AN: Aw yeah...gettin' philosophical up in heeerrree...
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Ebb and Flow
They lay together, sprawled out on the grass underneath the vast blanket of night. She gazed up in wonder at the sky, dotted with thousands of glittering stars that seemed to twinkle down on the world with a carefree happiness. Beside her, he was reclined in a leisurely fashion, hands behind his head to cushion himself against the ground, eyes lidded as he also admired the beauty above them.
A cool breeze swept over them, causing the grass to rustle around them, and made Tenten shiver slightly. The green blades tickled her bare arms and left goose bumps to bloom along her flesh. She remained there entranced, her skin cool from dew, and stared with the moon in her eyes, a white incandescent orb against pitch black.
Deidara laughed quietly.
"This world's going straight to hell, un."
The breeze blew again, hissing through the air as it ruffled the tree leaves.
"You think, Dei-kun?" she asked.
"You don't?"
Tenten stretched, brushing her fingers lightly against his shoulder before sitting up, the ghost of a smile lingering on her lips. She looked towards the sky, the soft moonlight casting a radiant glow on her sun-kissed skin. Deidara watched thoughtfully, if not totally mesmerized by the sight.
"No," stated Tenten, "I don't think it's going to hell."
"If the world's not than the people on it are, un." retorted Deidara, shutting his eyes.
"Why do you say that?" she asked, focusing on a particularly bright star in the distance. It glinted on her brown pools, making them shine and seem more angelic.
He smiled, endearing her naivety.
"Because, Ten-chan," he said wryly, "all people are inherently evil. Deep down, we're all monsters, and eventually, we'll all kill each other off and be eaten up by our own stupid pride and foolish hate."
His words hung open in the air for a few moments, suspended in limbo as they sat in growing tension. She remained quiet for a couple of seconds, only breaking the silence to remark with a nonchalant, "Hm."
He opened one eye to her, though she did not see as she was still admiring the stars. Her features were stoic and her vision was glazed with contemplation. The hint of a grin she was sporting earlier had disappeared, and now her mouth was only in the apathetic shape of a straight line.
"What's on your mind, un?" he inquired. She shrugged aloofly while twirling a blade of grass around her forefinger.
"Nothing really," came her distant reply, "it's just that I disagree with your logic."
She could feel him stiffen in his place on the ground. "Oh?"
"No one is truly evil," she elaborated, "if they were, then maybe I'd actually believe you, but I know for a fact that the world isn't going to hell. It can't. It's simply impossible."
"How innocent of you," he chuckled and sat up, keeping very small distance between their shoulders yet not touching, "to think so optimistically, un."
Her head turned sharply to his, brow furrowing slightly with a tiny indignant glimmer in her dark irises.
"It's true," she said calmly, "a world can only be destroyed if evil totally consumes it."
"Which will eventually happen, un." retorted Deidara smartly.
"No," Tenten shook her head, "it won't happen. Evil cannot exist alone, therefore it could never take over the planet."
"Why not?" he challenged, "It's doing a fairly good job taking over at the moment, un."
"It seems that way," she continued, "but it will stop soon. Good will come to stop it."
"Good?" he queried humorously, resisting the urge to laugh in her face, "My little Tenten-hime, you really are too chaste for these types of topics, un."
She turned away, a little annoyed that he thought of her that way. He immediately regretted the remark.
"I'm not saying Good is going to rescue us, Dei-kun," she stated irritably, "I'm saying that it's impossible for Evil to dominate for too long without it's reverse coming to neutralize things again."
"Neutralize, un?" he asked, confusion apparent in his tone, only to be replaced by an affectionate tease, "My princess uses terms too sophisticated for her lowly lover."
She tried not to roll her eyes and ignored the joke, continuing tonelessly.
"Good and Evil are exact opposites; they cancel each other out," she explained, "and neither of them can remain permanently in place. If one could exist without the other, than perhaps the world really would go to hell, but that is impossible. Good cannot exist without Evil. Evil cannot exist without Good. Yin cannot exist without Yang."
