As White as Blood
Chapter Fifty
Orange
Sasori and Deidara were traipsing down the path, the puppet inside of Hiruko with the blonde talking non-stop and the red head ignoring the eighteen year old. Deidara continued the one-sided conversation none the less. Sasori wondered whether the blonde even knew that the red head wasn't listening to his stupid ramblings.
Deidara was sadly smart enough to most likely know this, and yet he was still going on like there was no tomorrow…Or at least he was until some random idiot leapt out of the bushes in front of them.
Sasori and Deidara both cautiously stopped and they watched with little interest when the stranger tripped and slammed face first into the pathway. "…Ouch…" Sasori and Deidara both rolled their eyes simultaneously and walked around the idiot, continuing forward as if it had never happened, though the blonde stopped talking. "HEY!" They both didn't bother turning back – it would just encourage the idiot - but it seemed quite futile when the male appeared right in front of them, arms waving in a blur. "YOU'RE AKATSUKI MEMBERS! THAT'S SO COOL! I HAVEN'T MET YOU GUYS YET!"
Sasori and Deidara both stared at the nuisance, feeling the instinctive urge to kill the obnoxious fool. This recommended advice immediately disappeared when the figure of Zetsu appeared at the stranger's side, giving an irritated sigh. "Tobi, don't bother other Akatsuki members, or else they might try to kill you." His other side gave a laugh, "Don't worry; Tobi is a good boy." Both Sasori and Deidara turned hostile eyes towards the idiot, a trained reaction that had been drilled into their minds from a young age. "…Not 'good' good, but…Well, our kind of good."
At the explanation, their looks softened as the slight threat was instantly disarmed.
Sasori finally decided to take the effort to actually take in the features of the boy…Well…Lack of features was more like it. His face was covered by a bright orange mask which was swirled inwards at the one hole that was for his right eye. This appeared to be his only capable view point of the world beyond the mask as it also covered his left eye, along with the rest of his countenance.
He had short black hair and wore no Akatsuki cloak; instead he wore a shirt which was similar in appearance to a jumper with several odd plates nailed onto the biceps of the material, and around his neck was an unusual green scarf. Over all Sasori decided that he looked absolutely stupid. "And you made fun of my 'mouse' all those years ago; just look at yours."
Zetsu gave a grin as he caught onto the irony of Sasori's words, most likely remembering when the puppet had had his own 'mouse' by the name of Kabuto about four years ago. Both Deidara and Tobi were silent in confusion, obviously not understanding the inside joke. It was before their time, after all. "Yeah, but I won't apologize. Tobi, introduce yourself."
"Okay, Mr Zetsu!" The boy cleared his throat and stopped bouncing from foot to foot. "My name is Tobi, duh! Who are you lot?"
"I'm Sasori of the Red Sand," the puppet decided to introduce them before the blonde could speak, "and this is Deidara." There was something about this Tobi kid that Sasori just did not trust, but he couldn't figure out any suitable reason for his insecurities.
He guessed that it had something to do with the fact that he wore a mask; it was something that Sasori had never really been desensitised to – he preferred the ability to gaze upon someone's face – despite the hypocrisy of himself being inside of Hiruko. The red head couldn't work out Tobi's age, but judging by his immaturity and height Sasori guessed that he was somewhere between the age of eighteen and thirty, but he still couldn't be positive.
"OH! TOBI KNOWS YOU TWO; MR ZETSU HAS TOLD ME ALL ABOUT YOU!" He waved his hands in an energetic fashion and actually began to do an odd, stupid dance on the spot, spinning around several times. Sasori gave Zetsu an 'are-you-serious' look using Hiruko's harsh countenance, but the plant either didn't notice or ignored it on purpose. "YOU'RE ARTISTS! Sasori of the Red Sand uses people puppets, and Deidara uses exploding clay! Eternal and Fleeting!" He clapped his hands, and then stilled, moving oddly close to the blonde.
