Chapter Twenty-One
The Mission
I spend the night lying down on a sofa in my room at the inn. I say my room, but me and Deidara are sharing a room since I don't need to sleep, so one bed is enough. Once we arrived we payed for the room overnight and Deidara fell asleep without a word. He's a quiet sleeper, he doesn't snore and stays in the same position, on his side, all night long. By late morning, he woke up and we left, only with a few people asking if we were a couple, since we shared a room. We dismiss those observations and walk away into the forest. We haven't spoken much, but I try to start a conversation anyway,
"Deidara, what is the mission we're supposed to be doing? I'd be glad if you could tell me." Deidara hangs back a little to let me catch up, then falls into step beside me,
"We have to assasinate a man named Ayame. He's spreading information about the Akatsuki around. And he used to work as a spy for us, so he knows a fair amount. He's at the leaf village currently so we're going there."
"Ah." I nod, "We can do that. It's not hard to kill a man." Deidara smiles,
"No, not hard at all." I'm not sure if he means it, or if he is bieng sarcastic.
Shortly, we come to the edge of the trees and the Leaf Village is in sight. Deidara warned me that conversation with other people should be kept to a minimum. So I keep my head down and avoid eye contact with anyone here. We walk down streets, we know that Ayame lives across the street from a ramen stand, Ichiraku's ramen. We head there, and when we arrive Deidara goes to the stand and orders a bowl of ramen. I politely refuse offers of food and keep watch, dicreetly watching Ayame's house for movement. After a few minutes, the door opens and a man comes out. He has short black hair cut close to his head and a strong, muscular build. Deidara nods at me and mouths,
'That's him.'
We tail him the entire day, noticing that he is very agressive towards other people and seems to want to fight. He also has a loose tongue and speaks harshly and bluntly. After an afternoon of following him I am sure no one will miss him when we take care of him. We decide together to wait for nightfall when it is quieter and there are less witnesses around. Then we go to his house and kill him before the sun rises. Simple, yeah.
We attack in the night. Silently me and Deidara make our way to his house, and enter through a window left open. From the bottom floor, we can hear movement above us.
Is he waking up?
So we go up the stairs, as fleet footed and silent as a wolfen fiend. And we enter his bedroom, an unremarkable place I'll soon forget the look of. I draw out a kunai, intending to go and cut his throat quick, before he can attack. But as I move beside him, his eyes shoot open.
He was only pretending to be asleep!
He moves as suddenly as a snake's strike, and somehow gets behind me and pins my arms by my side with one massive arm. The other arm comes up to my throat and he pushes a kunai against it.
"Don't move." His voice is low and commanding. Deidara takes a step forward and I feel Ayame's grip tighten.
"I said don't move. Or your girlfriend gets it." Deidara merely smirks at him and raises his eyebrow,
"You knew we were coming Ayame. You can't win, even if you did kill her, I'd kill you. Now let her go so we can keep the casulties to a minimum, yeah." Ayame growls,
"You're bluffing. I can see you don't want her dead. So get out of my way."
"And where would you go? We would only find you again." Ayame points the kunai at Deidara,
"I can take that chance. Now, move! And I'm taking the girl with me, so I advise you, don't try anything smart." Ayame is beginning to sound like a caged animal at this point, Deidara notices this and smiles at him,
"What if I say no?"
"Then your girl dies and I get away. The End." Deidara tilts his head and grins, showing his teeth, then he says with mock sweetness,
"Prove it." Then his voice adopts a childish tone, "Dare ya!"
Ayame wastes no time, he flicks his wrist around and stabs me in the throat. I'd be dead in seconds if I were real, but I am only wood after all. He lets me go, probably expecting me to fall to the ground. So it comes as a surprise to him when I turn round, with the Kunai sticking out of my neck, no wound or blood visible. He pales, fixed to the spot, torn between terror and disbelief. I free the kunai from my neck, and kiss the blade. Then, lightning quick, I stab him right in the stomach, once... twice... three times. Blood sprays out of his body and covers the front of my dress. He falls to his knees and appears to be kneeling before me. I look down at him with malice, then smirk.
"What... are... You?" He says, coughing up blood as he speaks. "You're a... monster. Fit to burn... In... Hell." Then he looks up at me with complete loss and his eyes widen. I don't care he called me a monster, here I am in the middle of the night, covered in blood. I am about to kill him mercilessly and brutally, and that is all I can do for him now. I put a finger to his lips,
"Shh... Dead men shouldn't make so much noise." Then I stab him once more, between the eyes. I watch the light leave his eyes and he collapses to the floor face down, blood leaking through his clothes and forming a crimson pool around him.
I turn away from the corpse and see Deidara, who is staring at me.
"You're covered in blood. yeah." He states, I look up and down myself,
"Yeah, I guess I am." Then he walks over to me, and looks down on me, staring into my eyes. His hand moves up to my neck, touching the wood that was cut when Ayame tried to kill me.
"He hurt you." I automatically move my own hand up to inspect the damage, and end up placing my hand on Deidara's.
"He didn't hurt me. Just damaged me. I can fix it." I smile warmly at him, an alien expression for a girl who killed a man. His corpse isn't even cold yet. I see Deidara is staring at me. Then he says quietly,
"It's a shame..." and he trails off,
"What's a shame?" I ask
"Nothing." Deidara says quickly, "It was nothing."
"No, what did you say? What's a shame?" Deidara sighs,
"That Sasori loves you..." I pause, confused,
"What does that have to do with any-" Deidara cuts me off,
"I love you too." And before I can respond, he kisses me.