The Mission

Ino had never known that Deidara was the victim of attempted kidnapping and sexual assault in the past, her eyes full of sympathy for him, “I never knew that’s why you never had friends or how you came to be so strong in omega rights… I didn’t know, you never told me—why didn’t you tell me anything?” 

“You were too young back then to get it and I didn’t want to worry you.” he doesn’t hold back when moving on with his recollection, “Anyway, that was how I met Itachi, un, but like I said, things aren’t exactly black and white.” 

She didn’t know where he’d go with this, but braced herself for whatever revelation she may hear next. 

(Sakura is doing much of the same, still uncertain as to what all he will have to say next to explain away his choosing to leave the village and his family in shatters.) 

He didn’t see Itachi again at Suna, but it didn’t stop him from loving that place far more than he should have. He longed to visit Suna multiple times a year, but it seemed it would prove to be impossible with the way things were going: what with the Kazekage’s son being one who killed people he happened to encounter whether it be on purpose or accident, it wasn’t safe in general for anyone outside the village to visit Suna until they got it under control. 

Being back in Konoha, Deidara was isolated, but not lonely. He was saddened at the prospect of being here, in this village, yet he didn’t care much otherwise. As long as he was able to work on his art in peace, he didn’t honestly care about much else. 

After his trip, he’d see Itachi again, but he wasn’t as annoyed as he had been when he first was approached by him, “Why are you here, un?” 

“What, I cannot appreciate an artist working on their craft?” 

“You can’t when I’m working.” 

“Really, not even to catch a glance at your work?” 

He had been annoyed by this guy, though he did notice something off about him: “You’re really here to see my work, un?” 

Itachi hadn’t been anything other than honest, “I am. What would you think I am here for?” 

“What any other alpha and beta would be.” it was a bitter response, but he had come to expect such entitled behavior from the sexist pigs who felt they had a right to take whatever they could from him. 

“You think I’m here for sex, don’t you?” 

“What else would an alpha from this village be here for?” 

When Itachi didn’t fight him on it, he assumed it was for some nefarious reason, but then he did remark so casually, “Fair enough assumption. If I was in your position, I’m positive I’d be the same way.” 

It was weird for Deidara because he never met an alpha who was so…civil…towards him and talked to him like he was a person, as opposed to a doll, “Why would you, un? You’re a Konoha alpha; what reason would you have to not see me as some doll for you to take and do whatever you want with?” 

“Because I’ve had to deal with far too many alphas and betas who spoke of you as though you’re not a person and while I know it’s a completely different thing, I can understand what it’s like to feel objectified.” 

He scoffed and Itachi still remained neutral somehow, “It’s true; omegas and betas only see me as a perfect mate to have pups and share a heat with. They’re never interested in me as a person: to them, I am nothing more than my looks, my body, and capabilities as a Shinobi. If I wasn’t as strong as I am, as supposedly handsome as they claim me to be, and if I didn’t come from a good clan, none of them would want me or glance my way. Even my peers, coworkers, and family see me only for my strength and skills. It seems who I am doesn’t matter to anyone and on that end, I can understand what it’s like to be ‘Deidara Yamanaka, the most beautiful omega in all of Konoha’.”

Back then, he had thought he was only saying this to get in his pants. Looking on this in retrospect, he can say this was one of the first moments (no matter how subconscious it was) where he came to see Itachi in a more humanized light as opposed to the way people spoke of him. 

“…Okay, maybe you can, un.” he sets aside the sculpture he had been halfheartedly working on, facing him without anything to distract, “How did you know it was me?” 

“It’s impossible not to: every alpha, beta, and omega I know speak so much about your appearance with the random bits about your interest in art that I couldn’t not know about it.” Itachi then wondered much of the same, “Did you know who I was without asking my name?” 

“It’s the same thing for me…every beta and omega I overhear talking about their dream alpha always talks about you, un. It’s impossible for me to not hear about Itachi, the sexy prodigy, or Itachi Uchiha, the dream alpha who will give any lucky beta or omega the best pups around.” 

His dark eyes were glued onto him and yet it didn’t make him feel afraid or small. No, it felt like he was being given the attention of a good friend when the alpha looked at him like that, “Don’t feel the need to stop making your art around me. I’m content with watching you in silence if you want me to.” 

“Okay, but I’m not in the mood to work on it for now, un. What do you want to do instead?” 

“Well, we could go on a hike if you’d want.” 

He didn’t see anything wrong with this, but he wound up making a bird of clay for them to ride on in the end, “I’ve been working extra hard on this all summer, un. Do you want to ride it?” 

