Deidara

Deidara is a character from the Naruto anime and manga.

Deidara was an S-rank missing-ninfrom 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.

In the AWA fics, Deidara is one of the people who was given a second chance to live another life in ZeroTopia. Deidara is a student at the AWA Academy.

Appearance
Deidara had slanted blue eyes and very long blond hair which he wore drawn into a half ponytail with the rest hanging down freely. The bang hanging over his left eye is what concealed his eye scope signifying that he was a long-range fighter, but as shown in his fight with Sasuke, it was not permanently attached to his face. After casting the Iwagakure Kinjutsu on himself, he developed a mouth on both of his palms, and on the left side of his chest he had a large, stitched-up mouth. He used this kinjutsu to supplement his Explosive Release to his clay. Before joining Akatsuki, Deidara wore a blue and grey kimono jacket with a fishnet under-shirt inside and khaki pants with sandals and a belt-like pouch with a chain. His blond hair was also tied into a lower ponytail and an Iwa forehead protector. After joining Akatsuki, he wore their signature cloak, navy blue pants with matching shinobi sandals, and an Akatsuki ring on his right index finger, which bore the kanji for "blue or green" and was teal in colour. He also wore black nail polish on his fingers and toes. Under his cloak, he wore a V-neck, sleeveless, midriff shirt with mesh armour underneath it along with pants, stirrups, and sandals. He also wore a utility belt with two bags on either side, which he used to carry his clay.

Because of a certain turn of events, Deidara suffered damage to his arms. Deidara had his left arm crushed by Gaara's sand, and the elbow of his right arm was blown into another dimension by Kakashi's Kamui. Deidara had his arms restored by having Kakuzu sew what was left of his arms with what appears to be a transplanted arm. His transplant was dark brown and had several wrinkles on it.

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, 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!" 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, 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". 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 in its home territory. 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.

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.

Deidara had shown some skill with the Shadow Clone Technique, incorporating it into some of his techniques, such as the Suicide Bombing Clone. Deidara was also able to weave one-hand signs.

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 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 is 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.

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.

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.

Trivia

 * Deidara's catch phrase was originally coined by famous Japanese abstract artist Tarō Okamoto, whose works inspired many of Deidara's explosives.


 * Ironically, and unknown to him, his second partner, Tobi, had the kekkei genkai he despised: the Sharingan.


 * Deidara's characteristic "katsu", which he uses to detonate his explosive clay, is a type of shout that is used in Zen Buddhism to stop the discursive thoughts of practitioners, potentially helping them achieve an enlightenment experience. It is also used as a means of focusing energy.


 * Deidara had completed 82 official missions in total: 4 D-rank, 27 C-rank, 35 B-rank, 13 A-rank, 3 S-rank.
 * Deidara's hobby was experimenting with explosions.
 * Deidara wished to fight Itachi Uchiha.
 * Deidara's favourite food was bakudan, a pun on the actual food (boiled eggs in surimi) and the Japanese word meaning bombs, while his least favourite was mixed rice/pilaf.