Art Critique (Deidara)

[Sasori]

Akasuna no Sasori

Long lost words whisper slowly to me
Still can't find what keeps me here
When all this time I've been so hollow inside
I know you're still there

[/i]

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you, loving you
I won't let you pull me down

---

---

As the country of winds, Kaze no Kuni was ever famous for its sand storms. The landscape and climate provided the least ideal conditions for puppet-making. Constant abuse and weathering might cause a pretty piece to jam its joints or scratch off its paint. But such unfortunate occurences only came upon amateur puppet masters.

True masterpieces could withstand the test of time and change in all of its ugly forms. Therefore they not only had to be beautiful, but ingeniusly built as well. They had to be powerful beyond the average puppeteer's imagination. This Sasori knew well and followed religiously.

So he had no fear of the sands this afternoon. Annoying they were and caused him to do a fair amount of cleaning afterward, but that was all. He did not tend to pass the time in his old homeland anyway.

A figure hunched over in the famous crimson clouded cloak sat dully in the sand, moving periodically to keep from being buried. Where was that fool Deidara anyway? Had they not agreed to meet here for scouting out their next mission? He was always annoyingly late, and Sasori hated that aspect about him almost as much as his opinions on art. For all he knew, the idiot was playing with his clay again, like a pre-schooler sending useless molded sculptures home to his mother.

A low growl escaped him, becoming deeper and more monstrous thanks to the structure of Hiruko. He swished his tail impatiently. "I hate to be kept waiting."

---

---

Hunting you, I can smell you - alive
Your heart pounding in my head

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Saving me, raping me, watching me

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you... loving you
I won't let you pull me down

[Deidara]

Tch. After having to go through all of the work of retrieving food for himself, Deidara was late again, was he? Well, according to the sun's position in the sky and his own internal clock which wasn't very reliable, the blond was definitely not going to please Sasori again today, not that it was a huge problem. The short-tempered, durable puppet of a man should be used to Deidara's tenancies by now after having been his partner for over five years, but time didn't seem to matter to the older man. If there was one thing that did, that was his worthless "art" that had no appeal to Deidara at all. Art isn't just something to sit around and collect dust. It is meant to be a once-in-a-lifetime ordeal, something memorable and exciting. Not just something that's cooped up in a museum similarly to how Sasori was constantly covered by his own device. Deidara let out a sigh. The man would never understand his view, even though the younger man respected the other's art.

As the wind whipped at Deidara's long bangs, making them snatch in the desert heat and sting his cheeks, he began scouting for a giant black ball of black and red somewhere, and that ball was more than likely moving, which meant that Sasori was ticked at him again. It took him merely a few seconds while using the zoom lens on the contraption over his left eye that was usually used for "sniping" in a sense for using his Exploding Clay, and the enormous clay bird began its decent to the sandy floor of the terrain.

Deidara lusted for the feeling of the dive bomb wind in his face, and he wasn't at all disappointed when the bird tilted at an angle and straightened its wings before Deidara himself expertly hopped from his creation and landed, crouching and unharmed, by his teammate before straightening back to full height and sporting the grin that had formed from the rush of wind through his hair. His gaze drifted downwards towards the large mass of puppet that looked rather funny with bits of sand nestled into the wrinkly lines on its face under the protection of its mask and uniform Akatsuki hat, the strips of fabric like his that were whipping wildly in the brewing desert storm. "Did I keep you waiting long, Sasori no Danna?"

[Sasori]

Akasuna no Sasori

Long lost words whisper slowly to me
Still can't find what keeps me here
When all this time I've been so hollow inside
I know you're still there

[/i]

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you, loving you
I won't let you pull me down

---

---

Within his extensive armor, Sasori let out a sigh of exasperation. How many times would he have to tell his partner before he understood it? If they could not work timely and together, they were left open for error. And error was unacceptable in their line of work. If he did not take it seriously, or at least shapen up about it, he was bound to have to solve his partners problems...leading to delay. That was why Sasori planned for everything and had already begun plotting their eventual get away from Suna without Deidara.

He had spotted the great clay bird easily and waited there until his partner landed. What an ugly creature. There in the blink of an eye and gone again. Nothing but destruction. No longevity. How could any decent artist stand to ruin his own masterpieces? Unless, of course, they were not "masterpieces" to begin with, and therefore did not deserve eternity. That was how Sasori learned to treat those pieces. If Deidara himself found any value in it, he would keep it around a little longer. Flaws and mistakes were eliminated on sight. Beauty and posterity were permitted to last.

The wind that whipped about Hiruko bothered him not. He growled at his partner's comment and thrust a minor tail attack out in his direction, not meant to hit its mark. His whip came back to settle around him.

"As a matter of fact you did. Your lack of consideration and preparation will be the end of you, Deidara." It was the truth, and the puppet said it with a monotonous, factual tone. His inner anguish was probably apparent to his partner, but he never cared to show much emotion outwardly anyway. It was another thing about him that seemed to piss Deidara off. Ah well. The lack of honorifics he used was proof to how much Sasori cared what his partner thought. He was a babe, an amateur artist, and a newer member of the Akatsuki than Sasori, no matter how many years it had been. He received no respect.

