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Chapter Eight
Inspiration
Tick, tick, tick...
The military was a selfish and greedy place. They wanted power, power in any form, no matter how dangerous or unstable. They loved him for his unique power. The loved him for how great he was at taking the lives of others. But they had been blinded by this love of power; they did not even realize that he had destroyed more of them than the enemy. But they couldn't get rid of him, no. They did not want to lose that power forever, despite all it had done against them. And so they had only sealed him off by stitching together the most powerful mouth together to control the power, hoping that it would remain dormant until they needed the power again.
This is Deidara's story.
At the age of thirteen, this was his first mission. It was in a small destroyed city in what appeared to be Afghanistan where he and his comrades were unleashed. He saw his teammates attempt to kill the enemy, but despite their training they were unable to keep the civilians out of it. Bombs fell not on the enemies but on civilian homes instead. Soldiers evaded the bullets which went straight into the innocents.
Despite the wretched feeling he had, Deidara's hands were dirtier than anyone else. He was the living bomb, the one nobody dared to come close to. He could incinerate anyone and everyone had did so in a blink of an eye. He had no partners as even his comrades were afraid of him.
And then a strange thing happened.
It was a young boy, no older than seven, with creamy brown skin and dirty hair. He was dressed in rags, clutching dearly to a worn stuffed toy as he came fearlessly towards Deidara. Deidara can see now that the boy was injured, having received a bullet wound to one of his shoulders, yet refusing to cry at the pain of it.
"You're just a boy, right?" The little boy asked desperately. "Mommy and Daddy went to sleep after they were shot by the soldiers. I got shot by the soldiers. Does that mean I'm going to go to sleep too?" Deidara narrowed his eyes at the child. "Please take care of him. He didn't get shot, so maybe he'll live, right? Please take care of Sergeant for me."
Deidara couldn't accept the worn toy. He was frozen in place, not knowing of what he should do. But it was too late to do anything then, as the little boy was shot repeatedly by an enemy who tried to shoot Deidara while his guard was down. The young boy fell to his knees first, spilling blood on Sergeant, before lying face-down on the dirt. In his rage, Deidara sent a bomb flying straight to the enemy, causing his head to explode upon impact.
He knelt down on the ground and wiggled the bloodied toy from the dead child. Sergeant, Deidara thought. You're mine now.
October 12, 10:48am
"I want everything you have on Deidara." Sasori said impatiently.
"Patience, Sasori." Zetsu complained. "His files are locked tighter than the president's personal safe. He was, after all, a powerful top-secret military project."
Sasori narrowed his eyes at the word 'project.' It made Deidara seem like some unfeeling thing, when Sasori knew by then that he was not. Sasori gripped tightly on the papers he held. He was huddled together on the corner of Deidara's favourite sofa, golden velvet and overstuffed, reading and rereading the files Itachi had given him at day one. But nothing there interested him. He wanted the deeper, more important and more secretive stuff that nobody was supposed to see or know anymore.
"Here you are." Itachi said now. He had briefly entered the room only seconds before. He laid down a series of worn leather-bound journals before Sasori. Sasori felt the tension in the air. For some reason, Itachi had become colder and more distant in the past day. And while he was certain that Itachi could feel it too, Sasori did not want to press the subject on. "Don't ask as to how I managed to acquire them. It wasn't the easiest thing in the world."
"Thanks." Sasori mumbled.
He picked up the first journal and began flipping through it just as Itachi headed for the exit. Most of the stuff he saw he considered as junk. He was disgusted by the amount of experimenting the military had wanted to test on Deidara. Of course they never managed to do any of those testing, what with Deidara's temper and pride. The man would never let himself fall so deep as to become an ordinary lab rat. Sasori smiled.
Deidara's abilities were originally discovered at the age of seven, when he along with his mother and father had come to visit Onoki in one of the bases. They expressed genuine interest in his abilities right away, but Onoki kept them from doing anything rash until Deidara was old enough to go under special training. He excelled in every field that he was trained in, as the boy had a clear determination and natural talent for the art of killing. At the age of thirteen, he was deployed in Afghanistan for his first mission.
Sasori's eyes skimmed through the various lists of all of the missions Deidara had gone through in the past. They seemed to range from ordinary missions to dangerous assassinations. In due time, Deidara had evolved from a soldier into an assassin. Still, he was never alone in any of his missions. The military must have feared losing him. His last mission was to assassinate a powerful criminal who had been reported to be wandering nearby. But...it was blank.
