Deidara looked upon the barren field, utterly numb to the nip of the cold winds that carried through this hollowed land. Alone, as always.
"Are you happy? Are you satisfied with yourself, you filthy beast?"
These were the questions racing through Deidara's mind as he looked onward at the wreckage. There was nothing here; there was no one here. Was this the moment he should have given up? Or did he seal his fortune forsaken from an act much, much earlier in his life? A time when no living creature should even be thinking about the finite nature of this cursed existence.
The color of the trees soon browned which prompted the leaves to fall off, leaving the branches barren at the beginning of winter. Snow had begun to dust the valley where Deidara was training, and as such his Kekkei Genkai was somewhat weakened by the dampness of the earth beneath his feet. He could only improve so much in these next several months, and there was no telling when another one of those men Han had described would show up again. That simply would not do at all.
Deidara snapped his fingers again; the small ignition that burst out was barely enough to burn a twig. His chakra control was subpar at best, and the very little improvements made in the past month had all been in his hand signs. He still needed to study most of them, but he could barely make out the kanji in the books provided to him. Who could have predicted that he would need to learn to read one day? Certainly not he, and most certainly not his family; they had lived their entire lives getting by on the most basic of texts.
With another swift motion, Deidara kicked his right leg in the air. It proved to be useless though, as his feet couldn't even manage to produce his own ability. What's worse: he flailed about like a fish out of water when he attempted what could be considered "Taijutsu"; though that still was a bit of a generous term for the pathetic feat. Deidara knew he had to get better than this, and soon. He hoped that Roshi was almost at the valley where he and Han were staying; the latter was not a very competent teacher as it turned out, and time was of the essence in this situation.
The supposed "teacher" in question was in the home he made for himself while Deidara trained a few dozen meters away from anything that could be a potential liability. Han was probably cooking one of the vile lunches he taught himself to make; it was a wonder to Deidara that no one stopped him after all these years to tell him just how disgusting they were. Even though Deidara's prowess was a joke for the time being, Han took slight pleasure in his near fail-safe ability to light the stove. There was almost no chance of Deidara destroying the house, which was a bit of an insult to a boy who's Kekkei Genkai was designed to bring absolute destruction on a large scale.
"Monkey..." Deidara said under his breath, placing his left-hand flat on top of the right in a slight clasp. The hard part was the "ram" sign; Deidara couldn't get through a single chain of his release signs without completely butchering the second. Between his fingers getting tangled, and his sluggish pace with restarting the command an enemy could kill him quite easily as he was now.
Deidara expectedly fumbled around the "ram" once more as his fingers fidgeted to find their space in time. Yet another futile attempt to learn what was considered on a small child's learning level, much to Deidara's dismay. He wouldn't admit this to Han, but he felt like an utter failure. The only thing standing between him and throwing in the towel once and for all was a vast stretch of uncharted land, which he would surely not survive on his own in if he chose to venture further into it.
The scent of smoke drifted through the cold air until it reached the young man in the middle of the valley; it meant that Han was almost done with "lunch", and Deidara got a small break from the endless chain of failures he endured every day. Deidara's arms fell to his sides almost instinctively once he caught a whiff of the aroma in the wind; he figured it wasn't too much trouble to simply stop when he knew he'd be called inside anyway. Quietly, Deidara mulled over what atrocity he would have to eat a few spoonfuls of today; he couldn't even finish a whole bowl of the disgusting slop Han would serve him.
Deidara's hunch to stop was correct; as soon as he turned around he saw that the familiar man in red clothes was waving from the doorway, a ladle in hand. The way Han treated Deidara occasionally reminded him of how his late parents, and at times even his own brother would behave around him. A warm, inviting air always surrounded both of them, as if Deidara's existence alone was enough to make them happy; it was such an odd connection to make. He rolled his eyes from a distance that Han could not see. What business did this man have to try and replace his fallen parents? It was an awkward enough transition to go from looking at him as a forced betrothal to a mentor; Deidara didn't want to start looking at him as a replacement parent after all of the discomfort sharing a bed in that small house had brought him, and undoubtedly Han as well.
