Master Puppet Maker

AU, Deidara arrives at a new uni half way through the year, and at once can't fit in. So in order to do so, he joins the art club, its president, the controlling, Sasori. SasoDei.

Disclaimer and such.

Blue here! Hope you guys like this! I love Deidara, don't you? Sucks he dies...eep did I spoil that for those of you who've not caught up?? Sorry...:( Well what's done is done...Review please, I would love it mucho!

XXX

Chapter One

What the HELL – un!

University number two. The only other one in the whole country that would accept him after the explosion he caused at his last one. Who would have thought that so little people appreciate my art, un! So annoying... "At least this one will let me in, un," he sighed, looking up at the tall buildings of the modern looking campus and looked towards reception, at least they'd not asked as many questions as the last one had.

Deidara heaved his belongings over his shoulder once again and headed towards it, told to go there upon arrival for information about his accommodation. He just wanted to get started, he hoped that here at least there would be more people capable of understanding his art form than there had been at the last narrow minded college he'd been at. "Assholes, un." He muttered.

The accommodation turned out being pretty much the same deal as last time; instead this time he shared his room with someone who appeared to be a little more ego-centric than he was...and vain... "Very vain, un...wonder if he's good looking. Hey lady," Deidara looked over his shoulder to the woman that had showed him to the room. "What did ya say his name was again, un?"

She sorted out her glasses on her nose and composed herself, clutching her clipboard against her chest. "Uchiha Itachi." She told him. "Now if you'd excuse me, I've got to be going. If there are any more questions please don't hesitate to ask the dorm-head. He should be able to help you with anything that you need."

Deidara nodded his head and dropped his things down onto the bed on the other side of the room to so called Uchiha's and looked around. "Hey lady," he called again just as she was about to leave the room. "Don't wanna point me towards the cafeteria, do ya, un?"

Sitting in the cafeteria, Deidara looked around realising how empty the place seemed to be in, wondering about the strange graffiti that looked like it had been spray painted onto the single exposed brick wall on the far side of the dining aria. He squinted his eyes, moving his hair from his face as he tried to read the words that were around what appeared to him to be a very ominous looking red cloud. "Akatsuki...rulz...un...?" he pulled a face and ate the rest of his sandwich, looking down at the tattoos on his palms. On the right, a mouth with the tongue hanging out, the left, just smiling at him as he ate, he shook his head. "Bet they don't, un..."

"New here, girly?"

Deidara didn't turn around at the question, having not believed that it was applied to him. He continued munching away happily at his sandwich before lifting a can of juice to his lips to wash it all down.

"Hey, are you listening?"

Deidara looked up as he felt a hand on his shoulder, and blinked, narrowing his eyes somewhat before he glanced over his shoulder with a broad grin. "Can I help you, un?"

The three behind him stopped smiling at once and one of them brought his hand away, Deidara met his pale eyes and strange silver hair and looked towards the masked creature to his right and the other one to his left, he raised an eyebrow as he noticed the ominous red and white clouds that seemed to adorn different parts of their clothing. Deidara got onto his feet, and folded his arms. His grin widened.

"Akatsuki, un?"

The one to the left nodded his head and put out his hand as a greeting, lifting the orange mask aside momentarily and smiled broadly at Deidara. "I'm Tobi, miss."

Deidara felt his eyebrow twitch and shooed the hand away. "Who do you think you're calling MISS - un?" he hissed, pointing a sharp finger at the chest of the brown haired one who seemed not have realised his somewhat obvious mistake. Deidara's hand was clenched at his side, the black eyes of Tobi blinked and he placed his mask back on.

"So you're a guy?" laughed the one in the centre. Deidara's visible blue eye moved to his one, scowling darkly. "Could have fooled me...come on, let's go get Pein's food before he gets pissed off."

Deidara clenched his fists at his sides...glaring at the trio darkly as they turned around, the one named Tobi waving at him as he left...a part in Deidara seemed to snap. He reached for the closest object and it was airborne before the three of them had even started walking away. Deidara smirked darkly.

Hidan turned around, his eyes narrowed in on the blonde behind them, feeling the juice as it began to seep down into the back of his clothes, soaking his hair. He pointed a sharp finger at Deidara, his handsome face became one of anger though before he could lash out Tobi gripped onto him around the waist and held him in place. Hidan's arms remained thrashing at his sides; Deidara stood grinning with his arms folded over his stomach as Hidan continued his insults.