"It was you, un."
An alarmed Sasori nearly jumped as Deidara took a seat beside him, eyes glued to the journal Sasori held on one hand. He closed the journal and set it down on the table.
"I'm sorry."
"For what, un?" Deidara sighed. "I know you were just curious. It was you, you know."
"What about me?" He cocked his head to the side in honest wonder.
"The last mission, un. It was to assassinate you."
11:53am
"It was late at night and we were all huddled around the fire roasting dinner and swapping stories. They were all speaking ill of the Great Sasori of the Red Sand, each of them wanting a piece of you to bring home to their wives, un. Of course, our leader knew that in the end it was only I who had a chance at even grazing you. But I was tired. I had gone through so many missions in such a short period of time, un. I was tired physically and emotionally and I just wanted to go home and dream. I was also tired of having to listen to the egoistic claims of my arrogant teammates. So I decided to take a walk, un. The leader wouldn't let me go at first, saying that I would be defenceless if you were ever to come by. I waved him off.
"I didn't know which way to go at first. I only felt the need to be elsewhere, to walk until their voices had faded and I was alone in the darkness. And that's what I did, un. I kept mumbling to myself that after that last mission, I will go home and rest. I was tired of this military business. I was overexerting myself as it was. I think I ended up napping some three kilometres away from the camp. It wasn't until the morning that I woke up and realized what had happened, un.
"Walking back to the camp, I expected nothing to have happened. But I was so wrong, un. Dozens of my former comrade's bodies lay dead all around. They died of the poison injected into them by throwing needles that were hurled into their necks all in the exact same place. I was terrified, un. I tried to find a single live body, but to no avail. The fact that it was you who had done it had not even occurred to me. It wasn't until I fould the leader's body that it was confirmed to me. He had a knife stuck into his head, with the words 'Sasori of the Red Sand' carved into its wooden hilt." Deidara look to Sasori now. "But despite that, I feel no animosity towards you, un. I respect your power and your abilities, and that is all."
"I'm sorry." Sasori found himself shameless apologizing for the second time that hour alone. Deidara shook his head.
"It's of no consequence, un. Onoki was only glad that I survived the attack. And because of that I got my freedom back—at least, most of it."
"So that's why you left?"
"It was Onoki in the end who allowed it to happen; gave up his post if only to protect me from the destiny they wanted for me. My largest and most powerful mouth was stitched up and he was forced to retire, un. Ever since then, I've had no encounters with those people anymore. I think they pretend to forget about me, even if they can't." He paused. "You know that saying, 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger?' Well, sometimes they don't kill you physically. Afghanistan killed me inside. I was never the same after serving. The military didn't make me stronger. They killed my sanity. My life ended years ago, Sasori, it really did. I'm just waiting for my body to rot away now. You can't sympathize with that."
"You have no idea." A sad smile slipped.
3:15pm
Kisame was playing chess with Itachi and losing.
"Think faster, Kisame." Itachi said impatiently. Kisame had been staring at the board blankly for fifteen minutes already.
"Shut up. Let me take my time. I will win, Itachi, even just this once."
"Kisame, your position is hopeless."
"That's what you always say. I'm here to tell you that you're wrong." Kisame said proudly as he moved his bishop to eat Itachi's horse.
"Checkmate." Itachi smiled as his queen graced through the opening Kisame created and ate his King. Kisame's mouth opened in shock.
"What the—"
"Language, Kisame." Itachi warned lightly. He picked up his phone even before it began vibrating in his pants. "Itachi Uchiha speaking. What do you want, Hidan?"
3:23pm
"Hidan really found her, un?" Deidara asked again, seeking endless confirmation.
"Yes. Now stop asking and come with me." Sasori quipped.
Deidara did not stop asking. Not when they went into the car, not when they stepped out of it. He was feeling more and more light-headed by the passing moment. The past few days whizzed by in his head. Kurotsuchi was with Hidan and she was safe. She was safe!
"Where is she, un?"
"Inside." Sasori said as he took once quick glance at the place they had ended up in. It was a seedy bar at the end of town, the kind of place where criminals gathered, but it was not unlike Hidan to choose such a location to meet up in.
Inside, dozens of sleazy men were gathered playing poker and otherwise busying themselves. Only a few people turned to see the newcomers make their way to the back room. Deidara went first. They were secured in to a windowless room. Sasori's heart started beating quickly. He was feeling claustrophobic and...something else. As if they were in danger.
