"Let's see what you do, Isobu," Miria whispered, her eyes glued to the tumultuous lake. Her heart pounded a frantic rhythm against her ribs, a drumbeat of anticipation and dread. The churning water from Deidara's explosive clay mines was a maelstrom of spray and foam, each detonation sending tremors through the bedrock of her grotto.
The Akatsuki bomber continued his assault, dropping more clay fish and spiders, his manic cackle faintly audible even over the din. He was trying to force Isobu to the surface, to create an opening.
Then, from the roiling depths, Miria witnessed something unexpected, something that made a cold thrill shoot through her. Instead of simply surfacing in a rage, the lake's central vortex began to deepen, sucking water downwards with incredible force. A colossal, dark mass began to move laterally beneath the surface, creating massive, underwater currents that disrupted Deidara's patterns. The explosions continued, but they seemed to hit empty water, or glance off something immense but unseen, causing localized eruptions without finding their mark.
Isobu was adapting. It wasn't simply reacting with brute force. It was using its immense size and the lake's depths, creating complex movements and counter-currents to evade the specific, aerial bombardment. It was an intelligent, defensive maneuver, almost as if... it had been warned. Miria's breath hitched. Isobu was listening.
Just as this realization settled, a new, chilling sensation washed over Miria. Not an explosion, or a visible presence, but a sudden, profound shift in the ambient pressure, a cold, empty void in the space directly above the lake. Her [Threat Assessment] module, already screaming, intensified its wail, flashing a terrifying new alert: THREAT IDENTIFIED: TOBI. DIMENSIONAL SHIFT DETECTED. CHAKRA SIGNATURE: OBSCURED/WARPED.
A swirl of distorted air, like heat haze on a summer road, briefly flickered into existence a few dozen meters behind Deidara's clay bird. Then, in the blink of an eye, it solidified. A figure stood there, seemingly suspended in mid-air, cloaked in the familiar black robe with red clouds, his face obscured by a swirling orange mask with a single eye-hole.
Tobi. The masked operative. He hadn't flown in; he had simply appeared. His presence was subtle, almost imperceptible, yet it added a layer of terrifying precision to the Akatsuki's hunt. Deidara, still focused on his bombing run, didn't immediately acknowledge him, accustomed to his partner's unconventional entrances.
Tobi remained silent, his masked gaze sweeping over the chaotic lake, then darting to the areas where Isobu seemed to be evading. He was watching, analyzing, waiting for the precise moment to use his terrifying Space-Time Ninjutsu.
The battle had truly begun. Deidara, the artist of destruction, sought to force Isobu out. Tobi, the strategist of dimensions, waited to consume it. And deep beneath the churning waters, Isobu, newly warned by a chakra-less human, was employing evasions it hadn't used before. Miria watched, a tiny, terrified, yet strangely exhilarated witness to the unfolding prophecy, her life hanging in the balance of Isobu's choices.
"Let's see what they do..." Miria murmured, her gaze unwavering as Deidara's clay bird swooped and dived, dropping more explosive creatures into the lake. The constant detonations rocked her grotto, sending spray high into the air, soaking her again. Deidara's temper seemed to be flaring; his cackles were louder, more frenzied, as Isobu continued its baffling evasion tactics beneath the surface, using the lake's depths and currents to avoid direct hits.
Tobi remained eerily still, a silent, masked sentinel hovering above the chaos. His single eye-hole fixed on the churning water, patiently observing Isobu's evasions, waiting for the perfect moment. Miria knew this patience was far more dangerous than Deidara's explosive artistry. Tobi's jutsu was instant, absolute.
Deidara, frustrated, let out a frustrated roar. "You can't hide forever, you miserable slug! Art is an explosion, yeah!" He molded a massive, multi-finned clay fish, far larger than the previous ones, and dropped it with grim finality. This wasn't just to flush Isobu out; this was designed for massive internal damage.
The lake roiled, then swallowed the giant clay bomb. For a heartbeat, there was an unnatural stillness, a tension that vibrated through Miria's very bones. Then, an explosion of truly colossal magnitude erupted from the center of the lake. Not just water, but what looked like sections of pulverized rock and ancient coral, blasted skyward, illuminated by a flash of blinding white.
As the spray began to rain down, an immense, dark form finally broke the surface. Isobu. Its single, reptilian eye glared, its massive, armored shell scarred but intact, its three tails thrashing the water into a frenzy. It was enraged, letting out a deep, reverberating roar that shook the entire mountain range.
This was Tobi's cue. The masked figure blurred, seemingly dematerializing from his spot above. He reappeared instantly, directly over Isobu's exposed head, a swirling vortex of space already forming in his visible eye-hole. This was the terrifying Kamui, the ultimate capture tool.
