The sounds of explosions were still ringing in his ears, making Deidara smile despite himself. The mission hadn't called for him to use his own art, but that damn Akasuna…
Sometimes, Deidara really hated that redhead. Sasori acted as though he were the better man, the better ninja, that Deidara was nothing but a child next to him. He hated it! Sasori was only a year and some odd months older, why did he have to pretend Deidara was too young?
He wanted to wring that high-and-mighty puppeteer around the neck so badly. Especially after today's mission; Sasori had told Deidara—actually, it was more of ordered him—to stay back and let him handle it. The stupid Sunagakure born had underestimated the enemy however and needed back-up—which, Deidara would like to add, he never called for it! Deidara saw the situation and acted accordingly.
Nearly blowing up Sasori had just been a plus to it all.
Of course, it was an accident that he'd almost killed his partner, and he had told Sasori as much. Sasori though was not listening to his claims and said he'd be reporting Deidara's "treason" to Sir Leader.
Deidara almost chuckled under his breath; leave it to that damned Uchiha to come up with that nickname everyone now used. It was pretty funny to see Pein's reaction every time someone said it instead of his own stupid alias.
Back to what had happened though—Deidara groans and looks to his angry partner walking a few paces ahead of him. "Oh come on, Sasori-danna! I said I was sorry, un!"
"You're only upset because you know Sir Leader will lecture you about acting like Kinsen, brat," Sasori retorts snappily. Deidara winces; being compared to Kakuzu on how you treat your partner—ouch. "I don't see why you can't just admit that you were trying to kill me…"
Deidara gulps a little, biting at his lip. It was the last thing he wanted to do; admit that Sasori was right and he was wrong. But, if it stopped him from telling… "Will you tell Sir Leader if I say you're right and I was trying to kill you, hm?"
Sasori pauses, turning to stare back at Deidara with those blank eyes—they were so strange and beautiful to look at sometimes. He often times wondered just what Sasori might be thinking but could never figure it out, those brown orbs always kept him side tracked. "Perhaps I won't, if you say you were out of line back there."
Straightening, Deidara nods his head. "I, Deidara Iwa, was upset with you during that fight and thought I could finish you off with the enemy, un. You were right, I was trying to kill you."
The Akasuna stares blankly at his partner, his eyebrow twitching from Deidara's statement. "Why were you upset with me?"
"You always call me a brat, hm. I'm not a brat."
Sasori groans and shakes his head. "Don't let your emotions get the better of you next time." He turns to continue down the path.
Deidara hesitates before he follows after. "Does this mean you won't tell Sir Leader then?"
"I won't say anything…" Sasori sighs from his own words. Grinning, the bomber lets his euphoria at his partner's promise fill him up. "I'm curious though, why do you let my name calling get the better of you in battle?"
Huffing, Deidara glances down at his shorter companion. "I don't like being called a brat, un. I'm not a brat, so stop calling me one."
Sasori scoffs, sending a glare to the blond. "How do you know you're not a brat, brat? You act as though everything should be handed to you on a silver platter, so obviously you're spoiled. Spoiled children are easily brats."
"I was never spoiled!" Deidara yells, narrowing his own gaze to match Sasori's. "I'm not a brat and I'm not spoiled, hm! You're the only person who seems to think this!"
"So does that mean everyone you know is blind to who you really are?" Sasori challenges, stopping to better glare at Deidara.
Deidara stops as well, turning fully toward the redhead. "No, because it seems you're the only idiot I know!"
"I never said they were stupid, I just said they don't know the real you." Sasori mutters, rolling his eyes as though he thought Deidara were the real idiot here.
"Oh, and you do?" The blond retorts, glaring heatedly at his partner. "You don't know me, Sasori-danna; you just think you do because you think you know everything, un!"
Sasori sighs and shakes his head. "You're hopeless…" He turns away, ignoring Deidara's string of curses that follow after him. "Hurry up brat, I don't want to keep Sir Leader waiting and Amegakure is still two hours away."
Groaning, Deidara begins to follow grudgingly, letting his retorts die. "Why can't we take a bus or get a cab…?" He whines, glaring at the road as though it were at fault here.
"Because Kinsen manages our money and won't let us waste money on transportation if it's not required of us." Sasori replies, rolling his eyes once more from his partner's childish whining. "And before you ask, we can't take your silly clay bird either or we'll risk exposure to our kind."
Deidara scowls, glaring at the redhead's back. "I know that, un…"
"Do you…?" Sasori replies, his voice hushed but still loud enough for the blond to hear.
