It's truly terrifying being at the opposite end of a gun. Although Deidara's had countless hours of training with various weapons pointed in his direction, he's always had the upper hand. In training, he has partners as well as arsenal for himself, and the ability to call for more back-up if needed. But now in his current situation, he is all alone with no weapon, no cell phone, no way out.
Shaking fingers unlock the front door slowly, as he begs for anyone, someone, to walk out into the night and see this stranger behind him. But for some odd reason, the officers patrolling the area don't seem to be out at the moment. Did Zetsu plan this entire scheme down to the minute? Are they on a time crunch here before the next set of cop cars come patrolling through the neighborhood?
Deidara has no idea. All he knows is that he is utterly alone, and his neighbors are all snug inside their homes, not a single soul is out for a walk tonight.
"Hurry up you shithead," Zetsu seethes, noticing how long Deidara is taking with his keys.
Finally, Deidara swings the door open, hesitating to walk inside. He shuffles across the threshold with death looming down his back. The very floor seems to shake beneath his feet. His vision is beginning to blur, he's so afraid.
But he's already resolved not to take action. If he does, Sasori will surely meet his demise. Deidara can't allow that. So he walks forward, like an inmate on death row, his household seeming like a large stretch towards the gallows.
At the sound of the door closing behind Zetsu, Deidara instantly falls to his knees, completely weakened and hopeless. Tears of pure terror slide down his cheeks – but he isn't crying for himself. His heart is heavy with sorrow for Sasori, for he has no idea if Zetsu will be good on his word to let him live.
"Get up you swine," Zetsu barks at him harshly, kicking his thigh.
Deidara stands upright with a surprising amount of courage left in him. If he has to go down, then he might as well do it with some dignity.
"I've followed all your orders," Deidara states, trying to sound in control despite his gnawing, gut wrenching dread, "So please, don't harm Sasori. That's my one last wish un."
"Shut the hell up," Zetsu spits back, "You don't get to make last wishes. You're the reason Madara, my leader, is in prison. Not only does he want you to die, but he wants you to be humiliated in death. Now, we're going to walk together to find some paper and a pen."
"Un?" Deidara is startled for just a moment, before realization dawns on him, "are you going to make me write a suicide note? No one is going to buy that hm."
"I told you to shut the fuck up! If you don't zip it and do as I say, I'll start taking off some fingers or toes. It'll surely be damned hard to write with a couple fingers missing!"
Deidara turns pale and nods hysterically before rushing to find a pen and paper. Once he locates the aforementioned objects, he sits at his couch and places the paper on the coffee table in front of him, waiting for further instructions.
"Now," Zetsu clears his throat, then jabs the gun at Deidara's temple, "this is going to be a suicide note, but you must write everything down exactly as I say."
"O-Okay," Deidara says tentatively.
"To whoever finds this note, I am gravely sorry for my actions, but I felt it was necessary to end my own life," Zetsu starts. Deidara holds his tongue – this manner of speech is very unlike his own, and anyone who knows him will be able to tell in a split second that this letter was forced. He sighs a tiny exhale of relief, this note will surely prove that his death wasn't a suicide.
"My grief may come as a surprise to some, but it has always been present, ever since I was a young boy. I hated myself for disliking women and only finding men attractive – "
Deidara stops writing and turns to look at Zetsu ludicrously, forgetting that he's supposed to stay quiet, "What the fuck!? Is Madara really that homophobic?"
Zetsu slaps Deidara across the face, drawing blood at the corner of his lip. Deidara writes down the insane sentence, now sure that any person will be able to tell that this letter is indeed trash.
Zetsu forces him to write down other nonsensical lies, and Deidara has to resist the urge to vomit. This suicide note makes Deidara sound like a horrible, heinous man who hated both himself and others. It's such a drastic alteration of what the real Deidara would say, that he almost feels bad for Madara. What kind of a sick mind would say these things? Has Madara really grown up in a world of hate, devoid of all love? But Deidara can never bring himself to forgive Madara for doing this to him and Sasori. He secretly hopes there's a special place in hell for Madara.
When Deidara nears the end of the note, Zetsu instructs, "I'd like to reach out to my partner Sasori, and be truthful. I never loved you, I was merely using you from the moment I met you and – "
"No," Deidara looks up firmly, with bold and angered eyes directed at Zetsu. His pen is placed by the paper, and he crosses his arms. So what if he lost a finger or two before death? He is going to die anyways, it's not like it would hurt for too long.
"What do you mean no?" Zetsu's temple is pulsing and he leans in forward towards Deidara menacingly. Deidara doesn't even wince.
"I mean, I refuse to write that bullshit. I love Sasori, and I won't even betray that love on a written piece of garbage un," Deidara explains, arms still firmly crossed.