---

---

Hunting you, I can smell you - alive
Your heart pounding in my head

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Saving me, raping me, watching me

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you... loving you
I won't let you pull me down

[Deidara]

When Deidara's eyes locked with his partner's, all he saw was one thing: emptiness.

The eyes of the puppet could not reflect the emotions of the puppeteer - even if he rarely showed emotions. This was the commanding reason of why Deidara usually started the fights between the two; he couldn't stand to see such "art," as Sasori put it, go to waste. Everything needed emotions, even something like art. Deidara's explosions brimmed with life, but Sasori's only sat and waited like obedient mutts waiting to please their master with beady, incompetent eyes and a lacking brain... which was most likely not even still in the body.

There it was. That spark of hatred in his eyes that sent his poison-tipped steel tail lashing out at him and barely missing his cheek. Deidara knew all too well that Sasori was capable of killing the younger man at any time, but as of yet, the other only barked and mumbled empty threats and occasionally misdirected an attack meant to be a scare tactic, but though it did intimidate the new member at first, the blond was now getting used to his partner's tenancies.

A wide smirk plastered itself onto Deidara's lips, and his eye narrowed from the magnitude of the motion while the mechanical device over the left merely dug into his cheek. "We'll have to see about that, now won't we, un?"

Deidara spun on his heel and grabbed ahold of the straw hat so that it wouldn't blow away while having only his high ponytail as a resting place and clicked his sniper device into gear. After searching for a few seconds, he turned back to the grotesque puppet hunched over in the sand. "There's a place to wait out the storm. You said that they're pretty bad here, right, Sasori no Danna?"

[Sasori]

Akasuna no Sasori

Long lost words whisper slowly to me
Still can't find what keeps me here
When all this time I've been so hollow inside
I know you're still there

[/i]

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you, loving you
I won't let you pull me down

---

---

The puppet ignored his partner's response, as it was only a challenge used to get a possible rise out of him. Well, if he wanted Sasori to show true emotion, he would have to deal with being disappointed. For it was a well-accepted fact in him that the little pumping ball of flesh that remained in the cylinder of his chest was tempered over time to model his puppet's subdued form of emotional expression. It was something an amateur like Deidara would never be able to comprehend. His arrogance and lack of a cool would catch up to him eventually...Sasori just hoped that when that time came, he would not be the one to clean up the broken pieces. It would prove to be nothing but a burden to him.

The glazed over eyes peered out at the vast sea of sand. Heavy curtains of sediment blew up from the dust: the storm was getting stronger by the minute. A very light, gentle scraping noise reached his ears, and he realized that old familiar feeling of getting rubbed on by grit. What a way to ruin the gloss on a puppet--luckily, Hiruko was built and prepared for such occurences. Still, judging from the build-up, he would need an unscheduled thorough cleaning to make up for it. This only seemed to remind Sasori of how much he really detested Kaze no Kuni. It was nothing but a country wrought with weather delays.

"There's a place to wait out the storm. You said that they're pretty bad here, right, Sasori no Danna?"

He gave a slight nod. Yes, he also had to remember Deidara's mortality: a foolishly obvious thing to let slip the mind in their line of work. Both needed to get out of the storm before they could move on to the next stage of their mission. This, of course, meant that there would be an eventual delay in proceedings. Sasori sighed. It was as if the universe was out just to magnify his pet peeve for him.

"Indeed, the storm will get much worse before it's better," he said distantly as the sands continued their rampage. They must have been getting harder by the minute. At this point, Sasori would have settled for a cave as shelter. "Lead the way then. What sort of shelter is it?" He did not so much as look in Deidara's direction, but given the circumstances, that was more work than necessary. He was currently hunched over, and he preferred not to crane his puppet's neck for anything so trivial anyway. Not that he thought at all of such a scenario.

---

---

Hunting you, I can smell you - alive
Your heart pounding in my head

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Saving me, raping me, watching me

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you... loving you
I won't let you pull me down

[Deidara]

When Sasori didn't respond to his attempt at an altercation, Deidara hummed quietly out of frustration. It seemed like the other wasn't in a mood to play games with the younger man, and the latter wasn't at all happy about the situation. At least it would have given them something to talk about other than getting their heads stuck so in the mission that they couldn't think about anything else. Strategy, strategy, attack, attack... It all seemed pointless. Why take so long to do something when you could just go for it and act on impulses? It worked well for Deidara, though he did end up hurt sometimes when Sasori came out unscathed.

But that was because he was always locked inside that damned puppet of his unless he was working on another project. How many humans had he killed and made into them? Two hundred? Three hundred? Deidara had lost count and didn't exactly care to ask again.

The Iwa nuke-nin noticed the strained nod from his partner (the joints were probably getting worn, so the shelter would give Sasori a good place to fix the puppet) and looked back towards the mountain that he had found. "It's a cavern, un," he muttered, quietly agreeing with himself through a force of habit. Sasori didn't seem to mind that about him, or if it did, he never let it show. "It's a good distance away, so it'll take a while to get there, un."

