Author's Notes: This will most likely be my last new story I ever do. I already have enough half-finished stories to work on without trying my hand at new ones lol. Expect updates for some of those soon.

I've had this idea since it was revealed that Tobi was Obito, and decided today on a whim to just flesh it out for fun. This is the finished product. Enjoy.

My Utopia

"Where are you?" he muttered, hands sweaty, voice trembling.

The bomber soared over the endless valley of trees on his giant clay bird, searching for any indication that would lead him to the whereabouts of his opponent. There were none. It was if he had simply vanished.

Deidara snarled, "Show yourself you son of a bitch!" he called out to the valley. His blood ran cold at the sound of the air shifting behind him, and he turned to a man standing on the bird's lower back. Where an orange mask once rested, a scarred face now glared down at him with eyes possessed by the devil himself.

"As you wish," Obito said darkly.

Deidara honestly had no idea how it had come to this. He remembered an average morning. A walk through a nameless village with a blubbering idiot trotting beside him. Annoyance. Clay bombs. Tobi fleeing. An explosion and then a broken mask. When the smoke from the explosion had subsided, it left Deidara shocked and a mysterious Uchiha standing before him.

Of course it was only a matter of moments before a fight broke out.

The Uchiha took a step towards him on the bird, his Akatsuki cloak bellowing harshly against the wind.

"Deidara, we need to talk," the man stated in a deep voice, much different from Tobi's.

Two clay spiders shot out of Deidara's palms and towards Obito. "Fuck you!" the blond shouted. The spiders merely phased through him, shocking the bomber into silence.

Obito sighed, taking another step forward, "As stubborn as always. I'll say it again. Calm down and I'll explain everything."

"I don't want to hear anything from you, you Uchiha scum!" Deidara clasped his hands together, and smirked at Obito's stunned faced when the clay he was standing on began to travel up his legs. Within moments Obito was entirely covered in clay.

Deidara spit another one out of his hand, wasting no time bringing it to life and jumping on its back. After reaching a safe distance, he looked back to his former bird and was delighted to see the large lump that still contained Obito.

He held his hand up, "Ha!" he screamed, engulfing the bird and Uchiha into a beautiful inferno.

After admiring the trail of embers until it disappeared into the layer of trees below, Deidara decided it was time to return to the village they had previously been staying at. He had a mission to complete and would soon have to report the 'tragic' death of his partner to their leader.

He flew towards the sun setting on the horizon, taking in the gorgeous landscape of foliage, but was shocked at something in the distance. Impossible. The blond quickly tinkered with the scope on his eye, magnifying its sight until he could clearly see Obito standing on top of one of the many pine trees. His arms were crossed, his expression was pissed, and there didn't seem to be a visible scratch on him.

How in the hell? Deidara didn't have time to think as Obito went on the offensive for the first time since the beginning of their fight. A vortex of wind pushed out from his right eye, the nearby trees shaking rapidly as several dozen shrunken of impressive size seemingly materialized from Obito's eye socket and whizzed towards Deidara's bird.

The clay creation had no chance as the shrunken cleanly sliced through its neck and wings, and Deidara quickly found himself falling to the earth.

Obito watched as his partner fell through the sky and disappeared into the tree line. "Son of a bitch," he sighed, before sucking himself into his alternate dimension.

When he finally reemerged, it was in front of a badly battered Deidara, coughing and wheezing while dragging himself across the forest floor.

Despite his broken state, the blond still glared up at Obito defiantly.

Obito's eyes narrowed, "Why won't you listen to reason? I'm not your enemy Deidara." Deidara spat some blood at the Uchiha's feet. Charming.

"You have the sharingan. You're one of them. You are my enemy."

Great. He had to deal with the blond's annoying inferiority complex with Uchihas again. He knelt down to get closer to his partner's eye level.

"We are part of the same organization Deidara. We want the same thing. I am not your enemy. Neither is Itachi. Why can't you see that?"

