Having seemingly spotted a flaw, Hoheto Hyuga shouted to the group, "The bug jar on his back doesn't contain the Aburame clan's insects!"
"What?! Zaji, get back! It's a trap!"
Sure enough, at that moment, Muta Aburame's glasses fell off, revealing pupils that had transformed into the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. It was Kanon's genjutsu!
Furthermore, thin threads were wound around his body – he was being manipulated by Puppet Jutsu.
"As expected, it was seen through instantly," Deidara sneered.
"A ploy like that wouldn't stay hidden for long." Kanon gave Sasori's sleeve a light tug.
Sasori moved immediately, the chakra threads in his hands snapping tight around Zaji.
"I'm sorry... I fell under a genjutsu..."
With those words, Muta seized Zaji and lunged toward Kankuro's group.
"I can't control my body!" Muta's limbs began to swing wildly, yanked by the invisible threads.
"That movement... Could it be?!"
"Everyone, retreat! He's using Zaji as a shield to charge us!"
Recognizing the Puppet Jutsu, chakra threads flew from Kankuro's fingers as well.
"Deidara," Sasori said softly.
"I'm on it." Deidara formed a single-hand seal.
"The bug jar on Muta's back is filled with white objects made of massive amounts of chakra!" Hoheto Hyuga roared.
"No doubt about it, it's Deidara's explosive clay," added Ittan of Iwagakure.
"Then I'm counting on you."
"Earth Release: Moving Earth Core!"
The moment the jutsu was unleashed, Deidara let out a loud laugh.
"Katsu!"
Boom!
A terrifying mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
A wave of heat surged outward, leveling the entire ambush point.
"That is art. Surely they've been blown to bits," Deidara chuckled.
Kanon looked at Deidara with a half-smile.
"Deidara-nii, they're all still alive. It looks like only one person died."
"Tch. Was it the Moving Earth Core?!"
Within the crater created by the jutsu, Kankuro turned to Kiri. "Please, heal Zaji. I didn't expect to run into Kanon Uchiha so soon."
"It's dangerous here. Omoi, the next wave is coming!"
Sure enough, Kanon leapt down from the sky alongside two other Reanimated shinobi.
"Damn it!" Kankuro confirmed it; it was indeed Kanon Uchiha.
If Kanon was here, they were in dire straits.
"Won't even give me time to think?!"
"Take this first! Cloud-Style Crescent Moon Beheading!" Omoi bellowed, but Kanon's blade was faster. In just a few flashes, she had knocked Omoi back.
At that exact moment, Kanon flipped her hands and swung a Rasengan behind her.
Boom!
Blue light surged. Sai, who had attempted a sneak attack from the air, was sent flying by Kanon's Rasengan. Behind Kanon, Deidara descended on his giant clay bird.
"Well then, what will you do now?" Deidara's lips curled into a smirk, while Kanon began charging a Chidori in her hand.
"I didn't expect someone like you to appear at the very front, Kanon Uchiha." Kankuro sneered, but internally, he was panicking. He hadn't realized that the Kanon before him was merely a Shadow Clone.
He only felt the situation was becoming unmanageable. If they fought today, they would likely all die here.
"You bastards, I'll never forgive you!" Zaji screamed, but in the next heartbeat, he lost consciousness.
Kanon's Chidori Sharp Spear was impossibly fast. It pierced through Zaji's skull in an instant, dragging his corpse along the ground and carving a furrow.
"Forgive? Sorry, I don't need it." Kanon retracted the Chidori Sharp Spear and began to confront the group.
"Sasori, I know you're here too. Come out." Kankuro was trying to stall for time, waiting for reinforcements.
"Oh? You're quite sharp. Your name was Kanpachi, right?" Deidara asked.
"It's Kankuro!" Kanon said, exasperated. How had Deidara still not remembered the guy's name?
"You're the Surprise Attack Division too? You've got guts, putting Kanon Uchiha on the front lines."
Deidara let out a light laugh.
"It's rare for two surprise attack units to meet like this."
"The one who wins is the one who completes the surprise attack, right?"
"We definitely hold the advantage at the start."
"This victory will decide the course of the war."
Kankuro stared straight at Deidara. "Then we will definitely be the victors."
"Spouting big words? How will you win?" As the words left Kanon's lips, she took a step forward and blurred into a charge.
"Omoi!"
"Right!" At the command, Omoi swung his sword at Kanon.
Kanon performed a side flip, her movements agile to the extreme. As her body rotated, she threw a punch.
Omoi stumbled, sent flying backward; the punch knocked him unconscious instantly.
Sai's brother, Shin, emerged from the ground.
"Shin-nii!" Sai's voice trembled.
"Run, brother..."
"Now that my body has become like this, you have no chance of winning."
Deidara sneered, "What a touching reunion."
