When Deidara first saw Sasori's true form, he seriously believed it to be a joke.

Of course, he was only officially introduced to Sasori in his Hiruko, his partner would call his apparent shell. Deidara had at first doubted the fact that the slouched-over being was only a puppet, no matter how grotesque it may look, let alone believe that any man could actually fit inside the thing. So Deidara was in for a surprise when he returned from a solo mission one day and barged into their shared rooms, only to come face to face with a strange boy. He was shorter than Deidara by just a few centimeters, and was in no way older than him. He had a messy mop of flaming red hair and tired brown eyes with thick eyelashes. His face remained blank save for a slight scowl of irritation.

"Who are you?" Deidara had said, too surprised to even remember to take out a knife to defend himself from possible attack.

"It's me," the boy replied, his voice not rough and gravelly like Hiruko's, but smooth like the pebbles in a riverbed, and Deidara raised an eyebrow. "Who else could it be, brat?"

"Sasori no Danna…?" Deidara said incredulously. He stared after the kid who had pretended to be his superior all this time. At least it made sense, somewhat. His small frame would've been able to easily slip into the hunched back of Hiruko without a problem. "Is that really you, hm?"

"Why, is there something wrong?" snapped Sasori, walking over to his puppet shell that was now split open from the top.

"Uhh, yes there is, hm. First of all, you have no right to be calling me a brat, when I should be your superior. Why did they let a kid join Akatsuki, hm? Jeez, and I thought this place was all filled with scary people, hm."

Sasori, who had been tinkering with Hiruko's arm, whipped around to glare at the blonde, obviously pissed off. "For your information, brat, I am much older than I look, and therefore have every right to call you a brat as I wish. And secondly, I can be very 'scary' myself even without Hiruko so you'd better watch that mouth of yours before I sew it shut."

Leaving a speechless Deidara to gape after him, the redhead got up and left the room with the door slamming shut.

Although he would never say it in front of him, Deidara personally thought Sasori was much less intimidating when he was out of the shell than in it, and therefore felt the courage to continue an argument when normally he wouldn't, eventually making a fuming Sasori chase after him with a few choice poisons.

He had soon come to realize, however, that a more humanoid Sasori wasn't any more exciting than a Hiruko-Sasori.

In fact, every time Sasori was out of his shell he seemed to be crankier than usual. Perhaps it was because his face wasn't hidden by a black mask like Hiruko, but it was evident that he didn't like to socialize.

Aside from the occasional frowns and glares he threw at the blonde once in a while, Sasori remained emotionless. Deidara wondered how someone could possibly go that long without making some sort of facial expression, but apparently Sasori could. The first contradictory statement Deidara heard him say was that he hated waiting and making people wait. Deidara knew that Sasori could sit stiller than a log for hours on end without making a single sound. He didn't know how he did it, but he'd always been strangely fascinated by it in some twisted way.

After the incident, whenever they went on missions and had to stay the night somewhere, Sasori seemed to have realized that there was no point in staying inside Hiruko since Deidara had already seen everything. Every time Deidara would walk out of the bathroom, he would be greeted by the sight of red hair and a normal body, and not the looming figure of Hiruko. The idea that the puppet master had warmed up to him a little was somewhat comforting, although Deidara would never admit in his life.

As the days went by, the clay bomber would notice that his partner never ate or slept. He wondered if he did it discreetly, perhaps inside that puppet of his, but then he couldn't understand why anyone would do that. When he had asked the redhead, he did not get an answer for a while.

"What's it to you?" he said finally, not looking at the blonde.

"I'm not concerned," Deidara said, unsure if it was true or not. "I'm just curious, hm."

"This body does not age," Sasori said after a moment's hesitation. "I'm sure you've noticed. It's because I have become true art. I am my own masterpiece."

It took a while for Deidara to grasp the notion. When he did, his blue eye widened slightly. "You're… a puppet?"

Sasori nodded, a glint of pride in his usually dull eyes.

Deidara however, could not bring himself to smile. He had a horrible sinking feeling in his heart, trying to fathom what Sasori had done. Seeing him proudly presenting the fact that he had turned himself into a lifeless doll was not something he could be happy about.

"Why would you do that to yourself, hm?" Deidara had whispered. "You're not… human."

Sasori had just met his gaze calmly. "I had every reason to do this to myself. I have become the ultimate art, something that will last forever. I am perfect."

"No, you're not, hm." Deidara had said softly. "You're not perfect. You are a mess, Sasori."

"What did you say?" Sasori's voice had turned dangerously quiet.

"Turning yourself into this… thing isn't beauty. There is no such thing as something that lasts forever. You will die too, one day. And you will have no idea what your life was like because you've become this object that can't feel anything a normal body can feel, hm."

"I am a masterpiece," insisted Sasori stubbornly, his eyes flashing. "There is nothing else that can last longer than I! I've acquired something better than a weak, pathetic human body, and that is what will grant me victory in battle. Emotions are useless. They are one of the main reasons why people get killed and I will not allow myself the weakness."

"You can't feel anything, Danna," Deidara said and tried to reason with him, although he didn't know why. It was already too late, wasn't it? Sasori couldn't go back to his old self even if he wanted to. But he was human, he just couldn't stand seeing his partner rotting away because of this childish, poisonous dream.

Sasori wouldn't hear any of it.

Deidara had given up trying to make his partner understand that day. That turning yourself into a puppet wasn't going to make you live any longer. Because in truth, on the day he believed his 'masterpiece' to be complete, Sasori had only succeeded in killing himself.


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