Deidara walked back to the house at a brisk pace not only to prevent aggravating his lungs with the cold air if he ran instead, but to give himself some time to purge his mind of any resentful thoughts he had. There was no reason to be anything but grateful to Han; because of him he was alive, undefiled, and allowed to start a career as a Shinobi. Most fifteen-year-old's in his position would not have fared so well; he only needed to think of just one of the nameless corpses he saw in the forests throughout his life to remind himself just how badly he needed to hold his tongue about any of these flippant complaints he might have had.
With the unpleasant thoughts totally disposed from his mind, Deidara picked up his pace until he was back at the house. He hastily opened the door and gave a brief bow to Han as he sat down on a cushion between the table and the hearth. A small bowl of some watery, half-cooked stew was placed before him as well as where Han usually sat. Deidara fought to not retch in front of his gracious master, but the smell wafting from the bowl was almost too putrid to not notice.
"Beets, turnips, carrots, and potatoes in this stew. The winter isn't a kind mistress up in these hills. You might want to consider going hunting with me, Deidara. We can gather a few more greens to throw in the pot while we're out, too," Han said. He removed his mask as he sat down, and began eating his ill-cooked meal.
Deidara took one look at the bowl of vegetables floating around in the liquid, and gave a nod in agreement. He needed to find a way to convince Han to prepare better meals, and adding a bit of flavor might be a good start. As it turned out, "the beets are the seasoning" was not a very sound argument when questioned why there were no other ingredients but water and old vegetables.
Deidara moved the stiff chunks of beets and carrots around in the bowl until Han cleared his throat rather loudly. His gaze shot up to Han, who had already finished his own meal and was fixated on Deidara. He looked somewhat irritated. Deidara then realized that he didn't vocally respond, which must have been taken as an insult.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I think that sounds wonderful. When should we make plans to go, hm?" Deidara asked, his head lowered slightly from the sudden embarrassment.
Han paused for a brief moment before he spoke, "It's fine. We should probably set out in the early dawn tomorrow. Don't want to get frostbitten."
"I agree. Is there anything I can do to help us prepare, hm?" Deidara asked as he weakly attempted to swallow a small mouthful of broth.
"You know how to take up a coat, Deidara?" Han asked.
"Like mending? My mother used to do that, I think..." Deidara said, but only muttered the last part.
"We're going to need the furs to keep warm out there, especially you. You won't need to be doing too much of the heavy lifting, though. Roshi shouldn't be too far from here by now. He can help us out when he gets here," Han said.
Deidara eyed the chest off in the corner of the home. It contained what ever valuables the family that lived here owned before Han and Deidara arrived; though both Han and himself had searched a good amount for any signs of life nearby, it appeared that they had been killed in an unfortunate incident as well. They were probably buried in a shallow grave somewhere unknown, where no one would ever find them. Just as his own family had been, yet their home had been spared that damn red head's blaze.
"Is there anything else you can think of, hm?" Deidara asked after a long moment of silence.
"We'll need to let Roshi know about our trip, so I'll prepare a message for him. I'll have to send it to him somehow," Han said, holding his chin in his hand as he pondered a way to go about such a task.
"How do we make sure only he gets it too, hm? We can't be too careful, right? Those guys could show up at any time, just like you said," Deidara said.
Han scoffed; he sounded almost as if he were laughing when he heard Deidara's words. "I'd like to see them try and get through one mile of these mountains in winter. With those flimsy coats, and that entitled attitude they had, I wouldn't put money on them getting anywhere close to us."
"So what then? Do we just leave a note on the door, hm?" Deidara asked.
"We don't have to be that conspicuous. You should know us by now, Deidara. Roshi and I are a very unique pair of siblings, but we're almost identical in our struggles," Han said.
"Do you two have some sort of secret way to communicate?" Deidara asked, his eyes bright with curiosity.
