Red Dawn
Chapter 1
Tobi ran, what else could he do? He could still hear his senpai yelling, "Get out of here Tobi you idiot, un!" Tobi had no choice but to follow orders, like any other good boy. Time passed, Tobi didn't look back, even after he heard the giant explosion, louder than any other. Deidara-senpai told him to run, so he did. He kept moving, even though his partner's face came to mind, angry and still... artistic as the blonde told him to shut up and save himself, blue eye darting from Tobi to Sasuke like a caged animal. There was something about his expression that told Tobi to automatically turn tail and run. The last thing he remembered seeing of the battle was the smirk on Sasuke's face, blood red sharingan eyes half hidden under black hair watching him run away.
Tobi vaguely remembered hearing the Uchiha say "Doesn't matter, but It's touching that you save your worthless friend. You're going to die anyway." Sasuke's words echoed ominously in Tobi's mind, but then he heard Deidara laugh, and he knew the artist enough to discern the fear under the bravado.
"Well if it comes to that, I'll be sure to take you with me, and I'll personally make sure you burn in the deepest pit of hell, un." Deidara replied, his voice an intimidating mixture of a snarl and maniacal laughter. And then silence, as Tobi could hear nothing more than the pounding of his own heart and the far off noises of explosions and then... the eardrum shattering bang that could only mean one thing now that Tobi thought about it. It happened about an hour ago.
Tobi stopped. He lay in the grass, panting from exhaustion, and looked up at the darkening sky, gray soon to become black. He pulled wearily at the orange mask that covered his entire face save his right eye and the black spiral design that drew the eye towards it. Tobi winced as he sat up and leaned against one of the gigantic trees that made up the majority of forests in this part of the country. He looked up at the emerging stars and thought painfully about Deidara.
He should go back. That was what a good boy would do, because even his senpai needed help once in a while.
Tobi stood up with difficulty and straightened the black cloak with red clouds that marked him as a member as one of the most notorious and infamous criminal organizations known to the shinobi world. He limped back to where he had come from; trying to relieve some pain and exhaustion with what little chakra he had left.
The night grew darker; the crescent moon seemed to gaze down coldly as Tobi staggered towards where the ex-terrorist had told him to save himself and flee. The silvery light turned bloody as Tobi came closer. He looked up, surprised to see the moon stained in blood that was a lunar eclipse. Tobi breathed in sharply as he started on the last of his chakra reserves. But then he stumbled and fell back in fright.
"What are you doing Tobi? I thought I told you to run away, un?" Deidara looked down at Tobi questioningly. He was also wearing an Akatsuki cloak. He had long blonde hair tied back in a half ponytail and long bangs in front of his left eye. A ninja hitai-ate headband across his forehead had a deep gouge through the symbol, indicating that he was a missing-nin from Iwagakure, the village hidden in the rock. Tobi looked up at Deidara, which was odd because he had always been the taller of the two. He seemed all right, but somehow different... did his blonde hair almost seem brighter? Or was it that his visible eye looked happier and full of good humor, so unlike the temperamental artist and incendiary expert that Tobi knew so well. Was this really the Deidara that he really knew, looked up to, and, dare he say it, loved?
"B-but senpai, I heard the explosion and you weren't back and…" Tobi trailed off and then added in a quieter tone "I was starting to get worried…"
Deidara looked down at Tobi but not with the customary annoyance that he was so used to, but with an almost soft, sad look. Like he was sorry for the orange masked goofball.
"It's alright Tobi, you did the right thing, and you're a good boy, un." Tobi smiled under his mask as he picked himself up. The crimson moonlight reddened the grass, and Deidara barely cast a shadow, on the contrary, he almost seemed to emit an ethereal light. It got darker, and almost impossible to see, It was almost as if the shadows were clawing at them, trying to swallow the soft glow that enveloped Deidara like an aura instead of fleeing like any regular shadow would.
Tobi was forced to remove his mask so he could see and avoid tripping over one of the large tree roots, or stepping into a trap. Deidara looked down at him, which was odd, because Tobi had been taller for as long as he could remember.
"Deidara-senpai, we should go back and make sure that it all worked out and we finished our mission…" Tobi said quietly. He trailed off as he saw his partner's eye fill with sadness once more. Tobi started walking towards the battle site again, his mask dangling carelessly from one hand. He stopped when he noticed that Deidara hadn't followed.
"I guess we should," agreed Deidara, striding forward hesitantly, then turning to look at Tobi. "And Tobi? I never thought I'd say this, but you actually look sort of handsome with that mask off, un." He added lightly before taking the lead.