"You little asswipe! What the hell is your problem! You freak! Let go of me, Tobi! Or I swear I'm gonna kick your ass! Bring it on girly! BRING IT!"

"Hiiiidaaannn-seeenpaaaiii!!" Tobi whined as he tried to tug back, the third of them remained unaffected, simply went about what business he had at attaining food, trying to sort out which of the set meals he believed was the cheapest.

"What did you call me – UN!?" Deidara, about to go in for the kill, launched himself forwards as Hidan managed to escape from Tobi's grasp, the boy with the orange mask flung across the room and into a few tables that some other students were eating at.

Deidara pulled back his fist ready to punch, when his eyes caught sight of his opponent who stopped almost at once, looking at a figure that stood just beyond Deidara. His fist still flying through the air, clenched for the hit, Deidara hadn't expected that punch to be caught in the hand of someone from behind him.

The cafeteria seemed to go still, Tobi hobbled up from the ground after behind shoved off the table by the annoyed students and wiped himself down, noodles looping from his hair. He surveyed the scene ahead of him and pointed at the two figures stood behind Deidara.

"Itachi-senpai, Kisame-senpai!"

Deidara's face was one of desperation as he felt the cold hand latch around his wrist, his arm stuck behind him as he felt the darkness of a huge shadow looming over him. He swallowed loudly and risked a glance back...the name Itachi rang a few bells. His roommate?

Risking a glance backwards, Deidara's eyes fell over the looming form of what he believed to be some kind of experiment gone wrong. He leapt out of the way, yanking his hand back as he fell into Hidan as his blue eyes met with the amused gold ones of a shark. "Giant SUSHI!" he cried, gripping onto his hand as he shuffled further back and passed Hidan, his heart thumbing in his chest. "I thought that was just a dream...un..." he muttered quietly to himself as he tried to compose his emotions and calm down.

"Picking fights with little girls now, Hidan," chuckled Kisame as he lowered his arm back down to his side.

"Who the HELL do you -,"

"You make too much noise." Deidara's eyes fell over the form that had been hidden by the sheer size of sushi, the calm yet intense eyes of Uchiha Itachi caused Deidara's words to stop in his throat. His brows furrowed, his face showed how displeased he was.

"This brat started it," Hidan growled, Tobi having reached them again he snatched the napkin out of his hand and used it to wipe off the juice he could feel running down the back of his neck. "Not like I did it on purpose, little shit."

"Who you calling a little -,"

"Tobi, go and fetch something to eat for Sasori," Itachi cut across again, handing Tobi some money from his own pocket. "Set lunch C."

"Yessir!" Tobi saluted as he took the money and bounced off to join Kakuzu.

Deidara felt his eyebrow twitch as he was again interrupted, already beginning to hate his roommate. He didn't like being ignored or looked down upon.

"What the HELL – un!"

Two pairs of eyes turned to look at him, yet the eyes of Uchiha Itachi did not, they simply passed right by him as he too walked on after Tobi, while Kisame and Hidan remained behind, watching him with mild interest. Deidara looked after Itachi with a burning hatred in his eyes, only to have Hidan walk passed him smugly, Kisame followed not long afterwards, glancing back at Deidara with an 

equally as smug smile. Deidara felt the urge to explode something over come him, and before he'd realised it he'd grabbed his things and headed out of the cafeteria and back towards his dorm room.

From a single case inside his bag he pulled out a box and took this with him as he followed the map and took its guidance until he found one of the art rooms, several of them were in use, but this one, right at the back of the campus looked as though it wasn't used very often, yet it had within it just what he was looking for.

"Much better, un..." Deidara put the box down onto the work bench and opened it, taking out part of what was within it, his own special clay. The pottery wheel ahead of him seemed to be beaconing him to come to it, and so he did with little pause, sitting at the bench he flicked a switch, wondering what kind of masterpiece he could create today...

It seemed that hours had passed since he'd begun spinning his masterpiece, creating it with great consideration for its shape and stature, smoothing out the edges and lining out any creases in its surface...it was almost perfect, almost finished, before he could truly see the real art that would come out of it.