"Kurotsuchi!" Deidara exclaimed as he saw his cousin. She was dressed in fresh clothing, just the basic garments you'd expect a young woman to wear out. He embraced her, holding her tightly. He truly did miss her.
"Deidara, you have to leave now. Leave me here and go!" She cried. The tears were fresh in her eyes. Deidara wiped them away.
"What do you mean, un? We're finally reunited. I'm so relieved."
Sasori's eyes narrowed at her suggestion. He didn't need to look around to see that they were the only ones in the room. Hidan was nowhere to be found. He turned around and beat at the door only to see that they were locked in.
"It's a trap." Sasori seethed.
A noxious gas was released; Deidara and Kurotsuchi instantly began coughing. Within moments, they were unconscious on the floor. Thanks to Sasori's lack of need to breathe, it did not affect him. He was preparing himself for the worst.
And the worst appeared.
Termites were released into the room, millions of them all focused on him. They ate away his flesh and left him otherwise virtually powerless. There was only one person who knew of such a tactic to use against him and that people's silhouette soon materialized before him.
"Are you having fun, Sasori?" The snake-like voice mused.
"Orochimaru." Sasori spat. His face was filled with holes. Soon, the termites would reach his heart and he would die.
"No, I won't let you die so easily." Orochimaru said, as if reading his mind. "You deserve something...more fitting than simply death."
"I'll kill you." Sasori threatened, but Orochimaru only cackled in laughter.
"I dare you to try, my little marionette. I truly dare you to try."
3:52pm
"He's not answering. It's unlike him." Itachi muttered after having dialled Sasori for the umpteenth time and getting no answer.
"Maybe Deidara took him to a bar to celebrate or something." Kisame suggested.
"Kisame, this is Sasori we are talking about." Itachi reminded him. He couldn't help feeling restless. Despite the gap Sasori's betrayal had formed between them, Itachi couldn't help but feel for him.
"Then maybe Hidan did."
"Even Hidan isn't that stupid."
"Then you try coming up with excuses. It's hard." Kisame grumbled. Itachi narrowed his eyes.
"I'm calling Kakuzu." Itachi finally said.
Kisame sighed, staring at his best friend and partner converse rather boringly with the man on the other end of the line. Itachi's expression went from worried to alarmed in a matter of seconds. Next thing he knew, both Hidan and Kakuzu had made their way into the hotel room, for once without an argument of some sort.
"You mean you lost your phone this morning?" Kisame repeated incredulously.
"What of it, fucker?" Hidan jabbed. He was a little—a lot, really—touchy.
"What kind of spy loses their phone?"
"Stolen, actually. By an ordinary pickpocket." Kakuzu pointed out, earning himself a nice glare from Hidan. Before the two burst into argument, Itachi stepped between them both.
"I'm getting a bad feeling about this, Itachi." Kisame noted out of the silence.
"You think?" Itachi said sarcastically.
Unknown
There was no one to hear his screams. Not that he was screaming.
Kurotsuchi was gone. Sasori was gone. And to make things worse, he was strapped to a gurney blindfolded. Deidara could feel the cold metallic scalpel against his chest. It tore his skin, not that he cared for the pain. It was the fact that he was starting to feel that...hunger again. His heart was pounding. His chest was throbbing, hungering for blood.
The sound deafened him. He opened his eyes, but all he could see was the darkness. He struggled, but all that did was seemingly tighten his bonds. The throbbing was getting stronger. The need was becoming overwhelming. The fools had cut open the last of the special threads that held his sanity in check.
Was it screaming? It was awfully loud, whatever sound it made. He could hear it through the vicious pounding of his heart. And was that...people screaming? The fools must have realized their mistake the bloody way. And they paid for that mistake with their very lives.
The mouth was satiated and the bonds were freed. Deidara peeled the cloth from his eyes to see a terrible sight. The minute light that was allowed through the tainted windows revealed to him the silhouette of the small massacre he had done without actual effort. While it was a familiar sight, nobody ever really got used to seeing dead bodies littered all around them.
But he had no time to be mulling over what had already transpired. The mouth would have to be stitched again as soon as possible lest it hunger again, but he was intent on saving Kurotsuchi and maybe even Sasori first.
Tick, tick, tick...
"Left or right?" Deidara mumbled to himself as soon as he entered the hall.
Unknown
"Wake up, poppet."