Deidara took a cautious step back, not liking the idiot being in his personal space, but it didn't deter Tobi. The masked male moved so close to the blonde that even Sasori couldn't help but be ireful at how near Tobi was to the red head's property.
Deidara's body belonged to him! How dare the idiot get so close!
Tobi stopped moving closer, seeming to be satisfied with his current proximity, giving a slight half-seductive laugh. "But Mr Zetsu never ever mentioned just how beautiful Deidara Sempai really is~ You're a very pretty girl~"
The entire forest appeared to go silent at the comment in anticipation for the blonde's ireful wrath.
Sasori's anger at the idiot for getting so close to his property instantly disappeared and was replaced with almost-sympathy - but not completely. He looked at Deidara and waited for him to irrefutably freak out. A dark shadow consumed the upper-half of his face and the red head was extremely amused when he saw Tobi knowingly tense as Deidara spoke in his definitely non-female voice.
"I'll…FUCKING KILL YOU!" In a few seconds the blonde had pulled a piece of clay from one of his pouches, and he made a quick sculpture out of it. Tobi instantly turned and began to run for his life, a cloud of dust following comically behind him. Deidara – nonetheless - threw the new small clay bird at Tobi, the sculpture coming to life and rapidly zooming after the idiot. The blonde made a half-ram seal and gave a sadistic grin, "KATSU!"
There was an explosion and a loud cry as Tobi went shooting through the air to some unknown location. Deidara gave a conceited humph and turned his nose up, crossing his arms stubbornly.
"…" Zetsu turned and looked down the pathway that Tobi had been running down, giving a slight sigh. "Well, so much for catching up. We have to go hunt him down to make sure he doesn't end up getting lost." He turned back to Sasori and Deidara, giving a shrug and another sigh. "Goodbye, I have no mission requests for you anyway. See ya later." The plant-man abruptly sunk into the ground, leaving Sasori and Deidara to themselves.
"You have serious anger issues, Brat…" Sasori decided to poke at Deidara's ego further, "In fact, you PMS more than a girl."
The blonde blinked and looked at the puppet, tilting his head slightly before he gave a smirk. "I'm a girl only when sex is involved; any other time and I don't think you want to even try confusing my gender, un~" There was a murderous intent behind his smirk, and Sasori wasn't surprised by his following warning. "Try to make the connection again, and you won't end up lasting for an eternity~"
The red head knew that the blonde had full intentions of fulfilling the threat, and even though Sasori also knew that Deidara couldn't kill him, it really wasn't worth it. "You definitely know how to make a grand first impression, Brat."
The blonde smirked at Sasori and unfolded his arms, "Man, do you reckon that that idiot could become an Akatsuki member?"
"Sure, if Leader was desperate enough he would make anyone with even mediocre skills join. Just don't go committing suicide, Brat, or else Leader will probably stick the idiot with me. I really don't want to have to put up with that type of stupidity in this organisation."
"Awww," Deidara gave him a look which was revealing sarcastic honour, "you would rather have little ol' me as your partner? I'm touched, un." He gave a snort and straightened up, flipping the bird randomly in the direction that the idiot had flown off in. "Bitch."
"Language Brat; for all you know that idiot might end up as your partner." Deidara shot Sasori a torpid look for a few seconds before he burst out laughing, falling backwards onto his butt as he clenched at his ribs to keep them from splitting.
"OH PLEASE, DANNA!" He continued to laugh and Sasori simply rolled his eyes, "For that to happen, you would have to actually die first, and like fuck I'm going to live longer than you!" Deidara gave a sigh, one last chuckle, and then regained his composure once more, getting to his feet. "As if, un."
"…For once you're right Brat; forget I said it." Sasori began to lurch Hiruko forward again, but stopped after a few metres when he realised that Deidara wasn't following behind. "Hurry up."
