Both were blasted away at the same time!
Deidara flipped a dozen times in the air before crashing heavily onto the ground three hundred meters away, charred all over, bleeding from his seven orifices, and completely lost consciousness.
Tobi tried his best to maintain his intangibility, but the lightning was too violent and too dense to dodge completely!
His right arm was struck by the lightning, the entire limb charred black and hanging limply at his side.
Half of his face was scorched, revealing the hideous scars beneath.
His left leg was also struck, causing him to limp as he walked.
He knelt on one knee, gasping for air, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Three hundred meters away.
Yang Jiu retracted his lightning and stood where he was.
His ten-meter-tall silver-gold body shimmered brilliantly in the sunlight.
There wasn't even a single wound on his body.
"Can you still stand up?"
His voice was terrifyingly calm.
Tobi raised his head and looked at the giant wolf.
Its golden eyes, with pupils burning like flames, were looking down at him.
He laughed.
There was a hint of pathological madness in that smile.
"Wolf King... I'll remember you."
He stood up with all his might and staggered over to Deidara.
Deidara was completely unconscious, breathing weakly, with not a single patch of intact skin on his body.
Tobi grabbed him and activated Kamui.
Before leaving, he looked back at Yang Jiu, seemingly trying to memorize his appearance.
Then, a vortex swallowed their figures.
On the wasteland, only Yang Jiu and the still-unconscious Three-Tails remained in the distance.
Yang Jiu stood in place, watching the direction where they had disappeared.
A hint of contemplation flashed in his golden eyes.
"Akatsuki Organization..."
He muttered.
"Interesting."
He turned around and walked over to the Three-Tails.
The Three-Tails was still unconscious, its massive body sprawled on the ground, breathing steadily.
Yang Jiu raised his front paw, and a bolt of golden lightning struck it, causing the Three-Tails to shudder and its single eye to slowly open.
It looked at Yang Jiu dazedly and let out a weak growl.
Yang Jiu laughed.
"Awake?"
Yang Jiu's voice was calm.
The Three-Tails struggled to stand up, its massive body swaying, every piece of its carapace aching.
Its single eye swept across the battlefield—scorched craters everywhere, the lingering scent of lightning in the air, and those scattered clay fragments.
The two humans were gone.
And the wolf before it stood there, completely unscathed.
The Three-Tails instantly understood what had happened.
It lowered its massive head, its single eye shifting away unnaturally, not daring to meet Yang Jiu's gaze.
How embarrassing.
So embarrassing.
It was supposed to be the "clan guardian beast" that had been tamed, yet before it could even officially start its job, it had been knocked out by two humans.
In the end, it still needed its master to save it.
A Tailed Beast that had lived for thousands of years, when had it ever been so pathetic?
Watching the Three-Tails' awkward demeanor, a hint of amusement flashed in Yang Jiu's golden eyes.
"That's enough."
He said indifferently.
"You were just countered; you aren't actually that incompetent."
This wasn't just comfort.
Deidara's bombs were truly terrifying, especially those tiny bombs that could burrow into the body, which specifically countered opponents like the Three-Tails, who were massive and inflexible.
It was only because he could use the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to elementalize and completely ignore physical attacks.
If it were any other powerhouse relying on their Physical Body to withstand attacks, they would have a headache facing such overwhelming bombardment.
But when the Three-Tails heard this, not only was it not comforted, but it lowered its head even further.
Countered?
A dignified Tailed Beast, countered by a human?
Having lived for thousands of years, only to be knocked out by a brat in his twenties?
It would have been better not to say anything at all.
Yang Jiu watched it looking as if it wanted to bury its head in the ground, and couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Alright, stop being so sensitive."
He turned around and started walking forward.
"Let's go, heading home."
"There will be plenty of opportunities to get even in the future."
— —
Land of Rain, a small country forever shrouded in gloomy rain.
Deep inside a hidden cave, dim lights flickered uncertainly.
A certain point in space suddenly distorted, forming a vortex.
Two figures tumbled out of the vortex, crashing heavily onto the damp ground.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Deidara lay on the ground, coughing violently, the blood he coughed up mixing with rainwater and spreading across the floor. He was charred black all over, his clothes were tattered, his left arm was twisted at a bizarre angle, and at least five of his ribs were broken.
Tobi wasn't much better off.
His mask had long since shattered in the battle, revealing a face covered in scars. His right arm hung limply at his side, half his face was scorched, and he limped, leaving a bloody footprint on the ground with every step.
But he still forced himself to walk over to Deidara and helped him up, leaning him against the stone wall.
"Senior Deidara, are you still alive?"
His voice was hoarse, yet it still carried that annoying tone.
Deidara struggled to open his eyes and glanced at him.
"...If you aren't dead, how could I possibly die?"
Tobi laughed.
The smile tugged at the wounds on his face, making him grimace in pain.
"That's good."
Just then.
A cold, feminine voice came from the shadows.
"How pathetic."
Both of them turned their heads simultaneously.
A figure slowly stepped out of the shadows.
Light blue hair, decorated with a white paper flower, and yellow pupils devoid of any emotion.
Konan.
She glanced at the pair's miserable appearance, her brows furrowing slightly.
"The mission to capture the Three-Tails failed?"
Deidara gritted his teeth, wanting to retort, but he pulled at his wounds and hissed in pain.
Tobi spoke for him.
"Yeah~ it failed."
His tone remained light, as if he were saying the weather was nice today.
"We ran into a very powerful big guy."
"A big guy?" Konan's brows furrowed even deeper.
"A wolf."
Tobi leaned against the stone wall, his Sharingan looking into the depths of the cave.
"A ten-meter-tall silver-gold giant wolf that can shoot lightning and possesses a very strange kind of pressure."
"Pressure?"
"Yeah." Tobi nodded, his eyes becoming serious. "Just by its Aura alone, it caused Senior Deidara's Chakra to go out of control and brought my movements to a standstill."
"That feeling... it's simply impossible to describe."
Konan's pupils constricted slightly.
An existence that could make Tobi say something like that...
"And then?"
"Then we attacked together and ended up looking like this." Tobi gave a bitter smile. "In the end, I used Kamui to bring Senior Deidara back and escape."
Konan frowned and said in a deep voice:
"What is that wolf called?"
Tobi shook his head.
"I don't know, but the Three-Tails was following behind him, as if it had been tamed by him."
"Taming a Tailed Beast?"
"Write down the details."
"The Akatsuki Organization needs to pay attention to such an existence."
Konan said solemnly.
Tobi nodded.
"Understood."
Konan glanced at them and turned to disappear into the shadows.
In the cave, only Tobi and Deidara remained.
Deidara leaned against the stone wall, staring at the cave ceiling, his eyes hollow.
"Tobi."
"Hm?"
"That wolf... what kind of monster is it exactly..."
Tobi did not answer.
He just looked at his own charred arm hanging at his side, a cold light flashing in his Sharingan.
After a long while.
He said softly:
"No matter what it is..."
"Next time we meet, I won't lose again."
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