"It's more of a tracking type of deal. We both can tell where the other is going by the way we mark our path, and only in a way we would understand. When we were younger, the two of us prepared this old system once we... uh... found out what was going to happen to us," Han said with a hint of monotony in the last few words.
"Does this have anything to do with that horse you have that nobody likes, hm?" Deidara asked.
Han choked on his mead as he heard his question. "Who told you about 'That Horse'?"
Deidara jumped, a bit taken back by Han's reaction. "I thought that was supposed to be common knowledge! Isn't that why you live so isolated from everyone else?"
"Not at all. I apologize for the quickness of my reaction, but I was unaware you had been told about my beast," Han said.
"I wasn't told very much if that makes any difference. It's probably best that I stop asking questions about it, isn't it, hm?" Deidara asked quietly. It was hard to mask the fact that he was very much intimidated by Han, whose sheer presence alone could invoke fear in most men by means of a simple glance. It had taken Deidara at least a couple of weeks to overcome his own initial trepidation of this mountain of a man.
"I agree, that would be best. I'll be marking a clear trail for Roshi, and you'll need to make sure the supplies are all accounted for," Han said.
"Like rations and water, hm?" Deidara asked.
"Right. I'll probably get to sharpening a couple of knives and some arrows while the sun is still high. We never can be too over-prepared for a hunt," Han said, his eyes lifted upwards in a way that suggested he was grinning under the hand that covered his face.
"This seems to be really exciting for you, danna~," Deidara said, his gaze quickly shifted over to the hearth. The flames needed to be rekindled soon for the evening, but the embers that remained danced around the charcoal in a pattern that he never would have noticed a few days before when he had first been subjected to such a peculiar feeling. It was also the perfect excuse to spare him an awkward exchange of words, and leave to mind a task that needed his attention.
Deidara got up from the cushion, walked past Han, and stopped at the doorway. "The hearth looks like it needs more wood. Do we need to replenish the supply we collected soon, hm?"
"After the hunt, for sure. No point in doing any extra work before an outing. Now enough with the pupil talk, 'Han' is enough when you address me," he said as he fashioned his mask back onto his face.
"Right. Han, hm," Deidara said as he rushed outside to tend to the newly assigned busy work.
As Deidara began grabbing small logs from a pile Han had gathered from a run through the nearby forest, said man appeared out of the house to gather what Deidara assumed would be some stones that could be sharpened into arrowheads. Han shot him a brief look; it seemed to Deidara he still had something to say.
In a bold moment, Deidara asked, "Is something the matter, hm?"
"Just to finish our little talk, I am excited about being able to hunt again. It'll also be nice to teach a young man the basics of it as well, though I will obviously be the one killing the beast this time," Han said.
"Why? Is that a custom among hunters?" Deidara asked.
"No, it's the opposite actually. The entire reason I decided to hunt was because of how much weight you've lost this month we've spent together," Han said, his voice the pitch of a low growl.
"What? That's not really a big deal, is-" Deidara had absentmindedly traced his hand across his midriff, and was quite shocked to feel a sunken-in gut and a somewhat protruding rib cage not too far above that. The look that must have been on his face was enough to prove Han's point.
"If you're trying to kill yourself by starving to death, I would just force feed you. But you seem happy, so it must be that you're being a typical mountain sprite. Never will complain about the food put in front of them, even if they hate it so much they'd rather not eat at all," Han said as he shrugged.
"So you're worried about me being too weak to kill an animal, hm?" Deidara asked, annoyed at being treated so delicately even in a questionable state.
"We're not hunting squirrels or a fox, Deidara. We're hunting big game this time, with two grown men and a boy to feed we'll need to bring home a stag or a bear to have enough food to last us a couple of weeks," Han said.
"Is this going to tie in to my training somehow, hm?" Deidara asked.
