Chương 144

"Do you wish to die so early? Hmm." The blond man slowly moved his hand towards his pouch. Rei noticed that but didn't bother to stop him.

"Oh! I didn't know you had a lover. Maybe I should go and kill her." the hunched back man joked, but he continued keeping his eyes on Rei.

"What are you talking about? I don't have any lovers.. This little shit is bullshitting.." The blonde guy said.

"Really? Then what will I call your relationship with Itachi and your obsession with him as? Just pure coincidence?" Rei replied and the moment he said that the whole environment around seemed to turn heavy. Both the Akatsuki men looked now at Rei with eyes that seemed to want to decipher of how the hell did this guy know about Itachi. The blond guy more so, because only he himself, knew about his obsession with Itachi.

Meanwhile, Dajimu's eyes went wide when he heard Rei speak the name of Itachi so casually because that name was a taboo everywhere. Both in Root and even in the village. So what the hell was going on? And who was he? The blond youth's smile slowly disappeared.

"... How do you know that name?" His fingers remained inside the clay pouch, but the playful confidence that had defined his demeanor moments earlier had vanished. Beside him, the hunched-backed man remained silent, yet Dajimu noticed the subtle twitch of the metallic tail protruding from beneath the cloak. The atmosphere instantly became several times heavier.

"I know far more than either of you thinks." That single sentence was enough. Without another warning, the blond youth flicked his wrist. Half a dozen tiny white insects shot from between his fingers, darting toward Rei with startling speed. They were no larger than dragonflies, making almost no sound as they closed the distance.

"...!" Before Dajimu could even warn him, the insects reached Rei. A deafening explosion erupted across the forest. The ground shook violently as flames swallowed the entire trail, uprooting nearby trees and sending splintered wood flying in every direction. A cloud of smoke and dust surged skyward while the shockwave forced Dajimu several steps backward. The blond youth lowered his hand with a satisfied grin.

"Heh... I thought the rumors about some space-time technique would've made this interesting. It seems the one who put the bounty overestimated him. Hmm.."

"Our information claimed the target possessed a movement technique similar to Hiraishin. It seems he relied upon it too much and simply failed to react." His gaze slowly shifted toward Dajimu.

"We should thank you." Dajimu frowned.

"... What?"

"You led us straight to him." The blond youth laughed.

"You really thought we were tracking him? No. We were tracking you." Dajimu's pupils contracted. His hand instinctively moved toward the sealed message tucked safely inside his vest. The Root instructions... The orders had specifically told him never to discard the message until the mission concluded.

"... A tracker..." he muttered in disbelief. He was betrayed but could he blame anyone? No. He joined the Root, and this was how they operated. Pure ruthlessness. He himself was just shocked for a second but accepted the outcome, of course that didn't mean he would just give up. He would fight his way out, and see how it goes. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Unfortunately, you've seen our faces now." The metallic tail behind him slowly rose.

"That means you'll have to die as well." Just then... The smoke began to thin. Silence swept through the forest. The blond youth's grin slowly froze. The hunched-backed man's eyes narrowed. Even Dajimu forgot to breathe. Standing exactly where he had been moments earlier, Rei calmly brushed the dust from his shoulder.

"You know... For a person who was a bomb specialist, your bombs surely don't hurt much. I didn't even feel it." Rei said.

"You.. You took the whole explosion.. H.. How?" The blond man was shaken and even the hunched back man didn't know what to say. The blond man was his partner and though he looked down upon him, it didn't mean he was ignorant about his abilities. The fact that this guy stood and took the explosion point blank range, meant there was definitely something wrong with him.

"C'mon Deidara.. You really thought someone who knows of your past doesn't know about you? Deidara, the rogue ninja of Iwagakure after stealing a kinjutsu (forbidden technique), joined Akatsuki after being asked to join by Itachi Uchiha himself, and consequently thinking that you can one day show him your beauty and your craft, thus getting obsessed with proving to Itachi that your art is beautiful too."