"You're a complete moron, how would you like to lose a toe?" Zetsu asks.
"Do your worst," Deidara challenges.
A wicked, devilish smile curves upon Zetsu's face. "You don't truly care about something like losing a finger, do you?"
Deidara doesn't answer, he simply continues to stare into those demon eyes, confronting his attacker with the last bit of bravery in his system.
"But I bet what you do care about is this lovely, soft blonde hair, am I right?" Zetsu takes a handful of Deidara's hair in his hand, not gently.
He tugs on it, making Deidara's scalp prickle, "Ow!"
"Let's see how you deal with this!" Zetsu cries maniacally before taking out his pocket knife and cutting into the flesh of Deidara's scalp, cutting both hair and skin in the process.
"Ah! No! Stop!" Deidara's vision dances wildly from the pain of having his skin nearly scalped off. Zetsu pulls out a chunk of Deidara's blonde hair, no doubt leaving a sizeable bleeding bald spot behind. Deidara's eyes are watering and he feels like he might actually throw up. His head is throbbing something dreadful and warm, sticky blood is oozing down the side of his face slowly, like some dark, twisted foreshadowing of what's soon to come.
So Deidara caves. He caves and writes the stupid, horrible, hateful line that he never loved Sasori. He does it with tears of anger streaming down his cheeks and with the constant pulsing pain in his head.
He does it because he's broken. Zetsu finally bent him over to a point where he can't recover, can't fix this anymore. He finishes the suicide note and leans back into the couch, shaking all over. He gingerly touches his scalp and then looks at the dabs of blood on his hand. If he were to live, this scar would be with him forever. His hair would probably never look the same.
"Good boy," Zetsu praises him mockingly. "Now, get up and walk back to the front door."
Deidara complies, his senses numb and his world crashing around him. Zetsu commands him to stop before the door and turn around. Deidara does so, and is met with the barrel of Zetsu's gun, pointed directly at his face, not even an inch away.
"Any last words?" Zetsu sneers, actually smiling despite the fact that he's about to murder someone in cold blood.
"You and Madara can go to hell," Deidara says. Everything is quivering still, and he shuts his eyes, not wishing to see what inevitably will happen next.
Deidara waits for the sound of the gunshot. It's odd, but his ears are hearing everything right now, the acuity of his hearing must have raised a few frequencies due to the heart pounding anticipation of death. The noises seem to come in slow motion, filling his world with an array of sounds. He can hear the soft ticking of a clock on the wall, the hollow drum of the air conditioner, the buzzing of the light overhead and then – the click of the safety on the gun, and the slow pull of the trigger – but the sound is mixed and muffled with something else. Could Deidara's ears be playing tricks on him? Or did he seriously hear the door open behind him?
Deidara feels the cool night breeze behind him for a split second before he's on the ground quite suddenly, ears ringing from the gunfire.
But he's alive.
And there's something heavy on top of him, pressing him hard into the ground.
He opens his eyes and sees red. But it isn't blood. It's the beautiful, rich auburn of Sasori's hair.
"What the hell?!" Zetsu is bewildered, still holding the gun up. He shot through the front door and into the crisp night, barely missing Deidara as he was plunged to the ground by Sasori it would seem.
"S-Sasori!" Deidara feels feint and clammy, being so close to death knocked the wind out of him.
"Stay down," Sasori breathes before pulling out a gun of his own and pointing it at Zetsu.
"Where did you get a gun!?" Deidara cries, staggered by the turn of events.
Zetsu barks out an evil laugh, "oh, this is rich! So you've come to save your gay lover, is that it?"
"Yes," Sasori's eyes are cold, Deidara has never seen this much hatred in him before, "That's exactly right." He clicks back the lock on the gun, fully ready to kill this man before him.
But Deidara can't allow him to do that. Deidara pulls down on Sasori's wrist, alarming him. "Deidara, this man tried to kill you!"
"Don't do it! You'll be sent to prison un!" Deidara pleads, hanging on to Sasori's arm and tugging with all his strength. When did Sasori become so strong? How is he resisting this, and still able to point that gun at Zetsu?
Zetsu continues to laugh at them like a madman, sending a chill up Deidara's spine. "Now I have the both of you here, this is too much. Madara will surely make me his second in command once he hears about your deaths!"
"Run," Deidara commands. A surge of adrenaline courses through his veins, allowing him to practically grab Sasori off the ground and take off full speed out the door and down the street.
The gun fires behind them, and Sasori soon gets his footing, panting besides Deidara, the two holding hands and sprinting as fast as they can. Sasori keeps looking back, trying to aim his own pistol at Zetsu.
"It's no use! You won't hit a moving target so easily un!" Deidara tells him, "Just follow my lead!"
