Lilies in the Night

Naruto Fan Fiction

Chapter 9

At first, I was too shocked to do or say anything. Once my thoughts were collected, I first assessed my condition.

I was not hurt.

Then, I assessed my surroundings.

It was dark. It was very hot. It smelled awful.

I felt around, but recoiled when I felt something move beneath me. It felt like the shifting of legs, stretching out. I screamed.

Very quickly, whoever it was clamped a hand over my mouth. I struggled, or at least tried to. The space was cramped, and the partial control had returned.

"You're late..." I jumped, not expecting Sasori's voice to reverberate around me as it did then. I attempted screaming again, but to no avail. "I told you not to keep me waiting."

I heard a muffled voice, but I couldn't make out what it was saying. I assumed it was Deidara.

"That's why I said to be better prepared." Sasori answered him.

Movement started, jerking steps that caused an awful clacking noise in the small area. It wasn't very long before we stopped.

I took the chance to try and struggle again, but was stilled the same as before.

"...Deidara...go on ahead." He said. I wasn't sure what was going on, but at that point decided that it was best to simply wait it out.

A second muffled voice, different from the one that I assumed was Deidara, spoke. The walls must have been thick, because I couldn't hear the person's words, even though they seemed close. Whoever it was, they were filled with rage.

A sudden sense of surprise came over Sasori, but was quickly overtaken by amusement.

"Puppet jutsu...?"

There was some more yelling, and then the clacking noise returned tenfold, but stopped suddenly, and the space I was in became much roomier.

"Since I don't like waiting or making people wait..." Sasori said, "I'll end this quickly."

What followed was a racket of clicking and clacking, and quite a bit of jerking around. I smelled something absolutely awful that was, apparently, poison.

"Your plan was good..." Sasori commented. He seemed almost prideful. I wasn't sure why. "It's just...not good enough against me...your puppet's whole poison preparation mechanism is worthy of praise." He laughed. "You have a strange look on your face. Why were your preparations known? It's because the one that created your puppet dolls, crow, black ant, and salamander...was none other than me!"

Sasori seemed to take great pleasure in the look on his opponents face right then, whatever it may have been. I felt shock from the other person, mixed with a number of other things, but ones facial expressions don't always match ones emotions.

"A cute youngster like you being my opponent...it was the most fun I've had in a long time."

The young man said something in response. An accusation, perhaps. He was filled with both hate and reverence.

"For my name to be known all the way down to a kid like you...is an honor." I realized then that the pride he felt was towards himself. The boy said something else. "What good is it for a person about to die to ask that?"

There was more clicking, and then a pang of panic followed by relief.

"The poison is making its rounds..." Sasori said after a long moment. He chuckled. "To be suffering like you are...if you want to live so badly, I won't kill you off here. However, that poison will kill you in three days."

The space became cramped again, and Sasori started moving, his constant clicking giving me an awful headache. I was glad when he finally slowed down, and came to a stop on the hot sand. The heat was amplifying my usually negligible motion sickness.

A muffled voice came from outside. "Don't be so irritated." Sasori answered. I figured he was speaking to Deidara, who'd probably stopped to wait for us somewhere. "We got our target "one tail" after all. Now it's my turn but...We don't even know where it is...It'd be so much easier if it just comes after us..." There was a certain amount of fatigue in that particular comment, which caught me off guard. Out of curiosity, I let myself sink deeper into Sasori's emotions, which were all around me in that moment. I found that, along with being soul-shatteringly depressed, he was also debilitating tired. Of what, I couldn't tell. It certainly wasn't a physical ailment.

Deidara said something. "Well...my opponent is anyone...as long as I get one "Jinchuuriki" then there's no problems right...?" he wasn't so sure of himself. It didn't matter much to him, though. His concern for the issue was very mild.

The walking started again, and I felt sick to my stomach. I pounded on the inside of the small area, and was almost instantly restrained.

Deidara's muffled voice came again. "I'd forgotten..." Sasori said in reply.

Before I could comprehend what was happening, I found myself out under the bright sun with a mouthful of sand.

As I spat it out, Deidara, shocked to his core, yelled, "How the hell do you forget about something like that, hm!?"

"She was being so quiet." he answered.

Deidara made a noise out of aggravation, and said something I didn't catch. "Well...you all right, kid, hm?" he asked me.

I only nodded, too busy scraping sand off my tongue to give anything more. It seemed as if he didn't recognize me.

"Going around kidnapping kids..." he said, shaking his head. "It's more cruel and unusual torture than recruitment, un."

"She's already my spy." Sasori replied as he once again started walking.

"She is, hm?" Deidara yanked me up by my arm and dragged my along until I my feet fell into step beneath me.

"Yes. In fact, you've met." he told Deidara. "I think it was two years ago..."

"Three." I corrected, before thinking. I immediately slapped a hand over my mouth. I was expecting a rebuke, but received none.

"Ah yes. Three years ago you escorted...this one to Sunagakure. What's your name again?" he asked me.

"Mayonaka Yuri."

"Oh yeah. May." Deidara said. "I remember you, un. You're the weird one."

"Uh...yeah." I said. I was too nauseated to properly argue against it.

"Haven't grown much, have you, hm?"

"Not really, no."

"May. May. What did I have you call me?"

"Deidara-senpai."

"...Yep, that sounds about right." he said, grinning.

"That's what you said last time."

"Was it, hm?"

Once out in the open and walking on my own two feet, I started to feel better. The pressure of hiding myself from society was gone, a huge weight lifted from my shoulders...for the time being, anyway. In the back of my mind, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I was sent to spy somewhere else, and I'd have to come up with a good character to go with the situation. But I left that for a later time.

Instead, I chose to focus on the present company. Deidara's perspective had obviously changed a lot since I'd last seen him. He seemed more confident, and more upbeat than I remembered him to be. He wasn't sour about his situation anymore, and instead saw it as an opportunity.

As we headed back to Amegakure, I learned that Sasori considered himself an artist, just like Deidara. Well, not at all like Deidara, actually. In fact, they fought over it several different times. I understood both perspectives, although I had to say I agreed a bit more with Deidara than with Sasori. I mean, if something remains for a long time, doesn't appreciation for it dwindle? I remained silent, however, not wanting to cause an argument that extended beyond the mildly aggressive conversing that the two took part in.

As we left the sands of the desert behind, a wave of sadness washed over me, as I finally came to realize how many people I'd let down. I hoped that they wouldn't mourn for me, and that they would never come to know who I really was. Neither of the artists seemed to notice my tears as they argued on about the nature of true art, and for that, I was glad.