"It'll help teach you how to survive when you're shit out of luck - when only the Earth Mother herself walks with you. With a skillset like this, you'll be able to outlast most enemies through sheer knowledge of the land alone, and anything else is just icing," Han said as he gathered the last few stones he felt were useful.
Without another word, Han went back inside and shut the door behind him with great force. His emotions sometimes confused Deidara; he could never really tell if he cared for him as a valued asset, or if he was merely an unwelcome annoyance that he was forced to bear the burden of. It was an uneasy place to be in; caught in the middle of a hopeful beacon and a doubtful shadow that loomed over him at the same time.
There was enough kindling for the hearth in Deidara's arms to last through the night, so it was time to focus on the preparations that were best attended to indoors. It would be another uncomfortable night, but it could be worth it in the end. Even if there was no long-term goal in sight then, that could change in just an instant.
Deidara personally attested to such a notion; an entire life could be destroyed or created in one fleeting moment. Such was this godless world that he couldn't find it in himself to care about most days.
The evening was, as predicted, rather quiet and uneasy. As most were, and how most would surely be. Deidara worked on mending the fur coats with the best stitching he could achieve, which admittedly was rough and unpolished. It got the job done, however, and it was good enough for a trip through a mountain forest in the early winter. The canteens had been filled with some of the awful slop from that afternoon, and there were some water purifying tablets that Han had from his time in the Stone Village set aside for when a meal was served. Their assumption of Roshi's arrival was timed to complement the desired schedule, and all was taken care of for their departure next dawn.
-and-and-and-and-and-
When Deidara woke from a troubled sleep he found that the sun had barely crept over the mountains off in the horizon. The stars still flickered about ever-so-slightly, while clouds playfully teased the arrival of a bright blue sky in the following hours. It would be another bitterly cold morning, but it looked as though the clouds were dispersed enough that the sunlight would go uninterrupted for a lengthy period of time. Deidara figured it couldn't be bad to have a little extra visibility to hunt large game, but he didn't know for sure.
Deidara took it upon himself to carry the bags of supplies to the door while Han had only begun to stir. It was a remarkably chilly morning for the early winter, even for a mountainous region. Deidara felt every inch of his forearms and calves covered in goosebumps from the rush of the frosty air hitting his body as he stood. Quickly, he covered up in the smaller coat he had taken up last evening; even the warm furs of a long-dead mink weren't enough to completely protect himself from the cold.
Deidara tucked his arms into the coat to keep bundled up as he waited for Han, and quietly gazed out the window to watch the sun rise to give his teacher a chance to wake up peacefully. There was almost nothing Deidara found more unpleasant than to deal with an agitated Han for an entire day, and he certainly wasn't going to risk anything on a day spent in total isolation with lethal weapons in abundance.
"Are you almost ready, Sundrop?" Han said from behind Deidara. He slipped on his coat properly and picked up the smaller bag along with the bow and arrows as his response.
He didn't feel too talkative in the mornings, but that didn't seem to upset his mentor too much. He was a man of few words himself, with a flair for long silences and brief conversations. It would be a quiet hunt, and Deidara knew better than to try to make it anything else. The duo locked the door to the house behind them as they departed into the valley, and soon to the forests in the mountains north of their small residence.
Han took great care to mark the land they traversed in an oddly specific manner; either with an occasional snap of a branch or an etching with a knife on a tree trunk in some kanji that Deidara could not read. It seemed that the two men did, in fact, have a method of tracking each other. It wasn't too great a risk for a well-prepared hunter to be out here in the wilds under normal circumstances, but the excessive precautions taken for their unusual circumstance were essential to Han and Deidara's survival.
Han had just finished marking another random tree on their path when he stopped abruptly; the air around him was tense, still, and intimidating. Deidara hesitantly stood off to the side, several feet away from the much older man. He gripped the bow and an arrow just in case he had to assist Han fight off a big game, or something much more deadly.
"What's wrong, hm? Is someone nearby?" Deidara asked quietly as not to alert anyone or anything else of their presence.
