Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters, locations, etc in that series.

Warning: Contains manga spoilers.

Clay and Butterflies

"And this will be your room," Sasori said, waving Hiruko's tail to indicate the entirety of the room in which they were standing. "Through that door over there is a workshop where you can perfect your...ninjutsu," he continued, refusing to dignify Deidara's creations with the term "art."

Deidara looked around the room and pouted sullenly before tossing the backpack containing his clothes on the bed. He had remained completely silent while Sasori gave him a tour of the Akatsuki's base, and gave no sign of breaking his silence now.

"Hey, brat, aren't you going to say anything? Or are you still sulking because Itachi-san beat you?"

"I am not sulking, hmm!" Deidara exclaimed, glaring at Sasori. "I just don't want to be here, is all! Why'd you have to recruit me into your stupid organization, anyway?"

"Because you have unique talents that will benefit us," Sasori replied calmly. "And we can benefit you as well, by offering you protection from the hunter-nin."

"I don't need your protection! I'm perfectly capable of defending myself, hmm!"

Hiruko shrugged. "I don't care one way or the other," Sasori said. "But Pain-sama wants you in this organization, so you really don't have much choice. We have our first mission tomorrow. Meet me outside the main entrance to the base at 7am. And be prompt--I hate waiting for other people." Without another word, Sasori turned and left the room.

"'Be prompt, I hate waiting'," Deidara mimicked under his breath when he was sure Sasori was gone. "What gives them the right to treat me like their subordinate, hmm?" Still grumbling to himself, he put his belongings away in the room's small closet, then decided to take a look at the workshop Sasori had mentioned. It seemed quite adequate, with long benches, racks of tools, and shelves on which to store finished products. Deidara had to admit that it seemed like a good space in which to craft his artistic masterpieces. And they are masterpieces, no matter what any of you think, he thought bitterly. Sasori had seemed annoyed by Deidara's explanation of his views on art, Kisame had been indifferent, and Itachi...

Itachi...

Itachi had just gazed at him with an attitude of cool contempt. As though Deidara were somehow beneath him. As though Deidara wasn't even worth the chakra expenditure it would take to fight him seriously. It was the way, Deidara imagined, that he might have looked at his younger brother as the boy sat sobbing and helpless in the wreckage of his clan.

Itachi...

Fists clenched, Deidara stomped out of the workshop and made his way towards the kitchen. Why should I work for people who have no respect for my artistic talents, hmm? Why should I bind myself to an organization that looks down on me? None of these morons would recognize real art if jumped up and down in front of them, waving its arms and yelling, "Hi there, I'm ART!" Continuing to seethe, Deidara banged a teapot down on the stove, poured some water into it, and slumped into a chair to wait for the water to boil. It was only then that he noticed he wasn't alone in the room.

There was a blue-haired woman sitting at the kitchen table, quietly folding a piece of spotless white paper. She had delicate features, and wore a gold stud in her lower lip. There was a white flower in her hair, and upon closer inspection, Deidara saw that it was made of the same type of paper that the woman was currently folding. At first, he thought she might be the lover of one of the other members, but then he saw that she was wearing the organization's signature red-and-black cloak. She was a member of the Akatsuki in her own right, then. Who could she be? Deidara tried to remember the names of the other members that Sasori had told him. Hidan. Kakuzu. Zetsu. Pain, of course, the one leading the whole crazy gang. Konan. Itachi. Kisame. And some hanger-on called Tobi. Had Sasori mentioned any of them being female?

"You're Deidara-san," the woman observed, not looking up from her paper-folding.

"Uh, yeah," Deidara answered, and gave up on trying to match the woman's identity with a name. "Who are you, hmm?"

"My name is Konan."

"Oh. And you're partnered with...Hidan-san, right?"

Konan twitched. "Hell no. Pain-sama is my partner."

Deidara's eyebrows rose. She must be strong, if the leader of the whole group had chosen her as a partner. He pointed to the paper. "So, uh, what's that?" he asked, mostly for the sake of making conversation. Deidara had never been comfortable with long silences.

"It's origami."

"Oh." Deidara's face fell. Origami was another one of those boring, static forms of art. You folded a piece of paper into a particular shape and then set it on a shelf to gather dust forever and ever. He glanced back at the teapot and saw that the water was still heating up. "What's it going to be?" he asked halfheartedly.