Miria knew the mechanics. Tobi's jutsu needed a point of focus, a precise target for the vortex to connect. It was less about brute force, more about spatial manipulation. And she knew how Isobu could counter.
"Isobu!" Miria screamed, her voice hoarse and raw, pushing past the terror and the ringing in her ears. "The vortex! It needs a fixed point! Disperse your form! Break apart!"
Her words, impossible to hear amidst the roar of the Bijuu and the wind, were still, she hoped, reaching it. A creature of raw chakra, Isobu had the ability to manifest partially, to solidify or disperse its form. While it couldn't become invisible, it could make itself less of a cohesive target.
In an astonishing display of instinct, or perhaps, comprehension, Isobu reacted. As Tobi's vortex swelled, threatening to engulf its head, the massive Bijuu didn't just thrash. Its colossal body began to glow with a sickly green chakra, and its form, still visible, seemed to subtly diffuse. Not vanishing, but becoming less solid, less defined, like an image blurring at the edges. Portions of its coral shell seemed to momentarily melt into chakra before reforming. The vortex swirled, attempting to latch onto a concrete mass, but struggled to find a stable "hook."
Tobi paused, his masked eye-hole fixed on the diffusing Bijuu. Even from Miria's distance, she could sense his surprise. This wasn't Isobu's usual reaction. The masked man moved with blinding speed, attempting to reposition for another grab, but Isobu, despite its overwhelming size, was now moving with an uncharacteristic fluidity, its diffuse form making it maddeningly difficult to target.
Miria watched, a desperate, silent hope rising within her. Isobu was listening. Her impossible gamble was yielding fruit. But the Akatsuki would not give up so easily.
Tobi's masked head tilted slightly, an almost imperceptible gesture of surprise. Isobu's diffusion trick was an unexpected counter to his spatial grab. "Hmph," a low, gravelly voice, deceptively calm, finally issued from behind the orange mask. "An interesting move, Three-Tails. But you can't scatter forever, hm?"
He didn't waste time. Tobi's form blurred again, reappearing beside Deidara on the giant clay bird. His single eye-hole fixed on the struggling Bijuu below. "Deidara," Tobi's voice was flat, devoid of his usual jests. "A larger, more encompassing art. Something to confine it."
Deidara, his frustration replaced by a renewed, manic glee at the challenge, grinned. "Oh, you want a real art show, yeah?! Leave it to me!" With furious speed, he began kneading a massive amount of clay. This wasn't a fish or a spider; this was an enormous, multi-limbed creature, twisting and coiling, clearly designed to grapple rather than simply explode. It landed on the water with a thunderous splash, its clay limbs immediately trying to ensnare Isobu as the Bijuu's diffused form attempted to coalesce.
Isobu roared in outrage, its three tails lashing out, creating massive waves that crashed against the distant shoreline. It struggled against the sticky, durable clay, its immense power threatening to shatter the golem, but the sheer volume and adhesive nature of the clay began to slow its movements, restricting its ability to disperse.
As Isobu fought the giant clay creature, Tobi moved. He didn't rush in for another direct grab. Instead, a chilling stillness radiated from him. Miria's [Threat Assessment] module screamed. Tobi's chakra signature, already warped, now seemed to become... nothing. He hadn't vanished, but his presence, physically, became negligible. This was his intangibility, a terrifying aspect of Kamui that allowed him to phase through matter. He was preparing to directly bypass Isobu's defenses.
Miria knew this. She knew Isobu couldn't touch him while he was intangible, and his physical attacks would merely pass through. Her mind raced, sifting through her [Observer's Log] for any weakness, any counter.
"Isobu! Don't engage him directly!" Miria screamed, her voice hoarse, desperate. "You can't touch him! His body phases! He'll lure you into a trap!" The wind and the thrashing of the lake threatened to drown her words, but she pushed them out, hoping the Bijuu's heightened awareness, or perhaps their fragile mental link, would carry them through the chaos.
Isobu, struggling against Deidara's clay, seemed to acknowledge her words with another internal tremor. Its immense eye swiveled towards the area where Tobi's nullified presence hovered. The Bijuu's raw fury was evident, but also a growing weariness. It was fighting against two incredibly powerful, cunning opponents, both with abilities it had likely never encountered before.
Tobi, now directly over Isobu, began to form a vortex, not around the Bijuu, but around himself, pulling in his own surroundings, creating a small, localized dimension that he could use to instantly move or warp parts of Isobu's body. He was going to use his intangibility to get inside Isobu's physical body and then activate Kamui to pull the Bijuu piecemeal into his dimension.
Miria's breath caught in her throat. This was the ultimate trap, a move that only the Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan could achieve. Isobu, even with its immense power, was in grave danger of being slowly, agonizingly extracted.