Tobi had to run a couple of steps because he was so startled that his pyromaniac partner had said such a thing. He followed Deidara, pain and worry forgotten, he was just happy to be with his senpai again.
What Deidara didn't see was the light blush that crept across Tobi's features at the compliment. He had barely taken off his mask, and never shown his face before: Zetsu, his mentor, had forbidden it, saying that people wouldn't think that he was a good boy, and that he might be killed if anyone ever recognized his face.
Tobi had light skin that hadn't seen the sun in years; his dark eye and his shock of spiky coal black hair contrasted this. His hair fell in front of his forehead and partially obscured the left side of his face, covering his eye and part of his cheek. He also wore a medical eye patch over his left eye socket; Zetsu had told him that he had lost this eye long ago when he had been found on the border of the Fire and Rain countries 13 years ago.
White scars traced the visible right side of his face, tokens of his forgotten memory and history. A particularly deep scar ran from his right temple to left cheek, narrowly missing his only remaining eye. He traced that scar unconsciously and instead focused on Deidara's back as he led them towards the clearing where they had battled Uchiha Sasuke, Itachi's younger brother.
Deidara stopped abruptly before they had a chance to enter the battle site. "Are you sure you want to do this, un?" Tobi stopped, confused.
"Of course, why wouldn't I senpai?" Deidara just nodded somberly and stepped into the area that hosted that day's previous battle.
It was a gigantic blast site. The grass was charred where it wasn't blown away altogether. The smell was almost unbearable, the scent of burnt flesh and hair as well as vegetation. Fragments of cloth, clay, and scales littered the enormous crater and the head of a giant snake summon lay nearby, eyes glassy with the buzz of flies and other insects surrounding it like a cloud.
Smoke rose and danced on the wind, tinted red by the light of the lunar eclipse.
Tobi wandered blindly towards the epicenter of the blast. The sandy soil had been melted into crude glass from the heat and ferocity of the explosion.
Tobi dropped the orange clay mask that symbolized everything to him, his life so far, everything important to him, his identity. Tobi was past caring anymore as it broke, shattered like his now useless façade.
Tobi slowly reached out for a small piece of metal that glinted red in the moonlight.
"S-senpai? Tell me it's not true…" Tobi whimpered, his gloved hands shaking as he held the scrap of metal. "Please, no…" he chocked out as a stray tear glistened at the corner of his eye. Only one.
Deidara said nothing, promised nothing as his partner cradled the small device to his heart, his world was shattering.
Tobi looked down at the object before closing his hands over it.
It was Deidara's scope, the metal eye that he had always hidden under his hair, that he had always been embarrassed to let anyone see because it symbolized his weakness, he needed a machine to counteract the sharingan.
"I went out with a bang, un…" Deidara said quietly, almost like he was trying to console himself along with his partner. He watched Tobi sob silently on his knees, clutching the piece of metal that used to be a part of his beloved senpai.
Tobi stood up shakily and looked Deidara in the eye. He then tentatively reached out and brushed away the shining blond hair in front of his partner's left eye. Scope-less, it looked sadly back at him. Tobi looked back down at the scope again. "Y-you really did?"
"Yeah Tobi… and it was my greatest masterpiece…" Deidara's spirit regained his former passion for a moment as he spoke of his own demise. "Don't be sad, un…" He said as he saw that what he previously said only dismayed Tobi further. If only he could comfort his partner one last time.
Deidara knelt down and tilted Tobi's chin up, looking him in the eye. "I'll always be with you, but you can do one last… favor for me."
"What senpai? Anything!" Tobi answered eagerly as he wiped his eye, wanting to convince himself that this was real, it wasn't imagined. He was eager to please his senpai, if only for one last time.
"Kill Uchiha Sasuke."
Tobi narrowed his eyes and nodded, gathering the shards of his mask. Deidara watched him with triumphant sapphire eyes.
Tobi looked down at the scope in one hand and at the broken mask in the other. His face was contorted into a snarl of rage. "Sasuke will pay." He hissed, turning in the direction of the Akatsuki lair. Deidara's spirit smiled as it followed Tobi, invisible to all but him.
The lunar eclipse faded, the blood red retreating from the surface of the moon, and the crimson flooded a different orb.
Tobi's eye gleamed with the sharingan, as well as the newfound power of hatred. Dawn broke maroon crimson and bloody as Tobi approached the headquarters, a changed man.
Akatsuki. Red Dawn.