61: Chapter 61 Gaara's Death and the Gains from Despair"Art is—"
"explode!"
The blinding white light engulfed everything.
C3·18, a masterpiece powerful enough to wipe a small village off the map, exploded amidst his fervent shouts.
However, the anticipated devastating shockwave did not engulf the forest below.
Because the moment Deidara uttered his last word, the orange figure standing atop the ice peak vanished.
It is not moving at high speed.
It's not an afterimage.
It evaporates into thin air, erased from this space.
Boom!
The explosion occurred hundreds of meters in the air, and a huge, menacing mushroom cloud rolled and rose.
The terrifying energy tore a huge hole in the clouds, and the violent air currents turned into hurricanes, sweeping in all directions.
Deidara was thrown off balance by the shockwave of his own explosion on the clay bird.He scrambled to his feet, his mechanical eye frantically scanning the area below, trying to find the ashes the brat had been reduced to.
No.
There was nothing there.
"He dodged it?Impossible, hmm!"
Just then, a chill ran up the back of his neck.
A calm voice sounded close to his ear.
Are you looking for me?
Deidara's body stiffened instantly.
The hairs on his body stood on end.
He mechanically turned his head inch by inch.
Naruto Uzumaki.
The blond boy he thought had been blown to bits appeared behind him at some point, standing on the back of the swaying clay bird, with one hand casually resting on his shoulder.
Deidara's gaze shifted downwards, and he saw that, at some point, a strangely shaped kunai had been pasted onto the collar of the orange jacket.
It's not about speed.
This is Flying Thunder God.
This is a trampling on the rules of "space".
"you..."
"Rasengan."
Naruto didn't give him any chance to ask questions.
In his other hand, a highly condensed blue chakra sphere, accompanied by a piercing spinning sound, was slammed hard into Deidara's back.
There was no violent explosion.
There was only one tooth-grinding, grinding sound of flesh and bone being destroyed.
Deidara felt an irresistible destructive force coming from behind him, instantly destroying his spine and right arm.
He let out a short, distorted scream as the force blasted him off the clay bird, turning him into a shooting star as he plummeted to the ground.
Bang!
A dull thud came from the forest below, startling a flock of birds into flight.
Naruto lightly leaped off the out-of-control clay bird, landing firmly on the tree trunk, and then walked step by step toward the impact crater emitting black smoke.
Kakashi and Sakura arrived from the other side, still somewhat bewildered by the dramatic scene before them.
"That was.the Flying Thunder God Technique?" Kakashi's exposed eye was filled with incomprehensible shock."How could that be.that was the Fourth Hokage's."
Naruto ignored his question.
He walked to the edge of the pit and looked at Deidara struggling to get up.
Deidara's right arm was completely useless, hanging limply with an eerie twist.
But instead of groaning in pain, he raised his head and looked at Naruto with a fanatical, obsessed, and even somewhat worshipful expression.
"I see.I see!Hmm!" He coughed up blood, but was still smiling.
"That's not speed, that's leaping!You've leaped directly through space!What a beautiful, how fleeting, how ethereal art that is!"
"This is true art!Yes!"
[Ding!You have received 18,000 of Deidara's ultimate [Frenzy]!]
[Ding!You have received 15,000 [Enlightenment] from Deidara!]
That madman.
Naruto gave his evaluation without any inner turmoil.
He stepped forward and deftly sealed several key pressure points on Deidara's body, completely blocking the flow of his chakra.
"Let's go," Naruto said to Kakashi and Sakura, who had arrived."Our destination should be nearby."
He didn't even bother to glance at the prisoner sprawled on the ground, muttering praises of "art."
Soon, they found the cave entrance that was blocked by a huge rock.
"It's a five-seal barrier." Kakashi stepped forward to examine it."It needs to have all five seals torn off simultaneously to break it, otherwise…"
He hadn't finished speaking.
Naruto had already reached the giant rock that weighed tens of tons.
He simply raised his fist casually.
Then, he threw a punch.
boom!
No chakra techniques were used.
Pure, physical power.
The massive rock was instantly covered with spiderweb-like cracks, and the next second, it collapsed with a roar, shattering into countless pieces of stone.
