"What the hell is that?" Sasori spat the words like poison, or as he would if he were human. In front of him stood a rather tall young man, (although you'd never have guessed it was a man) and a peculiar looking one at that. His face was somewhat childish, half draped with long blonde locks; the rest pulled into a ridiculous looking pony tail at the top of his head.

"He," Zetsu made sure to emphasize this, "is your new partner."

Sasori shook his head, "You've got to be kidding me…" He took another hard look at his 'new partner' before making the decision that this was a waste of his time and talent. Zetsu motioned for the blonde to come over to they could be properly introduced.

"Deidara-san, this is your partner, Sasori-sama." Deidara politely held his hand out for a simple hand shake, but Sasori only returned it with a cold stare of about three seconds before walking off. Zetsu lowered his voice, "Don't mind him. He's never been friendly towards anyone really, but he's still kind of upset about his last partner. He'll get used to you… eventually."

After showing Deidara around headquarters to get him acquainted with his new home, Zetsu returned with Sasori so the two could get more familiar with each other. He intended to leave the two alone, but before exiting the room, left a final note to Sasori, "Try not to kill the kid."

Sasori sat down in a chair across from Deidara. There was a short, awkward silence before either of them spoke, and amazingly enough, Sasori was the one to break the silence. "So, start talking." He was very blunt, and obviously not thorough enough for Deidara's full understanding. "I'm sorry…?"

Sasori sighed, "The basics. Why are you here, why shouldn't I kill you? Things like that." Deidara's gaze dropped, not wanting to make direct eye contact with someone who seemed to dislike him so much already. "Well… I'm here to fill in the position of your former member, and I guess that's why you shouldn't kill me, because then you'd just have to find another replacement." He glanced up for a split second, only to see that Sasori's expression had not changed in the slightest. He went on, hoping to make things better. "I'm very skilled though. I'm a master with clay and explosives. It's beautiful art, and an effective way to destroy the enemy."

"Bullshit." Deidara raised his head slightly at the blatant comment. "Explosions are not art." The blonde shook his head, "But Sasori-sama they are. They're magnificently destructive and-"

"Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about. Art is long lasting and carefully constructed: both of which explosions are not. You're just talking a bunch of nonsensical crap."

"Art is quick and fleeting, mere seconds of beauty. That's the only way to truly appreciate it."

"That, my dear Deidara, is where you are wrong, and if you continue to think with that one-track mind of yours, you will always continue to be wrong."

Deidara finally decided to really stand up for himself. "You know what? You are so arrogant, that you think you're the only one that can be right? Because you've been here longer than me, you think you have some kind of superior authority, and that automatically means anything I say is either wrong, or not worth your time?"

Sasori stood from his seat, looking about ready to strangle Deidara, "You'll be lucky to even wake up in the morning I you don't learn your place in the organization." Without another word, he walked off, leaving Deidara alone until Zetsu returned not long after. "Well…that went well…"

Deidara looked over to Zetsu, hoping for some answers. "Like I said before, don't take it personally. He's like that to everyone when they first get here, sometimes for a long time afterwards." Zetsu sat down next to Deidara, "You see, there's a sort of 'unofficial' system we have here, that everyone just follows to keep the peace. In terms of hierarchy, all the new members start at the bottom of the totem pole. Leader-sama is, of course, the top position. Secondly, is Konan, since she's been here just as long as Leader-sama. Sasori came not long after they did, so he's been here for a pretty long time."

Deidara cocked his head with a confused look on his face, "He's been here the longest? But he's so young."

Zetsu shook his head, "He only looks that way. In reality, he's probably about 40, maybe even 50 by now." He watched the expression on Deidara's face go from confused to a little surprised, before continuing, "Next in line is Kakuzu, and then Hidan and I. After that are Itachi and Kisame, and then there's you. Well, there's Tobi too, but he doesn't really count…"

Deidara nodded, as if connecting puzzle pieces in his head, "So, what that means is, if I play along with Sasori-sama's superiority complex and show that I respect him, he won't threaten to kill me every two minutes and might actually treat me like an equal partner?"

Zetsu nodded, "I'm not so sure he'll ever see you as an equal, but pretty close. You just have to be patient with him, that's all. Give it time."