The blonde obeyed the order, catching up to the red head and walking at his side, but he was still dazed off in thought. Sasori had known the blonde for four years, so he was perfectly familiar with Deidara's current body actions. He wanted to ask the puppet something and depending on how hesitant the blonde was, it must have been something unusually serious. Eventually he gained the guts to ask his question. "Do you ever think about leaving the Akatsuki, Danna?"
Ah; so that was why Deidara had been so hesitant.
Despite their closeness, the blonde was fully aware of the fact that Sasori could tell Pein whether Deidara was turning traitorous. Things were different than to when the blonde had first joined; he was expected to be perfectly loyal by this point in time, and if it was proven that this wasn't so, Deidara would be considered a failure. "You aren't lapsing back into your 'Escape Artist' phase again, are you? I was barely able to bear it the first time."
"This isn't about me, un. I was asking you." Deidara's voice was low, but not hushed. He wasn't at all worried by the idea of anyone overhearing the conversation, despite the fact that both Zetsu and Tobi were still most likely in a close proximity. "Have you ever thought about leaving the Akatsuki?"
Sasori was silent as he thought about the blonde's question. Surprisingly, within his fourteen years of being an Akatsuki member, not once had he ever thought about leaving…
In fact, how the hell was being in the organisation any different than being in Sunagakure?
Restrictions, missions, idiots, ranks, training, strength, power, leaders, cohorts, being lost, ridiculed, being forlorn, feeling alone, having no privacy, losing friends…An annoying blonde? The only difference was that by being in the Akatsuki there was a higher chance of travelling around the world. He held no loyalty towards a nation; he was a wanderer.
Well, he got to travel more, plus he was searching for that something…Those were the two main differences.
But was it really a worthwhile life to live?
Sasori was a wanted criminal in most - if not all - of the various countries. S Ranked, Sasori of the Red Sand. His entire history and his old identity had been swallowed by the rank and the title; he was now something that many others considered as being 'Evil'.
They had to call him an 'it' in order to disassociate him from once being a human, from once being what one considered 'Good'. It was always easier to kill an 'it' than to kill a 'him' or a 'her'.
He had wanted to leave Sunagakure, so why didn't he want to leave the Akatsuki? "Danna, you there?"
"Walk ten metres behind me." The blonde blinked, and then mumbled darkly as he obeyed the red head's order, stopping and waiting for Sasori to gain ten metres of distance between them before Deidara once again started to walk, keeping the space empty. Even the blonde was smart enough to not risk shouting at the red head over the expanse.
The conversation was over…For now.
-x-
Sasori was busy with his hobby, that being remodelling his puppet collection, while Deidara was occupied with moulding sculptures. But the blonde was not going to let the red head escape his earlier question. "So have you ever thought about leaving the Akatsuki, un? I bet you have, and that is why you aren't answering me."
The red head instinctively shot Hiruko's puppet tail at the blonde, not even having to look around to know that Deidara had managed to dodge the attack with less thought needed than it took for Sasori to fling the tail. "I left Sunagakure because I had nothing left to gain from being there. The Third Kazekage refused to let me ascend to ANBU, and I had no intention of becoming the next leader of the village. Life there became too mundane for even my taste."
"…What's the difference with the Akatsuki, un? I mean, there is no where to go but down. You are already my master, and I don't think even you have what it takes to be the Leader of this organisation." Sasori simply gave a shrug and Deidara hummed in thought. "And you've been in the Akatsuki for…Fourteen years?" The red head didn't even need to nod; it was sad to say but the blonde knew him better than anyone else did, and despite only knowing each other for four years, Deidara knew Sasori better than anyone else ever had. "And you were in Sunagakure for fifteen years, un?"
"Why the hell are you asking me so many questions?" Sasori shot the blonde an annoyed look for a few seconds before returning to his puppet collection.
"You were in Sunagakure for fifteen years…And then you left…You joined the Akatsuki after five years and then for the next five years Orochimaru was your partner…And then he left…And then five years after that, you were paired with me, un…"
"I had a partner in between you and Orochimaru for a year, don't forget." Sasori shook his head slightly and continued to work, "What is your point?"
