Trial of Man Chapter 33: Part IV: Lotus Flower, a naruto fanfic

Deidara stared intently at Tsunade as she announced, "Now, the sentencing hearing may begin." Almost as if the Hokage's words had a hypnotic effect, everyone in the courtroom sat straighter and leaned forward in anticipation, eager for retribution.

"Here we go," Kagami muttered beside her, sitting back.

Here we go, Deidara silently agreed, crossing her arms over her chest, her fingers tapping against her bicep. The sentencing hearing—the very thing she had been dreading and anticipating at the same time.

"The best case scenario... a decade of imprisonment."

She could hear her own heart beat so loudly that she wondered for a moment if anyone could hear the muscle hammering against her chest.

"The prosecution has the floor," Tsunade said. "Both sides will present before the Three Councils individually adjourn to make their final verdicts." There was the sound of paper shuffling as the media hounds hastily opened up new pages to start documenting the sentencing hearing, and then a man wearing dark glasses appeared from the official stands, approaching the front of the courtroom. Tsunade gave him a curt nod. "Prosecutor."

"Thank, you Your Honor. The prosecution calls forth..." Prosecutor Ebisu pushed his glasses up, the spectacles shining under the light. "Nishi Noriko for examination." Deidara turned her head to the left to see a woman wearing a kimono, her face caked with makeup, get up from the witness stand they shared with them, gliding over to the examination stand, where Ebisu proceeded to question her.

"Nishi-san," Ebisu began, "for the sake of this courtroom, please tell me basic information about yourself pertaining to the time where you accompanied diplomat Agawa-san to Sunagakure."

The concubine fidgeted in her seat, her sweaty hands clutching the fabric of her kimono behind the stand. "W—Well, my profession is largely the same as it is now, a high-class concubine. When Agawa-san expressed interest in taking two courtesans with him on his diplomatic mission, my madame offered myself and Obata-san. I had no qualms about this. I only entered the profession to feed my family—I have two little sisters at home, you see. Back then, one of them was about to start school, and the mission offered away for me to pay her education fees. My role in the mission was to merely serve Agawa-san's needs."

"And that was all? You did not attempt to speak with any Suna officials or take part in the negotiating?"

"No. Agawa-san kept me in his room all day."

"So you do not believe that your presence might have jeopardized the negotiations?"

"No, sir."

"Alright, thank you, Nishi-san. Moving on—can you describe to me what you did when you encountered Akasuna no Sasori for the first time?"

The courtesan shivered, reliving the memory again. "I was terrified. Frozen. The amount of... of killing intent he was leaking was enough to paralyze me. But then one of the ANBU guards—I believe it was Chinen-san, the only female in the guard, who shoved me, breaking the paralysis. She," Nishi swallowed, "told me to run. And I did. I ran and hid with Obata-san."

"Did you witness the killing of Agawa-san and his guard?"

"... Yes. It still haunts me to this very day. There was blood—so, so much blood. From what I remember... I believe I saw him cut every single major artery in one of the ANBU's body, and," a shuddering breath, "used him as a human puppet to attack his teammates while he bled out. W-When he finally became... unuseful, Akasuna no Sasori... he threw him away like trash. We hadn't chosen a very good hiding place. We were still close enough to hear what he said..."

"Oh?" Ebisu's glasses gleamed. "Is your memory good, Nishi-san? Could you repeat the words for me and the courtroom please?"

"I—certainly." Nishi took a deep breath. "What a waste. The fragility of the human body disgusts me. When you die by my art—he popped out puppets then—let it be known that your maker will be something that exists until the end of time."

Did he really do that? Deidara wondered. That... sounds just like him, in a way. A tired smirk played on her lips. Why did you have to be such an asshole back then, Danna? She'd accepted by now that his past deeds were less than present, but to hear them told in detail... It was surreal.

"Would you say that he was mocking them?"

"Oh, yes, very much so. It was a cruel sort of mocking, a very cruel one," Nishi affirmed. "I think that knowing that the thing that killed you will never die... it adds a sort of despair. If I may, it is very hard for me to imagine him to be anything more than a heartless, unfeeling beast."

