"Brother Scorpion, we've been searching for three days already, but we still haven't found the mining village. Is your intel fake?"
At this moment, the Art Duo had no idea they were being targeted.
Deidara circled around in the sky a few times. After still finding nothing, he landed and complained.
"The intel came from Zetsu. It shouldn't be wrong. Recently, in the Land of Rivers, a Black Hoe Clan appeared. They specialize in selling all kinds of minerals on the black market."
Sasori of the Red Sand's voice sounded heavy and hoarse. "That clan must have a massive mineral source. As long as we find them, we won't have to rely on Kakuzu anymore, and we won't have to run around doing missions."
"Fine, I'll stick with you a few more days then." Deidara said helplessly.
After speaking, Deidara carried Sasori into the sky again, preparing to search another area.
Just as they were flying, a small patch of shadow suddenly covered their figures, blocking the sunlight above.
They looked up — and saw a figure radiating dazzling golden light from behind, so bright that they couldn't even see the face clearly.
"A flying ninja?!"
Deidara cried out, "Did the old man send someone to drag me back?!"
When it came to flying ninjutsu, the most famous was Iwagakure's Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock Technique.
Sasori seemed to notice something and hurriedly urged, "He's not an Iwa-nin. Deidara, land quickly."
At the same time, his mouth opened wide into a rectangular shape and fired ultra-high-density poison needles at the figure in the sky — like a dense rain of bullets.
The poison needles were extremely fast. Before Deidara could even react, the rain of needles surged upward, about to drown the figure.
But in the next second, hundreds and thousands of poison needles seemed to crash into an invisible wall of air and all bounced back.
The needle rain poured down like a storm.
Seeing this, Deidara quickly controlled the white bird to descend, while throwing out several small white paper birds that flapped their wings and flew toward the sky.
"Explode!"
Deidara quickly made a "Ram" hand seal and shouted.
Boom—
Several overlapping explosions erupted. The dazzling flames burst in the sky like fireworks.
Unfortunately, since it was still daytime, the fireworks weren't as beautiful.
A gust of wind blew away the smoke in the sky. Deidara and Sasori, having escaped the shadow's coverage, finally saw the figure clearly.
It was a man about 1.8 meters tall, wearing a black one-piece long robe, with a pure white mask matching his hair color that didn't even have eye holes. His entire body emitted a mysterious aura.
This man, of course, was Izayoi, who had used the Transformation Technique.
Looking down at Deidara and Sasori below, Izayoi muttered,
"Let's start with a greeting gift."
After speaking, he raised his right hand, palm facing the sky.
A wisp of chakra flame gathered in his palm, then quickly disappeared.
"Forget it, that technique isn't complete yet. Using it as a greeting is too embarrassing."
"Let's try the new move! With my current chakra, I should be able to pull it off…"
Izayoi formed a "Ram" hand seal with both hands. Instantly, blue chakra flames surged from his body.
Invisible air currents blew upward, making his long white hair flutter wildly.
He maintained the hand seal for over half a minute, and during that time, the chakra flames never disappeared.
Seeing this, Deidara, who had landed on a slope, said,
"What's he doing?"
"Probably casting a jutsu. Be careful. Ninjas who can fly by themselves are never simple."
Sasori said in a deep voice, while pulling out a scroll to prepare to release his puppet army.
But soon, his movements stopped.
Beside him, Deidara, looking up at the sky, opened his mouth wide in shock.
They saw Izayoi in the sky waving his hand and greeting them from afar,
"If you can survive, let's be friends."
After saying that, he flew away.
By now it was midday, and the sun hung high in the sky like a giant fireball.
But whether it was just their imagination or not, that giant fireball seemed to be getting closer, heading toward Deidara and Sasori.
"W-what is that…?"
Meanwhile, over at the Eighth Team and the convoy, who were taking a detour up a slope, everyone stopped in unison.
They all stared in shock at the sky above where the Art Duo was.
Some ordinary people with weak nerves were even so scared they collapsed to the ground.
"A s-shooting star?!"
"No, that's… a meteorite!!"
That's right — the huge fireball was actually a meteorite, burning into a massive ball of fire from the friction with the atmosphere as it fell at high speed.
Looking at the direction the meteorite was falling, Kurenai Yuhi muttered,
"Is this… just a coincidence? It must be coincidence, right?"
After all, in this world, how could there possibly be a jutsu that summons meteorites?
But she didn't notice — behind her, Hinata was gazing at the meteorite with sparkling eyes full of admiration.
"Deidara, run!"
Back to the Art Duo — Sasori quickly shouted.
"So… so cool…"
However, Deidara just stood there, staring blankly at the falling meteorite, already picturing the dazzling scene after it hit:
"This is true art…"
"Idiot!"
Sasori cursed angrily, extended a huge iron tail from his back, wrapped it around Deidara, and leapt down the slope.
At the same time, he pulled out a scroll and released his trump card.
With a poof sound, the white mist cleared.
A human puppet appeared beside Sasori — wearing a black one-piece long robe, with human skin but puppet-made skeleton and internal organs.
This puppet was none other than the Third Kazekage.
Sasori connected chakra threads to the human puppet. The Third Kazekage spread his arms wide, and countless black iron sands surged out from his sleeves, forming a huge triangular pyramid in the air below.
Sasori landed on the iron sand pyramid with Deidara, then controlled the Third Kazekage to use Magnet Release to shoot the pyramid toward another mountain, pulling the Third Kazekage along the mountain wall, trying to hide behind the mountain.
But the meteorite was falling too fast. There simply wasn't enough time.
Thus, Sasori had to change plans, making the Third Kazekage manipulate the iron sand pyramid to slam downward, blasting out an artificial cave in the mountain.
Sasori brought Deidara and the Third Kazekage into the cave, quickly using iron sand to build a sturdy wall to seal the entrance.
Then he produced a huge amount of iron sand, layer after layer wrapping around them, forming a large black sphere.
Boom————
Almost at the same time the black sphere was completed, a deafening explosion erupted through the mountains.
The sound of the meteorite crashing into the earth echoed through the valley and was amplified by the overlapping echoes, instantly tearing through the iron sand walls and stealing away the hearing of Sasori, Deidara, and all creatures nearby.
The terrifying heat shockwave killed a massive number of animals and plants and immediately destroyed the impact zone's mountain body, violently smashing surrounding mountains. The cliffs shattered.
Even from more than ten or twenty kilometers away, at the slope where the Eighth Team and the convoy were, they could hear the explosion and see a massive mushroom cloud rising in the distance.
Even though mountains blocked the way, they could still feel the ground trembling slightly beneath their feet.
Since they were standing on a slope, it meant the whole mountain was slightly shaking.
This showed just how powerful that giant fireball truly was.