Just as the last word escaped his lips, he felt the wind pick up even more and pelt him with the hot sand that the hidden village of the country were well-known for and well-named from.

"Shit," he muttered. "It'll take even longer than I thought... un...." Might as well start walking.

He began the trek by relocating the cavern with his scope - thank the gods that it could see through the coming storm with no problem - and took a few steps toward the destination, not waiting to see if the other would follow. If he knew anything about Sasori, the love of his art was above everything else, and it seemed like his favorite piece was in need of a little repair. This would also give some time for Deidara to mix together a few substances for his special clay that he would use for the mission that had been temporarily pushed aside.

[Sasori]

[Feel free to skip ahead, neh? And sorry for the pitiful attempt at "making a move." xD I really couldn't think of anything else.]

Akasuna no Sasori

Long lost words whisper slowly to me
Still can't find what keeps me here
When all this time I've been so hollow inside
I know you're still there

[/i]

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you, loving you
I won't let you pull me down

---

---

"It's a cave, un."

Well, Sasori had considered being okay with it. He didn't mind lack of comfort, being a puppet and all, but natural shelters were generally random, remote, and stealthy. They were not looking for luxury but functionality after all. A concept that Sasori had never considered false. And another thing about him that got on Deidara's nerves. He could not help it if he did not care. A cave would be perfectly fine.

The remark about them taking a while to get there did, however, sit poorly with Sasori. Delays, delays, that was all his partner seemed good at. It caught the puppetmaster in a foul mood indeed. Well, worse than before, at least.

"Shit, it'll take even longer than I thought... un....."

Inside his great fortress of plastered armor, the artist blinked as his partner said this. To Sasori, such a movement of the face was more than just a refresher for the eyes since his had not needed such moistening assistance for many years now. What he was really doing was inwardly displaying his form of flinching as memories came back from that time so long ago when he was in Deidara's position, fruitlessly attempting to shield his face against the harsh blows from a sandstorm. Well...he is my responsibility... he thought. No matter how dimwitted he is.

With a twinge of regret, he reached Hiruko's right hand up to detach the bandana from around his mouth. Yes, now the sand might clog the mouth mechanisms, but it looked like, thanks to Deidara, he would now have plenty of time to fix this in the cave. Oh well, repairing his puppets wasn't much of a chore to Sasori, as it gave him a chance to connect with them in a different way than how he normally did through their performances. It was an intimate relationship that he did not mind cleaning and tweaking.

The black cloth in hand, he waited for the next time Deidara would have to pause from the heavy sands and winds, which was not much later, so that he could catch up at his own pace. He walked to his partner's front and held the cloth up to him.

"Here," he said apathetically. "It helps keep the sand at bay." And might even shut you up, he added mentally.

---

---

Hunting you, I can smell you - alive
Your heart pounding in my head

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Saving me, raping me, watching me

Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you... loving you
I won't let you pull me down

[Deidara]

Damn sand, Deidara muttered in his mind. If it weren't for this storm, I could ride the bird...

That was it! He could use the bird to shield him from the storm! And he was just about to when he caught a movement from Sasori in his peripheral vision. Instantly thinking that something he had done ticked off his partner, Deidara hastily jumped to the side to avoid an attack. He really wasn't in the mood to fight now that the wind had begun pelting the blond with sand. Then he noticed that Sasori wasn't trying to attack.

He was trying to... help?

Hold on a second. Sasori was being... nice? To HIM of all people? Well, it was true that they had been partners for a while, but not nearly enough years to actually consider themselves "friends." Of course they were usually on good terms and Deidara was usually the one to start their fights, accidentally or not. But... what was he trying to pull? Was he trying to get Deidara back for something?

Deidara's sapphire eye curiously studied the cloth, then looked to Hiruko's grotesque mouth. Did he poison it? Could he really be mad enough at Deidara that he would want to kill him?

As a fresh gust of sand-encrusted wind stung his cheeks, Deidara decided that it would be a good display of trust if he did take the cloth. After all, if Deidara was a little nicer and accepted Sasori's gift, maybe then he could back up what he had been saying about respecting Sasori not only as an artist but as a person, even if he wasn't... well, human.

After the internal debate finally concluded, Deidara took the mask and glanced down at Hiruko/Sasori before placing it over his own mouth and tying it behind his high ponytail whipping in the storm and thinking of how stupid he looked. Of course it made Hiruko look more decent, but it was only because of the hideous mouth.

When Deidara opened his mouth to speak, his breath immediately bounced off the cloth and filled his nostrils. It smelled like a mixture of onigiri, dango, and green tea, all of which made up his usual meals. It wasn't an unwelcome scent, but it did stop him for a second.

"Uh...." Deidara couldn't think of what to say. "Thanks, Danna, un?" He arched an eyebrow before shaking his head and beginning the walk towards the cave with his smooth white bird tapping along beside him.