Though Akatsuki had an understandable bone to pick with anyone they considered a nuisance, it was no coincidence that Deidara always wound up tagging along with his partner to gather intel on one particular nuisance. Even within that terrifying shell of his, he could sense Sasori’s spite at any mention of Orochimaru, had noticed how he practically pounced on any chance to go nosing after him.
Sad, really, that he was so desperate for this so-called immortality, but he’d eventually learned better than to pick this particular fight with the puppet-master. He never won.
As usual, this led to Deidara being forced to skulk about the surrounding area while Sasori investigated... on ‘lookout’, no less. Stupid, really, to ask the easily-distracted teenager who was trigger-happy at best (and who, at this point, thought very little of the word ‘subtlety’) to do such a thing. But whatever. He was well over the point of annoyance that he was being sorely under-utilised.
It was around the point where he was about to give in and start playing with his clay that he caught sight of someone from the treetops. A girl. He remained still, aside from his hands, which began shaping a bird to seek out Sasori if needs be. He couldn’t trust that she was a civilian, if she was this close to Orochimaru’s territory.