Deidara chuckled darkly, "Yeah? Then why wear the orange mask? Why the secrecy and persona? Why didn't you just tell me from the beginning if you were really on my side?"

Obito looked away, "...I have my reasons."

"And I have mine," Deidara said, spitting blood in Obito's face.

That pushed him over the edge. In an instant Obito socked Deidara across the face, before his gloved hand gripped the blond's neck dangerously tight and hoisted him off of the ground.

"You fool! Do you have any idea who I am?!"

"No. How about you enlighten me," Deidara choked out as he dangled helplessly in the air.

Sharingan flaring dangerously, Obito tightened his vice-grip, coming dangerously close to crushing the man's wind pipe.

"I am none other than Madara Uchiha! Founder of the Uchiha clan and rightful heir to Konoha's seat of power."

Obito heard movement from some nearby bushes, and his eyes widened as what appeared to be Deidara stepped out and smirked slyly towards him.

"That's all I needed to hear," he stated coyly.

The Uchiha turned back to the man in his hand, only to find that the body had turned to clay.

A clay clone? It appeared he had underestimated the blond. Using his kamui, Obito attempted to make quick work of the clone, yet Deidara was quicker, holding his hand up and crying out his trademark "Ha!" just as the clay was halfway into the other dimension.

Obito was able to suck in most of the explosion, but felt a backdraft that sent him skidding painfully across the dirt. When he came to a complete stop, he pushed himself to his knees and clutched his right arm.

He could already tell from the amount of grey goo that was seeping from the wound that it was useless now. It would have to regenerate again. Obito stood up and glared at the smirking bomber in the distance.

With crushing force, the Uchiha ripped his limb from his body and cast it aside. Deidara grimaced at the grey mush dripping from the leftover stump.

"Yeesh. Just what in the hell are you?"

"You're going to pay for that," was Obito's only reply. Racing forward at break-neck speed, Obito tore off his tattered cloak and threw it aside. Raising his leg high into the air, he attempted to bring it down on the blond's head.

Deidara was able to block, abet just barely. The Uchiha was fast, and judging by the way Deidara's arms were wavering as he attempted to hold Obito's leg in place, he assumed he was incredibly strong as well.

Obito wrenched his leg away and used it to deliver a swift kick into Deidara's mid-section. Deidara skidded back from the force, but kept his ground. The bomber was a distance fighter. If he wanted to stand a chance he would need to create some ground between them.

Throwing out a divergent snake made of clay, Deidara used the resulting smoke from the explosion to escape into a nearby tree. With the distance he needed, Deidara went to work, throwing clay sculptures of every animal in his arsenal at the cloud of smoke.

The forest exploded in a torrent of shredded trees and rock fragments, yet that was of no concern to Deidara as he continued his onslaught. When his hands finally grew tired of kneading chakra into clay, he allowed them to fall and admire his work.

The smoke was much thicker now thanks to the numerous explosions, and his chest tightened as he waited for it to clear, the forest becoming eerily quiet.

His hope was dashed at a sudden gust of kamui wind, blowing the smoke away and revealing the Uchiha seemingly unscathed once again. Obito stood triumphantly inside of a massive crater, his right sharingan glaring at the blond with an intense hate.

Deidara was further shocked to find that Obito once again had his right arm, which he was now using forming into hand signs. So on top of the strength, speed, and sharingan, this prick also possessed the ability of regeneration. Great.

"Fire release: Blast wave wild dance!" Obito screamed, blowing a torrent of fire into the ripples of his kamui, sending it spiraling towards Deidara in a hellish inferno.

The Uchiha didn't care anymore. If the blond wanted to die, then the brash fool would die. There were plenty of other candidates to take his place. He could see Deidara grimace as the heat licked his face, yet the blond acted quickly, spitting out a large mound of clay. The clay rose like a wall, effectively blocking off the onslaught of flames.