He was on the floor, face down on the cold. His limbs were numb, hard to move. Normally he could feel nothing, not heat nor cold or pain or pleasure, but it was his heart spilling out of his container that felt the chilling cold seeping inside it. When he opened his eyes, it took all of his leftover strength only to lift his hands to his face. He cried out when he saw how destroyed his body was. It broke the last of him.
More termites crawling. He screamed in pain as they made their way into his heart. Someone poured a bucket of ice-cold water violently on him. The termites were gone, washed away, but the heart was feeling number and number. He moaned in pain as someone flipped him over. He was seething by the time his artificial eyes met the snakelike ones of his old partner Orochimaru.
"Wakey, wakey, little Sasori. How does it feel to be so utterly helpless?" Sasori spat at him. Orochimaru slapped him for it. Sasori could vaguely remember a time long ago when he was in a similar position. So, so utterly helpless. He hated it. "Oh?" He cocked his side to the side. "Looks like we have company, Sasori. Is he a friend of yours perhaps?"
Sasori's eyes widened in surprise. Was it Deidara? Had he come to rescue him? No, Deidara was knocked out...
"Deidara couldn't possibly have come." Sasori said bitterly, more to himself than to anyone else.
"Well that's a fine way to thank me for doing just that, un." Deidara said sarcastically. His chest was bare and bleeding, but he didn't seem to so much as notice it. Sasori stared at him incredulously.
"Brat, what are you doing here?" He hissed.
"Saving you, obviously, un. So just shut up and let me beat the shit out of this guy."
"No," Sasori grumbled. "He's mine. Go away."
"Are you joking me right now? You're half-dead—mostly dead, really—and you still have the conceit to say that to me, un?"
"He's dangerous, Deidara."
"So am I. Now shut up."
Sasori refused to follow the orders of a child—at least, whom he considered to be a child. But he was just in so much miserable pain. He didn't think Deidara could take Orochimaru, and neither did Orochimaru. He was going to go easy on the blonde, Sasori could feel it. Orochimaru was testing Deidara's power as Deidara blasted Orochimaru's snakes; snakes that were only there to protect him in the first place, not to attack just yet.
And then the impossible happened.
Deidara got through Orochimaru's shield and physically wounded him in the gut. After having blown a large hole into Orochimaru, Deidara felt more confident than ever. He continued to barrage the snake with bombs, his mouth spitting them without pause. Orochimaru was getting overpowered. He couldn't find an opening to recover.
"Sasori," Orochimaru hissed. "Tell him to stop!"
"As if, un." Deidara said. "This is too much fun. Die. You deserve it, un."
He was coming closer to Sasori, each step taken slowly and with caution. He leaned down to pick Sasori off the floor, one arm over and around Sasori's limp body and the other shooting bombs at Orochimaru still. The latter could no nothing but protect himself from the bombs. He cursed Deidara.
"Just one last finishing piece—"
"No." Sasori found himself saying. He was surprised by his words more than even Deidara, who paused to give him a weird look. "Don't kill him. Please."
Before Deidara could say anything, Orochimaru was already laughing quite sinisterly.
"Still harbouring feelings for me, aren't you, Sasori?" Orochimaru taunted. Deidara's expression only deepened. He was really, really lost. He didn't think Sasori even knew the guy at first much less actually like him.
"What is it, Sasori?" Deidara asked now, irritated with having to think.
"He's injured. He can't catch up to us if we go now." Sasori said as if trying to convince himself.
"Whatever you say." Deidara sighed. He blasted Orochimaru one last time in the leg, just to make sure. Sasori said nothing to that.
"Where do you think you're going? The exit's that way." Sasori grumbled.
"Finding Kurotsuchi. I can't leave her behind." Deidara said seriously. He was trying his best to run with Sasori weighing him down. Sasori was doing his best to stay in one piece. His body was crumbling more with each step.
"There's no time for that!" Sasori quipped.
"You're the one who didn't want to kill the prick." Deidara almost rolled his eyes.
"Just head for the exit. She probably isn't even here."
With each empty room, Deidara grew ever more desperate. At last, they went into the last room. It was as empty as the others. Still, Deidara refused to go.
"We're going to die." Sasori sighed. He figured Orochimaru would have completely healed himself by that time. It was only a matter of seconds until...
Nothing. They were the only people left in the building. There weren't many people to begin with in the first place, actually. Sasori was feeling an impending premonition.
"They're blowing up the building." Sasori finally realized. Deidara could already hear it.
Tick, tick, tick...
"We have to go, un."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you all this time." Sasori said tiredly.