He stepped back to admire his work for a while as it sat on the work bench, he wondered, what would it look like? Somehow he knew it would be amazing no matter what. Deidara clapped his hands together, it was already beginning to get dark outside, he noticed, so he went ahead to turn on one of the lights that allowed him to see the rest of the dusty room, where his eyes took in the sight of a collection of wooden pieces at the far side of the room. He stepped towards them, noticing that half of them were covered by a sheet. "Un...?" he reached down, trying to figure out what on earth the shape was, lying up against the wall as he pulled the sheet away in one swift yank, and was shocked by what he saw.

"Puppets...un...?"

Sasori headed away from the rest of the group members as he usually did when their complaints and arguments became too much for him to listen to anymore, and thought the he deserved the solitude of his art. The campus was already pretty empty by that time, the school was not large – by far – although the amount of rooms exceeded by far the amount of students...leaving Sasori to an unlocked room of his own that he could use for such purposes.

Yet as Sasori calmly approached his class of choice, he noticed the dull light that shone through the frosty glass of the doorway and paused for a moment...had one of the club members beaten him there?

He sighed, his reddish eyes became half cast as he put out his arm, readying himself for some kind of ambush that would most likely leave him annoyed for days. He'd no idea what kind of challenge lay ahead of him when he opened that door. Pressing his small hand against the door handle, Sasori moved it down and it opened quietly without any force, simply swinging in on its hinges.

Sasori allowed his eyes to pass over the scene inside the room, at the dull lamplight that flooded the aria over the pottery wheel and work bench, he saw what he thought were figures, little clay animals, and oddly enough a box of oddly coloured clay. He paused for a moment, he didn't see any figure ahead of him in the room, or at least in the light, so dropped his shoulders, his face expressionless as he turned his head to look further down the room. He didn't know anyone who worked with clay...certainly not like that.

Deidara hadn't heard the door opening, nor the almost soundless footfalls over the dusty concrete floor of the bare room, but he remained sat down on the ground, on his knees, admiring the puppets as they rested against the wall, none of them seemed to be finished, only half done, half carved or missing limbs or a head. There was a small crate also beneath the sheet that had homed different limbs and other pieces of wood that looked as though someone had just about started to carve life into them.

He smiled, he liked puppets, and it appeared as though whoever had made these took great pride in their work, they were done very skilfully.

Sasori's eyes were enlightened by the blonde hair knelt on the ground ahead of his puppets. He didn't speak, only watched curiously as the blonde – girl? – held one of the smaller puppets in hand, seemingly admiring the facial features. Sasori was uncertain if he should say anything. He didn't know who on earth his person was.

"Pretty cool, un." Deidara got onto his feet finally, putting down the puppet, still with admiration in his eyes; it was rare that he saw any kind of artwork he found amusing these days. Paintings didn't do it for him, although he had a broad appreciation for art, somehow nothing ever matched up to his own...although he enjoyed the idea of the puppets, one could see that more as simple wood-work rather than art. Turning back around to go to his little creations, Deidara stopped and brought his hand to his chest out of fright at the carefree eyes that looked at him with great speculation.

Blinking, Sasori took in the sight of his creature, tall and lean, a little too skinny, his hair a little too long, his eyes a little too blue and eager. Sasori decided – one he realised this blonde was a guy - that he didn't like him.

"Hn." Sasori passed Deidara by and went over towards the puppets that Deidara had left uncovered and from one of the crates he began to pick out different parts, lifting the satchel from over his shoulder he put it down on the nearest work-bench and placed the parts next to it. Deidara watched in dumb awe.

"You made the puppets, un?" he asked.

Sasori didn't greet the question with his eyes, and sat down before he leisurely took his time to answer. "I did."

Deidara raised a sleek blonde brow and folded his arms, at once he could read this person's character...grumpy ass, un, he stated inwardly. "Not taking up your personal space, am I, un?" he asked, though Deidara didn't really care, he went back to the opposite end of the room and began to put all of the clay that he'd not used back in the box where it belonged.

"Hardly," Sasori replied, somehow feeling inclined to give the boy an answer.

"The name's Deidara, un." He introduced himself. "You a fresher?"

Sasori sighed, his shoulders dropped, but his eyes did not move from the puppet pieces that had ahead of him. "Third year." He replied. Deidara blinked, impressed, this red-head didn't look much older than he was, and was pretty short too, Deidara shrugged it off, not everyone was tall...unlike mister giant-sushi, un.

"You got a name, mister-third-year, un?"