There was a murmur of agreement rippling through the crowds before one hairy eyeball from Tsunade shut them all up again, and Ebisu cleared his throat.

"Indeed. From what you witnessed, were their deaths prolonged?"

"Yes. I... I don't want to go into detail. But it was horrifying. He tortured them." Her voice wavered, tears threatening to spill from her chocolate brown eyes. "With his knives. His poisons. His bare hands, sometimes. He only killed them... when he lost amusement."

"In the coroner's report, each of the bodies were stated to have been desecrated post-mortem," Ebisu's face twitched slightly, "by Akasuna no Sasori carving his insignia into their backs. How did he behave in this performance of criminal activity?"

Nishi hesitated. Then, she said, "He was smiling the whole time. But," she went on swiftly, when Ebisu opened his mouth to press more questions, "it was not a smile I expected of a cruel man who fully immersed himself in his work. It was... tired."

"Tired of being a monster, I'd say," Koharu Utatane muttered under her breath from the Konoha Council gallery.

As soon as Nishi mentioned the smile, Sasori slowly glanced up at her, his gaze unreadable. Then he looked away.

Ebisu tucked Nishi's comment aside. "And what happened when he finished?"

Nishi grimaced. "He set his sights on Obata-san and myself."

"By set your sights, do you mean that he forced himself on—?"

"No—no, not like that. He..." Nishi bit her lip. "He was disgusted by us. And our weakness. And then... he hurt us."

"Could you please describe the incident in further detail?"

"He hit us. Cut us. Not to the extent that he did the ANBU guards." The woman rubbed her arms uncomfortably, and the courtroom immediately knew that she was hiding some old scars underneath her winter kimono. "But the way he cut us, the way he hit us... he took a very... punishing attitude about it."

"Punishing attitude?" Ebisu pounced. "Could you please elaborate on this 'punishing attitude'?"

"The way he hurt us was as if he were admonishing us. Admonishing us for our weakness," her tone grew bitter, "and our human fragility. Admonishing us—punishing us because we could not oppose him, we could not amuse him for long. In the end, he spared us. We weren't worth killing to him. But not without... a final parting gift. One that I share with Obata-san.

"Your Honor," she deferred to Tsunade, "permission to elaborate by visual demonstration?"

"Permission granted."

Silently, almost as if she were a ghost, she left the examination stand and went back around the witness gallery, where eyes followed her wraith-like form. Then she went over to where Ebisu stood, undoing her kimono.

A parting gift? Deidara's mouth grew dry. There was only one thing she could think of what matched Nishi's vague description—

Nishi dropped her kimono partway, her back faced to the audience. There were gasps of shock and horror as they witnessed the scorpion insignia ruthlessly carved into her back, the mark salmon-pink. Wordlessly, she showed the Three Councils a good view of the scar as well, and Tsunade's gaze darkened. Scars crawling up her biceps could also been seen, leaving only her shoulders a glossy white.

"He used a poison," Nishi said quietly when the whispers died down. "To sear it into my flesh. So that it could never be removed." Scarcely a blush on her beautiful face, she adjusted her kimono again, covering back up the mark and her breasts.

"He gave you the same mark that he did to Agawa's defenders to punish you for your weakness?" Ebisu said after Nishi returned to the stand.

"I think that is an entirely fair statement, yes."

Ebisu smiled. "Examination of Nishi Noriko closed, Your Honor."

"Wait."

There was a shocked silence when Sasori finally spoke, his voice gravelly. The former assassin was only looking up at Tsunade. "Permission to make a statement?" His eyes flashed. "This is my trial, isn't it? Surely, I would be allowed this?"

Disbelief permeated the air.

Koharu rolled her eyes. Surely, Tsunade would never—

"Permission granted."

Excuse me?! Koharu whipped her head toward the Hokage's podium. What... What are you doing, Tsunade?! This is highly unorthodox! She grit her teeth, focusing all of her hate on Sasori's disgustingly youthful visage.

Sasori glanced once at where Nishi was now seated in the witness gallery, having to have to tear his gaze away from Deidara, who was watching attentively. He would never draw attention to her, not in a hostile environment like this. Nishi stiffened at this, and Sasori looked away again, back to Tsunade.