Deidara slumped against his wall of clay, annoyed and exhausted. Nothing was working. Was this a genjutsu? Was he merely playing into the Uchiha's hands so that it would only appear as if he were slipping right through his attacks?

He took the scope off of his left eye and contracted his pupil, effectively negating any present genjutsu. Nothing appeared to change, and a voice above him wished to clarify this.

"I can assure you Deidara, that this is very real." Deidara looked up to see that Obito had phased his upper body through the wall of clay. The blond quickly raised his hands up, immediately ready to detonate the wall and send his opponent, as well as himself to the afterlife. It had always been his goal to die in a magnificent blaze anyway.

Obito grabbed Deidara by his neck once again, using his other hand to keep Deidara from making the appropriate hand sign. The wind of the kamui sped up again, yet this time in the opposite direction.

The blond was horrified as he felt himself being sucked into the very eye that he despised more than anything else in the world. It was a living nightmare if he had ever had one. Just as he felt himself disappearing into the blackness of the other dimension, he heard the deep voice call out.

"I win."

When he came to, Deidara found himself in a strange dimension filled with giant square pillars that seemed to stretch on into oblivion. He painfully sat up, trying to get a better look at his surroundings, yet it all looked the same. What a strange afterlife. He didn't remember such an empty void in any depictions of heaven...or Hell. Maybe this was limbo.

A spiral cut through the air on a pillar higher above him, and Obito appeared, looking down at him with contempt. It was reminiscent to his first meeting with Itachi. In both instances he had been defeated, humiliated, and looked down upon so condescendingly by that accursed ocular gift. It was so infuriating. He had refused to be defeated by another Uchiha, but it appeared he had been once again.

"Don't be so hard on yourself Deidara. You had no idea of what you were walking into. I knew all of your moves from our time as partners together. You didn't even know I could perform a proper jutsu before just a couple of hours ago. It wasn't a fair fight."

Deidara gritted his teeth. This bastard now had the audacity to try and console him for his loss?! The nerve of these Uchiha!

Obito took a seat on his pillar and allowed his legs to dangle carelessly over the side. He studied Deidara. The boy had so much hate in his eyes for a boy so young. It reminded him of Nagato. It reminded him of Konan. Most of all, it reminded him of himself.

"Tell me Deidara, why do you have so much hate inside of you?"

The blond snarled, "Why do you think?! It's because of you disgusting Uchiha. The way you arrogantly look down on those you believe are beneath you. The way you scoff at my art. It's maddening!"

"This isn't really about the Uchiha...is it Deidara," Obito said matter-o-factly, his eyes softening to one of pity.

Deidara was taken back, "What the hell are you talking about you fool? Of course it is!"

Obito shook his head, "No it's not. You're just directing your anger onto them. This is really about the fact that you feel under-appreciated for your art."

"You don't know anything about me! So don't act like you do!" Deidara snapped.

Obito knew he was hitting a cord with his partner, "I know enough. I helped Pein scout you out after all. You were taken for granted by your village. The black sheep of the Hidden Stone Village. You just want to be recognized for the artist that you truly believe you are. Yet that never happened did it."

"Fuck you Tobi! Like I said, you don't know anything about me! You don't know what I've been through! You don't know what I've endured!"

"I can relate to you more than you know." Obito jumped from his pillar and landed on Deidara's. "What is your idea of the perfect world Deidara?"

"One where you and Itachi are dead," was Deidara's stubborn reply.

Obito chuckled, "I should have seen that one coming. I'm serious though. If you could have anything in the world, what would it be? Show me," the Uchiha ordered.

Deidara heard the sharp ping of Obito's sharingan spinning, and the whole dimension was suddenly white. "Consider this room an untapped canvas to your imagination. I want to know what your utopia would be."

"What the hell kind of genjutsu is this?"

"Yours. Just imagine something, and it will come to be."

This was ridiculous. The Uchiha in front of him was his enemy, and he'd be damned if he was going to reveal some of his most private thoughts and desires to him.