Rei said, Deidara looked stunned as he stopped even moving his fingers a bit on he pouch because he couldn't believe the words. It was as if this person knew everything about him. His most inner secrets laid out bare.

"Hahaha.. Deidara.. It seems someone know more about you than even the Akatsuki knows.. You have an admirer.." the hunched back man said.

"What are you so happy about Sasori? Do you want me to send you back to your grandmother? Or did you think just because you have the human puppet of the 3rd Kazekage and his kekkei genkai you can walk and dominate wherever you want? From the looks of it you haven't even transformed yourself to a human living puppet as of yet, so don't jump around because it won't take one punch from me to make a garbage out of your prized products."

The blond youth's fingers unconsciously tightened around the clay hidden inside his pouch. For the first time since joining the organization, genuine uncertainty crossed his face. Their supposed fast bounty standing before them hadn't merely recognized him. He had exposed the one obsession Deidara had never spoken aloud to anyone outside Akatsuki. And the fact that he knew about Sasori too, and his history also sent chills down the spine.

"... Who the hell are you?" Deidara demanded, his voice no longer carrying its earlier arrogance.

"How do you know about Itachi?" Beside him, the Sasori's Hiruko puppet remained unnervingly still, though the steel tail behind his cloak swayed ever so slightly.

"Our intelligence never mentioned anything like this about you," he said in a low voice.

"Someone who knows Akatsuki... and knows us personally." Rei simply smiled beneath the black mask.

"If you manage to take me back alive, perhaps I'll answer every question you have." That reply only made Deidara angrier.

"Fine... I'll beat the answers out of you! Hmm!" His hand shot into the clay pouch. At almost the same instant, Rei flicked both wrists. More than a dozen tri-pronged kunai scattered across the clearing, embedding themselves into tree trunks, rocks and the forest floor in an expanding circle around the battlefield. Saori attacked first. Hidden compartments within the puppet opened simultaneously as dozens of poisoned kunai and straight blades erupted outward.

The massive steel tail pierced through the barrage like a spear, twisting unpredictably as it lunged toward Rei's heart. Every angle of escape appeared sealed beneath overlapping attacks. Rei flowed between them without slowing. His body twisted around one blade before ducking beneath another. A poisoned sword skimmed past his shoulder while the steel tail carved through the space his head had occupied only an instant earlier.

Every dodge seemed impossibly precise, as though he had already seen each attack before it happened. Deidara's grin slowly returned.

"... Got you." Tiny white spiders crawled onto every one of Rei's scattered kunai.

"C1. Kaaat..." The entire forest erupted. Every marked kunai detonated simultaneously, transforming the battlefield into a chain of explosions. Trees splintered apart as shockwaves rolled through the clearing one after another, forcing even Dajimu to leap backward to avoid being swallowed by the expanding inferno. Through the fire, a streak of blue lightning suddenly flashed.

"... What?" Rei exploded from the smoke with both arms wrapped in crackling Lightning Release chakra. Before Deidara could mold another piece of clay, Rei appeared directly in front of him. His lightning-covered spear hand struck cleanly against the side of Deidara's neck. A violent surge of electricity coursed through the blond shinobi's body. The attack didn't pierce his throat, but it flooded his nervous system with lightning. Deidara's eyes rolled upward as his muscles instantly locked.

His entire body was launched backward before crashing into a massive tree hard enough to shatter the trunk behind him. The moment Rei attacked, the hunched-backed figure struck from behind. The steel tail roared toward Rei's spine while concealed blades extended from both sleeves of the puppet. Rei never turned. He planted one foot against the ground before performing a backward flip over the incoming tail, rotating through the air with impossible control. Natural energy surged through every muscle in his body.

The instant he landed, his fist shot forward. The senjutsu-enhanced punch collided squarely with the puppet's chest. The impact echoed throughout the forest. Cracks spread across the puppet's armored shell before the entire construct exploded into hundreds of shattered wooden fragments that rained across the battlefield.