Author's Note: WELL. I can't believe it! LAST CHAPTER, AAAAAAAH!
There will be more author's notes at the end, so please read them there! PWEEZE READ THAT LAST AUTHOR'S NOTE.
EXTREME FLUFF WARNING, BY THE WAY!
Eeenjoy!
Chapter Ten
The forest was quiet.
Except for the small sounds coming from a clearing.
In fact... it was a pretty new clearing. All the trees had been blown away.
All that remained were some chunks of metal and a group of people off to the side, lying on the ground.
All four of them were dirty, covered in blood, and splayed on the ground as if they had been dumped there.
Ino was making small whimpering noises. Sakura cried softly, shaking.
Sasori stared up at the sky, trembling as his mind struggled to register the pain. Deidara, probably the one that had taken most of the blast, was gasping and sobbing, trying to keep himself alive. He felt the end drawing near.
"Deidara..." said Sasori.
Deidara swallowed. "Sasori no danna..." he whispered hoarsely. "You were always a good friend, yeah."
"No." said Sasori. "I'm not ready to say my goodbyes just yet."
He turned to Ino just in time to see her eyes slide shut.
"Chiyo's... effect... it's over, guys." said Sakura. "It's all over."
"No..." said Sasori. "It's not over. There's still hope. Deidara... do you have clay?"
"S-Sakura..." he groaned. "Do you have..."
"Here." she said, her arm shaking uncontrollably as she pushed the small pouch towards him.
Deidara put his hand in it and waited. Tears streamed down Sakura's cheeks as she looked at him.
"Now," said Sasori. "Make a powerful bird. As powerful as you can."
Deidara nodded and pulled his hand out.
"Make it fly. Make it go high, up over the trees. And make it explode."
"What's the point?" said Deidara. A bird flew out of his hand, flapping as it rose into the blue sky.
"Maybe someone will see it." said Sasori. He watched the bird fly in circles, climbing higher.
Deidara gasped for air, shivering.
Sakura reached for him, and she wrapped her hands around him, dragging herself towards him.
He snuggled into her soft, warm chest, forgetting his pain.
"I'm here." she whispered.
Deidara looked up into her eyes for a second, and she looked lovingly down into his. And then his slid shut.
Sasori shook Ino with one of his hands, the one that wasn't twisted beneath him, and she woke up, turning to him.
They just looked at each other.
"Katsu." Deidara whispered, and the bird exploded. The fireworks were loud and noisy, and they lit up the late night.
"Good job." Sakura whispered, and she closed her eyes.
"Ino..." said Sasori.
"Sssh." she whispered, putting her finger on his lips. "No talking. Just this."
She drew him towards her, and he held onto her neck.
She smells like blood... and flowers. he thought.
"They'll find us, Sasori." she said. "They've got to."
Sasori nodded, and then he reached for her face, kissing her.
"Aw..." said Ino, squeezing him. The breath went out of Sasori, and he smiled sadly. "We'll meet again, don't worry. Like you said, let's not say goodbye. Now here, not now. It's not time yet. Just... hope, Sasori. Find hope."
"I will." said Sasori.
Ino didn't answer.
"Ino?" he said.
She lay still.
Tears flooded his eyes, leaking from the corners and running down the sides of his face.
"I love you, Ino..." he whispered, and then he closed his eyes.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"We already looked there!" said one of the ninjas, annoyed.
"Well, you're going to have to look again." said Kakashi.
"All we do is go in circles, it makes no sense!" said the ninja.
"Listen. Sakura is from my team. MY team. And Ino's parents are going insane. So you WILL look again, and even a thousand times if you have to, until we find them. Understand?"
The ninja grumbled his reply and Kakashi leapt off to somewhere else.
The ninja leapt through the trees, mumbling to himself.
"Stop that!" said his partner. "Seriously. Don't you want to find them?"
"Yeah, but... we haven't found them yet. Why would we-"
Suddenly, a shower of colors exploded into the sky. The two ninja skidded to a stop.