"You intentionally sent our acquaintances to fight us?!" Omoi scrambled to his feet, looking at Kanon, who stood across from them with her sword drawn.
"There's no time to be afraid! I'll never forgive this way of hurting my comrades!"
"This is war! Stop with the pretty talk!" Deidara laughed loudly. Below him, Shin and Kanon had already struck.
"Hoheto, Tango, follow up!" Kankuro ordered.
The moment the group moved to support, a massive Great Ball Rasengan engulfed them.
Kanon pulled back her hand. Hoheto and Tango lay on the ground, lifeless.
Seeing such a cold-blooded and terrifying Rasengan, Kankuro frowned deeply.
"Ittan, raise it up!" Kankuro commanded.
The ground rose instantly, but meanwhile, the threads controlled by Sasori were severed by Omoi.
However, the Allied Surprise Attack Division had sacrificed two members to achieve even this.
"To tie your threads to mine... Kankuro, you really have grown." Sasori said softly.
"It's rare to receive praise from a master of the Red Secret Technique, but now, my Black Secret Technique is superior."
"But we should retreat." Kankuro signaled to the others.
In this war, encountering Kanon Uchiha was like encountering the Yellow Flash in the Third War; you could abandon the current mission and focus on getting the intelligence back.
Kankuro and the others stopped fighting; the intel that Kanon Uchiha was with the surprise attack unit had to be delivered.
"So you didn't die. It seems the poison I gave you back then was cured," Sasori noted blandly.
"I didn't think I'd fight you again. Is this fate?"
"I haven't forgotten what happened that day!" Kankuro stared directly at Deidara, Sasori, and Kanon.
These three had left him with a massive sense of humiliation that day, especially Kanon Uchiha. Ever since the Chunin Exams, he had never once beaten her.
"Everyone, take a few steps back!" Kankuro told the group.
"Captain Kankuro, what about you?!" Sai asked, confused.
"I'll take the lead."
Obeying orders is the ironclad rule of the shinobi. At Kankuro's command, Omoi, Sai, and the remaining ninja began to retreat.
Kankuro pulled out a scroll.
"It's time to settle the score for what happened back then."
Poof!
On that scroll, the name 'Sasori' was written. Sasori was slightly startled; seeing his own body used as Kankuro's puppet, he let out a smile.
"My puppet? To think it hasn't rotted to this day. And now, I am a truly immortal doll."
"The body I once yearned for was exactly like this." Sasori began to control Shin's body to clash with Kankuro; it was a battle between two puppet masters.
On the other side, Omoi took the opportunity to throw a kunai. The Sanshouo (Salamander) buried in the ground instantly encased Shin's body.
Watching this, Deidara's lips curled.
"Too slow..."
"Katsu!"
Boom!
Shin's body exploded instantly.
"The Sanshouo?" Kanon, standing on the giant clay bird, chuckled.
"Wrapping the bomb in a pre-hidden defensive puppet... my bomb's destructive power was weakened," Deidara said, sounding annoyed.
"You call that a bomb?"
"You have a problem?! You're a piece of trash who couldn't even become Sasuke's successor. Don't act tough if you don't have the skills."
"As long as his soul is bound to this world, he can be resurrected countless times. Watch me turn him into a bomb again! Hahahaha!" Deidara laughed maniacally.
"I don't want to hurt you... I died and should have been freed from the shackles of the Root," Shin said softly.
"The training and system to erase emotions... making children who grew up together like brothers kill each other in the end. That is the iron rule of Konoha's Root."
"It certainly fits that old bastard Danzo's style," Kanon commented, hearing Sasori's voice.
"You're just a few scribbles, you call yourself an artist?!"
"Art is an explosion! Watch me blow up something even more spectacular!"
"Katsu!" At Deidara's command, a massive explosion erupted below.
Sai moved quickly, his Super Beast Scroll technique reaching its peak.
Kanon turned and threw a punch, the pink eyeshadow signifying the activation of Sage Mode.
With a single punch, she blew apart Sai's ink beasts.
Deidara and Sasori also began to show their full prowess. With the "Art Trio" striking together, the area was leveled in less than three seconds.
Kankuro and the others were forced back. With these three attacking simultaneously, there was no way they could stand their ground.
Especially since Kanon had entered Sage Mode; she was currently unrivaled on the field.
"Still as powerful as ever," Sasori chuckled.
"Thanks for the compliment!"
Kanon's Sage Art: Great Ball Rasengan descended.
Energy poured out and surged across the ground; many people lay there, transformed into corpses.
Of the many members of the Surprise Attack Division, in the blink of an eye, only Kankuro, Sai, and Omoi remained, fleeing in a wretched state.
This victory for the surprise attack was, without a doubt, a victory for Deidara and the others.