Deidara

was the youngest member of Akatsuki, and was partnered by Sasori and Tobi, consecutively, before his death.

Background
Deidara was originally from Iwagakure, although he readily abandoned the village for the opportunity of using his "art" more frequently, as his village ridiculed him for it. Deidara became an assassin bomber for hire, not caring who he worked with as long as he could use his artwork.

Sometime after Orochimaru left Akatsuki, Deidara was located by Itachi Uchiha, Kisame Hoshigaki, and Sasori, who were under the orders of the leader, Pain, to recruit him. Deidara refused at first, resulting in Itachi challenging him, promising to leave him alone if Deidara won. Deidara willingly accepted Itachi's challenge, but was easily defeated by Itachi's Sharingan, and joined the Akatsuki. Deidara, having taken a huge blow to his ego, carried a murderous loathing for Itachi and other Uchiha for the rest of his life, although he was intelligent enough to recognize Itachi as a more powerful opponent. However, he did take steps during his time with Akatsuki to get revenge on Itachi, such as taking steps to counter Genjutsu.

Personality
Quick to be angered and annoyed, Deidara was very hot-headed. Something of a sadistic arsonist, he was not above relishing a good fight, and he often blew up his opponents in a very brutal fashion (e.g. blowing off the heads of Sand ninja sentries shortly after his debut). 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 "hmmm". The latter is used in the VIZ version.

Deidara referred to his explosive ninjutsu as art, believing 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. One of Deidara's catchphrases,, was originally coined by famous Japanese abstract artist Tarō Okamoto (several of Deidara's explosives have resembled Okomoto's works too). Deidara was very proud of his art, to the point that he was simply unwilling to accept that anything could defeat it, leading to frequent overconfidence in battle.

Deidara referred to his partner Sasori as, 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 squabbled over the nature of true art (Deidara holding that art is transient and departing quickly; Sasori believing fine art is something wonderful that's left long into the future). This reflected their individual natures (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 a great respect for Deidara, and frequently called him. Tobi's carefree and goofy personality did not please Deidara, who believed that all Akatsuki members should be calm and serious. Tobi frequently and unintentionally angered Deidara, which usually resulted in him attacking Tobi in a comedic fashion (e.g. blasting him with his exploding clay or strangling him with his legs). In battle, however, the two quickly set aside their differences, and worked well together. Deidara also seemed to have a minor sense of respect for Tobi, as shown when he apologised to his partner in his thoughts before he initiated his Self-Destruction technique.

Rescue Gaara arc
Deidara, with Sasori, travelled to Sunagakure, to capture Gaara and extract the Shukaku within him. Although he attempted a stealthy infiltration of the village, Deidara was quickly confronted by Gaara, who launched an offensive against him. In the ensuing battle, Deidara's left arm was crushed, but he was still able to claim victory by mixing some of his clay into Gaara's sand, causing Gaara's own weapon to backfire. With Gaara captured, Deidara and Sasori convened with the rest of Akatsuki to extract Shukaku.

When Team Kakashi arrived at their location, Deidara took Gaara's body to lead away Kakashi and Naruto (the container of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox), leaving Sasori to deal with Sakura and Chiyo. Kakashi used his Kamui to sever Deidara's other arm during the pursuit, giving Naruto a chance to retrieve Gaara. Handicapped and outnumbered, Deidara used a Suicide Bombing Clone to escape. Knowing Sasori to have died during his battle, Deidara went looking for his arm, in order to get back his Akatsuki ring. He found it in the possession of Zetsu and Tobi. At some point, his arms were reattached by Kakuzu.

Three-Tails Arrival arc
Deidara appeared later, with his arms successfully reattached by Kakuzu. In the anime, he and his new partner, Tobi, found that their next mission was to capture the Three-Tailed Giant Turtle. Along the way, they took a break at a nearby dango shop. Deidara also showed an interest in what Tobi looked like behind his mask, only for him to be tricked by Tobi to look away for a moment. They split up afterward to seek out the beast.

Later, Deidara snuck up behind two ANBU, who were trying to seal the beast. Tobi congratulated Deidara, and they headed for the lake. Deidara commented that, since Tobi was a part of Akatsuki, he should be able to capture the beast himself. Tobi ran as it was chasing him, but got tangled up with the three tails. Deidara sent an exploding clay into the lake and it detonated, allowing Tobi to capture it. As they both took the Three-Tails away, Tobi fell asleep while Deidara was talking, which Deidara responded to by exploding more clay next to him.

