Deidara

**Deidara** (デイダラ) is an S-rank missing-nin from Iwagakure. During his time in the village, he was a member of the Explosion Corps. After defecting from the village, he was forced into Akatsuki and was its youngest member. There, Deidara was partnered with Sasori until the latter's death, and later with Tobi before his own death.

## Deidara

* Human
* Avatar

## Background

During his time as an Iwagakure shinobi, Deidara came to know Ōnoki, and became familiarised with his fighting style. He possessed the Explosion Release kekkei genkai which he used as a member of the Explosion Corps. Though praised highly for his clay sculptures, Deidara's desire to reach even greater heights in his art resulted with him stealing one of his village's kinjutsu that allows one to knead their chakra into substances. Using explosive clay to take out his pursuers, Deidara found the art he had desired: the *Art of a Single Moment* (一瞬の芸術, *Isshun no Geijutsu*). Remembering the first moment whenever he detonated his explosive clay, he recalls the process that allowed him to reach this art. Since then, Deidara became a missing-nin and offered his services as a bomber to insurgents in various countries.

Deidara's exploits eventually caught the attention of Akatsuki, and Itachi Uchiha, Kisame Hoshigaki, and Sasori were sent to recruit him. Deidara refused at first until he accepts a challenge from Itachi on the condition that Akatsuki let him be if he won. However, Deidara was easily defeated by Itachi's Sharingan and begrudgingly joined the organisation where he was partnered with Sasori. In the anime, Sasori and Deidara were immediately tasked with eliminating Orochimaru for betraying the organisation. Upon arriving in the Land of Wind and witnessing the Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation by Orochimaru, the Sannin retreated after his technique proved incomplete. After Deidara attempted to kill him by blowing up his base, Deidara and Sasori searched the ruins but were unable to confirm his death as they didn't find his corpse. At some point afterwards, Deidara returned to Iwagakure and left it in destruction after detonating a bomb within the village, as he flew away.

With his ego crushed from his defeat at the hands of Itachi's dōjutsu, Deidara carried a murderous loathing for Itachi and his Sharingan for the rest of his life. Acknowledging that Itachi was a more powerful opponent, Deidara took steps during his time with Akatsuki to ensure he could get revenge on Itachi, such as training his left eye to counter genjutsu, and devising the means to create C4.

## Personality

During his partnership with Sasori, Deidara usually showed a cool, and relaxed attitude, never losing his smirk even while fighting an intense battle or when being blamed by his partner. However, his personality seemed to change to some extent after being partnered with Tobi, as he would easily get mad at his partner’s childish and sometimes disrespectful behaviour. He also had something of a sadistic arsonist nature, rather he was not above enjoying a good fight, and he often blew up his opponents in a very brutal fashion. Deidara's most distinctive trait, however, was his love of art. He would respect any form of it, even if it disagreed with his own. Deidara also had a habit of ending his sentences with nasal-like grunts (…うん, *…un*), roughly translated as "yeah" or "hm". The latter of which is used in the VIZ version. Deidara also seemed to respect the ideals of others as he allowed Gaara to move the sand he used to protect his village into the desert before kidnapping him, even going so far as to admiringly call him noble.

Deidara referred to his explosive ninjutsu as art, usually quoting "Art is an Explosion!" (芸術は爆発だ, *Geijutsu wa Bakuhatsu da*) and seeing each bomb he made to be a significant accomplishment. He referred to his style as superflat (referring to certain types of art), and claimed pop (another art style) is dead. He would often boast about his works of art, even towards his opponents in battle. Deidara's pride as an artist makes him simply unwilling to accept that anything could defeat it, leading to his abandonment of strategy during his battle with Sasuke Uchiha, in favour of tactics that let him show off his art. He was able to recognise stronger opponents like Itachi, although he felt that the Sharingan was inartistic, and despised the fact that he had been enthralled by its genjutsu.

Deidara referred to his partner Sasori as Master Sasori (サソリの旦那, *Sasori no Danna*, *English TV:* Sasori, my man), out of respect for him as a fellow artist. He also admitted, at least outwardly, that Sasori was more powerful than he was. In spite of this, Deidara wasn't above goading his partner, and they frequently argued over the nature of true art (Deidara holding that art is what lasts within a moment while Sasori believing fine art is something that lasts for all time). This reflected their individual fighting styles (Deidara made clay sculptures that exploded; Sasori made long-lasting puppets out of humans). Deidara outwardly seemed to respect Sasori's beliefs, but couldn't resist getting a final jab in after Sasori's death.

