Sasori asked straightforwardly.
If it were anyone else, fine, but his own grandmother helping the killer of her son and daughter-in-law to go after her grandson…
Did that make sense?
Grandma Chiyo drew ten kunai from her sleeves, controlled by Chakra threads, and they floated in mid-air. She sighed softly and said:
"Life is often absurd. Go now, Sasori. This is no place for a child."
"Heh—"
Sasori opened his mouth, or rather, the puppet named Hiruko opened its mouth and shot out countless needles again from its maw. At the same time, its flat, elongated tail suddenly shot out, lunging at Kakashi.
"In your eyes, am I still a child like this?"
"No matter what you become, you will always be a child in my eyes."
While Grandma Chiyo spoke, she dodged the needles and sent her kunai flying, attacking Sasori from all directions.
In the original story, Grandma Chiyo teamed up with Sakura and fought a tough battle against Sasori.
However, unlike the original, the opponent was here for Gaara. Gaara wasn't the Kazekage yet, and even Rasa was actively handing him over to Linto for protection in the Village Hidden in the Mist.
In other words, since Gaara had already allied himself with Linto, whether the One-Tail Shukaku was present or if Gaara lived, from Grandma Chiyo's perspective, it wasn't really important anymore.
At this moment, her willingness to stand in front of Sasori was purely due to the death of Lord Mu, and as a member of the Sand Village, she had to lend a hand out of reason and emotion. Otherwise, once Linto was free…
the Sand Village might face some trouble.
Old people, after all, tend to think about these things.
Therefore, Grandma Chiyo did indeed block Sasori, the Red Sand, but how much effort she actually put in… that was hard to say.
If asked, she could always say it was old age and weakness.
Secondly, Kakashi, the son of her enemy, stood beside her. Chiyo wouldn't protect Kakashi the way she protected Sakura in the original story. If he really died, it would simply be because he wasn't skilled enough.
Grandma Chiyo was half-heartedly fighting, and although Sasori, the Red Sand, spoke disrespectfully to her, he wouldn't deliver a fatal blow.
So, the key to this battle lay with Kakashi.
On the surface, Sasori was a cool, stoic young man, but facing the son of the person who killed his parents, how could his heart not be stirred?
He unleashed his deadly techniques, all aimed at Kakashi.
…
Meanwhile, Grandma Chiyo was slacking off.
On the other side, Hiruko was fighting Rasa and Kohaku, with Gaara closely protected behind Rasa.
Seeing Rasa acting like a mother hen protecting her chick, Hiruko shook his head internally.
Even if Rasa let go, and Gaara was cleaned up and presented to Hiruko, he wouldn't lay a finger on the kid.
If Gaara were captured or killed, the mission would be over. Who would help him deal with Linto then?
Hiruko had no interest in some danged Tailed Beast Weapon Plan or world peace. All he was interested in was Linto's body.
With the Ghostly Demonic Jade Parasite technique mastered, if Hiruko could merge with Linto, he would absolutely be at the peak of the world.
However, despite his cravings, after carefully studying Linto's combat record, he understood—
He couldn't win.
He absolutely couldn't win.
If he could win, Hiruko would have attacked long ago, why join the Akatsuki?
He saw that a clash between Linto and the Akatsuki was inevitable. Then Hiruko could take advantage of the chaos, wait until Linto was at his weakest, and seize his body in one go to achieve his immortal form.
Thus, he was also taking it easy.
If Hiruko went all out, not to mention other methods, with his mastery of "Nether Style," most Ninjutsu would be useless against him.
Facing the pincer attack from Rasa and Kohaku, Hiruko only used fifty percent of his strength, reserving the other fifty percent to deal with unforeseen circumstances.
If Linto lost, he would be the first to rush in and take his body.
If Obito lost, Hiruko would turn tail and run, without a moment's hesitation.
As for his teammates, Obito and Sasori?
"Teammates are just for taking the hits, aren't they?"
…
The current situation hinged on the core battlefield.
The two had only been fighting for a minute or two, and centered around Linto and Obito, vast tracts of desert had turned into crystal-clear glass.
From afar, it looked like a sprawling mountain range of crystal, and the midday sun cast a dazzling, brilliant light upon it.
Obito stared coldly at Linto, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
The Akatsuki members who came to attack this time were Obito, Hiruko, Sasori, and Deidara. Obito had replaced Pain as the leader.
And the method he had boasted to Pain with such confidence, a method so simple it was almost laughable—
He had Deidara prepare a large amount of clay bombs, enough to destroy a country.
Then Obito placed Deidara and these clay bombs together in his Kamui space.
Deidara spread out the clay bombs in the Kamui space.
All that was left was to wait for Linto to attack him.
Once Obito's Kamui intangible state was activated, within five minutes, every time an attack landed on him, the corresponding part of his body would be transferred to the Kamui space.
At the moment of transfer, that part of his body would be covered in Deidara's clay bombs.
Of course, in his "intangible" state, he couldn't absorb anything into the Kamui space, nor could he actively retrieve anything from it. This was a flaw in his ability.
But this "active retrieval" was very ambiguous.
If active retrieval wasn't possible… what about passive retrieval?
In the original story, at the end of the Fourth Great Ninja War, Naruto threw Kakashi in front of Obito, who was using Kamui to absorb, allowing Kakashi to enter the Kamui space.
As soon as Obito became intangible, Kakashi would punch the part of his body that had entered the Kamui space. Even if blood flowed, it would flow within the Kamui space, and so would a torn hem.
Did this count as putting something into the Kamui space while in an intangible state?