"Is it necessary to know my name?" Sasori questioned, moving his hands skilfully over the face of the puppet as he brushed away the excess wood from the carving he'd been doing. Deidara sat down at his work bench, and smiled slightly, this was the first guy who pretty much spoke to him today, even if he didn't want to, he seemed much less amusing than those Akatsuki-bastards though.

"Humour me, un?"

"Akasuna no Sasori."

Deidara was good with names, and much like earlier at the mentioning of Itachi-senpai, Deidara had noticed that the name was that of his ego-centric roommate – go figure, un. But this time, the name Sasori rang some bells. He dropped his shoulders. "Akatsuki, too, un." He said out loud.

"Aa."

Deidara, sparked by interest decided on more questions. "What is Akatsuki?"

Sasori made a low grumbling sound, he carved away at the puppet's features before he promptly decided it would probably be in his best interests to answer this annoyance's questions as fast as possible if he ever wanted any peace, it seemed that the brat was about to leave anyway.

"The Akatsuki is a small group of living-breathing-delinquents." Sasori replied. "We specialise in making the lives of others a living hell."

Deidara snorted back laughter, approaching where Sasori was working on the other side of the room, now able to see the small ominous red cloud was stitched like patchwork onto one of the back pockets of his jeans that Deidara had seen since Sasori sat on a high stool. "They do a good job at it, un." He said. "Is that really all you guys do?"

"We're misfits that this school decides will probably be criminals in the near future." Sasori replied. "And I'm certain that they're not wrong." Deidara thought on what he'd said and nodded his head; he supposed – after thinking back over his encounter – that he thought the same thing. Some of them had faces of murderers...others maybe appeared to be into organised crime...he smirked to himself.

"But what about that idiot with the orange mask, un?" Deidara questioned. "Tobi, un?"

Sasori dropped his shoulders again, he knew that the blonde had come to stand behind him; he hated it when people looked over his shoulder. "Tobi is no exception. Split personalities. It is Madara that you do not wish to meet. Much to my amusement Madara hardly appears to us anymore."

"Whoa, really? A split personality, un?"

Somehow at this youth's excitement at the prospect of two personalities in one person Sasori remained silent and stoic, rubbing the rounded face of the puppet and dusted it with his fingers, reaching for the sandpaper to make the cheek smooth.

"So what about -,"

"Brat, you're really starting to piss me off." Sasori hissed, causing Deidara to pause at the violence that came through in that tone of voice. Something he'd hardly expected from the auburn haired senior. Deidara thought on his next actions and folded his arms.

"Definitely Akatsuki, un." Deidara found his way back to his things, leaving the curious puppet maker to his business as he collected his clay and looked over his small collection of things that he'd made, ready to create art with. He glanced back at a silent Sasori fleetingly and opened his mouth to speak again. "Na, Sasori, un, is it okay for me to leave my stuff here over night, un?" he didn't half expect an answer, but then again, things seemed to have their way of surprising Deidara.

"No one usually comes here aside from me. So it is your decision if you wish to leave them in my presence or not." He replied almost sternly, entirely serious, he brought the puppet closer to his face and inspecting the smooth roundness of the face after he'd put down the sandpaper.

Deidara nodded his head and put all of his clay creatures together on a shelf against the wall so that they'd be out of the way. "See you, Sasori, un."

"I hope not..." Sasori muttered quietly to himself after hearing the door shut behind him with an almost inaudible click. He'd spent only a few minutes with him and already Sasori knew that he would be a great annoyance in the future, he just had that feeling. He shook it off and carried on working, now that there was nothing there to distract him.

xxx

Deidara pulled his hair out of the tie before he placed his hand on the door into his dorm room. Oddly enough he heard multiple voices inside, opened it anyway as he ran his fingers through his mass of thick blonde hair as it dangled still over that single left eye.

The voices continued as he entered, no one wavered by his appearance, and so Deidara took the chance to look up and note who it was in the room with him. One solemn figure sat on the bed to the far left wall Deidara recognised as Uchiha Itachi almost at once; obvious enough that it was him really...Deidara could almost smell the high-and-mighty that hung around him.

The other in the room, Deidara noticed was someone who looked younger than them, but he had his back turned to Deidara so he didn't see him properly as he sat backwards over one of the swivelling desk chairs that faced the Uchiha leaning back leisurely on his bed.