Han paused briefly, then said, "It's weird. It almost felt like someone was right behind us, but there isn't any sign of life anymore. They'll be getting a taste of my boil release if they turn out to be real, though. Let's keep going, we'll probably run into a deer soon."
Deidara kept his hand hovered over the bow at his side just in case, but continued onward in silence with Han until the terrain began to grow more uneven as they ascended the mountain chosen by his mentor. A soft moan or a light gasp escaped Deidara's lips here and there as he struggled to keep his pace with the now almost-jagged rocks he was forced to endure.
Han looked visibly irritated with him, but kept his words to himself. It wouldn't do any good to reprimand him here; it would have to wait for when they were back home - hopefully in one piece. It was obvious that Deidara's weak body was a detriment to the more advanced part of the hunt, so Han held his arm out to stop his pupil from progressing any further up the mountain.
"Ah... what's... what's wrong, hm?" Deidara said, gasping for air.
Han sighed to himself; this boy was so remarkably out-of-shape for a mountain sprite that he wondered if he was simply carried everywhere for half of his life. The way he trained and fought was so pitiful that it gave him the impression that his feet never touched the ground, and most certainly not without a pair of fur slippers on his faerie-sized feet. He could never have brought himself to tell Deidara such cruel things, but it was true. So unfortunately true - so painfully - that Han made the decision in silence to not inform Deidara of his position as a meat shield when the black-cloaked men would come again to try and collect him.
"Sundrop, stay here. I'm going further myself, make sure you don't die," Han said.
"Wait... wait, aren't I supposed to stay by you in case of an attack, hm?" Deidara asked, his breathing slowly returning to normal.
"You're not fit enough to climb. Stay. No one is following us anyway," Han said as he walked away from Deidara; further up the mountain full of rough terrain that Deidara could barely make it through.
So there Deidara stood, dumbfounded, somewhat lost, and rather irritated. Han was already almost out of his immediate vision, so he figured he must have sensed some creature nearby - or whatever that old man could do to detect another living being around them. It was useless to wander off in these mountains; Deidara could never find his way down, or never be found if he chose to explore.
The terrain he was on was steep and rigid; it didn't bode well for a fool to simply rush around in this sort of wilderness. Even a flying creature would meet resistance if they chose to come this high due to the air pressure. For a person hopelessly combing through the woods, however, that resistance would be almost impossible to overcome. This rang especially true for Deidara, who was a svelte fifteen-year-old boy with no previous training to physically endure even the slightest hardship. That was probably an oversight on his family's part; a shame they had to die before they could teach him anything themselves.
The more Deidara thought of the mortality of his family and himself, the more the idea of leaving his life up to the Earth Mother seemed to run through his mind. It wasn't really the worst way to go if it did happen; he would be asleep for a lot of the unpleasant parts, and that was assuming he was unlucky in his journey home. It sounded like a perfectly fine gamble to make with what was rightfully his.
A bold step forward, then another. Soon it became as easy as breathing, like a casual mosey through insanity had been a part of his life since he was a small baby. It really wasn't too far from the truth when Deidara thought about it; his life never had been entirely placid. Even when his family was still there, his mother would frantically drone on about a "day of reckoning" when men would come to kill them all. She was sadly correct, aside from the part where they killed all of them.
Regardless of his acceptance of the inevitability of death, he knew to run downward if he wasn't quite ready to die just yet. Deidara breezed down the mountainside before he knew it, but he wasn't in a familiar spot where he emerged from the thicket of trees. It wasn't any matter; he could just make a circle to his home from here if he pushed through the day.
A wind howled as Deidara trudged through the snow that was a fair bit deeper than his home valley. It felt as if it were a barricade of its own; perfectly designed to keep him off course and unable to progress any further. Deidara could make out many yards before him quite clearly due to the lack of flurry that usually accompanied the winds in the north, but nothing he did could overcome the force the chilled gusts brought down on him. If he kept at this for too long he would end up buried in the snow, so he had to think of a different strategy before he was toppled over.
