Sasori is Deidara's former partner from the Akatsuki and a missing-nin from Sunagakure. He is known as Sasori of the Red Sand.He created Kankuro's puppets, among others, and is a genius puppeteer in his own right. Sasori left Sunagakure 20 years before his introduction, but the background on his crimes is unknown. Flashbacks seem to indicate that his descent into darkness started when his parents died, and he attempted to simulate being with them by turning their corpses into puppets (the first puppets he ever created).

Sasori and Deidara have quite different views of what art is. Deidara holds that art is something that is transient, departing quickly, whereas Sasori believed that fine art is something wonderful that's left long into the future. This reflects their individual natures. Deidara outwardly seems to respect Sasori's beliefs but Sasori does not respect Deidara's.

Deidara is a missing-nin from Iwagakure and the partner of Tobi. Deidara was originally teamed with Sasori, whom Deidara referred to as Master Sasori. This is probably because Deidara had a lot of respect for his fellow artist. He also admits that Sasori was a lot stronger. Despite that, Deidara still argued with Sasori about what art is and directly disobeyed his command in spite of a threat to be killed. Deidara held that art is transient, departing quickly. Sasori believed that fine art is something wonderful that's left long into the future. This reflects their individual natures (Deidara makes clay sculptures that explode, Sasori makes long-lasting puppets out of humans). Deidara outwardly seems to respect Sasori's beliefs, but couldn't resist getting a final jab in after Sasori's death: "Like anything that is left for the future as a thing of eternal beauty... He got killed straight off!"

A fancy and skillful fighter, Deidara uses special mouths in the palm of each hand to manipulate clay into many shapes, often making animals from it. He commonly creates a flight-capable clay bird as a mode of transportation. In addition to making animals from the clay, he can make the clay explode on command. He often molds the clay into smaller animals to make sneak attacks on unsuspecting opponents. He also has a scope on his left eye for long-range observation.