Huffing again, Deidara crosses his arms and keeps from retorting back with a nasty comment. He didn't need to get riled up again; for all he knew, Sasori could turn around and take back his promise of not telling Pein about what Deidara had done.
Still, deep down Deidara had a feeling Sasori wasn't ever actually going to say anything to Sir Leader. It was strange how the redhead acted most of the time; he'd threaten Deidara multiple times and never once went through with it. Sometimes Deidara actually believed Sasori would hurt him or allow him to be killed by the enemy, but not once has he let any of that happen.
In fact, it almost seemed that Sasori was making empty promises whenever he said he'd let something bad come to Deidara. The only promises he kept were ones that benefited the blond.
Deidara hums at this, watching the redhead before him as though he'd make some movement that would tell him what it all meant. It was strange to him; Deidara had never really known anyone to be weird in the sense Sasori was to him.
His stomach growls then, letting the bomber know that his skipping out on breakfast was not such a great idea anymore. Deidara kept this to himself however; asking Sasori to stop for food right now wouldn't be very—
"Are you hungry, Deidara? There's a tea shop up ahead…" Sasori's bored drawl breaks Deidara's thoughts then, surprising the blond. He glances back, seeing the look on Deidara's face and rolling his eyes. "Your stomach just growled; are you hungry or not?"
Nodding rapidly, Deidara moves to walk in step with his partner. Sasori nods in return, turning his gaze back to the road before them. Deidara watches him, wondering just where the generosity had come from.
"You look like a fish—close your mouth already," Sasori says simply, his amazing eyes never once diverting from the path. "And stop staring at me like that"
Deidara scowls under his breath, finally removing his surprised gaze from the redhead. "You're really weird, Sasori-danna, un…"
"Speak for yourself, brat…"
The tea shop was now only a few steps ahead of them, causing Deidara to speed up at the sight of it. Sasori sighs, hurrying to follow after him. Walking into the small building, Deidara glances around before heading to the front counter. Sasori watches him order from a distance, wincing at the level of voice Deidara achieves in his excitement.
Carrying his newly bought dango outside, Deidara moves to sit down only to be pulled along by Sasori. "We don't have time to sit and eat, brat. Just eat it on the way."
Grumbling, the blond gives in a falls into step beside the redhead before taking the first bite of his food. "If we didn't have time to stop and eat," Deidara begins to say after swallowing, "then why did you suggest it?"
"You were hungry; I didn't want you to pass out or something from not eating anything. You're such an idiot sometimes…" Sasori doesn't glance back to Deidara, but the bomber took notice to a slight flush upon his partner's cheeks. Deciding he'd just imagined it, Deidara turns back to his dango to finish eating.
They continue their traveling in silence, Deidara's thoughts wandering from various different things—his latest assignment for class, new clay he'd need to work with, creating better explosive jutsus—but one thought kept creeping back up.
Why was Sasori-danna so weird? He was always saying such cruel things to Deidara but not once had he ever really been mean. What was his reasons behind all this? Could he perhaps like the blond?
That was a ridiculous thought however; Deidara and Sasori hated each other. They were artists of different views, they lived in two very different cities on opposite sides of their nation—though really they weren't that far, considering Iwagakure was in the mountainous north and Sunagakure was in the desert south. Really though, the two were complete opposites in all respects.
Not once had they ever had a real conversation with one another. It seemed that neither knew how to be polite to the other, especially when all they could think about was how strange their partner's views were.
Sasori's ideas of eternal beauty were far-fetch and completely absurd; nothing lasted forever in Deidara's eyes. Beauty only lasted for those first few moments before it all wore off; why let it sit there and waste in a past beauty? Deidara didn't believe in beauty that lasted forever, because it never did. It was brief, like a firework exploding in the sky. Destroying that artwork when the beauty pasted was the best thing for art, which was why Deidara exploded his work; they'd be beautiful even as they dissolved, just like a firework.
Yet, when Deidara looked at Sasori's hand crafted puppets—the precise angles and chiseled structures… Sasori's work was a whole other beauty. Sometimes the Akasuna's views on art weren't so crazy when Deidara was watching those puppets work. Sometimes, his views were easy seen by the bomber just when he gazed into Sasori's brown eyes.
Those eyes were the eternal beauty he preached about. Deidara would look into others' eyes and grow bored of them within minutes, but not Sasori's. His eyes were far to alluring to be anything but amazing—the type of art Deidara wouldn't be able to bring himself to destroy in a beautiful fire-cracking explosion.
Of course, despite all this, Deidara still hated the redhead for everything else. At least, he hoped he still hated the other artist…