"Well, you were in Sunagakure for fifteen years and Orochimaru's partner for five years…And next year will be both your fifteenth year in the Akatsuki and our fifth year together as partners, un…I'm not really superstitious, but isn't that a bit weird?"
Sasori was smart enough to realise what the blonde was alluding to.
Deidara was saying that next year, when the red head was thirty-five and the kid was nineteen, Sasori was going to leave the Akatsuki, one way or another. The puppet was completely motionless with thought as he calculated and realised that what the blonde said was actually intelligent.
Sasori didn't believe in superstitions, but it was still something quite odd to him. When in Sunagakure, he hadn't thoroughly planned to leave the village prior to his decision, and it had been quite spontaneous. The Akatsuki was exactly like Sunagakure, so would it turn out the same…?
"The words 'Malevolent' and 'Benevolent' are extremely similar…Are they not?" The red head was currently staring off into the distance at something beyond everything, his hands stilling and stopping in their usually automatic work.
He could see it in that moment; that thing that he was searching for…But in another moment it was missing.
"…And yet they both have opposite meanings…Vicious and kind…" The red head looked downwards silently for a few seconds, before he placed his tools down on the ground and got to his feet. Sasori turned and shot the blonde a look which caused Deidara to jump slightly.
He was fully aware as to what the expression meant before the red head even had to make the familiar hand signs which commenced his Human Jutsu.
"Really, un?" The red head answered him by unbuttoning his own Akatsuki cloak and letting it slip from his shoulders to pool at his feet. It was quite rare for Sasori to be the one who wanted to have sex, but he found that ravishing the blonde's body was one of the only two things which were capable of taking his mind off something, and since the only other one was converting someone into a puppet, that just left sleeping with the blonde to help relieve his stress. Deidara quickly shoved his clay and pouches off of the bed and began to hastily pull his own clothes off. By the time Sasori had taken his shoes off and had moved over to the bed, the blonde had managed to get down to just wearing his black briefs. "Hey, Danna-"
"Shut up." Sasori was no longer in a talking mood, and he just wanted to ravish Deidara's body in order to get rid of his mild unsureness. He shoved the blonde down on the single bed and immediately moved his lips to his neck, beginning to mechanically kiss and nip the skin that he found there.
There were faint markings still on his neck from when they had last had sex, but they could not be seen at a distance. Sasori began to thoughtlessly kiss his way down the blonde's chest, inching impatiently towards his goal, but he was irritatingly stopped by Deidara just before he reached the hem of his briefs. The red head shot the blonde an extremely annoyed expression, half glaring at him with a tremendous amount of bitterness.
"Sorry, but…" Deidara frowned slightly, as if deciding whether or not he wanted to say his following words…After what felt like hours to the red head - but in reality was only several seconds - the blonde decided to ask anyway. "Can we try something different, un…?"
Sasori's eyes narrowed and he continued to give Deidara the dark look which seemed to pulse with death and doom.
The blonde had absolutely no say in sex; Sasori was only interested in his body, not his suggestions. Deidara expanded on his question before the red head had a chance to deny his opinion. "We always do it rough, and it's not like I don't love sex that way, but I've always wondered what it would be like if you were gentle for once."
Deidara knew full well that Sasori did not like listening to his stupid chatter about how the red head should be fucking him. Sasori was always the dominant one; always…Nonetheless, the red head took a few moments to consider the request. He had never gone gentle on the blonde before, and he wasn't really sure if he had enough self-control to refrain from fucking him senseless…
But if Sasori did indeed go gentle on Deidara's body, then it would probably end up lasting longer than it usually would, meaning the red head would be distracted from his thoughts for a longer period of time than if he did go at his usual pace on the blonde…"Fine."
(A/N- Lack of Reviews makes me depressed)