"I did not spare Nishi-san and Obata-san because I believed them to be beneath me." Though that was certainly true. "I spared them because I was under no orders to kill them from the Emperor. The man I worked under. Contrary to popular belief, I did not enter the position to sate my 'bloodthirsty monstrous rage.'" His voice became dry at that, and, from his periphery, he could see Deidara smile quickly before it disappeared. "I was given a dilemma, as was every other Royal Assassin before me. And none of you... will ever know the utter humiliation of that. The lives I took were never truly in my hands, or I would have left Suna long ago."

"This dilemma you mentioned..." Tsunade quirked an eyebrow.

Sasori looked at her blandly. "My parents."

More silence.

Then—

"Your statement has been added to record, Akasuna no Sasori." Tsunade glanced at Ebisu. "The prosecution may continue with the witness examination."

Obata Kazue told of a similar tale to Nishi Noriko, their stories and delivery almost uncannily identical up until the marking. She refused to show her scars; a display was unneeded, anyway, as Nishi had already presented the evidence left on their bodies of Sasori's assault.

Of the attack that day, only two witnesses had been left alive.

The man that Ebisu called for examination next had everyone sitting up.

"The prosecution calls forth the Convicted for examination."

The only sign of Sasori's agitation at his mockery of a hearing was the slightest twitch in his brow as he stood, not bothering to move over to the examination stand. He would not need to.

"Akasuna no Sasori," Ebisu said, frostily polite. It was clear that the prosecutor did not share the supposed impartiality as the Three Councils. "Run by me your experiences with your... parents. Your childhood and how they treated you. Your relationship with them."

"My childhood was nothing significant," Sasori answered evenly. "Up until I was five years old, I played, ate, and slept like every other child did. My parents were nothing but kind and loving to me."

"So you were spoiled?"

Sasori gave him a sharp glance. "Not spoiled. Coddled. My childhood ended in a single night when my grandmother took me to be drafted into the Royal Puppet Corps due to circumstances out of our control."

Ebisu's spectacles gleamed. Behind them, he was eyeing Sasori like a cat would a mouse. "Elaborate on these... circumstances."

From how Sasori's eyebrows creased in frustration, it pained him to reveal the true reasons. It made the press all the more alert, and Deidara all the more antsy. In the end, he bit out, "I'm sure you have noticed by now, prosecutor, that I do not look like my actual age. My... appearance meant that I was viable for being levied into a life... as a palace whore."

Snickering.

Even Ebisu was cruelly amused, judging from the smile on his face.

Nishi, on the other hand, merely blinked in surprise.

And if Deidara had been put into any other circumstance, she would have found this laugh-worthy. But her face was stone in this moment, her quiet rage at the public burning strong. The utter wrongness of the reveal of past humiliations that the court was putting him through, the very vicious dissecting they were performing on him—

Her anger continued to simmer, barely noticeable beneath the blank canvas. She exhaled slowly.

"My family decided that it was better for me to be a killer than to live a life of promised abuse," Sasori continued, ignoring the quiet laughs around him, said laughs quickly sobering. And he would forever be grateful to them for it, even if it meant that he wound up where he was now for every path taken after that.

"So you admit that your family has a track record of sending their children to kill?" Ebisu sneered.

Sasori gritted his teeth. You bastard. "That was not at all what I meant—"

"A stupid, thoughtless decision that affected the lives of hundreds during your reign of terror—"

"Prosecutor Ebisu, relevance," Tsunade reminded sharply.

Ebisu's eye twitched beneath his glasses before saying, "I digress. Upon your promotion to Royal Assassin," he said the term viciously mockingly, "would you truthfully say that you'd been desensitized to violence by then?"

"... Yes."

"And you were used to carrying out violent assassinations on behalf of the Emperor?"

"Most of them were clean and efficient. It just happened that day with Agawa-san, that he happened to insult the Emperor's youngest son, Sabaku no Gaara. My orders were to make it as bloody and painful as possible after they had left the borders of the country."

