#iwagakure

It always begins with fire.

Not with feelings — with an explosion.

With blinding light, with the earth screaming, with air that tears at the lungs. Deidara doesn’t see faces when he destroys villages. To him, it’s a canvas, a form, a moment. Art is an instant, and an instant doesn’t ask who you are.

But you survived.

He didn’t notice you right away. At first, it was just a strange sensation, as if something among the ashes was out of place. Not hatred, not fear, not curses. You stood there, clutching a dust-stained piece of cloth, looking not at him — but at the sky, as if trying to remember it the way it was before. That struck him. Not sharply, not violently. Quietly. Like a crack in a perfectly calculated explosion.

Deidara never comes back. But that time — he did.

He tells himself it’s curiosity. That you’re an artifact, a remnant left after destruction. That it’s interesting to observe what a person looks like when everything has been taken from them except their life. He convinces himself that if he wanted to, he could erase you with a single snap of his fingers. And that is precisely why he doesn’t.

You don’t scream when you see him again. You don’t have the strength to hate. Everything has already burned away. And that disarms him more than any jutsu ever could.

He talks to you as if you’re not standing on opposite sides of a catastrophe, but simply beside each other. Abrupt, cocky, sometimes almost mocking — but without the cruelty he usually allows himself. You don’t accuse him. You ask questions. And that makes him uncomfortable — he isn’t used to explaining; he’s used to proving.

You don’t justify him. And you don’t curse him. You just keep living, however you can, among the ruins — and somehow that clings to him more tightly than tears ever would.

Deidara is a man of the moment. He lives in the second before the blast, in the beauty of destruction. And you live in the silence after. In the settling smoke. In the ground that is still warm. You are what remains when the art is over. And he doesn’t understand why he can’t look away from you.

He never says the word “love.” For him, it’s too static. Too long-lasting. Instead, he says:

“You’re weird.”

And that is his confession.

He brings you food as if it’s nothing. Leaves protective seals — not for the village, for you. He snaps when you get hurt, because “you can’t be so careless,” even though he knows perfectly well who made the world around you dangerous. His care is rough, clumsy, sometimes almost aggressive — but it’s real.

Sometimes you see guilt in his eyes. He hates that feeling. It gets in the way. It makes the explosions quieter. But he doesn’t drive it away. Because if he does, he’ll have to leave you too.

You are his contradiction. His mistake. His weakness.

He knows he has no right to be near you. That his hands are the same ones that turned your life to ash. And that’s why he keeps a slight distance, never fully allowing himself to touch you, as if he’s afraid that one wrong move — and you’ll crumble, like everything else.

But when you fall asleep, he stays nearby. Watching. Because if the world has already taken everything from you, he won’t let it take the night as well.

Deidara will never promise a future. He doesn’t know how to deal in “later.” His love is here and now: protection, the choice not to press, not to detonate, not to leave. Every day is a new refusal of his own nature — for you.

And maybe that is his truest art.

Not the explosion.

Dystopian: October 6

Dystopian books are often banned for portrayals of violent and crumpling societies. Marked by themes of rebellion, anarchy, violence, and control, dystopian books are often challenged for being age inappropriate or anti-government. What happens when society becomes the worst it can be? Do the people of Kumogakure rise up when everything has been taken away?

LBGTQIA+: October 7

Queer literature is essential for those learning to accept who they are through representation in a larger community. Challenges to queer fictions are often masked by claims of protecting the children it is there to support. 

Does Iwagakure punish love for the sake of tradition? Does Konohagakure arrange marriages to build their shinobi army? 

Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll: October 8

For centuries sex has been seen as something taboo. Drugs have been blamed for the destruction of society and corruptions of generations. Everyone from Mozart to Megan TheeStallion have been blamed for inspiring revelations. 

Censorship can happen anywhere, especially when you’re not looking. Does Sunagakure ban Icha Icha? Is there a war on drugs in Kirigakure? 

Political: October 9

From allegories to autobiographies, books that challenge authority, question the system, and demand a better world have been targets from those with the power or opposing view point.

What’s hidden is Tobirama’s journals? What happened behind the scenes as Onoki rose to power. 

Problematic History: October 10

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. However, the things that are the hardest to face, can be easier to erase. Wars, discrimination, genocide.

What really happened in the Bloody Mist? What secrets from the first ninja war are best left untold?