Special Warning for This Chapter Only: Some hints of SasoDei, but nothing explicit.
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Chapter 2: Danna
Deidara knelt by the simple obelisk that marked his partner's final resting place. His head was bent, and tears trickled down his cheeks. Ninjas in general were not supposed to cry. Emotions distracted you, got in the way of you doing your duty. As a shinobi, you were supposed to lock them away deep inside yourself. Akatsuki members especially were not supposed to cry. Being part of Akatsuki meant that you had taken that shinobi doctrine to the extreme. It meant that you no longer felt any ties of friendship or camaraderie. It meant that you weren't supposed to care about the death of a comrade, except in the sense that it might compromise the successful completion of your mission. You absolutely, positively, were not supposed to kneel at a comrade's grave and weep.
But Sasori was special.
All the other members had found it peculiar that Deidara chose to address Sasori with the suffix "-danna." It was a title of extreme deference, literally meaning "Master." None of the other members addressed their partners in that way, even when (as in the case of Kisame and Itachi) one partner's strength was vastly superior to the other's. Even the leader of the organization was not given that title. As a general rule, the Akatsuki members were not people who accepted masters of any sort.
But Sasori was special.
"Deidara-san calls him that because he has such respect for his ninja skills," they said. "Deidara-san calls him that because they are both artists," they said. "Deidara-san calls him that because they have a bond that is closer than mere comrades," they said. All of those reasons were true. But none of them was the real reason. Awe at Sasori's artistic skills, respect for his power as a ninja, even something that might (if they weren't both ruthless criminals) be called love, were only part of the story.
Deidara called Sasori "danna" because Sasori was the only one who understood him.
Sasori was the only one who would touch Deidara's hand and not flinch in disgust at the mouth in his palm.
Sasori was the only one who would watch a display of Deidara's art and not complain about how the light and loud noise would draw the attention of enemy shinobi.
Sasori was the only one who didn't make fun of the way Deidara said "yeah" at the end of every sentence.
Sasori was the only one who hadn't mistaken Deidara for a girl at first. (By contrast, when Kisame first met Deidara, the former Mist-nin had leered and made a rather suggestive comment about Deidara's hand-mouths. He'd turned a rather interesting shade of pale green when Deidara informed him that he was, in fact, a man.)
Sasori was the only one who understood how art could be the most important thing in the world to a ninja.
Now, the person who understood him better than anyone else on earth was gone. Deidara would be given a new partner, but that person wouldn't understand him the way Sasori did.
Hidan said that Sasori's soul had moved on to the afterlife, a place where he would be happy for all eternity. Deidara was determined to join him there when his own time came. Whether he died a hundred years from now, or tomorrow, he would find his way to the place where Sasori was. He would fight even the gods themselves if they tried to keep the two of them apart.
Because Sasori was special.
"I will be with you again, Sasori-danna…yeah."
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A/N: I normally don't read or write shounen-ai or yaoi—SasoDei is the only malexmale pairing that I actually like. I'm not quite sure why…just something about those two characters seems to make them fit well together. Maybe it's the artist thing. Anyway, this is Deidara's chapter—Sasori will have one of his own, probably towards the end of the fic.
Next up: my favorite Akatsuki member, Uchiha Itachi!