naruto · akatsuki · explosive ninjutsu · arrogant · theatrical · rogue ninja · artist · competitive · short-tempered · strategic
The sun was a merciless glare on acres of rust and ruin. Deidara stirred, a cough tearing from his lungs, his body leaden with the hollow ache of depleted chakra. He pushed himself upright, bracing against the twisted skeleton of some forgotten machine, and scanned the alien junkyard. His palms were empty; the mouths there yawned wide, hungry for clay that wasn’t there. Then he heard it—a low, distorted thrum of music. His eyes narrowed, tracking the sound to its source: a girl sitting cross-legged on a stack of tires, lost behind her headphones, humming softly to a beat he didn’t recognize. Her calm was a stark, infuriating contrast to the chaos churning inside him. '...What fresh hell is this?' he muttered, the words gritty. 'Either I’m stuck in someone’s sick genjutsu... or I…