"You are a smart man, Akasuna no Sasori. You know that these things are inherently wrong, yet you chose to carry them out anyway. You had absolutely no objections to the assassination of Agawa Arashi and his ten-man ANBU guard? Do you even remember what you did that day?"

"Objections, you will find," Sasori said dryly, "are not commonly found when orders are given directly from the highest leader in your country. So, no, there were no objections. And no, I do not remember completely, but I can venture a guess—"

"You do not remember the thirteen lives you violently took that day? The two innocent women that you traumatized? The bodies you desecrated and mutilated? Are their lives so utterly meaningless to you?" Ebisu pressed.

Sasori's mouth pulled into a frustrated scowl. "They had no meaning back then—"

"They clearly have no meaning to you now as you claim that you cannot remember them!"

He's twisting his words! Deidara thought furiously, clutching the wooden railing in front of her. She flinched when Kagami grasped her arm.

"You will have a chance to erase the painting they've done of him soon," Kagami promised quietly, squeezing her forearm. "Do not add to the stains on his canvas, for his sake and yours."

Ebisu continued to aggressively assault Sasori with his poisonous words. "Either way, I'm sure you remember enough about that day. You claim that you were avenging the Emperor's son in killing them so vigorously, but the bodies were never retrieved by Suna. No," Ebisu bared his teeth, "you left them for Konoha to discover to carnage. Had you slaughtered them more kindly, the Emperor would have never known. So why did you do what you did, Akasuna no Sasori?"

There was an uncomfortable silence that followed. Even Tsunade had both of her eyebrows raised at the accusation.

"... Because I was scared."

"Could you please repeat that?"

"I said I was scared," Sasori hissed as Ebisu reveled in his embarrassment. "Scared for myself—scared for my parents. The Emperor is powerful, surely you know that, Prosecutor. He had the power to end my life at any time, as well as the lives of my family. My parents, my grandmother."

Ebisu seemed baffled, as if this weren't the answer he was entirely expecting. But he recovered quickly, stating ruthlessly, "So you did it because you were a coward."

"I did it to protect my family," Sasori countered icily. "Do not waste your breath on this." Inwardly, he knew that there was truth in Ebisu's words. He was a coward. A coward who ran from his past, who did nothing to escape his bloodstained misery of a life because he'd been too scared of what he was going to lose. A coward who, eventually, ironically, found himself at the mercy of the people of Konoha of all places. A country that held a grudge against Suna ever since their war over trade.

"You dare speak so insolently? To divert away from the questions? Do you somehow consider yourself above the sanctity of this court? All because you were the Emperor's dog?"

"Relevance, Prosecutor," Tsunade snapped. "We are here to discuss the Convicted's crimes."

The Emperor's dog. Sasori almost laughed at that. Almost laughed and then cut Ebisu's smug face in half.

"So, to sum things up, you tortured and murdered thirteen lives that day, and brutally assaulted two more. All because of your cowardice."

More silence.

"... Pathetic as it sounds..." Sasori sighed softly. "Yes."

Ebisu shook his head mockingly. "The price of your cowardice was thirteen of Konoha's finest... and, I'm sure, hundreds more of Suna's, but that is their business, and not ours." He glanced up at Tsunade. "Examination of the Convicted closed."

After Ebisu had been seated, Tsunade looked up at the clock. "I suggest that we all take an hour for lunch. Court will resume at one in the afternoon, sharp."

Once they were adjourned, everyone got to their feet and began slowly filing out, the double doors opening for them.

"That was absolute shit," was the first thing Deidara said when fresh air hit her face, she and Kagami converging at the side of the courthouse. She covered her face with her hand, her the bottom layer of her hair which wasn't tied up spilling over her shoulders.

"It was," Kagami agreed easily. "But once we present, I guarantee you that the tide will change, if only a little."