Deidara turns past a house and shoves Sasori into a bush, hiding the two of them in the thicket of green grass and leaves. "Stay extremely quiet," Deidara whispers, "did you already call the cops?"
"Yeah, they should be here by now," Sasori replies, "I wonder what's taking them so long."
"Shh, here he comes," Deidara shushes and crouches lower, staying absolutely still.
Zetsu's shadow emerges in front of him as he scourges each nook and cranny, trying not to alert the attention of the neighbors. But it's too late – the neighbors surely heard the gunfire already, and Deidara knows that several of them are probably on their phones right now, calling the police and peeking out the window.
They just have to hide and bide their time until the sirens finally appear. That's what Deidara thinks, anyways.
But it seems like Sasori has another plan.
"What are you doing?" Deidara manages to angry whisper through his teeth.
Sasori is thrashing beside him, pulling his gun out and trying to point it out of the bushes towards Zetsu. Deidara is holding his arm back, struggling. "I told you to stay still," Deidara murmurs, trying not to make too much noise.
"If he can't find - us, he's going – to get – away – again," Sasori says while scuffling about in the bush, trying to get the upper hand and get out.
Before Deidara can protest, Sasori finally takes control and stands up, gun directed towards Zetsu.
"Ah," Zetsu sighs, "There you are. I was beginning to think my search would be futile, and that I would have to return home a failure."
"I won't let you get away," Sasori rages. Deidara realizes a beat too late that Sasori's judgment is completely clouded by hatred, and he's trying too hard to play the hero. He's going to get hurt.
Before either can make a move though, the feint sound of sirens can be heard off in the distance, sounding like miracle bells to Deidara. Unfortunately, Zetsu takes this as his cue to leave.
Zetsu shoots frantically at Sasori, missing him by half an inch, and then takes off running. Sasori doesn't miss a beat, he jumps into action and lunges his body forwards, eyes red with vengeance. He pushes all of his weight onto Zetsu, knocking them both to the ground, Deidara watching with shock, eyes nearly popping out of his head. The entire scene happened so fast, Deidara didn't have a chance to stop Sasori.
Sasori and Zetsu are now thrashing around in the middle of the road, the sirens are growing louder and louder and Zetsu is trying to turn his gun hand towards Sasori. Fear instills inside Deidara, and he acts without a second thought – he rushes for Zetsu and steps on his gun hand, causing Zetsu to cry out with pain, in a shrill and angered tone. He lets go of the gun and Deidara snatches it up, pointing it towards Zetsu.
Red and blue flashes are finally upon them, there's three cars pulling in, circling the three of them. Zetsu stops flailing, seeing defeat. Sasori gets up too, panting hard and looking pale, as though all of his crazy actions finally caught up with him.
….
The next hour or so is a blur of cops interrogating Zetsu, Sasori and Deidara. Deidara speaks in length with Kakashi, who apologizes profusely for their late arrival.
"It seems like the bomb threat on the high school was a diversion set up by this guy, that way he could get to you Deidara," Kakashi concludes.
Zetsu is already sitting in the backseat of a police car, hands cuffed behind his back. Another cop is already at Sasori's house, cuffing his partner in crime.
"Now, let's get you home Sasori," Kakashi says, turning towards the redhead. "Deidara, you'll need some stitches, I think it's best if you retire to the hospital now, officer Iruka can drive you."
"Will Sasori be okay un?" Deidara asks, a pleading look on his face. He's been holding a rag up to his head, which is still throbbing and bleeding some.
"Well…he did break his probation…but," Kakashi pauses, mulling things over.
"But what un?"
"But, he did help save you. Without him, you would most likely be dead. I think I can work something out in his favor, don't you worry Deidara," Kakashi says. Sasori beams at Deidara and Deidara nearly feints with happiness.
"Now, get going," Kakashi orders, shoving Deidara in the direction towards officer Iruka's vehicle.
"Yeah, one second," Deidara leans in and kisses Sasori quickly on the mouth, trying to tell him how grateful he is with this one simple gesture. His heart yearns to do more, to hug him close and never let this crazy redhead out of his sight – but he breaks the kiss with a sigh, smiles, and makes his way towards Iruka.
Sasori saved Deidara tonight, there's no denying it. Deidara has never felt so loved in his life before.
He makes a promise to himself to someday marry that man.
...
Author's Note: Sorry this took me a while to write up, been busy with life/work and blah haha. Anyways, as I've said before, I'm not the best with writing drama/action, but I hope this chapter was okay! Thanks for sticking through the story till the end, I think the next chapter will be the last! They finally caught this Zetsu person, more info about him will come in the next chapter. Thanks so much everyone for reading and reviewing!