Chapter 22!: Just When Things Get Better...

Deidara

We both agreed to get married under the Sakura tree's, where we had been meeting up there for almost a year. It was two months before I turned 26, so we decided it would be ideal then. What's better is that afterwards, before the honeymoon of course, we'd go and find Madara someone to help him, while he, too, got older.

As they days grew, I started to fret and worry. I kept this in my head, but I couldn't help it. Occasionally, Yuki noticed and asked what was wrong, but I told her that everything was fine. The truth was; I was scared.

Not of marriage. I was overjoyed about that. I was scared because of Yuki. Not of her, but for her. I noticed her eyes were losing her sparkle, and she started to look paler. I wondered if it was just me, but then something awful happened. I had woken up one morning to find she had already gotten up and wandered off downstairs. After getting dressed, brushing my hair and teeth, I padded down the stairs, and walked into the kitchen, where a poured myself a glass of milk. After I drank it down, I slid into the living room and froze, mostly in fear.

There, lying on the floor at my feet, was Yuki. She was laid face-first on the floor, her arms by her sides, and her legs sprawled apart.

Immediately, I knelt down and turned her onto her back. Her eyes were closed, and her mouth was open slightly.

'Yuki...?'

Silence.

A single tear rolled down my face. I wasn't there when she needed me. I gritted my teeth. And now she's... I slammed my fist into the floor.

'Yuki!' I cried. 'Wake up, Yuki! You've got to wake up, un!' My voice started breaking, and I realised I was reaching my limit. 'Get up, Yuki! Please!' I punched the floor again. 'God damn it! Just get up! Stop scaring me!'

'Deidara.' I turned my head and looked up at Madara, whose eyes were closed, and his cheeks were wet. I pulled Yuki's body into me tightly.

'What the hell happened, un?' I cried through tears. Madara hung his head and shook it. I looked down at Yuki's pale and lifeless face and touched her cheek with my right hand. It was cold. Stone cold. She had been long gone by the time I came around.

'What happened to her...' I whispered, shaking my head slowly and letting loose tears fall down my face. Madara knelt beside me, and ran his hand through Yuki's auburn hair.

'I saw this coming...' He murmured softly. 'She had... the same disease as her brother...' I froze.

'Did she know of this, un?' I said softly, staring blankly at her face.

'Indeed she did.'

'... She didn't tell me...' I growled, and bowed my head sadly. 'She hid this from me.'

'She didn't want to scare you.'

'Scare me?' I yelled, swinging my head around to glare at Madara. 'What about you? You didn't tell me either! And you're one to talk! Hiding your true Persona from everyone!' Madara paused.

'As usual... you're arrogant.' He murmured, heaving himself up. 'If I had done that any sooner, I would have been slaughtered.'

'You deserve to be bloody slaughtered!' I spat, and gave him a death glare. A look flashed in his dull eyes. Something that reminded me of Tobi. 'You know...' I continued, a lot calmer. 'I wish you were still Tobi...'

'Tobi is a fictional character. My own creation.' Madara said, walking across the room. 'I'll give you some time to yourself. You're going to need it.' When he disappeared from sight, I looked back down sadly at Yuki's calm expression.

'I wish you were only sleeping, love.' I murmured, and leant down, pressing my forehead to hers. 'Though in a way, I guess you are, un.' I sighed at the inevitable truth. 'A sleep in which when you wake up, it'll be a whole different world. A better one, un. One you will be reunited with your older brother...' The smile that had crept to my face while I was speaking vanished. 'I just wish you had told me about that. Why didn't you, un? I could have... helped...' I pulled my forehead away from her, and brushed my lips across her own. I paused, then pressed my mouth to hers. Even if It were too late, I needed to say goodbye. My last moments with her, needed to be remembered, and as I brushed my fingers over her face, I let my tears flow freely, and drop onto her ice-cold skin.

Madara

Yuki's death was a tragic one. As her father, I knew it was coming, as she stopped taking her medication after her brother died. The effects were different. She didn't choke up blood until the night before her death. She came to me during dusk, a sick feeling in her gut. Blood started to fall from her mouth. Tears eventually mixed with that blood, and I stayed with her, until she was asleep. When I returned though, I saw Deidara hunched over her lifeless body.

It was then I knew it was already over for my daughter. My mind swam, and I left Deidara in peace afterwards. I conceded that apart from the long relative blood between myself and Sasuke, I was the last of the Uchiha clan. Then something strange happened.

After a few days, Deidara was finding it hard to cope, but he had crossed someone in the street who became familiar to him. This person, was extremely familiar to me. So familiar, I broke down crying.