If Kakashi punched Obito and had blood on his hand that got onto Obito's clothes, could it be said that when that part of his body went out, the clothes would be automatically cleaned by the Kamui space?
Between yes and no, there existed a very ambiguous gray area.
After Obito conceived this idea, he began to experiment, and the result was as he had envisioned.
As long as someone helped him within the Kamui space, he could "passively retrieve" small, light, and close-fitting items.
The most suitable for this was Deidara's clay bombs.
When Star Platinum retracted its fist, the body part transferred to the Kamui space returned to the real world, bringing with it the clay bombs stuck to its clothes.
Obito just had to give a gentle shake, and the clay would fall off him.
His intangible state only affected things on his body or in his hands. As long as the clay detached from Obito's clothes, it would explode the next second!
Continuous booming sounds erupted; Obito used this method to neutralize Linto's close-quarters combat abilities.
The faster Star Platinum punched, the more violent the large-scale explosions became.
"Your body's regeneration is indeed strong, but I don't believe this regeneration of yours is limitless!" Obito said sinisterly.
"Then what about your limit?"
Linto activated time stop again, creating distance. When time stop ended, he appeared two hundred meters away. Star Platinum vanished, and Aerosmith and Killer Queen appeared.
Killer Queen entered Linto's body. Linto placed his hand on Aerosmith's ammunition storage, and a dense barrage of bullets rained down.
Since the opponent had "retaliatory armor" and couldn't engage in close combat, Linto naturally had other means.
However, when faced with the dense barrage, Obito didn't press closer again; instead, his body slowly sank, disappearing into the ground.
Linto placed one hand on the ground, sensing Obito's position with the power of earth.
One hundred meters… two hundred meters… three hundred meters…
Still sinking.
Obito stopped after sinking to a depth of six hundred meters.
Based on the fluctuations fed back by the earth, Linto realized that Akatsuki Obito had first used an explosion to blast open a space, then deactivated his intangible state and restored his physical form.
"He's… refreshing his ability's cooldown."
As soon as he neared the limit of his intangible state, he would sink into the ground and resurface after recovering.
Obito had even hidden six hundred meters underground to avoid Linto's time stop. During the nine-point-nine-second time stop, even if Star Platinum and Linto relentlessly punched and slashed, they couldn't reach six hundred meters deep.
In the past, Obito wouldn't have been able to hide that deep. After all, once he deactivated his intangible state, the pressure from the earth would have crushed him alive.
But with Deidara, it was different.
Two powerful abilities, in a design specifically targeting Linto, achieved excellent results.
Linto pondered for a moment, then turned his gaze to the other two battlefields in the distance.
Since Obito was playing this disgusting tactic, why not ignore him and directly go kill Sasori and Hiruko?
He quickly abandoned the idea.
No.
Obito's explosions were indiscriminate; involving teammates would only make it more dangerous.
Linto could regenerate his body, but Kakashi, Rasa, and the others couldn't.
What about using the Ghostly Room to put everyone inside and fly away during time stop?
"Also not good."
"That masked man has a means of space-hopping that's likely not slower than my flight. Moreover, if I leave now, next time they'll directly appear in the Village Hidden in the Mist, at the research institute, what then?"
"Most importantly—"
Linto pushed aside the glass shards on the ground, picked up a black hairpin, and put it in his chest.
"I don't want to leave."
He looked at the ground, and a crazy idea gradually formed in his mind.
Obito rose from the ground.
"Helplessness? Resentment? Heh— this is the price of standing at the peak.
Since you stand at a high position, in the open, all your abilities will be gradually known to the Akatsuki.
Your combat footage will be studied second by second, and countless people will die by your hand, one after another, just to expose more of your abilities.
You will die, and your companions will die too. Today, none of you will leave this desert alive, just like those who were blown up before.
This is fate, Linto.
A person's fate is written from the moment of birth, and everything that follows is like a DVD that has been popped into play, frame by frame."
The Mangekyo Sharingan beneath the mask rotated slowly, and Obito said in a deep voice:
"Only in illusions can absolute beauty exist. Do you understand?"
"I understand my mother!"
An endless storm of bullets erupted again. Obito shook his head; he hadn't expected the desperate Linto to become so crude.
He once again sank into the ground, simultaneously releasing the large "artwork" made by Deidara underground.
A ghastly white giant dragon tore through the soil, constantly rising, waiting to break through the surface.
However, Obito, hiding underground, heard an explosion that reverberated through his soul from above. By the time the soil overhead disappeared, Obito saw—
A pink, human-shaped big cat, repeatedly clicking its fingers. Each time, the earth would explode, and a large chunk would vanish into thin air.
"What are you doing?"
Obito couldn't understand.
Did Linto intend to dig a hole to find him and prevent him from sinking underground to recover his intangible state cooldown?
But what was the point of that?
At worst, Obito would just move to another spot. Could Linto lower the elevation of the entire boundless desert by five or six hundred meters in one go?
If he had that ability, Linto might as well be called a Sage.
"Or perhaps…"
Obito stared at Linto: "Have you gone mad under the pressure of despair?"
Linto heard his words and swept a cold gaze over him:
"Despair?"
"I would love to be despairing, but unfortunately, all I have right now is anger. And also—"
Killer Queen continued to detonate. Linto submerged another three hundred meters, until he was a thousand meters below ground, where he saw a broken, damaged, invisible, and intangible…
Dragon Vein.
Linto looked back at Obito.
"You're not the only one who can explode."
Killer Queen touched the Dragon Vein.
The first bomb was set.
Click—
The Dragon Vein was detonated.