Hunt for the Uchiha arc
After sealing the Four-Tailed Monkey, Deidara heard about the death of former Akatsuki member, Orochimaru. Having wanted to kill Orochimaru himself, Deidara and Tobi seeked out Orochimaru's killer: Sasuke Uchiha, the younger brother of Itachi Uchiha. When they finally found Sasuke, Tobi assisted in Deidara's assault against him. Despite showing some success, Sasuke proved able to counteract all of Deidara's efforts because of his Sharingan and lightning-based abilities. Deidara cursed the Sharingan, as well as Itachi and Sasuke, and made one last attempt to defeat the Uchiha by using C0 to blow himself up. The attempt failed, as Sasuke summoned Manda to protect himself, at the cost of Manda's life, leaving Deidara's death to be in vain.

Abilities
Deidara was very intelligent, often using tricks, misdirection, and calculated gambles to get his explosives in range of an opponent, like he did in the fight against Gaara, putting clay into Gaara's sand when it destroyed his arm. As a long-range specialist, he was weaker in close combat, but skilled enough to hold off a close combat battle with specialists like Team Guy, and had a variety of techniques in his arsenal to escape close quarters when necessary. Deidara's abilities were well recognized within Akatsuki, and the leader, Pain, openly admitted that he was something unique, and that his loss was a major blow to the group.

Exploding Clay
A fancy and skillful fighter, Deidara possessed special mouths in the palm of each hand to create Exploding Clay, chakra-infused clay that detonated with the command and a single-hand hand seal. This clay could be molded 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, named Suicide Bombing Clones, that could be a deadly surprise for opponents. Deidara's clay creations ranged from microscopic to gigantic in size, allowing him to adapt to any situation. Deidara could also use the clay for other purposes, as he was frequently seen creating birds to be used for transportation. It seemed he also knew standard earth-based jutsu, as shown from his Earth Release: Mole Hiding Technique, which he used to avoid damage from one of his mass-scale bombs. However, he could potentially run out of clay if he used too much of it, leaving him vulnerable.

Eye Enhancement
He also 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. This was done in response to Itachi's powerful genjutsu skills, of which he had a considerable loathing, and resolved to defeat if he got the chance.

Trivia

 * Deidara ranked 3rd in one official character popularity poll shortly after his debut, one rank above Naruto. He also ranked higher than any other member of Akatsuki (though at the point that poll was taken, only about half of Akatsuki's members were formally introduced).
 * According to Pain, Deidara's reason for fighting is "just because".
 * Unknown to him, his second partner, Tobi, has the kekkei genkai he despised the most: the Sharingan.
 * Deidara was apparently very curious as to what was behind Tobi's mask, as when they stopped to eat dango during the Three-Tails arc, he began to tense up when Tobi began to remove his mask to eat.
 * According to the 3rd Databook, Deidara's favorite food was bakudan, a pun on the actual food (boiled eggs in surimi) and the Japanese word meaning bombs.
 * According to the official Naruto Shippūden website, Deidara's least favorite food was mixed rice/pilaf.
 * Tobi commented that Deidara would die from an explosion. Ironically, Deidara would later self-destruct, as a last ditch effort to kill Sasuke.

Quotes

 * (Catchphrase) "Art is an explosion!"
 * (As a hologram in Part I) " Don't be impatient, hmm! We'll deal with our old friend Orochimaru in time, hmm. We only have three years in which to prepare, and we all know what we need to do to be ready, right? Hmm hmm hmm hmm!"
 * (To Gaara) "Snaring you alive was rough, but that's one more we can scratch off our list."
 * (To Sasori) "Fine art is the beauty of that single fleeting moment of explosion."
 * "Life's only beautiful ... because it's so fleeting, so transient."
 * "Art is a moment's beauty ... it's fragile ... fleeting ... hmmm!"
 * (After discovering Sasori's death) "Leaving a thing of eternal beauty for the future ...? Yeah, right. All he did was get killed ... hmmm?"
 * (To Tobi) "You're one hundred years too young to be giving me orders, hmm ..."
 * (To Sasuke) "You think you're so cool! And those eyes make me sick!! Always judging me .. .and my art!! You have no appreciation of the beauty of my work ... and it makes me want to kill you!!"
 * (Last words to Sasuke) "Cower in awe! Cry your heart out! Because my art ... is an EXPLOSION!"