The walkie-talkie on one of their waists crackled.
"Did you see that?"
"That was an explosion!"
"Maybe they're fighting there!"
"Who's nearest?"
The ninja slowly took the walkie talkie in his hand as he looked around, detecting where everyone else's chakra was.
"I believe that would be... us." he said into it.
"What?" said his partner.
"Good!" said a voice on the walkie-talkie. "Go check it out, tell us if you find anything, okay?"
The ninja nodded, forgetting that they couldn't hear a nod.
"Okay?" said the voice again, more urgently.
"Y-yeah, sure!" said the ninja, snapping out of his daze. He clipped the device back onto his belt.
"Come on, let's go." said his partner, and they leapt towards the place where they'd seen the explosion.
"Whoa..." one of them breathed, looking around as soon as he landed in the clearing. "What... what happened here?"
"I don't know, maybe-" said his partner, then stopped, looking off to the side.
"What? Maybe what?" said the ninja.
His partner pointed, and the ninja followed his arm's path...
They both stared.
The ninja slid the walkie-talkie off his belt and spoke into it once more.
"Uh... guys?" he reported. "I think we found something."
"Or someone." his partner suggested.
"Definitely... someone." said the ninja. "A bunch of someones! Come, quickly! Bring a medic!"
"We'll be right there!" a voice said over the walkie-talkie, and then there was silence.
Except for the chirping of the birds in the trees.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sasori woke up to find someone standing over him.
He suddenly remembered what had happened and tried to kick something, anything, but realized that he was strapped down.
"Yeah, you're strapped down." said the fuzzy shape above him. "We thought that based on your friend's reaction, it would be a good idea."
Sasori focused his eyes, and looked up. It was a doctor.
He heard a stream of curses off to the side.
"GET OFF ME, YEAH!"
"Oh, Deidara..." he muttered.
"Ino woke up before you did and told us everything." said doctor. "Can you convince your friend-"
"Deidara." Sasori corrected.
"-can you convince your friend Deidara that we're not lying?" said the doctor.
"You just want to kill me! Get that needle away, yeah! GET AWAY!" he heard.
"Deidara?" Sasori called.
"Sasori, help, thank goodness you're here... they wanna kill me, yeah!" shouted Deidara.
"No they don't. It's fine, Deidara."
"They're lying!" Deidara shouted. Sasori heard a scuffle, and then he heard Deidara cry out.
"Ugh..." Deidara groaned.
"We got the sleeping medication in." said a nurse.
"Good. Procede." said the doctor. He turned back to Sasori.
"Can I trust that you won't go crazy like your friend if I unstrap you?" he said.
Sasori nodded, and the doctor unstrapped him. He sat up, feeling a rush of vertigo.
"No, you stay down." said the doctor, pushing him back onto the cot.
"What happened?" he asked.
"A couple of our search-ninjas found you in the woods." said the medic. "We saw a bomb. I'm guessing that was your friend- er, I mean Deidara."
Sasori nodded.
"You're lucky to be alive, truly. Even five minutes more and you would have all died!"
"How is everyone?" said Sasori.
"Um..." said the doctor, flipping through his papers. "You all suffered burns... Sasori, you still have a broken leg. Your arm is broken now too, though, and other external damage. Ino had a lot of internal bleeding and punctures, on the inside as well as on the outside. Sakura had more burns that the rest of you, plus some outer damage. The worst hit was probably Deidara. He just had stab wounds all over, burns, inner damage. The blood loss was so huge, it was a miracle he can even talk by now!"
The doctor turned to leave.
"Wait." said Sasori.
"Yes?" said the doctor.
"What... what'll happen now?" said Sasori.
"Oh, I don't know." said the doctor as he went out the door. "The Hokage'll decide that!"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sasori sat on a bench with Ino, their heads together. It was a bright morning.
Sakura was pacing in front of the hospital, muttering darkly to herself.
"It's a nice day, isn't it?" said Sasori.
"Yeah." said Ino. "The perfect day for this."
