LGBT+ Naruto Stories

Trans Sasodei: Leap of Faith

"I have to do something," Deidara announced while they flew over some big city in the Land of Fire. "Be somewhere I can find you, unh." And he jumped off toward the center of town. Sasori watched him fall just long enough to make sure he didn't kill himself and stopped as soon as he formed another small bird to fly on.

The original bird landed toward the edge of town. Sasori hopped off its back and took off down one street, trying to put distance between himself and the sculpture, because when Deidara's sculptures exceed their function they tend to detonate. But no, when he came back later that day, the sculpture stood there with one leg raised, wings in takeoff position, eyes toward the heavens, like it had always been there. Like it belonged.

Sasori was not used to sitting and waiting around for his partner. Unlike the members of any other teams, he had no need to seek out good food or catch up on sleep. Shedding Hiruko and his Akatuski uniform, he decided on the library. He read until it closed, left with some books, spent the night reading and maintenance checking some of his often used puppets, then came back in the morning and read some more.

When the library closed that day he made his way back to Hiruko's hiding spot in an alleyway. The air smelled of fire and blood. Deidara lay on the ground next to Hiruko, and when he noticed Sasori was separate from his vessel and whipped around to face him, his eyes were wild. His hair was uncharacteristically messy and the low light caught on bruises on his arms and torso. The most striking parts, though, were the twin gashes on either side of his chest that oozed blood dangerously.

"Sasori danna! Hey! Will you heal me? Please? Pretty please, I swear I'm going to die," he pleaded.

Sasori made his way over to his teammate and knelt next to him, fingers already glowing green. Deidara painfully twisted to lay on his back and Sasori pulled him closer with chakra strings. If he had any energy left Deidara would have protested laying on Sasori's lap but he had to work with what he had at this point.

Sasori ran his hands over his scalp. "Breathe Deidara. Are these clean?"

"Hav-haven't been exposed to anything but air since I got here, and I saw Doc sterilize his tools."

Sasori hummed. He used chakra strings to fetch gauze out of Hiruko to at least sop up some of the blood and at most disinfect the wound (how Deidara didn't know that the air could carry bacteria was probably the most shocking part of the affair). He had seen Deidara screw himself up before. He had pressed gauze to his wounds and heard Deidara gasp and whine about how he's not going to be able to set off his ultimate artwork before he dies. "Stay still." And he held his skin together and started healing the gashes with his chakra. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Yeah."

"Were you under when he did this?"

"No, I was numb but I couldn't risk letting somebody I filled with c0 operate on me with knives while I slept."

Sasori hissed out a laugh. "Did he know how to do this procedure beforehand?"

"No. I insisted he learned quick. You should have seen his face when the mouth on my chest woke up."

"I can imagine." Deidara's chest looked a bit uneven on that side but that was to be expected with his technique. Sasori ran a finger along the stitches and the mouth parted just enough to exhale. "Is the pain going away?"

Deidara nodded. "Thank you danna. How'm I looking?"

The wounds were no longer gashes; with the help of his healing they had shrunk to thin scars. "Just barely visible. A little red."

Deidara's expression was pure bliss. He tried sitting up, then moving his arms. Both actions worked just as they always had with just a bit of soreness. He jumped up and squealed like an excited child. "Sasori! You're so cool! It's like he never cut me up or anything!"

"And he didn't," Sasori insisted. "In case you forgot, we're on the clock. We should get back to the bird and fly to the rendezvous point right now and pretend we didn't just waste more than a day of the organization's time."

"It wasn't a waste," Deidara threw back immediately, but he didn't seem like he disagreed with any of the rest of the statement.

Sasori climbed back into Hiruko and pulled the Akatsuki uniform over his back. "Deidara, where's your cloak?"

He shrugged. "Collateral damage from when I lit up the doctor's, I think."

"What are we going to tell the higher ups?"

"I think for once it's not gonna be the biggest deal if we just tell the truth."

"That you went into a civilian city, coerced a doctor into giving you top surgery and then blew him up? Also possibly leaving our mark on the whole show by leaving your cloak there."

"Okay, maybe we embellish it a little bit." The bird they flew in on came into view. Deidara and Hiruko climbed on board and it took off. "Can I just say you did it?"

"Why would I do that on company time? As a matter of fact, why did you do that on company time?"

Deidara looked off to one side angrily. He covered his still-bare chest with one arm. "I never know when I'm gonna die, okay? I'd rather live part of my life with a flat chest than none of it. I kept getting stressed about the possibility of dying and then it was like 'well! The time has come!' and I jumped off the bird."

Sasori contemplated these words for a bit and Deidara came to sit beside him, throwing one arm around Hiruko's neck. "I'm sorry. I made a big mess."

"Take my cloak."

"Huh?"

"You lost your cloak when we were jumped by enemy nin unexpectedly. I gave you mine so you wouldn't be cold. Tomorrow we you will come out of my lab with your flat chest and your scars and I will say the injuries you sustained during the fight left you damaged in a way that made it convenient to perform top surgery. Do you understand?"

Deidara gaped at him, then shook himself and took Hiruko's cloak. He threw his arms over the puppet's body as far as they could go. "Thank you danna. Thank you so much."

Hiruko pressed his head ever so slightly into Deidara's. Sasori felt admiration deep under his annoyance at his partner. Not everybody could just craft themself a new body to click their conscience into. Deidara had taken matters into his own hands to alter his body so it fit his image of perfection. Sasori had done the exact same thing.

"How do you feel?" Sasori asked.

"I feel like art," Deidara murmured lovingly.