However, after using his Sand Jutsu shield to withstand that terrifying attack, Gaara's Chakra had already been mostly exhausted. At this moment, he was breathing heavily.
"Got him. He's in range."
Deidara smiled faintly. He had finally worn Gaara down to this state. Chakra was a combination of physical energy and spiritual energy. When a large amount of Chakra was consumed in a short period of time, not only would the body's stamina drop sharply, but the mind would also be greatly drained. Naturally, his attention would fall too.
For example, right now, a small clay bird had already arrived in front of Gaara, but he still had not noticed it.
"Explode!"
Deidara shouted, and the small clay bird exploded on the spot.
Fortunately, Gaara blocked the fatal strike at the last possible moment. However, Deidara had also made arrangements with his destroyed left hand. He used the clay in that hand to create Spider Bombs and mixed them into Gaara's sand. Earlier, when Gaara used that sand to form his Absolute Defense, a flaw had finally appeared.
"Art is explosion!"
Deidara directly detonated the clay spiders that had already slipped inside the Absolute Defense. The entire Absolute Defense began to collapse piece by piece.
"Beautiful tactics."
Even Uchiha Itachi had no choice but to praise Deidara. He had to admit that he had underestimated this teammate of his.
For the sake of a mercenary organization like the Akatsuki Organization, Deidara had actually gone this far. From the moment he discovered he could not break through Gaara's Absolute Defense, he had already arranged a whole series of tactics.
If the fight continued normally, he probably would not have been able to break through Gaara's Absolute Defense even if he fought until he died.
Gaara's Absolute Defense truly lived up to its name. With its strength, it would have no problem withstanding even a direct hit from an S-Rank Ninjutsu.
It could be called both offense and defense in one.
So the instant Deidara's left hand was caught by the sand, he came up with a plan. He mixed his Clay Bombs into Gaara's sand. Under normal circumstances, Gaara probably would not have needed long to realize it.
In order to divert Gaara's attention and exhaust his Chakra, Deidara had deliberately prepared the C3 bomb, forcing him to expend a huge amount of Chakra to set up the Shield of Sand in order to save Sunagakure.
If that C3 bomb had been aimed at Gaara himself, Gaara could have relied on his own Absolute Defense and would not have spent that much Chakra.
After all, defending only himself and defending the entire village required completely different levels of Chakra.
The difference had risen by at least two orders of magnitude.
Gaara, whose Chakra reserves had always been sufficient before this, had been drained almost completely in that single moment.
Only then could the rest of Deidara's plan finally begin.
This entire sequence could be called an extremely beautiful tactic. Although he had paid the price of one arm, compared to capturing or defeating a Kage Level expert, such a price was almost insignificant.
Kage Level ninja were still ninja. And as long as they were ninja, they could die. To complete a mission, they might have to pay a price ordinary people could hardly imagine.
In the footage, Gaara used the last bit of his Chakra to move the sand used in the battle out of the village.
"As expected of the Kazekage. If you'd let the sand fall, things would've been much easier for you."
Even Deidara could not help feeling respect.
At this moment, Sunagakure's crossbows finally launched their attack. Unfortunately, their accuracy was far too low, and they could not do anything to Deidara.
At this moment, Gaara, who had finished moving the sand outside the village, finally exhausted all of his Chakra. He had fulfilled his duty as Kazekage. He could no longer even maintain the Armor of Sand on his body. As he fell, Deidara's Giant Clay Bird instantly snatched him away.
"Capture complete!"
Deidara turned his head and looked at Sunagakure, speaking only those words.
The video ended there. Everyone looked at the final result and fell silent.
They had watched with their own eyes as the Kage of a village was captured by the Akatsuki Organization just like that.
To be precise, they had come to capture the One-Tail Jinchuriki. It just so happened that the One-Tail Jinchuriki was Sunagakure's Kage.
It was not as if they had never seen such a scene before. In reality, as the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, Naruto had encountered situations like this too. For example, when Nagato invaded, it had been for the sake of capturing Naruto, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
And then there was the later Otsutsuki Momoshiki, who did not even bother pretending. He directly tried to capture the Nine-Tails, extract Chakra from Naruto's body, and use it to refine Chakra Pills. Eating them would grant immortality and greatly increase one's strength.
One could imagine how dangerous the Akatsuki Organization was.
"Uchiha Madara, Nagato, Konan, Uchiha Itachi, Hoshigaki Kisame, Kakuzu, Hidan, Sasori, and Deidara."
Hatake Kakashi felt a headache coming on. Any one of these people possessed enough strength to make others pay attention.
The strength of Nagato, the leader of the Akatsuki Organization, was even more terrifying than imagination. Deidara had used tricks to force Gaara out before he finally had a chance to defeat Gaara and capture him.
But Nagato had the terrifying strength to solo Konoha, a village far stronger than Sunagakure.
The difference between them was like heaven and earth.
