At this moment, Deidara’s vision changed, the original dark night sky that was filled with countless stars and a silvery crescent moon now turned into a scarlet world with no stars and only a full moon of red color with nine black Tomoe on it.
“A Genjutsu?” Deidara finally realized with a shocked expression… and immediately wanted to weave the hand signs to disrupt his chakra flow in order to break free of the Genjutsu, but was again taken aback as he felt the sensation of several spikes driven through his body that took away his body’s freedom, therefore, he couldn’t move at all!
“Well… that wasn’t too hard, unexpectedly, it went quite well if I must say…” while muttering these words, Uchiha Tsukihi wearing the Homusubi disguise walked out of the woods.
After receiving the message that Deidara has headed towards the Fire Temple, Tsukihi immediately sneaked out of the village and came all the way towards the Fire Temple… it took her a complete day of travel to reach the Fire Temple, and she had consumed much of her chakra reserves in doing so…
The moment she sneaked inside the back mountain of the Fire Temple, she happened to stumble upon the scene of Chiriku confronting Deidara just now.
Fortunately, she was here on time, otherwise, the body of this former member of ‘Twelve Guardian Ninjas would have completely disappeared in the splendid fireworks of art.
Chiriku, who was bound by Deidara’s explosive centipede used this opportunity and broke free of it, then, he looked towards the third party who has suddenly appeared at the battlefield, and when he noticed the mask on the other party’s face, he was taken aback and asked with a vigilant expression, “You… you are Homusubi of Amatsukami?”
Tsukihi glanced at Chiriku and said, “You are welcome…”
“Uh…” he was reminded that if not for Homusubi he would have died, so he lightly bowed towards Homusubi and said, “Thank you for saving me just now.”
Tsukihi nodded lightly, then curiously looked at this ninja monk who is worth 30 million Ryo.
From her basic analysis, Chiriku is not weak, his strength should at least be Jonin class, and coupled with ‘The Gift of the Hermit Group’ that he has mastered, his strength should surpass the Jonin rank, thus reaching the rank of an elite Jonin.
This is not too strange if one thinks about it, after all, Chiriku was selected as one of the ‘Twelve Guardian Ninjas’, so his strength is not questionable.
In fact, if Tsukihi remembers correctly, in the cannon, Chiriku had the complete upper hand against the Zombie Combo of the Akatsuki Organization in the early stage of their battle.
But after all, a monk is a monk, even if he is considered a ninja monk, he is still not a pure shinobi… so, he is rigid in his fighting style, not to mention the abilities of the Zombie Combo of Akatsuki were too weird and it wasn’t too strange that he wasn’t able to figure out a way around their abilities and died in the end.
But all of this doesn’t matter to Tsukihi, so not caring about Chiriku anymore, she lightly said to him, “Get out of here… I will handle this guy; you don’t have the ability.” and then withdrew her gaze towards Deidara.
Chiriku hesitated a little but finally chose to compromise, and returned back to the Fire Temple to manage the overall situation and calm down the chaos.
With Chiriku gone, the focus shifted towards Deidara, and at this moment, Deidara’s voice reached Tsukihi’s ears, “Hey you… what kind of Genjutsu did you use on me… why can’t I move?! Move… damn it!”
As Deidara’s said these words, Tsukihi’s expression under the Homusubi mask was filled with surprise, she didn’t expect that Deidara’s mental fortitude is strong enough to be able to resist the painful and tormenting sensation of having spikes driven through his body, and yet be able to speak.
In fact, there are even signs that he has started to break free of the Genjutsu.
Seeing this Tsukihi’s gaze flickered… Kuroto believes that Itachi and Shisui–who are extremely proficient in Genjutsu–are the best candidates to deal with Deidara… in the cannon, not only did Itachi subdue Deidara with just a single gaze, he even left a trauma on the young Deidara’s mind that he wasn’t able to overcome no matter how he tried.
Therefore, originally, Kuroto wanted Itachi to deal with Deidara… but considering that his main objective behind finding Deidara is to collect his cells and tissues, therefore, he hesitated a little and finally chose to do the task himself. After all, the matter of collecting cells and tissues has to be kept a secret.
If possible, Kuroto doesn’t want to involve any third party in between, therefore, he dispelled the idea of contacting Itachi and Shisui and came himself or rather, herself.
As for the reason why Kuroto used the Tsukihi Clone for the task? Well, it wasn’t without consideration. He feels that directly dealing with Deidara would be a hassle, so he wanted to use the same method Itachi used in the cannon and subdue Deidara in just a single attempt without any needless battle. This is definitely the best method, and it would also allow Kuroto to collect Deidara’s cells quite easily.
And if everything went well, Kuroto also planned to use coercion and intimidation to recruit Deidara into Amatsukami or make him the second undercover spy in the Akatsuki Organization…
This is because Kuroto admires Deidara quite a lot, the weird obsession with art, the tendency to create explosions in the name of art, and the eternal pursuit of art even in death is something not many people have in this Shinobi World… Moreover, Deidara’s abilities are also very good, so he is a good candidate to become a member of the Amatsukami.
But Tsukihi is not sure whether it will be possible to recruit Deidara… This is because the first impression she has left on Deidara is not intimidating enough. The Genjutsu she used on Deidara was weaker compared to the Genjutsu Itachi used on him, as such, Deidara was able to resist it to a certain extent and there are even signs that he is about to break free of it.
The first impression is very good… if in the first impression, Tsukihi had shown her true intimidation, then Deidara would have definitely lost the will to resist her, but because it is not very good, so not only did Deidara not lose his will to resist her, but he was even shouting and yelling at her, “Hey… are you deaf…? I am talking to you… answer me!”
“Tch…” Tsukihi clicked her tongue upon seeing the plan fail, and couldn’t help but slander in her heart, ‘It seems I really can’t be as good as Itachi or Shisui when it comes to Genjutsu.’
After studying all sorts of Ninja Arts, Kuroto has found that his talent is worst for Time and space Jutsu, as well as Genjutsu… And mastering these Ninja Arts requires a lot of effort, and even when he is able to master them, the effect is still not that good.
This is also the reason why he rarely uses Genjutsu even when controlling the Homusubi Clone.
‘Forget it… even if the plan failed, it doesn’t matter all that much… I can at least collect Deidara’s cells and tissues…’ she thought to herself, then took out a Kunai from inside her Cloak and harled it towards Deidara.
Whiish…
The Kunai, glimmering with cold light instantly cut through Deidara’s shoulder and nailed a piece of his flesh and blood on the trunk of a tree behind him.
As the piercing pain reached his senses, Deidara was somewhat frightened, “Damn it… you despicable guy!”
Tsukihi ignored his painful cry and glanced at the Kunai nailed to the tree trunk.
“The Kunai has cut off several muscles of Deidara’s shoulder… and it carries both blood and his muscle tissues… this much should be more than enough for me to clone Deidara’s cells…” she muttered with a thoughtful expression.
The main objective of finding Deidara has been completed, so Tsukihi breathed a brief sigh of relief, then for the second objective, she coldly looked at the golden-blonde-haired kid in front of her and said, “Deidara… I will give you two choices… either join Amatsukami or die…!”
“How about I chose the third?!” Deidara roared in struggle…
With this roar, he finally managed to bring his hands together then immediately weaved the hand signs, and shouted, “Now witness my art, huh!”
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