Summary: As Deidara dies, he reflects on life, art, and Sasori. Hints at SasoDei.

Rated – T Friendship/Tragedy Deidara & Sasori 10/14/14

Disclaimer: Be very glad I don't own Naruto. Or else this may have actually happened.

AN: Because a certain someone went to sleep and I wanted revenge. Haha.

I wonder what you thought in your last moments. Probably something along the lines of "This can't be happening . . . I was supposed to last forever."

At least that's what most would think were your last thoughts, but I had known better. I'll even go so far as to say I know you better than you know yourself. Because you know what, Sasori no Danna? I've always been better at understanding emotions than you. You only made it easier when you turned yourself into a puppet.

You finally realized how tired you were with life. It's okay, I can't say I blame you. I'm tired of life, too. But mostly, I understand that you couldn't take the loneliness in your life anymore. Even with me and the others there, we weren't enough for you. We never were, because all you really wanted was your parents back.

Heh. It's funny how we never realize how precious something is until it's lost, right? I wish I could have told you . . . But it was too late. I was too late and by the time I returned . . . Well, you always did say that I shouldn't keep you waiting because someday you wouldn't be there any longer. Even after you're gone, you're still right.

Maybe you finally understand why my art is fleeting now, yeah? I learned that lesson a long time ago and I made myself remember every second, every precious moment I shared with them by never forgetting. I made them my art just like you made yours art.

Ah, listen to me ramble. I've never been this unfocused in my life, but I suppose dying has a way of changing people. I wish you were here to see this, Danna. My ultimate art and how the very land will bear the evidence of my existence for many years. It will certainly last longer than that puppet shell you left behind, though perhaps your name will live on. That's what most artists strive for. It's what most people wish, really, but I've never been one to follow the crowd.

Why should I last when so many others have already fallen to the obscurity of time? I'm just another S-rank criminal running amok in the world. I may have become famous (or rather infamous) by being in the Akatsuki, and that alone ensures my name will live on for a time. But someday I'll just be another minor name in history books. Maybe I won't even be in one. I'll just be another eliminated Akatsuki member.

Did you honestly think we were meant to last forever?

People forget as time moves on. Memories are forgotten, wounds heal, scars fade, and the world continues on as it always has. You died and even though I spent so much time with you, I find myself forgetting the sound of your voice. I can't remember your scent unless I force myself to go into your room and inhale the faint smell of wood and poison which is covered with dust and decay. I can barely remember the discussions we would have while on missions—those rare but precious talks we had about who we were, what we had done before Akatsuki, and how we would live after we completed the organization's goals . . . I can't remember any of it now.

You know, I used to despise my art. I used to be like you in that I thought art was eternal. You must be smirking at me now, yeah? Well, don't let this confession go to your head, Sasori no Danna. I'm not agreeing with you when you're dead. I once believed art was eternal but that was before I realized it was just another lie I was feeding myself in an attempt to remain happy.

Nothing lasts forever. Just as our loved ones succumbed, so, too, has our art.

You may have told me time and time again that true art was eternal, but I always knew you were just lying to yourself. You convinced yourself that art was eternal because you wanted something that you could hold onto while everything else around you withered away. You wanted something to believe in, to keep yourself sane when everyone else eventually faded from your memory as if they were merely dreams.

I remember you once said you'd turn me into one of your puppets before I ended up killing myself. A waste of life, you said. Why else would you say something like that other than to tell me in your own way that you didn't want to lose me? Sasori, you fool . . .

Life isn't meant to last. That's why we die. Eternity isn't real because nobody can live forever. Not even your old partner, with all his research for immortality, was able to find the answer. It's because there is no question to be answered.

You asked why my art is fleeting. I always told you that it was because that single moment where it becomes beautiful and is admired by those lucky enough to witness it was the reason. That's only part of the reason why. My art is fleeting because all art is brief in the grand scheme of things.

You didn't last long enough to see my ultimate art and, while that certainly pisses me off, I'm not going to waste what little time I have left cursing you out for being a fool. I'm not going to yell at you for giving up when you could have easily escaped that final embrace with your parents when I once longed for the same thing . . .

No, I'm going to make sure the world knows that I was here, that this was the time when Deidara succeeded in defeating an Uchiha, that in this one precious, beautiful moment, I finally became truly free and became art.

All art is fleeting, and I'm the same way. Living forever never appealed to me, anyway. Not when the one I wanted to share it with was long gone.

"This will be my ultimate piece of art. I'll explode. I shall die and become art itself! This will be like no explosion before it, and it will leave a scar upon the Earth unlike anything else. Then, my art will receive the admiration it's always deserved! Tremble! Be afraid! Recoil in despair! Cower in awe! And cry your heart out, because my art . . . is an EXPLOSION!"