"A flower."

"Oh," he said again. What a typical thing for a kunoichi to make. Boring. "So, is that like a hobby, hmm?" Now that he thought about it, origami-making seemed like a pretty tame hobby for an S-rank criminal.

"It's my ninjutsu."

Deidara cocked his head to one side in curiosity. "How is origami a ninjutsu?"

"Like this." Konan unfolded the partly-finished flower, smoothed out the creases in the paper, and then began refolding it into a different shape. Now it was a perfectly symmetrical shuriken. Konan flung it across the kitchen, and it embedded itself deeply in the wall.

So, she can make weapons with the strength of steel, but much lighter. I'll admit that's interesting, hmm, but it's still not real art.

"I've heard about your ninjutsu from the others, of course. Quite interesting."

"It's not just ninjutsu!" Deidara objected emphatically. "It's a unique form of art, hmm! When the pieces are first made, they're flat and uninteresting, but they achieve a new beauty in their own destruction! They represent the fleeting and transitory nature of everything in life!"

Konan raised an eyebrow. "My ninjutsu is art as well."

Deidara shook his head. "No, it's not, hmm! Sure, it's useful to make weapons that are as strong as metal but as light as paper. But they only ever stay in that one shape. They don't change or transform, they don't do anything!"

"Oh, really?" Konan pointed at the shuriken she had made earlier, and it spontaneously unfolded itself, the paper as perfect and unlined as it had been when Konan first started folding it. Now, it reshaped itself, hovering in midair as it became a butterfly. The butterfly flapped its wings and proceeded to circle around the kitchen before coming to rest on Deidara's left shoulder. "That's not all," Konan said with a touch of pride in her voice, and the butterfly glided down onto the table. It unfolded again before remaking itself into a sequence of fantastic shapes. First the flower that Konan had been folding when Deidara walked in, then a crane, then a tiger, a lizard, a kunai, a fish, and a frog.

Deidara stared in amazement as the origami frog hopped around the table. This was much more than simple origami. Konan's creations could reinvent themselves on her whim, changing constantly from one form to another. They weren't confined to any one particular shape like most forms of art. Seeing how enraptured Deidara was, Konan quickened the pace of the changes, transforming the piece of paper so rapidly that the eye could barely follow it: butterfly-crane-tiger-lizard-kunai-fish-frog. Finally, it became a butterfly again, which soared joyfully up to the ceiling and went into a complex series of loop-the-loops.

Deidara laughed. Here, finally, was someone who understood that the essence of true art was change. Beauty was found in trancending one's limits and becoming something totally new. Yes.

He turned to Konan with a new appreciation. Perhaps his stay in Akatsuki wouldn't be such a trial, after all.

Itachi calmly strode down the hall, looking for Pain so that he could turn in his most recent mission report. As expected, he and Kisame had encountered no significant difficulties.

Approaching the turnoff that led to the kitchen and pantry, he paused, hearing a rather uncharacteristic sound coming from that direction: laughter. Two voices, one male and one female.

"Oh, I'll catch up to you, hmm! Your art is no match for mine!'

"Keep dreaming, Deidara-san! Paper is more aerodynamic than clay!"

Itachi blinked as a paper butterfly careened around the corner, with a clay bird in hot pursuit. The two objects zoomed towards Itachi, separating so that one passed by on either side of him. Just as they passed him, the bird overtook the butterfly.

"Haha! I told you so, hmm!"

A door next to Itachi opened, and an irritable-looking Hidan stuck his head out into the hallway. "What the hell is all that racket! Some people are trying to pray around here, you know!"

"It's just Deidara-san," Itachi responded. "He seems to be settling in well."

A boom sounded from the direction where the bird and butterfly had gone, and Deidara let out an indignant cry. "Hey, it's not fair turning your butterfly into a kunai and stabbing my bird so you can win the race, hmm!"

"Perhaps he's settling in too well..."

A/N: Wow, it has been forever since I posted anything. Seriously, forever. I just completely lost inspiration for about a year, and recently it came flooding back. The result is that I now have this story and am also working on a multi-chapter fic. So yeah, I'm back. And still as much an Akatsuki fan as ever. :)

Reviews would be much appreciated! As I said, I'm rather out of practice at this, so constructive criticism would be especially welcome.