“I’d ask if you’re ready for this, but I know you can handle it, regardless of whether you know of his abilities or not,” Sasori abruptly spoke up softly from beside Mina, prompting her to glance over at him as he walked beside her. Knowing he trusted her abilities enough to leave it be, she still responded firmly,
“Don’t tell me what he can do. I’ll find out soon enough, and it needs to be the same as it would in any other situation.”
“I don’t plan to, Mina. Deidara's abilities aren’t anything to be impressed by, anyway,” Sasori shot back bluntly, and smirking at that fact, Mina goaded him for a little more information on why they were like this towards each other.
But through it all, she remained calm and composed. True, she flexed her muscles as she walked, rolling her shoulders to get her body ready to fight, but it wasn’t a nervous thing. She just wanted to be at her best—though she felt a slight excitement and anticipation at the upcoming battle, allowing her mind to prepare, too. The adrenaline began to get going, and Mina breathed in the night air, a smirk flashing over her face, ready for anything. She enjoyed fighting—though not as much as, say, Kisame or Hidan—and with her determination and resolve to win this fight, Mina was about to use everything to her advantage against Deidara.
Hearing a call a little way away from her, Mina looked round to see Hidan calling them over, having found a good place to situate the battle. Nodding in acceptance, both Mina and Sasori walked over to it, looking over it with an appraising eye. It was a large flat expanse of land, the trees disappearing as the edge of the lake appeared just up ahead. It allowed for the room needed for battle, though there were no rules stating that it couldn’t be taken elsewhere. It gave both of them cover if needed, and with the lake nearby, gave the option of being able to use water jutsu if either of them wanted to use some. It was a good place for the battle to take place, and after Mina had spun round slowly, taking everything in, in her surroundings, she faced the rest once more and nodded, agreeing with their choice.
Straight away the others began to head to the outskirts of the clearing to watch from there, only needing to wait for the rest to turn up before the match could start. Mina and Deidara stayed where they were, preparing for the fight, Sasori leaving her with a smirk, saying quietly,
“Good luck, Mina. Not that you’ll need it.”
Feeling her determination rise with those words, she bowed slightly in his direction—she wouldn’t let him down. As such, she turned her gaze to Deidara, making mental notes about him as she went. She had seen as he walked away that he wore a scope on his left eye, normally covered by his bangs, for the most part. But straight away that marked him as a long-range fighter. Ego was obviously a big matter for him; if someone damaged that, then no doubt he would be truly affected. And a huge part of his ego was his art. He didn’t believe there was anything better, so it was a weak spot. If she could take down his ‘art’, maybe stop him before he could use it—though she had no idea what it was at this point—then it would get to him, and Deidara wouldn’t be focusing as much on strategy. This was a battle he was desperate to win—after what Sasori had said about their arguments on art, obviously he wanted to prove him wrong.
Not that Mina was about to let that happen.
A few moments later and Pein arrived, everyone standing just within the trees to watch as things went on. Both of them were beginning to get a little impatient by this point; they wanted to get going and fight. But knowing that pointing that out constantly wouldn’t get things started any quicker, they kept quiet, watching Pein carefully for any signs that they could begin. He talked for a moment with Sasori, then finally turned, glancing from Deidara to Mina, and stated simply,
“Begin.”
Instantly spinning to face Deidara, her muscles tensed in readiness to fight, she widened her eyes as a bird appeared inches from her from the side, and seeing Deidara raise his hands, Mina quickly gathered what was about to happen. Throwing up her arms, she built up her chakra within them, pushing it out through hands and forming it into a shield around her just in time. She wasn’t left unscathed; large scratches and cuts were left across her forearms, dripping blood as she stood there—but she wasn’t dead, and she hadn’t been thrown to the floor with the impact. But Mina had learnt a few things. That was his art—explosives. That was why he disagreed with Sasori so much. And that he wasn’t as stupid as he might seem with that smug smirk on his face all the time. He was intelligent when it came down to getting his bombs close to his opponents—that was clear enough. So Mina would have to be on her toes; but she could counter it.
Dodging out of the smoke and rubble left behind from the explosion, Mina darted towards him. If he was a long-range fighter, he’d be weaker in close combat—she’d take advantage of that. Though she didn’t get far before more bombs headed her way; but she was ready for them this time. Throwing out her chakra, she integrated it with the bombs, and manipulating it outwards, the clay creatures shattered into pieces, manoeuvring them round until they were right beside him and once again putting them back together—then as he began to detonate another bomb, while Mina grabbed it and destroyed it, the one right next to him detonated too; though she found he’d managed to get away just in time as the smoke cleared.
Now he knew he’d underestimated her; she might look innocent, but Mina was anything but. Not only that, but he’d imagined she’d use the puppet master jutsu too—not that she’d use something utterly unique—that had this power. But Mina wasn’t done yet, quickly using a jutsu that turned the ground beneath Deidara's feet to quicksand and ultimately leaving him trapped where he was, unable to move his feet. Swiftly taking advantage of this, Mina sped forward, ready for close combat—but Deidara's hands were still free, and making a sculpture as fast as he could, it grew to 10x the size it was before. From there it took off; but not before grabbing hold of Deidara, who used more explosives to break himself free, allowing the bird to carry him away from Mina and leaving her having to dodge several other bombs in the meantime.
Clearly his sculptures can be used for more than just bombs—though they’ll all end up the same way, Mina mused to herself as she dodged some more, then quickly unleashing her chakra in a form that was less like chakra strings, and more like chakra rope. It was with this that she pulled herself forward and onto his bird, finally forcing him into close combat. Widening his eyes, Deidara had no choice but to defend himself, trying to think of something to get away from her.
But he didn’t get much of an opportunity, as Mina acted before he could even carry anything out, doing the same thing she had done to his other bombs—breaking them into pieces. Being prepared for this herself, she knew what to do, but having not seen this coming, Deidara simply plummeted, helped along with a kick to his stomach from Mina. She, however, landed safely in the branches of a nearby tree, watching as Deidara recovered from the fall and moved further away, albeit with blood running from his mouth, clearly showing signs of the battle now. But he wasn’t done yet, grabbing more clay from another pouch, murmuring,
“That’s how you want it, un? Fine. I’ll show you what my art can really do.”
Mina immediately tensed; with those words, it seemed clear he was about to up the strength of his explosives—she would have to be fast to avoid these, or risk much bigger injuries than she had now. This time she brought out some kunai, running through different strategies that Deidara might use to get that bomb in point blank range. She was beginning to get an understanding of his abilities now, coming up with ways to counter them—ways that would be revealed soon, as Deidara raised his hand, starting to pull out whatever it was he’d made.
“That’s enough!”