Deidara's partnership with his second partner, Tobi, however, was very different. Tobi apparently held great respect for Deidara, and frequently called him "senpai" (先輩, *senior*). The idiotic front Tobi put up greatly irritated Deidara, who believed that all Akatsuki members should be calm, talking less and acting serious. This in turn results in Tobi unintentionally angering Deidara to attack him in a comedic fashion (e.g. blasting him with his explosive clay or strangling him with his legs). But in battle, Deidara puts his issues with Tobi aside to work well with him, telling him to get away when he was about to do a more dangerous attack. Deidara also seemed to have a minor sense of appreciation for Tobi, as shown when he apologised to his partner in his thoughts before he initiated his self-destruction technique.

## Abilities

Deidara was a very powerful S-rank missing-nin whose abilities earned him recognition within Akatsuki. Even the organisation's leader, Pain, praised Deidara's abilities, openly admitting that he was something unique, and that his loss was a major blow to the group. Deidara was able to single-handedly defeat Gaara (Shukaku's jinchūriki and the Fifth Kazekage), and Isobu, despite fighting the both of them in their home territories. He also fought on equal grounds with Sasuke Uchiha, an Uchiha clan prodigy, despite his techniques being at an elemental disadvantage against those of Sasuke.

### Intelligence

One of Deidara's strong points was his intelligence, often using tricks, misdirection, and calculated gambles to get his explosives in range of an opponent. He demonstrated these skills in his fight with Gaara, putting clay into Gaara's sand as it destroyed his arm. During his battle against Sasuke, he managed to trick him on a few occasions, such as trapping him between his C2 dragon in the sky and the landmines buried underneath the ground by Tobi, and again when he lured him into his C4 attack at point-blank. In the anime, Deidara managed to deduce a workaround to his weakness to Lightning Release by using a sword as a makeshift ground rod to siphon off the lightning-based attacks his explosive clay was weak against.

### Ninjutsu

Deidara had shown some skill with the Shadow Clone Technique, incorporating it into some of his techniques, such as the Suicide Bombing Clone.

#### Nature Transformation and Explosive Clay

Deidara possessed the Explosion Release kekkei genkai. This allowed him — by simultaneously using earth and lightning chakra natures — to give his chakra explosive qualities. Deidara also possessed a special mouth on each palm and on the left side of his chest as a result of stealing and using a powerful kinjutsu from his village on himself. By commonly using these two special abilities in unison, he could create explosive clay: clay infused with his explosive chakra that detonated with the command *Katsu* (喝) and the seal of confrontation. This clay could be moulded into a wide variety of shapes and forms, growing to large sizes when infused with chakra (with Deidara performing the necessary hand seals), and could be controlled at will. This allowed him to create living explosives to attack opponents at long-range.

Deidara could even create clones from the clay and can detonate them, which will make for a deadly surprise attack, and if need be, create clay minions to control with a cord from a distance. Deidara's clay creations range from microscopic to gigantic in size, allowing him to adapt to any situation from creating dragons to shoot smaller clay bombs, to working in conjunction with Obito to lay explosive clay landmines under ground to limit the opponent's movements. As an ultimate last resort, Deidara could turn himself into a bomb by devouring explosive clay that has a large blast radius in which he calls his "Ultimate Art". Deidara could also use the clay for other purposes, as he was frequently seen creating birds to be used for transportation, which also functioned as a way to easily infiltrate villages on missions. It seemed he also knew standard earth-based techniques, as shown from his Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique, which he used to avoid damage from one of his mass-scale bombs. Since all of his explosives were earth-based, they were vulnerable to lightning, and most could thereby be defused with lightning-based attacks.

### Eye Enhancement

Deidara wore a scope on his left eye for long-range observation, and he had trained the eye itself to counter genjutsu, allowing him to see through and negate them. When he did this, his pupil would contract. This training was done in order to counter Itachi's powerful genjutsu skills, of which he had a considerable loathing for, and wished to defeat him when he got the chance. Deidara also seems to be able to see long distances without his scope as after being reincarnated, he found enemy shinobi lurking near Tobi's hideout; he still needed to close his right eye in order to use his left eye for long distance vision.

### Physical Prowess

Deidara's stealth skills were rather proficient, able to sneak up on two of Konoha's Anbu members as they were scouting. He possessed high reaction speed, able to avoid a high-speed blitz by Sasuke. He also had enough strength to dislodge the Fūma Shuriken that pierced and pinned his arms using his legs.