Deidara shot the people walking out of the courthouse a dirty look, all of them chattering excitedly about what they had witnessed. "It seems pretty set as it is right now, yeah." Her countenance darkened when Nishi broke away from the crowd, scampering off somewhere. "That goddamn whore—"

"Was absolutely correct about everything," Itachi finished, appearing from behind her. At her outraged look, he sighed, drawing her in close for a moment. She did not object at the touch. Never would after what they'd faced together in Kabuto's prison. "We are not here to spread lies about his past, but rather the truth about his present." There was a gleam in his eyes that she couldn't quite place. "Your lack of faith in the justice system is not misplaced. Almost everyone in that court is after retribution, not justice. But..." Kakuzu walked out, glancing once at the two Uchiha and Deidara before stalking off. "If you can't have faith in justice, then have faith in me, Deidara."

Then he was gone, disappearing into the crowd.

Kagami hummed in contemplation.

Have faith in me? Deidara frowned pensively. What's that supposed to mean? What have you done, Itachi?

As Tsunade had said, the sentencing hearing resumed at one o'clock sharp. There were no more witnesses for the Prosecutor to interrogate, so as the people filed back inside, it was time for Sasori's attorney to—

"Stop trembling," Sasori said irritably, glaring pointedly at his jelly-legs lawyer. "All I ask is for you to do your job properly." And stop humiliating yourself.

The lawyer sniffed, pushing his glasses up. "W—Well, I might as well t-take this t-time to inform you that this is only the third case that I've ever taken."

Sasori exhaled sharply. "Wonderful."

He was going to die.

As his lawyer stuttered out excuses, Sasori glanced up at the witness gallery, where Deidara was seated, grim-faced. When she saw him staring, her features softened, and she offered him a tiny smile. He could see her lean forward abruptly before sitting back, as if she remembered that she could not run to him and hold him.

It warmed his heart, even on this cold winter's day.

"... So I'm sorry if a criminal like you ends up with his head on a platter," the attorney finished just as Sasori started paying attention to him again.

"You could be a little more impartial," the red-haired man remarked offhandedly.

The bespectacled lawyer jerked back. "I'm sorry?"

But Sasori didn't get to lash him again with his tongue, as Tsunade was now presiding once more.

"Any opening remarks?" she asked the defense.

"N-No, not really..."

"Very well then. Let us begin."

Now, it was time for the defense attorney to call upon his witnesses.

"Finally!" Deidara muttered.

Shakily, Sasori's attorney stuttered out, "T-The defense calls forth, ah, Haruno Sakura for examination."

Murmurs of shock ripped through the entire assembly.

"H-Haruno Sakura? The Hokage's apprentice?!"

"Now that I look closely, I can see her sitting with the witnesses!"

"Why would she be defending him?"

"Is this even allowed?"

"How strange..."

"There are actually a lot of witnesses there... And only two of them were called forth by the Prosecutor. Does that mean the rest of them are there for that murderer?"

Koharu Utatane scowled.

"Order!" barked Tsunade, slamming a gavel on her podium that she seemingly procured out of nowhere. If one looked closely, they would see that she had it hidden up the sleeve of her haori most of the time. "Order in the court!"

The whispers died down, leaving the people squirming.

Sakura approached the examination stand with an air of cool confidence, waiting for the attorney to ask her questions. She looked attentively at only the wriggling man in front of her. Not at her friends in the witness stand, Kushina in the public gallery, or even her mother in the Civilian Council stand.

Meanwhile, Kushina was smiling widely as the idiots around her finally realized a very important fact: the amount of people that Sasori had willing to defend him would not be there unless there had been a very serious change of character since the murder of Agawa.

"Haruno-san," the attorney began slowly, uncertainly, "For how long have you known Akasuna no Sasori?"

"Eight months," Sakura answered promptly.

"And during these eight months, has he ever acted aggressively toward you? Verbally or physically?"

"No." She quirked her eyebrow. "Unless you count friendly banter. But, surely, that would be asinine. The Court of Konoha is above that, I'm sure."

The man blushed. "Y-Yes, of course... What exactly, may I ask, is your relationship with him?"

"I first met him when a mutual friend of ours had me heal him after a spar," Sakura's eyes glazed over with grief for a second as she thought of Obito, before she continued, "Back then, he was strictly my patient. But then the Ame-Tsuki war broke out, as you probably know, and Akatsuki city became occupied by enemy forces."

A sympathetic murmur from the assembly.

