A/N: WAHHH!! I haven't updated in ages! I hope you guys are still reading . . . please don't kill me for being such a bad author! XD The reason this is late is that I was watching Shippuden! Can you believe it? Anyway, Deidara's fight was pure awesome. Same with Sakura and Sasori's fight. Oh, and I was I the only one to scream endlessly at that end part after one episode where Deidara was talking to Kisame and he asked about Itachi and said something about how the Uchiha was good-looking?! OH MY GOD!! . –fangirlspaz– I swear Kishimoto is trying to torture us! He is such a closet yaoi fan!
–sigh– anyway, on to the chapter. Hope you like it!
xxx
Chapter 4 – Resolutions
Deidara sat by the windowsill of his room, looking out at Iwagakure. The tiled roofs of houses shimmered in the midday heat. The square and the streets surrounding it were empty as far as Deidara could see. No one seemed to be out. He had heard a commotion earlier coming from down the road, but had thought nothing of it.
The blonde ninja sighed and looked down at the ring on his finger—Itachi's ring, now his. He put his head in his hands and wondered how much longer he was going to have to wait to leave his abominable town. He hated that his marriage to the Uchiha had to be kept secret. Each second of waiting here without the dark-haired ninja by his side made him angry.
Deidara groaned. "O, I have bought the mansion of a love, but not possessed it, and, though I am sold, not yet enjoyed! So tedious is this day as is the night before some festival to an impatient child that hath new robes . . . and may not wear them!"
He leaned his elbows on the windowsill and opened his hand, letting a small clay bird go. It flew into the air and hovered against the deep blue of the sky. "Katsu," Deidara whispered. He smiled slightly at the explosion, which sent echoes running across the deserted square.
Silence settled again, but Deidara's ears picked up a new sound—footsteps? He spun around. "O, here comes my nurse, and she brings news; and every tongue that speaks but Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence!" He dashed to the door and flung it open. "Now, nurse, what news? What—" He stopped in shock. It was not his nurse who stood in the open doorway.
Itachi stood there with his eyes downcast, face lost in his high Akatsuki collar. "Deidara," he began. "I come with news I would I did not have to bring."
Deidara pulled the Uchiha inside and closed the door, taking the other ninja's hands and forcing him to meet his gaze. "Ay me! What news? Why dost thou wring thy hands?"
Itachi turned his head away and closed his eyes. Deidara moved closer to hear the Uchiha's quiet words. "He's dead, he's dead, he's dead!" the dark-haired ninja whispered. "We are all undone. Shisui killed and Tobi murdered. Curse this day! He's gone, he's killed, he's dead!"
Deidara gasped. "Can heaven be so envious?"
Itachi shook his head. "Itachi can, though heaven cannot: O Itachi, Itachi! Who ever would have thought it? Itachi!"
Deidara furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Itachi went on. "I made the wound, I made it with these hands. His face pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub'd in blood . . ."
Deidara took a step back, hands trembling. "O, break, my heart! Poor bankrupt, break at once! To prison, eyes, ne'er look on liberty!"
Itachi breathed in sharply and took a step towards Deidara. "My lord . . ."
"O God! Did Itachi's hand shed Tobi's blood?"
Itachi winced. "It did, it did; alas the day, it did," he whispered.
Deidara reached out to touch the Uchiha's cheek. "O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of divinest show! Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st, a damned saint, an honourable villain! O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell, when thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend in moral paradise of such sweet flesh?" Deidara brushed his lips across Itachi's, closing his eyes briefly—he was kissing the man who had killed his best friend, his best friend in the world . . . and yet, that very friend had killed Shisui. He pulled away and studied Itachi's impassive face. "Was ever book containing such vile matter so fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell in such a gorgeous palace!" He hugged the Uchiha and was surprised when he felt comforting arms circling his shoulders.
"There's no trust, no faith, no honesty in men," Itachi murmured into Deidara's hair. "All perjured, all forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers," he whispered bitterly. "These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old. Same come to Itachi!"
Deidara pulled away and looked up into Itachi's dark eyes fiercely. "Blister'd be thy tongue for such a wish! You were not born to shame." He cupped the Uchiha's face in his hand. "Upon this brow shame is ashamed to sit; for 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd sole monarch of the universal earth. O, what a beast was I to chide at you!"
Itachi blinked slowly, eyes heavy with sadness. "Will you speak well of him that kill'd your cousin?"
Deidara grabbed the dark-haired ninja and pulled him close. "Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?" the blonde growled. Itachi's mouth curved every-so-slightly upward, betraying his relief. Deidara smirked, his tone changing to one that was light and teasing. "Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name, when I, thy three-hours husband, have mangled it?" He ran a finger along Itachi's jaw, the dark-haired ninja still watching him coolly. Deidara raised an eyebrow. "But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin? That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband." He held a hand to his forehead. "Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring. Your tributary drops belong to woe, which you, mistaking, offer up to joy." He looked up at Itachi again. "My husband lives, that Tobi would have slain; and Tobi's dead, that would have slain my husband. All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?"
Itachi smiled sadly. "I do not wish to see you weep, but I must tell you that I am banished by order of the Tsuchikage."
Deidara's eyes narrowed. "Banished?! There is no end, no limit, measure, bound, in that word's death; no words can that woe sound." He sighed impatiently. "Where is my father, and my mother, and my nurse?"
"Weeping and wailing over Tobi's corpse. Will you go to them? I will bring you thither."
Deidara shook his head, a strange look in his eye. "Wash they his wounds with tears: mine shall be spent when theirs are dry, for your banishment." He went to rummage in his closet, finally returning with a bag and a travelling cloak. He held out his hand to Itachi. "Take my hand, husband, let not your anger be riled; both you and I; for we are exiled—you by decree and I now by choice, for only by your side can I truly rejoice. I no longer desire to remain here with my kin, but to go with you, be it saintly or be it sin."
Itachi's eyes widened as he took the blonde ninja's hand. The day they would leave Iwagakure together didn't have to be far off in the future . . . no, Deidara wanted it to be today. The Uchiha pulled Deidara closer and kissed him tenderly.
"I love you, yeah," Deidara whispered when the Uchiha pulled away.
xxx
The villagers were confused by Deidara's abrupt disappearance that afternoon, and were convinced that the young blonde would return, though he never did. Itachi also disappeared, but no one thought anything of it. Later, word reached Iwagakure that Deidara had joined Akatsuki, and that Itachi was behind it. The names of the two ninja were cursed, but the blonde and the Uchiha could not have been happier, together at last.
In the weaving of this tale, now comes the final thread;
The lesson is that some men are pardon'd, some are punished:
But never was a story more sincere or more free
Than this of Deidara and his Itachi.
xxx
A/N: oh my god, that was the LAST CHAPTER! I hope you liked the ending. I put a lot of my own dialogue and stuff in, tried to sound Shakespearean . . . yeah.
Next time: erm, there will be no next time because this is the end, sorry. BUT YOU CAN READ MY OTHER FICS!! (InoSaku, anyone?)
OK, I'll stop hopelessly advertising for myself and thank all my reviewers! You guys rock!
- Snow