Obito had predicted this, "If you won't show me willingly, I'll make you show me by force." Another ping of the sharingan, and Deidara's thoughts materialized before them.

Obito had to admit he was quite surprised at Deidara's vision of paradise. He had imagined it to be much more...violent. There were still explosions, many to be exact, but they were not without purpose. They were used to fight for loved ones. They were used to protect a place filled with people who accepted the bomber for himself. They admired his art, and they admired the artist behind it.

In the end, all Deidara wanted was a place to call home.

As the visions faded in the white abyss, Deidara staggered to one knee, mentally drained.

"A touching vision."

Deidara didn't respond. He was still too exhausted, and felt his sight beginning to blur. Obito eyed him for several moments.

"I'm going to erase our encounter from your memory Deidara. I believe it would be best for both of us if you were to remain ignorant to my heritage. Before I do though, I want you to know something. If you stick with me, I can assure you, you will achieve your utopia."

Obito's sharingan began to spin.

"Who are you really?" Deidara murmured through his fatigue. The sharingan stopped.

"...I already told you who I am."

Deidara shook his head. "I don't believe you. Madara Uchiha died a long time ago. Even if he survived, he would look much older and much different than you. If you're going to wipe my mind, at least let me know who you are."

Deidara looked up at the sound of laughter. Two kids appeared in the genjutsu, happily playing a game of tag not far away from where Obito and Deidara stood. The boy of the pair had orange goggles and the crest of the Uchiha on his shirt. The girl had short auburn hair and purple streaks on her cheeks.

Who were they? Was this part of Deidara's vision of happiness? It couldn't be. He had never seen those children in his entire life. He looked to the Uchiha towering over him. His face remained stoic, but it was hard to miss the single tear that trailed down the scar on his face.

"I'm nobody," he said in a voice that was neither loud and booming like that of Madara, or sharp and bubbly like that of Tobi. This new voice was tired, bitter, and filled with pain. This was the voice of a broken man. The girl called out the little boy's name, but Deidara couldn't hear over the sound of the room shattering. Then it was black.

"Sempai?...Sempai?...Deidara-Sempai!" Tobi called out, repeatedly nudging his partner laying face down on a trail not to far outside of the village.

The blond groaned, pushing away the stick that Tobi had decided was appropriate to poke him with, "Knock it off Tobi," he grumbled, slowly pushing himself up and stumbling to his feet.

He looked around at his surroundings. Where the hell were they? The village nearby looked familiar, but he wasn't quite sure how he had ended up where he was on the ground. All he knew was that he felt extremely tired.

"What happened?" he asked the giddy man bouncing on the balls of his feet in front of him.

"Hmn? I'm not sure. I went to get my mask fixed after you broke it, but when I came back I spotted you on the ground right there. Have you been hitting the bottle again Sempai?"

It was then that Deidara noticed the various fractures on Tobi's mask, where some type of sealant was used to make a quick repair. For some reason he could clearly remember breaking the mask, but everything after that point was a white blur.

"Deidara-Sempai! I think we should be going soon if we want to catch the Sanbi."

The blond absently nodded, following his partner through the village to a giant lake far off in the distance.

As they passed by a playground filled with children, however, the bomber paused. There next to the monkey bars was a boy and a girl, laughing as they played. The blur in his mind became clearer for a fleeting moment. In his mind he saw a boy with orange goggles and a girl with auburn hair.

He could hear the girl call out to the boy. A name he had never heard before.

"Obito," Deidara whispered.

Tobi turned to his partner. "Did you say something Deidara-Sempai? It sounded like someone's name."

The children faded from his mind, and the blur returned. Deidara looked to his fellow Akatsuki member and shook his head.

"Forget it Tobi...It's nobody."

Author's Notes: It got a little deeper and emotional than I had first intended to to be at the end. But I'm pretty happy with it. Let me know what you think, and fans of my other fics, I appreciate your patience with my updates. Thank you.