as Gaara.
Since Gaara had no idea about his opponent's powers, Gaara stretched his hand out toward Deidara and 2 streams of sand shot themselves toward the bird. Even though the attack was fast when compared to a normal shinobi, the bird easily swerved left and right to avoid it from hitting.
"Did you think it would be that simple Lord Kazekage? Are you perhaps underestimating me and my art?" deidara asked as he saw the simple attack initiated by Gaara. He thought that by using such a simple attack against his big owl, he and his art was getting underestimated which infuriated Diedara a little.
The mouths in his palms started churning the clay more hasitily and within the next few seconds, Deidara had a dozen or so small balls of that clay in his hand. The clays looked like small spiders with small dot like eyes and flat legs. The owl flew toward Gaara and even increased its altitude a little. Gaara looked around trying to figure out what Deidara was planning.
From time to time he would send streams of sand to attack the bird but the owl was quick enough to dodge them all. After circling Gaara twice, deidara spread his hands and threw all those clay spiders toward Gaara.
Since Gaara didn't know what those clay spiders were about to do, he created a shield of sand around him from where the attack was coming. As the spiders landed on the sand sheild, they started crawling around trying to go through it but Gaara distanced them further. Seeing that they had no way to reach Gaara due to the distance, the spiders immediately exploded. The explosion was something no one expected from the spiders. Just as Gaara's instinct kicked in, the sand under his feet became a little thin and created a dome around him.
The wind pressure that was created due to the explosion, was enough to make Gaara fly back a little. The sand shinobis on the ground were also affected by it. Though none of them got hurt, they understood how dangerous that clay was so they diverted their direction a little far from under Gaara. None of them wanted to die as collateral damage to the fight happening in the air.
The elders also ordered the shinobis to take a defensive stance and maintain distance from Gaara. They didn't want the shinobis to be a burden to their Kazekage.
The shinobis looked up to see whether Gaara was alright or not and luckily the dome quickly dissipated back into the sand under Gaara and he was standing untouched.
"See he is alright...there is no need to worry." The shinobis assured each other. Seeing Gaara still stand arrogantly like before Deidara said "Don't be happy because you came out of this unscathed. I was testing the waters...haha...now you will see my art." Deidara then spread his arms toward Gaara and the constant spewing of clay from the mouths, created a structure in the air. It didn't take a long time for the spewed clay to take the shape of a centipede.
The centipede then jumped toward Gaara. Gaara immediately backed off a little and sent multiple sharp waves of sand toward the centipede to stop it from reaching him.
The sharp and sturdy sand attack did cut the centipede in multiple places but it only slowed down the centipede. The parts from where the centipede was severed, also started connecting back to each other and regaining their shape.
Gaara understood that it is going to be tricky to get rid of Deidara's clay so he unfolded his hands and raised his arm a little which made the sand on the ground rise up in the air and hold the clay from different angles. Since the clay was now held at different angles, it couldn't just escape and it's momentum toward Gaara was halted.
This move wiped the smile of Deidara's face as he saw his attack was easily countered. Seeing him like that, Gaara understood what Deidara was going to do so he immediately closed his fist which made the sand surround the clay centipede and multiple layers of sand pile on top of it. The very next second, the centipede exploded.
The explosion was properly contained and the sand didn't let any kind of impact escape the in the atmosphere. Gaara then left his control over the sand which now fell to the ground. The ball of sand that had covered the centipede now opened like a coconut with the middle being hot and even hard in some places. Gaara understood that the thermal explosion was so high that it almost melted the sand.
Deidara understood that Gaara's control over the sand was way more than he had imagined and right now they were standing in a desert full of it. This was his domain so the only upside he now had was that he was in the air.
Gaara decided that he had enough on the defensive and he wouldn't win this easily if he didn't change his strategy. He looked down and his brother and the other shinobis who were ready to attack. Since none of them knew anything about the rest of the shinobis, it would be a suicide if they just started attacking the Akatsuki blindly.
A little far away from all this, Yami was now watching the fight when he saw a bat come and fly in front of him. The bat then opened his claws and allowed the sword to drop down. With a small flick of his leg, Yami lifted the sword back up in the air and caught it. He then stretched out his arm and the bird sat on it.
"What else have you got for me?" Yami said and the bird spat a scroll from his mouth. Yami immediately kept the sword aside leaning it on a nearby stone where he had taken cover and took the scroll in his hand.
"I don't have the luxury to check my belongings in the scroll right now but I don't think anyone would dare mess with my stuff." Yami muttered as he looked at the sword and tucked it in his kimono pocket.
"You can go back in now." Yami said and the bat turned into silver strings and merged into Yami's arm.
He looked back at the fight going on between Gaara and Deidara again. Gaara's people had given him enough space to fight now. He was utilizing the sand around him to launch constant attacks at Deidara. With a flick of his wrist, pillars of sand were going up and down making Deidara's owl harder and harder to dodge.
Deidara was also getting frustrated since he had to use most of his attention to maintain his balance on the bird and not get him. But the inevitable happened and one of the pillars went straight through the owl's wing making it lose balance and fall sideways from the sky.
(What strategy will Deidara use now? Will the other Akatsuki members intervne? Ans to all your questions are posted in my P@treon)
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Link in the synopsis as well.