Deidara looked down at the large, gaping hole torn through his chest and stomach. He even passed his hand through it before looking toward Inoiki, who was still casually floating in the sky with his hands behind his back.

In a slightly mocking tone, Deidara said, "You see that, Inoiki?"

He pointed toward his body, which was already beginning to heal. Torn ’flesh’ and shattered pieces joined back together like paper puzzles snapping into place. This was the advantage of a reanimated body.

Deidara smirked and said, "I told you, our bodies are no longer normal human bodies. These are reanimated bodies. We do not feel pain, and we won’t die. Any injuries we suffer will heal instantly. You can’t kill us. Our chakra reserves are also infinite."

His grin widened.

"What are you gonna do?"

On the other side, Inoiki’s sword was already closing in on Sasori at terrifying speed. Sasori immediately put his hand inside his robe and pulled out a scroll. The cold look in his eyes did not change in the slightest. Clearly, inside that scroll were the hundreds of puppets he was planning to unseal.

At the same time, Sai looked toward his brother, Shin, who was also being targeted by Inoiki’s sword. The sharp metallic sound of clashing attacks echoed through the battlefield as Shin desperately tried to defend himself.

But despite Shin’s repeated attempts, despite every effort to stop it, Inoiki’s sword continued tearing through his defenses and destroying him piece by piece.

Although it clearly seemed as if Inoiki was dominating the entire battlefield, one thing was equally clear—none of the reanimated ninjas, Sasori, Chukichi, Deidara, and Shin, were going to be put down by Inoiki anytime soon.

Their bodies simply kept repairing themselves no matter how badly they were damaged.

But suddenly, just when Deidara was feeling smug and Sasori was about to unseal his hundreds of puppets, all of them felt an immense amount of pressure descend on their bodies.

Boom!

They were forced straight onto the ground, large craters appearing beneath them as the earth cracked and sank. The air itself suddenly felt unbearably heavy, as if an invisible mountain had been dropped on top of them.

Deidara, who had been flying in the sky on his clay bird, was slammed down from the air directly into the ground. Dust and broken stone exploded everywhere around him.

Sasori, who had just taken out the scroll in his hand and half-opened it, suddenly lost his grip. The scroll slipped from his fingers and fell onto the ground. His knees crashed into the earth as he was forced down.

Even Chukichi, who as a sensory ninja had already not been able to do much against Inoiki’s sword, was suffering badly. He had been continuously injured over and over again. Sometimes his arm would be cut off, only to reattach itself moments later. Sometimes half of his body would be sliced apart, only for it to join back together again.

It definitely felt humiliating.

Inoiki was toying with them in a sense.

But now, all of that was over. Every single one of them was forced to kneel on the ground under this tremendous pressure. Cracks spread beneath their feet, and even lifting a finger felt difficult.

And all of them immediately understood what this was.

Gravity.

Inoiki had increased the gravity all around them.

Inoiki looked toward them and said calmly, "I know very well that defeating all of you with just normal attacks is not possible. Although I can definitely damage you all spiritually, and you definitely won’t be able to survive that attack, I still do not want to kill you all for nothing and destroy your souls unless it becomes my last resort."

His expression remained indifferent as he looked down at the four reanimated ninjas struggling beneath the crushing gravity.

"I will just send you all back, freeing you all from this world."

After saying this, Inoiki turned toward Kankuro and his division and addressed them, "You all have sealing techniques, right? Seal all four of them. This gravity effect will last on them for the next three minutes. I have other places to be."

Kankuro and the others immediately looked at one another. The pressure pinning the four reanimated ninjas to the ground was so great that none of them could even properly resist.

After saying this, Inoiki controlled all four of his normal-sized swords. The swords immediately flew back toward one another, transforming and joining together once again to form a single giant sword beneath his feet.

The massive blade floated under him, and Inoiki stepped onto it casually.

The next moment, the giant sword shot forward and flew away from the battlefield.

Inoiki, standing atop his sword, flew over the Akatsuki surprise attack division. The wind howled around him as he passed overhead.

And as he passed over them, suddenly, out of thin air, lightning appeared.

Boom!

The lightning struck Shin directly.

It instantly turned his body charred black, and half of his body was destroyed in the explosion. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air for a moment.

But soon, the destroyed parts of his body started healing again because this was still a reanimated body.

However, the healing process was much slower due to the gravity force Inoiki had created.

Sai was shocked by this because this was definitely Inoiki’s doing.

Sai did not understand why Inoiki would suddenly attack his elder brother out of nowhere or what reason he could possibly have for doing it.

Shin, whose body had recovered enough to speak properly again, looked toward his younger brother. Seeing the confusion and dilemma in Sai’s eyes, Shin immediately understood what he was thinking.

Shin said, "Deidara had already planted explosive clay inside of me. He could have used that clay and detonated it at any moment. That might have created a good diversion and allowed everyone present here to become free."

As soon as everyone from Kankuro’s surprise attack division heard this, they immediately understood Inoiki’s purpose for doing this.

Sai also understood.

The earlier lightning strike was not random at all. Inoiki had specifically striked Shin to make sure Deidara could not use him as an explosive trap by destroying the explosive clay inside of Shin as Lightning Release is the nemesis of Deidara’s explosive clay.

After this, the entire division immediately focused on sealing all four of them, because if these four got free, then it might become very hard for them to seal them again.

Inoiki had already done so much for them by immobilizing them.

If they still could not seal these four, then they might as well just go home and leave the war.

...

Meanwhile, Inoiki continued flying while standing on top of his sword, traveling in one particular direction. The wind rushed past him as the giant blade cut through the sky at high speed.

On the other side, Itachi Uchiha, who had been reanimated by Kabuto on the First Division battlefield, had already left that battlefield in order to locate Kabuto and deal with him personally.

At that moment, Inoiki directly contacted Itachi through his mind and said, "Itachi, we from Konoha have learned everything about your reasons and all, and we know the truth that even though you were in the Akatsuki, you were still acting as an informant and giving details to Konoha."

Inoiki’s voice sounded calm inside Itachi’s mind, as though he was standing right beside him.

"So my question is, what is your goal right now?"

As soon as Itachi heard this voice in his mind, he immediately understood that Inoiki must be using the Yamanaka Clan’s Mind Body Transmission Jutsu to transmit his voice directly into his mind.

So Itachi began speaking mentally as well, as if Inoiki was standing right in front of him.

His expression remained calm as he moved silently through the forest.

"My goal is simple," Itachi said. "That is to locate Kabuto and force him to release this Reanimation Jutsu and free all the reanimated ninjas."