Itachi didn’t hesitate, “Why not? It’s not like I have anything better to do on my day off.” 

When on the bird, they had a nice time even if they didn’t talk much. It was only when they got off it that Itachi found out the secret to what made his art amazing: it was fleeting, as shown by the explosion that followed when they were off the bird. 

“I don’t understand…why make the bird explode after all the work you put into it?” 

“Because art is supposed to be fleeting, un! It’s supposed to be something that lasts for a flash of time and leaves an impression on the mind.”

“What is the beauty in something so beautiful and well made being nothing more than a fleeting experience that leaves an impact on someone’s memories?” 

“The beauty in it is that the beauty itself is fleeting, allowing the person who appreciates the art to see the actual message behind the art instead focusing on the aesthetic beauty of it, allowing people to take it more seriously, un.” 

He didn’t say much at first, but when he did, it did cut pretty deep to him, “You must take great peace in the claims of beauty being fleeting then to say such a thing.” 

“How could I not?” he didn’t fight him on it because it was true and he needed to vent about this to someone closer to his age, not his sister or parents, for once, “My beauty is a curse, but knowing there’s an end to it brings me hope that one day, I’ll be treated like a person instead of some doll to be taken and used, un. If I ever do miss it, I will at least always have the memories that live on in my mind of it, allowing me to enjoy it without any of the problems I have now.” 

“Makes sense, actually—knowing this does make your art more special for me to experience. Thank you for telling me about this viewpoint, Deidara. I truly did enjoy hearing it.”

“Yeah, whatever, un.” Deidara didn’t know what to think about the alpha back then because he was just so damn hard to read, but over time, he did come to find that he enjoyed his company more than he’d like to admit. In fact, slowly, but surely, Itachi was becoming his closest friend. 

Despite this, they had to keep their friendship private for the main reason of Deidara facing extreme harassment from Itachi’s many fangirls and fanboys who wish to mate him, as well as the possibility of Deidara’s own admirers trying to resort to extremes to make him theirs so Itachi couldn’t have him. 

Thus in public, they’d put up an act that would allow them the chance they needed to avoid such problems: Deidara would act as though he hated Itachi and he’d react in an extremely angry manner whenever he was near him whereas Itachi would make his interest in Deidara known to all, claiming him as his while keeping away the creeps and those who would wish him harm for having his attention. In private, when away from everyone, they’d be able to talk and hang out like normal kids their respective ages do. 

“Wait, you pretended to hate him all of this time?” Ino’s flabbergasted to the revelation with Sakura not faring much better, “That means you’ve always liked that guy? Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” 

“Because you were a little kid and little kids can’t be trusted with big secrets like that, un. I thought you would have grown up enough to understand that one by now.” 

“I have, but…it still feels so wrong. I can’t believe you kept lying about it to me over the years! What about mom and dad? Why couldn’t you tell them any of this?” 

“Them, un?” Deidara scoffed with an eye roll, “Yeah sure, trust gossipy mom and nosy dad with that much information…they would have been worse to trust with that than a little kid.”

…Hearing his reasoning being spoken out loud really allows her to understand why he kept it a secret in the way he did. Then again, he was always so good at formulating such plans and reasonings. 

“Wasn’t attacking and fighting him in public with your jutsus extreme for your plan? What was the point of that?” 

Things were progressing well for the two secret confidantes over the years. Deidara finally had someone close to his age to talk to and Itachi found someone who wasn’t trying to seduce or sabotage him out of jealousy. It was overall very nice, but things changed when Deidara—for the first time in his life—met someone who caught his eye.

He was an alpha artist from Suna, one he had met when at the Suna marketplace with his aunt and Ino as a part of her first ever visit to Suna. He had begged his parents for the longest time to let him go back to that wonderful village, so to get the chance to go there again with Ino for their aunt's birthday left him ecstatic. He doesn’t remember much of him now other than that he was older (as in, he was in his early thirties), he was a painter, he had bright ginger hair, and brown eyes. Deidara hadn’t thought he could have connected with anyone as well as he did with him, yet it happened.

He remembers when he first told Itachi about it, expecting him to be on his side on the matter because he wasn’t like the other alphas who saw him only as a possession to own, a doll to take and play with however they pleased. No, he saw him as a person, an equal—someone he could trust enough to be his first real friend outside of his little sister.

Imagine his surprise when after recounting this amazing chance encounter at a market where this man was selling his art and working on a painting on the spot that Itachi’s main response had been to keep a neutral face while being so distinctly critical, “Isn’t he a bit old for you, Deidara? You aren’t even eighteen—what reason would any alpha that old have to be interested in someone as young you?”