Neither of them turned to look back at him, and so Deidara continued on his merry way, reaching his side of the room, he put away his clay and found what he was looking for, and without further ado headed to where he wanted to be, the bathroom. Though even after his lengthy shower, Deidara appeared in the door way, running a towel through his long blonde hair, wearing only his sweat pants, he was surprised to see that the dark haired kid was still in the room, seemingly taking part in a one sided argument that he looked to be losing.

"How come that if you don't go I still have to? It's not like anyone is going there to see me." The boy drawled out, anger in his voice that showed in his exasperated arm waving. Itachi's eyes seemed not to be entirely taking in the conversation at hand, he dropped his shoulders, and for the first time, he caught Deidara's eyes as he glanced towards them from the bathroom doorway.

Deidara scowled and went about his business.

"Are you even listening? Itachi?" the black eyes of the youth turned around to see what exactly it was that Itachi was staring at so full-heartedly. He raised a sleek dark eyebrow and looked at Deidara's lithe form as he went searching through his bags, presumably for his bed clothes.

"Who's the blonde?" he asked, and glanced back to a smirking Itachi.

"Deidara, isn't it?" Itachi voiced slowly, at his own pace.

Deidara didn't give him the satisfaction of turning to look at him and yet continued his rummaging through his bags having been unsuccessful in finding what he wanted. Silence filled the room, but it was more of a bored silence than anything. Deidara flung out some day clothes, but still unable to find the shirt that he was looking for.

"Yeah well, whatever," the boy got into his feet and glanced over at Deidara as he headed towards the door way. "I've had my fill of blonde for the day. You better come to that gathering, aniki, or I'll kick your ass."

"Good-bye, Sasuke." Itachi said smoothly, having not lifted himself up from the bed. Sasuke glared at his brother from the doorway and left without saying anything more, Deidara caught a glimpse at him as he'd turned to leave and felt his mouth gaping...yummy, un.

"Looking at something?"

Deidara nearly jumped out of his skin, he'd not even realised how close Itachi was standing, or how he'd come to stand almost directly behind him, and far too close for comfort. Deidara stood up straight, realising that their heights were roughly the same, and met Itachi's black eyes with his own blue ones. The Uchiha's eyes seemed somewhat amused.

"Get out of my face, un." Deidara growled before he shoved passed Itachi and headed over to the second bag that he'd brought with him and lifted it up so that it was on the bed. He began his search again then, for the night shirt that he was looking for, Itachi lingered back over to his side of the room and began to change into his own night clothes, it was already starting to get late. Deidara hadn't realised he'd spent so much time at the pottery wheel.

"Gotcha, un..." Deidara smiled triumphantly as he pulled the shirt on over his damp head of hair before shoving all of the useless items back into the bags and put them aside, he'd unpack sometime that weekend. Much to his surprise, Deidara found himself glancing over at Uchiha Itachi as he sat down at his desk, bore a pair of black rimmed spectacles and began working on something...it looked like he was taking notes from some kind of mental health book. Deidara found himself scoffing for some reason and pried his eyes away for a moment before he found Itachi again.

Soooo many questions, un...

"Your brother, un?"

"What about him?" Itachi muttered, still leaving Deidara to wonder why it was that he had suddenly been acknowledged by him.

"He looks just like you, un."

"Hn."

"Un."

Silence seemed to fall between the both of them, Deidara wasn't certain if it was the good kind or the bad kind, but somehow he reasoned that he didn't really care very much either way, nor did he expect to be spoken to again. Yet as he lay himself down on his bed, readying himself for the events of tomorrow and his first classes as this new school, he found that Itachi had voiced something to him that he'd only just caught the end of.

"...should probably join the art club."

Deidara didn't say anything, but he blinked, he wasn't certain if Itachi had even been talking to him or not, or even talking at all...so he let it pass...somehow the idea of joining a club seemed somewhat...cliché...

XXX

Will he or will he not? A club, cliché? Ohh maybe, maybe...

I wonder if this was a good starting chapter? It's not very long, usually I write longer chapters, but this seems as though the right place to end it.

I hope that you've enjoyed it! I can't say how often I will update presently, but hopefully if I get into this story I shall update within the week. Also! I would love to know what you guys think – off to a slow start – but it has to start somewhere. Please review ;) it would mean a lot to me and motivate me to write faster! It really will!

Side pairings, anyone?

Blue x