First off I apologize for not covering last weeks episode – 123 as I was away on vacation again and have been too busy with work to catch up on all the series I’m covering. The 124th episode of Naruto Shippuden entitled “Art” picks up with Sasuke facing off against Deidara.

Sasuke definitely underestimated this member of the Akatsuki as Deidara proves to be a worthy opponent, throwing all kinds of chakra/clay bombs at Sasuke. He gets Tobi to plant his clay land mine bombs underground and then assaults Sasuke from above (last episode).

Deidara’s ultimate attack is a massive bomb that consists of millions of nano sized clay bombs that attack at the cellular level .. totally deteriorating the enemy. Sasuke avoids it once with his Genjutsu and counter attacks Deidara. However, thanks to his previous combat experience with Itachi, Deidara has somehow trained his left eye to counter the Sharingan and traps Sasuke in close quarters with his nano attack.

However, right before he explodes his attack, Sasuke uses his Chidori on himself and in doing so disarms all of the millions of nano-sized bomb inside of him. Deidara is pissed to say the least, most of all at Sasuke’s attitude. He shows no fear or intimidation and continues to questions Deidara about the only thing he cares about .. Itachi’s location.

Full of rage Deidara launches his ultimate trump card .. self detonation. In exploding himself he creates a retarded sized bomb that covers a 10km radius and takes out the entire forest. Did Sasuke somehow escape this ? .. non-readers of the manga will have to wait until next week to find out!

I really loved this battle in the manga, and it was great to see it come to life through the animation. I can’t wait for the battles to come.

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