As exhausted as he was Deidara forced his body to veer off to the left in a strong, jerking movement. He stumbled and tripped over his own feet as he attempted to find his balance, then fell flat on his face in one final movement in complete deprivation of grace. His gloved hands were sore from the sub-zero snow on the ground as he caught his fall, and his shoulders began trembling from the same frozen temperature all around him in the air. He needed to find a way to keep his body warm; just for a moment or two, and then he would be okay until he arrived home.
Wherever that may be, the thought danced around in Deidara's mind as he hopelessly looked around for any sign of relief from the current. There wasn't anything there for him anywhere; he didn't need to think much about it to fully grasp that as a fact. There were no loving arms waiting for him by a hearth, their eyes warm and filled with endless love for him. It was such a somber fact to realize that no one in this entire world waited for him to return to them.
As the seemingly-endless current battered Deidara and the snow that was kicked up by the wind dusted his back, he felt his entire body stop. Not of sickness or cold, but will. His desire to even take another step forward or keep his eyes open evaporated from his body with the last warm breath he exhaled, and as he fell to his knees he completely relinquished any spare thought he had to give to the idea of returning to a home that didn't really exist.
-and-and-and-and-and-
Why was it so warm?
Deidara's eyes slowly opened to see utter darkness; he was definitely no longer outside in the snow, but he didn't exactly know where he was at the moment either. It was warm - almost comforting - the air the place he laid in had; it certainly suited him just fine. Deidara was already over this winter, and it had barely even begun.
His coat was removed from him, but the rest of his outfit was intact. His hair was not a mess and there was no sign of blood or injury, so he probably wasn't taken advantage of while he was out. The coat he once wore was being used as his pillow to support his head; it seemed to be placed there delicately. It didn't concern Deidara; anything that could have possibly killed him wasn't exactly unwelcome right now.
There was a soft thud somewhere close by; within moments Deidara heard gentle footsteps come closer to where he lay. Before any more time had passed a dark-haired man stood above him with an almost serene look on his face. He sensed no hostility from this strange man, so Deidara decided to engage in a conversation with him in order to thank his savior.
Before Deidara could speak, the man said, "Hi there. I'm glad you're finally awake. Hopefully you're not too scared - there's nothing to fear here. This room is safe, no monsters can get in here."
"Who are you, hm? Where are we, and what are your intentions?" Deidara asked in an uncharacteristically strong voice. It seemed though his Jutsu training had been a failure, his personal training to come off as more intimidating than he actually was had worked to some extent.
"My name..." the man trailed off for a brief moment, almost lost in thought. "You know what, you can call me whatever you want."
Deidara could find no words to reply to such a bold statement, so he merely asked, "Where are we then, hm?"
"Somewhere else, far away from that nasty snowstorm for the time being," the man said.
"What are you going to do with me, hm?" Deidara asked.
"I'll admit I had been watching you two for a little while. Once that monster deserted you I took it upon myself to rescue you, as any prince would do," the man said as he heaved his shoulders. He seemed rather proud of himself from the way he boastfully touted his deeds; an act that only served to pique Deidara's interest further.
"You're a real prince? You came to take me away to a castle somewhere, hm?" Deidara asked, his words drenched in sarcasm.
"I was thinking more along the lines of one of the Kage's manors," the man said with a chuckle, playing along.
"Oh, what? You're going to go siege one of the Kage's manors and just announce yourself his successor, hm? I'd like to see you try that!" Deidara said as he had a small bout of laughter from the stupidity of this man's words.
"Yes, actually. Would you like to be there when I do it?" he asked.
"...I'm sorry if I misled you, but I'm actually on good terms with the Tsuchikage. You're probably not serious about that, right, hm?" Deidara asked after a brief pause from shock.
"He sure doesn't seem to like you, you sure you're on 'good terms'?" the man asked.