“We’re both intelligent artists, un! What other reason could he need?”

“…He’s too old for you. You should try being interested in someone who’s not as old as your oldest cousin instead. You know, because that way you won’t be as likely to be manipulated by some older alpha.”

He can admit he was in the wrong for reacting the way he did back then. He was being incredibly stupid about it when he growled, “Are you really trying to control me like any other alpha or beta here would? I thought you were better than that, un.”

The Uchiha alpha was (rightfully, he now knows) annoyed by this, “No, I am only trying to stop you from making a decision you’ll regret. You just met this stranger and he lives in another village. If you remember right, Danzo fought for the law requiring unmated omegas to mate an alpha or beta from a foreign village should they get pregnant by them outside of mating.”

Ah yes—Danzo, that sexist jerk who fights for repressive, conservative laws against omega rights to be either passed or maintained. Going off what Itachi told him, he is the reason why progress for omega rights in the village is a near impossibility.

“I won’t be stupid enough to get pregnant.” he realized how cocky and self righteous of a comment this was now that he’s older, but back then he couldn’t see it for what it was, “We’ll only be seeing each other in person three times a month when he comes here to sell his art at the market, un. How could it happen?”

“How could you be interested in him enough to want to write him every day then? Why bother with this alpha if you know you don’t stand much of a chance to have a long term relationship with him?”

“Because he’ll be my one way into Suna, un!” he didn’t know at the time, but his declaration would cause something to shift in their relationship on Itachi’s end, something he wouldn’t learn of until sometime later, “You don’t get it…this is my one chance to get out of this sexist place! Things will never change here, not when the people are as crappy as they are now—if I didn’t have Ino to think about, I would have begged my parents to let me stay in Suna so I’d never have to come back here, un. All I want is to be seen as a person like alphas and betas are all the time: with things being the way they are now, it won’t ever happen here.”

“So you’re the one using him to leave the village?”

At the time, tensions between Konoha and Suna were high which made getting citizenship to Suna for a Konoha omega a much harder process than it had to be.

For an omega from Konoha to become a citizen of Suna, they could get in easily if they had more than three relatives living in the village. However, Deidara only had one so this would not do. The only other options he had was to get in the village by either mating an alpha or beta from Suna or to work in the village as an apprentice for someone with a skill in a field they’re interested in.

“Can you blame me, un? Would you really want to be born as an omega in this village, especially one that’s famous for being the most beautiful omega of Konoha?”

Itachi didn’t respond, yet Deidara could tell he was upset with what he heard by the subtle change in his scent and the way his posture was too stiff. In order to prevent a major fracture in their friendship, he tried to make some sort of amend for what he said, “I know you love this village and you want to protect it like you want to protect your brother, but it’s easy for an alpha or beta to love it here, un. I’m an omega—a very desirable omega—how can I love it here without being mated?”

He didn’t lose the tension in his body, “You’d mate someone you hardly know to leave this place?”

“Mating, me, un? Ha!” if he laughed at the idea, it’s only because he had thought Itachi would have caught on by now, “I don’t believe in mating; mating is an unnecessary sexist trap meant to subjugate omegas to a lifetime of being some alpha or beta’s sex doll. People already see me that way, un. Why give that idea any legitimacy by getting mated?”

He shook his head at the very thought, “I’m planning on getting into Suna through being his apprentice, not his mate, un.”

Somehow, this only seemed to bother the Uchiha further, “You think that lowly of mating? I never would’ve guessed—I suppose I should have going by how hard you laughed just now.”

He didn’t think Itachi would be so disturbed by his views. He’s told him about his stances on omega rights more than once during the time they’ve known each other and he’s never had a problem with it. They have debated about certain things in the past, but they’ve always had a lot of common ground on so many issues that those small disagreements are incredibly minor in comparison.

Which is why his reaction didn’t make any sense to him back then, “Deidara, I don’t view mating that way…if of anything, I’d like to get mated someday to the right person when I can. I know if I were to mate any omega—whether it be one of my many admirers, a complete stranger from another village, or you—I would never treat them or you like a doll. No matter what, the omega in my life will always be seen as a person.”

“…I’ve been through too much to trust any of it, you should know that by now, un.” Deidara was being sincere though his voice was small and weak, “You can believe what you want about mating, but it won’t do much of anything to change my mind.”