The door to the Konoha hospital opened and someone stepped out, a blonde...
"Deidara!" Sakura cried, and she launched herself at him.
"Oof!" said Deidara, falling over. They tumbled to the ground.
Sakura kissed him passionately, tangling her fingers in his long, blonde hair.
Deidara pulled her off, sitting up.
"Alright, alright!" he laughed. "You're glad to see me, I get it, yeah!"
"I love you, Deidara... I missed you so much!" said Sakura.
"Yeah, well..." said Deidara. "So did I. I... missed you too. Every second of every day, yeah."
"Aw, c'mere!" Sakura giggled as threw herself onto him again, pulling him down for another kiss.
"It really is nice out, isn't it?" said Ino.
Sasori smiled, just as he had every day since that fateful battle with the puppet.
"Yeah." he said, and Ino turned his face towards her. She planted a light kiss on his lips.
Sakura stood and helped Deidara up. His hair and clothes were disheveled, and he was grinning as he looked into Sakura's eyes, the jade reflecting off of the blue.
Sakura suddenly started pulling him away by his hand.
"Whoa, where are we going, yeah?" he said.
"Ino! Sasori!" Sakura called. "Naruto wants us to have ramen together so he can meet Deidara, like we did with you, Sasori. Wanna come along?"
"Don't mind if I do!" said Ino. She and Sasori stood up, falling into pace beside Deidara and Sakura.
"Carry me!" said Sakura, and she jumped up onto Deidara's back.
"Wow, you've really gained weight, yeah." he smirked.
"Oh, just shut up and walk!" Sakura laughed, pinching his cheek.
Ino turned to look at Sasori.
"Don't even think about it." said Sasori. "No piggyback rides from me."
"I wasn't, don't worry!" said Ino.
They kept walking, Deidara and Sakura chattering at the side.
"I was thinking more along the lines of... this." said Ino, grabbing Sasori by surprise and lifting him onto her shoulders.
Sasori laughed, wrapping his arms around Ino's neck.
"I love you, Ino." he said. The words felt right.
"I love you too." said Ino, and she smiled sweetly at him. He stared at her, enraptured by the grin.
They walked into the bright morning.
Because this isn't the end. This was just the beginning. The beginning of a new life for Sasori, and Ino, Deidara, and Sakura. The beginning of their second chance.
Love. Love is art, and they had all finally discovered that for themselves. We use love to paint the world with our colors, our stories. And now, the two former missing-nin had a chance to use it as well.
"Hey, hurry up!" shouted Naruto. "I've been waiting for forever!"
"Coming!" they said. Ino set Sasori down, and Deidara set Sakura down, and they walked into the ramen shop together.
XXXXXXXXXXxxx The End xxxXXXXXXXXXX
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING! PWEEEZE!
Ending Author's Note: Well, that was the end! The end. I can't believe it, how this just started off as a small inspiration and turned into... well, THIS huge thing!
Heh. It waaas pretty awesome.
REVIEW. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, JUST PWEEEZE PWEEEZE PWEEEZE REVIEW! I don't care if you have nothing to say, just let me know that you've been reading! Tell me anything. Tell me your favourite characters, your favourite part, your favourite chapter, anything!
This is probably the best DeiSaku I have written. The other one, 'The Birds Still Cry', is a little stranger, and Deidara is completely out of character for most of the fanfic. It's twenty chapters, DOUBLE this, though!
Aaanyway. Hope you enjoyed this, thank you for all the reviews (IMMA STILL BE WAITING FOR MORE LOLZ) and I hope you loved this fanfiction as much as I loved writing it!
By the way, after this, I'll be taking an (about) one month vacation starting June 11, 2011! So if I don't answer reviews during that period of time, now you know why!
THANK YOOOOOOUZ FOR STICKING WITH ME THROUGHOUT ALL THESE CHAPTERS, NO MATTER HOW BORING THEY MIGHT GET!
G'NIGHT, EVERYBODY! 3