If Uzumaki Naruto had not ultimately convinced Nagato with Talk Release, then Konoha could have been wiped out.
Without the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique, Konoha probably really would have been finished. It could even be said that the village had been directly wiped out.
"Good thing the Akatsuki Organization seems to have some strange habit and doesn't move all together. Otherwise, there probably isn't a single village in the entire Shinobi World that could directly oppose them."
Hatake Kakashi thought this.
He remembered that the Akatsuki Organization also seemed to act in teams of two. If they continued acting according to that pattern, then they could still be dealt with.
"What a pity we didn't see Sasori make a move today. I still don't know what abilities he has. But I heard he's a genius puppet master, so it should be related to that." Hatake Kakashi thought. "Still, this Deidara is also a ruthless one. He used one of his own arms as bait to finally complete this capture operation. I didn't expect Iwagakure to have such a talented figure."
A ninja battle was a battle of intelligence. Knowing Deidara's intelligence in advance would be extremely beneficial for targeting him in the future.
"The fact that he can fly is indeed a huge problem. We need long-range attack methods to deal with him," Hatake Kakashi thought.
In truth, it was not that ninja lacked long-range attack methods. Normally, the Shuriken they carried were meant for long-range attacks.
But the range they referred to was only long-range within a normal combat distance. It was completely different from Deidara, who could pull away across most of a battlefield. Ordinary Shuriken could not be thrown that far.
So they needed to develop a technique capable of severely injuring enemies at great distances. The range of an ordinary Chidori Current was still not enough. It would have to be strengthened by several times at least. Otherwise, they could only passively endure the bombing.
Beyond that, they also had to find a way to deal with the opponent's bombs.
Especially that C3 bomb. It was far too ridiculous. One hit from that technique was enough to flatten an entire town.
Sunagakure had simply been lucky to have a Kazekage like Gaara. If the same situation had happened in Konoha, they probably really would have been doomed.
Whether Tsunade was Hokage or Kakashi himself was Hokage, neither of them would have any chance of stopping that kind of explosion.
Or if his teacher were there, he could use Flying Thunder God to transfer it away.
"Oh, right. There's still Flying Thunder God."
Hatake Kakashi instantly thought of a method to counter it. Flying Thunder God was good. Flying Thunder God had to be learned.
If he could learn Flying Thunder God, then first, he could transfer the explosion away and prevent it from exploding directly inside Konoha. Second, he could achieve the effect of catching the enemy off guard.
For example, he could instantly transfer in front of the enemy and severely wound them.
Deidara's reaction speed was fast, and he learned quickly. This trick could probably only be used once. There would only be one chance.
After a long interval, another video of the Akatsuki Organization capturing a Tailed Beast appeared, once again allowing him to confirm one thing. The Akatsuki Organization's capture of Tailed Beasts absolutely would not end quietly.
It was clear that the other side had ample motivation to capture the Tailed Beasts.
"A battle with the Akatsuki Organization is unavoidable. We can only prepare as much as possible ahead of time. The time they begin moving is three years from now?"
Hatake Kakashi thought for a moment. Judging by Gaara's appearance in the video, along with the previous timing of Pain's attack on Konoha, the Akatsuki Organization's large-scale movements should begin three years from now.
Although he did not know why the Akatsuki Organization had been established for so many years yet chose to act three years later, he estimated that they might need to prepare something in advance. For example, that Super Tailed Beast Weapon.
That terrifying weapon Nagato had mentioned, capable of annihilating an entire city with one strike, was clearly not something any current Tailed Beast could accomplish.
Perhaps they were preparing the Ten-Tails that Kaede Kitahara's earlier diary had mentioned?
The existence of the Ten-Tails was also stuck in his throat like a fishbone. Because he knew very clearly that the Nine-Tails was already frightening enough. Then the Ten-Tails might truly have the power to destroy heaven and earth.
If the Akatsuki Organization was waiting for that Ten-Tails, then the future battle would probably become extremely, extremely difficult.
In the earlier battle video of the New Sannin, that terrifying monster glimpsed for only an instant, that existence which required the armies of the entire Shinobi World to gather in order to fight it, was very likely the Ten-Tails.
How could they fight that?
There was simply no other way.
No wonder Kaede Kitahara had previously been so single-minded about clinging to the savior's thigh. Aside from clinging to that thigh, what other method was there?
"That One-Tail brat did pretty well," Tsunade could not help saying as she watched Gaara ultimately being captured in the diary.
A Kazekage who fought to the end for Sunagakure was worthy of her respect no matter what.
Even if the other party was much younger than her.
Facing the misunderstandings and malice of the villagers, what he could do was use all his strength to be himself and resolve all of it. As a ninja of Sunagakure, he pointed his blade toward the position of Kazekage.
In the end, he did it. He became Kazekage, and at the same time, he carried out his promise. He fought until the very end to protect his village.
That made her think of her Great Grandfather, her Second Great Grandfather, and even Old Man, along with the Hokage of past generations.