Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Naruto.

A short story where Deidara and Itachi go on a mission together and Deidara can't help but wonder.

Originally posted on my Tumblr for the Uchiha month.


The sun settled down behind the horizon not even an hour ago, but Itachi and Deidara decided it would be for the best to stop for the night. After all, they were not in rush, having completed their mission with a day to spare. When Pein first told them that they'd pair up for this particular assignment, the clay artist literally erupted with profanities. It did not help him one bit.

However, during the second day of their travel, he realized that Itachi, with a stick up his ass and all, is not such a bad travel companion. He would not argue with him about his vision of art, he'd travel at top-notch speed and he'd always take the first watch. The last one was probably due to him not trusting Deidara, but hey, few more hours of sleep are always good.

Right now, Deidara was watching Itachi light up a small campfire they prepared to cook the rabbit they caught. After a few quick hand signs, there was fire coming out of his mouth. He'd seen fire jutsus so many times in his life, but somehow, when an Uchiha did it, it simply looked different. True, this might have been the only Uchiha he has seen doing any kind of jutsu and Itachi was after all called genius, but even still. There was something that caught the artist's eye. Almost as if the fire was dancing and alive, as it was licking the dry sticks they gathered for their bonfire.

With these thoughts in his mind, Deidara ate his half of the roasted rabbit sometime later that evening. If Itachi wondered about how silent his traveling partner was, he did not mention it. When the time came to sleep, Deidara laid down on his sleeping mat, still contemplative of the flames. Itachi sat on a tree branch after casting few genjutsus around their tiny camp.

Other than sounds of the dying fire and distant hoot of an owl, the night was silent around them. Until the artist decided to break the silence, his voice only loud enough to reach Itachi.

"Hey, Uchiha, have you ever thought about why you are so good with fire, yeah?" Starring at the night sky, he thought that his companion might not reply at all – that would not be such a novelty, after all.

"My clan has always had an affinity for the katon jutsus. There is nothing to wonder about there."

"But why. What if there is a reason for that, yeah? Like, you know how we have summons, yeah? What if, sometime in history, the first Uchiha made a contract with the fire, yeah?" He turned his head to gauge Itachi's response, but other than the two sharingans pointed in his direction, there was no indication that the other male was listening to him. He decided that was as good as it was gonna get, so he continued.

"Just imagine, yeah, that they were like 'Okay, we're now gonna control the fire element, yeah, because we are the best around.' I mean, if someone would have done it, it would totally be an almighty Uchiha, yeah. And now every single time, when you cast a katon jutsu, you are pulling at the ancient contract."

Itachi pondered about that for a second, just to humor the blonde Akatsuki.

"I'd agree with you, but then we'd both we wrong," Itachi said with a tone that indicated the end of the conversation.

Deidara's face turned to a very deep shade of red as he turned away, mumbling something about Uchihas always being such pricks. When he fell asleep that night, he dreamt of dancing fires and infernos imprisoned behind red pinwheel eyes.