Deidara cocked his head. "But what about those people—the ones who do the truly terrible things, like Uchiha Itachi, who murdered his whole clan without remorse? Or Orochimaru, who killed hundreds to carry out his own twisted plans? Or what about your own Uchiha Sasuke, who defected from Konoha and betrayed everyone to fulfill his personal goals? Evil has taken over them, no doubt, un."
"Maybe their actions were evil, and maybe they were thinking the evilest of thoughts when they did them," was her rebuttal, "but they are not completely evil themselves. Everyone, even if they seem totally evil or totally good, hold both entities in one way or another. The cruelest, most heartless person has at least a small, microscopic smidgen of compassion, just like the kindest, most benign person has some animosity."
He snorted in disbelief, "You think someone like Itachi-san is a kind person?"
"Deep down, perhaps." she murmured.
"How can you say that?" he chuckled, "He killed his family, un."
"He let his brother live."
A wave of silence claimed the both of them, leaving Tenten musing and Deidara speechless. After a few long moments, one of them finally spoke.
"Darkness seeks light," Tenten said solemnly, "Good and Evil attract. Neither can survive without the other. That's why it's impossible for the world to be consumed by either one of them. That's why a don't believe in a sole heaven and hell—there cannot be a place where everything is always perfect, nor can there be a place where everything is always miserable. Everything passes, Dei-kun. There is no such thing as eternal sorrow nor everlasting happiness. Time goes on. The world is constantly fluctuating, changing. Nothing lasts forever.
And this evil you speak of? Well, it will eventually fade too."
"But even if it does," Deidara replied, "and Good comes in, it won't last either. It will pass and then Evil will be upon us again, un."
She nodded. "Yes, that's how it will be."
He narrowed his eyes, gritting his teeth in frustration, not at her but rather the truth she was speaking—the revelations he was just now making.
"Then it's a cycle?" he asked, "A never ending sequence?"
"It is." she replied listlessly, the emotionless tone in her voice a little unnerving.
His fingers clenched, clawing at the soft earth beneath them in anguish.
"Then what are we supposed to do!" he growled, "What's the point to this life, un?"
She paused for a moment, then replied earnestly, "I don't think that we're meant to ponder such things."
"What do we have to live for then, un?"
"The moment," she answered simply, "ourselves. The people around us."
"But why?" he asked, still not understanding what she was trying to say, "Where are we supposed to be going in this lifetime? What's our purpose?"
"I think the point of life is not really the destination," Tenten said, "but the journey. It's about the people we interact with…the choices we make…the present in which we live in. Thinking too much about he future and where we're going—that's not what it's about. Heck, maybe there's not even a place at the end of all this. Maybe we just die and then it's done. But that shouldn't matter. The point is about living in the here and now. Going with the flow of the world. Staying in the middle and not straying too far to the left or right."
"But Good and Evil—"
"Will always be there," she finished, "you can't destroy either one of them. You can't stop their shifts and you can't make either permanent. You can only deal with them and move on."
Deidara sat quietly for a little while before he raised his middle and forefinger to his head and stroked his temple gingerly. He then flopped back onto the grass, feeling suddenly fatigued.
"It's all so depressing, un." he remarked somberly.
"Not really," she said, joining him on the ground, this time leaning herself on his chest, "we need this balance. It's our comfort."
Above them, the stars continued to sparkle magnificently. The moon still exuded pure brilliance. He could feel her steady breathing against him, peaceful and rhythmic against his own body. She wore a calm smile on her face, devoid of any anxiety or worry. Her arm rested on his torso, her soft brown hair brushed his chin and he placed a hand at the small of her back. Everything was at ease. It was the instance of zen before daybreak. Once dawn approached, all of this would be gone…
but Tenten had said not to think too much about the future.
Live in the moment.
He clutched her hand tightly. "So it is. "
END.