Chapter 1
Masks are convenient. Shinobi use them for many things: to hide identity, to protect the face, and sometimes as part of standard ninja uniform. It wasn't the best for hiding identity, as there are other more accurate means to be identified other than the face – like scents and chakra signatures.
Deidara doesn't mind people wearing masks, or care enough to be curious about what they're hiding. He has worked with many ninja using masks, and it doesn't matter if they reveal their faces or not. How people chose to present themselves was none of his business.
Sasori had layers of masks. First, it was the black scarf covering his half of his face. Then he saw it was only hiding a mechanical mouth that can shoot out fire, bullets, or poison needles. There, he noticed his partner had a puppet body of some sort. Later still he realized that the puppet body must be a husk, another mask to hide the real Sasori inside. It was a surprise to find Sasori almost angelic, too pretty to be real, because turns out he wasn't really human. It was a weapon-riddled doll encasing for a delicate beating heart. He had asked Sasori about that, and Sasori explained it was the only position he can place his heart for full control of his body.
Deidara didn't worry. Sasori is the strongest shinobi he had the pleasure of knowing, and considered himself lucky to be working with him. Sasori can do mass murder with nothing but a spray of poisoned senbon. He wouldn't take out his precious puppets unless he had a worthy opponent. He didn't even have to step out of his puppet armor.
If Deidara would think of it as a video game, Sasori's real body was the Ultimate Baddie to defeat. That is, if someone was unfortunate enough to live through all the poisons, traps, and the hundreds of puppets. Enemies have died barely reaching Level 1. Deidara has estimated his chances. There's a very slim chance that Sasori would be defeated. It was close to impossible to get him in a state that the weak spot would be exposed. Getting Sasori to even step out of Hiruko in a fight is almost a guarantee of death.
It had become a joke between them when training together, 'how long do we spar until Sasori takes his shirt off'. Deidara knows he's one of the few who can stand equal with Sasori and still live. Sasori taking off his cloak is a good sign – it meant this fight is getting serious. Deidara's own mesh shirt is already torn in places from dodging puppets wielding blades, so he just takes it off and starts fighting shirtless.
He'd release his bombs, avoid the puppets as much as possible and aim for Sasori.
Usually, though, he's the one who ends up unconscious from a well-aimed poisoned needle. He would wake up sprawled on Sasori's lap while the other applied the antidote and mended his wounds with healing chakra.
The first time it happened, a senbon struck him on the neck. He woke and found himself lying on his side, hair retied more neatly in a single ponytail he doesn't remember doing, his head resting on some cloth-covered curved surface. He was on a bed, and lying on what looked like someone's outstretched legs that didn't feel like normal.
"Don't move," Sasori said, and Deidara froze at the sudden warning.
He felt something thin and cold slide out of his skin, then the cool brush of chakra. He's sweating from the heat, and in his delirium all he's thinking about is how Sasori's cloak might be stained with it. He was so near…
Then Sasori pushed Deidara off him and walked out of the room without a word. On the table was a glass of water, a new shirt, and an Akatsuki cloak. The old cloak was somehow burned in their practice battle. Well, at least Sasori cares enough.
Somehow, he's gotten used to waking up this way. Sometimes, Sasori stays longer. They don't speak, and Deidara would pretend to sleep. Sasori does things – fixes his own injuries, reads a book or studies a scroll. Here he realizes how convenient Sasori's body is. He wouldn't be hurt the way humans of flesh and blood do. He would never get sunburned or scarred. Deidara always got sunburned from flying too high when the sun was blazing, and enemies aware of his technique always targeted his hands. His arms would always be bruised or wounded after a mission.
But Sasori died. He had thought it was impossible, but turns out a slim chance is still a chance. It just increased when the opponent was his own grandmother and a kunoichi who had an antidote to the poison and the strength to destroy the puppets. Later, he would learn that her name is Sakura Haruno, former teammate of the nine-tails jinchuuriki and Itachi's brother. Deidara made a mental note to congratulate the girl when he gets to meet her, and challenge her to a fight.
Sasori died and Deidara gloated. Sasori had become arrogant, believing too much in his own version of immortality... maybe thinking he'd be feared for always and forever, forgetting his one weakness. Deidara wasn't the type to mourn, and he won't dwell on it. They had a great time together, made all the more precious by how brief it is. Three years was too short.
Then, it turns out their organization was really hard-up when he was teamed with an idiotic amateur named Tobi.
He wore a mask, too. Deidara has ceased to be curious of what's underneath masks a long time ago. With the kind of screwed-on body armor Tobi wore, and his useful technique of disappearing through surfaces, he wouldn't be surprised if Tobi was the Invisible Man underneath the covers.
Tobi calls him "Senpai", and Deidara can't help but feel he was baby-sitting someone. Well, this is how Sasori must have felt with him, then? Deidara can't handle responsibility and he often lost patience with Tobi. The Leader's been scolding them a lot, lately, to the amusement of the rest of the Akatsuki.
Deidara found himself liking Tobi, even if the other often made jokes about Deidara's art. It wasn't like Sasori's condescending manner. He didn't feel like a subordinate working with a superior anymore, but with an actual partner. Even if said new partner was only good at bragging and running away and making Deidara do all the work. It's probably because Deidara felt that Tobi had genuine appreciation and curiosity about his art.
It wasn't different from before, really, when he wakes up in bed not remembering where he'd been. He'll wake up with ache from healing injuries. Tobi's sitting beside him, telling him to rest and eat properly.
The first time it happened, he woke up with bandages around his chest. Tobi was sitting on his bed, trying to solve a Rubik's cube. He recalls a recent mission, but the memory of it is vague and the details hazy in his mind.
Tobi felt him wake. "Senpai, there was a nasty wound on your back I had to heal. I couldn't heal it properly with your hair getting in the way so I tied it up for you."
Deidara touched his hair, which Tobi managed to braid. He thought maybe Tobi would be the one injured from their mission.
"So you know how to do healing jutsu, hm?"
"Just the very basics! I'm not a medic, Rin taught me I should learn some just in case…"
"Rin? Whose that?" Deidara sat up.
"A… friend." Tobi stopped fiddling with the cube and stared at it with his one good eye for a full minute.
Then, in a fast flurry of twists and turns, he completed it. "Look, Deidara-senpai!" and presented it to Deidara.
"What would I do with that? Blow it up?"
"Keep it." Tobi placed it on the desk. Deidara noticed several senbon owned by Sasori still on the desk, glimmering from the sunlight through the window.
Sometimes, Deidara dreams of a dark place. The floors are made of wide white and uneven cubes, stretching out in all directions Deidara can see. They resemble the white side of a solved Rubik's cube, squares of different heights all around. Sometimes, there is Sasori. Sometimes, it's Itachi. Deidara doesn't remember much of these dreams. Most of the time, there is Tobi, alone or talking a grey-haired boy or a girl. That'sRin, maybe. Tobi is always unmasked in the dream, but when Deidara wakes he can't remember a detail of his face. This place always appears in his dreams before he wakes up from unconsciousness.
He had a conversation with Sasori, once.
"So, when is that last ultimate art of yours going to happen?" Sasori asked, and Deidara imagines that there's a hint of concern in that smug voice.
"Worried, Danna? Not anytime soon. I bet you'd be killed first before my death…"
Sasori appeared to sigh.
But, he turned out to be right, and Sasori was gone first.
Deidara had long decided that he would die by his own art, die being art, in a final glorious explosion that the rest of the world would talk about for a long time.
…tbc.