Deidara huffed in frustration; he didn't like to have to admit the truth. Onoki never liked him, and neither did most adults in that manor. Only Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi even bothered to regularly interact with him, and they were discouraged from it most days even if they seldom listened. It felt so odd that an ensemble of adults seemed to harbor a hatred exclusively for him; his family had never given him the impression that he put others off, so he could never figure out why he was so despised by the Tsuchikage.
"Why else would he try to kill you?" the man said, his words sweet despite their morbidity.
"Kill me?" Deidara cried out loud, agitated by the words this man tossed around so casually.
"But here you are: alive and well. So much for that plan of his, I guess. I kept telling him he was getting greedy, but the old bastard wanted it both ways like usual," the man said without a hint of concern in his voice.
"So what you're telling me is that the Third Tsuchikage specifically ordered you to kill me, and that's why I'm here now, hm?" Deidara asked.
"Nah, we failed that mission a month ago. Sorry. We were mostly interested in your husband, actually," he said.
Deidara cringed at the word "husband", but kept his distaste to himself. He cleared his throat and said, "Did you take me as a hostage then, hm?"
"My little group and I can absolutely be bought, sunshine. We're not even on a tight schedule right now, so you're really lucky. Just tell me what you want, and it's your's," the man said, his hand outstretched to help Deidara up from where he sat.
Deidara hesitantly took the man's hand and found himself with his head pressed firmly against his chest. His face was red from embarrassment, but he managed to say, "I don't really consider him my husband. I guess I haven't got anything that I can think of off the top of my head."
"Hey, no worries. You'll think of something. For now, my sunshine should just be escorted home," the man said.
"So you've got a pet name for me now, hm?" Deidara said with a groan.
"Only if your prince may call you that, my sunshine," he said, a cheeky grin on his face.
Deidara's face grew hot, "My prince may call me that."
"Excellent. Just so my sunshine is clear, you will need to at least let us take him without a fuss when the time is right. If you don't, we will kill you," his prince said.
Deidara froze, unable to say anything in response to such a horrifying twist of his prince's voice. When he talked about death, killing, and sabotage, Deidara felt so oddly excited. It was as eerie and sickening as the touch of his prince's hand when he held it. It was cold, clammy, and rough in such an unpleasant way. The most terrifying part about that feeling was that Deidara could almost feel that sickness festering inside his own gut, as well.
"Until then, my sunshine," his prince said.
Before Deidara could say anything in response his prince was gone, as was the dark room he had been in. He looked around and noticed he was back in his valley, placed meticulously in front of the door to his house. Whatever happened to him just now was not believable in the slightest, and hopefully it was just some awful fever dream. The nauseating feeling inside of him wasn't going away; he figured it couldn't hurt to sit with it for a while.
There were two red figures off in the distance that came from the direction the mountain forest was in. Deidara knew the taller one to be Han, and the one with the darker skin must have been Roshi. They took notice of Deidara and darted the rest of the way to the home in an almost frantic manner. When Han got close enough to his student he caught him off guard and embraced him in a hug, which was something Deidara didn't think Han knew how to do.
Han and Roshi continued on talking for a good while; Han expressed his relief that he didn't send his pupil off to his death, while Roshi introduced himself to the unusually silent boy. There Deidara stood; his dream had finally come true, but five minutes too late. There was something else that he could get from Han now, and if anything Han said about his brother was correct he could possibly take the same from Roshi as well.
Through the happy moment that happened outside of his skull, Deidara only thought of how he could benefit from giving these two men away to some group who had no qualms with murdering a child, let alone a full-grown man. If he had been told this scenario not long ago he would have been shocked and deeply disturbed by the actions of someone who was supposed to be him. Someone who he thought was demure, passive, and easily dragged through life by others.
Yet the only thing that shocked Deidara as he stood amongst the people that were so happy to see him was how easy it was to destroy a life, and that he could be the one to destroy something as precious as a life in seconds of his own free will. Maybe one day he could even directly act as the harbinger of death for the ephemeral beauty of another's precious life.
-and-and-and-and-and-