Kakashi and Sakura silently took a step back.
The cave was dark and damp.
A stench so evil it was nauseating wafted over.
Deep within the cave stood a colossal and menacing statue with nine closed eyes—the legendary Golem.
Several blurry figures surrounded the golem; they were the other members of Akatsuki.
Directly in front of the golem, Gaara's body floated in mid-air, his eyes closed and his face pale.
A red ribbon made of chakra was being forcibly pulled from his mouth and connected to the golem's mouth.
Those were the last remains of Shukaku.
The moment they burst in, the last wisp of red chakra was completely devoured by the golem.
The surrounding phantom flickered a few times and then disappeared.
One of the tightly closed eyes of the demonic statue slowly opened a crack, then quickly closed again.
The ceremony is over.
Without the support of the tailed beast, Gaara's body fell helplessly from the sky like a tattered rag.
"Gaara!" Sakura let out a piercing scream.
But someone is more.quick.
A flash of orange light appeared as Naruto caught Gaara's falling body and held him in his arms.
He lowered his head and placed his hand on Gaara's chest.
There was no heartbeat.
He is not breathing.
There was not a single sign of life.
"How is the situation?" Kakashi asked anxiously, maintaining contact with the Sunagakure liaison team guarding outside the cave through a simple communication device he carried.
Naruto looked up.
He did not answer.
But his excessively calm expression said it all.
Kakashi's body froze.
He spoke with difficulty, uttering a few words into the communication device: "Notify the village."
"Fengying.he."
On the other end of the communication line, at the command center of Sunagakure Village.
The Yamanaka clan ninja in charge of communication took off his headset, his young face completely drained of color.
He staggered to the window and looked down at the thousands of villagers and ninjas gathered in the square below, eagerly awaiting his arrival.
He raised his hand, making a tactical gesture representing the worst possible outcome.
The advisor, Ebizo, standing on the high platform, saw it.
His aged face instantly collapsed, as if all his strength had been drained from him.
A Jonin responsible for relaying the message used all his strength to roar out the news that the crowd below least wanted to hear.
"Lord Kazekage.has died in the line of duty!"
Time seemed to stand still at this moment.
The entire village of Sunagakure fell into a deathly silence.
One second.
Two seconds.
Then.
"Wow--!"
A mother holding her child was the first to break down.She covered her face and let out a heart-wrenching wail.
This sound ignited the fuse.
Sadness spread like a plague.
Despair engulfed the entire village like a tsunami.
Countless people knelt on the ground, weeping uncontrollably.
They lost the young Kazekage who transformed from a monster into a hero, protecting the village with his life.
Their newly ignited hope was utterly shattered in that instant.
at the same time.
Inside the dark cave.
On Naruto's retina, golden numbers were refreshing like a waterfall.
[Ding!A massive outbreak of negative emotions has been detected!]
[Ding!You have received 9,120,000 units of ultimate [Sadness] from the entire population of Sunagakure!]
[Ding!You have received 12,580,000 units of ultimate [Despair] from the entire population of Sunagakure!]
[Ding!You have received 52,000 units of the ultimate [Grief] from Chiyo!]
[Ding!You have received 48,000 Extreme [Rage] from Kankuro!]
[Ding!Total Glory Points have exceeded 30 million!]
An unprecedented bumper harvest.
Naruto held Gaara's cold body and slowly stood up.
His handsome face showed neither the sorrow of losing his comrade nor the anger of revenge.
There was only the stillness of an ancient well.
He carried the corpse and walked out of the cave step by step.
The sunlight outside the cave was a bit too bright.
The Sand Village advance team waiting there saw him, and also saw the motionless figure in his arms.
The last glimmer of hope on the faces of all the Sand Village ninja was extinguished.
Their facial muscles contorted as they knelt down one after another, their suppressed sobs and desperate roars echoing through the valley.
Naruto stopped in his tracks.
He stood there, looking down at his allies who were crumbling because of the loss of their leader.
The camera slowly pans up and focuses on his pair of bright blue eyes.
Those clear eyes did not reflect the color of the sky.
Only the reflection showed the faces below, distorted and weeping in utter despair.
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