"It was then that our relationship changed," Sakura went on confidently. "We were forced into situations that needed us to rely on each other. We became comrades and friends, to the point where I can safely say that I trust him with my life."

The interview dragged on. Sakura omitted no details, telling even the gritty tales of the truth. The Underground, their escape from Akatsuki, the monsters and the constant fight for survival outside the walls, the medicine she had made to prevent him from turning, the night he had gone on a rampage and nearly killed Kakashi and Neji, and, finally, the explosion plot and his pivotal part in it.

"Thank you, Haruno-san," the attorney said eventually. "Examination of Haruno Sakura closed." Sakura gave him a curt nod before returning to her place. "The defense calls forth Hoshigaki Kisame for examination..."

One by one, Sasori's lawyer went through the witnesses. Until—

"The defense calls forth Uchiha Daichi for examination."

Looking stricken, but knowing that this had been coming for a while now, Daichi got out of his seat and woodenly made his way up to the stand. He was dwarfed by the little podium, and to be given a stool to stand on.

Around the courtroom, the hateful faces of the people were growing confused and questioning. What they had heard... It sounded nothing like the Sasori they'd heard of. So many witnesses—and, now, a child was getting up to speak on his behalf.

Koharu could barely leash in her killing intent. A child?! This cannot be! Akasuna no Sasori is a murderer of children, just like his grandmother before him!

"Uchiha-san, describe your first encounter with the Convicted."

Daichi shuffled awkwardly. "I didn't really know him until my father, U-Uchiha Obito, died." He swallowed a lump in his throat, putting on a brave face. "A bad man named Orochimaru was coming to kill us all at the factory. My father was going to train us, but he was killed by a soldier before he could. Sasori-sama comforted me, even when I wanted to go out and get revenge." His voice was shaking now. "Then Deidara-nee and Sasori-sama... They trained us. Saved us. Without them—without Sasori-sama—we wouldn't be alive. I would be dead. My mother would be dead. My imouto would be dead, too. He saved us, and dozens more."

The attorney seemed taken aback. His features softened, just a bit. "Thank you, Uchiha-san." Perhaps... I was wrong. He glanced over his shoulder at where Sasori was sitting, looking a tad surprised at Daichi's words. He didn't really need anymore than that. Others had already testified about Sasori's actions in the wilderness, when they were up against demons, and an eight-year-old boy was definitely not the most reliable witness for that. His testimony was not needed any further.

The Konoha Council could not hide their shock when Sasori's lawyer started getting more confident, asking questions to the following witnesses that gave them true, unfathomable insight into Sasori's character.

"The defense calls forth Namikaze Naruto for examination."

Whispers—whispers everywhere—

"The Fourth Hokage's lost son?!"

Fingers typing, pencils scratching.

"I just wanna say that I know that Sasori's a good man, 'ttbayo! He's saved my life more than once!"

And—

"My father was Hatake Sakumo, the samurai. He and Sasori..."

More writing.

Two hours later, the attorney declared:

"The defense calls forth Uchiha Itachi for examination."

Itachi, stoic, made his way up to the front.

Deidara observed him from her periphery, still wondering what kind of strings he had pulled.

"Uchiha-san..." the lawyer began.

Sometime later, Itachi left the stand.

There was only one more witness now.

The attorney cleared his throat, and Sasori sat up, eyes widening slightly. "The defense calls forth Deidara for examination."

Deidara. His breath nearly caught in his throat as he watched her stand before the courtroom, her shaky confidence barely visible underneath her steel exterior. She was up there. She was up there to defend him. She was there to face the conditioned hatred for him.

And suddenly it didn't matter if he was a coward.

He didn't need to run away anymore.

Even if he died today, Sasori told himself, he would die knowing that he already had everything he needed.

And that...

Koharu narrowed her eyes when the ghost of a smile appeared on his lips.

Deidara began to speak.

Was enough.

"We met when he saved Yamanaka Ino and Yamanaka Hitomi from my exploding spider. It's part of my kekkei genkai. I was messing around, showing off to some kids when one of them accidentally batted the spider toward the girls. I was annoyed that he defended them, because my clay doesn't explode until I want it to, but the thought remains the same. He saved them."