“I figure it won’t, but I also figured you should hear an opposing opinion to yours.” Itachi then asks him, “Do your parents or Ino know about this plan?”

He shot him a surprised glance before it turned into a small chuckle, “No, why would I tell any of them about it, un? Ino’s too young to get it and my parents would kill me for using a person like that.”

Itachi then came up with a plan to help his friend, “You know that sneaking around to spend time with a foreign alpha will likely reach your parents if you aren’t careful.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m going to see him in disguise, un.”

“Sure, but you could also see him without one.”

Now he’s looking at him oddly, “What do you mean?”

His alpha friend gives him his plan, having to know he would run with it, “You could use your explosions whenever you see me.”

Deidara scoffs to this, “I already do that and I’ve almost gotten in trouble for it, un.”

Itachi sighed to this, “Those are your small explosions. I’m taking about using your larger ones whenever you see me to better hide your scent when you go see this guy all while preventing people from wanting to follow you.”

“You know I’ll get in really big trouble for that, right?”

“You won’t; I’ll be sure to keep everyone off your back by telling them that you’re playing hard to get and I believe you’re trying to hide your feelings for me.”

He had mistakenly thought that Itachi was being a good friend at the time, “You’d really do all that for me, un?”

Okay, so he had thought he was being so cool, so tough, so on top of it all. He thought he was the one in control, but he was so, so wrong.

His ticket to Suna—the older artist man with the ginger hair—had not been the sort of person he could play for a fool in the end. When they had met, he used some illegal supplement that he slipped into his water bottle when he wasn’t looking. This supplement happened to make him go into a heat for one night only.

It was horrible: he felt incredibly ill immediately afterwards and the man had been far too smug when he said, “You were a good lay, Yamanaka. I hope you don’t mind, but I don’t do the whole apprentice or mating thing—it’s not my style. So please, don’t write me anymore, okay? It’ll be incredibly awkward if I keep having to hide the letters from my mate back at home and kami knows I don’t need the drama.”

He never told anyone about what happened. He simply let himself lay inside that hotel room, the sickest he’d ever felt, until he felt good enough to shower and go home to his tent outside…which he did.

He did his best to pretend that nothing happened. To everyone else, he was just fine, though a lot more bitter and jumpy towards any alpha or beta who dared to get near him with his explosions going off at random ones now whenever he felt the least bit paranoid or uncomfortable.

It got to the point where Itachi, when they were alone, confronted him about it, "Why have you been snapping at random alphas and betas lately?”

He didn’t respond to it, choosing to work on his sculpture while the alpha spoke, “I covered for you; I told them you were telling the truth with whatever version of events it is you gave.”

“Thanks for that, un.”

There was nothing said after this, but it was when he brought up, “Whatever happened with the artist from Suna? I haven’t seen or heard of any such artist coming around for the last month. Did you two stop talking?”

Deidara must have done something to give it away because all Itachi could say then was, “…You two did stop talking, then. Was he trying to pressure you into a mating? Did he take advantage of you in a heat or something?”

The wind had felt as though it was kicked out of him, his whole body frozen stiff while he was barely able to force himself to ask, “What makes you ask that?”

“Something is off with your scent, Deidara… Not many can notice it because of the scent of your explosions lingering on you, but I can: you’re starting to smell like two people now and that only happens when an omega is pregnant. Last I checked, you hated nearly everyone in this village, so what is going on here?”

He bit his tongue, unsure of how to tell him it without his only friend close to his age getting mad at him, “You guessed it right with that last question you asked, un.”

Itachi’s scent didn’t flare with outrage. No, all that happened was he asked Deidara as calm as he always does, “What do you want to do about the pregnancy?”

“Terminate it. No way in hell am I being mated to that jackass, un.”

Terminating pregnancies is a crime in Konoha punishable by death thanks to Danzo and the other conservative elders of the village like him.

Deidara had thought Itachi wouldn’t be on his side for this. He had thought he had pushed his friend’s generosity, patience, and understanding nature too far yet he felt a strong arm wrapping around his waist, “I’ll help you find a medic nin who will do it for you. For now, keep using your explosions at me as often as you can in public to avoid anyone picking up on the scent.”

“What if I do snap at someone and use it on them by accident?”

“I’ll cover it for you like I always do. There’s nothing to worry about, Deidara. I won’t let your future be stolen from you like this.”

It was then that he realized how lucky he was to have Itachi in his life. So many omegas in his position have been forcibly mated and while others who tried to terminate their pregnancies were executed. He thinks of how lucky he is to have escaped such a fate and how lucky he is to be mated to the Uchiha today.