"Even though I don't hate the idea of teamwork."
"But among these people, is there anyone who even knows what that is?"
The mask-wearing man, looking happy and joking, stood steadily on the branch of the big bird, raising his head to look high up.
His usually playful voice became calm, giving off a strange and dark feeling.
It was completely different from the personality he had shown earlier.
A red Sharingan flashed behind the mask and then disappeared without any noticeable action.
Deidara did indeed head towards the woods near the town; he wasn't lying or hiding anything.
The town looked shiny and bright, and if Deidara was really going to find clay, then those shiny things must be porcelain.
"Hmm..."
Although he hadn't spent too much time with Deidara, he had a pretty good understanding of the guy's personality.
Deidara's pursuit of art was far more important than betraying the organization or anything else.
But his explosive destruction only threatened the safety of those around him and damaged the environment.
14
In other words, this kid was basically born to be a rebel.
Although his personality wasn't bad, and he was actually easier to talk to than most people in the Akatsuki organization.
After all, those people all had some kind of weird quirk, and Deidara was already one of the better ones.
Clay, huh.
Tobi shook his head.
That's about it. He only came here to play around.
This kind of small, harmless task didn't even need to be reported. He had other things to take care of.
Tobi crossed his arms for a moment, then easily shrugged his shoulders.
"Ah--since the senior has already left, Tobi can play by himself!"
The white clay bird quickly landed on the ground and kept shrinking until it was smaller than his palm.
Deidara casually threw the clay bird into his weapon pouch. He tidied himself up in the woods, using his hat to completely cover his face.
Although he couldn't change the Akatsuki robe, he could still cover his face.
That should be enough.
Even though the guarding level against the Akatsuki organization has increased recently in various countries, the Land of Pottery is a place dedicated to economic development, relying only on porcelain.
The Akatsuki organization mainly caused trouble in countries with ninja villages; they didn't really bother with these small places.
It was simply unnecessary.
"Let's go in and take a look, yeah."
Deidara slightly pursed his lips, pulled up the sleeve on his arm, and headed directly towards the Land of Pottery.
...
Outside the Land of Pottery.
Hatake Satoru was holding a map. The style of his sunglasses was slightly different from before.
But Sasori couldn't see much of a difference. Hatake Satoru had a whole cabinet of black sunglasses that looked almost the same. His eyes, just like his brother's mask, couldn't be shown to people.
Of course, his brother's mask was even more thorough.
Hatake Satoru would actually take off his sunglasses and wink at girls when they called him handsome.
These sunglasses were worn very seriously on one hand, but could be taken off casually on the other.
It made Sasori unsure of what kind of person he really was.
"Do you have to use a map to walk around? Even though I haven't been back for decades, I still remember this tiny place."
Sasori sat on Karna's shoulders, turned his head, and said to Hatake Satoru, who was walking and studying the map.
"The most important thing about going out to play is to see things for yourself. Besides, your explanations would definitely be boring."
"Like, who has poison hidden in their house~ or what amazing things are hidden somewhere~"
Hatake Satoru waved his hand at Sasori dismissively, causing Sasori to grind his teeth inwardly.
However, Hatake Satoru only briefly glanced at some of the important locations inside the Land of Pottery. As he rolled up the map, he turned to look at Sasori.
Because Sasori was going to sit on him, most of Karna's spiky golden armor had retracted.
It looked like a pretty normal group.
Hatake Satoru sized up Sasori's face and said.
"Speaking of which, I've been a little curious about something."
"Why do you always have to make yourself taller? Do you think you're too short?"
"You froze yourself at fifteen, and also froze your height at one meter six, so are you always trying to make yourself taller because you're self-conscious~?"
Hatake Satoru wore a sly smile, looking like he was teasing him.
"Hmm...?"
This behavior was simply subconscious. When fighting, everyone probably thinks it's cooler to look down on others from a high position.
But Sasori's height was what it was, so stepping on ropes to gain height before, and sitting on Karna's shoulders now, were both natural things.
At least, he thought it was a natural thing.
But hearing it from Hatake Satoru, it felt like the whole thing had changed.
How could this guy see things in such a strange way?
Sasori's forehead unconsciously bulged with veins, and then he realized an even more serious problem.
Sitting on Karna's shoulders, he didn't seem that much taller than Hatake Satoru.
His eyes moved up and down.
"Who are you calling a shorty?!"
"Who else but you would care about something like that?!"
Hatake Satoru was just weird, in every sense, on every level.
"Meh."
Hatake Satoru pulled down his eyelid with a finger, made a childish face, and stuck his tongue out at Sasori.
Sasori paused for a moment, feeling something was wrong. Although it was normal to use puppets to carry his body, being called out by Hatake Satoru made it feel very strange.
Damn it.
Sasori reluctantly jumped off Karna's shoulders.
Then the three of them entered the Land of Pottery together.
At the same time, Deidara also passed through the forest and officially entered the Land of Pottery.
"Ah--it's so blinding here, everywhere is full of shiny porcelain."
"And the colors are so... bright, it's an assault on my sense of beauty."
Even though Hatake Satoru was wearing sunglasses, he couldn't avoid the damage to his vision from the occasional bright light.
Although the two puppets, one big and one small, didn't have a special feeling, from Hatake Satoru's perspective, their pupils had both contracted into vertical slits.
"How tacky, this place wasn't like this before."
Sasori had also noticed the gaudy porcelain. Most of the porcelain used to be white or in simple and elegant colors.
But this place, whether it was the porcelain placed outside or the porcelain tiled on the walls, was all strikingly tacky.
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