Deidara

I trudged down the dust track of Konoha Village, scuffing my feet, and my hands in my pockets, head bowed. I was aware some people were staring at me, and I didn't even flinch about it. I was too induced in the depression that has sliced into my mind, and cut through my body, tearing me apart, little by little. So slowly, it was torture. In my head, I kept wondering why she didn't come back. She was a Jincuûriki. Shouldn't have the Juichûri's chakra brought her back? Or at least released itself in her dying state? I sighed over the thought, and padded onwards.

'Deidara!' I looked up glumly at the feminine voice, and saw Toshiko running towards me. 'Deidara-San, where's Yuki?' I looked away, and tried to clear the lump in my throat.

'She...' Was all I could push out.

'Did you two have a fight?' She said softly. I shook my head, and held back the tears that were threatening to fall.

'She's... She's d-... dead...' I glanced up sadly at Toshiko's face, which was a mixture of horror, fear and sadness.

'No... She can't be...' One of her eyebrows raised. 'Are you lying?'

'Why would I lie...? About the person I love..."d"...?' I added slowly. Toshiko bowed her head down.

'Sorry... I guess you're right...' I sighed and walked past her. 'Where are you going?' She asked after me.

'Away...' I murmured. 'I need to be alone...'

'Ah.' Toshiko gestured. 'I understand.'

I stood on the same hill Sasuke and Yuki originally sat on. The wind ruffled my long hair, and the band holding my hair up slid apart. I looked around at it as it floated away with the wind. My hand slid to my kunai pouch.

'I... I don't want to...' I pulled a kunai out, and held it out in front of me. 'To be...alone...' I whispered the final word, and grabbed the kunai with both hands. I twisted it so the sharp edge was pointing at me. I started to pull it towards me rapidly, until some jerk decided to knock it out of my hands. I swung around to them.

'What the Hell do you think you're-...!' My eyes widened, and then I stood there; Gawping.

3rd Person P-O-V

Deidara stood with his mouth open, but no noise coming out of it.

'Wh- Wha...' He managed to stammer. A woman around the age of 40 was stood in front of him. She was smiling, her top teeth shining in between her lips.

'Deidara-kun...' She murmured, and walked towards him, her pale blonde hair swaying from side to side.

'How are you... alive...?' Deidara whispered, his eye full of tears.

'I wasn't dead...' She murmured. 'My body had gone into temporary lock down. I spent 20 years looking for you, Deidara-kun.'

'20... years...?' Deidara whispered, as the woman stood in front of him. He noticed her eyes were the same as his own. 'M... Mom...' He murmured, and snaked his arms around the woman he had mourned over for twenty years.

Yuki

My father always had told me not to go into the light. But try as I might, I couldn't succeed. I missed Deidara. I felt so nervous on my own. My vision was completely black, and I couldn't see anything. Then a small fire was crackling at my feet. I watched it small embers spit and hiss.

'Yuki-Chan.' My body stiffened at the woman's voice. I turned to see a tall, slim, red-haired girl stood behind me, with short cropped hair that flopped over her eyes.

'Who...'

'Of course...' She murmured. 'You won't remember me.' She held a hand out towards me. 'After all, you were only young. How old are you now?'

'22...'

'My...' The woman whispered. 'You've grown up quite a lot since I last saw you, Yuki-Chan.'

'Who are you?' I asked, raising an eyebrow.

'Yuki-Chan.' She whispered. 'I'm your mother.' I froze.

'Am I dead?' I said in a gush of air. 'Will I ever see Deidara again?'

'Deidara?' She murmured. 'Who is that?'

'He's my fiancé.' I murmured, and then paused. 'And there was only a week left...'

'Fiancé?' My mother asked. 'You're 22 and already engaged? You lucky soul. I was never engaged.'

'Mother?'

'Yes?'

'Father is still alive.' After I said those words she had frozen.

'No.' She said after a few moments.

'What?' I cocked my head to the side, confused by her statement.

'No, you are not dead.' She murmured, looking around at me. 'I needed to see you briefly.'

'But... the disease... It was the same as-'

'Itachi's. I know.' She closed the gap in between us and put a hand on my shoulder. 'I'm ridding it off of you. You no longer have it.'

'B- but how-?'

'No questions Yuki.'

'But wait. If I'm not dead... Then why are you here too?' I felt myself fading away from this world. My mother chuckled.

'Yuki-Chan...' She murmured, her black eyes staring into mine. 'I'm not dead, either.' With those words, everything faded to black.